I remember my neighbor had a TV set in 1949 where we all watched Howdy Doody and other great shows, but other than that the lady is right.

i aree you can notlet your brain rot

I agree with you.

Now, I was born before TV. I remember sitting around the radio quite well.

We got our first TV in 1952...the year she was born. BUT, we would go and visit an aunt and uncle who had a TV before that. Probably starting aroun 1949, as was your situation.

Most people didn't have TV around that time...but TV was there. And, NO WAY would this woman remember pre-TV (as I do) unless she lived in a log cabin with an outhouse...as did cabbie. lol

Yes, and Howdy Doodie was a big one, "back in the day".

I could add things that go back before the "virtual grandma" above...but things that I remember vividly. When I was a young boy:

We didn't yet have a refrigerator. We had an ice box. The iceman truly did cometh. He'd carry the ice on his shoulder (protected with a pad), gripped with a huge pair of ice tongs. Bring it in and place it in the ice box.

We had cobble-stone streets.

I took an electric trolley car to school in the early days. (Sometimes...mostly I had to walk.)

At school, there were air-raid drills and we had to practice when the siren went off by hiding under our desks.

Our desks had ink wells. For writing, we had a nib pen that we'd dip into the ink well.

Learning "penmanship" was a big thing.

Since there was no TV, the radio was magical..."The Shadow", "My Friend Irma", "Gunsmoke", "Amos and Andy", "Blondie", "Lone Ranger"...

I had an aunt and uncle who had an outhouse. I grew up in the city, in an apartment building. Some of my friends didn't have a bath room...there was a common usage one "down the hall".

We were fortunate to have a bathroom. The toilet tank was up toward the ceiling (like in the Godfather movie where Al Pacino reached up behind it and got his handgun). It had a pull chain...you'd raise your hand, grasp the handle and pull it down as if it were attached to a riverboat whistle.

We did have a porcelain bathtub, the kind with four legs. No shower though. That came later. You took a bath in the tub. Some people, who didn't have a bath tub would take a "sponge bath"...wipe yourself with a rag and soap from the kitchen sink.

The aunt and uncle with the outhouse...well...they also had a hand pump outside and you'd hand-pump the water from the well.

Cars had "running boards". Also, only manual transmissions and rolldown windows. No air conditioners. High-beam light switch was on the floor...as was the clutch for the manual transmission.

These are just a few things...I'm tired of typing with two fingers. Which reminds me...manual typewriters with carbon paper and onion skin paper for copies (no copy machines).

I'll tell you, though... Did we miss the modern conveniences? Not at all. You don't miss that which doesn't yet exist. I do like all the modern stuff...I'd be dead already without the medical improvements...yet there is also a fondness for the simpler times..."the good old days". lol

Thanks for all of the recent posts;

Javan64: Good grief, you are right about the price of that Chess set, that is a big chunck of cash for that type of item.

Mr.e4---: Yes we did indeed have an Outhouse years ago. As the Winters get cold up here we also had a 5 gallon pail in the basement ( with a lid on it  lol ) for periods of bad weather. The " honey " pail was emptied outside every morning. There was no running water but we heated with coal so the place was quite warm in the Winter.  

On the subject of the Fischer - Spassky Match I see that Youtube has a video clip of Bobby Fischer's interview on the Dick Cavett Show available. That is a very interesting interview to be sure.

Tonight I watched that HBO special (from last year) about Bobby Fischer--how utterly sad it was...I could only think that his mother was a rotten b**ch to basically leave him alone so much of the time during his younger years.

Thanks for the info Javan64. I haven't had the chance to see that HBO special yet but as you say and from what I've read Fischer's Mom was not the best Parent ( which might explain a few things ). 

On a nostalgic note, I keep being reminded that the decline of the old "respect your elders" mores (yes, I know the ancient Greeks complained about it, too!) can't help but keep gainning momentum as the rate of technology change speeds up expotentially.  Inevitably, It'll be harder every year for young adults to even conceive of any value in their grandparents' "life wisdom," when the old folks are clearly So ignorant of even the simplest current communication skills ("Grandpa, Nobody "twitters" any more!) 

I do worry about the poor dears when they start families without enough of the skills they'll need ---the ones that only get developed in face to face, in the same room, human interactions.  (Sorry, Facetime is good, but it leaves out touch, smell, subtle sounds and visual shifts with movement, the total impact of sharing the same space--- all elements of real communication.)

I apologize for quoting Donald Rumsfeld, but I do think of him, in his charcteristic arrogant snarky tone, pointing out rightly that "the Things We Know we don't know" are Different from "the Things We Don't Know we don't know."  It's that last bunch of things, of course, that really should scare us.

So I hope while we're researching all these planet-saving, species-saving hard science areas, we also put some real investment in keeping on learning what it is that we still don't know we still don't know about being human.

(Whew!  Now, at least, I Know what I Didn't Know --- I was going to write an "essay!")

Well, you and I have the fine privilege of having been born in the same year as Bobby Fischer. lol

As far as wisdom, I have teenage grandchildren (two of them are now 13). They are getting to the point where they are about to give my adult children a "run for the money" (nobody says that anymore). I am smiling in anticipation.

I'll bet you are!!

Chess for Oldtimers --- Good Idea !

hmm. Along the same lines as crossword-puzzles & suduko ?

Yes is a good-idea. Up to 75yrs old or so.

Checked your rating ---looks like a little more of our famous age-peer rubbed off on you, darn the luck...

Thanks for all of the recent comments. I do a few Crossword puzzles now and then but I've never tried Suduko ( I used to think that was a dish, like Chop Suey  lol ).

to motherinlaw:

I'm not all that good. But luck has nothing to do with it. Two to three hours a day is all it takes...and years.

Many seem to believe that being competent at chess is something other than it is. Playing the piano well...that's a good simile.

For me, the question is why am I not better than I am? For one, I don't put in eight hours per day.

A Q for you... How much work do you put into chess improvement?  Do you even want to improve?

I suspect that you are in it for the fun. And, that's OK, too. 

Rubbish e4 ! You cannot '' learn '' to play the piano competently. Requires good-ear for the nuances & subtleties of music ( which wears off as we age ) Chess is the same. No amount of study will take you beyond your inherent rating-threshhold or capability. Kidding yourself on if you think otherwise.

You cannot '' learn '' to be a GM because OTB there is only yourself, the time-limit & the position on the  board. No possibility of scurrying around for reference-materials.

My...my...testy little bugger. You seem to be scratching for a fight, I see.

You have put words in my mouth that I did not say. Show me where I said that if I or anyone were to put in the effort that they could be a grandmaster?

The piano reference was simply to illustrate that it takes much work to excel at the piano, just as it does in chess. In neither case did I indicate that the person involved could necessarily be world class. What are you smoking?!

And, the only way I really like to play chess IS OTB. I have refrained from playing online until only recently.

Go stick your head in the toilet and press the flush lever. It's on me. 

Grumpy old coot. Can also be a sign of advancing years.. 

See...you just prove yourself to be the snot-nosed young punk that you are. You have no respect for the elderly...exactly as has been discussed. Bad potty training?

I was talking to my peers...fellow "old timers". You are not such. You come barging into the party and throw a beer in my face and then you ad hominem me and follow up with irrelevant tripe.

The odd thing is, you already have had me on your blocked list. It is bad form to launch an attack on someone whom you've blocked. This is queer, indeed and it speaks volumes about you and your malevolence.

So, take your rabid rants and go for a long hike on a short pier.