Feeling old

[gunhilltrain]

Now they’ve got phone tracker apps so they can pinpoint exactly where you are.

That's not necessarily progress.

 

[Bamagan]

Perhaps my phone model is just very old, but it has a power button that disables it, and so far it's never turned itself back on. It's not that hard to go 'off-grid' in that sense, if one likes some time free of connectivity. One can still walk out the door, leaving their phone at home, and be just as unreachable as a pedestrian in the 1970s. If a person chooses never to do those things, I suspect it's because they're worried they might miss something important, like being notified that a loved one has only a short time to live, or else that they might need emergency help for themselves.

 

[mildlyaroused]

Honestly, I'm don't think phrases like "hung up" have to be changed at all. I still say "hung up", and I always have; and so have all my friends. "You hung up on me!" That includes since we've all gotten smartphones, and I'm young compared to most people on these forums.

The point being: younger audiences will be familiar with "hanging up", and they'll know what it means. Even if it's not a precise visual parallel to ending a call on a cell phone, in the context of a cell phone call people will take "hanging up" as ending the call. This goes for lots of technically obsolete phrases.

 

[SimonDoom]

F#$%! Now I know I'm ready to be put out to pasture. I got an email today from Spotify that I might want to adopt "Mall Anthems" as one of my playlists.

 

[ElectricBlue]

F#$%! Now I know I'm ready to be put out to pasture. I got an email today from Spotify that I might want to adopt "Mall Anthems" as one of my playlists.

EB looked at Simon's post, and nodded his head, knowingly. Music revealeth the man, he thought, and went on with his business.

He glanced across at the New Mastered vinyl he'd bought yesterday: Goat's Head Soup, Tusk, Radio Ethiopia, and Morrison Hotel/Hard Rock Cafe. Uh huh!

"In fairness," said Simon's sister Suzie, "he was only in the mall buying lingerie for his Mom."

Carry on (laughing) .

 

[lovecraft68]

F#$%! Now I know I'm ready to be put out to pasture. I got an email today from Spotify that I might want to adopt "Mall Anthems" as one of my playlists.

I knew I was getting old when I used to get e-mails that "Hot Asian women in your area want to have sex with you" then started getting ads from "Silver Singles. Women over sixty are looking to connect with you."

That and I used to get my father's AARP mail because we have the same name. Then one day I tossed it on my table and said. "Got my dad's mail again." My wife looks at it and says "um, this is actually for you." she looked way to happy to say that.

 

[ruddygore]

"Dial their number" when rotary phones are dead, dead, dead.

I remember when my parent upgraded to a rotary phone.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I remember when my parent upgraded to a rotary phone.

Huh? How old are your parents? I think dial telephones turned up in the 1920s - before that it was like in the old movies where the caller would pick up the earpiece and jiggle the cradle. "Operator, operator, put me through to London 2024."

 

[Duleigh]

Just stepped away from writing to do some pausing and pondering.

What I’d just written was a conversation with the character using their smart phone. I ended it by saying that she ‘hung up’. Now, there’s a dated expression. How long has it been since anybody literally hung the receiver in a cradle to end a call?

And why do I think of it as ‘writing’ when I was banging away on a keyboard?

Sigh.

Hung up is still a very viable phrase. Video taped is not. My grand daughter brought that to my attention with the pointed question, "What is video tape? Like scotch tape?"
Wait a minute - Scotch Tape became a thing in 1930, video tape became a thing in 1971, my 2015 model princess knows Scotch Tape but not video tape.
Ouch.

I was feeling much better tonight so for the first time in a year I swung by the American Legion (Same as the Royal Canadian Legion but we don't have Labatt's) and listened to those veterans that were younger than me complain about their injuries, the VA and their CPAP machines. I immediately felt younger.

 

[TheRedChamber]

Not writing related, but I'm currently watching Seinfeld.

Obiviously, it is dated, but nothing in it feels dated to me because I lived through that periods - so not the clothes, not the music, not the humour.

The one thing that really stands out to me is that Pepsi cans used to be a red and blue circle on white. That just feels really weird now.

 

[SouthernCrossfire]

Do you remember calling your girlfriend from the upstairs house phone and then your Mum picks up the downstairs handset at just the wrong moment?

No? Just me?

No, not just you. Or even worse, how about party lines where it was one of your neighbors picking up the phone and listening in? We had one of those until shortly before in high school in (76 or 77?) so I didn’t actually have to worry about the girlfriend part for the party line.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Huh? How old are your parents? I think dial telephones turned up in the 1920s - before that it was like in the old movies where the caller would pick up the earpiece and jiggle the cradle. "Operator, operator, put me through to London 2024."

My grandfather didn't even have a phone in his apartment until his daughter (my mother) moved out in 1952. Somewhere he had picked up the idea that girls shouldn't live in a home where they had access to a telephone. Has anyone else heard something similar?

Of course, it hurt him too if he fell asleep on the subway and was a couple of hours late getting home from the wrong terminal. His wife (my grandmother) didn't know what had happened to him.

 

[gunhilltrain]

No, not just you. Or even worse, how about party lines where it was one of your neighbors picking up the phone and listening in? We had one of those until shortly before in high school in (76 or 77?) so I didn’t actually have to worry about the girlfriend part for the party line.

Party lines persisted in rural areas for a long time. I wonder when and where the last one was.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Perhaps my phone model is just very old, but it has a power button that disables it, and so far it's never turned itself back on. It's not that hard to go 'off-grid' in that sense, if one likes some time free of connectivity. One can still walk out the door, leaving their phone at home, and be just as unreachable as a pedestrian in the 1970s. If a person chooses never to do those things, I suspect it's because they're worried they might miss something important, like being notified that a loved one has only a short time to live, or else that they might need emergency help for themselves.

Everything is a trade-off. Once a certain technology is introduced, people become dependent on it. But if something goes wrong (like a power outage) they can be close to helpless. Drivers are so used to their GPS that they can't read a map, or even have one.

Calling for help is an advantage but, once upon a time, you might just be out of luck. Before wireless was invented, ships would disappear at sea and no one would know they had sunk. After it was introduced, it worked so well that a certain complacency set in. After the Titanic, there were regulations limiting the amount of frivolous messages that passengers could request.

 

[gunhilltrain]

There has been controversy over this, because neither of the Titanic's operators survived. The Californian's crew took a lot of blame later (they were only about ten miles away), but they claimed that they tried and were dismissed. The new regulations required ships to have 24-hour coverage.

 

[Trionyx]

That's not necessarily progress.

Agree 100%.

 

[Duleigh]

There has been controversy over this, because neither of the Titanic's operators survived. The Californian's crew took a lot of blame later (they were only about ten miles away), but they claimed that they tried and were dismissed. The new regulations required ships to have 24-hour coverage.

When the titanic sank, it was still all so new - wireless communications, SOS, even steam was still amazing. There was no "Guard" frequency to monitor, and I would not be surprised if people like John Jacob Astor IV didn't wrap their message around a few guineas to insure that they got priority in the radio room.

 

[MrPixel]

Party lines persisted in rural areas for a long time. I wonder when and where the last one was.

According to Wikipedia on the topic, there are a handful still in operation in isolated areas of the US.

 

[Duleigh]

According to Wikipedia on the topic, there are a handful still in operation in isolated areas of the US.

My family had a party line until 1970 and we were not rural by any means.

 

[JGittes]

I had to remind myself recently a character would not have access to a cell phone in a story set in 1995. She would have to wait until the bus stopped and use a pay phone- at least those would be available.

I had a cell phone in 1989 or 1990. It was as big as the lunch box I used growing up in the 50s and weighed more than 3kg.

They were for a small medical homecare equipment company we owned. Right after we got them and figured out how to use them, we drove home in our separate vehicles, but for the first mile or two, we drove side by side on the road, talking on the phones and looking at each other and laughing our heads off.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I was feeling much better tonight so for the first time in a year I swung by the American Legion (Same as the Royal Canadian Legion but we don't have Labatt's) and listened to those veterans that were younger than me complain about their injuries, the VA and their CPAP machines. I immediately felt younger.

Send me an address, poor deprived chap. Let’s break some border laws.

 

[likes2watchU]

I had to remind myself recently a character would not have access to a cell phone in a story set in 1995. She would have to wait until the bus stopped and use a pay phone- at least those would be available.

I loved Tami Hoag's Deeper Than the Dead for this reason. The introduction of the book describes the challenges and changes of the early-80s for both technology and science. I enjoyed the read even more knowing the backstory on the setting.

 

[Writer61]

That's not necessarily progress.

It was when I accidently left a phone is a taxi.

 

[ElectricBlue]

When the titanic sank, it was still all so new - wireless communications, SOS, even steam was still amazing. There was no "Guard" frequency to monitor, and I would not be surprised if people like John Jacob Astor IV didn't wrap their message around a few guineas to insure that they got priority in the radio room.

Steam turbines were new(ish), but marine steam engines were introduced in the early 1800s. The first crossing of the Atlantic under steam power was in 1819.

 

[lovecraft68]

My grandfather didn't even have a phone in his apartment until his daughter (my mother) moved out in 1952. Somewhere he had picked up the idea that girls shouldn't live in a home where they had access to a telephone. Has anyone else heard something similar?

Loving Wives readers thank you for this great-and quite just-idea. Those evils womens shouldn't be allowed to talk to anyone because it leads to them being whoresssssss!