I still have a pocket transistor radio. Seeing a really young person react to it, is rather amusing. And the only remote that we had at home was me, the youngest of five!
We only had 2 channels living in the boonies. So there wasn't much channel changing. Sometimes we would have to go up on the roof to turn the antenna to get a better picture on one of the channels until we got one of those antenna turning contraptions. LOL 😂
After longing for one desperately when I was a kid, I bought an Armatron at a sale a few years ago, and now I'm glad I didn't get one back then, because it was a piece of plasticky junk.
I remember receiving a pocket transistor radio for Christmas. When I had to go to bed at 8pm, I loaded my robe pockets with cookies and listened to Wolfman Jack until I went to sleep! XERB, the mighty 1090! circa 1957. Still have the radio.
Having a transistor radio was the best. What was better was having your own b+w TV in your bedroom.... which I never had. 😢 Kids today don't appreciate what they have today. But I'll take my life back then to any young life today.
Still have my 1964 Plata transiter radio in its original box and it still works. Made in Japan with a leather case and an ear plug with the original price tag $9.99. I took it to work one day in 1980 to track a hurricane at that time and one young guy ask me what it was he never saw one.
It was really a balance. Yes, ordinary days were more care-free or, one might say, disconnected, but emergencies were much more frightening. For example, you’d hear news of a horrible accident on the freeway and have no way of calling anyone you knew who might have been on that section of road at that time, and it could drive you crazy. Or no way to contact a loved one you know who is in crisis but can only be contacted when both you and they are near telephones. Or getting lost in your car in an unfamiliar neighborhood that seems possibly dangerous, especially at night or when it’s cloudy (that’s because back in the day we were all taught how to tell direction by the sun, so at least in sunny conditions we could find our way around at the most rudimentary level). Or even something as simple as the weather. We were much more vulnerable to things like tornadoes before Doppler radar was made common for forecasting. When the weather turned bad suddenly, all you had was radio or TV to keep you informed, and the information was MUCH less specific and more vague. Nowadays you can go online and track the storm, and know your level of danger pretty exactly. Events do seem to race by much more quickly these days, but we must admit that some things are actually less stressful than they once were.
Watching this video brings back memories of my youth. We were not a wealthy family, but options opened up to my family through a traveling salesperson. She and her husband made their rounds weekly and would call on my mom and dad. It was by her weekly calls that my parents were able to afford the first transistor radio for me and my siblings. Yes, amazingly, we all got our own radio and my mom & dad paid weekly installments of $1 to $2 at 0% interest!!! Back then you would hear songs like, "Yellow Ribbon;" "Knock Three Times;" also "Crimson & Clover." These were all popular back then and our local radio station played them daily. Artists like the Shondels, Tony Orlando and Dawn, The Osmond Brothers, the Partridge Family...I could go on and on! It was a wonderful time to grow up!
Don’t forget the radio personalities & their skits before everything was about PC & not offending Snowflakes!! Radio was entertaining back then instead of the sterile morass we have today. For ex, I grew up in SF Bay Area & use to listen to The Lobster in am, 1610, Perry Stone on KSJO (the equal opportunity offender), Sennis Erectus on KOME( had a bumper sticker that said,” I KOME while I drive.” There were cliques for certain radio station or styles of music you liked.
You are speaking my language! Love growing up back then! We were outdoors playing and staying fit and much more social with neighborhood kids & school friends who lived close by - played kickball in someone's backyard, went bike riding = no helmets - when we fell off our bikes it was our knees that got scraped up and our hands sometimes - OMG - we had a tougher mentality and knew if we went rode too fast or crazy, of course we stand the chance of falling off - but we learned to deal w/it and ride w/some sense! We learned it's best to listen to your parents when they warn you! Loved tv shows back then and the fact that we only hand a handful of channels, starting with 3! Love watching Tony Orlando and the 2 Dawns! The whole family would sit together and enjoy shows together! Fun bonding times! So, what if we had to get up and change the channel - OMG... we were thrilled to have a floor model television! And the big wood floor model stereo table size radio with record player! Loved the Osmond family especially Donny Osmond! Wanted to marry him - ha, ha And Marie was so pretty - loved their songs & funny skits and guest appearances of the different actors & actresses that we enjoyed! And I loved Donny & Marie's prayer song they sang at the end of every show! May tomorrow be a perfect day, May You find Love & Laughter along the way! May God keep You in His tender care - til He brings us back together again or til we come back together again! Need to see if I can find it somewhere and get that last part right! Bud Come ON - what a wonderful blessing to hear and think about all week til the show came on again! Quality programs back then that the whole family could sit down together after dinner and spend quality time til bedtime - for the kids! Life was sweet, more simple, more peaceful, more connected with your family and neighbors! Loved that time - and up North in OHIO!!!! Love the North, years later and to experience life in the South with all their ridiculous hateful thoughts and sick way of thinking - The South was no joke - OMG.... and had the nerve to have churches on every corner.... aka the "Bible Belt" what? WTH did the really mean by that? Worst place I ever lived - the whites were crazy with their God awful mess - had the nerve to use God's Holy Name and have their foolish sayings.... God Bless her little heart - if they said that to you _ Look out they do not like YOU! Talk about double talking, heathens!!! Yet there are always some sweet loving people - and they were truly Christians who loved like Jesus & read the Word, the Bible and lived according to the truth of it! Wonderful people, loving, kind, hospitable - Definitely felt like I was in a time warp!!! And found out the stereo types and reputations of the South - OH man were so TRUE! So many disgusting idiotic adults full of hate for another Human being! More devilish & demonic activity than a little bit! Hated going to school & high school years there.
I wouldn't trade the way I grew up in the 60's and 70's, with today's kids. Seeing my dad's face when he messed up a series of pictures using a Polaroid land camera, when he forgot to pull the bellows out for the shots, was one of my most enduring memories of one of our summer vacations to the mountains. Listening to the Indy 500 on transistor radios during our annual family reunions in a small town where most of my mom's family came from. and the hours of play on the back of a Schwinn bicycle on streets that we never had to worry about riding on, unlike today. No, times have changed, and not necessarily for the better.
Your experience with instant film cameras is obviously limited to the One-Step cameras, which are more or less idiot-proof. But prior to that, peel-apart film was the order of the day, and required multiple steps to be taken in the right order and with specific timing in order to make it work. Then the print had to be coated with a liquid that you'd brush on from a little tube in order to seal it. Maybe be a little less quick to throw insults around when dealing with things you have limited or no knowledge of, hm? @@MarinCipollina
For the "Polaroid land camera" it's correct to capitalize "Land" as it's a proper name. The camera could be used, for example, on a boat at sea or in an airplane in flight, so it's not a "land camera." The camera is named after Edwin Land.
I miss the simpler times.It’s so complicated with smart phones,smart TVs etc..When the grids break down back to landlines and Ever Ready batteries.Back to manual.Future generations will be like Idiocracy the movie.YIKES!
And if that never happens? Technology is amazing. Innovation makes life much more enjoyable. Just imagine having to ride a horse to get anywhere. Washing clothes in barrels by hand. No electric lighting. No medicines. No eyeglasses. It would make life much much worse.
When the hurricane cut power in Nova Scotia our phone, a combination between a land line and cell worked. But only so long. About 30 minutes of useage. Had to recharge every day when running the generator. We just kept it plugged into it. The cell phones did not work at all for about 6 days.
FUNNY THING, I think I have had and still HAVE versions of EVERYTHING in this video! I have lived in the same place for almost 70 years and do NOT like to throw things out!
I worked at Radio Shack from 1983 to 1985. The Armatron was a huge Christmas Item for us. If Fort Worth sent us 20, we needed 25. There was never enough to satisfy demand.
Yup i picked the Armatron out for Xmas that year as each year my grandmother would take my brother and I to Plymouth Meeting Mall (PA)'s Radio Shack to pick out whatever we wanted,. My brother picked the $100 Audi Quattro R/C car that same year. We were both elated.
I have a transistor pocket radio that I just bought last year. Of course it has AM but also FM and Shortwave. I have NEVER been more than a few feet away from a radio for all of my 61 years, LOL.
3:45 Walkie Talkies are still a valuable tool. In the '70s we used them at swap meets to communicate with one another ... but even now, in an emergency, when the cell towers are inoperable, walkie talkies still work.
We have one. My husband uses it when he is working on the lane. Half a mile long threw the woods. It has come in handy a few times. Also when our granddaughter wanted to drive the small tractor.
As a YMCA camp counselor, I took a transistor radio with us when we went on back country hikes. It was great to know what the weather would be, and you could listen to news or music which made the miles seem faster. I also had an Instamatic camera to record family reunions, canoe trips, and nature shots. What a time to be young!
I remember being taken to a professional baseball game. I had never been to one before and I thought I would hear the announcer on the radio give a play by play description of the game. I was disappointed because it was not so. Without the play by play I had no idea what was happening. So the next time I went to a game I took a portable radio with me and I enjoyed the game more than I did the other game.
As a kid, I received a pocket transistor radio for my 10th birthday in 1955. It was a "Zenith". So much fun ! I still have my SONY "WALKMAN" headphones and all ! Still have my "GAMEBOY" too !
I miss cameras with film although still around. Problem is getting film developed today costs a fortune and a half! And that is if you can find somewhere to get it developed.
Interesting. I will add another. Rotary phone Landline. Yes, everyone used these and apparently next year, they are going to be phased out ready for the 2025 switch off. That technology is now obsolete after 146 years
I see. If it is the pocket house phone, you will be fine. I was talking about the big chunky corded phones where you have to put the fingers in the holes to rotate to dial each number@@MomentsInTrading
Pong by Coleco Vision! Got one for Xmas of 76, me and my brothers went nuts when we opened it on Christmas morning! Bring back the 70s... Miss Mom & Pa, and my aunts and uncles!
It is really hard to envision a father giving his teenage son a transistor radio in 1951, as soon as they came out, so he could take it on his bike rides around town. Why? $50 in 1951 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $591.90 today, an increase of $541.90 over 72 years. The dollar had an average inflation rate of 3.49% per year between 1951 and today, producing a cumulative price increase of 1,083.80%.
In the 70s there was the bicycle-mounted radio. Mine was made by Tandy Co (Radio Shack) and I thought I was so cutting edge. Never mind the fact that you could hardly hear unless you were riding at a snail’s pace or the fact that you had to take it with you before leaving your bike or the fact that getting caught in the rain wasn’t good 😂
If you had that radio mounted on the handlebars of a 3-speed dragster, with banana seat, sissy-bar and reflective, rectangular mirrors, you would have been at the height of cool.
The reason I'm so attached to the music of my youth, is because of the various transistor radios I owned, growing up. Still have such wonderful memories of my transistor radios.
Gone are TV repair men now. A whole section of employment erased. I understand that because technology moves on, but you need a degree in I. T. or throw the TV away and get another one nowadays. 😊
TV repairmen are in the same club as shoe repair guys "cobblers" was their original name, along with Mr. Fixit guys, who could fix any small appliance. Repair, not replace was the rule until recently.
Still have bicycle repair shops. Since the 1800s, like the Wright Brothers. Wish we had more repair in town. It's a wide open field for young entrepreneurs. We have no basic electronics repair in town (i.e., soldering). We have no sewing/alterations.
I purchased the very first Sony Walkman, it played Cassette tapes in 1981. It blew everyone’s minds. Up until then I carried a pocket sized transistor radio with a single wire ear bud. Nowadays Bluetooth wireless blows my mind keeping up with the advancements
*Having a transistor radio was the best. What was better was having your own b+w TV in your bedroom.... which I never had. 😢 Kids today don't appreciate what they have today. But I'll take my life back then to any young life today*
Through eBay I bought a still-working Zenith Royal transistor radio that is almost identical to the one I had as a kid. It is in very good condition and in the original box.
My dad says he found if you jammed a wire in the pocket radio and tuned it up to the end he could listen to the police. AM radio, he says. I enjoy how your videos make for some good conversations with my dad. Now he's explaining what a vacuum tube and transistor are, and going down a rabbit hole. 🤣 The world is such a fascinating place, so much to learn. (I was just reading a bit about the premolars, because I just had a crown and a root canal, and they found I had 3 nerves. Dentist had never seen that.)
@@RetroMMA He said I'd be easy to identify if I was ever in a plane crash! (Which led me to later wonder, is there some kind of national tooth database?)
So cool. I remember going to my grandma’s house and watching the Andy Griffith show through black & white on the Sony portable TV. She had that thing up til the last couple years. What a classic piece of history. I wish I would’ve kept it for now. 😢
The Sony 13-inch Trinitron picture tube television was the best . It was good enough and had a great picture . And it did not dominate the living room because of its size.
What about the Polaroid camera with instant developing photos? Or the Commadore PET personal computer? Or the Magnavox Odyssey gaming system? Or even the Betamax? And don't forget the TV phones! LOL
At the end of 1984, my Dad bought a Commadore 64 computer. All of his friends at work (all math teachers at the local university) had purchased Commadore 64's as well. Looking it up now, the full Commodore 64 package was just under $600 in 1984, which is just under $2000 in 2023 dollars. That was a lot of cash back then.
My first Walkman was a CD player. my kids call them “Dino times tech”. But I brought my 23 year old down a few pegs when I told her that she had her own “Dino times tech” iPod, Nintendo DS, a Wii, and a flip phone 😂
My first cell phone was a "bag" phone. You used it mostly in the car because the battery life was horrendous! A 12v lead acid battery that, if fully charged would last about 30 mins. I had a modem that I would connect to it and my HP100LX and get the company bulletin board while between cities. We thought we were really connected! You could have included boomboxes. I had a small one about the siae of 2 hardback books laid in-to-end.
In the 70's my sister had the 110mm mini-Instamatic film camera which was such a small negative when you developed the film which was in cassette form. Since my dad worked with mainframe computers, he decided to buy the first portable desktop in the early 80's from Compaq for $5k, a fortune back then. It was heavy and was like toting around a sewing machine. It had two 5 1/4" floppy disk drives and there was no such thing as hard drives yet, so you had to load the program from a floppy disk.
My Dad bought us a TRS-80 computer from Radio Shack. It came with 2k memory but my Dad bought the upgrade which doubled it to 4k. the memory chip came pushed into a piece of foam in a cassete tape case. I used to spend hours with my Rainbow magazine entering code for the "free" game that came in the middle of the magazine. What a great time to be a kid!
Me and my 2 cousins each had GE transistors in the early 60’s. Our model came in 3 colors and each of us had one of the 3. Ah Kodak! This company held many digital photography patents. Instead of rolling the technology out full tilt and cornering the market they soft-peddled it, either selling off patents or allowing them to expire, which Japanese companies then grabbed them up. Why? Executive and Board “head in the sand” decision to aggressively protect the film business. Today Kodak is a shadow of its former self having allowed a golden opportunity to slip through their fingers. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!
Gameboy and Walkman are still very collectible and easily available. Pagers/Beepers are still use in most Hospitals because they run a different network than cell phones and are better in emergencies. Hospitals have thick wall that can block cell phone signals.
Note the price for the Texas Inst.TR-1 transistor radio for the 1950's @ 49.96 "less battery". Considering what the middle-class wage-earner made per hour, size of family etc that was a pretty expensive radio for its time.
Most all of those gadgets were expensive. I always wanted a transistor radio, walkie talkies and such, but I really don't know of any in my neighborhood who had them. We were happy just being outside playing red light, green light and such anyway. I did get a transistor radio when I was in high school and also an Instamatic camera. We didn't even get color TV until around 1971.
Wired remote controls persisted on VCRs into the late 1980s. I don't know why except "bean counting". 🤷♂️Additionally, The Kodak "Fling" was actually a throwback to the very FIRST Kodak camera. It was preloaded and you sent the camera back to have your pictures developed. As to the Game Boy, Not just kids, There were plenty of adults who wanted them too. Perfect device of the times to kill time in airports, ETC.
i was 16 & in high school when the gameboy came out. i bought mine thru a pawnshop for $80 & they let me pick any game i wanted. it was the best thing that nintendo ever came out with at the time. so many fond memory's playing with the gameboy over the years.
What a coincidence. I just got my first smart watch today. I just got it charged and set up. I have been considering it but thought I had to spend hundreds to get a decent one. My friend said she got one for $40 and was totally pleased with it. Mine was $59 plus tax at Target, and it's awesome!!! Now I regret not getting one sooner. What a great little gadget.
Having a transistor radio was exciting as a kid. Sometimes I could pick up stations from hundreds of miles away. I lived in South Texas and remember listening to WGN radio out of Chicago. I could only pick it up in the winter time.
I'm only 59 but I'm a thousand years old in tech years. Back in my day, I was the remote control, the household robot vacuum and the automatic dog food dispenser.
My transistor radio was a Sony. My electric razor was a Norelco (Phillips/Norelco). Until I was 9 or 10, I WAS the remote control. I was also the one that got to turn the outside antenna to get the best reception. My walkie-talkies were Claricon, which I think made the Sears walkie-talkie. I still have them and they still work. (Changed the crystals to channel 4) And yes, I got an Instamatic to replace my old Brownie camera. Clip the pager on your belt? I stuck mine down in my pants. :o) Got my first cell phone 10 yrs. ago. As of this moment, I'm not really sure where it is and I know the battery must be dead since I haven't used it in at least 2 months.
I had a pocket transistor. Used to listen to it after going to bed. I remember on some nights being able to listen to the late Ernie Harwell doing Detroit Tiger games from my bedroom in South Jersey.
I used some of my bar mitzvah money to buy myself a set of walkie-talkies in 1967. Just thinking about opening the box containing the two huge handsets gives me the chills more than 55 years later. I remember not just the size and feel of the devices, but the SMELL of new electronics. (My Sony reel-to-reel tape recorder had the same "new electronics" smell when fresh.) I don't know what that smell was, but I miss it.
We had a small b/w TV that I had in my room as a kid. I remember watching the first moon walk on that TV. I got my last transistor radio in 1972. It was circular on a chain. They came in multiple colors. Had a Kodak camera in the 70’s with the cartridge film. So easy to load. My dad always used an electric razor. I remember the Christmas commercial with Santa riding on the electric razor. Had a Sony Walkman and later the cd version.
I was my dad’s remote!! He was a news hound & watch 3 hours in the evening everyday & never ate his dinner at the table. He was into photography & hi fi so we always were among the first to experience the advent of those things. I remember having 1st crack at color TV. It’s was a Marantz that looked like furniture with carvings in the panels inlayed with some red velvet fabric.
I collect gadgets like these. I have a large collection of tube and transistor radios and TVs, 8 track and cassette tapes, players, and recorders, film cameras, 8mm and Super 8 movie cameras and projectors, typewriters, rotary dial phones, and analog mobile phones. I absolutely despise digital anything. I use a $50 flip phone, a $50 digital camera, and a $300 computer. I spend as little as possible on digital junk. There are no new gadgets that I want anything to do with.
My father got me a set of walkie talkies as a birthday gift in the 70's, me & my brother had fun with them. I also owned various transistor radios throughout the years, in addition to a Nintendo Game Boy.
The technologies of the 1980 were good enough. Bell system, Western electric . Pay phones were everywhere and people were not walking around like zombies staring at the cell phones. The white pages in the yellow pages were good. We had directory assistance when we needed it. Just press zero in a real human being would talk to you. Surveillance cameras were nonexistent. People were approachable. Look at what they do today at coffee shops. Instead of paying attention to each other they are both staring at their phones. I would not doubt that this is actually a form of idol worshiping. Just think if all of this were gone tomorrow what would we miss ? Big tech is a big lie, probably controlled by demons.
Good points. These are some of the reasons why I have never bought a cell phone and never will. Even the civil conduct went down, on buses and in libraries. When I first saw some people using them while driving, my immediate reaction was 'you morons.' Many have been killed. Then there is the issue of the EMF (measurable). Ted Kennedy, Biden's son, and OJ's lawyer all died of the brain tumor.
I had an Instamatic camera. I took pictures on a trip from Ct to Yellow Stone Park in 1965. I also used it at the worlds fair in Montreal called Expo 67. I took slides and still have them. They have all been scanned.. I also had the brick phone in the early 90s that came with my job. It was huge but tough.
I also had an Instamatic in the late 1960's. I too went to Expo '67! Our class went there on a class trip. I lost a lot of my negatives from before 1974 and some pictures but I can remember a lot of them in my mind. I wish I still had that camera. I gave it to my mother-in-law when I got a better camera and she had it for years. Seeing the one in this video made me feel sad I don't have it.
I still have my Kodak instamatic. Loved the magic cube flashbulbs. I won it in a coloring contest and took it on a kindergarten field trip to a farm. Most of the pictures (still have them) were of barn cats half way out of the frame.
The Regency TR1 was a pretty cool radio except for the battery. It used a 22 1/2 volt battery,about the size of today's 9 volt. It was expensive,about 5 bucks. That was a lot of money back then. I listened to the early Mercury space launches. When I decided to sell it about ten years ago, a retired NASA engineer bought it!
2:40 Used Google on this. That $200 in 1960 equals $2,139.81 in 2024 dollars. Upper middle class and the wealthy are who drive innovation because the initial costs of development and production are so high; these costs then decline as the market grows but it is those with higher disposable income who fuel the development and improvements.
Still have a motorola beeper/pager from 1991 sitting on a shelf. Had to carry it for work at night in case there was an alarm, ADT would beep and I'd have to phone them back from a landline. After my job transitioned to cell phones they never asked for the pager so I kept it. I hated that pager had to have it with me all the time even on days off. I was never truly off of work. I've had that beeper in my possession since 1991...lol Got my first smart phone around 2006 and still have it in its original box. In fact i have all of my smart phones in the original boxes. My brother and I had a set of radio shack realistic walkie-talkies Only TV we had was a BW 19 inch in the livingroom and had to get up and turn the tuner knob to change the channel.Had a pocket transistor radio too and still have my parents old rotorary phone. My father had a brick phone when I used to work for him he owned a construction company, we carried it around in a black bag. The yoinger generations have no idea of the technology we had to endure to get to where we are today...LOL The parents are gone and I'm retired now but i still have memories and some of the old technology.
I HATED those "one way" pagers! I worked as a field service tech for copier machine company. Nothing would piss me off more than the office paging for another service call while I was on my way to the first customer. The only way to contact my office was to TRY and find a pay-phone to get back to them. A two-way pager would have been WONDERFUL, but I was told that my company HAD used 2-way pagers, but got rid of them............too many employees were using them for PERSONAL use! It didn't matter, I QUIT that job after only 2yrs!!
I would not say that pocket radios are forgotten today, you can still buy them, and of course remote controls are still very commonplace. Battery powered TVs are far less common than they were. I'm not sure why you mentioned the Phillishave shavers, because Phillips still make them, I use one. Is the Game Boy really forgotten?
By the late 1950s, Zenith had invented a clever TV remote control that was wireless and didn't even need batteries. It was called "Space Command." When you pressed a button, it struck a metal rod inside the remote that emitted an ultrasonic sound. Each button struck a different metal rod with a different ultrasonic sound frequency. It worked very well--except that your pets could hear it. Every time I pushed a button, our pet parakeet went crazy.
I remember when the radios started coming from out of Japan, we'd make holders and attach them to our bikes, then about 5-6 of us would have all set on same channel and riding around town. Good peaceful memories sadly most of my biker buddies are gone now 😢😢
I had several of these. My Dad drove me out to a military base, CanEx, in the early '80's to buy a walkman. They were slightly cheaper at the military base. I was so excited to get it. Our first remote control was an addon box for the tv, long cable and the box was big and long, had a separate button for every channel. Born in 1971!
$50 dollars for a transistor radio was very pricey in the 1950's. It is the equivalent to $500 in today's money. If you are making minimum wage that is nearly a week's salary. It must have been the same back in the day?
Ugh! Another channel using an “AInglish” narration program! The rise of the monotonous tone, sing-song cadence and emotionally vacuous narration programs make HAL sound downright pleasant.
When we got our first color TV, a Quasar, it came with a simple wireless remote that changed channel and volume. It was tuning fork based in that when you clicked one of the buttons a hammer would strike a metal bar that resonated with a tone that the TV could "hear", after which the TV would perform the requested function. I'll never forget the day i found out that i could change the channel by coughing 😅
I remember black and white TV's in about 74 my dads cousin working at a store in Chicago boy it was a huge deal to save money for years we went and got a zenith console tv like 500 bucks then a pice of furniture.was amazing when dad turned it on color wow then the lighting got it the tv man fixed it my sister dumped out the gold fish bowl in the back the man came and fixed it stuff lasted then days gone by man
How about rabbit ears on your black and white tvs? They always worked better when you put tin foil on them. That way you could get all 3 channels offered. The good old days.
My brother and each had one of the Sears 9 transistor walkie-talkies shown at 3:50. I still have mine and it works. They operated on channel 11 but most children’s walkie-talkies did operate on channel 14.
I got a set of toy walkie talkies as a young 6 year old kid and I would use them to talk to my 4 year old brother all the time. But I didnt understand the limited 1/4 mile range concept since we never used them any further than across the yard or the other side of the house. To me, it was the same as a portable telephone. Then when my brother was invited to a sleepover 4 houses away, I decided we could keep in contact if I gave him one, but of course once he passed the first house he got fainter and fainter until I could no longer hear him at all. I honestly thought they were broken until my dad explained to me that they only worked over very short distances. He even showed me the package and pointed out the indicated range, telling me my brother had passed that point.
@slim-oneslim8014 yeah I know. Rules were a lot different back then. He walked to the place himself quite often, his best friend lived there and he knew the way on his own quite well. We also knew all of our neighbors and their families within 10 houses of us, so as long as it was daytime, nobody ever minded if the kids were on the street mostly unsupervised.
My Dad loved any kind of gadget, and he had both of the pagers, the brick phone and a car phone. He even had the earliest model camcorder, that plugged into what looked like a VCR, that was battery powered and was fitted with a shoulder strap for portability. I myself had that exact same walkman, and I wish I still did.
The original "car phone" was called that because it could only be used in a car. There was a huge unit that took two people to lift,and was mounted in the trunk. The phone section looked exactly like a desk phone. and mounted on the transmission hump.
Back in the day (around 1978) my father had the camera/vcr in one unit- big bulky thing!- and my brother had the 2 separate units. I was happy with my top-load single-speed vcr at home. @@juneyshu6197
