Waldo's response in the gas station thread promoted me to start this one.
How many times have we looked at something or thought" Never in a million years would I have thought that would have worked..or successfully been on the market..etc
What conveniences, items or the 'way things that are done" now...........do you still shake your head at and wonder .. "never thought it would work".
I can tell you that I never ever thought we would be buying bags of DIRT!
Dirt? Where we have fields and fields of it and we go and buy a bag? Amazing.
i never thought id see a commercial advertising "best stick youll ever pee on " for a preg test
How about buying sacks of rock?
Some folks may remember the 78 rpm records, those things made of shellac and an additive binder that when dropped flew into one hundred pieces.
In our lifetime replaced by:
45 rpm record
33 1/3 rpm record
10 inch reel to reel tape
7 inch reel to reel tape
8 track tape
Cassette tape
CD disc
DVD disc
Blu-Ray disc
I'll add two. People paying big money for bottled water that mostly comes out of a municipal tap. From what you guys say about your water though I find I am posting this in a place where I would be drinking bottled water.
The "pet rock". The creator of the pet rock gave a lecture to my Marketing class in college. He made over a million dollars on an idea that he got while out drinking with friends. Just proves that if you market something correctly you can sell anything to people.
David
On that note David, the same guy lost part of his fortune trying to sell his idea, "bottled air"
You were buying sealed bottles of air that had been taken from all over the world. Monstrous flop!!
Gary Dahl used some of his profits from the pet rock to open a bar called Carry Nations a famous watering hole near where I went to college. He just sold it a couple years ago for a very large sum of money. His house in the Los Gatos Hills is very impressive. Though like many entrepreneurs his fortunes went way up and way down depending on his current project. He is quite an interesting man.
David
Yes, I have heard he had a very interesting time with many different ideas and his fortune would eb and flow with the success of each. I find people who are able to invent and market ideas fascinating to talk to or hear speak. They have such a passion and courage and belief in themselves. It is truly something we could all use a bit of I think!
Quote from: dnalexander on October 10, 2008, 11:16:45 AM
Gary Dahl used some of his profits from the pet rock to open a bar called Carry Nations a famous watering hole near where I went to college.
David
Carey Nation was a graduate of the Normal Institute in Warrensburg, Mo, which is now the University of Central Missouri and she taught over in Holden.
Waldo, I had forgotten that from my days living in Warrensburg. Thanks for the history lesson.
David
...would we have imagined the internet, email, and the Elk County Forum. Quite an amazing thing it is.
God bless you Al Gore!
DW
Quote
8 track tape
Cassette tape
Quote
While mowing the lawn--er leaves, today, I forgot that 4-track tape was also in the evolution trail.
And what about I-phones. That section of electronics has evolved in the same way as the tapes etc..
Who would have ever believed that you could call someone in the middle of a pasture form a tiny little hand held box.. LOL
Both the computer and the internet were originally developed for use by the War Department (computer) and the Department of Defense (internet).
This thread reminds me of a BBC series of shows narrated by James Burke. In one series called Connections he traced some of the greatest inventions of modern times back to their origins. Ancient tablets, Renaissance Astronomers, Chinese Abacus, loom, waterwheel to modern day computer.
David
That I would pay for TV or Radio. I am still holding out, but by Feb. 2009 I think due to the terrain I will have to switch if I want to get my local area channels that I get now over my antenna. That would leave me with just radio for free.
David
James Burke, Connections
Tan leisure suit with an Ike jacket,
Balding,
Long hair,
Horned rim glasses,
Distinctive voice but not great,
One of the best hosts and shows on television.
David; I think all you need is a converter box to continue to get free TV. Gov't is even giving coupons for them.
Tobina due to the hilly terrain and the fact that the Analog signal will move from the top of the transmission towers to the bottom that will not work. I appreciate your comment though. Thanks. When I lived in Alaska we had no tv due to living 14 miles outside of Valdez, I will survive. Probably bite the bullet and get satellite and join the new millennium of tv. I hear they are in color now.
David
Another revolutionary change was when folks started having their paychecks sent by direct deposit to a bank rather than getting a check at work or in the mail.
I started in 1967 and not long after that, both the Army and Air Force started a campaign to have one-hundred percent participation.
Howls went up--mainly from civilians--that it would mess their pay up, was unconstitutional, unAmerican, etc.
Later, Social Security got on board.
Best thing that ever happened to a paycheck.
Oh my goodness yes.
Waldo I too have long had my checks deposited by direct deposit. I would have it no other way.
David
David; wow, thanks for the info! They make it sound so simple on the ad's... "nothing will change. If you have an antenna, just get a converter box or buy a D-TV."
Speaking of direct deposits... how about ATM machines? Get money day or night, anywhere there's one of those handy cash-spewing boxes.
Tobina I agree. Though I remember when all ATM transactions were free no matter what. So I will extend it to the fact that you can use your card to pay for your groceries and get cash back from those fancy POS machines the grocery stores have now and there is no fee.
David
Some old timers who served in the military might remember when everyone, but everyone, was paid in cold hard cash.
The last day of each month was payday and literally hundreds of side armed cash payment officers, with one or two additional armed guards, would descend on the finance office and each officer would take out at least one standard large size brown grocery bag filled with nothing higher than twenties—sometimes amounting to one or two hundred thousand dollars. The grocery bag was stapled closed with one staple. Sometimes, the pay officer would bring a duffel bag if he had more than one grocery bag to handle.
The pay officers would go back to their units and begin the process of paying every single person within their unit. Payment was in round dollars only. Any cents due was carried over to the next payday. Afterward, the pay officers had to go back to the finance office and settle their account.
Most everyone got at least half of payday off because the process was such a manual effort and so time consuming. After receiving cash, many responsible GIs would trot over to the long line at the base bank and deposit their money. Others kept their cash on them all during the month.
Gradually more and more people opted for a check and then direct deposit, but paying in cash on payday as one method of payment did not end until the mid 70s.
Thought I'd see a day where a plane could take you into the near reaches of outer space.
Since I was very young I have been intrigued and awed by outer space.. I think there is a good chance that before I die I will be able to take a trip to outer space. I may be old, but the dream is closer than ever. I can't explain what fulfilling that lifelong dream would mean to me. If I don't make it the dream alone and being so close is just as great.
David
"Oh I Have Slipped
The Surly Bonds of Earth...
Put Out My Hand
And Touched the Face of God"
Dreamed I would be able to have conversations and make friends with people from all around the world while sitting in the comfort of my own living room. Or that letters to family and friends could be sent and answered almost instantly. Or that photos could be shared so quickly, so easily, and with folks hundreds or thousands of miles away. That I could find the most obscure information I could ever want with just a few keystrokes instead of hours poring over microfilm/fiche, books, newspaper archives.
I also never dreamed I'd use on a daily basis the skills I learned in my high school typing class!
(P.S. I loved the Connections show. It was the most entertaining and least painful way to really understand history and why it's still relevant. Names, dates and places bore me, but tell me the story and I'll listen.)
Quote from: dnalexander on October 10, 2008, 06:41:50 PM
Since I was very young I have been intrigued and awed by outer space.. I think there is a good chance that before I die I will be able to take a trip to outer space. I may be old, but the dream is closer than ever. I can't explain what fulfilling that lifelong dream would mean to me. If I don't make it the dream alone and being so close is just as great.
David
"Oh I Have Slipped
The Surly Bonds of Earth...
Put Out My Hand
And Touched the Face of God"
The Air Force Academy Anthem is cool!!!! :laugh:
Dec. 11, 1941: The 19-year-old pilot who wrote the famous poem High Flight -- ''Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth... Put out my hand, and touched the face of God." -- Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee Jr. was killed only three days after the United States entered World War II. He joined the Battle of Britain like hundreds of Americans who crossed the border into Canada to enlist with the Royal Canadian Air Force. Pilot Officer Magee was killed when the Spitfire V he was flying, VZ-H, collided with an Oxford Trainer from Cranwell Airfield flown by one Ernest Aubrey. His famous poem was sent to his parents after his death and the Librarian of Congress acclaimed Pilot Officer Magee ''the first poet of war."-- Archibald MacLeish. (Information from www.airforcehistory.hq.af.mil⁄www.skygod.com)
You are a great history teacher, David...where were you when I needed to be learning this stuff in school? Oh yeah...you were seated in the row ahead of me! lol
Quote from: Catwoman on October 10, 2008, 08:10:44 PM
...you were seated in the row ahead of me! lol
Catwoman in my day they sat us in alphabetical order. I always ended up by the door at the front of the room in the first or second seat.
David A.
I would never ever ( and I imagine the old timers never either) thought that for fun.. people would put a rubber band on their ankles and dive off of bridges and towers. ::)
Amen, sister!