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Ol' Granddad
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singhals
Jan 8, 2012, 5:47:38 PM1/8/12
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Now that I have your attention, as the saying goes --
The "How Old is Grandpa" post is like the phoenix : it keeps rising.
This Christmas, I got yet another copy of this thing. And I'm so
sick of this canard I could scream, but it might be more fun to
roast it.
"Stay with this -- the answer is at the end. It will blow
you away."
/My comments./ follow each statement.
"One evening a grandson was talking to his grandfather about
current events. The grandson asked his grandfather what he thought
about the shootings at schools, the computer age, and just things in
general.
"The Grandfather replied, 'Well, let me think a minute, I was born
before:
" television"
/term invented 1900; demo 1924, broadcast 1927./
" penicillin"
/discovered 1928/
" polio shots"
/1955 - Salk/
" frozen foods"
/1923/
" Xerox"
/1937/
" contact lenses"
/1888 or 1948, depending/
" Frisbees"
/1948/
" the pill"
/went public in 1960/
"There were no:
" credit cards"
/1920s/
" laser beams"
/1960/
" ball-point pens"
/1938/
"Man had not invented:
" pantyhose"
/1959/
" air conditioners"
/1902/
" dishwashers"
/1886/
" clothes dryers"
/1892/
" man hadn't yet walked on the moon"
/1969/
"Every family had a father and a mother."
/Erm -- War widows with children?/
"Draft dodgers were those who closed front doors as the
evening breeze started."
/Civil War Draft Riots in NYC by draft-dodgers 1863 or so/
"FM radios"
/1933/,
"tape decks"
/1934/,
"CDs,"
/Certificates of Deposit were around in the 1940s; if he
means data or music CDs, that would be the 1990s./
"electric typewriters"
/ca 1944?/
"yogurt"
/Napoleon ate the stuff in Egypt!/
"guys wearing earrings."
/Oscar Wilde wore one in the late 1800s and I think they
were worn during the Regency (1810ish)./
"The term 'making out' referred to how you did on your
school exam."
/Oh, PUHLEEZE/
"Pizza Hut"
/1930s/
"McDonald's"
/1954/
"instant coffee"
/1901/
"Ice-cream cones, phone calls, rides on a streetcar, and a
Pepsi were all a nickel."
/1942 last time Pepsi was a nickle. Phone calls were still a
nickel in 1970 in Louisiana/
"In my day:
" 'coke' was a cold drink,"
/no, coke was coal, Coke was the drink/
" 'rock music' was your grandmother's lullaby."
/Elvis; 1950s./
"and how old do you think I am?"
"Are you ready?"
"This man would be only 59 years old."
/NOT! 59 in 2011 means born 1952. To have been born before ALL those
things, he would have to have been born before 1890, making him not
59 but 121./
/To have been born after all those things, he's 42 and only
marginally old enough to have a grandson who's old enough to ask
that sort of thing./
/So the bottom line is NOT that he was born before all those things,
but instead that he was born before all things were available in
_his_ corner of the world./
/Either this grandfather lived in the exurban boonies or the writer
of that piece of historical trivia hadn't a clue about the
difference between "invented" and "common in my part of the world."
I've got family who didn't see a TV until the 1990s; I had already
owned 3 by then./
/Please try not to make that mistake when you write your family
history next time. /
Cheryl
singhals <sing...@erols.com>
Ian Goddard
Jan 9, 2012, 10:25:49 AM1/9/12
to
singhals wrote:
> The "How Old is Grandpa" post is like the phoenix : it keeps rising.
> This Christmas, I got yet another copy of this thing. And I'm so
> sick of this canard I could scream, but it might be more fun to
> roast it.
difficult ;)
OK, can we improve on this?
> " frozen foods"
> /1923/
Or 1626? Francis Bacon.
How about tinned food? ISTR reading that Marlborough used it to
feed his armies on campaign.
> " laser beams"
> /1960/
Predecessor, the maser 1953, theory '52
> "tape decks"
> /1934/,
Predecessor, the wire recorder 1890s. How long did the heads last
on a wire recorder?
> "CDs,"
> /Certificates of Deposit were around in the 1940s; if he
> means data or music CDs, that would be the 1990s./
even data was late '80s.
> "electric typewriters"
> /ca 1944?/
Earlier. 1902!
Does anyone remember the Freiden driven by punched tape?
--
Ian
The Hotmail address is my spam-bin. Real mail address is iang
at austonley org uk
Ian Goddard <godd...@hotmail.co.uk>
Wes Groleau
Jan 9, 2012, 10:28:21 AM1/9/12
to
> Either this grandfather lived in the exurban boonies or the writer
> of that piece of historical trivia hadn't a clue about the
> difference between "invented" and "common in my part of the world."
>
Equally likely, the writer knew nearly nothing about history and
made a lot of wild guesses. And the chain of people that passed it
on are also ignorant.
--
Wes Groleau
“Statistics are like bikinis.
What they reveal is suggestive,
but what they conceal is vital.”
— Aaron Levenstein
Wes Groleau <Grolea...@FreeShell.org>
Jeff
Jan 10, 2012, 3:03:05 PM1/10/12
to
> Does anyone remember the Freiden driven by punched tape?
>
No, but I do remember the FRIDEN!
Jeff <jor...@hotmail.com>
Keith Nuttle
Jan 10, 2012, 3:03:53 PM1/10/12
to
> > Either this grandfather lived in the exurban boonies or the writer
> > of that piece of historical trivia hadn't a clue about the
> > difference between "invented" and "common in my part of the world."
> >
> > Cheryl Singhals
>
> Equally likely, the writer knew nearly nothing about history and
> made a lot of wild guesses. And the chain of people that passed it
> on are also ignorant.
>
Boy I did not realize that genealogists were such a tough audience
Keith Nuttle <Keith_...@sbcglobal.net>
Wes Groleau
Jan 10, 2012, 3:04:59 PM1/10/12
to
On 01-09-2012 10:25, Ian Goddard wrote:
> singhals wrote:
>
>> The "How Old is Grandpa" post is like the phoenix : it keeps rising.
>> This Christmas, I got yet another copy of this thing. And I'm so
>> sick of this canard I could scream, but it might be more fun to
>> roast it.
>
>
>> "tape decks"
>> /1934/,
>
> Predecessor, the wire recorder 1890s. How long did the heads last
> on a wire recorder?
I'm more interested in when wire recorders fell out of use. I once
>> "tape decks"
>> /1934/,
>
> Predecessor, the wire recorder 1890s. How long did the heads last
> on a wire recorder?
heard a preacher mention recording his sermons on wire recorders. I
googled his name and find that someone put his biography online. He
apparently first preached in the 1930s. I also came across a book,
"Hitler's Table Talks" (Godwin's Law can look the other way) that
the Nazis had made by running wire recorders at meals and
transcribing everything the nut case said.
> Does anyone remember the Freiden driven by punched tape?
programmed by paper tape. (But normally, they would load the
program somewhere else into magnetic cores and then install it in
the machine.)
I lived through the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall.
My grandmother lived through the rise and fall of the Soviet system.
--
Wes Groleau
“To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of
ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”
— Thomas Jefferson
Wes Groleau <Grolea...@FreeShell.org>
Wes Groleau
Jan 11, 2012, 9:31:42 PM1/11/12
to
--
Wes Groleau
People would have more leisure time if it weren't
for all the leisure-time activities that use it up.
— Peg Bracken
Wes Groleau <Grolea...@FreeShell.org>
Margaret J Olson
Jan 13, 2012, 6:50:27 PM1/13/12
to
> I lived through the rise and fall of the Berlin Wall.
> My grandmother lived through the rise and fall of the Soviet system.
of their childhood was Charles Lindbergh flying solo across the
Atlantic. The dropping of the first atom bomb was probably the most
newsworthy of mine - either that or Pearl Harbor. I remember
clearly where I was on both occasions. Watching astronauts walking
on the moon was THE newsworthy event of my childrens' childhood. I
probably should include these observations somewhere in the family
history. If I don't they'll be forgotten.
Margaret
Margaret J Olson <olso...@gmail.com>
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