The aluminum foil on the rabbit ears had to point one way for channel 10 and another way for channel 13?
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The aluminum foil on the rabbit ears had to point one way for channel 10 and another way for channel 13?
I do actually - only way we were able to watch Mash and Giligans Island.
Showing my age I remember buying a crystal radio in the shape of a rocket the nose cone held an adjustable antenna by raising or lowering this you would find different radio stations, crystal radios did not require electrical power.Quote:
Originally Posted by t00nces2
The radio waves being transmitted through the airwaves themselves are the power amplified by the germanium diode.
http://i1207.photobucket.com/albums/...psss7uk8yb.png
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIdHsjfbckw
... You could say that you had to move the aluminum foil on the rabbit ears and people actually knew what you were talking about?
You should have kept the rocket radio...
rocket radio | eBay
The crystal radio kit I build in my childhood was part of my life long interest in radio. Mike
If only I had the ability to see that these childhood toys would someday become collectables I would have saved a warehouse full.Quote:
Originally Posted by t00nces2
I would have saved up the money from my jobs in high school in the form of silver dimes and quarters. I graduated from high school in 1971 but silver coins were still in circulation.Quote:
Originally Posted by alloy2
BTW I started working at the age of fourteen and always got paid more than minimum wage which was intended to allow high school kids to get a job not grown ups. Mike
Quote:
Originally Posted by miked
My biggest problem is that I learned to hustle the neighbours at an early age first selling daffodils at a nickel each take as many as you wanted then graduated into Christmas trees so much a ft, ploughing snow and custom ploughing disking and harrowing with our tractor. money has always been much to easy and I never learned to have respect for it.
I had a paper route that taught me about child labour, I quit after a month and never looked back.
Which is the reason money burns a hole in my pocket.
I've always made the best money from other peoples trash either by scrapping or refurbishing, Some of the stuff I've bought or obtained for free to rework and sell older Lincoln portable welders and the Miller Big 40's, fork lifts, washers and dryers.
One time a guy phoned about a fork lift I had for sale then after asking me my name " Gill " which is also a prominent East Indian name the guy was a no show until a week later.
The asking price of the forklift got the better of him as he pulled into my yard a week later asking if the machine was still for sale which it was. After playing on the machine kicking the tires cut his deal paying me on the spot saying that he would send his truck around for it.
Just before climbing back into his pick up he turned say you know why I no come, I said no his reply. your name I thought you were East Indian and I don't like dealing with the bastardds. The fellow himself was of that nationality.
When I told this story to my father he cracked up.
I wasted my youthful wages on school lunches, gasoline($0.32/gal), school book rental, clothes for school, and a gallon of root beer everyday in the summer. I did share the root beer with my younger brothers. I don't recall any left over money so I guess I wouldn't have the silver coins to save up. Mike
... You and your friends would actually play with one another outside and "the noise box" was for rainy days or The Wonderful World of Disney and Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom?
Kick the can and home made stilts.Quote:
Originally Posted by t00nces2
I had homemade stilts. I used to go down to the railroad track and walk for miles with my dogs. I used to play in streams and catch crayfish and frogs and turtles.Quote:
Originally Posted by alloy2
I made huts in trees and rode my American chopper pushbike
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pr...Q=w300-h243-nc
At about age 9-10 Dad made me a 2speed gokart.
Amazing how the gearbox worked, two chains from different sized sprockets on a secondary shaft, driven by the 2.5hp motor, running onto two idleing sprockets on the drive axle.
In between them was a driving dog keywayed to the drive axle, I operated a colum change gear lever which shifted the dog from 'centre' (neutral) over to engage with either sprocket for 'low' or 'high' gear.
The clutch was a 'vee' belt driven from the engine pully, to the secondry shafts V pully, the shaft also held the two smaller sprockets for the gearbox.
A foot operated arm with a cambelt roller tightened the Vee belt up to give 'drive' or 'clutch open'. Also providing the first speed reduction needed.
I have a photo of it I will find soon.
I grew out of it about age 14 and I made my own 5hp one speed gocart.
Then got into off road motorbiking when Dad found a old friend who had gotten into it to go visit old abandoned Gold mines and such, with mates.
Got photos there too.
Two cans on a length of string, seeking out red rubber tubes to cut up for a sling shot, a pair of horse chest nuts tied onto 18 inches of string to be slung over the telephone wires, water and lye with scrap aluminum to make hydrogen balloons that would float off into the sky,Quote:
Originally Posted by t00nces2
Adding carbide to water to make acetylene - boom. Grinding open a sodium cooled valve for the sodium. Going to Green Valley Fertiliser to get some sulphur off the train to make gun powder, Tree forts and underground forts.
Ah crap remembering all this neat stuff I want to be a kid once again.
I was still using foil on antenna's until we made the change to digital. Do not know if it helped, but it was habit. One of my best toys as a child was the old potato gun. Advancing to the use of tennis balls was a milestone, but finding the ammo was always a challenge. Flashlight tag, sanding and waxing sleds, kick the can, etc. are great memories this thread brought back.
Those that depend on themselves for entertainment will have great memories, those that depend on others for entertainment will be deprived one of life's greatest pleasures.
Those were fun times.
About 7 years ago I started taking my kids to the local swimming hole to go swimming and fishing. They were hesitant at first because they grew up swimming in our pool but they love it now, especially the rope swing.
We like to turn over rocks to see what we can find for bait...mostly crawfish and sometimes a frog or a small water snake.
I'm not certain where I got the idea from, a story in a book or perhaps a tv show but I made a sling out of hay bale string and untanned leather.
I was amazed how far and accurately a good sized stoned could be sent flying. No doubt it could have been used for hunting. It kept me occupied for hours one summer. Mike
Talking to a friend from Arkansas the other day, he asked me "Do you remember needing to use the outhouse during the winter months?", I told him I try not remember those times. We were neighbors, are families lived about four miles apart, along with 6 or 7 other families in a very rural part of Western Arkansas. We eventually all got "modern" plumbing, electricity, telephones (party line) but we never did get televisions (No reception in those mountains). The only time we watched TV, was when we went to town.
There wasn't that many of us that lived up on that Mountain, those of us that did, think we had it better, we saw and did things that no TV is ever going to show you. I always laugh when my step daughter complains about the cable or the internet going down (really, what will do now?).
Some cultures used them for hunting and warfare.Quote:
Originally Posted by miked
There is a famous story about David and Goliath
One of the things I remember about tv as a kid was at 11 pm an announcement would come on "It's 11 o"clock do you know where your teenagers are?" Thne the station would go off the air and the Test Pattern would come on. If you don't know what a test pattern is google has lots of images. Mike
I lived in the middle of apple orchards in upstate New York. Oh how I miss the apples... Right behind our house and property was an orchard with the row end, tractor/sprayer turn around. In the winter, the gap between the end of the row of trees and the property delineation stone wall was an open area that sloped downhill about from the back side of our property. It was perhaps about an eighth mile long, but pretty steep. In the wintertime, snowmobiles would track up and down that row and it was the best downhill for a sled track. I could do that all day. The cold wind, the snow in my face, the snowmobile suit, the mittens, the scarf, the hat. So cold, yet so warm. Slide down, walk back up dragging the sled with your friends. Slide down again and again.
Anyone watch the show South Park? There is not a person here in Florida who knows Kenny is wearing a snorkle coat. I wonder if they even sell them anymore?
I had a snorkel coat back in the 70's and yes you can still buy them.