# I REMEMBER WHEN...



## BigElectricKat (Sep 21, 2018)

As autumn has arrived in the northern hemisphere, I thought it would be a good time to look back on all the things we can recollect from our lives. It can be anything at all, such as

I REMEMBER WHEN...

All the members of The Rolling Stones didn't look like death warmed over!


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## AmyJo1976 (Sep 21, 2018)

I remember when mall bangs were as hot as mullets!


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## BigElectricKat (Sep 21, 2018)

I remember when I could look down my body and see my feet! (Thank goodness I can still see my... )


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## LizzieJones (Sep 21, 2018)

I remember when I could ride my bike.


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## LizzieJones (Sep 21, 2018)

I remember when I could ride my bike.


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## LizzieJones (Sep 21, 2018)

BigElectricKat said:


> (Thank goodness I can still see my... )



Belly button?


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## AmyJo1976 (Sep 21, 2018)

BigElectricKat said:


> I remember when I could look down my body and see my feet! (Thank goodness I can still see my... )


I see what you did there


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## BigElectricKat (Sep 21, 2018)

LizzieJones said:


> Belly button?


Ummm... nope.


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## BigElectricKat (Sep 21, 2018)

AmyJo1976 said:


> I see what you did there


Trying to keep it PG.


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## Dr. Feelgood (Sep 21, 2018)

I remember rolling down the ventilator window inn my car in summer to get a breeze.


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## LizzieJones (Sep 21, 2018)

I remember when you actually had to get up from the chair to turn the channel on the telly.


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## BigElectricKat (Sep 21, 2018)

I remember Pro Keds!


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## AmyJo1976 (Sep 21, 2018)

BigElectricKat said:


> I remember Pro Keds!View attachment 131029


Never heard of those. Is that a Canada thing? They look like knockoff Chucks.


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## BigElectricKat (Sep 21, 2018)

AmyJo1976 said:


> Never heard of those. Is that a Canada thing? They look like knockoff Chucks.


No, not a Canada thing. I wore similar shoes in 8th grade. They were somewhat of a rip off of Chucks though. They still make regular Keds these days.


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## AmyJo1976 (Sep 21, 2018)

I remember Keds, they popped up in the late 80s/early 90s. Don't remember those though. Wasn't a big shoe expert though, at least for those type of shoes. Just remember the commercials. The Keds I remember were high-top more like the Nike shoes of those days.


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## LizzieJones (Sep 21, 2018)

AmyJo1976 said:


> Never heard of those. Is that a Canada thing? They look like knockoff Chucks.



Not a Canada thing. Never saw those up here.


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## BigElectricKat (Sep 21, 2018)

AmyJo1976 said:


> I remember Keds, they popped up in the late 80s/early 90s. Don't remember those though. Wasn't a big shoe expert though, at least for those type of shoes. Just remember the commercials. The Keds I remember were high-top more like the Nike shoes of those days.


Pro Keds were around since the 1950's. They became really popular in the 70's with several big-name professional basketball players who endorsed the shoes.


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## BigElectricKat (Sep 21, 2018)

I remember stressing over which to buy: VHS or Beta


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## LizzieJones (Sep 21, 2018)

My stupid ex-husband bought a Beta.


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## BigElectricKat (Sep 21, 2018)

LizzieJones said:


> My stupid ex-husband bought a Beta.


And that tells us all we need to know about him. 'Nuff said.


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## AmyJo1976 (Sep 21, 2018)

BigElectricKat said:


> Pro Keds were around since the 1950's. They became really popular in the 70's with several big-name professional basketball players who endorsed the shoes.


Well, that explains it! Pre 80s I have no idea lol!


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## AmyJo1976 (Sep 21, 2018)

BigElectricKat said:


> I remember stressing over which to buy: VHS or BetaView attachment 131030


We had a beta! For a little while... then we got a VHS.


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## Tad (Sep 21, 2018)

I remember when the attraction of baby sitting was at least in part that they had a VCR and collection of movies that I could watch once I got the kids to bed, when my parents hadn't bought one yet. (I can still rrmrememthe moment of panic when I heard the key in the door and I was watching Risky Business)

PS shouldn't this thread be in The Lounge? (Alternatively, shouldn't The Lounge get merged with this board?)


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## BigElectricKat (Sep 21, 2018)

Tad said:


> I remember when the attraction of baby sitting was at least in part that they had a VCR and collection of movies that I could watch once I got the kids to bed, when my parents hadn't bought one yet. (I can still rrmrememthe moment of panic when I heard the key in the door and I was watching Risky Business)
> 
> PS shouldn't this thread be in The Lounge? (Alternatively, shouldn't The Lounge get merged with this board?)


My bad if I placed this in the wrong forum.


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## LizzieJones (Sep 21, 2018)

I can remember when Dirty Dancing was considered a risque movie.


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## Tad (Sep 21, 2018)

BigElectricKat said:


> My bad if I placed this in the wrong forum.



Not a big deal by any means. 

Back on topic:

I remember when we got a computer (an Apple II 'clone') and a printer, and I discovered the wonders of even the most primitive of word processing. High school essays were never as horrible again!


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## AmyJo1976 (Sep 22, 2018)

I remember the Apple computers! We had one in my sixth grade class in the back of the room. That was the first time I ever saw a computer. 1988 I think. I didn't have my own computer until I was 23 though.


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## LeoGibson (Sep 22, 2018)

AmyJo1976 said:


> I didn't have my own computer until I was 23 though.



I was 25.


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## AmyJo1976 (Sep 22, 2018)

LeoGibson said:


> I was 25.


I guess you win then....


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## Funtastic curves (Sep 22, 2018)

I remember when you got cable on them huge satellite dishes. My God mother was the only one on our block to have cable. All the neighborhood children would gather over their to watch Gremlins. But I also remember after every movie they would pay a wham video "wake me up before you go". oh I was so in love with George Michael.


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## LumpySmile (Sep 22, 2018)

Dr. Feelgood said:


> I remember rolling down the ventilator window inn my car in summer to get a breeze.



And I remember wing windows... Gave superior ventilation


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## LeoGibson (Sep 22, 2018)

AmyJo1976 said:


> I guess you win then....



I think it’s a tie. Since you were ‘76 and I’m ‘74 that means we got it in the same year!


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## AmyJo1976 (Sep 22, 2018)

LeoGibson said:


> I think it’s a tie. Since you were ‘76 and I’m ‘74 that means we got it in the same year!


lol! I will accept a tie!


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## Dr. Feelgood (Sep 22, 2018)

All this talk about computers reminds me: I was the first person in my department to get one. It used DOS, and the only way you could connect with the internet was via the telephone line. I had to unplug my phone to go online. When I got a new computer, my boss wanted my old one, although I knew he was terrified of the thing (but he wanted to brag about his tech savvy to his fellow department chairs). So I gave it to him, and while he was at lunch I quietly unplugged it. I plugged it back in six months later, and he never knew. So much for Dr. Cutting Edge!


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## agouderia (Sep 23, 2018)

Agreed - this thread belongs in the Lounge - so I moved it.

I remember when a fax machine was the "it" technology gadget in an office.

And I bought my first computer when I was 22 - and it was one of the first laptops.


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## DragonFly (Sep 23, 2018)

We mods agree on loving it to the lounge. And no, the main board is for general fatness


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## RabbitScorpion (Sep 23, 2018)

When FM radios were for instrumental music, not vocal.


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## CPProp (Sep 23, 2018)

Radio Caroline's early broadcasts - listening to it and Radio Luxemburg on my self construct radio I had had for christmas.


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## Tad (Sep 23, 2018)

I remember when the big concern upon losing power was loss of food in the fridge, not where you would charge your phone!


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## limitededition (Sep 24, 2018)

When racing was dangerous and sex was safe


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## BigElectricKat (Oct 3, 2018)

Mister Softee



__ BigElectricKat
__ Oct 3, 2018





I remember doing this


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## LizzieJones (Oct 3, 2018)

I did this ...


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## BigElectricKat (Oct 3, 2018)

LizzieJones said:


> I did this ...


There is still one like that in the old movie theater in the town I live in!


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## LumpySmile (Oct 6, 2018)

I remember when you went to the bar for a beer, not cocaine


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## Colonial Warrior (Oct 6, 2018)

BigElectricKat said:


> I remember Pro Keds!View attachment 131029


I still miss those times!!!


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## Colonial Warrior (Oct 6, 2018)

LizzieJones said:


> My stupid ex-husband bought a Beta.


What a huge mistake!!!


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## Colonial Warrior (Oct 6, 2018)

Does anyone remember the Colorado Backpacks sold on Kenney Shoes? Great memories from early 80s!!!


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## CarmellaBombshell (Oct 13, 2018)

I remember when $20.00 used to fill up your gas tank and you still had a few bucks left over!!!!!


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## Colonial Warrior (Oct 16, 2018)

CarmellaBombshell said:


> I remember when $20.00 used to fill up your gas tank and you still had a few bucks left over!!!!!


Yes, it was wonderful when having a $20 bill was a little fortune. Also when comic books were 35 cents!!!


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## Funtastic curves (Oct 16, 2018)

CarmellaBombshell said:


> I remember when $20.00 used to fill up your gas tank and you still had a few bucks left over!!!!!



I agree.

I had a Dodge Neon that took $10 to fill up when gas was .99 cents a gallon.


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## CPProp (Oct 17, 2018)

I can remember my first fill of petrol 6 shillings and 3 pence a gallon in old money (=to £0.32 new money), now it is £1.29 a litre (£5.86 / gallon)


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## Still a Skye fan (Oct 23, 2018)

BigElectricKat said:


> Mister Softee
> 
> 
> 
> ...


We still have Mister Softee trucks making the rounds each summer around here.


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## Funtastic curves (Oct 23, 2018)

Still a Skye fan said:


> We still have Mister Softee trucks making the rounds each summer around here.


Every time I go back home, in the summer time I get excited when i see a Miister Softed. Childhood memories at its best


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## Jerry Thomas (Oct 24, 2018)

I remember when cars didn't have seatbelts, almost everyone smoked, and you could go to the airport and catch a flight without undressing. Happy days!


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## wrenchboy (Nov 4, 2018)

LizzieJones said:


> My stupid ex-husband bought a Beta.


I bought a beta too. Betamax was higher quality and more durable. I seem to remember a story that Amway distributed vhs tapes causing the vhs to become the desired format.


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## Sonic Purity (Nov 5, 2018)

wrenchboy said:


> I bought a beta too. Betamax was higher quality and more durable. I seem to remember a story that Amway distributed vhs tapes causing the vhs to become the desired format.



(Skipping blithely over the fact that no one knows me here and i almost died on 26 Oct. and my life has been upended and it and me are a shattered mess…)

Between 1981 (just out of university) and 1995, i worked professionally in the home A/V repair industry (Resistance Repair, Berkeley, California). Nominally our shop was about audio equipment, and that’s all i did as part of my job (cassette decks, turntables, CD players, etc. etc.). New hires from Pacific Stereo when they went out of business (_another_ I Remember When) had video skills as well, so the shop took on VCR repairs, doing many of them.

This was a small business, and all of us got along well: all the good parts of a collegial atmosphere. I had several conversations with the techs who did video about the whole Beta(max) vs. VHS situation. Wrenchboy is correct that, technologically, Beta was superior to VHS in terms of technical quality, especially in the earlier years. “Durable” depends specifically what one means. Beta machines were *vastly* more electromechanically complex than VHS, and difficult to work on. The video techs had Beta machines at home (and VHS, the way people in an industry tend to collect different things in their industry), but _*hated*_ working on them. They’d rather repair 5 VHS machines to 1 Beta, at least.

I have never heard about Amway having anything to do with the VHS vs. Beta format war. It was more about economics: VHS was cheaper, not enough people cared about the higher quality of (early) Beta, repair techs gave the simpler, often more reliable VHS mechanisms a thumbs up, and content producers did not want to release multiple formats, so most went with VHS (later, if not initially). The ever-greater lack of commercially-released Beta content further reduced the appeal of the (technically superior) format. As well, both formats continued to improve in quality and reliability (though the Beta mechanisms never got simpler, so the repair techs continued to hate them), to the point where the quality delta between Beta and VHS grew lesser and lesser.

By the late 1980s when my then-True Love (life partner/spousal equivalent) wanted us to get a VCR, VHS Hi-Fi was out, and worked pretty well. Having insider information, i knew that JVC, originator of the VHS format, shared most, _but not all_, of its patented innovations. They held some close to the vest, for themselves. Thus their machines performed slightly better than other VHS brands, at that time. Researched and picked a good model (HR-D470U… i’m amazed i still remember that), did a few tweaks the video techs recommended, and got many good years of service out of that deck (until the mid 2000s).

By the 1990s (i don’t recall which year. Mid-decade or later. Think it was after i left the industry), even Sony, originator of the Beta format, threw in the towel: they started making VHS machines, and reduced their Beta lineup until it eventually (i believe, not certain) disappeared. My parents had a Sony VHS deck from 1996 which was quite nice.

Thank you for letting me get out of my usual Mega Lurk Recluse mode from a brief diversion from the ongoing tragedy of what my life has become. This isn’t the place to get all emotional and express my deep, deep gratitude for being allowed to view the Dims forums, and to the many of you whom i feel i kinda a little bit know (even though i don’t, beyond your posts) who are regulars (new, long-term, and in-between), but i know i’m not going to go post this in a more appropriate thread.

Having almost lost my life very suddenly (unexpectedly) and in an excruciatingly painful way, and now struggling day by day to find if i will again have anything like a normal life, i’m appreciating the dawn of each new day like i haven’t in decades. The fatlovesex world/fatosphere has for many years been and remains the _only_ aspect of life of sufficient interest to me to make living worthwhile and give me hope.

After this brief diversion into melancholy, we now return you to your much happier/funnier reminiscences of times and things past. Anyone else in North America remember when lumber dimensions in the insane U.S./Imperial system used to be literal, rather than “dimensional”? E.g. when a 2 x 4 was 2" by 4"? I was dealing with this yesterday, when setting up my bed to try out Inclined Bed Therapy. At this moment there’s a old-growth redwood post which used to be part of an added overhang (taken down a few years ago) to the garage on this 1927 house which is holding up the middle of my bed (under the box springs).


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## CPProp (Nov 21, 2018)

I can remember at work the fastest way to send a written message (telex) was via the telex opertator.


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## abzu (Dec 5, 2018)

I remember when we migrated away from our Holy Mountain after the crops in the valley began to fail. The trek was arduous, and many of us fell along the way until we came to the plane of Shinar, the place of the Three Rivers. Steve wanted to name it Ea'den after our Lord Ea, for by his guidance had we found his garden. But a vote was taken, and we named it Kansas after my brother's daughter, for she was flat and fertile like the plane. There we built the first Ziggurat in memory of our Mountain, and dedicated it to Enlil, Lord of the Air, and his personal trainer, Nigel, whom mortals have largely forgotten. 

I can't remember much before that. Things get really hazy before about 8000BCE.


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## LizzieJones (Jan 1, 2019)

I remember when shopping for the latest Osmond record album was one of my favourite past times.


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## Shotha (Jan 2, 2019)

I remember writing computer code in octal and hexadecimal numbers.


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## Sonic Purity (Jan 4, 2019)

Shotha said:


> I remember writing computer code in octal and hexadecimal numbers.



Peripherally to this, in a private chat Loopy and i have been discussing IBM-style mainframe computer systems, specifically inputting data on punch cards and getting output on printed paper. We’re calling them SSBBCs: Supersized Big, Beautiful Computers.

Retro 1960s fatlovesex nerd erotica story excerpt (i’m just now making up):

****
She was built like an IBM 360/75 CPU: solid and wide, but a *lot* more curvy and infinitely softer. He was smitten, deep in his lusty core dreaming of getting to know her well enough to eventually get into a little folding, perhaps a touch of spindling, but definitely no mutilating.
****


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## Shotha (Jan 5, 2019)

Sonic Purity said:


> Peripherally to this, in a private chat Loopy and i have been discussing IBM-style mainframe computer systems, specifically inputting data on punch cards and getting output on printed paper. We’re calling them SSBBCs: Supersized Big, Beautiful Computers.



And I remember when we used to send the latest trainee to join the programming teams to empty the bit box out. Most fell for the prank. They seemed to think that bits were physical objects that looked something like the little pieces punched out of punched cards.


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## Sonic Purity (Jan 5, 2019)

Shotha said:


> And I remember when we used to send the latest trainee to join the programming teams to empty the bit box out. Most fell for the prank. They seemed to think that bits were physical objects that looked something like the little pieces punched out of punched cards.



Apparently Wikipedia thinks so as well: Bit bucket article.


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## Volt01 (May 8, 2019)

the only foldable device people got exited about was a nintendo DS


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## Shotha (May 8, 2019)

I remember the lamp-lighter coming round the streets to light the gas lamps.


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## Shotha (May 8, 2019)

I remember, when I was the only person in the world, who thought that fat people were beautiful.

I remember, when I was the only person in the world, who wanted to be fat.

These days we have sites, where fat people and their admirers, can meet make friends and find dates. And someone invented the word "gainer".


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