I remember going to a "Star Trek" convention in 1974 and it had Gene Roddenberry as the keynote speaker. They played the original pilot (it was in black and white because they had lost the color print in a fire or something).
I remember doing dangerous things with chemicals when I was a child. Like making my own gunpowder. Or mixing powdered swimming pool chlorine with fertilizer in a can buried in the ground...boom.
I remember Estes model rockets that I would build and then launch. No parental supervision whatsoever and pretty much super dangerous. I remember bottle rockets before they were banned. I also remember when Radio Shack had stuff in the store that allowed you to actually build electronic stuff. It was in one of those stores that I first saw a cassette tape recorder...in stereo. I also remember Heathkit products, too. And I remember the first time that I laid my hands on a new Radio Shack TRS80 computer and wrote my first program in BASIC. Before that I remember using a terminal in my high school to play "Star Trek." The results of a "move" came back printed out by a teletype machine. Those were the days.
I remember looking for "deposit" bottles on the side of the road (and finding a lot of them) and then turning them in for spending money. I also remember when $1 bought a LOT of candy at the convenience store. I remember the first time I ever had an Icee slush drink...it was way before I ever heard of a Slurpee or a 7/11 store for that matter.
I remember seeing "Jaws" at the theater when it first came out. "Star Wars," too...and that was bizarre because it was on only one screen in Houston for an entire year before it was then put into multiple theaters. People were lined up to see it for every single showing for a whole year. I remember paying to see it in the theater over a dozen times because it was so revolutionary as a scifi film...put "2001: A Space Odyssey" to shame. I still have the original paperback novelization of the movie that I bought that year.
I remember BetaMax video. And the war between BetaMax and VHS. And the ridiculous notion that VHS was better because you could record the Superbowl on one cassette. I remember the first video discs and they weren't DVDs. It was a battle between RCA and MCA. Neither one ever really caught on but I remember seeing a "LaserDisc" version of "Smokey and the Bandit" where you could advance the film frame by frame and see stuff that you just couldn't at normal speed...some of the stunt work.
I remember what a big deal was made out of the "Bicentennial" in 1976 and how later that year things got real sh*tty when Jimmy Carter was elected. I remember the "misery index" that was coined during his reign of terror.
I remember "Skylab."
I remember being hugely disappointed when Billy Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in the Astrodome. I thought for sure that he would kick her ass. I found out later that he had bet against himself plus there was mafia influence over a huge gambling debt he had.
I remember the first time I crashed a Democrat caucus. I was 23 and knew damned good and well that Reagan was going to be re-elected and so decided to have some fun. A friend and I went to the caucus and basically took it over. He nominated me as a delegate for Jesse Jackson and I won...I made quite the youthful impassioned speech about how Jesse was "the man" and how he was "down for the struggle". Of course, the joke was on the Democrats because I damn sure didn't go to the convention to cast a vote for that idiot. We laughed and laughed. Good times, good times. I'd get killed if I tried that today.
I remember when the only radar detector available was a "Fuzzbuster" and it was a huge metal box with a big orange light on it and a buzzer. Do you remember the "Pet Rock?"
I remember the original Ted Baxter. The one who was opposite Mary Richards and Lou Grant. Not the one on FNC who's looking out for "the folks." Anyone remember the "crying indian" PSA with the original fake indian, Iron Eyes Cody?
I remember when HBO played only movies with some boxing and it was a pretty decent premium channel. None of the sex exploitation shows, or even worse trash like Bill Maher, that they have these days.
