What are some things you say that make you feel old?

[talkamotta]

I sound old when I think a young person should call an older person Mr or Mrs. My mom and dad would never let me call my friend's parents by their first names. Years down the road, I saw one of my friend's parents and they said I could call them by their first names but it felt weird.

 

[DavidnRobin]

Fear of quicksand...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[clifffaith]

Just thought "I need a new address book, this one is starting to split up the back". Next thought was "Oh no!! I wonder if they still make address books?!!" Mine is about 6" x 7", 6-ring binder style made by Hallmark and is likely 30-35 years old. About 12 years ago I was still able to buy new blank pages for it, but by now who knows! I'll start with my local Hallmark store because I like the format and get "set in my ways" (a sure sign of old age) and I hope to find an identical one.

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

I remember "core" memory. . . .

I have some in lucite around the house somewhere. . . .

 

[Passepartout]

Just thought "I need a new address book, this one is starting to split up the back". Next thought was "Oh no!! I wonder if they still make address books?!!" Mine is about 6" x 7", 6-ring binder style made by Hallmark and is likely 30-35 years old. About 12 years ago I was still able to buy new blank pages for it, but by now who knows! I'll start with my local Hallmark store because I like the format and get "set in my ways" (a sure sign of old age) and I hope to find an identical one.

You might also try an office supply store. (Staples, Office Max, etc.) Or just put the entries in your phone.

 

[dayooper]

When one of my students told me "My mom remembers you from when you taught her!"

 

[WVBaker]

Just thought "I need a new address book, this one is starting to split up the back". Next thought was "Oh no!! I wonder if they still make address books?!!" Mine is about 6" x 7", 6-ring binder style made by Hallmark and is likely 30-35 years old. About 12 years ago I was still able to buy new blank pages for it, but by now who knows! I'll start with my local Hallmark store because I like the format and get "set in my ways" (a sure sign of old age) and I hope to find an identical one.

We have one of the same and ours is held together with rubber bands as well. I guess a new one just wouldn't be the same.

 

[moonstone]

I have alot of problems with phones. My first cell phone was the size of a brick, now my kids ask why I havent upgraded my Samsung 5. BTW I am a bell head. One of my first projects was converting a x-bar office over to a dms. For those of you who dont know what Im talking about a x-bar you could hear all the relays when someone made a call and a dms was a digital office and alot quieter.

I know exactly what you are talking about as my 2nd position with Bell (Canada -Toronto) was in a X-bar exchange! I used to love to listen to the clickity-clicks of the relays. I also remember as Blues said when the area codes only had a 0 or 1 as the middle digit and telephone exchanges never did. My first job with Bell was in the central names and address department. We had fiches (who knows what that or a micro-fiche machine is?) with each exchange and every telephone number within the Bell Canada system. The customer's name and address was listed beside each telephone number with an * if it was an unlisted number. I even remember some of the exchange names and you could get a rough idea of where a person lived by their telephone exchange. As a child the first way I learned to say my home telephone number was Turner 4.... instead of 884...

I also used to use a telex or teletype machine before fax machines were invented and I'll bet a lot of people don't know what they are either.

A couple of years ago when our grandson was visiting he spotted a desk model dial phone in our basement (it's still connected and still works) and he asked what the heck is that? I think a lot of younger folk don't even know what a landline is, and definitely can't use a dial phone!


~Diane

 

[vacationhopeful]

I remember working in a computer room .. super cooled down with an elevated floor ... watching its CPU read, process paper cards info and then execute that instruction. Plus the programmer had to instruction the computer to PRINT the 133 characters in the print buffer for each line one the printout. It had NO operating system .. and it was an IBM 1401.

It seriously taught me there was NO magic inside of a computer ... LEARN about what you need the computer to do and communicate it to the tech staff. Made more money being an computer analyst who knew accounting (15 credit hours) over knowing programing languages.

And it taught my father to BUY IBM stock.

It taught my 2 sisters (6 and 10 years younger) to get BS degrees in Mechanical Engineering who went on to work at IBM, Compaq, HP. One sister became an officer of the corporation (Compaq & HP) after several years at IBM.

Still using my free HP laptop (gift from sister .. who is NOW working on year 5 of retirement).

 

[Icc5]

On another recent thread Talent mentions the game Freecell. I hadn’t heard that game in a long time and it got me thinking about things we say that dates us.

Now, I don’t consider myself old at all, in fact I feel like a newbie with this group, but AARP does keep mailing me solicitations. I have two boys 9 and 13 so I am butting heads with old school and new school.

Yesterday, I reminded my oldest son to tape a show. Afterwards, I thought to myself, “he probably doesn’t even know what “tape” even means”. I had to correct myself and ask him to please DVR/record the show.

What have you said in conversation that afterward you thought gave away your age?

Anything I say around my 2 kids makes me feel old. They are 29 and 34 and look at me like what the hell are you talking about. The same look I give them about things I don't know how to do on the computer or cell phone.

 

[WinniWoman]

"Email me". The young people only text. Emailing is so yesterday.

 

[WinniWoman]

Just thought "I need a new address book, this one is starting to split up the back". Next thought was "Oh no!! I wonder if they still make address books?!!" Mine is about 6" x 7", 6-ring binder style made by Hallmark and is likely 30-35 years old. About 12 years ago I was still able to buy new blank pages for it, but by now who knows! I'll start with my local Hallmark store because I like the format and get "set in my ways" (a sure sign of old age) and I hope to find an identical one.

OMG! Right! Mine is all cracked and everything! LOL! I also use a paper week at a glance calendar book! LOL!

Also- telephone books!

 

[Shankilicious]

When I run medical calls on senior citizens, we will generally say something like, "how are you young man/lady?" Usually gets a smile from them. This is how crazy fast things are moving with technology: 4-6th graders don't know what Myspace is and middle/high school kids are barely using facebook at all any more.
Newer phones can be locked or unlocked using facial recognition, retinal scans, or fingerprints. Everything is going wireless, I don't think my current phone has been plugged in to a charger but maybe 10 times in the past year and a half. Wireless charging all over the place lol

 

[DrQ]

But the real test - did you use the punches from the Hollerith cards and place them in the A/C of someone's car you wanted to get?
Christmas in July!

Don't tick off an engineer. We collected punches (chads) from 30 keypunch machines on campus for a couple of weeks. Took a portable air tank (about 5-8 gal) and made a venturi suction tube. We pushed open the wing window of an unpopular RA's car and used the setup to empty them in his car.

It was a science experiment, we got to see how COLD the tank got as it emptied.

 

[DrQ]

Dialing only 5 numbers on your phone to call a neighbor.

 

[DrQ]

I remember "core" memory. . . .

I have some in lucite around the house somewhere. . . .

I used a PDP11-05 with core and toggle switches for inputing the bootstrap program before you could reload the O/S with punch tape on a teletype terminal.

 

[Patri]

Dialing only 5 numbers on your phone to call a neighbor.

Yes! When it switched to 7 because the numbers were all taken, I was so mad.

 

[clifffaith]

You might also try an office supply store. (Staples, Office Max, etc.) Or just put the entries in your phone.

Went to eBay first (since I'm a seller there) before heading out the door to find a Hallmark store, and was very nervous because what little they had were spiral bound. But did eventually find one with a seashell pattern that was advertised as having blank pages but slightly shop worn cover. $5, done, and I think my excess blank pages will fit it too. Generally check to see what else a seller has "just in case", and found some kitty playing cards that fit inside a plastic kitty shaped box -- birthday for my sister taken care of too. I don't EVER see me sitting to write Christmas cards while looking up addresses on my phone! Guess that makes me a bona fide old person!

 

[isisdave]

Probably near the same time I saw a fine looking woman approaching, she with a smile, ready to strike up a conversation...and she starts it with ......."Sir...." and I aged 50 years in one second...

Although I'm pushing 70, I still feel 26 from the neck up, and can't understand why the cute 20-somethings in the mall look right through me like I'm not there. On the other hand, when I'm out without DW, the 80-year-old ladies smile at me.

 

[susieq]

But the real test - did you use the punches from the Hollerith cards and place them in the A/C of someone's car you wanted to get?
Christmas in July!

We did!! To friends at their wedding reception ~ confetti in the vents!! They were still finding it two years later!

 

[isisdave]

Yes! When it switched to 7 because the numbers were all taken, I was so mad.

I only saw that in Rutland VT as recently as 1970.

In college, a friend of mine was telling a story about calling his uncle in Quincy, CA. As usual, he got a long distance operator on the line, who told him he could dial it himself. He replied, "Are you sure? The number is Quincy 59"

Here's when I feel out of touch now: I see on Yahoo that Joe Shmo and Trulia Newcomer have broken up; I've never heard of either (not even to know that Joe is a centerfielder for the Yankees and Trulia has six Emmies for something or other), and obviously didn't know they were partnered or had four kids/dogs together.

 

[DaveNV]

“Get off my lawn!”


Just kidding. Well, maybe a little.

I work in IT at a busy hospital. About two weeks ago my younger coworker (the really, really smart guy who is about the age of my son) was caught in the middle of two projects, and needed help comparing the contents of two large online Excel data files. He needed codes entered on each line, as the determination was made of what needed to happen to the data. At a weekly team meeting, (seven of us who do the same kind of work), he asked if anyone had free time enough to do that. I raised my hand, and said I'd be happy to do it. I said, (and I promise I wasn't even thinking about it when I said it), "I'm pretty good at keypunching." Everybody in the room looked at me like I was nuts. "Oh, I meant 'data entry.'" They all had expressions of "Yeah, sure. How soon do you retire?"

They like me, so I didn't take it personally, but I was thinking they'll miss me when I'm gone. They all ask me, including the really, really smart guy, how to do things on their computers. Like, every day, one of them asks me how to do something. I don't mind. Somebody has to know this stuff, right?

Dave

 

[DaveNV]

Just thought "I need a new address book, this one is starting to split up the back". Next thought was "Oh no!! I wonder if they still make address books?!!" Mine is about 6" x 7", 6-ring binder style made by Hallmark and is likely 30-35 years old. About 12 years ago I was still able to buy new blank pages for it, but by now who knows! I'll start with my local Hallmark store because I like the format and get "set in my ways" (a sure sign of old age) and I hope to find an identical one.

A local discount department store here (think K-Mart, with better lighting) has them. So they're out there. And I'm sure you could find something suitable at Office Max, Staples, or Office Depot.

Dave

 

[isisdave]

DaveNW, there was a story on the news recently that a lot of government IT is still running on platforms from the 70s and 80s and is still written in Fortran or COBOL (probably with CICS). They've never invested any money in maintenance, and now the last people who know how to fix and update them are retiring.

This is REALLY a problem in California's DMV. There have been a number of attempts to update those systems over the last 30 years, and I don't believe any of them was ever finished.

 

[DrQ]

DaveNW, there was a story on the news recently that a lot of government IT is still running on platforms from the 70s and 80s and is still written in Fortran or COBOL (probably with CICS). They've never invested any money in maintenance, and now the last people who know how to fix and update them are retiring.

This is REALLY a problem in California's DMV. There have been a number of attempts to update those systems over the last 30 years, and I don't believe any of them was ever finished.

What is worse are some finite element analysis programs were written in FORTRAN and then were "optimized" by looking at the resulting assembly code after the source was compiled, and reducing steps in assembly language to make it run faster. Talk about a witches brew, works great until you have to change computers.

A dedicated programer can write a FORTRAN program in ANY language!