I still say that occasionally. I once said it to one of my students who was clueless as to what I meant.
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We loved Pong!
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As a tech geek, I’ve really enjoyed reading all these responses! Thank you for sharing your memories.
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This thread is bringing back so many memories. Kids sniffing “ditto paper” saying it made them “high.” My brother begggged for an Atari and my parents finally gave in. One of my favorite photos is of my parents c1980 (in their 40s) sitting at our small kitchen table with the Atari hooked up to the portable black and white tv playing Pong. My friend and I spent hours playing Space Invaders on it hooked up to the “big” tv.
Fall of my senior year in high school 1979 I had a wonderful guidance counselor who let my friend and I hang out in her office at lunchtime and counseled us on life and being a woman in the world. I had signed up for a half year class in the spring in European history with the same teacher I had for AP American history. A very nice man but he was very very boring and I was reconsidering having two classes with him and taking European history in my final months of senior year. There were few half year classes and I already had one study hall so couldn’t take another. The guidance counselor suggested a take a new course called Intro to Computers. It sounded ok but I didn’t want to hurt the history teacher’s feelings by dropping the other class. Her solution was to write on the drop form that I was interested in majoring in computer science in college. LOL I was actually planning to major in American history. My life certainly would have been different if I’d fulfilled her plan.
The class was only a few students, most of whom were already or future computer geeks. One guy I’d been in school with since 1st grade and he’d always had discipline issues. But he took to the computer like a duck to water and was a model student in that class. We learned BASIC programming and used terminals hooked up to a mainframe (?). On the first day the teacher warned us not to push a particular button because everyone’s work would be lost. Unfortunately telling me something like that was like a giant hand directing my finger to that button. A few weeks in we were all working away and sure enough I accidentally pushed that button and everyone’s work went away. I pretended to be as confused and upset as everyone else. The former discipline problem classmate had been working way more advanced than the rest of us and he was super upset. Luckily, no one found out I was the culprit. But once personal computers came on the scene I was relieved to be able only to cause my own problems. I do still have one of my first personal computers - a Mac Classic c 1991, although it doesn’t work.
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I too hired someone for final copy of my 770? Page dissertation. Word processors had come into existence, so I tried hiring the company , but whoever typed made so many mistakes. The rules for the look of a thesis were so strict back then.
I saved many of my computer punch cards to use as bookmarks.
A regret is that I gave away my Apple 2, which cost over $2000, even with my university discount.
I meant to ask- I was looking at the thing the coupler was sitting on (I hadn’t paid attention to the range computer next to it). I am not even sure what that thing is that the coupler was sitting on.
One in sister’s garage…
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Sidebar- DH managed data centers and at corporate Hqtrs fo a very large fortune 100 company, they replaced the IBM system 86’s with AS400s. He went in one weekend to do something, and took our then 4 yo with him. Well, turns out the power button for the computer was right at eye level for a 4 yo! And the system he took down had the company president/CEO’s personal data on it! Oops.
(fixed the weird autocorrects)
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It looks like an expansion interface connected to the computer
If they’ve watched Apollo 13, there is a scene where, with 3 astronauts lost in space, the control room pulls out their slide rules, compute the answer and then all check with each other: “Did you get 17.34? I got that. I got that.”
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Still have one of these slide rules somewhere! My husband took it to work once to tr..ll the youngsters.
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It may be a regional thing? I always heard “ditto”.
The big consulting company I worked for in the late 80s used 8" disks. There were word processing employees who would use them for lengthy documents. The admins for our department used IBM selectrics with the various font balls when I got there, but they were the first to get PCs in our department. There was one PC in the workroom for the department’s use. I was the only person in the department who knew how to use Lotus123. I still miss Word Perfect. Reveal Codes was the magic charm.
I have a sewing machine (which I still use) which uses 3.5" floppy disks for the embroidery patterns it sews! I baby that machine with my life, as replacing it is now a five-figure proposition. We bought it lightly used for $1200 in 2003.
DH was a decision science and accounting major. Programmed on cards for UG and in his first career job after graduation. We splurged and got him a PC with an 20 MB hard drive when he started law school.
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We have a slide rule, too. Was buried in all the junk at my FIL’s apartment. H used it in HS.
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I did math through calculus and two years of physics with a slide rule in high school. Around that time, my brother who was going to engineering school got a calculator as his graduation present. Cost several hundred as I recall.
I, English major, got a Smith-Corona “Correctronic” typewriter. With the cartridge tapes that you could pop in and out to make corrections with the corrections tape cartridge. SO HIGH TECH.
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I got the first version of Dragon Naturally Speaking. And my husband had a Palm Pilot that he used a lot. Did everyone have a “car phone”?
I had a bag phone in 1994. H insisted as I had a 55 mile commute each way. That phone was great and got better service than my cell phone today. The bag phone is long gone, but I still have my same phone number.
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I never personally knew anyone with a car phone but years ago, alone, at night, snowing, in the middle of nowhere PA on rte 80, maybe 1/2 through a 10-hour drive, I had a tire blowout. A trucker stopped and let me use his car phone to call AAA. As I recall I refused to get in the truck but was able to pull the phone just far enough toward me so that I could use it. I refused his offer to stay in the truck while I waited for the tow truck. But I was super grateful he stopped and that he had that car phone! (Tow truck came, I spent the night in a motel, can’t remember now if I had to get a new tire there or if this was in the days of full-sized spares but I do know there was no way I was getting back in the car again that night).
Sometime in the late 80s, DH bought a Ford Probe and a car phone with one of his commission checks. He thought he was so cool.
My husband too…but he was driving a different car. Funny thing…we still have the same cell phone number we got with that bag phone! It’s the one DH uses.
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This scene from Fast Times from Ridgemont High captured it perfectly:
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