Overnight Open Thread – Kickin’ It Old School [Doof]

Howdy Hordelings! I’m taking a turn behind the wheel of the ONT tonight. In light of the recent YUUUUGE turnout by Gen X to help Donald J. Trump win back the presidency, I’d like to pay homage to some of the things that I recall from the halcyon days of my own Gen X youth. Care to join me on a little trip down memory lane?

This is almost exactly the vehicle my parents had in the mid-late 70s. 1974 Chevy Nova 4-door. This color blue. No power locks or power windows. Probably didn’t even have power steering. AM radio only. Bench style seats in the front and back. Separate keys for the ignition and doors. Before the days of “all season radials”, my dad used to put snow tires on the car every winter. That’s how I learned at a very young age how to change a tire. Seat belts???

How many of you who grew up in the 70s / 80s had a TV like this? A tube TV built into a solid wood frame which made for a handsome and sturdy piece of furniture. Each of these beauties was about as heavy as a Datsun hatchback. The clever homemaker could make use of the ample space on top to house the family VCR (with blinking clock) as well as showcase family photos and other fashionable dust collectors. When cable TV came along, the channel-selector box could be placed on top of the console too. Then, when the TV itself stopped working, you could buy a new, non-console one and place it right on top!

When I started following football in the late 70s, one of the first guys I remember watching and rooting for was Earl Campbell. Had a replica jersey of his too. He was a beast of a running back. Just a great bruiser of a player from a time before professional athletes made anywhere near the kind of money they make now. A few years ago, I saw a place in the food court in the Austin, Texas airport with Earl Campbell’s name on it. These old school guys probably made more money after their playing careers than during it.

NFL Films Top 100 Players - #55 Earl Campbell

This is the exact boombox that I had back in the day. AM/FM radio and a double cassette deck! AC/DC capability. It had a standard AC cord, but it could also run on five D-sized batteries. Perfect for listening to the radio, playing cassettes, recording from radio to cassette, or recording from cassette to cassette (aka “dubbing” ). My first exposure to bands like Rush, Def Leppard, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden was through this iconic piece of machinery. I still have mix-tape cassettes that I painstakingly curated over hours upon hours. Bet many of you had one like this!

How many of you had one? Is this still a thing? Several of my friends had dads or older brothers with a collection similar to this. Something strangely appealing about a beer can collection to me. Interesting and colorful logos. A slowly developed time capsule. Imagine the collective stories these cans would tell if they could speak of the circumstances around which their contents were consumed. Watching a ballgame. Standing near a grill. Relaxing after a long work day. Of particular not to me in these old collections are the non-tapered cans which had pull-tabs. Ah, pull tabs. Once removed, they turned into curled up razor blades. Some of you probably can still remember the feeling of the cuts they gave. Somewhere between a paper cut and a slice from a steak knife.

Beer can collection valued at $3M

That’s all for tonight. Please let me know if you enjoyed this trip back in time. Hopefully I’ll get invited back to drive another ONT!

posted by Open Blogger at 10:01 PM

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