You know you are getting old when:

[BlueTrain]

We have a cat, this one being the third, and they just don't live long enough. But they're still better than most things that do.

Another sign that I, at least, am getting older is the realization that the first two jobs I had were in industries that virtually no longer exist, those being savings & loan and also photofinishing.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When I was in my teens I learned to operate a linotype machine. You'll never see one of those today outside a museum.

 

[Fading Fast]

I remember running a "ditto" machine to make copies in high school. My very vague (and young) memory is that it used a "master" wax copy created like a carbon as it "sat" behind the original and "captured" the imprint of whatever was being written or typed. Then, the "master" was put in the machine - aligned along a cylinder - and then hand turned and pressed against (my guess) some sort of ink blotter that "copied" the master onto normal paper. Very mechanical, but worked fine.

Then four years in college and my first office job had a "print shop" where you'd give the "guys" whatever you needed copied and you'd pick up your "job" later (a bunch of loud mechanical machines which needed manual operating could be seen through the door behind the counter of the "print shop"). Several years after that, reasonably easy-to-operate copy machines appeared and you just made your own copies - probably costing a lot of people their jobs while making copies very inexpensive.

 

[Edward]

As long as you remember them they're never entirely gone.

Absolutely. nearly a month on, and I'm still finding Marlene's hair on things. I'm pretty sure she's having a right old time of it in kitty heaven, though - if she's anything like she was at the vets', right til the end, she'll have everyone there wrapped round her little paw.

We have a cat, this one being the third, and they just don't live long enough. But they're still better than most things that do.

As I've long said, I've never met a cat I couldn't like. Humans.... well, let's just say your human species isn't donig nearly so well on that front.

Another sign that I, at least, am getting older is the realization that the first two jobs I had were in industries that virtually no longer exist, those being savings & loan and also photofinishing.

On the flipside, I remember my dad - who turned seventy last March - marvelling a decade ago at how my brother and I (his job in computer programming, mainly dealing with online mobile access, and me working in the field of media law with particular emphasis on the online context) are both working in areas - and in little bro's case, his very job itself - that didn't exist when we started school. Who knows what my brother's kids, currently five and nine, will end up doing...

When I was in my teens I learned to operate a linotype machine. You'll never see one of those today outside a museum.

I remember being shown how to operate a fax maxhine during some work experience I did between my degrees. Eightenn months later, I got my first real job, and I don't think I've used one at all in the seventeen years since. Not sure we even still have one on the premises now...

I remember running a "ditto" machine to make copies in high school. My very vague (and young) memory is that it used a "master" wax copy created like a carbon as it "sat" behind the original and "captured" the imprint of whatever was being written or typed. Then, the "master" was put in the machine - aligned along a cylinder - and then hand turned and pressed against (my guess) some sort of ink blotter that "copied" the master onto normal paper. Very mechanical, but worked fine.

With the purple ink, yes? I remember those when I was in primary school in the early eighties.... and photcopiers were rare, and expeisnve - and only big business had them. In other ways, though, my primary school was way ahead of its time. We had two computers in a school of only 100 pupils!

Then four years in college and my first office job had a "print shop" where you'd give the "guys" whatever you needed copied and you'd pick up your "job" later (a bunch of loud mechanical machines which needed manual operating could be seen through the door behind the counter of the "print shop"). Several years after that, reasonably easy-to-operate copy machines appeared and you just made your own copies - probably costing a lot of people their jobs while making copies very inexpensive.

Even in my very short working life (17 years), it's amazing how technology has changed things. mostly by significantly increasing the administrative burden on academic staff!

 

[Edward]

Edward, cats rule us, dominate our lives, give you a look, after scolding them, that says: "And your problem is?" They can break your heart and then heal it again with one gentle rub of their face. If you go to this web site, you can leave a tribute.

Thanks, I'll look into that. You're not wrong, either. Where her sister Greta, whom we still have, is the mistress of the 'sadface' manipulation, Marlene always had this wonderful, 'go to hell' air about her. I adore both of them. But yeah - dogs have owners, a cat only ever has staff.

 

[GHT]

Another sign that I, at least, am getting older is the realization that the first two jobs I had were in industries that virtually no longer exist, those being savings & loan and also photofinishing.

Do you know that it never even occurred to me that my first job was in an industry that no longer exists? Richard Tompkins, on a business trip to The States, saw the potential of Sperry & Hutchinson's Green Stamps.
On his return back in the UK he founded The Green Shield Trading Stamp Co. It was in the sixties and early seventies that I worked for them. The Middle East wars of that period saw fuel prices quadruple at the pump, it was the start of Green Shield's demise. They morphed into what we know today as: Argos. There is a trading stamp successor in loyalty cards, but there's not one universal card the way Green Shield was universal.
Tompkins started the company in 1958, it really took off in the early sixties when Tesco came on board. At the time, the leading UK supermarket company was Sainsburys, they hated Green Shield, saw it as a leech on trading profits and vowed never to have stamps or any such promotional tool. Their quality would keep them at the top. Sainsburys was one of the founders of the loyalty Nectar card, better still, three months ago, Sainsburys bought Argos. Sainsburys have lost their number one position to Tesco, decades ago, they have never regained it. Perhaps Argos might yet work the same magic for them as Green Shield did for Tesco.

 

[2jakes]

You’ve made me aware that my first job & everything about it doesn’t exist anymore.

1. Downtown department stores with real wood floors. (No malls)
2. Huge & heavy cash registers with keys & hand crank. Customers mostly paid with cash or checks.
3. Sales book. Everything was handwritten on a sales pad with carbon copies.
5. Suit & tie was required for the men.
6. Time clocks.
7. Products were displayed in the front store windows & were made in the USA.
8. Layaway was used regularly not only on holidays.
9. You knew the customers by name.
10. And some of the items I sold can still be found but mostly in
antique shops.

 

[Stearmen]

You’ve made me aware that my first job & everything about it doesn’t exist anymore.

1. Downtown department stores with real wood floors. (No malls)
2. Huge & heavy cash registers with keys & hand crank. Customers mostly paid with cash or checks.
3. Sales book. Everything was handwritten on a sales pad with carbon copies.
5. Suit & tie was required for the men.
6. Time clocks.
7. Products were displayed in the front store windows & were made in the USA.
8. Layaway was used regularly not only on holidays.
9. You knew the customers by name.
10. And some of the items I sold can still be found but mostly in
antique shops.

Some of those still exist. The big cash registers are still used, but mostly by small shops. Suit & Ties are still worn in our down town by business people. My friends motorcycle shop still has a time clock, and they know you by your name, plus, they don't mind if you just hang out, without making a perches! Some small businesses still do layaway.

 

[Stearmen]

I remember running a "ditto" machine to make copies in high school. My very vague (and young) memory is that it used a "master" wax copy created like a carbon as it "sat" behind the original and "captured" the imprint of whatever was being written or typed. Then, the "master" was put in the machine - aligned along a cylinder - and then hand turned and pressed against (my guess) some sort of ink blotter that "copied" the master onto normal paper. Very mechanical, but worked fine.

Then four years in college and my first office job had a "print shop" where you'd give the "guys" whatever you needed copied and you'd pick up your "job" later (a bunch of loud mechanical machines which needed manual operating could be seen through the door behind the counter of the "print shop"). Several years after that, reasonably easy-to-operate copy machines appeared and you just made your own copies - probably costing a lot of people their jobs while making copies very inexpensive.

We still have print shops. I was just in one a couple of months ago, to get some drawings enlarged.

 

[Stearmen]

Losing one of my beloved cats to kidney failure in recent weeks has me thinking about all the others I've loved and lost over the years. I realised my first cat died twenty-three years ago last month: he's been gone for almost double his own lifetime. Still miss the old bugger terribly.

Never owned a cat, but a few have adopted me over the years. The first was my sisters, but the cat slept with me, my mother said, when she tried to tuck me in, he would hiss at her. The one below was a more recent one, he came running whenever he saw me. sadly, he disappeared a year or so ago, sure miss him! At my new house, the neighbors cat now likes me, he was terrified of me, ran every time he saw me.

 

[GHT]

On a list of jocular age appraisals, two really resonated with me, although the second is academic since I'm retired.
It takes two tries to get up from the couch.
You would rather go to work than stay home sick.

 

[2jakes]

^^^^^
As much as I love my job, when I get sick, the last thing on my mind is work.

I prefer to suffer it out in the comfort of my cozy bed with the window shades
down, no light or noise.
Eat my favorite junk food when I get hungry
& watch natural geographic films.

 

[BlueTrain]

I have been in department stores, though not recently by a long shot, that did not use cash registers. The sales person wrote up the sale and put the sales slip and the cash in either a basket or a tube (like at the drive-in window at the bank) and it was whisked away to the upstairs office. I doubt that was ever common, though. I also remember one "corner store" that had a little box on the side of the cash register where she put the sales tax when there was a sale. None of the sales were very big but the store had a big candy counter.

I also remember when they would put dust covers over the merchandise on the counters at nighttime. Relatively few things were packaged the way they are now. Likewise, I remember sweeping compound being spread on what I believe were oiled wood floors, which was in turned swept up and reused again the next day. Even as a little boy, that didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me, not that it worried me or anything.

There was also an abundance everywhere of small specialty shops, although some would be found more in smaller towns and others in larger towns, curiously. There were men's shops and lady's shops and in college towns there were the same sorts of shops that catered to the university set. There were hat shops, too, probably more for women than for men and I believe they were found more in larger towns. There were none in my home town, although there were two or three men's shops and probably as many lady's shops. I was never in any of them.

Lest we imagine that on-line shopping is something really new and different, there was also mail-order from three or four well-known companies which also had big department stores but never in a small town. There were sometimes so-called catalog stores, however, and there was one of those in my hometown. I don't remember if it was a Sears or a Montgomery Wards. Spiegel was another one and it's still around. I used to think you could buy anything imaginable from Sears.

 

[Edward]

Never owned a cat, but a few have adopted me over the years. The first was my sisters, but the cat slept with me, my mother said, when she tried to tuck me in, he would hiss at her. The one below was a more recent one, he came running whenever he saw me. sadly, he disappeared a year or so ago, sure miss him! At my new house, the neighbors cat now likes me, he was terrified of me, ran every time he saw me.

He was a handsome boy. It's hard when they leave us, isn't it? The cats I grew up with all went outside; most of them were well aware when the end came, and they went away to die. The first, we really kinda knew he was going (in retrospect, he wasn't quite thirteen, and was probably experiencing kidney failure - back in those days, even as recently as the early 90s, there just wasn't the awareness of that sort of thing that there is now), but he was so desperate to get outside, it would have been cruel to keep him in. We never found his body; presumably he had some hidey hole somewhere where he was comfortable and we never knew where it was. He looked a lot like your boy, actually, but with much less black over his back.

 

[GHT]

There was also an abundance everywhere of small specialty shops, although some would be found more in smaller towns and others in larger towns, curiously. There were men's shops and lady's shops and in college towns there were the same sorts of shops that catered to the university set. There were hat shops, too, probably more for women than for men and I believe they were found more in larger towns. There were none in my home town, although there were two or three men's shops and probably as many lady's shops. I was never in any of them.

One endearing memory of ladies shops was the cellophane behind the window glass that helped reduce the sunlight from bleaching the clothes displayed in the window. That cellophane was always a mystery to me, it was only when I was first married that my wife explained about, not opening the floor to ceiling curtains, when there was bright sunshine, that covered a patio window in our first home, explaining that the sunlight would dis-colour the furniture. Did other countries have those cellophane sun guards?

 

[BlueTrain]

You may recall that in the movie "The Time Machine" (1960), the inventor continues to see the same shop window as the years whirl by as he travels to the future. The show window shows changing fashions. In real life, the shop probably would not last as long as it did in the movie, although I will admit, it has been a while since I saw the film (in real life).

 

[Lean'n'mean]

. In real life, the shop probably would not last as long as it did in the movie,

Nor the mannequin but it made for a charming sequence.

 

[tonyb]

I hope my fears are unfounded, but I have concerns for the future of the window dresser's art.

 

[2jakes]

I have been in department stores, though not recently by a long shot, that did not use cash registers. The sales person wrote up the sale and put the sales slip and the cash in either a basket or a tube (like at the drive-in window at the bank) and it was whisked away to the upstairs office. I doubt that was ever common, though. I also remember one "corner store" that had a little box on the side of the cash register where she put the sales tax when there was a sale. None of the sales were very big but the store had a big candy counter.

I also remember when they would put dust covers over the merchandise on the counters at nighttime. Relatively few things were packaged the way they are now. Likewise, I remember sweeping compound being spread on what I believe were oiled wood floors, which was in turned swept up and reused again the next day. Even as a little boy, that didn't seem to make a lot of sense to me, not that it worried me or anything.

There was also an abundance everywhere of small specialty shops, although some would be found more in smaller towns and others in larger towns, curiously. There were men's shops and lady's shops and in college towns there were the same sorts of shops that catered to the university set. There were hat shops, too, probably more for women than for men and I believe they were found more in larger towns. There were none in my home town, although there were two or three men's shops and probably as many lady's shops. I was never in any of them.

Lest we imagine that on-line shopping is something really new and different, there was also mail-order from three or four well-known companies which also had big department stores but never in a small town. There were sometimes so-called catalog stores, however, and there was one of those in my hometown. I don't remember if it was a Sears or a Montgomery Wards. Spiegel was another one and it's still around. I used to think you could buy anything imaginable from Sears.

I recall the Woolworth Store when I was very young.
They had those tubes where the clerks would put large bills .
Those canisters would shoot up through the store high above to go
to far away places in the galaxy.
At least that’s what my Buck Rogers/Flash Gordon mentality told me.

Back then the store was more than a novelty shop like in later years.
The basement also had a full array of grocery items
.
The drug store was nearby. There was a soda fountain in the corner.
The aroma of pills/medicine from the pharmacy combined with sweet
ice cream at the counter is something I will never forget.

My mom had a drawer in the kitchen with several books of S&H green stamps.
Although, I don’t recall her ever going to the store to redeem them.

The only place I still see those canisters is at the drive-in windows of
my bank.

 

[Inkstainedwretch]

One of the great things about the old department-store candy counters (that and the wonderful roasting-nuts smell) was that around Halloween, you could get sacks of just orange and licorice jellybeans. Those were the only flavors I really liked. I still do.