Oh my, showing my age

[99WinAdventurer37G]

Kids today don't know about VHS tapes, manners, AM radios with tubes that had to warm up before sound came out, respect, 3 on the tree shifting, earning money, church keys, tube type tires, saving for a rainy day, coal oil, leaded gas, black  white TV, Walt Disney on Sunday night, Ed Sullivan, Phil Silvers, Art Linkletter, To the Moon, Alice, Don't open that closet, cars without seat belts, cars with fins, mumbly peg, milk bottles with cream out the top when it was too cold, bumper jacks, poodle skirts, intake manifold whistles,..........

Uh oH, now I'm feeling old.  My 66 Belair had a bumper jack.  I think the bumpers on todays cars would fall off if you tried to jack a car from them.

 

[Foto-n-T]

How's about steering knobs?

In reality if you do a search there are no statutes prohibiting these and some disabled drivers are required to use them.  I have one installed on my truck and have for years, I love it.  I've often wanted to install one on the commercial vehicles I drive but don't want to have to defend it during a DOT inspection.  By the way, my truck also has "wing windows" on it.  Whoever the idiot was that did away with them never had to drive a vehicle without air-conditioning.

 

[Pawtna]

try to find a place in the new cars to play your  8 tracks.

 

[Molaker]

How's about steering knobs?

In reality if you do a search there are no statutes prohibiting these and some disabled drivers are required to use them.  I have one installed on my truck and have for years, I love it.  I've often wanted to install one on the commercial vehicles I drive but don't want to have to defend it during a DOT inspection.  By the way, my truck also has "wing windows" on it.  Whoever the idiot was that did away with them never had to drive a vehicle without air-conditioning.

I don't recall anyone saying they are prohibited or even not still available.  They are frequently used on boats and some trucks (as you mentioned), but the advent of power steering and short stop-to-stop rack and pinion steering used in most all non-commercial vehicles today greatly limits the usefulness.  FWIW - some states prohibit steering wheel attachments that might interfere with clothing and a spinner might fall in that ruling.  As for the handicapped, they have their own needs and rules.

The wind wings went out with more and more extreme fuel economy regs.  Certainly there are times I'd like to have one back.  I have often wondered if the improved air flow made up for the increased fuel usage with A/C...I doubt it.  It's probably more an excuse to take some cost out of manfacturing and blame it on economy needs.

 

[Larry N.]

Wasn't that called the "wing?"

R

We usually called them vent windows. I think they started to disappear after "flow-thru" ventilation started to appear in cars. I still miss them; added ventilation with minimal noise.

 

[Larry N.]

And I suppose you all got your green stamps.

Green stamps, plaid stamps and other methods for various premiums (even coupons on certain cigarette brands). I miss those -- we used to fill up book after book of green stamps (and plaid, in certain areas) and "buy" neat goodies with them. They added up quickly when given with groceries and gasoline.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Popular subject matter...  Dimmer switch on the floor, vacuum windshield wipers, full front seat (nice and cozy with girlfriend... 0 clearance away), furry dice hanging from mirror, tons of little decals all over the rear window, wire curb alarms,  and on and on.

Dimmer switch on the floor? How about the starter on the floor? Three speed floor shifters?

 

[99WinAdventurer37G]

In reality if you do a search there are no statutes prohibiting these and some disabled drivers are required to use them.  I have one installed on my truck and have for years, I love it.  I've often wanted to install one on the commercial vehicles I drive but don't want to have to defend it during a DOT inspection.  By the way, my truck also has "wing windows" on it.  Whoever the idiot was that did away with them never had to drive a vehicle without air-conditioning.

I put them in my commercial trucks, and have only had one driver that didn't like it and removed it.  DOT has cited me for dirty license plate, mangled license plate, mud flap "sailing" to high off the ground, but never for the knob on my steering wheel. 

 

[gwcowgill]

OK, here's one I barely remember......The advance retard lever on the model T's.

 

[ChiefM]

life BEFORE the cell phone

 

[Just Lou]

OK, here's one I barely remember......The advance retard lever on the model T's.

I've never driven a "T", but my old steel wheeled John Deere had the same lever as well as a hand operated clutch.  I also had to spin the flywheel, by hand, to start the durn thing.

 

[Just Lou]

life BEFORE the cell phone

I remember watching an episode of "Boston Blackie" where he would just reach into his car (usually a convertable) and grab a phone to call Mary in the office.

I was like, "huh, like that's ever going to happen"  : ??? :-[

 

[catblaster]

I've got a spark advance on my old panhead harley (1951). If you try to kick her off without retarding it she will let you know by putting your knee up....under your chin.

How about kick starters on motorcycles

 

[Jim Godward]

OK, here's one I barely remember......The advance retard lever on the model T's.

Model As had it too.  I learned to drive in a Model A and a battery powered car.  Don't remember the name of the battery car but it worked. This was back in MN in the late 30s, I was about 8 years old.  Charging those batteries took a while though and I don't mean over night.  They had a spare set to slide in and out.  It may have been locally built for all I know and everyone who would know is long gone.  I couldn't find a mention of it in the local museum either.  I know my dad was involved as that was why I got to drive it.

 

[carson]

  I learned to drive at a young age..about 8 years old. My dad was a small farmer and let me drive to another part of the farm occasionally. It was called a Tempo.

  The unique part is that it was a 3-wheeled little pick-up truck. To start it, one had to pull a cord to turn the engine over from inside the cab. Tough job if it wouldn't start easily..repeat-repeat many times.

  All this in North Germany during the war. ca. 1943

  No digital cameras in those days so the link below will have to do.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo_%28car%29

 

[ArdraF]

Returning to keypunch cards.  The first bibliography I did as a professional librarian was computerized which was a whole new process at the time (about 1967).  That is, a keypuncher typed in the handwritten information I gave her, another person retyped it and this was the verifier, then I went through every card manually to find periods and commas that were misplaced along with other errors (necessary if the entries were to be in the correct location).  Once I was satisfied they were correct, the boxes of keypunch cards were fed into the IBM 370 machine and I got a printout.  I worked for Lockheed at the time and we had the world's first computerized card catalog at the Palo Alto Research center.  The 370 took all night to print it out.  Years later I worked for SRI International using the first computerized databases for things like Engineering Abstracts, Science Abstracts, and Medical Abstracts.  A young library school student came to interview me and later brought back some other library school students.  When she introduced me to the group she referred to me as a "pioneer in computerized literaure searching."  Boy, did I feel old!!!

By the way, someone mentioned the internet earlier.  One of my SRI colleagues was Doug Engelbart, known as the inventer of the mouse.  My former supervisor worked with Doug and was just inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame and went to Geneva, Switzerland for the ceremony.  Elizabeth Feinler managed the Network Information Center for the Arpanet which was the forerunner of today's internet.

ArdraF

 

[Jim Godward]

In 1966 or 67, I got a desk computer.  The computer was in one side of the desk, replacing the drawers and a paper tape reader, 5 channel, was in the other side.  It had the old green monitor and a modified IBM model B typewriter for the other input device.  We used it for a spread sheet for personnel planning and money control among other things.  It was really high powered with about 8K words of memory, 8 bit.  It was made from a developmental version of a computer used in military applications.  The company, North American, tried to sell them for about $10K each and when no one bought them, the computers were made available IF you could convince management that you had applications.  I used that computer till about 1969 or 70 when I transferred to another division.

 

[Tom and Margi]

Sometime in the early 70's, while working in the Basic Refractories Division at a Kaiser Aluminum research facility, one of "my" engineers was given one of the first personal computers to try in his office.  It was a Wang.  Previous to this, all computers were in a huge air conditioned room and were fed by key punched cards.  The computer malfunctioned, the receptionist reported the arrival of the tech to repair it, I at once got on the plant-wide loud speaker and announced:  "Charlie, the tech is here to fix your Wang."  Just about shut the place down with laughter.  After that, Charlie gifted me with the affectionate (really) nickname Rosemary Dingaling.

Margi

 

[RoyM]

;D Margi,  I can't stop laughing. That is priceless. Anyone here know how to double clutch? I learned that on a 1946 Maple Leaf (Canadian built Chev) 5 ton hauling grain.

 

[pojo]

How many know why you had to double clutch? Everything is synchronized now!