I’m old enough to remember when...

[John6185]

Dang, man, how far back in the sticks did you live? My dad told us about my grandpa lighting into the school system because my dad and aunt had to walk two miles up a section road to catch the school bus. That would've been around 1950.

. I lived about 12 miles east of OKC in a poor district Post Rd and NE 23rd. I dropped my wallet in the outhouse one and had to fish it out. I only did it once and learned my lesson. I was the poorest kid in the neighborhood, we used a wringer washer outside to wash clothes and had an actual Sears Roebuck catalog in the outhouse.

 

[RugersGR8]

Mine is not a story but real. we lived at the edge of town and no school bus service in the city. We walked 4 blocks in all weather to grade school. In Jr High we did in fact walk 2.5 miles in the rain, snow, heat to school and back. We only had one car and the old man used it to go to work. Mom didn't have a drivers license until I was in the 9th grade.

Mine was R-E-A-L as well.

 

[RugersGR8]

This^^^. And, we thought we had arrived when we got one of these.

View attachment 192611

We had the exact same remote. IIRC, it must have worked on something like a tuning fork principle. You would press the buttons(triggers) until you hit a wall, continue pressing until the button(trigger) released/hit tuning fork and then the channel/volume would go up or down. Nothing like today’s remote gizmos. I think we went through two or three of those remotes on one Zenith TV set. PS, we also had a Maytag wringer wash machine and I still have two galvanized wash tubs.

 

[RugersGR8]

Speaking of Maytag washers, my uncle had two or three of these Maytag motors that he used to pump water for his cattle. I mixed the fuel and started them many a time.

1930 Model 92 Maytag Washing machine engine
JohnVHRC
Published on Aug 21, 2014

 

[OKCHunter]

We had the exact same remote. IIRC, it must have worked on something like a tuning fork principle. You would press the buttons(triggers) until you hit a wall, continue pressing until the button(trigger) released/hit tuning fork and then the channel/volume would go up or down. Nothing like today’s remote gizmos. I think we went through two or three of those remotes on one Zenith TV set. PS, we also had a Maytag wringer wash machine and I still have two galvanized wash tubs.

I think the buttons were an on/off (the orange button), volume up, volume down, and the 4th button would cycle through the TV channels (there were only 4 or 5 stations at that time). I believe it was the early 70s before my family had this remote control. I say this because during the Apollo 11 Moon Landing (1969), I remember sitting on the floor in front of the TV to control the television volume during Armstrong's landing and walk on the moon.

 

[SoonerP226]

. I lived about 12 miles east of OKC in a poor district Post Rd and NE 23rd.

Huh. Whodathunk rural Pawnee County would be more uptown than the OKC metro?

 

[OKNewshawk]

I remember newspaper vending stands like this link in front of the drug/grocery stores: https://www.ebay.com/i/114040895780...MI1q69iend7gIVJDizAB2yNwzYEAQYASABEgKRmfD_BwE

They would be OK if they were out of the weather but my newspaper box was standing in my yard on the street corner. Even at that, sometimes the left edge of the papers would get wet. It all depended on which way the wind was blowing the rain.

 

[OKNewshawk]

I think the buttons were an on/off (the orange button), volume up, volume down, and the 4th button would cycle through the TV channels (there were only 4 or 5 stations at that time). I believe it was the early 70s before my family had this remote control. I say this because during the Apollo 11 Moon Landing (1969), I remember sitting on the floor in front of the TV to control the television volume during Armstrong's landing and walk on the moon.

I believe it used piezoelectric crystals to create ultrasonic sound waves. Did you know that certain vacuum cleaners would make a harmonic of the frequency that would cause the TV to change channels on its own? I think my grandmother's TV did that a few times when she was running her Hoover.

Speaking of the Moon landing... Our TV stations came from Philadelphia and the ABC station was on channel 6. The audio frequency for channel 6 was at the extreme low end of the FM radio dial. My brother had brought home a Sansui stereo system after one cruise and we had it set up in the living room. Since the Moon walk was so late, I set the TV to channel 6, tuned the stereo receiver to pick up the audio and put on a pair of headphones, then turned the TV sound all the way down. That way, I could hear everything but not disturb my parents, who were asleep.

 

[BReeves]

You could rattle a set of keys and change the channel. Yep at 75 I can remember everything already mentioned been there done that and wouldn't trade it for anyother time.