Brewster Rockit by Tim Rickard for March 03, 2024

What’s a buggy?

They got rid of dvds so they can charge you every time you watch the movie.

The kids are making her hoarse and buggy.

Sorry, Pam, you are officially Old.

Ah, yes, the early days when computer traffic went over phone lines!

Of course, now, VOIP means that phone traffic goes over what are now network lines.

“Yes, it was delivered by horse and it was buggy.”

Originally the DVDs arrived by mail from California. That was at best a two or three day service, Then, a distribution center opened up in Phoenix AZ, and life for me in Flagstaff was overnight turnover and heaven on earth! Then came Trump, DeJoy, and digital streaming, and all the movies I used to be able to rent vanished into thin air. DVDs became a thing of the past, and if any movie I used to be able to rent was no longer available, tough coprolites. To be fair, I shouldn’t blame everything on Trump, but times are times.

See Dark Side of the Horse for horse-drawn phenomena.

Whaaat? DVD? You gots to be kidding. We is used to goes to cinema theatres to watches em movies. Ain’t no steenky multiplex back then. Beautiful standalone theatres with beeg screens. Those was the days. Standing in queues for tickets and all. And sometimes they used to plays movies on TV later on and with lotsa pesky ads in between later on.

Can I tell them about the getting all of four channels and cartoons only on Saturday morning thing to watch their heads explode?

It doesn’t take very long for things to get old fashioned, does it?

Don’t tell them about VHS tapes, Pam.

Sadly, these kids can’t go outside and play.

It’s strange to realize there are movie fans who have never sat in a theater.

Mine was delivered by a guy in gray shorts and short-sleeved shirt on a one speed girls’ bike with fat tires.

I’ll add (or repeat) only three channels (a little older than our local PBS station,) black rotary telephone attached to the wall, computer? (what’s that?) Thought it was really something to be able to go to a local rental place and rent a movie disk (looked like an LP record.) Yikes! I’m old.

Dialup: the “snail” of internet connection

My first modem was 300 baud and my first printer was a surplus teletype. And that was in my 20s!

Things get better and better.

Historical!

I wonder how many people are mystified as to why the icon for their phone app is a bent barbell.

Heck, I used to download .jpg images that were transmitted as long sequences of UUencoded alphanumeric characters that then had to be decoded to render them as actual images on a bit-mapped screen.

At least they know about horse and buggies.

I remember my wife trying to get me to dash across town and mail the rented DVD as soon as we finished viewing it because we were on a “keep three-at-a-time” plan.

I’ve gotten so lazy I will re-watch iTunes movies rather than walk across the room and load up a new DVD. :)

I read that people my age or so (I’m 80) should never start an anecdote “I remember when” or “when I was a kid” with the grocery store guy. I’m guilty. But the comments are great!

For a few years, it was as though just outside of the city there was a warehouse with 99% all films that had ever been transferred to DVD. In 2-3 days another fabulous film would arrive at my door. I would groom the queue to add films or alter the order in which I would receive them. I still kind of miss those red envelopes. All things must pass.

At least Pam didn’t tell them to get off her lawn, would a space station even have a lawn?

I know the feeling Pam, most of my memories have moved from nostalgia to paleontology.

Belle, I had to dial a phone & there was NO internet, NO Netflix, etc.

sometimes it arrived by pony express…

Pam missed the video rental shops?

People keep talking about streaming and DVD’s and VHS tapes and 300 baud modems. When I was in school, we didn’t even have calculators. Now we all have ’em on our phones.

Was it deliver by Horse and Buggy?

They’re still doing that in Lancaster County.