What did we do before the internet?

What did we do before the internet?

Wow. I remember those days and if you are under 30, you have no idea. Wait for a catalog to come in the mail. Mail the last page with a check.....

Good times. Good times......

 

Went to the garage and worked on cars.

 

I used to have a set of catalogs that was 2 feet high. If you needed a specification on something it might take hours or days to find it. I got most of my leads from Hemmings and spent a lot of time on the phone talking to guys about cars and parts. Now everything is just a click away. Took the fun right out of it!

 

Apart from working on my cars it was all about magazines for me. Cover to cover then again, then more. I remember when I was 13 I'd cut school and go to the State Library and read old volumes of Hot Rod for hours. Most had the best pics ripped out of them but I still did everything I could to read as much as I could. Then when I could afford to buy them I bought them all. Most were OT for this place but it all helped me stay hotted up and keen. The internet is one big never ending magazine for me.

 

Here in the UK we would stay up until the early hours so we could ring the states for parts . Sometimes the phone call would be as expensive as the part !

 

i read everything i could get my hands on. lots of talking face to face at swap meets, car shows, etc.

 

Hemmings was always my directory to parts and catalogues,,likely spent as much time hovering over magazines/catalogues as I do on the internet now

 

I am 60 now and havent done a complete build since 1993.....Too busy farting around on here....The internet should be banned......lol

 

The most you could hope for is to have a cousin in another state that knew about cars. Then you could buy something and it would not be "Joe's old car" that you had in your garage. In the old days all the local cars and girls were well known.

 

went to the newsagent and payed money for porn

 

Ah yes. The magazine stores....Hot Rod, Hemmings and back around the corner......

 

Hemmings, lots of want ads in magazines, and a swap meet was actually about swapping more then lies and BS.

 

I would hit the news stands for the current magazine's, catching up on what was going on across the hot rod and drag racing world. Getting out and going to the speed shop's in town and picking their brain for info about cam's, and carbs along with getting the best gear ratio for your street (racing) driven ride, hitting all the speed shops and BSing with thoes guys was good times. Thoes days are long gone, and I do miss them. The internet has brought all this to the comforts of your home, the young guys today will never know the hunt or the fun we had then.

 

Speed shops, newspaper classified ads, bench racing, bugging guys who built cool cars and going to the track.

 

I guess I never ask myself that question...I know a few guys who live today as if there were no internet and pride themselves on not even knowing how to turn on a computer. I guess that it would be humorous were it not for the times that they come by and want me to find a part for them.

Before the internet I spent a lot of time mailing in Reader Service Cards out of magazines...those little 3x5 postcards where you had to circle the vendor's number if you wanted to receive more info on their advertised products.

 

Misinformation took months or even years to spread coast-to-coast and solidify into legend.
Now it takes seconds.

Same for the good stuff.

 

Before the internet, porn came in magazines and on things called video tape. The video tape didn't get quite as sticky as the magazines did.

Ok, seriously. Before www, I made a LOT more mistakes...

 

I remember working for a trucking company when computers first hit the commercial scene. Everyone was worried about loosing their job to a machine. Now, as a business principal, I need to worry about what people are doing glued to their screens all day. I miss newstands on every corner, places to just hang out instead of seeing people at a restaurant texting instead of talking to one another. We have lost our identity as humans.

 

I still have the first issue of Hemmings I was given back around 1962. Back then you had to know someone in the hobby to even know it existed. After a year or so you upgraded to First Class so it arrived a few days before the bulk rate mail delivered subscriptions. I can remember how you could pick out the sellers that were really into moving parts, they spent the extra fifteen cents or so to list their Phone Number, sounds really stupid today, but that was how things were in the early 1960's. If you forgot, and missed the cutoff date your ad wouldn't post until the next month. Photos? Sure guys would take photos of cars and parts, take the roll of film in to be developed, then mail them to you within a week or ten days. Lots of stuff got sold before the photos arrived. Fun time, more parts for less money, but it NEVER had the family brotherhood that you get here on the HAMB. Bob

 

Texting instead of talking to one another...... I think we've come full circle. Before easy transportation and the telephone, letters were the only way to communicate long distance. Is this post much different than receiving a letter in the mail (Other than the speed)?

Had our great grandparents lost their identity as humans because they wrote letters and didn't talk face-to-face as they moved away from family and friends?

 

Magazine subscriptions galore, and walking swap meets for parts.

Yep, Hemmings offered 1st class for a premium subscription rate so one could beat the thundering herd to the parts and cars in the classifieds. Even then there were "bottom" fishing sellers. That would list desireable or hard to find parts at either outrageous prices or "expensive" or "call".

I remember mailing self addressed stamped envelopes (SASE) for parts lists or waiting for someone to mail you a Polaroid pic of a part!

 

Never occurred to me how hard a phone call to the states would be pre internet.

Its nice to be able to look at pictures, read about things, see other people mistakes before buying or doing something.
less money wasted buying the wrong thing.

Its an unhealthy addiction tho, cos once it goes out youre lost.

 

THANKS! I'd forgotten about the SASE or SSAE, there were dirt bags that kept the stamps and never sent back photos or an answer. Bob

 

We're talking before internet but it really wasn't that long ago even long distance phones were not a resonable option due to the cost. It hit me a couple years ago while I was cleaning out my Mother's house after she passed and found letters my Dad had written her. She met my Dad in collage but had to drop out and go back home (200 miles away) after dating my Dad for 3 months. They corted by mail for the next year, one letter per week basically due to the delivery delays. Heck, my Daughter probably sends more text in a day to her boyfriend now then my folks did in 2 weeks!

Yeah, parts. I use to have a large catalog rack on my counter full of every street rod and high performance catalog I could get, each one ordered and mailed to me. Need a part, look it up, call, talk to a human (I'd order from Moon and more often then not Dean would answer the phone, now that was cool) and order it, the UPS man would deliver it and yould give him a check. Now I have a keyboard, monitor and buy it now buttons. I miss my catalog rack.

 

I blame the internet for my junk pile, er, fine collection. It was too damn hard to write letters, ask for photos and buying something you couldn't see was a real crap shoot. It was a lot harder (almost impossible) to find someone to check something out but vintage parts were much better quality. We used to toss stuff over the fence and throw into the trash out that today would be considered pristine/cherry. think how much got destroyed/crushed that you would kill for today....

 

car mags, and getting out and driving our cars, cruising on fri. and sat nites, meeting with groups for burgers or coffee, and last but not least tne drag strip or dirt track on sat. nite or sun. afternoon. ahhhhh, the good old days. HEY! , i got a idea, lets do it again! pick area of the country and plan giagantic cruises and bs sessions!naaaa, no one would get out of there lazy boys and show up. man, i miss the good old days.

 

Read Hemming's Motor News, Old Cars Weekly, P.O.C.I. Smoke Signals and went outdoors more.

 

junk yards for parts ...........

 

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Computers, I'll never get one of those damned things.
Internet? Never!~
Damned kids!

 

I turn 32 in about a month. When i was in high school i would bring a summit catalog and read it front to back. That was real early internet days and you needed to be nerdy to use it. Then cell phones got cheep and you were dead in the water without one. the phones didnt even hold contacts. I miss the old days.