Shit that reminds you that you’re getting old - Re: Fwd: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Fwd: Damn young’uns

[Cedric_Eff]

When I started 7th grade there was still a designated smoking area for students and no minimum age for buying tobacco products, buying beer wasn't a problem either. I could probably have bought booze if I presented a note from my dad.

Another thing that makes young people go "what? no.":

(this is a post about a change in politics)

Spoiler: longish

There used to be a chain of stores called Domus. They sold groceries, clothes, records, home appliances, electronics, bicycles and so on. Everything you as a regular citizen could be found at Domus and that was intentional. It was part of the Co-Operative Alliance(Coop), an ideologically driven member-owned business that was close to LO, the national union. LO was a a Social Democratic organization so they were tight with the party and the party was the government.

After ww2 there was a huge restructuring and many things were planned out and built by the government. They had a vision for a new society and the blueprint to make it happen. Domus and Konsum(another Coop brand) was part of that, every city and town would have one and it would be in the center of that city or town. So sayeth the government.

View attachment 1223314
Looking at that picture there's an old Haussmann style building to the left, another one is peeking out on the right and in the middle of this photo from the 60's is a building that was built in the 60's with the Cooperative flag waving at the top. Whatever was at a good spot in the center got torn down and replaced by an almost ctrl-c, ctrl-v design, often with parking on top. Things with historical value was lost and that didn't matter, this was more important.

to the point:
They tightly planned and controlled all of this, creating their own brands and products and controlled which products would be allowed to be sold in their stores - this was about shaping society.

At checkout they had the usual magazine rack with comic books on the lower half on the right, to the left of that were ladies gossip magazines, pop-sci magazines and magazines that were considered for everybody. On the top half there were men's magazines about sports, cars, industry etc. Those were usually placed above the comic books because they couldn't place the hardcore pornography there. The porn was above the lady mags, nothing covering the covers and those ranged from explicit to very explicit.

Spoiler: censored and NSFW

It was difficult finding one of the more explicit covers.
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I didn't expect that table cloth.

Domus/Konsum was a department store created and controlled by social democratic politics, meant to serve every need of a family, and they always stocked the shelves with porn. I don't know if anyone bought them, it's a weird place to be a coomer, but it was always there and out in the open.

This is too insane to happen today and the government being involved makes it even better. Younger people don't believe me because they can't imagine it being like that. Remember using rotary phones and the number had a lot of 8's and 7's? Hearing modem sounds? Being in type-writing class? Being 9 and seeing a frumpy 50 year old woman restocking the porn shelf at the department store?

That reminds me of those days when convenience stories here in Japan use to have unlabeled adult magazine areas.

 

[AbyssStarer]

• My favorite game came out in 2003
• The Jonas Brothers are utterly forgotten
• Liking Backstreet Boys in elementary school
• Remembering gaia online.
• When Twitter was brand new and people said "what's twitter?"
• When I was in high school kids still read fiction.
• Kids not knowing what the "pound" symbol is.
• I still remember how the plastic on VHS feels, recently I saw a VHS case at the library repurposed to hold audiobook CDs.

 

[Bagronkleton]

I tried to explain what a boot disk was. It was an exercise in futility.

• Kids not knowing what the "pound" symbol is..

Jesus christ on a cracker this one. The change from calling it pound to hashtag damn near overnight was so bizarre. Even people I grew up with who never once said the word started to use it out of the blue like it was part of their everyday vocabulary.

 

[TiggerNits]

My wife is 11 years younger than I am. We have toddlers. I was 37 when the first was born.

Everything reminds me how old I am

 

[TiggerNits]

• 
  
• The Jonas Brothers are utterly forgotten

They have a current top 10 hit, dude

https://youtu.be/_CrA82WpCHM

 

[Mesh Gear Fox]

Remember using rotary phones and the number had a lot of 8's and 7's? Hearing modem sounds? Being in type-writing class?

Yes to all of these. We didn't even have computers in classrooms, just in the computer lab. I didn't get an internet connection until I was a teenager. We actually had to play outside back in those days.

 

[AnOminous]

I tried to explain what a boot disk was. It was an exercise in futility.

But those still exist. The fact that other people are still stupid doesn't make me feel old.

Yes to all of these. We didn't even have computers in classrooms, just in the computer lab. I didn't get an internet connection until I was a teenager. We actually had to play outside back in those days.

One of the games we did play outside was called Smear the Queer. You'd throw a football or any other kind of ball at someone and then beat the shit out of them after they caught it, or even more if they didn't, and they'd have to fight to keep it as long as they could, and then beat the shit out of whoever took it, and repeat this.

And you would fight to keep the ball or be the one who got the ball next.

And now, the fact that it was called Smear the Queer would be considered worse than the actual content of the game.

 

[Bagronkleton]

But those still exist. The fact that other people are still stupid doesn't make me feel old.

Oh it was in the context of ooold pc games and the clunky steps needed to get a game working. I probably should've clarified that. You're not wrong though!

On that note, Odell Lake anyone?

 

[KeepHopeAlive]

Pong is the only video game connected to a tv that I ever played. Being the only video game I ever played makes me the book nerd I was, that it was Pong makes me feel real old.

I'm female but my brother and I had matching Matchbox car suitcases to collect the cars. Loved that damn thing and those cars.

I remember typing class. We had to lie to my dad that I was taking it cuz he thought it was a waste of a class subject but my mom said she wasn't typing papers for the 4 of us kids. Thanks mom.

The pound sign was what we used to played tic-tac-toe.

My nieces call me a Boomer even though I'm Gen X. They're rotten kids, rotten I tell you!!

My husband's ringtone is the old rotary bell-ring cuz he's an old Boomer.

edited for spelling and to add that I hate spellcheck, it's often wrong!

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

One of the games we did play outside was called Smear the Queer. You'd throw a football or any other kind of ball at someone and then beat the shit out of them after they caught it, or even more if they didn't, and they'd have to fight to keep it as long as they could, and then beat the shit out of whoever took it, and repeat this.

And you would fight to keep the ball or be the one who got the ball next.

And now, the fact that it was called Smear the Queer would be considered worse than the actual content of the game.

We did that too and we had a similar game. An unsuspecting person was asked if they were the fag in the cage, if the response was no the instigator pointed at him and shouted "THE FAG IS LOOSE!". Everyone dropped what they were doing to dogpile the person who was now trying to escape. It was played in hallways, classrooms, everywhere. Participation was not voluntary. The only way to avoid it was to admit that you were the fag in the cage and take the verbal abuse instead. No one was ever safe. Except for the girls.

 

[Jason Wynn]

Never played Smear the Queer, but used to play a similar game as a kid in school we just called Wall Ball. A bunch of us would line up against the wall outside, with one person as "it" They would chuck the ball as hard as they could at one of us, usually aiming for the head. If we dodged, we still stayed, if we caught it, we were now "it" and the original person who was it got hit with the ball without being able to dodge or grab at it.

It was basically ghetto dodgeball. I'm surprised no one gave a shit we played it. You'd hear the parents today screeching from miles away if they found out little Kayden and Brayden were playing that.

 

[TiggerNits]

We did that as well, we also had a similar game. An unsuspecting person was asked if they were the fag in the cage, if the response was no the instigator pointed at him and shouted "THE FAG IS LOOSE!". Everyone dropped what they were to dogpile the person who was now trying to escape. It was played in hallways, classrooms, everywhere. Participation was not voluntary. The only way to avoid it was to admit that you were the fag in the cage and take the verbal abuse instead. No one was ever safe. Except for the girls.

I played a ton of smear the queer as a kid, but I have never heard of this. It sounds awesome.

Another thing that got me recently though

Toy guns. When I was a kid, that shit was everywhere. Dollar stores, Kmart (another thing that makes me old, I remember Kmart and Ames) the PX. Now, if you want to get your kid a toy gun, you're either getting them a pink thing made by Nerf or some shitty Chinese thing off Amazon

 

[Francis E. Dec Esc.]

Arena was released 26 years ago.
Daggerfall was released 24 years ago.
Morrowind was released 18 years ago.
Oblivion was released 14 years ago.
Skyrim was released 8 years ago.

 

[AnOminous]

We did that too and we had a similar game. An unsuspecting person was asked if they were the fag in the cage, if the response was no the instigator pointed at him and shouted "THE FAG IS LOOSE!". Everyone dropped what they were doing to dogpile the person who was now trying to escape. It was played in hallways, classrooms, everywhere. Participation was not voluntary. The only way to avoid it was to admit that you were the fag in the cage and take the verbal abuse instead. No one was ever safe. Except for the girls.

I should be horrified by this but it actually sounds fun. I'd never admit anything though. I'd just keep hitting everyone no matter how much pain was inflicted. Our version of this was called "Mercy" where they'd do this until you said "Mercy." I never said that.

 

[Pissmaster]

I tried to explain what a boot disk was. It was an exercise in futility.

Seems like it'd be easier than it used to be to explain what a boot disk is today - you've got M.2 SSD drives that tend to just hold the OS and not much else, with other software going on a secondary drive, much like how a boot disk just held DOS or whatever and all of your other software stays on other disks. The main difference being that you never remove the SSD when it's done booting.

Unless you were trying to explain a boot disk to someone who only uses mobile things. I could see someone not being able to imagine that their tablet is capable of just not having an operating system ready to go.

Jesus christ on a cracker this one. The change from calling it pound to hashtag damn near overnight was so bizarre. Even people I grew up with who never once said the word started to use it out of the blue like it was part of their everyday vocabulary.

Seriously. That's some fuel for some shifting universes Berenstain Bears conspiracies. I thought the usage of it was kind of dumb, with people just sort of using it as flavor text rather than for discussing topics, though I just woke up one day and it was inescapable.

On that note, Odell Lake anyone?

Going to the local retro game store a few months back and seeing a Gamecube among the older stuff like N64, SNES, PS1, etc. and thinking "this is a generation old, why is it here?"

Hell, even the Wii will be showing up there soon. I met a guy at work who told me about how one of his favorite childhood games was Guitar Hero 3 on the Wii.

 

[HOMO FOR LIFE]

Hentai I used to enjoy were all released in 2010.

That was 10 years ago.

Hentai I first watched was in 2002.

That was 18 years ago.

 

[Papa Adolfo's Take'n'Bake]

Spoiler: remembering this word for word

Spoiler: millenials click at their own risk

 

[Mr. Skeltal]

Yes to all of these. We didn't even have computers in classrooms, just in the computer lab. I didn't get an internet connection until I was a teenager. We actually had to play outside back in those days.

I remember the fancy new candy-colored iMac alongside the older and more drab Windows machines in the computer lab section of the school library. We were shown them for typing tutorials but not much else, most teachers at my old elementary school were recalcitrant old souls that just did everything by hand or by xerox.
My mother had a Packard Bell with Windows 98 when I was a tyke, though it was just to help her finish some professional requirements. Aside from that we didn't have wi-fi internet until the mid to late 2000's. I have many fond memories of my brother and I trying to beat the ever-loving Christ out of each other with sticks.

Hell, even the Wii will be showing up there soon. I met a guy at work who told me about how one of his favorite childhood games was Guitar Hero 3 on the Wii.

What's even stranger to me than a person nostalgic for Guitar Hero 3 is the fact that there will be kids nostalgic for Fortnite in the next decade or so. Hell, Minecraft's recent resurgence is due in large part to the little kids that got into it during Beta getting nostalgic and booting it up again. Minecraft is a 9 year old game, so a 10 year old playing it in 2011 is now old enough to vote.

As an aside, whenever I see old camcorder airshow footage from the 90's or 2000's I get intensely nostalgic, Grandpa used to take my brother and I to one every year when we were kids. The Thunderbirds were there almost every year. Seeing F-16's getting phased out of units and turned into QF-16's target drones shot down during live missile testing makes me feel old in a way.
The "modern fighter jet" will always be the F-16 in my brain.
Another aircraft related reminder is the F-117 Nighthawk. The "Stealth Fighter" was retired from service 12 years ago in 2008.

 

[Linako 2.0]

I'm used to being the runt of the litter and being called "boy" or "kid".
then suddendly a coworker was talking about me and referred to me as a "man". Then I realized most of my younger coworkers are 5 years younger than me.
I don't know how to feel.

 

[Syaoran Li]

There's a lot of things that made me realize I'm getting old.

Back in my day, the pink pills kept you from screaming. Now it's slang for incels deciding to become trannies. There's a lot more things that made me realize I'm old.

Spoiler: Long Winded Interminable Rant Ahead

My story begins in Nineteen Dickety-Three. Back then, we had to say dickety because Saddam Hussein had stolen our word ninety! I chased that rascal to get it back but stopped after dickety-six miles.

I remember when Obama promised to close Guantanamo Bay and build the Matlock Expressway.

Not many people know that I owned the first smartphone in Springfield. Wasn't many apps on back then. Just Steve Jobs reciting the alphabet over and over. "A" he said, then "B" and C would usually follow...Fun trick was to tell stories that don't go anywhere. Like the time I took the ferry down to Shelbyville.

I needed a new heel for my shoe, so I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on them. "Gimme five bees for a quarter" you'd say.

Now, where were we? Oh yeah...the important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, they didn't have white onions because of the war. Just the big yellow ones.

Back in those days, rich men would ride around in zeppelins dropping coins on people. And one day, I saw Bill Gates flying by, so I run out of the house with a big washtub. Anyway about my washtub, I just used it that morning to wash my turkey, which in those days was known as a walking bird.

We'd always have walking bird on Thanksgiving with all the trimmings. Cranberries, Injun Eyes, and yams stuffed with gunpowder. Then we'd all watch Sailor Moon, which in those days was called Cardcaptors....the next thing I heard, there was civil war in Spain!