485 replies to this topic

[GG Mora]

Those automatic seat belts that traveled forward when you opened the car door and then, when you closed the door, traveled back to secure you and in the process caught your arm, the one holding the cup of hot coffee, and smartly dumped the coffee in your lap, in the meantime trapping your arm so you had to reach across with your other arm to open the door and free yourself? Thank god for airbags.

Also, when you really could drop a dime in the slot of a pay phone to rat someone out? What do you do now? Cell them out?

[rancho_gordo]

Those automatic seat belts that traveled forward when you opened the car door and then, when you closed the door, traveled back to secure you and in the process caught your arm, the one holding the cup of hot coffee, and smartly dumped the coffee in your lap, in the meantime trapping your arm so you had to reach across with your other arm to open the door and free yourself? Thank god for airbags.

Also, when you really could drop a dime in the slot of a pay phone to rat someone out? What do you do now? Cell them out?

I'm guessing you are back home enjoying your first day off.

[Maurice Naughton]

Also, when you really could drop a dime in the slot of a pay phone to rat someone out? What do you do now? Cell them out?

Will you provide a list of folks you're ready to drop a dime on? Please limit it to those who post on Mouthfulsfood. I just want to see in what particulars our lists coincide. Perhaps there should be a "rat-out" thread.

[tanabutler]

Also, when you really could drop a dime in the slot of a pay phone to rat someone out? What do you do now? Cell them out?

The payphones here are fifty cents, and I have used them more than once to complain about my neighbor's drug trafficking. I will be using one soon to make a call to the tow truck company whose unit #851 makes regular appearances at his house, always roaring out much louder than it arrived.

[brulee nation]

Those automatic seat belts that traveled forward when you opened the car door and then, when you closed the door, traveled back to secure you and in the process caught your arm, the one holding the cup of hot coffee, and smartly dumped the coffee in your lap, in the meantime trapping your arm so you had to reach across with your other arm to open the door and free yourself? Thank god for airbags.

Yes. I once became one with an ice cream cone courtesy of one of those babies.

Do you remember:

The smell of purple mimeo ink?

Your first big chunky Texas Instruments calculator?

Your first TV with a remote? Mine had only one button on it. Pressing the button caused the dial on the set to spin around until I pressed the button again.

The twenty-first night of September?

[Maurice Naughton]

Do you remember when the Green Hornet's faithful Japanese valet Kato suddenly became his faithful Filipino valet Kato?

Blackhawk comics? About an elete multi-national air force squadron (Polish, French, Chinese, Swedish, Dutch, American, Russian) who flew Grumman XF5F-1 Skyrockets (experimental carrier aircraft that never actually saw combat) and who wrought havoc upon the Axis powers. I loved the airplane.

Air-Raid Wardens in their white-painted steel helmets and the blackouts they enforced? (My dad was one. As if a German or Japanese Bomber could get to Kansas City.)

Gorgeous George? And what he threw out into the audience (hint: Not his opponents.)

[Melonious Thunk]

Do you remember when the Green Hornet's faithful Japanese valet Kato suddenly became his faithful Filipino valet Kato?

Yup. The original Kato went to internment camp.

Blackhawk comics? About an elete multi-national air force squadron (Polish, French, Chinese, Swedish, Dutch, American, Russian) who flew Grumman XF5F-1 Skyrockets (experimental carrier aircraft that never actually saw combat) and who wrought havoc upon the Axis powers. I loved the airplane.

...and" The Adventures of Sky King!" on the radio, among other heros of the air.

Air-Raid Wardens in their white-painted steel helmets and the blackouts they enforced? (My dad was one. As if a German or Japanese Bomber could get to Kansas City.)

Wardens watching the waters off the beaches of Brooklyn and Long Island for enemy subs (they were there!)
Air raid drills and sky marshalls on building roof tops inthe Bronx.

Gorgeous George? And what he threw out into the audience (hint: Not his opponents.)

and Hat-pin Mary?

[Melonious Thunk]

Having a telephone party line. Ours was Montclair 7-4465J.

And picking up the phone to make a call hearing the operator say "number please?"
That was as late as 1950-51.

Televisions that tuned to channels like a slide radio tuner, and used rabbit ears?

The first television remote control by Zenith that used a tuning fork and receiver to change channels. It went in one direction and also had "off" and "on" tones.

[GG Mora]

Do you remember:

The smell of purple mimeo ink?

I was just thinking about that the other day, when I was passing out laser copies at a board meeting. A part of me still expects people to inhale deeply of their copies as they pass the pile on...

[Rail Paul]

Wardens watching the waters off the beaches of Brooklyn and Long Island for enemy subs (they were there!)
Air raid drills and sky marshalls on building roof tops inthe Bronx.

The Germans sank several coastal oil tankers off Asbury Park, Avon, and Spring Lake, NJ in 1942 and 1943. My mother and uncle both said the burning tankers made a huge and scary impact on the citizenry. Probably not dissimilar to that of the World Trade Center destruction two generations later.

Back then, these coastal towns were under a complate embargo on lights in windows, streetlights were turned off, etc. There was a fear that the Germans would see the back-lighted tankers and coastal steamers more easily.

[SLBunge]

Those automatic seat belts that traveled forward when you opened the car door and then, when you closed the door, traveled back to secure you and in the process caught your arm, the one holding the cup of hot coffee, and smartly dumped the coffee in your lap, in the meantime trapping your arm so you had to reach across with your other arm to open the door and free yourself? Thank god for airbags.

Also, when you really could drop a dime in the slot of a pay phone to rat someone out? What do you do now? Cell them out?

My girlfriend at the time had a Honda Civic (~1991) that had those seat belts. Really clunky.

My first new car was a 1989 Toyota Corolla and it had the seat belts connected to the door. So you open the door and slide into the seat belt web. Also cause for a significant amount of spilled coffee.

[foodie52]

Having a telephone party line. Ours was Montclair 7-4465J.

And picking up the phone to make a call hearing the operator say "number please?"
That was as late as 1950-51.

Televisions that tuned to channels like a slide radio tuner, and used rabbit ears?

The first television remote control by Zenith that used a tuning fork and receiver to change channels. It went in one direction and also had "off" and "on" tones.

Ours was Parkridge 6-0009.

Took FOREVER to dial that sucker!

[StephanieL]

I'm not too young to remember mimeographs, and the smell of fresh copies as they came off the machine.

How about early-model VCRs, where you pushed a button and a holder for the tape came up (which you then had to push back down)? Or early cable TV boxes? Ours had rows of buttons, and a lever-type thing that you used to switch between rows (i.e., you moved it to one position for channels 1-20, another for channels 21-40, etc.). Couldn't use a remote with one of those.

What was the 21st night of September?

[Maurice Naughton]

I'm not too young to remember mimeographs, and the smell of fresh copies as they came off the machine.

But you're far too young to remember another copier, the hectograph.

[Maurice Naughton]

A scale model of the experimental Grumman XF5F-1, the plane that the Blackhawk squadron supposedly flew. Armed with four 20mm cannon in the nacelle.