15 years ago...

[Balkin]

Interesting web site...

Aug 24 - Carol Mann wins LPGA Tournament of Champs Golf Tournament
Aug 24 - Peru nationalizes US oil interests
Aug 25 - Det Lions beat Boston Patriots 22-9 in Montr‚al (NFL expo)

Top Songs
Everyday People by Sly & the Family Stone
In the Year 2525 by Zager & Evans
Honky Tonk Women by Rolling Stones
Wedding Bell Blues by Fifth Dimension
Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In by Fifth Dimension
I Can't Get Next to You by Temptations
Get Back by Beatles (with Billy Preston)
Sugar, Sugar by Archies
Dizzy by Tommy Roe
Crimson & Clover by Tommy James & the Shondells

Prices
Bread: $0.23/loaf
Milk: $1.26/gal
Eggs: $1.14/doz
Car: $3,400
Gas: $0.35/gal
House: $27,900
Stamp: $0.06/ea
Avg Income: $10,577/yr
Min Wage: $1.60/hr
DOW Avg: 800

I was born mere days after the first landing on the moon. I do remember watching some telecast news about some of the later moon walks though.

[Aryse Andenter]

I dread the day I have to tell my children that I remember getting my first computer. I'm sure they'll all look at me just the way I did at my mom when she told me she remembered when her family got their first real fridge.

[Draggar]

I dread the day I have to tell my children that I remember getting my first computer. I'm sure they'll all look at me just the way I did at my mom when she told me she remembered when her family got their first real fridge.

Mine was a Vic20. I also had an Atari2600.

[Zuklaak]

Ack, I'm ancient!

Bread: $0.20/loaf
Milk: $1.04/gal
Eggs: $0.90/doz
Car: $2,275
Gas: $0.31/gal
House: $18,500
Stamp: $0.04/ea
Avg Income: $6,227/yr
Min Wage: $1.00/hr
DOW Avg: 616

[LadyAnnaAnna]

My first computer was a Commodore64 that I figured out how to put together myself. Keep in mind that this was my parent's OLD computer.
I admit:
I a child of the 80's! ACK!
At least I never had a major fixation with Michael Jackson. I survived that scaryness.

LayAnnaAnna
12th Cleric of Rodcet Nife
Maelin Starpyre
Leader of Tradeskills Union
Aspiring TradeGoddess

[splunge]

Vic=20 (with a TAPE DRIVE! UBAR!), C=64, C=128... good times.
I dont remember Nixon or Ford, but i remember Carter.

Blah i feel old.. =(

[Kheera]

TRS-80 .... Model I. Never in my life saw another Model I, wish my parents had kept it, now; Model III's and the rare IV were all over the schools but never saw a II (did they exist?) or another I. It loaded programs from regular audio tapes, using a Radio Shack tape player.

Then when it fried, got upgraded to an Apple IIe. It had a 5.25" floppy drive, wooooooow. And actually could do word processing! (All keyboard controlled, remember, this was before mice; evil evil.) Then, print to an incredibly noisy dot matrix printer (start printing then shut the door and go to the other end of the house). Castle Wolfenstein was fun, though it took some imagination to picture the funky things that yelled unintelligibly as dangerous SS troops after you. Played Bard's Tale more often (and occasionally for a kick, hook it up to the TV so I could actually see it in -- whoa -- COLOR). And this funky Koala Pad thing you draw on and it would get translated into the art program in the computer, except it really didn't work very well.

Felt amazing when I saved up $50 to buy my own Atari 2600 and play Asteroids on my own game console.

My first very own computer, the PC era! 486sx/25, with a 240mb hard drive, 4mb RAM, and a 2400 baud modem. No sound or CD, they started showing up in the next generation of computers 6 months later (now I remember all the multimedia kits you could buy to upgrade old computers, get a sound card, CD, speakers, and software, in a box the size of a small suitcase!)

...okay I feel old now.

[Kakg]

Hmmmm.........

News on my Birthday was Apollo 8's voyage to the darkside of the moon with and the first photograph of Earth Rise taken three days later.

http://store3.yimg.com/I/skyimage_1791_1944316

[kiztent]

I a child of the 80's! ACK!
At least I never had a major fixation with Michael Jackson. I survived that scaryness.

Child of the 80s is actually a specific term for the people who came of age in the 80s. You were born in the 80s.

from http://www.80s.com/ChildrenOfTheEighties/ :

You owned a *real* Rubik's cube.
One word: Izod.
You remember when MTV didn't exist. Alternatively you remember when the M stood for Music, not Mundane.
"Alternative" music actually was...and not popular Top 40 tunes.
You were a "wanna be". Madonna, Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Boy George, etc.
"Where's the beef?"
You know how to use a rotary phone.
Max Headroom was cool.
You know how (or wanted to be able) to Moonwalk!
Atari, IntelliVision, TelStar and Coleco were the ultimate gaming systems to own.
Leg warmers and headbands alá Pat Benatar once looked really cool to you.
You remember when Jordache jeans with a flat-handle comb in the back pocket was cool.
Jelly bracelets & shoes!
Your hair defied gravity.
You are still baffled by the "day glo" clothing trend.

[NerissaGoldenrose]

Erm... I think I still have my Max Headroom T-Shirt.

My *second* computer was a C-64... my first was a TS-1000 (TS = Timex-Sinclair) It was about 8" square and rather than disks, we hooked it up to a regular tape recorder and use normal (audio) cassette tapes for the programs we typed in. There weren't too many programs available for it, and even in those days, my brother & I were geeky enough to prefer writing our own to playing someone else's. (Now we both program for a living -- go figure.) None of the programs had any way to "save game" or at all keep track of any data when the program wasn't running, though.

And for those that don't remember (young pups )... in those days, you didn't need a monitor, you hooked the computer up to a television just like you do a console game. ****, I wish I could afford a monitor the size of the old TV that we used to use on the C-64...

Oh, and I'm apparently the same age as the Nerf Ball, Silly String, and Weebles (weebles wobble, but they don't fall down )

[Ngreth Thergn]

TRS-80 .... Model I. Never in my life saw another Model I, wish my parents had kept it, now; Model III's and the rare IV were all over the schools but never saw a II (did they exist?) or another I. It loaded programs from regular audio tapes, using a Radio Shack tape player.

As far as I know. my original TRS-80 Model I (I was 10!!) is still around, and working (my parents have it)

[Thicket Tundrabog]

Hmmmm... not sure I want to admit this, but the week of my birthday, the following occurred.

+ Mickey Mantle hits his first home run.
+ Minnie Minoso becomes the first black to play for the White Sox
+ Ticker-tape parade for General MacArthur in New York City

In my birth year,

+ Top songs included Cold, Cold Heart by Tony Bennett and If by Perry Como
+ Best Actor was Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen
+ TV shows included Amos 'n' Andy, The Roy Rogers Show
+ A top book was Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
+ Minimum wage was $0.75 per hour

/e puts away his formaldehyde cologne.

Thicket

[LadyAnnaAnna]

Child of the 80s is actually a specific term for the people who came of age in the 80s. You were born in the 80s.

One word: Izod.

Hmm... well, who knows. Izod is the only one I don't recognize or identify with. I must have had a good memory as a baby.

LadyAnnaAnna

[Lothay]

And to think, there are people walking around today who have never seen a pull-tab on a soda can. For whom soda bottles were always plastic. Who've never heard of an 8-track.

And someday, 80's clothes will be retro-cool, much like bell-bottoms were a few years ago... because their *grandparents* wore them.

[Froni Thunderpaws]

Thank you Thicket!!!! I was really worried I was going to be the oldest person in the thread AND WE AREN'T OLD!!!

Sad to say, nothing interesting happened on my birthday although Tanzania unified from Tanganyika and Zanzibar two days later (I guess in celebration of my birth. )

I do remember sitting on the floor watching the first moon landing (and I think eating cereal), and all the ruckus about Comet Khohotek (or however it was spelled). Was in utero during the Kennedy assassination which I guess was the biggest timemark before the landing even with all the events of the 60's.