<p>Being able to ride a bike with one hand while slinging the local newspaper onto lawns with the other as a 12 yr. old.</p>
<p>bundling papers for the paper drive fundraisers</p>
<p>losing your skate key</p>
<p>peeling the cork backs off the tops of soda bottles then putting the cork on one side of your shirt and the cap on the other side for a free pin!</p>
<p>opening a can of soda or beer with a can opener to make 2 triangular holes–no flip tops or ring tops.</p>
<p>going out to buy all the morning newspapers for my journalist-father in NewYork City–carrying about six different papers home!</p>
<p>Junior Year Abroad in Britain–calling home by placing a call to an operator and waiting by a phone booth for half an hour to be called back by the operator when the transAtlantic call had been “placed”.</p>
<p>Going into a phone booth! (Like Superman used to when changing from Clark Kent)</p>
<p>Speaking of telephones, was anyone here a switchboard operator, with a real switchboard with the cables?</p>
<p>pyewacket, I had forgotten the days before the flip tops! Nothing like going on a picnic and no one had an opener–you had to scrounge up a screwdriver out of a car trunk and punch holes.</p>
<p>
This was my all-time favorite summer job. Actually, I was just the lunch hour relief for the “real” operator. But I got to plug in the two cable ends (and I could eaves drop, too, but there wasn’t anything worth eavesdropping for 
).</p>
<p>My “real” job, when I wasn’t doing the switchboard thing-y was Xerox Operator. Can you imagine? I was the xerox operator for an 8-floor building. Everyone brought their items to me. I copied them, hand collated them (no such thing as a collator back in the Dark Ages). Now that job was a royal bore. But the switchboard, the people and the location (downtown Washington, DC) compensated.</p>
<p>When I think of switchboard operators, I am always reminded of that woman on “Little House” who listened in on everyone.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>we used to get dishes with a gas fill-up–piece by piece of oddly colored irridescent glassware</p>
<p>and a guy in a uniform would come out and do the windows in some stations!!</p>
<p>also, how about those soda pop coolers where the drinks sat deep in icy cold water and you reached in to fish one out (only allowed on some really long family car trip)</p>
<p>My HS bf was the guy in uniform who “did the windows”…back then gas was like 25 cents a gallon too. </p>
<p>Speaking of which, my Mom just reminded me that my first year of college cost $8500. and that was a LOT of money back then.</p>
<p>Making a perfect mix tape using vinyl records
having perfect penmanship
excellent spelling</p>
<p>Doing the dishes while standing on a twist-o-matic, getting exercise while washing the dishes.</p>
<p>My mother is still using her glasses that came with the laundry detergent.</p>
<p>Driving a vehicle with a 3-speed manual transmission on the column. Had to do this for a job I had in high sch.</p>
<p>Someone must have mentioned this: using a sliderule, using logarithmic tables. A calculator was a novelty when I was in college. Also, card readers for computers, assembly language for IBM computers, liking it and being proficient as an assembly language programmer on IBM mainframes (IBM 360s). Knowing the assembly language code by memory (I mean in my memory, not the computer’s memory). :)</p>
<p>I went to State University NY at Albany. My entire 4 years only cost about $8000… including rooming/board! 1978-1982.</p>
<p>jmmom, dadofsam,</p>
<p>Yes, I was a night switchboard operator at a big hotel in Boston. Had to dial the room of airline crews early in the am to give them their cheery wake-up calls!
(Also listened in on calls sometimes!) All in all, a great job while I was a grad student.</p>
<p>jmmom: as a Xerox(R) operator, did you also polish the drum?</p>
<p>Did anyone work in a research lab and have to produce their posters for meetings using Leroy lettering or Kroy (sp?) lettering? It seemed like making the posters took longer than doing the research itself. My husband was an expert at labelling figures and diagrams in perfectly formed letters using India ink and calligraphy pens. He did all of my figures for my thesis. All of this is no longer necessary - even an uncoordinated sloppy person like me can make nice figures and presentations with the fonts available on every computer.</p>
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</p>
<p>I did that to make displays for the US Information Service library one summer. By the time I was helping Caltech grad students with their Phd theses I’d moved on to Letraset rub on letters. :)</p>