Remember When

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December 20th, 2024 at 7:22:14 PM permalink

Quote: EvenBob
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.
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.

The older I get, the better I recall things that never happened

AZDuffman

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December 21st, 2024 at 3:38:00 AM permalink

Quote: billryan
Quote: AZDuffman
Remember 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.
link to original post

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

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.

All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others

billryan

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December 21st, 2024 at 4:01:23 AM permalink

In 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.

The older I get, the better I recall things that never happened

AZDuffman

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December 21st, 2024 at 5:55:22 AM permalink

Quote: billryan
In 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.

All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others

DRich

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December 21st, 2024 at 6:06:50 AM permalink

Quote: AZDuffman
Quote: billryan
In 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.
link to original post

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.

At my age, a "Life In Prison" sentence is not much of a deterrent.

EvenBob

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December 21st, 2024 at 6:18:29 AM permalink

Quote: billryan
Quote: EvenBob
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.
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.
link to original post

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.

"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."

billryan

Threads: 256
Posts: 17338

Joined: Nov 2, 2009

December 21st, 2024 at 6:44:51 AM permalink

Quote: EvenBob
Quote: billryan
Quote: EvenBob
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.
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.
link to original post

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.
link to original post

The Spirit of Christmas runs deep in this one.

The older I get, the better I recall things that never happened

AZDuffman

Threads: 244
Posts: 14507

Joined: Nov 2, 2009

December 21st, 2024 at 6:49:58 AM permalink

Quote: DRich
Quote: AZDuffman
Quote: billryan
In 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.
link to original post

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.
link to original post

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.

All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others

EvenBob

Threads: 442
Posts: 29713

Joined: Jul 18, 2010

December 21st, 2024 at 6:59:36 AM permalink

Quote: AZDuffman
Quote: DRich
Quote: AZDuffman
Quote: billryan
In 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.
link to original post

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.
link to original post

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.
link to original post

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.

"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."

EvenBob

Threads: 442
Posts: 29713

Joined: Jul 18, 2010

December 21st, 2024 at 7:03:02 AM permalink

Quote: billryan
Quote: EvenBob
Quote: billryan
Quote: EvenBob
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.
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.
link to original post

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.
link to original post

The Spirit of Christmas runs deep in this one.
link to original post

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.

"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."

billryan

Threads: 256
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Joined: Nov 2, 2009

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December 21st, 2024 at 8:01:53 AM permalink

Quote: EvenBob
Quote: billryan
Quote: EvenBob
Quote: billryan
Quote: EvenBob
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.
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.
link to original post

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.
link to original post

The Spirit of Christmas runs deep in this one.
link to original post

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.
link to original post

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.

The older I get, the better I recall things that never happened

EvenBob

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December 26th, 2024 at 8:55:52 AM permalink

I'm old enough to remember when hardly anybody used paper towels in the kitchen. In the 1950s we had a roll of paper towels but it was always attached to the inside of the cupboard door that went under the sink. It was that way in most houses. If you spilled something you used a damp dishcloth. If you wiped off a countertop you used a damp dishcloth. You use the dishcloth for everything. It wasn't till the 1960s that paper towels came into their own because of TV advertising. Bounty was not even introduced till 1965 and then that's all you saw in every commercial break, a paper towel commercial. Today Bounty is the number one seller and has been for decades. I buy Sparkle which is the number two seller. Actually the number one seller is off-brand towels sold by places like Kroger and Walmart. But Procter & Gamble who makes Bounty also makes most of the off brands so what's the difference.

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.

"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."

Dieter
Administrator

Dieter

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December 26th, 2024 at 9:40:56 AM permalink

Quote: AZDuffman
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.
link to original post

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.

May the cards fall in your favor.

rxwine

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December 27th, 2024 at 10:23:54 AM permalink

Remember when you saw the first weird thing on the Internet?

Sanitized for Your Protection

EvenBob

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December 27th, 2024 at 10:40:54 AM permalink

Quote: rxwine
Remember when you saw the first weird thing on the Internet?
link to original post

Be more specific. What's weird to some people is normal to somebody else.

"It's not called gambling if the math is on your side."

DRich

Threads: 89
Posts: 12921

Joined: Jul 6, 2012

December 27th, 2024 at 1:56:13 PM permalink

Quote: EvenBob
Quote: rxwine
Remember when you saw the first weird thing on the Internet?
link to original post

Be more specific. What's weird to some people is normal to somebody else.
link to original post

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.

At my age, a "Life In Prison" sentence is not much of a deterrent.

AZDuffman

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Joined: Nov 2, 2009

December 31st, 2024 at 10:53:27 AM permalink

Remember when the NYE ball drop was changed to an apple? It was supposed to showcase NYC but all it did for me was enhance how things were not as good as they were in the past.

All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others

billryan

Threads: 256
Posts: 17338

Joined: Nov 2, 2009

December 31st, 2024 at 11:26:50 AM permalink

Quote: DRich
Quote: EvenBob
Quote: rxwine
Remember when you saw the first weird thing on the Internet?
link to original post

Be more specific. What's weird to some people is normal to somebody else.
link to original post

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.
link to original post

I was late to the internet and was stunned and amused when someone turned me on to People of Walmart.

The older I get, the better I recall things that never happened

rxwine

Threads: 219
Posts: 12737

Joined: Feb 28, 2010

December 31st, 2024 at 11:51:13 AM permalink

Quote: billryan
Quote: DRich
Quote: EvenBob
Quote: rxwine
Remember when you saw the first weird thing on the Internet?
link to original post

Be more specific. What's weird to some people is normal to somebody else.
link to original post

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.
link to original post

I was late to the internet and was stunned and amused when someone turned me on to People of Walmart.
link to original post

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.

Sanitized for Your Protection

rxwine

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December 31st, 2024 at 11:54:51 AM permalink

I remember when people got mad about people using �blinking� text on their websites. Also, the windows/mac flame wars.

Sanitized for Your Protection

rxwine

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December 31st, 2024 at 11:56:50 AM permalink

And discussions of what browser you were using and why the site didn�t look right on another browser.. Netscape?

I do miss the days when there were no ads anywhere.

Sanitized for Your Protection

lilredrooster

lilredrooster

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December 31st, 2024 at 1:38:03 PM permalink

.
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

.

.

the foolish sayings of a rich man often pass for words of wisdom by the fools around him

DRich

Threads: 89
Posts: 12921

Joined: Jul 6, 2012

December 31st, 2024 at 2:27:35 PM permalink

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.

At my age, a "Life In Prison" sentence is not much of a deterrent.

billryan

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Joined: Nov 2, 2009

December 31st, 2024 at 3:15:36 PM permalink

I was surprised to see hitchhikers when I moved to Bisbee, but it is common there. Most service staff can't afford to live in Old Bisbee, where the jobs are, and the once-an-hour bus stops around 7PM. I occasionally see a hitcher by the truck stops along US Ten,but nothing like a generation ago.

The older I get, the better I recall things that never happened

DRich