Remember When
Quote: billryan
You get out of Christmas what you put into Christmas. Make it exciting. Adopt a family of someone you know is struggling. Help make a wish come true. Make it magical again. Give a homeless person a warm hat and gloves.
You still have the Christmas magic in you. You need to let it out.
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Christmas magic when you're a kid comes from the fact that you're extremely naive. Once that's gone it never comes back no matter how hard you try. You have your own kids and you see it happening with them but for you it's mostly just a bunch of work. Christmas is alike heroin. The first high you get with heroin is the best high you'll ever get from heroin. All the rest of the times you do it after that you're just trying to get that first experience again. It's the same with Christmas but no matter how hard you try you can never get that back. You can never be 7 years old again.
Quote: EvenBobQuote: billryan
You get out of Christmas what you put into Christmas. Make it exciting. Adopt a family of someone you know is struggling. Help make a wish come true. Make it magical again. Give a homeless person a warm hat and gloves.
You still have the Christmas magic in you. You need to let it out.
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Christmas magic when you're a kid comes from the fact that you're extremely naive. Once that's gone it never comes back no matter how hard you try. You have your own kids and you see it happening with them but for you it's mostly just a bunch of work. Christmas is alike heroin. The first high you get with heroin is the best high you'll ever get from heroin. All the rest of the times you do it after that you're just trying to get that first experience again. It's the same with Christmas but no matter how hard you try you can never get that back. You can never be 7 years old again.
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You've never experienced the joy of giving, but it is never too late. All you have to do is believe.
Quote: billryanQuote: AZDuffmanRemember when you were a kid and right around now you would be counting the hours until Christmas? In Catholic school you usually started counting days when Advent started, which could be as early as the last Sunday in November. Which was kind of a fun thing since the count started earlier. By the last week you counted hours. Then you got to Christmas Eve Eve, which later became Festivus. That was the big thing as school might only have been a half day and you didn't do much of anything.
Then you get old and it is not a big deal at all. That week after Christmas can be nothing special to just useless killing time depending on where you work and how your business works.
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You get out of Christmas what you put into Christmas. Make it exciting. Adopt a family of someone you know is struggling. Help make a wish come true. Make it magical again. Give a homeless person a warm hat and gloves.
You still have the Christmas magic in you. You need to let it out.
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I do some of that but it will never be the same. I worked the last two Christmas days and it really felt like nothing to do so. Calendar magic gives me Christmas Eve and day off this year. I really don’t care as I he ave nowhere to go until later in he day. I don’t decorate at all. I will walk my small town and feel the apocalypse feel you get with everything closed. I do like that feel. It’s like living a movie empty street expecting some black guy to pull me off the street and ask me if I’m crazy walking out there with zombies everywhere blah blah. Then I’ll sit in my hot tub on Christmas Day to know I did. Then kill time.
Counting the hours like when I was a kid? I write the date at work and wonder where the year went.
Side note: Remember when you could not get near your local mall today the Saturday before Christmas? This was the busiest shopping day of the year all the last minute buys. You don’t see that now like in the late 80s.
Quote: billryanIn the late 1970s, my fraternity would be hired to help with traffic and security on Black Friday and the Saturday before Christmas. Traffic at the mall was overwhelming and would sometimes back up on the parkway exits. It was a horrible job, but it was two shifts a year.
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My local mall it could take you an hour to circle the place for all the traffic. I am sure it was not the only one. That mall is now being torn down. When I was a kid the old people would say how busy downtown was before the mall. Now I tell the kids how busy that mall was. It was a ghost town it’s last 5 Christmases or do.
Quote: AZDuffmanQuote: billryanIn the late 1970s, my fraternity would be hired to help with traffic and security on Black Friday and the Saturday before Christmas. Traffic at the mall was overwhelming and would sometimes back up on the parkway exits. It was a horrible job, but it was two shifts a year.
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My local mall it could take you an hour to circle the place for all the traffic. I am sure it was not the only one. That mall is now being torn down. When I was a kid the old people would say how busy downtown was before the mall. Now I tell the kids how busy that mall was. It was a ghost town it’s last 5 Christmases or do.
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I don't remember the last time I went to a mall. I I had to guess I may have been to a mall twice in the last 15 years.
Quote: billryanQuote: EvenBobQuote: billryan
You get out of Christmas what you put into Christmas. Make it exciting. Adopt a family of someone you know is struggling. Help make a wish come true. Make it magical again. Give a homeless person a warm hat and gloves.
You still have the Christmas magic in you. You need to let it out.
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Christmas magic when you're a kid comes from the fact that you're extremely naive. Once that's gone it never comes back no matter how hard you try. You have your own kids and you see it happening with them but for you it's mostly just a bunch of work. Christmas is alike heroin. The first high you get with heroin is the best high you'll ever get from heroin. All the rest of the times you do it after that you're just trying to get that first experience again. It's the same with Christmas but no matter how hard you try you can never get that back. You can never be 7 years old again.
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You've never experienced the joy of giving, but it is never too late. All you have to do is believe.
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Sure I have, who hasn't. And the so-called Joy of giving diminishes as time goes on, just like everything does. You seem to have all these things in your life that you say bring you Joy yet you are one of the most joyless people I've ever seen. You might have the record on the Forum for being suspended for personal insults and trolling. You even got suspended for 6 months not that long ago. Since then it's obvious you are trying to present yourself in a different way, but it ain't working for me. I don't like you, I'll never like you no matter how you try and paint yourself.
Quote: EvenBobQuote: billryanQuote: EvenBobQuote: billryan
You get out of Christmas what you put into Christmas. Make it exciting. Adopt a family of someone you know is struggling. Help make a wish come true. Make it magical again. Give a homeless person a warm hat and gloves.
You still have the Christmas magic in you. You need to let it out.
link to original post
Christmas magic when you're a kid comes from the fact that you're extremely naive. Once that's gone it never comes back no matter how hard you try. You have your own kids and you see it happening with them but for you it's mostly just a bunch of work. Christmas is alike heroin. The first high you get with heroin is the best high you'll ever get from heroin. All the rest of the times you do it after that you're just trying to get that first experience again. It's the same with Christmas but no matter how hard you try you can never get that back. You can never be 7 years old again.
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You've never experienced the joy of giving, but it is never too late. All you have to do is believe.
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Sure I have, who hasn't. And the so-called Joy of giving diminishes as time goes on, just like everything does. You seem to have all these things in your life that you say bring you Joy yet you are one of the most joyless people I've ever seen. You might have the record on the Forum for being suspended for personal insults and trolling. You even got suspended for 6 months not that long ago. Since then it's obvious you are trying to present yourself in a different way, but it ain't working for me. I don't like you, I'll never like you no matter how you try and paint yourself.
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The Spirit of Christmas runs deep in this one.
Quote: DRichQuote: AZDuffmanQuote: billryanIn the late 1970s, my fraternity would be hired to help with traffic and security on Black Friday and the Saturday before Christmas. Traffic at the mall was overwhelming and would sometimes back up on the parkway exits. It was a horrible job, but it was two shifts a year.
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My local mall it could take you an hour to circle the place for all the traffic. I am sure it was not the only one. That mall is now being torn down. When I was a kid the old people would say how busy downtown was before the mall. Now I tell the kids how busy that mall was. It was a ghost town it’s last 5 Christmases or do.
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I don't remember the last time I went to a mall. I I had to guess I may have been to a mall twice in the last 15 years.
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I saw a piece recently said in the 80s the average person was at a mall once a week now it is twice a year. Sounds about right. I go if I am needing glasses sometimes. I do use one local mall for a meet and pickup place when I am carpooling on gigs so if early I’ll cruise the place get some exercise. Other than that little reason to go head days. I’m n the 80s there was as just more there that you bought.
Quote: AZDuffmanQuote: DRichQuote: AZDuffmanQuote: billryanIn the late 1970s, my fraternity would be hired to help with traffic and security on Black Friday and the Saturday before Christmas. Traffic at the mall was overwhelming and would sometimes back up on the parkway exits. It was a horrible job, but it was two shifts a year.
link to original post
My local mall it could take you an hour to circle the place for all the traffic. I am sure it was not the only one. That mall is now being torn down. When I was a kid the old people would say how busy downtown was before the mall. Now I tell the kids how busy that mall was. It was a ghost town it’s last 5 Christmases or do.
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I don't remember the last time I went to a mall. I I had to guess I may have been to a mall twice in the last 15 years.
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I saw a piece recently said in the 80s the average person was at a mall once a week now it is twice a year. Sounds about right. I go if I am needing glasses sometimes. I do use one local mall for a meet and pickup place when I am carpooling on gigs so if early I’ll cruise the place get some exercise. Other than that little reason to go head days. I’m n the 80s there was as just more there that you bought.
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The last time I went to a mall was in the 90s. To give you an idea of what our big local mall is like now, they issued a statement that there is a 3:00 p.m. curfew on any teenager under 18 years old. Reason being malls are now hangouts for small time teenage criminals and they are especially rampant at Christmas time. Their favorite thing to do is 8 or 10 of them go into to a store and grab whatever they can and run away. I won't even tell you who they are, I'll give you three guesses. It's the spirit of Christmas on display for all to see.
Quote: billryanQuote: EvenBobQuote: billryanQuote: EvenBobQuote: billryan
You get out of Christmas what you put into Christmas. Make it exciting. Adopt a family of someone you know is struggling. Help make a wish come true. Make it magical again. Give a homeless person a warm hat and gloves.
You still have the Christmas magic in you. You need to let it out.
link to original post
Christmas magic when you're a kid comes from the fact that you're extremely naive. Once that's gone it never comes back no matter how hard you try. You have your own kids and you see it happening with them but for you it's mostly just a bunch of work. Christmas is alike heroin. The first high you get with heroin is the best high you'll ever get from heroin. All the rest of the times you do it after that you're just trying to get that first experience again. It's the same with Christmas but no matter how hard you try you can never get that back. You can never be 7 years old again.
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You've never experienced the joy of giving, but it is never too late. All you have to do is believe.
link to original post
Sure I have, who hasn't. And the so-called Joy of giving diminishes as time goes on, just like everything does. You seem to have all these things in your life that you say bring you Joy yet you are one of the most joyless people I've ever seen. You might have the record on the Forum for being suspended for personal insults and trolling. You even got suspended for 6 months not that long ago. Since then it's obvious you are trying to present yourself in a different way, but it ain't working for me. I don't like you, I'll never like you no matter how you try and paint yourself.
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The Spirit of Christmas runs deep in this one.
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Go back and read some of your own posts that you were suspended for over the last few years and then come and talk to us about Christmas spirit. Why, it's almost like you have two different personalities. I wonder which one is real.
Quote: EvenBobQuote: billryanQuote: EvenBobQuote: billryanQuote: EvenBobQuote: billryan
You get out of Christmas what you put into Christmas. Make it exciting. Adopt a family of someone you know is struggling. Help make a wish come true. Make it magical again. Give a homeless person a warm hat and gloves.
You still have the Christmas magic in you. You need to let it out.
link to original post
Christmas magic when you're a kid comes from the fact that you're extremely naive. Once that's gone it never comes back no matter how hard you try. You have your own kids and you see it happening with them but for you it's mostly just a bunch of work. Christmas is alike heroin. The first high you get with heroin is the best high you'll ever get from heroin. All the rest of the times you do it after that you're just trying to get that first experience again. It's the same with Christmas but no matter how hard you try you can never get that back. You can never be 7 years old again.
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You've never experienced the joy of giving, but it is never too late. All you have to do is believe.
link to original post
Sure I have, who hasn't. And the so-called Joy of giving diminishes as time goes on, just like everything does. You seem to have all these things in your life that you say bring you Joy yet you are one of the most joyless people I've ever seen. You might have the record on the Forum for being suspended for personal insults and trolling. You even got suspended for 6 months not that long ago. Since then it's obvious you are trying to present yourself in a different way, but it ain't working for me. I don't like you, I'll never like you no matter how you try and paint yourself.
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The Spirit of Christmas runs deep in this one.
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Go back and read some of your own posts that you were suspended for over the last few years and then come and talk to us about Christmas spirit. Why, it's almost like you have two different personalities. I wonder which one is real.
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Stranger things have happened on the Road to Damascus. I'm a very different person than I was five or ten years ago, and vastly different than twenty five years ago. Back then, my destination was of utmost import. Now the Journey is everything.
Satori.
A roll of paper towels would last a month in my house in the 1950s, you just didn't use them unless you wanted to get your hand slapped by your parents. They were considered a luxury and not to be squandered. This is one of the earliest body commercials, a new invention from Procter & Gamble it says.
Quote: AZDuffmanI saw a piece recently said in the 80s the average person was at a mall once a week now it is twice a year. Sounds about right. I go if I am needing glasses sometimes. I do use one local mall for a meet and pickup place when I am carpooling on gigs so if early I’ll cruise the place get some exercise. Other than that little reason to go head days. I’m n the 80s there was as just more there that you bought.
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I know one of the local casino bus tour companies uses local strip malls as pickup and dropoff points. The malls are happy to appear busier, and might get some trade if people need to pick up a few things on their way home.
Quote: rxwineRemember when you saw the first weird thing on the Internet?
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Be more specific. What's weird to some people is normal to somebody else.
Quote: EvenBobQuote: rxwineRemember when you saw the first weird thing on the Internet?
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Be more specific. What's weird to some people is normal to somebody else.
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I agree, I can't think of anything weird I have seen on the internet. I expect to see unusual things online that I will probably never see in person.
Quote: DRichQuote: EvenBobQuote: rxwineRemember when you saw the first weird thing on the Internet?
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Be more specific. What's weird to some people is normal to somebody else.
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I agree, I can't think of anything weird I have seen on the internet. I expect to see unusual things online that I will probably never see in person.
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I was late to the internet and was stunned and amused when someone turned me on to People of Walmart.
Quote: billryanQuote: DRichQuote: EvenBobQuote: rxwineRemember when you saw the first weird thing on the Internet?
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Be more specific. What's weird to some people is normal to somebody else.
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I agree, I can't think of anything weird I have seen on the internet. I expect to see unusual things online that I will probably never see in person.
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I was late to the internet and was stunned and amused when someone turned me on to People of Walmart.
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I was trying to come up with something, but nowadays nothing I came across in the early years sounds too weird. I was going to offer the site of a guy posting pictures of himself in rubber suits. Circa 1990’s. The site hoping humans would become extinct. Not sure when I saw that second one.
I do miss the days when there were no ads anywhere.
hitchhiking - I did a lot of it in my late teens
nobody does it anymore - at least where I live which is near a big city - the fear factor is too great
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Quote: rxwine
I was trying to come up with something, but nowadays nothing I came across in the early years sounds too weird. I was going to offer the site of a guy posting pictures of himself in rubber suits. Circa 1990’s. The site hoping humans would become extinct. Not sure when I saw that second one.
I do remember a site called RateMyPoo. People would take pictures of their craps and others would rate them.
I just saw that Taco Bell is selling chicken nuggets. What is the world coming to? At least have the courtesy to call them Pollo nuggets.
some advertising jingles and words from back in the day that stuck in my head:
"When you brush your teeth with Pepsodent you'll wonder where the yellow went"
"Nestles makes the very best Chooooooooclate"_____________(no it didn't)
"Cheerio-eeeey-oes"
"When you're out of Schlitz_____________YOU'RE OUT OF BEER"
"Call Roto-Rooter that's the name - and away go troubles down the drain"
"Winston tastes good like a (clap clap) cigarette should"
"Tareyton - I'd rather fight than switch"_____________"Tareyton is better - Charcoal is why"__________exactly - Charcoal is so very delicious______(-:/
"Come to where the flavor is - come to Marlboro Country______I smoked for about 25 years before I quit - how idiotic - but I was addicted
the Electric Chair was used for capital punishment beginning in 1890 after several botched hangings
although most states have banned it for various reasons it was used as late as 2020 in Tennessee
there have been several botched executions
Jesse Tafero in 1990 in Florida required 3 shocks over 7 minutes for it to finally end his life as his head and face caught fire
in 1946 the chair failed to kill Willie Francis and the State had to go to Court to able to shock him again which they did and he finally died
it is still available in several States as an option
before the Electric Chair the primary method of execution in the U.S. was by hanging, there were also some firing squad executions
some States still allow firing squad executions and a man in Utah was killed by a firing squad in 2010
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_chair#Botched_executions
Quote: lilredrooster.
the Electric Chair was used for capital punishment beginning in 1890 after several botched hangings
although most states have banned it for various reasons it was used as late as 2020 in Tennessee
there have been several botched executions
Jesse Tafero in 1990 in Florida required 3 shocks over 7 minutes for it to finally end his life as his head and face caught fire
in 1946 the chair failed to kill Willie Francis and the State had to go to Court to able to shock him again which they did and he finally died
it is still available in several States as an option
before the Electric Chair the primary method of execution in the U.S. was by hanging, there were also some firing squad executions
some States still allow firing squad executions and a man in Utah was killed by a firing squad in 2010
I have heard that the electric chair looks worse than it feels. But I would take firing squad given the choice.
.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_chair#Botched_executions
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And on phones, remember when they made it out like they needed 4 minutes to trace a call? Saw someone get IIRC federal charges believing that, or she was just stupid.
Quote: AZDuffmanRemember when TV soaps would show people having the phone brought out to them in a fancy restaurant either to make or take a call? Did fancy places actually do this?
And on phones, remember when they made it out like they needed 4 minutes to trace a call? Saw someone get IIRC federal charges believing that, or she was just stupid.
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I've seen them do that in 1940s movies where they would bring a phone dragging the cord behind them all the way out to a table for an important customer. And some movies they would bring the phone with a cord and there would be a phone jack near the table and they would plug it in.
Quote: EvenBobQuote: AZDuffmanRemember when TV soaps would show people having the phone brought out to them in a fancy restaurant either to make or take a call? Did fancy places actually do this?
And on phones, remember when they made it out like they needed 4 minutes to trace a call? Saw someone get IIRC federal charges believing that, or she was just stupid.
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I've seen them do that in 1940s movies where they would bring a phone dragging the cord behind them all the way out to a table for an important customer. And some movies they would bring the phone with a cord and there would be a phone jack near the table and they would plug it in.
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Most Officer's Clubs had jacks and a phone could be brought to the table.
In the late 70s, there was a club in Fort Lauderdale called 305. Each table had a phone and a four digit extension. It seems trite now, but calling a table and speaking to a strange girl was part of spring break.
There were looplines (numbers that two or more anonymous people could call and talk to each other), theft-of-service methods (The best known one being the Cap'n Crunch whistle, whistling at 2600 Hz), the payphone hobby where you called and answered payphones in auspicious locations, 800 number stuff, 700 number stuff, other categories of special numbers intended for use by someone other than you, the obscene phone call hobby (which culminated in an in-person encounter with disturbing frequency) and that was all without a modem. It was fun!
Quote: AutomaticMonkeyRemember "phreaking?" It was playing with the phone, for fun and profit. Being it was popular around the time when modems started becoming widely available it was treated as a subset of hacking, although it wasn't always.
There were looplines (numbers that two or more anonymous people could call and talk to each other), theft-of-service methods (The best known one being the Cap'n Crunch whistle, whistling at 2600 Hz), the payphone hobby where you called and answered payphones in auspicious locations, 800 number stuff, 700 number stuff, other categories of special numbers intended for use by someone other than you, the obscene phone call hobby (which culminated in an in-person encounter with disturbing frequency) and that was all without a modem. It was fun!
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Around 1979, my best friend got into that, and early bulletin boards. He became obsessed with it and probably avoided jail because his parents refused to get a second line, and his phone use was restricted. With different interests, we drifted apart. Eventually, he opened a beeper store and got in trouble selling cloned phones but avoided prison.
why did that happen?Quote: AutomaticMonkeythe obscene phone call hobby (which culminated in an in-person encounter with disturbing frequency)...
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Back in those days you didn't have caller ID so you could do obscene phone calls with close to zero risk as long as you didn't keep calling the same person, getting Ma Bell investigators working on the case. I have to say I don't think much of that "hobby", just to be clear
without the caller ID system, movies and TV would show the cops trying to trace phone calls from kidnappers trying to get ransom money. Even though they had it all set up for the phone company to start the tracing process immediately, it took a minute or so [at least they showed it that way] and the crook would always hang up in time. I'm sure we all have seen those movies and shows, but I think it was a factual thing that the police would attempt to do in such cases
Quote: odiousgambitwhy did that happen?Quote: AutomaticMonkeythe obscene phone call hobby (which culminated in an in-person encounter with disturbing frequency)...
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Back in those days you didn't have caller ID so you could do obscene phone calls with close to zero risk as long as you didn't keep calling the same person, getting Ma Bell investigators working on the case. I have to say I don't think much of that "hobby", just to be clear
without the caller ID system, movies and TV would show the cops trying to trace phone calls from kidnappers trying to get ransom money. Even though they had it all set up for the phone company to start the tracing process immediately, it took a minute or so [at least they showed it that way] and the crook would always hang up in time. I'm sure we all have seen those movies and shows, but I think it was a factual thing that the police would attempt to do in such cases
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I mean back then, it wasn't that hard to find a girl sitting alone at home on a Friday night willing to talk to an obscene phone caller, and sometimes she'd invite you over. Local calls were free so an anonymous caller was probably within a few miles of you. Socialization was different back then and your landline was half of it. Also why I was never shocked or surprised to find out that sending private pics from your phone to someone you just met is within social norms for a certain younger crowd. Kind of the same thing earlier generations did, just with a GUI instead of command line.
The call tracing methods depended on the kind of equipment being used by that phone system and it was still mostly electromechanical switches and from the 60s on the same offices had to accommodate both touch tone and rotary dialing. If it was a toll call there would eventually be a billing record of it, but that wouldn't be dramatic enough for a cop show. I remember after the Bell breakup and when you could buy and install your own phone, all the irregular equipment coming online caused hell to break out on some systems.
The below was the first and only "underground" comic I bought from a specialty store. Yup, lost the will to live and never bought another.
I remember their absence by 1997.
Diamond controls about 75% of the business. Still, they already have a buyer for their profitable game distribution network, and their European operation reverts back to the previous owners if Diamond goes bankrupt.
I've mixed feelings about Geppi and Diamond, but I expect the company will survive in a slimmed-down version of itself.
Quote: DieterI remember seeing comic book displays in grocery stores around 1994.
I remember their absence by 1997.
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I have not read a comic book since 1963. Before then I read hundreds of them.
