Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Scranton Christmas 1938-1960
Have you checked this out? There was an article in the paper about this several weeks ago. It's pretty cool. http://www.scrantonchristmas.blogspot.com/
Friday, December 18, 2009
Scranton, P A
"Scranton may not be the best place to visit…but it is the best
place to be from!"
You know you are from Scranton when……
> You can name every town between Wilkes-Barre and Carbondale (in
order!).
> You know that there is a huge difference between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.
> Your Church and favorite “beer garden” are conveniently located on the same corner.
> You know the difference between halushki and halupki.
> Your three favorite holidays are: St. Paddy’s Day, the first day of
buck season, and the night they light the Times Tower.
> You know “up da line” from “downda line”.
> Driving to your brother-in-law’s in Wilkes-Barre constitutes going out of town for Thanksgiving.
> You’re on the local funeral director’s Christmas card list And you
have one of his calendars hanging in the kitchen.
> It takes you a good three minutes to read the Sunday paper
> You’re one of the few Americans who cares where Hillary’s father is buried.
> You’re not worried about that fire plug in front of your house working because there aren’t enough firemen left to turn it on anyway.
> You know the airport’s really in Avoca.
> It’s pronounced “COOpan”, DOOOpont”, and “Troop”
> You can tell the difference between an “Irish” church and an “Italian” church just by the name.
> When giving directions you always mention at least one bar or funeral home.
> You know what a “corpse house” is.
> You insist on calling them “column banks”.
> You tell everyone from out of town that the reason you live here is because “It’s the best place in the world to raise a family,” and then complain because there’s nothing for the kids to do, no jobs except minimum wage, etc.
> You brag about your brother who has a big job in Philly.
> Your immediate family has at least one person who “works” at Tobyhanna (or “The Depot”).
> You’ve ever ridden a bus to Atlantic City, ” ‘Cause it only costs 12 bucks and they give you 10 in quarters”.
> You plan your summer vacation “to the shore” around the fireman’s and/or Church picnic.
> You love Penn State and the Yankees and hate Notre Dame and the Red Sox.
> When you were a kid you used to get your sneakers at the A-cummy.
> You would never walk down Mulberry Street at night. (or, for the older generation, Lackawanna Ave)
> You’ve never even been to Steamtown.
> As far as you’re concerned it’s “Rude 81? because you think Jersey drivers are the worst in the world.
> You pronounce the following correctly: chimbly, li-bary, sangwich, Scra-in, and brudder.
>Your chuchi lives next door to your noni.
> Kill-bossy is the main course at Christmas dinner.
> They’re HOAGIES dammit!
> Someone in your family “went tudda U”.
> You order a “tray of pizza”
> You have seen the largest pothole in the world
> You miss Sugerman’s
> You have seen an accident on Route 6 (two points if you have been in
an accident on Route 6)
> You think that all of the local town names are really part of “cotton eye joe” lyrics (thanks to krz)
> You have seen the olyphant anchor
> You have seen a war tank on the side of the road
> You know what a “smidgen” is
> You have drank keystone light for six nights in a row
> You have ever hung out in Dunkin’ Donuts or on the Old Forge Main
Street for an entire night
> You remember the Globe store (2 points if you ever ate at the Charlmont)
> You have ever felt the Steamtown Mall’s floor shake beneath your feet
> You have recently become a Syracuse Basketball fan, even though you never were before (due to Gerry McNAmara with help from Billy Celuik)
> You own a Quint’s Army or NAvy t-shirt
> You have eaten an entire box of Krispy Kreme donuts in 20 minutes
> You know who Tilly and Tony the elephants are
> You know someone who has ridden in the Grump’s cart around Lackawanna stadium
> You don’t brag about your brother who’s at least 30 and still lives at home with Mom & Dad
> You have had to explain to your buddies on your a) dart team, b)
bowling team, c)softball team, d) all of the above, that you can’t make it Wednesday night “bee-in dat” you are on swing shift
> You have at least one article of clothing with a picture of The Grump
on it that you’d never wear in public in a million years
> Your mom makes the world’s best piggies and smashed pa-tay-das
> You can’t give directions without pointing, even if you’re on the
phone
> You know the difference between the Riverside & Nebraska sections of Archbald
> You have eaten a “ha-dawg” from Coney Island
> You have ever taken the highway over to the next town just to avoid
> traffic lights
> You have ever wondered how Sneaker King keeps going out of business
> You can depict each town by the Christmas decoration on its telephone pole
> You have ever put off bringing your college friends home until St. Patty’s Day
> You are connected to everyone through at most 3 people
> You have carried a keg in the woods to party
> You spend at least two nights of La Festa week walking around in a circle
> You catch yourself singing the “Van Scoy” diamond song
> You know that Schiff’s dresses up their Mr. Schiff maniquin as Santa Claus every year
> You have ever joked about rocks falling into Wal-mart
> If only in the background, you were on local television at least once
>You hate that radio commercial that says “on Munday street, on Munday Street, that’s right, on Munday Street.”
> You, your brother, your sister, your mom, or your dad was born in CMC
> You count one, two, tree
place to be from!"
You know you are from Scranton when……
> You can name every town between Wilkes-Barre and Carbondale (in
order!).
> You know that there is a huge difference between Scranton and Wilkes-Barre.
> Your Church and favorite “beer garden” are conveniently located on the same corner.
> You know the difference between halushki and halupki.
> Your three favorite holidays are: St. Paddy’s Day, the first day of
buck season, and the night they light the Times Tower.
> You know “up da line” from “downda line”.
> Driving to your brother-in-law’s in Wilkes-Barre constitutes going out of town for Thanksgiving.
> You’re on the local funeral director’s Christmas card list And you
have one of his calendars hanging in the kitchen.
> It takes you a good three minutes to read the Sunday paper
> You’re one of the few Americans who cares where Hillary’s father is buried.
> You’re not worried about that fire plug in front of your house working because there aren’t enough firemen left to turn it on anyway.
> You know the airport’s really in Avoca.
> It’s pronounced “COOpan”, DOOOpont”, and “Troop”
> You can tell the difference between an “Irish” church and an “Italian” church just by the name.
> When giving directions you always mention at least one bar or funeral home.
> You know what a “corpse house” is.
> You insist on calling them “column banks”.
> You tell everyone from out of town that the reason you live here is because “It’s the best place in the world to raise a family,” and then complain because there’s nothing for the kids to do, no jobs except minimum wage, etc.
> You brag about your brother who has a big job in Philly.
> Your immediate family has at least one person who “works” at Tobyhanna (or “The Depot”).
> You’ve ever ridden a bus to Atlantic City, ” ‘Cause it only costs 12 bucks and they give you 10 in quarters”.
> You plan your summer vacation “to the shore” around the fireman’s and/or Church picnic.
> You love Penn State and the Yankees and hate Notre Dame and the Red Sox.
> When you were a kid you used to get your sneakers at the A-cummy.
> You would never walk down Mulberry Street at night. (or, for the older generation, Lackawanna Ave)
> You’ve never even been to Steamtown.
> As far as you’re concerned it’s “Rude 81? because you think Jersey drivers are the worst in the world.
> You pronounce the following correctly: chimbly, li-bary, sangwich, Scra-in, and brudder.
>Your chuchi lives next door to your noni.
> Kill-bossy is the main course at Christmas dinner.
> They’re HOAGIES dammit!
> Someone in your family “went tudda U”.
> You order a “tray of pizza”
> You have seen the largest pothole in the world
> You miss Sugerman’s
> You have seen an accident on Route 6 (two points if you have been in
an accident on Route 6)
> You think that all of the local town names are really part of “cotton eye joe” lyrics (thanks to krz)
> You have seen the olyphant anchor
> You have seen a war tank on the side of the road
> You know what a “smidgen” is
> You have drank keystone light for six nights in a row
> You have ever hung out in Dunkin’ Donuts or on the Old Forge Main
Street for an entire night
> You remember the Globe store (2 points if you ever ate at the Charlmont)
> You have ever felt the Steamtown Mall’s floor shake beneath your feet
> You have recently become a Syracuse Basketball fan, even though you never were before (due to Gerry McNAmara with help from Billy Celuik)
> You own a Quint’s Army or NAvy t-shirt
> You have eaten an entire box of Krispy Kreme donuts in 20 minutes
> You know who Tilly and Tony the elephants are
> You know someone who has ridden in the Grump’s cart around Lackawanna stadium
> You don’t brag about your brother who’s at least 30 and still lives at home with Mom & Dad
> You have had to explain to your buddies on your a) dart team, b)
bowling team, c)softball team, d) all of the above, that you can’t make it Wednesday night “bee-in dat” you are on swing shift
> You have at least one article of clothing with a picture of The Grump
on it that you’d never wear in public in a million years
> Your mom makes the world’s best piggies and smashed pa-tay-das
> You can’t give directions without pointing, even if you’re on the
phone
> You know the difference between the Riverside & Nebraska sections of Archbald
> You have eaten a “ha-dawg” from Coney Island
> You have ever taken the highway over to the next town just to avoid
> traffic lights
> You have ever wondered how Sneaker King keeps going out of business
> You can depict each town by the Christmas decoration on its telephone pole
> You have ever put off bringing your college friends home until St. Patty’s Day
> You are connected to everyone through at most 3 people
> You have carried a keg in the woods to party
> You spend at least two nights of La Festa week walking around in a circle
> You catch yourself singing the “Van Scoy” diamond song
> You know that Schiff’s dresses up their Mr. Schiff maniquin as Santa Claus every year
> You have ever joked about rocks falling into Wal-mart
> If only in the background, you were on local television at least once
>You hate that radio commercial that says “on Munday street, on Munday Street, that’s right, on Munday Street.”
> You, your brother, your sister, your mom, or your dad was born in CMC
> You count one, two, tree
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
BY JOSH MCAULIFFE (STAFF WRITER)
Published: October 16, 2009
Font size: [A] [A] [A]
E-MAIL THIS SHARE THIS
Noah Severino DeSantis was born with a disease that severely hinders his ability to breathe in his sleep.
Now some friends of the Tripp Park infant's family are banding together to raise funds that will help him, as well as his parents, rest a bit easier at night.
On Oct. 24, the Nurses for Noah fundraiser will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Tripp Park Community Center. The event will include food and beverages donated by dozens of local restaurants, a number of basket raffles and, weather permitting, a classic car display.
Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for children 5-12, and will be available at the door.
All proceeds benefit the DeSantis Fund, which will go toward round-the-clock nursing for Noah, who just returned to Scranton after spending the past few months at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Born on June 16 at Moses Taylor Hospital, Noah, son of Anthony and Jeanne Waznak DeSantis, was transported to CHOP's neonatology intensive care unit on June 18 when his oxygen levels began to plummet.
There, he was put on a ventilator as doctors performed a battery of tests. Eventually, he was diagnosed with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome, an extremely rare respiratory disorder that impairs the body's automatic control of breathing, particularly during sleep.
"He does breathe a little bit (while sleeping), but not much. Not enough to release his carbon dioxide," Mrs. DeSantis said.
Noah received a tracheotomy on July 31, and each night before bed he's hooked up to a ventilator. He will require 24-hour nursing for at least a few years.
Back home since Tuesday, Noah's "doing very well," said Mrs. DeSantis, who has another son, 2-year-old Nico.
"This is a lifelong syndrome," she said. "As of right now, there is no cure. Every kid is different. Our hope is that when he's a little bit older, he'll just need a mask to sleep with. Time will tell."
Mr. DeSantis' best friend, A.J. Zangardi, and the couple's next door neighbors, Jim and Ellen Cummings, came up with the idea for the fundraiser. According to Mrs. Cummings, about 22 residents from the Village at Tripp Park, where the DeSantises live, have stepped forward to help.
"You can't even imagine. And it's all ages," said Mrs. Cummings, noting Dunmore High School, where Mrs. DeSantis teaches, and Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit, where Mrs. Cummings works, will have dress-down days in support of the cause on Oct. 23.
"One man (from the neighborhood) just stopped and handed us a check. We never saw him before," she added. "It's just been a really, really humbling experience for my husband and I."
"We're 100 percent appreciative of this," Mrs. DeSantis said. "It's extremely nice."
Contact the writer: jmcauliffe@timesshamrock.com If you go
What: Nurses for Noah Fundraiser on behalf of Noah Severino DeSantis
Where: Tripp Park Community Center, 2000 Dorothy St.
When: Oct. 24, 3 to 7 p.m.
Details: Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for children 5-12, and will be available at the door. For more information, visit the Nurses for Noah page at www.facebook.com.
Published: October 16, 2009
Font size: [A] [A] [A]
E-MAIL THIS SHARE THIS
Noah Severino DeSantis was born with a disease that severely hinders his ability to breathe in his sleep.
Now some friends of the Tripp Park infant's family are banding together to raise funds that will help him, as well as his parents, rest a bit easier at night.
On Oct. 24, the Nurses for Noah fundraiser will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Tripp Park Community Center. The event will include food and beverages donated by dozens of local restaurants, a number of basket raffles and, weather permitting, a classic car display.
Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for children 5-12, and will be available at the door.
All proceeds benefit the DeSantis Fund, which will go toward round-the-clock nursing for Noah, who just returned to Scranton after spending the past few months at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Born on June 16 at Moses Taylor Hospital, Noah, son of Anthony and Jeanne Waznak DeSantis, was transported to CHOP's neonatology intensive care unit on June 18 when his oxygen levels began to plummet.
There, he was put on a ventilator as doctors performed a battery of tests. Eventually, he was diagnosed with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome, an extremely rare respiratory disorder that impairs the body's automatic control of breathing, particularly during sleep.
"He does breathe a little bit (while sleeping), but not much. Not enough to release his carbon dioxide," Mrs. DeSantis said.
Noah received a tracheotomy on July 31, and each night before bed he's hooked up to a ventilator. He will require 24-hour nursing for at least a few years.
Back home since Tuesday, Noah's "doing very well," said Mrs. DeSantis, who has another son, 2-year-old Nico.
"This is a lifelong syndrome," she said. "As of right now, there is no cure. Every kid is different. Our hope is that when he's a little bit older, he'll just need a mask to sleep with. Time will tell."
Mr. DeSantis' best friend, A.J. Zangardi, and the couple's next door neighbors, Jim and Ellen Cummings, came up with the idea for the fundraiser. According to Mrs. Cummings, about 22 residents from the Village at Tripp Park, where the DeSantises live, have stepped forward to help.
"You can't even imagine. And it's all ages," said Mrs. Cummings, noting Dunmore High School, where Mrs. DeSantis teaches, and Northeastern Educational Intermediate Unit, where Mrs. Cummings works, will have dress-down days in support of the cause on Oct. 23.
"One man (from the neighborhood) just stopped and handed us a check. We never saw him before," she added. "It's just been a really, really humbling experience for my husband and I."
"We're 100 percent appreciative of this," Mrs. DeSantis said. "It's extremely nice."
Contact the writer: jmcauliffe@timesshamrock.com If you go
What: Nurses for Noah Fundraiser on behalf of Noah Severino DeSantis
Where: Tripp Park Community Center, 2000 Dorothy St.
When: Oct. 24, 3 to 7 p.m.
Details: Tickets are $15 for adults and $5 for children 5-12, and will be available at the door. For more information, visit the Nurses for Noah page at www.facebook.com.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,
May you never take one single breath for granted,
GOD forbid love ever leave you empty handed,
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.
I hope you dance....I hope you dance.
I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance,
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin' might mean takin' chances, but they're worth takin',
Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin',
Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter,
When you come close to sellin' out reconsider,
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.
I hope you dance....I hope you dance.
I hope you dance....I hope you dance.
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along,
Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone.)
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.
Dance....I hope you dance.
I hope you dance....I hope you dance.
I hope you dance....I hope you dance..
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along
Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone)
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Welcome to Holland!
WELCOME TO HOLLAND
by
Emily Perl Kingsley.
c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.
by
Emily Perl Kingsley.
c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved
I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Congratulations Stephen and Karen
Congratulations to Stephen and Karen on their 30th anniversary!
http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/arts_living/life_events/anniversaries/mr_and_mrs_stephen_badyrka_celebrate_30th_anniversary#
http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/arts_living/life_events/anniversaries/mr_and_mrs_stephen_badyrka_celebrate_30th_anniversary#
Monday, September 7, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Thoughts and Prayers
Our thoughts and prayers are with Aunt Nancy and Mary Ann, Jeff, Amy, Stacy, and Kara on the sudden loss of our beloved Uncle Andy.
There are no words, only a prayer and a hug.
A tribute to Uncle Andy
There are no words, only a prayer and a hug.
A tribute to Uncle Andy
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About
This is especially true for the newest generation! (Speaking of this, who remembers watching the Moon Landing in Baba and Dede's house?)
100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About
100 Things Your Kids May Never Know About
There are some things in this world that will never be forgotten, this week’s 40th anniversary of the moon landing for one. But Moore’s Law and our ever-increasing quest for simpler, smaller, faster and better widgets and thingamabobs will always ensure that some of the technology we grew up with will not be passed down the line to the next generation of geeks.
That is, of course, unless we tell them all about the good old days of modems and typewriters, slide rules and encyclopedias …
Audio-Visual Entertainment
- Inserting a VHS tape into a VCR to watch a movie or to record something.
- Super-8 movies and cine film of all kinds.
- Playing music on an audio tape using a personal stereo. See what happens when you give a Walkman to todays teenager.
- The number of TV channels being a single digit. I remember it being a massive event when Britain got its fourth channel.
- Standard-definition, CRT TVs filling up half your living room.
- Rotary dial televisions with no remote control. You know, the ones where the kids were the remote control.
- High-speed dubbing.
- 8-track cartridges.
- Vinyl records. Even today’s DJs are going laptop or CD.
- Betamax tapes.
- MiniDisc.
- Laserdisc: the LP of DVD.
- Scanning the radio dial and hearing static between stations. (Digital tuners + HD radio bork this concept.)
- Shortwave radio.
- 3-D movies meaning red-and-green glasses.
- Watching TV when the networks say you should. Tivo and Sky+ are slowing killing this one.
- That there was a time before ‘reality TV.’
Computers and Videogaming
- Wires. OK, so they’re not gone yet, but it won’t be long
- The scream of a modem connecting.
- The buzz of a dot-matrix printer
- 5- and 3-inch floppies, Zip Discs and countless other forms of data storage.
- Using jumpers to set IRQs.
- DOS.
- Terminals accessing the mainframe.
- Screens being just green (or orange) on black.
- Tweaking the volume setting on your tape deck to get a computer game to load, and waiting ages for it to actually do it.
- Daisy chaining your SCSI devices and making sure they’ve all got a different ID.
- Counting in kilobytes.
- Wondering if you can afford to buy a RAM upgrade.
- Blowing the dust out of a NES cartridge in the hopes that it’ll load this time.
- Turning a PlayStation on its end to try and get a game to load.
- Joysticks.
- Having to delete something to make room on your hard drive.
- Booting your computer off of a floppy disk.
- Recording a song in a studio.
- NCSA Mosaic.
- Finding out information from an encyclopedia.
- Using a road atlas to get from A to B.
- Doing bank business only when the bank is open.
- Shopping only during the day, Monday to Saturday.
- Phone books and Yellow Pages.
- Newspapers and magazines made from dead trees.
- Actually being able to get a domain name consisting of real words.
- Filling out an order form by hand, putting it in an envelope and posting it.
- Not knowing exactly what all of your friends are doing and thinking at every moment.
- Carrying on a correspondence with real letters, especially the handwritten kind.
- Archie searches.
- Gopher searches.
- Concatenating and UUDecoding binaries from Usenet.
- Privacy.
- The fact that words generally don’t have num8er5 in them.
- Correct spelling of phrases, rather than TLAs.
- Waiting several minutes (or even hours!) to download something.
- The time before botnets/security vulnerabilities due to always-on and always-connected PCs
- The time before PC networks.
- When Spam was just a meat product — or even a Monty Python sketch.
The Internet
- Typewriters.
- Putting film in your camera: 35mm may have some life still, but what about APS or disk?
- Sending that film away to be processed.
- Having physical prints of photographs come back to you.
- CB radios.
- Getting lost. With GPS coming to more and more phones, your location is only a click away.
- Rotary-dial telephones.
- Answering machines.
- Using a stick to point at information on a wallchart
- Pay phones.
- Phones with actual bells in them.
- Fax machines.
- Vacuum cleaners with bags in them.
Gadgets
Everything Else
- Taking turns picking a radio station, or selecting a tape, for everyone to listen to during a long drive.
- Remembering someone’s phone number.
- Not knowing who was calling you on the phone.
- Actually going down to a Blockbuster store to rent a movie.
- Toys actually being suitable for the under-3s.
- LEGO just being square blocks of various sizes, with the odd wheel, window or door.
- Waiting for the television-network premiere to watch a movie after its run at the theater.
- Relying on the 5-minute sport segment on the nightly news for baseball highlights.
- Neat handwriting.
- The days before the nanny state.
- Starbuck being a man.
- Han shoots first.
- “Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.” But they’ve already seen episode III, so it’s no big surprise.
- Kentucky Fried Chicken, as opposed to KFC.
- Trig tables and log tables.
- “Don’t know what a slide rule is for …”
- Finding books in a card catalog at the library.
- Swimming pools with diving boards.
- Hershey bars in silver wrappers.
- Sliding the paper outer wrapper off a Kit-Kat, placing it on the palm of your hand and clapping to make it bang loudly. Then sliding your finger down the silver foil of break off the first finger
- A Marathon bar (what a Snickers used to be called in Britain).
- Having to manually unlock a car door.
- Writing a check.
- Looking out the window during a long drive.
- Roller skates, as opposed to blades.
- Cash.
- Libraries as a place to get books rather than a place to use the internet.
- Spending your entire allowance at the arcade in the mall.
- Omni Magazine
- A physical dictionary — either for spelling or definitions.
- When a ‘geek’ and a ‘nerd’ were one and the same.
My thanks go out to all of my fellow GeekDads for their contributions to this list.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
American Soldier Tribute
I came upon these two videos this morning, and thought they were worth sharing. I'll admit to shedding more than a few tears. These are the kinds of things that help put all our trials and tribulations in perspective. As bad as things seem sometimes, they could always be worse. It's a thought that steered me through some rough times, and still does.
Better get some tissues.
First is a link to a short two minute tribute:
Brian Bradshaw
About 12 minutes long, but worth it. It's amazing.
"Killed in action the week before, the body of Staff Sergeant First Class John C. Beale was returned to Falcon Field in Peachtree City , Georgia , just south of Atlanta , on June 11, 2009. The Henry County Police Department escorted the procession to the funeral home in McDonough , Georgia . A simple notice in local papers indicated the road route to be taken and the approximate time. This was filmed during the procession by a State Trooper. Nowadays one can be led to believe that America no longer respects honor and no longer honors sacrifice outside the military. Be it known that there are many places in this land where people still recognize the courage and impact of total self-sacrifice. Georgia remains one of those places. The link below is a short travelogue of that day's remarkable and painful journey."
Staff Sergeant First Class John C. Beale
(Link to a large screen version)
Better get some tissues.
First is a link to a short two minute tribute:
Brian Bradshaw
About 12 minutes long, but worth it. It's amazing.
"Killed in action the week before, the body of Staff Sergeant First Class John C. Beale was returned to Falcon Field in Peachtree City , Georgia , just south of Atlanta , on June 11, 2009. The Henry County Police Department escorted the procession to the funeral home in McDonough , Georgia . A simple notice in local papers indicated the road route to be taken and the approximate time. This was filmed during the procession by a State Trooper. Nowadays one can be led to believe that America no longer respects honor and no longer honors sacrifice outside the military. Be it known that there are many places in this land where people still recognize the courage and impact of total self-sacrifice. Georgia remains one of those places. The link below is a short travelogue of that day's remarkable and painful journey."
Staff Sergeant First Class John C. Beale
(Link to a large screen version)
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Our Newest Family Member
Such a serious look.....Is he thinking "Penn State or Notre Dame?" or maybe "Red Sox or Yankees?". Or maybe he will turn out to be a Phillies Phan.
Hurry home, Noah!
Friday, July 3, 2009
Happy Independence Day!
A video I made in 2001 for my school....It still makes me feel patriotic! I hope it puts everyone in the Fourth of July Spirit!
(Someday, Mimi, we will make it to the Boston Pops!)
(Someday, Mimi, we will make it to the Boston Pops!)
Welcome to the World, Baby Noah!
Here's hoping you get your hugs at home really soon!
{Hugs to Missy and Anthony, and Nico, too!}
{Hugs to Missy and Anthony, and Nico, too!}
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