A few years back my grandson was helping me clean out the basement and came across a Walkman and had absolutely no idea what it was.
He was also incredulous that we used to carry something so unwieldy around to listen to music instead an IPod or MP3 - I guess he thought those had always been around.
Share you picture or anecdote about the generation gap
I think this one is a "generation gap twice over":
Its a 5 1/4" floppy disk.
Later an improved floppy was developed, the 3 1/2" floppy (which is the one in the cartoon, above).
5 1/4 floppies really were floppy-- data was stored on a very thin plastic circle inside of a cardboard protective covering. But it had to be handled with care as the cardboard didn't provide much protection (when writing on a label, you had to use a soft marker-- a pen or a pencil would damage the disk).
Here's a picture of both-- the smaller one (3 1/2") was an improvement because it took up less space, but more importantly because its protective cover was hard plastic:
I just found an interesting article about (& learned something new-- I hadn't known that the 5 1/4 floppy was preceded by an 8" floppy!):
A floppy disk, also called a diskette, is a disk storage medium composed of a disk of thin and flexible magnetic storage medium, sealed in a rectangular plastic carrier lined with fabric that removes dust particles. Floppy disks are read and written by a floppy disk drive (FDD).
Floppy disks, initially as 8-inch (200 mm) media and later in 5-inch (133 mm) and 3-inch (90 mm) sizes, were a ubiquitous form of data storage and exchange from the mid-1970s well into the 2000s.[1]
By 2010, computer motherboards were rarely manufactured with floppy drive support; 3-inch floppy disks can be used with an external USB floppy disk drive, but USB drives for 5-inch, 8-inch and non-standard diskettes are rare or non-existent, and those formats must usually be handled by old equipment.
While floppy disk drives still have some limited uses, especially with legacy industrial computer equipment, they have been superseded by data storage methods with much greater capacity, such as USB flash drives, portable external hard disk drives, optical discs, memory cards and computer networks.
I had a record collection: 33rpm. Would even teenagers know what they are?
True indeed.
But interestingly, some people are collectors of "vintage" objects-- and its recently become a fad (or "trend"?) for some people to collect old 33s. Some also have old record players that can play them. (I wonder if there sound quality is any good as most are probably really scratched).
Anyway Buzz-- if you collected 33s you're still pretty young (have you ever had 78s-- now those are really old! )
Yes, when I was quite young my parents had 78s. Songs included "Rum and Coca Cola, down on Point Kumana. Both mother and daughter working for the Yankee dollar." and "Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy. A kid'll eat ivy too, wouldn't you?"
By the time I started collecting my own records they were 33rpm. I think my first albums (which is what they were called) were classical, such as Beethoven's Piano Concerto #5 played by Sviatoslav Richter and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.
Yep. At one time or another, I used them all. I've got to clean out my home office, I still have several shoe boxes full of the smaller floppies!
Matthew and I were talking about this generation gap thing just last night. I'm old enough to be the band parent's parent. John and I are the only band parents who watched the moon landing on TV-- live. I also remember, very well, Sputnik. Even my husband doesn't remember Sputnik... We went out in the back yard to see if we could spot it, and did! We had a short-wave radio, and we could here it beep as it flew over! What fun!
I still have all of Uncle Louie's 78's, AND a record player to play them... Uncle Louie was fond of Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, and the Hoosier Hot Shots!
My son is constantly startling me with all this stuff that I have no idea about. By that same token, he knows about a lot of things that 99% of his peers have no idea about. We have a hand cranked phone, that actually works. We have the Capehart, which sounds like liquid sound-- and it's not stereo... We have antique salt and pepper shakers shaped like the original refrigerator, with the motor on the top. We have quite the record collection-- of 78's, 33 1/3's, and 45's-- and can play them on our antique record player. We have the old band instruments that still play, and sound great, from the early 1900s. We have Uncle Louie's gas mask, from WWI. We've got lots of things that we use, every day, that have been in use for about 100 years, or more.
The predecessor of the floppy's. A deck of these cards contained the program or data used by the mainframe computer in the next room, the entire room. It was important to use multiple rubber bands, if dropped and they broke, it could take a long time to sort them again.
Yep. At one time or another, I used them all. I've got to clean out my home office, I still have several shoe boxes full of the smaller floppies!
Did you ever use an 8" floppy-- I've never seen one of those.
But I have used the 5 1/2" ones. Someone I knew had an Apple IIe-- she let me use it. As I remember, it had no internal hardrive or operating system. We used two external 5 1/2" disk drives-- a floppy with the operating system went into one, and a floppy with the programme you wanted to use went into the other!
Yes, but it wasn't my computer, it was a friend's computer. My first computer, purchased in 1983, was a TRS-80. Trash-80, we called them... See? It looks like a dinosaur, and cost $1800-- the same as my car! I took out a second mortgage on my house to buy it.
I actually have a couple of the amplifiers that are designed to play them, with an adapter for cassette tapes. My dad liked to trade for stuff that other people had no real use for. As a result, not only do I have the amps, but also so many nuts, bolts and washers that I haven't had to buy any since 1995. Anybody need a 6" lag bolt?? I've got about a dozen of them in a file drawer.
A man after my own heart. I have boxes of extra tubes for the Zenith TV we had in 1958... Too bad they don't fit the Capehart! Maybe someday... Grandpa used to go the junk yard and buy a coffee can of nails for $.25, then would spend many a happy hour sorting them while sitting on the back porch. I have a can of his nails-- all rusty now, but someday, I'm going to plant iris again, and will put the nails in with them-- it turns them darker blue!
Ugh, not this kind, I'm sure! You have to be careful with the hose part-- it is fabric woven over rubber, and has sort of dry rotted... We also have a WWI German helmet that has been crushed-- but that is how Uncle Louie found it.
Would the kids today make a scooter out of a wood orange crate, a 2X4 for a base with half a roller skate attached at each end and a wooden stick on top for a handle? I did.
I don't know - as far as bad drivers go it is a toss up for me between the very young and the very old. I tend to avoid both when I encounter them on the road
My grandson was amazed by the slide rule (one lies on my desk near the lamp) and actually took the time to learn to use it a bit because it was neat - but finally decided it was too much work and too slow.
The records we have are "big band" and "gospel" but just looking at the thing evokes fond memories of simpler times ad Great grandmother's simple down home cooking and baking and brings smiles and laughter to the whole family.
She's been gone over 50 years but the memories are still strong.
No apocalypse, but every conversation does not have to ideological, philosophic, partisan or confrontational.
Sometimes just a funny and interesting anecdote is all that is required.
No crapola of any kind need be presented.
Dig deep you must have a funny thought about the generation gap - not why it exists or who caused it or what must be done to overcome it, but simply something amusing
We still have a set of rabbit ears for our camper's TV. With tinfoil wadded up on the ends. Sometimes, when we're traveling, that's all that works. Of course, not on the TV any more! Now, we use them on the old boom box, to help us pick up radio stations.
My father headed up the first IBM installation for The U.S. Army Signal Corps in Germany. In those days, a computer was known as an "electronic brain" and took up entire, huge rooms.
I remember those days - we would start a report compiling at the end of the day and it would be ready when we came in the next day and the size of the computer while not as big as you describe was as big as a couple of refrigerators.
I have a whole box of 12" floppys. The disk drive was the size of a coffee table and was on wheels.
I got it from a uranium mill I worked at... they were never allowed to let anything leave the grounds because of contamination concerns (obviously I dont listen to rules very well).
The computer it belonged to was installed in a closet sized room that was the entire computer.
Would the kids today make a scooter out of a wood orange crate, a 2X4 for a base with half a roller skate attached at each end and a wooden stick on top for a handle? I did
I wonder if today's kids are less creative,-- because they don't have to make toys. Electronic games are accesible to even relatively poor families. (And IMO the schools often don't encourage learning or creativity because of greatly lowered standards & "social promotion").
Of course, OTOH, the computer age has some other benefits. Every year Forbes publishes lists of the wealthiest people. In the past most of them (at least the ones who didn't inherit their wealth) were fairly old-- it took a greater part of a lifetime to accumulate their fortunes. But now, because of technology, many of them achieved their millions early on-- even in their 30s.
If you met the right person in the lab, you could learn how to hunt Klingon's with that teletype. That was the beginning of the end of the rain forest. Reams and reams of paper would come out of that teletype.
I had been thinking of buying one to put on my desk. You can still buy the original ones or good reproductions. Someone told me not to buy an original-- the handset is extremely unwieldy as its really heavy. (BTW I don't think the one pictured is a really old one as it has that rubber encased coiled cord which came after the original cord which was fabric covered & didn't coil).
They also have some refurbished ones with small buttons in the center of the dial for touch tone. (I wonder if anyone has yet thought of the idea of taking the old body and making it wireless--lol).
I have not had a cell phone since I retired in 2010, some family and friends find that quite odd.
I tell them I am either home (stop by or call on the house phone) or I am out leave a message or come back later) or they can always call my wife's cell and she usually knows my whereabouts.
I was tied to the cell to 10 years 24/7 and just don't need that anymore.
I think the kids are as creative and in some cases more creative, but in the right now society taking the time to actually make something to play with, much less going outside and uplugging from the social network is more than most of them are interested in these days
A few years back my grandson was helping me clean out the basement and came across a Walkman and had absolutely no idea what it was.
He was also incredulous that we used to carry something so unwieldy around to listen to music instead an IPod or MP3 - I guess he thought those had always been around.
Share you picture or anecdote about the generation gap
I showed my grandson a bamboo fly rod I have from the late 1890's. He looked at me and said, did they use those when there were dinos.
Yes I do understand
Grandchildren think we were here before time began
I think this one is a "generation gap twice over":
Its a 5 1/4" floppy disk.
Later an improved floppy was developed, the 3 1/2" floppy (which is the one in the cartoon, above).
5 1/4 floppies really were floppy-- data was stored on a very thin plastic circle inside of a cardboard protective covering. But it had to be handled with care as the cardboard didn't provide much protection (when writing on a label, you had to use a soft marker-- a pen or a pencil would damage the disk).
Here's a picture of both-- the smaller one (3 1/2") was an improvement because it took up less space, but more importantly because its protective cover was hard plastic:
I just found an interesting article about (& learned something new-- I hadn't known that the 5 1/4 floppy was preceded by an 8" floppy!):
Anyone remember these-- at one time no engineer, mathematician, or most scientists would be without one:
Or one of these.
I had a record collection: 33rpm. Would even teenagers know what they are?
How about cars that had front quarter-windows that opened for ventilation?
True indeed.
But interestingly, some people are collectors of "vintage" objects-- and its recently become a fad (or "trend"?) for some people to collect old 33s. Some also have old record players that can play them. (I wonder if there sound quality is any good as most are probably really scratched).
Anyway Buzz-- if you collected 33s you're still pretty young (have you ever had 78s-- now those are really old!
)
Yes, when I was quite young my parents had 78s. Songs included "Rum and Coca Cola, down on Point Kumana. Both mother and daughter working for the Yankee dollar." and "Mares eat oats and does eat oats and little lambs eat ivy. A kid'll eat ivy too, wouldn't you?"
By the time I started collecting my own records they were 33rpm. I think my first albums (which is what they were called) were classical, such as Beethoven's Piano Concerto #5 played by Sviatoslav Richter and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.
Yep. At one time or another, I used them all. I've got to clean out my home office, I still have several shoe boxes full of the smaller floppies!
Matthew and I were talking about this generation gap thing just last night. I'm old enough to be the band parent's parent. John and I are the only band parents who watched the moon landing on TV-- live. I also remember, very well, Sputnik. Even my husband doesn't remember Sputnik... We went out in the back yard to see if we could spot it, and did! We had a short-wave radio, and we could here it beep as it flew over! What fun!
Sigh! I was there when God made dirt.
Yep. I still have mine. Same with the compass, below!
I still have all of Uncle Louie's 78's, AND a record player to play them... Uncle Louie was fond of Duke Ellington, Frank Sinatra, and the Hoosier Hot Shots!
My son is constantly startling me with all this stuff that I have no idea about. By that same token, he knows about a lot of things that 99% of his peers have no idea about. We have a hand cranked phone, that actually works. We have the Capehart, which sounds like liquid sound-- and it's not stereo... We have antique salt and pepper shakers shaped like the original refrigerator, with the motor on the top. We have quite the record collection-- of 78's, 33 1/3's, and 45's-- and can play them on our antique record player. We have the old band instruments that still play, and sound great, from the early 1900s. We have Uncle Louie's gas mask, from WWI. We've got lots of things that we use, every day, that have been in use for about 100 years, or more.
I'm the one that can't seem to keep up!
Those are still useful when your computer is broken ...
I use them on maps, a LOT!
Its good to know that the utility of some technology has survived from the stone age . (;~ P
The predecessor of the floppy's. A deck of these cards contained the program or data used by the mainframe computer in the next room, the entire room. It was important to use multiple rubber bands, if dropped and they broke, it could take a long time to sort them again.
Did you ever use an 8" floppy-- I've never seen one of those.
But I have used the 5 1/2" ones. Someone I knew had an Apple IIe-- she let me use it. As I remember, it had no internal hardrive or operating system. We used two external 5 1/2" disk drives-- a floppy with the operating system went into one, and a floppy with the programme you wanted to use went into the other!
Dowser: When would you use the gas mask?
Gee Krish, it looked like an 8 track tape to me, but I think that might be one generation farther back.
Yes, but it wasn't my computer, it was a friend's computer. My first computer, purchased in 1983, was a TRS-80. Trash-80, we called them... See? It looks like a dinosaur, and cost $1800-- the same as my car! I took out a second mortgage on my house to buy it.
I remember those, too!!!
I have my original drafting set, part of which was Daddy's from the 1950s... I use it, too!
I was in college when calculators came out. They cost $300. To put that in perspective, my college tuition for a semester was $257.
I bet you're right... But my son knows how to use one to make sided figures-- I taught him.
He wanted to make a pagoda, so we made six sided roofs for it out of cardboard, using the compass, set at 60o. It worked!
I miss those vent windows, Buzz- they were great!
I actually have a couple of the amplifiers that are designed to play them, with an adapter for cassette tapes. My dad liked to trade for stuff that other people had no real use for. As a result, not only do I have the amps, but also so many nuts, bolts and washers that I haven't had to buy any since 1995. Anybody need a 6" lag bolt?? I've got about a dozen of them in a file drawer.
Never, I hope! It is filthy, and very claustrophobic! It is in a display case thingy... It makes you look like a beetle...
We have his uniform, his helmet and gas mask, his trench shovel, a wooden box that held ammo, his gun, etc. It's pretty scary stuff...
I remember these! I was supposed to take FORTRAN in college, but somehow escaped... Thank God, I might add. Those would have driven me nuts!
I don't really miss them since my 92 Bronco has them (that's the vehicle I still drive every day).
I probably have a use for one Buzz. I change my grandson's diapers a couple of times a day and often wish for a gas mask.
A man after my own heart. I have boxes of extra tubes for the Zenith TV we had in 1958... Too bad they don't fit the Capehart! Maybe someday... Grandpa used to go the junk yard and buy a coffee can of nails for $.25, then would spend many a happy hour sorting them while sitting on the back porch. I have a can of his nails-- all rusty now, but someday, I'm going to plant iris again, and will put the nails in with them-- it turns them darker blue!
Wish my car had them...
They were handy!
Ugh, not this kind, I'm sure! You have to be careful with the hose part-- it is fabric woven over rubber, and has sort of dry rotted... We also have a WWI German helmet that has been crushed-- but that is how Uncle Louie found it.
Would the kids today make a scooter out of a wood orange crate, a 2X4 for a base with half a roller skate attached at each end and a wooden stick on top for a handle? I did.
Mike
I don't know - as far as bad drivers go it is a toss up for me between the very young and the very old. I tend to avoid both when I encounter them on the road
Love the graphics
I remember those days and we all thought that it was more computer storage than we would ever need
Dowser
TRS-80 a classic
Krishna iii
My grandson was amazed by the slide rule (one lies on my desk near the lamp) and actually took the time to learn to use it a bit because it was neat - but finally decided it was too much work and too slow.
Kavika
I still use calipers in some wood working projects (cutting and carving toys mostly) - I don't do "by eye" measurements as well as I used to.
jennilee
You are probably right, people would see it as a weapon for sure.
Buzz
My brother and I "co-own" the old crank victrola that belong to my great grandmother along with a few 78's
It is more of a conversation piece than an entertainment device at this point
Steve
Great picture, I can hear my grandson's voice as I look at it
Buzz
And the homemade one was fun to make and ride and possible back in the day when there was no money for "such foolishness"
"Such foolishness" - my grandmother's favorite phrase when it came to spending money
A P
Where are the rabbit ears for the TV?
Loved pong!!
flameaway
Good points, but way too serious this is supposed to be a fun article
Surely there is something you remember fondly from the past that is thought of as prehistoric by the grandchildren
My grandmother had one, and I remember listening to the old 78 of Mr. Gallagher and Mr. Shean on it.
The records we have are "big band" and "gospel" but just looking at the thing evokes fond memories of simpler times ad Great grandmother's simple down home cooking and baking and brings smiles and laughter to the whole family.
She's been gone over 50 years but the memories are still strong.
No apocalypse, but every conversation does not have to ideological, philosophic, partisan or confrontational.
Sometimes just a funny and interesting anecdote is all that is required.
No crapola of any kind need be presented.
Dig deep you must have a funny thought about the generation gap - not why it exists or who caused it or what must be done to overcome it, but simply something amusing
Give it a shot, I know you can do it
Getting the software to work was a nightmare! It was not at all intuitive-- but clunky. About all I really mastered was ping pong.
It had 64K of memory. My calculator has more memory! I also remember paying $3000 for a computer with 4mg memory...
The memories are what makes all this so wonderful!
Thanks so much for this article, Robert-- it's been so much fun!!!
We still have a set of rabbit ears for our camper's TV. With tinfoil wadded up on the ends. Sometimes, when we're traveling, that's all that works. Of course, not on the TV any more! Now, we use them on the old boom box, to help us pick up radio stations.
Whatever works my friend, whatever works!
Perhaps the only video action game that I ever really understood
Well thanks for your contribution to a light hearted thread.
Your perspective is appreciated
My father headed up the first IBM installation for The U.S. Army Signal Corps in Germany. In those days, a computer was known as an "electronic brain" and took up entire, huge rooms.
I remember those days - we would start a report compiling at the end of the day and it would be ready when we came in the next day and the size of the computer while not as big as you describe was as big as a couple of refrigerators.
Dilbert can explain anything
I have a whole box of 12" floppys. The disk drive was the size of a coffee table and was on wheels.
I got it from a uranium mill I worked at... they were never allowed to let anything leave the grounds because of contamination concerns (obviously I dont listen to rules very well).
The computer it belonged to was installed in a closet sized room that was the entire computer.
My mom still has her box of punch cards that she wrote her thesis on.
Absolutely correct
Besides how the hell could they text with it?
I never saw one of those, but have seen photos-- I think they came just before floppies were invented...?
And before that I think some ran on punchcards?
Of course everything was much, much bigger back then. I've found a few cool picts-- here's one that Steampunk fans should really like*:
Now-a-days you could probably perform all the functions that that one could do on modern laptop!
_____________________________________________________
*Its actually a Soviet particle accelerator control panel from 1968.
I wonder if today's kids are less creative,-- because they don't have to make toys. Electronic games are accesible to even relatively poor families. (And IMO the schools often don't encourage learning or creativity because of greatly lowered standards & "social promotion").
Of course, OTOH, the computer age has some other benefits. Every year Forbes publishes lists of the wealthiest people. In the past most of them (at least the ones who didn't inherit their wealth) were fairly old-- it took a greater part of a lifetime to accumulate their fortunes. But now, because of technology, many of them achieved their millions early on-- even in their 30s.
That is freaking cool! What would really be far out is if she found a machine to read and execute them.
If you met the right person in the lab, you could learn how to hunt Klingon's with that teletype. That was the beginning of the end of the rain forest. Reams and reams of paper would come out of that teletype.
They captured that sound on a "Ringtone".
I had been thinking of buying one to put on my desk. You can still buy the original ones or good reproductions. Someone told me not to buy an original-- the handset is extremely unwieldy as its really heavy. (BTW I don't think the one pictured is a really old one as it has that rubber encased coiled cord which came after the original cord which was fabric covered & didn't coil).
They also have some refurbished ones with small buttons in the center of the dial for touch tone. (I wonder if anyone has yet thought of the idea of taking the old body and making it wireless--lol).
Or-- you could buy one of these:
And if that's too technologically advanced . . . has anyone ever made one of these?
Classics!
Thanks for sharing
Mickey
I have not had a cell phone since I retired in 2010, some family and friends find that quite odd.
I tell them I am either home (stop by or call on the house phone) or I am out leave a message or come back later) or they can always call my wife's cell and she usually knows my whereabouts.
I was tied to the cell to 10 years 24/7 and just don't need that anymore.
Everyone can relate and share anecdotes
I love the light hearted exchange of memories
Krishna III
I think the kids are as creative and in some cases more creative, but in the right now society taking the time to actually make something to play with, much less going outside and uplugging from the social network is more than most of them are interested in these days
I saw this graphic and numerous friends and family immediately came to mind as needing this device -