Remember the old car radios with just an AM radio, a few buttons, and ONE shitty speaker?

[Rabrrrrrr]

And while driving down the highway, you'd lose the signal every time you went under an overpass?

The systems today are so clean and pure, and the speakers so good, I kind of miss the romanticism of the old days - the old AM-only shitty-speaker radios were a lot more fun to sing along with; I think partly because it sounded so bad, that a group of friends driving down the road singing along added the weight and substance to it that was missing.

It was like we were participants. As though the radio stations were saying "We can only send you this much signal and this much oomph - you need to bring the rest."

And remember fighting over who got to choose the radio station on the family trips? Dad wanted country, Mom wanted absolute silence, sister wanted pop, I wanted rockier stuff...

Now they just put the kids in the back seat, give 'em some high fructose con syrup laden soda shit and a bunch of carbohydrate snacks, and mesmerize them with the hypnotic lunacy of in-car DVD systems, in which every passenger can watch their own movie (or listen to their iPods) and remain utterly oblivious to the world passing them by.

[taterguy]

1. Remember Peanut?

The game where the first person to spot a VW Beetle would yell Peanut. The game you couldn't play today because all the damn cars look the same.

[AwakeAtLast]

9. For us, that was called "Slugbug"

If you didn't call out "Slugbug (insert color here)!" You were the one who got slugged.

:(

[Rabrrrrrr]

10. That's what we called it, too (in Wisconsin) - slugbug

I have never heard the term "peanut" to refer to a VW Beetle. And we did the (color) part, with the requisite slug.

Interesting.

Perhaps it's a regional variant to call peanut and then do nothing.

[xmas74]

37. I'm originally from Wisconsin

and we always called it slugbug. And yes, the slug was included.

Did you also do "Popeye"? That had to be at night. If you saw a car w/ one headlight you said "popeye" and then smacked someone in the back of the head. (I'm not kidding.)

And there was car bingo. And the alphabet game.

[merh]

13. We play it here and it is punchbug

and if you are the first to see the convertible bug, you get 50 points.

[slj0101]

15. Or Pididdle (spelling?)

Is that a national thing? It's when you see a car with only one working headlight.

[Rabrrrrrr]

16. We did pididdle (padiddle? p'diddle?) in southern Wisconsin.

With the new cars and their far better lights, though, it's a game that can't really be played any more. Kinda sad from a nostalgic standpoint; but really nice, from a safety standpoint.

[trof]

31. The Official Rules of Popeye-Puhdiddle:

You're driving down a road at night with your girlfriend snuggled up next to you.
(This was before the days of bucket seats and center consoles, kiddies.)

You see an oncoming car with only one working headlight.
If the boys yells "POPEYE!" first, he gets a kiss from the girl.
If she hollers "PUHDIDDLE!" first, she gets to slap him.

Ya gotta be vigilant at all times.

Oh, and if you wear yellow on a Thursday you're queer.
You could look it up.

[xmas74]

38. When I was growing up it was green.

Green on Thursday meant you were queer. If you wore it you knew you'd get your ass kicked.

[MonkeyFunk]

2. hrmph...

back in MY day, we used to have to hire an orchestra to play in the jumpseat if we wanted music when we drove.

And oddly enough, they, too, faded out under an overpass.

[AllegroRondo]

3. remember the car games?

that you'd play on long trips to keep from going nuts?

like trying to find all the letters of the alphabet in order
or spotting out of state license plates
or counting cows
or holding your breath when you passed a cemetary
or punching each other when you see a car with one headlight

its like kids are missing a whole part of being a kid, because they're plugged into the electronics in the back seat.

[trof]

32. Oh yeah...Cow Poker.

You count the ones on your side and your opponent counts the ones on his side.
Whoever tallies the most in a certain time period wins.
We cheated a lot.

[madinmaryland]

4. And even with all that stuff, I still only listen to AM!

:shrug: AAR!

[mainegreen]

5. Radio isn't even worth listening to any more. n/t

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. Yeah - hundreds more channels, and yet far less content worth listening to.

I got thirteen channels of shit on my TV to choose from...

(though it would be 500+ channels, and 500+ radio stations...)

[MissMillie]

6. yes, and when I used to live next to a stop sign

I so wanted them back.

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. No shit! The boom car shitbags should be executed.

I'm about a 1/2 mile from a traffic light, and every now and again one of those boomcar fuckpiles ends up sitting at the light for the two minutes it takes to cycle and I can feel the goddamned things in my house.

I really think cops should be able to just shoot drivers on sight for it.

They certainly should be illegal.

[Deep13]

7. Yup, definitely remember that.

[johnnie]

8. And

You found the station you wanted then pulled one of the station selectors out and then pushed it back in all the way to pre-set the station.

[Archae]

12. My first FM car radio...

Had an 8-track player. :crazy:

But I've always had a real hatred for AM radio.
When I was a kid, we'd drive a 3-hour trip up to our vacation home, (which is now my parents' summer home,) and the entire way up there, my Dad would put on a weak AM station that played polkas.
So we'd hear "fssss...oompa oompa...fssss..."

Nowadays AM radio is polluted by right-wing loudmouths. :grr:

[raccoon]

14. I'd figured you for younger than that, Rabrrrr. nt

[kid a]

17. i grew up back then too

and I don't miss the crapy sound one bit. I like it loud, clean, and uninterrupted.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

19. Remember when the radio failed?

Then you lie on the floor to remove the radio, pop the cover, pull all the tubes, drive to the drugstore and test the tubes in the tester that's next to the door. Buy the replacement after looking through books to find the electric "equivalent", put it all back together, and you're good for another few months.

Tape deck? I remember record changers for cars, middling success. Not good over potholes.

They don't make 'em like they used to, and for sound systems, that's a plus!

[Maddy McCall]

20. It's kinda like that with camping now days.

People pack their directv system and dish, and they go in RVs that look like houses on the inside. What's the fun in that?

You cook on a stove in the RV that looks just like the stove at home. You take food that you'd eat at home and keep it in the freezer/fridge in the RV. You sleep in beds, and you hang out in the air conditioned RV all day.

You shit, shower, and shave in an RV bathroom that's a miniature version of the one at home.

vs.

Tent camping, where the campers entertain themselves and each other with games, wood gathering for the fire, cooking food that you ordinarily wouldn't eat--food that's kept on ice in an ice chest or pulled from the nearest river or lake while fishing. You sleep all together in a tent in sleeping bags, and finding a place to use the bathroom is in itself an adventure. No electricity, no running water unless the campsite has a bathhouse, and definitely no TV (radios are nice to have, but certainly not a neccesity).

Sometimes we stay in a cabin in the state park, but we don't call that camping. Camping should be considered anything tent-related. Staying in a $100,000 RV on a concrete pad is NOT camping.

[hippywife]

29. Agreed, Maddy!

My husband and I still do camping the real way. We build a fire for cooking or use a small propane canister with a single burner attachment for it, depending on how long we're gonna be out. Sometimes we just take all cold food if we plan to really spend lots of time in the canoe.

The only radio we take along is his ham rig, which he runs on a battery with a wire strung all around our site for an antenna. When we're done canoeing and fishing for the day, we settle in together and listen to broadcasts from all over the world. It's a really nice way to spend the evening and it's a fun way for him to keep his skills at communication with alternate power honed.

[Xithras]

30. There's an advantage to that though.

I've noticed over the years that walk-in campgrounds are far easier to get into. Everyone wants to drag their SUV, mobile home, and 90 pound ice chest along nowadays, so they balk at the idea of walking 20 minutes through the forest to reach a campsite.

Usually. Last summer I was camping about 30 minutes from the road in the Sierras when some ass comes driving up the FOOT TRAIL with his friggin SUV. I walked over and told him that it was a walk-in and that vehicles weren't allowed in there. He told me he wasn't worried about it, and that the rangers probably wouldn't be out to that campground that night. I gave him 20 minutes to get out of there before I hiked out and called the rangers myself.

People have no respect nowadays.

[Oeditpus Rex]

21. Don't go dissin' AM radio

It's where the ball games are. :bounce:

[Starbucks Anarchist]

22. What the fuck is an AM radio?

:P

[GoneOffShore]

23. My dad's 39 Olds had an AM radio

with TUBES! but he seldom played it. And then when he bought his next car he specified no radio.

He hated music OR talking when he drove.

[WhollyHeretic]

24. .

http://www.danacarvey.net/media/snl_grumpy_losealimb.wav
:evilgrin:

[Rabrrrrrr]

25. ROTFL! That's hilarious!

I love Dana Carvey.

[Orsino]

26. Hmm. If there is a case to be made for hearing LESS...

...of what the artist recorded, that may be it.

[Left Is Write]

27. I believe our cars always had FM radio, but I'd have to ask Dad to be sure.

Nobody fought over music in the car, though. I was raised on country music, though I'm sure there were times when Mom would have preferred complete silence. After my brother was born, we travelled in a full-size van with two parents, five kids, and often the dog too.

[trof]

34. Family road trips...a funny memory:

We were glad when our daughter was out of diapers, but her little bladder couldn't get the same mileage ours could.
So I'd put her potty chair in the back of our station wagon.
When nature called, she'd climb back and tend to business.
Seat belts? We didn't HAVE no freaking seat belts.

We were going through a toll booth when the lady taking the money starts laughing and points behind me.
I look in the rear view mirror and there's my little girl with her shorts around her ankles on the potty, smiling and waving at the toll lady.

[hippywife]

28. Boy do I remember!

There were five of us kids, eventually six. So it was a major undertaking to go anywhere. My mom always listened to country music and it used to make me car sick. LOL Or when we all went out in the evenings to visit someone, my dad would get all five of us girls to do sing alongs to keep us from arguing and fighting.

[Kali]

33. remember solid metal dashboards and no seatbelts?

those dashboards made those speakers sound even better!

[trof]

36. And the steering wheel had a big chrome bullet hub.

We called it the chest crusher.

[Rabrrrrrr]

39. And great big hood ornaments, window glass that shattered into cutting devices,

and three foot long shifting levers on the floor that could kill the guy in the back seat if you slammed on the brakes hard enough.

And those triangle shaped side windows up front - just perfect for letting in a little breeze on a day that wasn't hot enough for the full window; or to take away the smoke from the cigarette because it was okay to smoke in the car, because otherwise why did they put a a great big ashtray in the dashboard that could hold a quart of butts?

Oh - and cigarette lighters that actually came with a lighter in it, to be used to heat up the lighter, and not just a plug because the lighter socket is now designed to power the cooler, cell phone, laptop, DVD player, satellite radio, iPod, CD player, or GPS.

[bikebloke]

35. FBP

That's what a friend called "fucking button pushing". When you're looking for a good song on the radio, you keep pushing the buttons until something decent came up.

[Cobalt-60]

40. AM radio used to play music

It wasn't the solid wall of republicon hate radio that we have now.
My favorite was the 60's incarnation of KXOK in St. Louis.

[madrchsod]

41. i had a 58 Pontiac with a delco reverb that fantastic

cause i was listening to wlac nashville tennessee