We had these in the US too.
Yup, that’s the one. It was HUGE here in Brazil for a while. It’s one of the things I remember best because it was everywhere. :)
I just had this random thought that doesn’t really show my age but sure makes me feel old. I was reading an article about Radiohead, and remembering how I liked them when they started out, and then OK Computer came out and just blew me away. Then I had a chance to see them live at the White River amphitheater ten years after that, for their In Rainbows tour, my wife and I had just gotten back from Australia on our honeymoon. And now I am thinking that that was ten years ago this summer. Damn.
I remember my dad having both a slide rule and a calculator.
Not a digital calculator, mind. One of these:
The only time I ever cried because of sports was when Brazil lost to Italy and got eliminated from the 1982 FIFA World Cup. And I still don’t quite understand why I cried - I never cared about sports back then, and I still don’t (I mean, I like sports, I just don’t root for any team), but there was this kind of collective feeling around the Brazilian team back then - a feeling that united the nation in a way nothing else has done since.
As a side note, I didn’t flinch when Brazil was eliminated by Belgium last Friday. Nor did my kid, which has now the age I had in 1982. I actually laughed out loud when Brazil lost 7-1 to Germany in the previous World Cup, which actually took place IN Brazil. But I still remember that day in 1982 quite clearly. The next day, everywhere you went, it seemed like people were mourning.
I remember when HBO was the only premium cable channel, and they wouldn’t start their programming day until like 4 in the afternoon. Oh, and the “intermissions” they’d run between movies, which was usually a long steady POV shot of a trip through Central Park or Museum of Natural History.
My first calculator actually had to have the results rounded up because I didn’t buy the Texas Instruments product.
My first real calculator used Polish notation. So nobody borrowed it from me because they couldn’t figure out how to use it. And they really wanted to use it because the display was blue, not red like every other one.
Ha i still use my RPN HP 33 every day. (Engineering calculations and/or can create quick programs to run certain formula easier on the HP).
HP 48s are like coveted holy grail lostech now.
“This concludes our broadcasting day”
I watched the Freedom Train go by on the tracks in my home town in AZ. We put pennies on the tracks for it to flatten them. I’ve long since lost the flat pennies.
Sonic booms from the F4s out of Luke AFB flying overhead.
As mentioned above, purple carbon paper, gas under a dollar per gallon.
Mechanical typewriters.
Playing Pong on a 13" black and white TV.
Atari 2600 (my sister and I wore out three systems and god only knows how many joysticks).
Riding a Big Wheel trike up and down the street (I must have been 4 or so?)
My Dad telling me where in town the fallout shelter was just in case.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
Oh, man - forgot about that, and also finding where the missile silos were located.
Did you break the switches off and have to use a BIC pen to manipulate them?
I remember when the Soul Train was on TV!
Also, Kung Fu Theater and endless reruns of The Incredible Mr. Limpet.
My wife’s family had one in their backyard. They lived in a country town but it was near a major naval airbase, so I guess they assumed they would be a target.
I remember when we had cable and they ran a no audio late night sports ticker. It would give actual baseball box scores, which was great because I got off work at midnight.
And I remember when there was no cable and in my town just three stations. When the fourth came in it was massive.
Soul Train was the best, I remember it came in late Saturday morning after the cartoons were over. Speaking of which, I remember when you only got cartoons on Saturday mornings or after school!
Starting at 6AM. Being up for an hour and a half watching cartoons before my parents staggered downstairs and struggled to make coffee.
Yes!! Eventually the plugs for the joysticks stopped working consistently (kids being kids, we were not super gentle with the things). That’s when we got a new one for the next Christmas or whatever.
edit:
Oh man. This, too. And watching sci-fi at 9am on Saturday. The local independent station had a bunch of 50s films (Them, Tarantula, Night of the Triffids, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, etc…) they would show on a program called The World Beyond. So awesome.
I actually used the guts of an Atari joystick to repair my first Thrustmaster joystick. They both used simple leaf switches.
You are kidding me. There was a sequel?