Posted on 12/09/2025 10:34:36 AM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
Age quiz time! Give yourself one point for each thing you've NEVER done. Lowest score wins.
“teletype”
More than offset it! I think you’re in negative point territory.
I used TELEX a lot when I was traveling internationally in the early and mid 70s.
I currently own 2 sets of encyclopedias, the most modern one is the 1903 Americana set, while some of the info is outdated, it has a lot of information that isn’t in the more recent sets.
A proud booming 0.
“ Age quiz time! Give yourself one point for each thing you’ve NEVER done. Lowest score wins.”
Highest score would mean youngest.
I got zero. I’ve done them all.
But older people than me would also get points.
I am surprised that there was not a question about doing computer programs using punch cards. If you dropped your stack of cards it was a disaster.
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1 point, never owned an encyclopedia.
Got married in ‘83, kids started in ‘86.
I saw lots of boomboxes at parks and they annoyed the hell out of me. Where’d all the peace and quiet we used to enjoy go! I was an old fart before my time.
I remember the “Boombox Wars” where people would vie to have the biggest, baddest boombox up on their shoulders. I thought that was the most stupid thing I’d ever seen.
I got one and half. Did how own but had access to an encyclopedia, so gave myself half a point. Never used or owned or listened to a boombox. 1 and half total.
I still write checks and use paper maps. Trying to get my Technics SL 1900 repaired so using an inferior vinyl player for listening to my records.
“Microfilm/fish”
LOL...”fiche” — looks like autocorrect at work!
I forgot about “fiche”. It was so hard to retrieve information in those days (and actually not that long ago).
Not boomboxes, they were “ghetto blasters”.
“Christmas toys were simple then...”
And SO much more fun!
He must have had the very first sequential turn signal lights!
Our house just had 2 bedrooms upstairs. Teeny tiny. But it had 3/4 of an acre. So when the opportunity came to add to the house, we put in a foundation bigger than our original house. People STILL think there are two houses here instead of one. I love it as intensely as I did when the realtor brought me here at first.
I just lost my brother a couple weeks ago, but the day he died I was able to find the letters he wrote me in the 50’s when he left for the air force, and his air force patch, and the family photographs of him to put up on my website. The memories keep him alive so that makes the packratting all worth while.
0
I got one point - no boombox.
Had and used -
Computer that you loaded with front panel switches - Altair 8800
8”floppies, hard and soft sectored.
Watchman TV - pocket-sized tv made by Sony, have a few, rigged a transmitter for them. all transistor except for the picture tube.
open reel tape recorders.
bit-slice computer. AMD2901 processors.
teletypes, including a few that ran at 75 baud. Impressive to watch those things fly.
50-baud data links, audio and hard-wired.
tube televisions and radios - All-American Five anybody?
Party-line phone.
You know, I don’t remember that. I was only 12 when he bought the Cougar and he didn’t keep it all that long, so I never drove the thing.
.
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