Days before the internet, IPODs, etc.

[grneyedmustang]

I thought this article was cute:

http://tech.msn.com/guides/backtoschool/article.aspx?cp-documentid=5008748

I remember having a payphone at the end of my hallway in my dorm, and this was 1995. The payphone was only a quarter. No one had a cell phone - but I had a pager!!!!!

[arrow]

Haha! I didn't have a cell phone until my 2nd senior year at college (yes, I took my sweet time). I paid $15 a month for 100 minutes. Also, I only got it because I was moving around so much and living out of my car. Prior to that, we all had campus phones in our dorm rooms.

Maybe it's because I live in NYC now, but it's wierd to me that people still dial only 7 numbers.

[WorkInProgress]

It's weird to me that people still think of phone numbers as 7 digits, since mine has been 10 since I think middle school.

My parents had an 800 number that I used to call them for the first two years at school. They gave me a cell phone after that b/c it was cheaper than the 800 number.

And nobody on my campus was on Facebook or Myspace when I was there. AIM all the way.

[Quench]

Ha ha. In college, I used to obsessively check people's AIM away messages whenever I got back to my computer after being gone for a bit. And I would try to come up with clever things for my own message.

[WorkInProgress]

Ha ha. In college, I used to obsessively check people's AIM away messages whenever I got back to my computer after being gone for a bit. And I would try to come up with clever things for my own message.

Yeah, the old fashioned way to cyberstalk. Everyone I knew did that too.

[pisces2473]

OMG yes, I did that too!

[grneyedmustang]

I didn't get into AIM until about 2002. I guess I was a bit behind. :redface:

In Atlanta, we've had ten digit numbers since about 1995 - 96ish...I moved to Tallahassee in 2002 and they only had 7 digit dialing...so weird.

I got my first cell phone in 1997. It was a prepaid phone, the phone was huge and cost about $150. The phone card came with about 100 minutes and was about $30. There were no text messages, cameras, cell phone browsing, or even cool ringtones -- it was just the one standard ringer.

I got my first "real" cellphone in 1999 through Airtouch (which later turned into Verizon). It had 8 different ringers which I thought was cool! My plan was about $50 for 300 minutes, free nights and weekends. Still no text messaging, camera, or web browsing, though.

I also remember when portable CD players were the rage and fairly expensive. Now I think you can get one for about $10 - $15.

I remember my first "PC" - well, it was more like a word processor, I got it in 1996. It had Wordperfect 5.1 on it (I think) -- and it had a dot matrix printer. I remember printing a 67 page paper for a psychology class and it took FOREVER - and to make matters worse, I was running late for class that day!!! Before I got the "PC" -- I had a typewriter. I remember typing papers for class and running out of correction tape in the middle of the night -- and this was before most wal-marts were 24 hours.

I also remember having to go to the library on campus and looking up journal articles the old fashioned way. It SUCKED!!!!!!

[mahlerssecond]

I didnt get a cell phone until 2002. Still dont use the thing much.
My family had a Commodore 64 in the late 80's. Didnt get an IBM compatible until 1994. We also didnt hook up to the internet until 1999.
I can remember when CD players and VCRs were an expensive toy.

[wordsmith]

My entire state JUST switched from seven to ten digit dialing this year. I think it was March or April that we all went to area codes having to be used for local toll as well as long distance from landlines.

I was in college from fall 1995- spring 1999, and I remember doing a study abroad program in Europe in 1996 and 1997, and it being noticeable that everyone there carried a "mobile," since this was right before every college student carried a cell phone. Now, my alma mater's residence halls don't even COME with room phones unless they are requested, but I remember using calling cards to call home from the landlines in my dorm rooms.

I still don't have a regular cell, though I do carry a prepaid, because I travel alone a lot.

By the same standard, at that time, the BIG selling point was that two of the ten residence halls had in-building 24-hour computer labs, and that ONE dorm had rooms that were wired for internet access in-room. Now, obviously, there's wireless throughout.

[Bocheezu]

Don't have a cell phone. Payphones in high school were 20 cents.

I remember typing one of my high school research papers on an electric typewriter. I had to use white out when I made a mistake. The second semester I was able to write the other research paper up on my friend's 486. He had a bubble jet printer, so I never dealt with dot matrix. Although one of my friend's roommates still had a dot matrix in early undergrad.

Got to college and used telnet for email. U-Mich used telnet for a long time, even after I was done in 2000. I don't know what they use now.

Didn't get high speed internet till I moved into my house in 2003. It was positively euphoric at the time.

[wordsmith]

My alma mater used telnet for e-mail, as well. I didn't even set up a web-based free e-mail account until I graduated in 1999 and my school account was no longer accessible.

We were not required to type high school papers and assignments, except for our two state-required research papers, one as a junior and one as a senior. We didn't have a school lab, and my family didn't have a computer, so my mom typed my handwritten term paper both years on an electric typewriter. I didn't type a paper myself until I was in college.

Also, my current workplace (where I started in 2001), had dial-up internet for the first two years I worked here.

[shadeofgreen]

This is the first time I've ever heard of using area codes for local calls. Does that make me backwoods?

I hope that happens in Maine and New Hampshire soon, though, so the stupid woman who has been calling my number inadvertently because she forgets that she's in Maine and doesn't dial the 603 area code first will no longer be able to do that. It's been going on for over a year.

My dad bought me a cell phone the summer before my senior year of college (2002.) He wanted me to carry it with me wherever I went so my parents could always reach me. I was pissed off because I'd been away at school 3 years without them being able to reach me whenever they wanted, plus it seemed like a burden to have to remember this thing all the time, not to mention keeping in charged, etc. In the end I think it spent that school year turned off in my glove box.

As for myspace, I learned about that the year after I graduated. One of my friends had signed up and was trying to get me to sign up, too.

"What's myspace?" I asked.

"It's like Friendster, but better." she answered. Heh.

[wordsmith]

This is the first time I've ever heard of using area codes for local calls. Does that make me backwoods?

Like I said, we just switched a few months ago. Chicago, too, so I'm thinking if you're backwoods, so is that metropolis.

[arrow]

As for myspace, I learned about that the year after I graduated. One of my friends had signed up and was trying to get me to sign up, too.

"What's myspace?" I asked.

"It's like Friendster, but better." she answered. Heh.

Haha. I don't know when either of those started, but it was well after I'd graduated from college.

[and1grad]

This is the first time I've ever heard of using area codes for local calls. Does that make me backwoods?
Nope, its the first I've heard of it too.

[wordsmith]

Haha. I don't know when either of those started, but it was well after I'd graduated from college.

Yeah, I think I made a myspace profile in about 2005, six years after I graduated from college.

[Bocheezu]

We started 10-digit dialing in the Detroit area about 4-5 years ago now. So it's been pretty recent. I still remember when 313 was the only area code for all of SE Michigan. We have all kind of area codes now, I don't even know all of them anymore.

[grneyedmustang]

We used telnet for email at FSU in 2002 - 2003...I'm guessing that's changed now though.

[beeblebrox]

Chicago added a third area code recently. The addition of an area affected my parents in Milwaukee too. They live in the area with the new area code while the rest of Milwaukee is the same. It took some getting used to, but it seems normal now.

I did the Facebook thing at the tail end of graduate school in 2005 and Myspace only about a year ago. So, those are fairly new to me. I just found Linkedin.com and like it for its professional side versus useless information.

[redav]

Ha, ha--cookies on dowels.

I got my first cell phone about 2.5 yrs ago. I resisted for the longest time since I like being unavailable--it's very serene. For at least a year after that the folks at work still didn't know I had one. I'm not sure if they know my number yet, though. :)

I first started using the internet in '94, back in the days when it was basically text-only. But I do remember hearing about it (Prodigy, for example) in middle school, but didn't think much of it till I got to college. I used a unix based terminal for email, and thought that was amazing.

I remember being at my grandparents place and only having to use 4 digits for dialing. We switched over to 10 dig dialing in Houston in the late 90s, IIRC.

My family took forever to get a microwave. We didn't get our first one till I about graduated from HS. I also remember making the big switch from cassettes to CDs in HS.

While I'm in no way against new tech, I usually take my time before I buy into something new, but I will jump on board if it has a clear benefit to me. I did get on the DVD bandwagon pretty early.

[Winter Storm]

Hmm lets see, I first got on the internet at the college library my freshman year. Never showed up for work that day.

My first email was a college appointed one with a long address (@cc.md.us.edu). When I started college, I did not have a cell phone, in fact, lots of people didn't but most had pagers and payphones were 35 cents.

I did not own a home computer until after I graduated college because of the costs of it and internet service (and my mom refused to tie up her phone line for the internet since it was only dial-up then).

I used a Walkman playing CDs before classes and didn't get on MSN messenger until after college (when I finally owned a computer).

[wordsmith]

Ha, ha--cookies on dowels.

I got my first cell phone about 2.5 yrs ago. I resisted for the longest time since I like being unavailable--it's very serene.

Same...and since it's prepaid, it's rarely on, I don't have VM set up, and only my family, BF, and a few friends even have the number. I prefer being unavailable. If my work wants me on call, they can provide me with a cell.

While I'm in no way against new tech, I usually take my time before I buy into something new, but I will jump on board if it has a clear benefit to me. I did get on the DVD bandwagon pretty early.

Yep...I only bother with that which really is a big advantage to me.

[coll214]

My mother has always been a tech geek, so I've had a computer in my house since i'd say about 1992, or even earlier. I remember typing papers my senior year of HS, 1997, and having a teacher exclaim how 'advanced' I was :rolleyes:. And i've had my AIM name for probally over 10 years now! Yikes!!

She also had one of those HUGE portable car phones that'd she'd make me take on long trips in HS if i was in my POS car. My freshman year of college, 1997, I got a cell phone from then Bell Atlantic Mobile (before it was bought out by Verizon), and haven't looked back. I didn't start really keeping it on though until at least junior year. Then it was for emergencies, since I basically paid for every phone call. And somewhere between 97-01 (my college time), papers being all done by computer, using the internet for research, and everyone having cellies became the norm....

[wordsmith]

Yeah, there was one English professor who was really big on paperless assignments, everything being done via e-mail or (fairly rudimentary) virtual classroom (this was in like '96). It was cutting edge enough at the time that people were kinda shaky on how it even worked. He did it not because he was super tech savvy out of personal interest (truth be known, he was old school and would have probably preferred Dickensian quill and ink), but because he was losing his sight, and having it online allowed him to bump the font up enough to see it when he was grading. But it was funny, because it was so unusual to have to turn in a paper via e-mail at that point.

[shadeofgreen]

I first started using the internet in '94, back in the days when it was basically text-only. But I do remember hearing about it (Prodigy, for example) in middle school, but didn't think much of it till I got to college.
My family got AOL when I was 12, which would have been 93 or 94. I remember being exposed to the wide world of chatrooms back then. Other than that, I'm not sure what we used it for. I didn't know anyone who used email and the web was a foreign concept.

I have a recollection from a few years later of seeing a Colgate ad with "colgate.com" at the bottom of the screen at the end, and thinking it was ridiculous. Why would Colgate need a website?!

Nowadays I get irritated if I can't find a business online, no matter how small it is.

[mahlerssecond]

In Iowa we still have seven digit dialing for local calls, except for cell phones which you have to dial all ten. I have only seen ten digit dialing around the big cities that have mulitple area codes.

[steph78]

In Iowa we still have seven digit dialing for local calls, except for cell phones which you have to dial all ten. I have only seen ten digit dialing around the big cities that have mulitple area codes.
Same in Alabama. I just moved here from Atlanta where it's been ten-digit dialing for ages (there are at least three different area codes in the metro area), it's still hard for me to remember that I don't have to use the area code for local calls here.

[WorkInProgress]

Same in Alabama. I just moved here from Atlanta where it's been ten-digit dialing for ages (there are at least three different area codes in the metro area), it's still hard for me to remember that I don't have to use the area code for local calls here.

Does your phone yell at you if you dial the area code by mistake?

[wordsmith]

Same in Alabama. I just moved here from Atlanta where it's been ten-digit dialing for ages (there are at least three different area codes in the metro area), it's still hard for me to remember that I don't have to use the area code for local calls here.

One reason for making them all ten-digit dialing here was because it was such a pain to remember where had it and where didn't. It took a few weeks to get used to dialing the area code for local calls, here, but in the long run, it's a ton easier to have one single procedure for all my calls, and not have to remember which towns I call for work are considered local and which aren't.

[ugarachel82]

I also remember AIM away message cyberstalking. My friends and I would give credit for cleverest away message as a way of procrastinating studying and the like.

I had a landline in my dorm as well. I also had a cell but kept it the car and only really used it for emergencies.

I didn't set up my facebook until 2004, after I graduated.

I also didn't have email until college, 2000. We had dial-up at home at the end of high school but I never used it. Ha!

[EmberMae]

I still vividly remember my first experiences with AOL in 1995. I thought it was the coolest thing ever, especially when they stopped charging by the hour and I could be on as much as I wanted.

I also remember having to push enter after every line when typing up my documents on my parents' really old IBM when I was in middle school.

[cameralady]

Like wordsmith, I was also in college from 1995-1999. My college was relatively tech-savvy; we got e-mail accounts during freshman orientation. All of the dorms had ethernet in the rooms except for one of our quintessential freshman dorm. Students in that one dorm had to dial into the university modem pool to get internet access.

By my senior year, only a handful of students had cell phones. I was selling tickets for my show on the main campus walkway, and I saw a girl call her buddies in the nearby frat house on her cell phone from right outside. At the time, I thought that was silly; why not just knock on the door? Today, however, I wouldn't think anything of it.

[PenforPrez]

My alma mater was (and still is) one of the most wired campuses in the nation, and we used telnet for email until like '99 or so.

My IM use has evolved over time. When I first got the Internet at my house in 2000, I always used MSN, and never dreamed of needing anything else. Then I slowly drifted to Yahoo, and did that for a long time. Now, I'm currently in my second AIM incarnation, and I chat more there than anywhere else anymore.

Sadly, I still have dial-up. Can't get broadband out of town except for satellite DSL, which I'm not sold on.

Missouri uses 10-digit dialing and has for about seven or eight years. Which came along around the time that St. Louis went from one gigantic area code to two small ones. Strangely, the area code for the Illinois side of St. Louis has not changed.

In the "good ol days," Missouri had three area codes. Easy to remember. Now, we have six, and it's confusing as hell unless you're calling to KC or Springfield.

I'm still nostalgic for the low-tech good ol days. I've always been old fashioned. :p

Paul

[jrwilheim]

When I started at my high school (boarding school), there were three payphones on campus to handle the calls of about 70-odd students. You were supposed to run down to the person's dorm and get them if a call came in, but people usually didn't.

I remember what a big deal it was when, midway through my sophomore year, they finally good a network set up on campus so that you could make a phone call from your room. I remember coming back from winter vacation and being really excited that I could order a pizza without having to trudge up to Main Building to make the call.

The big excitement with all this stuff when I got to college was the "ROLM-phone" system, where you could dial any number on campus with 4 digits. No one I knew had a cell phone in college. I didn't get one until after I graduated and all of my plans were up in the air and I figured I needed a consistent number where a potential employer could reach me.

[jrwilheim]

Looking through this, I hadn't been aware of how many other areas of the country require 10-digit dialing. I remember when they started requiring it in New York a few years back, and I thought it was strictly a New York thing, because the boroughs are so interconnected or whatever. I didn't realize they were doing it in Atlanta or Missouri.

[capella]

I've had a 10-digit number for as long as I can remember. ??? I'm surprised there are areas that still use 7-digit numbers. Maybe it's growing up in a large metro area like B-more--DC?

I didn't get a cell phone until my sophomore/junior year in college. I went to college from 1999-2003 and we had email pretty much from day one. I remember having AOL in late '98 and I remember a friend of mine had Prodigy in 8th grade. She was SOOOO techie.

I didn't get into IM until late in college and I was totally a cyberstalker. My friends and I would also play the "who can come up with the most clever/absurd/amusing away message" and I can't believe I used to do that. It seems so juvenile now.

I remember typing commands into a green DOS screen or something as early as 6th grade (elementary school for me). My mom bought a Commodore 64 when I was in elementary school as well. I played some godzilla game and an olympics game on it.

I think recognizing the term IBM compatible makes one an Internet dinosaur. I betcha kids today wouldn't have a clue what that means. I think I'm (and most of us QLC'ers are) right on the cusp of that change from books and typewriters to internet research and Microsoft Word. I remember the old and the beginning of the new. That's kind of a neat perspective to have I guess.

[PenforPrez]

Does anybody remember the old Texas Instruments TI 99-4A computer you hooked up to the TV (sold '79 to '82, if I remember right)? I found an emulator of that online. I can play Parsec a quarter century after the fact. Sweet! :D

Paul

[Bocheezu]

Does anybody remember the old Texas Instruments TI 99-4A computer you hooked up to the TV (sold '79 to '82, if I remember right)? I found an emulator of that online. I can play Parsec a quarter century after the fact. Sweet! :D

I think I had one of these, if I'm thinking of the right TA system. The game cartridges slid in just to the right of the keyboard. I played the usual type games of the time -- Moon Patrol, Defender, some Samus game, and another game where you had to rescue people (not Choplifter). I also coded some Basic to play really bad computer music.

[pisces2473]

I've had a 10-digit number for as long as I can remember. ??? I'm surprised there are areas that still use 7-digit numbers. Maybe it's growing up in a large metro area like B-more--DC?
I remember when my great aunt who live in Catonsville told us that to call her son in Arbutus, she had to dial 10 digits. We were like WTF? This was more than 10 years ago, too!

I still can call most places in my county with just 7 digits. But two towns over? to this one specific town? I have to dial 10 digits, same area code as me. Weird.

[wordsmith]

Sadly, I still have dial-up. Can't get broadband out of town except for satellite DSL, which I'm not sold on.

This is why my parents have dialup, rural locale (well, that and the fact that they really don't care, and when my younger sister is no longer at home, they'll probably ditch internet access entirely, because they never so much as turn on a computer, let alone use the net). They have satellite TV, but satellite internet is laughably priced.

[LeslieAnne1979]

I've had to dial ten digits to call my next door neighbor for almost 10 years too. I remember when AOL first came out. I think I was 14? I didn't get a computer until I was 20. I'm glad I had access at school though.

[jrwilheim]

I looked it up, and I think the deal with 10-digit numbers is that they changed the way new area codes are created. It used to be that whenever a new area code was created, they just split an old area code in half geographically, and half would have the old area code and half the new area code. Nowadays, they do what's called an overlay, which means you can have multiple area codes for the same area (i.e., 212 and 646 for Manhattan, for instance). So that makes 10-digit-dialing a necessity.

Areas that have 7-digit dialing are areas that haven't had an "overlay".

[wordsmith]

Chicago has had overlay for a long time, with 312 and 773 both encompassing the city itself, with five other additional ones for suburbia.

[yankeeyosh]

I used (rather, my mom used) a typewriter in high school to write papers. Either that, or I wrote everything out. I got a computer in DEC 1995, although I actually did not set it up until a few months later. We did not have internet, although I was using it at my high school at that point. I actually had an e-mail address since 92, even though I knew no one who used it, so it was of no value. The first e-mail address that I used was in college. My family had a rotary phone until '83 (I actually remember the first one) and again from '90 to 96 (we lived in my grandparents' old house which did not have an upgraded line). My grandmother had a rotary phone until she passed away in 05.

I still contend that people my age and younger, in general, are the "first" group to "grow up" with the Internet, since based on who I know, most 28, 29 year olds out there were using the internet before graduating high school. Windows 95 came out right before my senior year, and the Internet blossomed in terms of public usage around that time. I remember reading an article a while back about someone from the Yale class of '97 who was amazed at the tech-savvy of the class of 2000 when he was a senior. However, I do see there is a "digital divide", especially among those from less affluent/rural environments.

[yankeeyosh]

We used telnet for email at FSU in 2002 - 2003...I'm guessing that's changed now though.

It was web-based when I was there (2003-2005).

[pisces2473]

Areas that have 7-digit dialing are areas that haven't had an "overlay".
Not necessarily. As I stated earlier, I have to dial 1-203 and then 7 digits to call a town two towns away in one direction. Any other direction, to call a town in the same distance, just the 7 digits.

In CT, when we went from 203 to both 203 and 860, they let New Haven and Fairfield Counties keep 203. The other 6 counties got switched to 860. I don't know why it happened like this...because Hartford County, where the capital is and all of the state departements are, had to change. That's a lot of agencies and staff that had to change numbers.

[asm198]

My parents weren't that interested in technology and it was hard to get them to do much. In high school, if I had to type a paper at home, I had to use a manual typewriter. We had a "computer" that had a word processing program, but only used the big floppies (5.5 or something?) and wasn't compatible with any program we had at school so I couldn't print anything. I only really used it to play solitare. I graduated high school in 98.

Our high school got the internet when I was a sophomore or junior (I think), but it was only on two computers in the library and it was on dedicated dialup lines. I think we got hooked up better and on more computers my senior year, but access was restricted for students.

My mom got a "cell phone" when I was about 14, in 94. It was one of those bag phones for use in a car and was massive and annoying. She used that thing until about 2000, when I told her it was incredibly annoying to be seen with her using it.

We didn't get a microwave or vcr until 93. The vcr we bought came with a movie and I wasn't allowed to buy any other movies and it took me about 4 months to convince them to let me rent movies and even then, I was only allowed to rent one movie at a time about once every couple of weeks.

We had two tvs in our house growing up. One in the living room and I had a tiny, black and white tv in my room. The black and white one was a gift when I turned 13.

When I went to college, I moved into an apartment with my boyfriend (now husband). His dad build computers for fun, so we had a computer in our house. The school I went to had it set up so that students that didn't live on campus could still dial into the internet from their homes. You would bring a floppy to any computer lab and they would download the program for you to install, along with the number to call. It was free, as long as you were calling from a local number. So, that's how I got online until 2001.

I didn't get cable until I got to college in 98 and I didn't get a cell phone until 2003. I still got online with dialup until 2004.

I think it's kinda funny how much has changed for me electronically since I was a kid. Now, we have two computers that are networked together and a laptop. We have cable and cable internet, as well as a wireless signal. We don't have a landline and have more tvs, vcrs, and dvd players than people who live here.

[jrwilheim]

My parents tell me about getting their first VCR and Microwave, in about 1984. They had moved into a new house and my grandmother wanted to give something as a housewarming gift, so she gave them the money to get those items. They cost a combined $1000 (now I think you could get a reasonable DVD player and Microwave for $150 or so), and I think they bought about the chepest on the market.

The microwave was so large it required a cart to sit on. They had that microwave for over 20 years, until they bought a new house that had a microwave installed above the stove. The VCR, I remember, was from GE and had strange controls. For instance, there was no way to move the channel up and down. You had to pass through every single channel to get to the one you wanted if the setup was on VCR mode.

When I started Kindergarten, I came home from my first day, and there were construction-paper footprints leading from our front door to the VCR. My parents had bought a copy of Walt Disney's Pinocchio to celebrate the occasion. They told me years later that they had had to beg the owner of the local video rental place to sell it to them--you essentially couldn't buy VCR tapes at that point, only rent them. And they paid $80 for it!

I kind of laugh thinking about that sometimes as I open up my Netflix envelope or watch a video on download from Netflix's "Watch It Now" program. I thought of it last summer when I bought a DVD copy of French Kiss for $7 in a bargain bin.

[wordsmith]

My parents' first microwave was bigger than my TV.

[jrwilheim]

I remember visiting my aunt and uncle in Chicago when I was about 8 or 9. They were very high-powered Yuppie types who spent way beyond their means, and I remember they both had car phones.

One night, we had just come out of a restaurant, and I guess my aunt and uncle realized they hadn't coordianted plans for the rest of the evening. Well, I remember their cars pulling up next to each other in the parking lot, and instead of rolling down the windows and talking to each other, they called each other on their car phones. My parents thought this was a sign of what total Yuppies they were.

I remember that, about 1996 or 1997, a student came to our school who was the daughter of a big Hollywood producer, and she had her own cell phone. Everybody thought that was really pretentious--the idea of a 16-year-old girl having her own cell phone. Hard to believe we're now living in a world where teenagers spend all their time texting each other.

[WorkInProgress]

We never had a microwave until I was in late middle school.

But, I don't remember a time we didn't have a VCR. We didn't get on the DVD thing until it started getting difficult to find videotapes, at some point when I was in college.

They first DVD we ever watched was the Matrix, and it was on the PC.

[wordsmith]

We were late to get a microwave, late to get a VCR, my parents were late to get a DVD player (dad still has no interest in learning how to use it), and late to get a PC/dial-up internet. Technology holds truly no priority importance in the household I grew up in. Most of what they got, they got because somebody else decided they needed it and gave ti to them, they'd never have gotten it on their own.

[yankeeyosh]

Some other things...

We had cable in the early Eighties. There were only 30 channels, and you changed stations on an analog box, but we did have cable.

I always remember having a TV with a remote, but we watched on a B/W TV in the kitchen until the early Nineties.

We got a microwave in 83 when we moved and a VCR in 89 from my grandparents.

I distinctly remember the time when N. Y. C. split two area codes....the summer of 85. I was visiting my grandparents, and I remember seeing stickers all over the place noting the change.

[wordsmith]

We had a rotor antenna on the roof, with a little dial box you turned from inside the house to change the direction of the signal interception!

But that was because we lived on a farm. No cable possible out there, until cable stations by satellite became available. So it was just network.

Also, our first TV, which we probably had from my birth up until I was in high school, had no remote, because it had a dial you flipped by hand to change the channel. Zenith brand, I think.

[WorkInProgress]

Also, our first TV, which we probably had from my birth up until I was in high school, had no remote, because it had a dial you flipped by hand to change the channel. Zenith brand, I think.

Our first tv, we had from as far back as I can remember (probably bought when I was about 2) through 7th grade (I think) before it died. No remote. No dial, but a toggle switch.

[wordsmith]

Our first tv, we had from as far back as I can remember (probably bought when I was about 2) through 7th grade (I think) before it died. No remote. No dial, but a toggle switch.

Ours was a lot like this, but bigger:

TV set (http://www.directopedia.org/onTEAM/wiki/img/5/210px-Early_portable_tv.jpg)

[meatwad]

Our first VCR had toggle switches if you wanted to program the timer. That was pretty funny. The thing was pretty huge too and was a toploader, so you couldn't put anything on top of it.

I worked at a video store just at the VHS industry was changing from rentals to home library. Movies cost anywhere (at our chain discount) from $60 - $99 except for Disney movies which could cost up to $125 PER COPY. Little Mermaid was on moratorium and because of the "Golden Tower" issue on the box art, it was going for $400 a copy. So one of the things we had to do when we made the rounds to re-shelve the rentals was check on the children's section an make sure nobody had stolen it because we were one of only three stores in the county that had a copy. lol.

[wordsmith]

I'm pretty sure our high school theatre teacher taped all our plays on Betamax.

[meatwad]

I'm pretty sure our high school theatre teacher taped all our plays on Betamax.

My uncle still has a betamax player with some movies.

[steph78]

Ahh, betamax. I remember when our local video rental place carried both VHS and Beta. (usually just one copy of each). It was always such a downer to spot the movie you wanted to rent and then when you got closer you'd see that only the Beta copy was sitting there on the shelf - the VHS copy was out.

I also distinctly remember playing Oregon Trail off a 5 1/4" floppy disk in one of the two computers in my elementary school's library. Oh, and not in color, either - it was monochrome monitors all the way (green). When you think back to that and then look at today's x-box/playstation games it's a little mind-boggling.

[jrwilheim]

Ahh, betamax. I remember when our local video rental place carried both VHS and Beta. (usually just one copy of each). It was always such a downer to spot the movie you wanted to rent and then when you got closer you'd see that only the Beta copy was sitting there on the shelf - the VHS copy was out.

I also distinctly remember playing Oregon Trail off a 5 1/4" floppy disk in one of the two computers in my elementary school's library. Oh, and not in color, either - it was monochrome monitors all the way (green). When you think back to that and then look at today's x-box/playstation games it's a little mind-boggling.

Yeah. I remember doing school computer lab stuff on Apple IIs as late as 1993-1994. For a while, a middle school I went to had an "Apple lab" and a "Mac" lab--the Mac labs being (relatively) recent Macs, the Apple lab being Apple IIs. I remember playing Oregon Trail on the Apple II, and then, one time, playing it while I was visiting my cousins on their Mac. The difference in visual quality was stunning (though not up to today's standards).

[wordsmith]

My best friend in high school had an Apple II, we used to go to her house and make locker signs for different school events on it all the time. That would have been 1991-1995. I remember it being a fairly average computer at that point. Nothing fancy, but nothing obsolete for the time, either. Most of our teachers had the same ones at their desks to record grades.

[pisces2473]

Ahhhh Oregon Trail! We played that all of the time! I loved the "Jen has dysentary" stuff....then 5 mins later: "Jen dies." LOL On a big floppy, too.

My parents STILL have their first microwave, circa 1990.

[grneyedmustang]

We had Oregon Trail "time" on Friday afternoon, right before it was time to go home. There was another game we played also where you put in coordinates and tried to shoot a spaceship or something on the other side of the screen.

Ahhh, good times.

And our TV at home looked like this, with no remote and 36 analog cable channels on only one tv...

http://www.tvhistory.tv/1976%20Magnavox%20TV.JPG/

A friend and I were having a discussion the other day about what did we do before people had call waiting and caller ID? I remember not having either...just a basic phone line. No answering machine either.

[meatwad]

We had Oregon Trail "time" on Friday afternoon, right before it was time to go home. There was another game we played also where you put in coordinates and tried to shoot a spaceship or something on the other side of the screen.

Ahhh, good times.

And our TV at home looked like this, with no remote and 36 analog cable channels on only one tv...

http://www.tvhistory.tv/1976%20Magnavox%20TV.JPG/

A friend and I were having a discussion the other day about what did we do before people had call waiting and caller ID? I remember not having either...just a basic phone line. No answering machine either.

I think we had that exact TV. And instead of a remote control, the cable company provided a box with switches on it that had a 30 ft. cable on it, and you would push the first switch up for channel 2 or down for channel 20, then the second one would be up for channel 3 or down for channel 21 all the way to the end where it was up for channel 19 and down for channel 37. But some of the channels were just snow unless you had HBO or Cinemax.

[wordsmith]

I STILL just have a basic phone line...no caller ID, didn't bother with call waiting until it came bundled in a reasonable package deal, either. I did get an answering machine, but then later, the voicemail that came with the abovementioned bundle deal made it redundant.

[jrwilheim]

I STILL just have a basic phone line...no caller ID, didn't bother with call waiting until it came bundled in a reasonable package deal, either. I did get an answering machine, but then later, the voicemail that came with the abovementioned bundle deal made it redundant.

I get my home phone service through the local cable company (Cablevision). I didn't bother getting caller ID, though voicemail comes with basic service.

[yankeeyosh]

I think we had that exact TV. And instead of a remote control, the cable company provided a box with switches on it that had a 30 ft. cable on it, and you would push the first switch up for channel 2 or down for channel 20, then the second one would be up for channel 3 or down for channel 21 all the way to the end where it was up for channel 19 and down for channel 37. But some of the channels were just snow unless you had HBO or Cinemax.

Ours was similar, but I believe it was a Zenith. The cable box you described is similar to the one we had from 81-83 (and my grandparents, who lived in the same building as us, had for several years after).

[wordsmith]

We never had a console TV...console TVs were for the rich folks :D ...or probably just people who were more into TV than we were. I know my parents spent their pre-kid marriage with a tiny, portable black and white set...We kids inherited it later, for our play room, but it didn't really work, because it wasn't hooked up to the rotor/antenna, just had rabbit ears.

I remember seeing cable boxes at other people's houses, but obv. we didn't have one out in the country.

[jrwilheim]

We never had a console TV...console TVs were for the rich folks :D ...or probably just people who were more into TV than we were. I know my parents spent their pre-kid marriage with a tiny, portable black and white set...We kids inherited it later, for our play room, but it didn't really work, because it wasn't hooked up to the rotor/antenna, just had rabbit ears.

I remember seeing cable boxes at other people's houses, but obv. we didn't have one out in the country.

My parents' first TV, which I barely remember, was a "portable" color set, circa 1975. I say "portable", in quotes, because the only sense in which it was portable was that it was on a set of wheels. When they moved at one point, they left it in the closet of our old house (it having long since been supplanted as our main TV set), because my father really did not want to move it down a flight of narrow stairs.

I vaguely remember my grandparents having a console TV when I was little. I think they were still popular in the '70s. Kind of wonder what happened to them.

[The Happy Hodag]

Ah, some of the memories this thread brings up. I remember growing up with only three area codes in Wisconsin until 1997, when 414 split and we were assigned the 920 area code. Roughly two years later, the smaller, more condensed version of 414 split again and the new area code is 262. So now 414 is exclusively Milwaukee County. Now they're talking about splitting 920 again in two years. Oh the joys of living in Eastern Wisconsin along the shores of Lake Michigan. . .:rolleyes:

As far as 10 digit dialing goes, I never really used it except for dialing to another area code. That was until I got a cell phone a little over two years ago, and I always use 10 digit dialing just to make sure I dial the right person even when I'm away from home. Besides, when I'm roaming, they tell me I always have to dial an area code anyway.

For all your area code info, go here (http://www.nanpa.com).

-The Happy Hodag!

[jrwilheim]

Ah, some of the memories this thread brings up. I remember growing up with only three area codes in Wisconsin until 1997, when 414 split and we were assigned the 920 area code. Roughly two years later, the smaller, more condensed version of 414 split again and the new area code is 262. So now 414 is exclusively Milwaukee County. Now they're talking about splitting 920 again in two years. Oh the joys of living in Eastern Wisconsin along the shores of Lake Michigan. . .:rolleyes:

As far as 10 digit dialing goes, I never really used it except for dialing to another area code. That was until I got a cell phone a little over two years ago, and I always use 10 digit dialing just to make sure I dial the right person even when I'm away from home. Besides, when I'm roaming, they tell me I always have to dial an area code anyway.

For all your area code info, go here (http://www.nanpa.com).

-The Happy Hodag!

I remember how controversial it was when New Jersey, which had always been one area code, got split into three.

[pisces2473]

What's a console TV? The ones that look like furniture, haha? My grandparents had one of those bad boys for YEARS. But my parents? did not.

Meat and Yankee, we had those boxes with the buttons and switches to change channels. I can still remember the sound it made.

[mahlerssecond]

We had one of them console TVs until the late 80s. Big honker. I also remember the cable box with the dial. It seemed like we had only 25-30 channels on our cable system at that time. We had no remote, had to get up and change it by hand.

[jrwilheim]

What's a console TV? The ones that look like furniture, haha? My grandparents had one of those bad boys for YEARS. But my parents? did not.

Meat and Yankee, we had those boxes with the buttons and switches to change channels. I can still remember the sound it made.

Yeah...basically old fashioned TV sets encased in wood, meant to look like a piece of furniture.

Here's a picture of one I found on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Zenith-B27A74R-27-Traditional-Console/dp/B000068U2W

[The Happy Hodag]

I remember how controversial it was when New Jersey, which had always been one area code, got split into three.

I think there may be more than that there now. The original was 201. Looking at the map, there are now nine.

Here's a map of the original layout of area codes from 60 years ago. (http://www.lincmad.com/map1947.html) You'll be pleasantly suprised at what you find here.

-The Happy Hodag!

[jrwilheim]

I think there may be more than that there now. The original was 201. Looking at the map, there are now nine.

Here's a map of the original layout of area codes from 60 years ago. (http://www.lincmad.com/map1947.html) You'll be pleasantly suprised at what you find here.

-The Happy Hodag!

Yeah...I remember when our area code changed from 201 to 908. My parents still haven't adjusted to the existence of area codes that don't have a 1 or 0 as their middle number. I gave them my landline number, which is in area code 347 (the new area code for the Outer Boroughs in New York), and they didn't think it was a real number at first.

[EmberMae]

I think there may be more than that there now. The original was 201. Looking at the map, there are now nine.

Here's a map of the original layout of area codes from 60 years ago. (http://www.lincmad.com/map1947.html) You'll be pleasantly suprised at what you find here.

-The Happy Hodag!
What I find fascinating about this is Ohio has 4 area codes and California only has 3. And Kansas has 2 wheras Florida and Virginia only have 1. Demographics must have been much different back then.

My own area code story...when we moved to Texas our area code was 214. That lasted about 3 years, then they gave 214 to central Dallas only and the surrounding area got 972. Just a few years after they made us change our phone number, they decided to just use overlay & 10 digit dialing, which they should have done in the first place, imo. Made it much easier than constantly having your phone number change.

[pisces2473]

What I find fascinating about this is Ohio has 4 area codes and California only has 3. And Kansas has 2 wheras Florida and Virginia only have 1. Demographics must have been much different back then.
Huh? CA has more than three. How far back are you looking?

[EmberMae]

I was referring to the area code map he linked from the 1940s.

[The Happy Hodag]

Huh? CA has more than three. How far back are you looking?

Yup. See post #76 at the top of this page. It has a link to a very interesting map from 1947 with the original layout for area codes.

-The Happy Hodag!

[coll214]

ha, my father to this day still has a ridiculous console TV. Works for crap too, bought about twenty years ago. :rolleyes:. I remember when we got cable out in the boonies, i was about 12... and still loooove Oregon Trail :). You can buy it wicked cheap now in all it's corny glory.

[wordsmith]

My area code is still the same it would have been in 1947.

[pisces2473]

I was referring to the area code map he linked from the 1940s.
Ohhh my bad, I skipped right over that post. I bet it had to do with population, why CA had less than OH back in the 40s.

My area code hasn't changed from the beginning.

[yankeeyosh]

Keep this in mind...until the mid-Nineties...there was not a SINGLE area code in the US in which the middle number was NOT zero or one.

[pisces2473]

Keep this in mind...until the mid-Nineties...there was not a SINGLE area code in the US in which the middle number was NOT zero or one.
Yep, the website says that.

[The Happy Hodag]

A little bit of area code trivia: The last area code to be assigned with a 1 or a 0 as the middle digit was 610 in Pennsylvania in 1995.

-The Happy Hodag!

[yankeeyosh]

A little bit of area code trivia: The last area code to be assigned with a 1 or a 0 as the middle digit was 610 in Pennsylvania in 1995.

-The Happy Hodag!

Seems like everything changed in '95...if that wasn't a turning point year, I don't know what was.

[pisces2473]

Seems like everything changed in '95...if that wasn't a turning point year, I don't know what was.
What was the first area code to be assigned w/out 0 or 1?

[yankeeyosh]

What was the first area code to be assigned w/out 0 or 1?

Per Wikipedia, 334 in Ala. and 360 in Wash. in JAN 95. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Numbering_Plan

[and1grad]

Seems like everything changed in '95...if that wasn't a turning point year, I don't know what was.
Incidentally, 95 was my FAVORITE year. That was my "Parker Lewis" year. I couldnt lose.

[wordsmith]

'95 was teh suck for me, personally. Freshman year of college, battling crippling anxiety issues, homesickness, stuck in a bad housing situation...not a good time for yours, truly. 2005 might have been my worst year of human existence, thus far...maybe we're going in ten year increments.

[WorkInProgress]

'95 was teh suck for me, personally. Freshman year of college, battling crippling anxiety issues, homesickness, stuck in a bad housing situation...not a good time for yours, truly. 2005 might have been my worst year of human existence, thus far...maybe we're going in ten year increments.

Hey! That was a suck year for me too. (Well, the first half of it, plus the last half of 94.) But I was dealing with middle school bs.

[Bocheezu]

Hey! That was a suck year for me too. (Well, the first half of it, plus the last half of 94.) But I was dealing with middle school bs.

I feel like I just went up 10 notches on the old geezer-o-meter.

[PenforPrez]

Hey! That was a suck year for me too. (Well, the first half of it, plus the last half of 94.) But I was dealing with middle school bs.

Me too.

[mahlerssecond]

That year (95) sucked for me too. It was my senior year of high school and got a case of err, senioritis. One of those parts of my life I would love to live over. :0

[The Happy Hodag]

Ah, '95 was when I went from being an awkward middle school kid to an, uh, awkward high school kid. I thinkk I've pretty much blocked that year from my memory.

Anyone else care to talk area codes again? Atlanta was the first place to require 10 digit dialing way back in 1995, to coincide with the 1996 Olympic Games.

Atlanta was used as the test case because at the time, it enjoyed the world's largest fiber optic bundle (equal to five times that of New York's), it was a big enough city without being too big, and it is home to BellSouth, the Southeastern Regional Bell Operating Company.

Talk amongst yourselves.

-The Happy Hodag!

[grneyedmustang]

Ah, '95 was when I went from being an awkward middle school kid to an, uh, awkward high school kid. I thinkk I've pretty much blocked that year from my memory.

Anyone else care to talk area codes again? Atlanta was the first place to require 10 digit dialing way back in 1995, to coincide with the 1996 Olympic Games.



Talk amongst yourselves.

-The Happy Hodag!
I remember when we switched over, it was complete chaos. It took a LONG time to get used to ten digit dialing. Now, it's weird when I go to other places and they're still on seven digits. It's hard to believe we've been on ten digit dialing for 12 years now...wow.

[pisces2473]

I think 1995 was the start of freshman year of HS. Or maybe sophomore year. I don't remember anymore.

[wordsmith]

It's easy for me to remember because I graduated from HS in 1995.

[pisces2473]

It's easy for me to remember because I graduated from HS in 1995.
Okay, then 1995 was the 2nd half of freshman year and the 1st half of sophomore year. With summer in the middle, obviously.

[Mollygurl]

It's weird to me that people still think of phone numbers as 7 digits, since mine has been 10 since I think middle school.

My parents had an 800 number that I used to call them for the first two years at school. They gave me a cell phone after that b/c it was cheaper than the 800 number.

And nobody on my campus was on Facebook or Myspace when I was there. AIM all the way.


Haha-- I know..mine has been 10 since forever too.