Dept. of Me, Me, Me!

[kaffy_r]

I've Been Thinking

I am old enough* that seeing an airplane go overhead was cause to run out of the house and look to the skies when I was growing up.
I am old enough that the first telephone number I remember was 884. 
I am old enough that I remember the excitement when they put a transmitter up that allowed us to get our second television station. In black and white.
I am old enough that I learned to type on a 1930s-era Remington.
I am old enough to remember bristol board, manila paper, paper with the wood chips still in it, and school tests printed in purple aniline dye by a spirit duplicator** 
I am old enough that my first comic book cost 8 cents. It went up to 12 cents when I was in fourth or fifth grade. 
I am old enough to remember Boer War veterans coming to the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day.***
I am old enough to have listened to the funeral of John F. Kennedy piped through my school classroom****
I am old enough to have sent a telegram unselfconsciously. 


I am still young enough to relish all those things.


* .. and lived as a child in a rural enough area ... but it was not in a wilderness.
** or Ditto machine.
***  Hey, I was very young, and the two of them were very old. Very old. 
**** And I was in Canada. 

Comments

[maruad.livejournal.com]

I remember many of those and, although we had 7 number local telephone numbers, we had a party line which meant the phone had two different sets of rings (one long, two short for us) so we would know who the phone call was for. My relatives, who farmed near Portage la Prairie, had a lot more people on their party line. You could listen in on the other person(s) calls but it was considered bad manners.

I don't remember 8 cent comic books but I do remember 10 cent comics.

When we got our second English language TV station, our TV would only give us a fuzzy picture at first. It turns out a layer of duct had accumulated on the contacts of the channel changer. The dust was slowly worn away by my sister and myself repeatedly checking the new station (CJAY).

[kaffy_r]

I don't remember 8 cent comic books but I do remember 10 cent comics.

BB is telling me that I may have mis-remembered the 8 cent comics, and that I may only be remembering the 10 cent books, so we're probably in the same cohort.

People who lived outside of town still had a party line system at least until I was a young teenager.

It turns out a layer of dust had accumulated on the contacts of the channel changer.

Heh; well after all, it was back when having another channel to change to was a rarity.