This may go over like a Pb ballon (you had to be there)

Unlike OT, we are free-wheeling. But there were occasional demographics surveys. Those got a little too-specific, like income, I don't care about that. OT, it seemed to sort mostly male. Sorry you who may have chromosome one way and beliefs the other. Or something. Poorly designed question. Age range might be nice.

My sense is that we run about 50/50 XX/XY. Does that sound less-judgemental?

Mostly interested ( just for me) on age breakdown and M/F (again, that caveat). JtC, if this is not acceptable here, it will come right down. Also, I can't find the polling site, which I have found tedious and too many clicks. So first, is this useful, interesting? If not, it's gone, if I can withdraw. And anyone who has a good poll spot (without spyware) please come forward, if you want.

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WoodsDweller's picture

at the fountain at my second job. Snack bar at a roller skating rink. There was an actual arcade video game there! It was called ... Pong. Put in your quarter and bounce that little pixel around.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Oldest Son Of A Sailor's picture

shady-glen-dairy-stores.jpg

Right?

The Shady Glen in Manchester CT still does it that way...

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"Do you realize the responsibility I carry?
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."

~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
tapu dali's picture

Back in the day, I developed a game called "shooting stars" which, unfortunately, never took off.

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There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.

tapu dali's picture

with melted cheese and bacon: 10c extra.

But not from McDs, never heard of it in my day: this would be freshly made (not a frozen "patty", eyeballed (about 4 oz) by the short order cook) in a "restaurant" where you ate at a counter [Kresge's or Woolworth's, I think]

I always had mine with green pickle relish, tomato and caramelised onions. Never liked mustard or katjep all that much.

Yum!

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There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.

Deja's picture

I tried to find a song I heard probably 20 years ago on a cassette tape that even included the "ding" in it, but only found "Love at the Five and Dime" by Nancy Griffith, who I swear sang the song I'm thinking of. Sad

I'm going to call my brother. He's the one who gave me the tape.

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Oldest Son Of A Sailor's picture

Attached to the fender braces on the bicycle with clothespins to make an engine sound when they hit the spokes...

Yea... Micky Mantle, Roger Marris, Willie Mays...

It didn't matter they were only baseball cards and my bike needed to make noise...

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"Do you realize the responsibility I carry?
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."

~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
Deja's picture

More, please! From everyone else too.

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featheredsprite's picture

Kiss 2

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Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.

mimi's picture

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WoodsDweller's picture

which is Latin for lead. Ballon should be balloon.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

mimi's picture

Hard to imagine a Pb bullet flying in the sky like a balloon. But riverlover just makes it happen. Funny all of it. It's nice to read it.

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tapu dali's picture

Oder fehlschlagen?

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There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.

mimi's picture

like me in my German essay tests in middle school. F- I wrote too much nonsense my teacher used to say. Smile

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Oldest Son Of A Sailor's picture

To the gas station a couple of blocks away...

Fill the tank with 2¢ worth of gas...

Then make $5 cutting the neighbors lawn...

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"Do you realize the responsibility I carry?
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."

~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,

I remember people who's mode of transportation was horse or mule drawn wagons.
I remember free range cattle, who sometimes came onto the court house square to eat and poop.
I grew up with kids who had outdoor toilets, who ate what they grew or what they killed. I remember my family using bath water for 2 or 3 of us in succession.
I remember the first veterinarian who attended to our animals as being a WWII Army veteran who went through his Army career in the horse cavalry as a farrier, and then got his degree on a GI loan. (My Dad was in the horse Cavalry when it disbanded in 1939. There was no bucking bronc my Dad could not ride.)
I milked cows, churned butter, and remember Wolfman Jack.
My first experience with an air conditioned room was at college, which I entered at age 16.
I am told my maternal Grandfather bought the first Model T in Baytown, Texas. I am also told he was a agriculture teacher in a Louisiana college, and made rounds to farms. On a round, he noticed a 16 year old girl pushing a plow. She had not worked to her Father's satisfaction, and was bleeding from the wounds on her back from a bull whip beating. My grandfather arranged to take her off the man's hands for a price.
They were married for over 50 years. I remember playing the Anniversary Waltz on the piano at their
50th year anniversary.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Deja's picture

My ex sociopath and I bought a 1925 Model T C-cab truck before I ran into hiding about 12 yrs ago. It was really cool!

I really love all these comments!

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Are you out west I-10 toward Katy?
I live an hour north, up in San Jacinto County on Lake Livingston.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Deja's picture

About a half mile from Wharton county. No lakes. Just lotsa crops and cattle and 18 wheelers. But, considering how far away everything in this state is, "Howdy, neighbor!"

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mimi's picture

much more of Americans experiences in their childhood and their hardships.

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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?

Oldest Son Of A Sailor's picture

Anybody have a Party Line?

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"Do you realize the responsibility I carry?
I'm the only person standing between Richard Nixon and the White House."

~John F. Kennedy~
Economic: -9.13, Social: -7.28,
Deja's picture

Had to tell my parents I had to go down off the mountain into Las Vegas, NM (no, not NV) to the doctor. Turns out I had mono. This was like 1982, but up in the mountains.

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WoodsDweller's picture

as late as 1990. I was sharing it with a family that had a teenage girl and was trying to look for a job, so I paid about $500 to have them come out and run me a private line. The nearby gas station still had a 10¢ (see what I did there?) pay phone.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

When I was growing up the parental units were constantly telling us to carry a dime, in case we had to call home from a pay phone. Along with wear your mittens. It's now a family joke, when someone is leaving, to ask them if they are carrying a dime.

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

lotlizard's picture

Some people or businesses even had just a 5 digit number. This was in the 1950s, with Hawaiian Telephone, before Bell System competitor (a distant #2) GT & E bought it.

Around the time of "statehood" (= fake decolonization) in 1959 everyone was assigned a 7 digit number to be compatible with the North American numbering system.

My first autumn at college in the mid 1960s, I called my parents in Hawaii from the U.S. northeast. I had to reserve the undersea cable weeks in advance.

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Alison Wunderland's picture

week in Geezerville.

We had 3 stations on VHF, the networks, NBC, ABC, and CBS. 3, 6, and 10. We'd drop some acid and watch the static on channel 7. Yes indeedy, the good old days.

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Shahryar's picture

we were on the Oregon Coast, pre-cable. I think we got the CBS affiliate out of Coos Bay. That was it. If we visited friends on the other side of the hill we could get ABC (I think it was) from Roseburg....but would lose CBS!

We also got only one radio station, country western music. "Hey, did you happen to see the most beautiful girl...."

Growing up we had a bunch since we were in the New York area. CBS, NBC, ABC, whatever the public station was, some indies. You NYC people probably know what they are. I bet they're the same. Let's see...2 (CBS), 4 (NBC), 5 (WNEW), 7 (ABC) 9 (WOR?), 11 (WPIX?), 13 (that must be the "educational" one). Lots of radio stations in NY but I only cared about WINS (with Murray the K), WABC (Cousin Brucie) and WMCA. Those were the rock n roll stations. I was going to say you youngsters should find youtubes, if there are any, of those old disk jockeys but according to the poll there aren't any youngsters here.

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Deja's picture

Sorry, couldn't help myself. These country songs would BLARE AT TOP VOLUME from the alarm clock/radio atop the refrigerator outside my parents' room every morning. Ack! (Except, I know the words to so many of those songs, and actually get in the mood to listen to them every few years.)

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lotlizard's picture

I can even remember when Channel 5 in NYC was WABD, flagship of the DuMont Television Network.

I knew this because my dad was the distributor for DuMont TV sets in Hawaii and the handbook that came with each set illustrated various possible problems, diagnoses, and remedies with photos of the WABD test pattern, appropriately distorted for each condition.

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were from the hills of Kentucky that moved to central Illinois. When I was a wee lad I remember staying at their farm. We had to walk about 100 feet to the outhouse, used a pot on the porch in the dead of winter. No running water, had to draw water at the kitchen sink with a hand pump. Cooked and heated the house with a wood burning stove. We took baths in a large galvanized tub with water heated one bucket at a time on the wood burner. Chickens in the chicken coop, snapping turtles in a 50 gallon drum buried in the ground. "Hillbilly" (bluegrass) music constantly blaring on the radio. Family weenie roast over a bonfire several times each summer.

Those are some of the most vivid and cherished memories of my very early youth. With a all of those inconveniences those were some of the most happiest times of my life. Simple and beautiful.

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Shahryar's picture

Those are some of the most vivid and cherished memories of my very early youth. With a all of those inconveniences those were some of the most happiest times of my life. Simple and beautiful.

your grandparents might not have perceived that life the way you did. That is, you specifically recall it as your young self remembers it. This implies that what's going on now, which we might moan about it since it's such a decline in civilization, is at this moment creating cherished memories for today's youngsters, who will say they remember "typing" and "wires" and they'll think it was so quaint that they'll tell kids about it. Further implying that all times, all moments are precious and that it's only because we categorize events that we don't still see the magic in NOW. By "categorize" I mean we do something and instead of experiencing it as the singular moment which has never been and never will be again, we automatically think "I'm doing something I've done millions of times so I will, essentially, ignore it".

Well I know that I do that, anyway, even though I occasionally make an effort not to. I find there are certain activities that are so pure, to my way of thinking, that they create that beautiful state of experiencing the NOW. One is music, either playing or going to see others play. There's something about it that stops time and without time whatever is going on is all there is. Another one, for me, is playing sports. This year, after not having done this for thirty years, I'm on a softball team. Again, time stops. The ball is hit in my direction, I move to where it's going, it lands in my glove and the entire sequence is completely meaningful. Afterwards I can recall the way the ball curved in the air, the way I had to lean. I sure don't remember that sort of thing when I take a walk to the store! Then there are special times with my gal. Those are the best.

But as mentioned, as we mature, lose our childlike sense of wonder about everything it can be difficult to see each second for what it is. (thus the popularity of certain drugs)

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shaharazade's picture

Michelangelo drawing from the 1500's and experiencing the moment that spans time and is still the now.

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WoodsDweller's picture

a dozen more times.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

riverlover's picture

My mother is 96 and in de-men-ti-a, as the last EMT noted in her file. She remembers her childhood, not 10 minutes ago. When she was young, the ice-man came by horse and wagon, and the (few) children would run toward the street for a chip of ice, much like later pay-for-it ice cream trucks. If you wanna look at cool, check out MerrieMobiles (spelling may not be correct). That is what I got, down the street, most afternoons. Kids running home to get change for the latest frozen delight. She remembers coal stoves, pumped water, outhouses in city lots, alleyways, horses, chickens in most back yards, and the Mexicans coming every year to pick tomatoes. The two groceries stocked Spanish-label cans then. That was/is a sundown town. One Jewish family (junk collectors), a Greek family who opened the only cafeteria in town, one Muslim family who had to drive to Indianapolis weekly. The latter left.

Grandma and Grandpa house for me and my sister. Magical, we were from the Big City, and this was not. No central heat, gas furnaces in the living room and kitchen, convection through floor grates for heating the two upstairs bedrooms. A garage out by the alley, no car that I can remember at all, just dusty items. We slept in the living room most in the winter, on a fold-down sofa. Got to listen to Lawrence Welk at high volume. Strange and wonder older neighbors who tolerated us. Golden years, ta-ta-ta.

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WoodsDweller's picture

the smell of burning leaves in the fall.
We lived in the country, so burning leaves was not an issue. But my grandparents lived in town, and I would go over there and rake them into the street and we would burn them there too, as did everyone else. Set fire to one end, and keep jumping into the leaves in the other end until the fire got too close. Eventually they didn't let you burn in town anymore. Fascists.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

tapu dali's picture

with their black bags of "stuff"?

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WoodsDweller's picture

at home by a doctor with his little black bag, he arrived in a horse and buggy.

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Shahryar's picture

this reminds me that things are $#%&ed up these days.

It used to be that you could call a doctor who'd come over. I was sick, had a bad pain in my side. Nowadays if I didn't have insurance (!) I'd have to be driven to the emergency room where I'd have to wait until I died. Back then, 1961, the doctor came over, did something, some sort of test or something, announced that I had to have my appendix out. It did not break my parents financially.

At other times the doctor would come....if I had a high fever! I used to get some bad sore throats as a kid, never had my tonsils out though. But doctors would do that because, you know, they were part of the community. There wasn't quite the divide there is now.

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riverlover's picture

And yes, would appear in the evening with his bag. My sister had a mystery ailment, he was there many times. She also had to wear "corrective shoes"-bar between them at night. Shoes to bed!

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Alligator Ed's picture

comment thread that I've read since I stopped writing with a quill pen and ink-well at school. Yes I really did that. We had to sharpen our quills as needed. Some of the boys used to dip the ends of pony-tails of the girl sitting in front of them in the ink...needless to say, this didn't go over very well and was seldom repeated.

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riverlover's picture

Is cursive writing even taught now? Straight to keyboarding or whatever they call typing? How do they ever get a signature? My 28 yo daughter (a leftie) has a signature that looks like printing, not cursive, although I think she learned cursive.

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Haikukitty's picture

Thanks all!

Although, I'm not really all that young, when I was in college, we were still doing graphic design by cutting things out and pasting them together. I had a job for awhile doing paste-up of our local Pennysaver mailer (do those exist anymore?)

But I was surprised to see that we as a whole are a little older than I am. Just goes to show what a bunch of young-at-heart group this is. I never would have guessed!

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riverlover's picture

Pennysavers still exist and still look like paste-ups, at least in the boonies. Wink

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