How to tell you are getting old

Status
Not open for further replies.
I keep an E6-B (aviation flight computer/slide rule) at my desk. Use it for a large amount of the simple calculations I do. It keeps me sharp in case my batteries die in midair somewhere.
It is also fun to see the expressions on people's faces, when I can calculate something faster, on my little piece of cardboard, than they can with a calculator.
 
You guys are so old I bet you remember when the
DEAD SEA
was still
ALIVE
story.dead.sea.float.afp.jpg
 
macmikeman said:
I still have my circular slide rule. Anybody else ever use one of those?
Click to expand...
I have a selection of slide rules, straight and circular, along with a collection of calulators from the first TI that could only add, subtract, multiply and divide up to some high end graphing ones.

I still believe we made fewer big mistakes when we used slide rules. You really had to understand the magnitude of your answer as you worked your way through a problem. The slide rule just gave you a few digits of accuracy, the decimal place was your problem. Now, punch it up in the calcualator and whatever appears in the window is gospel. Oops, wonder why the bridge collapsed. Ah, those danged decimals did me in.
 
Well here is the thing. When I was in the 12th grade I could see the little bitty lines on my slide rules. Now I would need a magnifying glass to do the same trick. Calculators rule.
 
Another way you know, I had to laugh as an apprentice ran a 100' extension cord for the corded sawzall, to cut some 3/4 EMT, someone asked him why he did not use the cordless sawzall. I asked him where his hacksaw was, he answer "hacksaw, I don't own one". An apprentice without a hacksaw?


They'd set you home for that when I was an apprentice, and candy bars use to cost a nickle.
 
brian john said:
"and candy bars use to cost a nickle".

I remember those days.
I grew up on a dirt road and it was a mile's walk to "the store".
I could walk to the store and pick up coke bottles (returnables) on the way and by the time I got there, usually have enough to buy a coke and a Moon pie....3 cents a piece for the bottles.
Cokes cost a dime and moon pies were a nickle each.

steve
Click to expand...
 
hillbilly said:
brian john said:
"and candy bars use to cost a nickle".

I remember those days.
I grew up on a dirt road and it was a mile's walk to "the store".
I could walk to the store and pick up coke bottles (returnables) on the way and by the time I got there, usually have enough to buy a coke and a Moon pie....3 cents a piece for the bottles.
Cokes cost a dime and moon pies were a nickle each.

steve
Click to expand...

I guess I'm older..... cokes were 7? Moon pies were 3? and the returnable bottles 2? that was in 1960.....
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, 5 cent cokes but 7 cents if you took the bottle out of the store. Saturday movie matinee was 25 cents for two full length movies and some cartoons.
 
brian john said:
Hockey: YOU ARE OLD....3 cents. what year? I remember a 5 cents, and my Dad useto say "When I was a kid......."
Click to expand...

That was 1960. I'm 53. If you aren't from SC and the same age or older...... :) remember the cost of living, as well as the wages, were/are much lower in SC! When I started driving, gas was 23.9? a gallon. I kinda remember my Dad complaining when it went above 20? a gallon. And when a shorty Coke went to a dime he wouldn't let me have one! He was a "Fixer" in the cotton mill, I don't know what he made during that time. But when I was 19, I was making $3.50 an hour he told me I was making a lot more than him!
 
Another way: I now have bifocals and computer glasses.

I am 54 and grew up part of my life on mlitary bases movie was 15 cents, Mom gave us a quarter, we got a bag of popcorn and a box of 4-saltwater taffies with a toy with the dime left over.

Eight years old and rode my bike (NO HELMET OR PADS) 3-4 miles each way, parents never gave it a thought. (Oh and looked for bottles the whole way)
 
brian john said:
Hockey: YOU ARE OLD....3 cents. what year? I remember a 5 cents, and my Dad useto say "When I was a kid......."
Click to expand...

If he was really old, he'd have paid with a 3-cent coin.

1885_Three_Cent_Nickel_Rev.jpg
or
1851o_trime_rev.jpg
 
Last edited:
brian john said:
Another way: I now have bifocals and computer glasses.

I am 54 and grew up part of my life on mlitary bases movie was 15 cents, Mom gave us a quarter, we got a bag of popcorn and a box of 4-saltwater taffies with a toy with the dime left over.

Eight years old and rode my bike (NO HELMET OR PADS) 3-4 miles each way, parents never gave it a thought. (Oh and looked for bottles the whole way)
Click to expand...
Now I am confused, Brian. Did you write that story, or did I? :-? I could have said the exact same thing (except that I don't hit 54 until later this year). :)
 
hillbilly said:
brian john said:
"and candy bars use to cost a nickle".

I remember those days.
I grew up on a dirt road and it was a mile's walk to "the store".
I could walk to the store and pick up coke bottles (returnables) on the way and by the time I got there, usually have enough to buy a coke and a Moon pie....3 cents a piece for the bottles.
Cokes cost a dime and moon pies were a nickle each.

steve
Click to expand...

I'll bet driving ground rods was easier too, since way back then, rocks were still soft.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
macmikeman said:
I still have my circular slide rule. Anybody else ever use one of those?
Click to expand...

Yep, loved those. How about a Fredden (sp) mechanical calculator?

Anybody remenber the "skate key?" "Secret encoder ring"

Fortran? Key punch? IBM cards. Argggg. Worked during college with punch cards.

I'm vertical, another good day.

RC
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top