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You know you are getting old when:

stevew443

One of the Regulars
Messages
145
Location
Shenandoah Junction
I can remember when they used to sell a colored piece of saran wrap to put over the TV screen to "simulate" color TV on a black and white set. The plastic had 3 stripes of color, blue at the top, green in the middle and if I remember correctly, brown at the bottom. My grandmother bought one and thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
 
Messages
17,196
Location
New York City
My Dad did not part with a dollar easily, but because he was, basically, a professional gambler and (while never acknowledged, I'm pretty sure) a small local bookmaker and he watched sports all time (and it was work - "don't disturb your Dad when he is watching a game"), he bought a 25" color TV in 1963 or '64. It was a Motorola and it was as big as a refrigerator and weighed as much as a small car.

It was by far, the nicest, most-expensive thing in the house for decades. Also, as a kid, I was not allowed to watch it unless an adult was in the room - not because they cared if I watched TV 'till my eyes fell out, but because they were afraid I might break it. When, as noted in a prior post, my grandmother passed away and we inherited her B&W TV, I spent hours upon hours watching that and never heard a complaint from my parents (they were definitely from the school of "if he isn't bothering us, then all is well" and, truth be told, I was scared of my Dad, so I never bothered him).

Long, long story to say that I basically grew up watching B&W TV except for the few times we watched something together as a family. The funny thing is, I was never impressed with color - it's fine - but I loved that old B&W. To this day, when everyone gets hyped up about high-def this and 50" that, I always buy an older smaller model - which is still leaps and bounds ahead of what I have - and am quite satisfied. And, in the last three decades, I've bought all of two TVs (and was gifted one once).
 
Messages
13,669
Location
down south
Which also reminds me. You know you're getting old when you can actually remember having a black and white TV. We got our first color TV in 1973.
That's about the same time we got ours. I remember it was a big honking cabinet model and my parents had it from the time I started grade school until well after my younger brother had finished college.
I can remember when they used to sell a colored piece of saran wrap to put over the TV screen to "simulate" color TV on a black and white set. The plastic had 3 stripes of color, blue at the top, green in the middle and if I remember correctly, brown at the bottom. My grandmother bought one and thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
Aahh yes....I remember that as well. My dad stuck it to the screen of our old b&w set, watched for a little while, and proceeded to greatly enhance my then blossoming vocabulary with some choice new words.
 

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
I can remember when they used to sell a colored piece of saran wrap to put over the TV screen to "simulate" color TV on a black and white set. The plastic had 3 stripes of color, blue at the top, green in the middle and if I remember correctly, brown at the bottom. My grandmother bought one and thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.


My grandmother must've shopped at the same store.
2d91a8o.png

Gene Autry in "living color" :eusa_doh:

Programing would begin in the afternoons.

My favorite was "Western Roundup".

I can still recall the gallopin' hoofbeats made by Champion
as Gene chased the bad hombres.

Also Gene's guns blazing away...never running out of bullets
& he hardly ever lost his white hat even as he tumbled &
fought the desperados.

At midnight, a lady would sing the national anthem & I would stare
at the color wheel & then a blank screen with tiny dots would appear making a hissing
sound like in the movie "Polterguist" except I never saw a ghost...:D

[video=youtube;KXZ9YmxZPgo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXZ9YmxZPgo[/video]
 
Last edited:
My Dad did not part with a dollar easily, but because he was, basically, a professional gambler and (while never acknowledged, I'm pretty sure) a small local bookmaker and he watched sports all time (and it was work - "don't disturb your Dad when he is watching a game"), he bought a 25" color TV in 1963 or '64. It was a Motorola and it was as big as a refrigerator and weighed as much as a small car.

It was by far, the nicest, most-expensive thing in the house for decades. Also, as a kid, I was not allowed to watch it unless an adult was in the room - not because they cared if I watched TV 'till my eyes fell out, but because they were afraid I might break it. When, as noted in a prior post, my grandmother passed away and we inherited her B&W TV, I spent hours upon hours watching that and never heard a complaint from my parents (they were definitely from the school of "if he isn't bothering us, then all is well" and, truth be told, I was scared of my Dad, so I never bothered him).

Long, long story to say that I basically grew up watching B&W TV except for the few times we watched something together as a family. The funny thing is, I was never impressed with color - it's fine - but I loved that old B&W. To this day, when everyone gets hyped up about high-def this and 50" that, I always buy an older smaller model - which is still leaps and bounds ahead of what I have - and am quite satisfied. And, in the last three decades, I've bought all of two TVs (and was gifted one once).

That is about my experience with Black and white tv too----except the bookie thing. :p
 
Messages
17,196
Location
New York City
That is about my experience with Black and white tv too----except the bookie thing. :p

Re in the bookie thing, I've been told by my girlfriend that many things about my childhood were really screwed up - who knows, I think everyone had a screwed up childhood 'cause we compare it to some idealized fantasy - but I'll say this, I can calculate odds in my head faster than most people can using a computer (still takes some time to type in the info) and since life is basically a series of gambles, I feel I was pretty prepared for it.
 
Re in the bookie thing, I've been told by my girlfriend that many things about my childhood were really screwed up - who knows, I think everyone had a screwed up childhood 'cause we compare it to some idealized fantasy - but I'll say this, I can calculate odds in my head faster than most people can using a computer (still takes some time to type in the info) and since life is basically a series of gambles, I feel I was pretty prepared for it.

lol lol lol
 

Stearmen

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,202
With regards to the young generation of today...

Heck...I can remember as a kid having to walk 9 feet of shag carpet to go change the
television channels.

Kids nowadays have it so easy ! :tsk:

Shag carpet, if you were building a plastic model and you dropped a part, even if you saw were it dropped, you could never find it!
 
Messages
88
Location
Grass Valley, Califunny, USA
Ordinarily, I would've posted this in the "what's for lunch" thread.


Had a rough night, woke up sleepy & hungry.
Too tired & late for work.
I opened up a can of tuna .

9r4u90.jpg


Sitting at the table, enjoying the meal with saltine crackers & a Dr. Pepper,
I noticed Polo looking at me very strange.

ab36rr.jpg


That is so, So-o, very bad! And I am sorry, but I can't stop laughing. Thank you. I needed a good laugh. It has been a rough several days.


As to the whole "green thing"? My parents both grew up on farms and cattle ranches during the depression. I grew up in the '50s and '60s. We recycled a lot! I have always not wasted things, materials, or resources in general.
The problem with most all environmental issues and recycling today is that it is all about politics, not the environment. Pay the right people, kiss the proper (insert appropriate portion of anatomy here), and you can pollute all you want.
Recycling programs are not about recycling at all. Only certain items (like paper and some glass) are generally accepted in recycling collections. Otherwise, only products that pay a fee to put a special recycling logo onto the product are considered acceptable. The logo does not change in any way whether or not the material can or will be recycled. Only whether the trash collector wants to take it away or not. Most of the money "earned" by professional recyclers is paid to them by the state, their share of what the manufacturers paid the state for the privilege of placing the logo onto the product. Many truly recyclable items like scrap metals are specifically disallowed for recycling collection. Yes, I could take it to a scrap metals collection site and even get paid for it. But it really isn't worth my time and gasoline to take $5 or $10 of it when I have such small quantities of it these days.
Okay, I have wandered far enough toward the forbidden "Political Zone".
 

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