TBT…

Sigh… Getting old sucks… Last weekend I went to a friend’s daughter’s HS graduation. And that reminded me next year is my FIFTIETH reunion…

Some things don’t change… Well, the prices do, but they’re still open…

Others… Well, they’ve come and gone… 1950s ELECTRIC Underwood typewriter. Weighed about 40 pounds.

An early Holiday Inn. I remember staying in one when I was probably six years old. And I ‘think’ Momma and Daddy complained about the price, which was probably less than $5 a night… And we didn’t eat in the restaurant. I probably got a peanut butter sandwich. No elevators, but all the rooms were the same in every one of them, EVERYWHERE!!!

And some things are still here but in radically different form… Good luck finding a full service service station today! Much less one that actually posts ALL of the taxes, and honestly admits how much they make per gallon.

Apparently Hertz hadn’t made it to ‘this’ town, wherever it was… ๐Ÿ™‚

Comments

TBT… — 17 Comments

  1. Over a million sold at 15ยข a pop!
    Never had an electric and at 40 pounds I can see why. My old mechanical did what I needed it to.
    The Motel 6 of its time.
    I sure would like to see a breakdown on the price of gas today, especially for California.
    I do like the old cars in the pictures.

  2. Ah, the good old days. When cars had style and power, and were relatively affordable. A shame they were lucky to make it to a hundred thousand miles.

  3. I still have the electric typewriter I used occasionally in high school, when our computer was on the fritz. It was MUCH less weighty than that one. I also used a manual a couple of times, but it has vanished since then.

    There is a small gas station chain near me that explicitly offers full service on one island, for .05 more per gallon. There is a Marathon station that has it at no extra charge, though if they are busy you may have to wait for him to get to you.

  4. 55 Ford Crown Victoria parked at McDonald’s. My first “nice” car was a 56 Ford Victoria (not a Crown) with that same paint scheme.

  5. I remember the Holiday Inn. I never stayed in one until I was older. My father traveled a lot and stayed in motels all the time, and one morning he woke up, looked around, and couldn’t remember what city he was in. Well, all the rooms looked exactly alike.

    I tried learning to type on a manual typewriter. Mom had a Royal portable, about 20 pounds or so, that she used all through college. There was also the standard size manual in HS typing class, which was a dead loss. The short of it was that my hands are slightly deformed, and I hadn’t the necessary strength or dexterity in my little fingers and ring fingers to work a manual typewriter. When I got older I bought an electric and learned to type at 40 wpm in a few days. Main Lady could type 120 wpm, including the shift+character keys at the top row. She has amazing coordination.

    Back then my best friend and I could scrape up $5 – $10 each and take the girls out on Friday and Saturday nights. That included gasoline, dinner and a movie. What a life!

  6. Soylent Green could have done even better with advertising like McDonald’s:

    Soylent Green… over 1 million served!

  7. My 60th reunion is ahead. Having missed all the others, no point in starting now.

  8. Hey Old NFO;

    I learned to really type on IBM Selectric in the 9th grade. Was a required class, I never got past the looking at my fingers, that being said, I am one hell of a hunt and peck typer.
    In a lot of ways the old days were better, but there have been advanced also. We have better medicine and scientific knowledge now then back then. The flip side, the people were more moral and much more polite than the stuff we see now.

  9. My aunt had an old type writer from her gig as a secretary. It’s where I learned to type. To this day I smack the hell out of keys.

  10. All- Thanks! And yes, pounding the keys IS the way I type… Which is probably why I go through a keyboard a year… sigh…

    Posted from my iPhone.

    • Most keyboards are garbage.

      After years of trying to adapt, I’m going back to my old 84-key IBM PC/XT keyboard. Those were variants of the IBM DisplayWriter boards, which IBM spent a chunk of money on, determining optimum key row offset, key force, snapover height, etc. I had the misfortune to learn to type with one, so I know what I’m missing even with a “premium” mechanical switch board.

      I have the adapters to go from the old big keyboard connector to USB, and the Discretionary Spending Budget is about ready to spring for $120 for a programmable key stick that will give me right control, right alt, F11, and F12 keys. Those were the reason I gave up the 84-key board in the first place, since they’re required by so much modern software. (and BIOSes…)

      I could type 80wpm on the old 84-key board. After years of practicing, I still can’t reliably go past 20 on the lesser boards.

      Sometimes it’s more reasonable to just switch back than to butt your head against the wall…

  11. Yes, looking back a lot has changed… and some things have endured and had enough metamorphosis to still exist and survive. I only ever went to one reunion, I think it was around the 15-20 year mark, everyone looked old and so many were still re-living their High School Glory days, good God, it was enough to make me not want to go back to any other reunions! Not to mention, at a certain point most of them will be dead… and that’s kinda sobering too… old age is a privilege not afforded to many, so I’m Thankful I’m still here.

    • That 61 Corvette’s price is a little over 18,000 in todays dollars.
      A 2013 Corvettes price range is between 25 and 35 thousand dollars.
      So, it looks like the 61 was a better deal.
      The 13 is a much better car all around, but the driving the 61 probably would have brought more smiles.
      Both then and now.

  12. Meh, the typewriters weren’t that terrible, anyone remember the mimeo machines with the blue ink that never washed off your hands even with borax?? that was a bane. lol ๐Ÿ™‚