What vintage has done to me

Bo Eder

Platinum Member
So owning and playing vintage drums has gotten me to another 'vintage' point in my life. I'm replacing all my newfangled landline cordless phones in my house with regular ol' push button phones so popular in the 70s and 80s.

Last year I though I'd be slick and bought a cordless phone set for the house that came with five handsets, all cordless, and they're all linked to one base station that plugs into one phone line in the house. Well, biggest problem is this: when the batteries die in the handsets - they all died at the same time. Replacements cost $22 each. That's $120 for batteries after taxes and then you can't use the phones right away because they have to charge for at least 8 hours first!

Second problem: when you have a power outage - then you can't use the phones because the base station runs off of power! How stupid is that?

As I was lamenting the cost, the wife says, why don't we just get regular phones? And I thought, GENIUS! You remember how those all work: you just plug them into the wall and they work! NO batteries and they're not dependent on POWER!

On the one hand, I like modern amenities, like computers, but there are so many things that need batteries and have to be charged, I'm wondering how far we've really come? I'm also debating getting away from smartphones altogether (both me and the wife have iPhones) but the cost to usage ratio seems quite a bit one-sided. The cost of being connected is depressing (I pay $140 a month for two phones with unlimited data plans). And other than the occasional family member calling me, who calls me the most? WORK. And I don't need to hear from them as much as I do.

I'm being a curmudgeon, I know. But when I think of the cost of all this internet life-style and what I actually get done because of it, there's something completely out of balance. I'm almost tempted to just going back to the house phones and an answering machine!

It's like how I complain about that magazine, Modern Drummer. Well, you call them modern drummers, but the job hasn't really changed. So what's so modern about it? We're all slaves to marketing I suppose. Thanks for letting me vent. I guess my life is very 1970s - 'cause the computerized lifestyle hasn't really made me think thoughts like, "How did I ever live with out this?"
 
Good for you! I like plenty of new technology but the 1970's truly did rule - Analog recording, a real backseat to a car with an engine you can see into and fix, real sounds in a real band, music you buy and don't download, no auto-tune, you went out and played instead of staying inside with video games......

I don't have a smartphone, and I still love to read hardcopy of anything. Ah ya, the good old days. We walked uphill in a blizzard to school too, lol
 
Haha - yeah, I almost complained about those little pad thingy's too. Someone at work tried to sell me on getting a Kindle or something to read stuff, and I was open enough to try it, but I ended up returning it. Another battery to charge, and when it goes obsolete, then what? Give me an actual book any day!

Like computers, I love my digital SLR cameras for that part of my business, but you know the last time I went to Yosemite, I took an old manual film-loading Nikon that didn't need batteries - and I laughed for three days when at the end of the day, all my other photog shooters are having to re-charge their batteries and dump their images to their laptops. Me? I just changed rolls of film and put the spent rolls in my backpack for the trip home!

I really admire how far we've come technologically, but when what you do, and where you do it hasn't really changed, being high tech for the sake of high tech seems more counter-productive, doesn't it?
 
The film cameras are great until you do a weeks travel through Holland, Belgium Luxembourg and Germany and 4 of the 7 rolls you turn in for processing get lost. I own one phone and it is in my pocket all of the time. No hard lines, no need. Charge the phone every night and I'm ready to go. I have two batteries for my digital camera and a Compact Flash card big enough for for about 3000 photos at 3000+ megapixels. No wasted film, no processing costs, no waiting for development. I will say though if the hard line was necessary, it would be a simple yard sale phone.
 
I have actually found that when you get to the high end of "high tech" things become much easier and involve far fewer components. I use my phone as my primary computer and my
tv as my monitor. Everything is connected wirelessly so I have almost no cables. I don't have a home phone and I don't have an ISP to pay for. I don't have cable, I just use the apps on my smart tv or the internet for the few times I do actually want to watch tv. So for that $140 a month I have internet, phone and television. Not really so expensive at all.

The problem is people are tying to use new technology while maintaining the older things they are used to. That is when things become expensive.
 
eclipseownzu;1181765 The problem is people are tying to use new technology while maintaining the older things they are used to. That is when things become expensive.[/QUOTE said:
Perhaps I haven't look at it that way as well. Everything I do is older - I don't really do anything new, yet have these devices and figuring out I don't need them for what I do. If I completely jettisoned the old ways of living, maybe new technology would be the right thing to do. But almost all of us have experienced power-outages, and watching the news, you see alot of these catastrophic events where people get cut off from civilization. that's probably what I'm getting at - the world isn't Star Trek stable yet, so wireless devices are just not where its at for me. I know people who don't have landlines, and they experience problems where they lose signal and actually have to leave their homes to make a phone call. Of course, it doesn't happen all the time, but what an inconvenience, I say.
 
I am at the point now where my only communication device is my mobil phone.
 
Not much use for excessive technology here either.

We don't have smartphones, we read actual books, don't download any music, and usually wait until a movie comes out on DVD to see it.

Come to think of it, my truck doesn't even have power windows or power locks.
 
Not much use for excessive technology here either.

We don't have smartphones, we read actual books, don't download any music, and usually wait until a movie comes out on DVD to see it.

Come to think of it, my truck doesn't even have power windows or power locks.

That's funny, neither does mine! My wife inherited a Cadillac El Dorado from her mother years ago and when she broke the power window on the driver's side, paying that $959 bill to get it fixed convinced me that luxury items on a car are just not worth it.
 
I remember when all this were just fields ...

Shoot me now, but I actually prefer to read on my iPad. I can read in the dark without disturbing Mr Madge when he's asleep, I don't lose my page, and it's a jolly sight lighter than many books. And I can carry a large library around with me.

My abiding memory from the 70s is how artificial our food was: full of synthetic colours and flavours. I used to prefer bought cakes to home-made (ok, my mum wasn't Mary Berry, but still!). And clothes were all nylon and polyester - ouch!

I like technology. When it doesn't work there's usually a small locally-based business that can fix it for you. When it does work, it means I can go on DW pretty much wherever I am, and I can't see how that can be a bad thing.
 
Cakes. Cakes?

Caeks, Shirley?

Entirely my own fault. Even Autocorrect recognises "caeks" now. Can't blame the technology for that one!

And don't call me Shirley.
 
She's always serious.

I'm a man of lesser years than some here (try putting that politely) and I'm disillusioned with a lot of technology. There are instances when it is the best solution - I use my laptop, I have fibre-optic broadband, a smartphone, music production software, etc. There is something inherently satisfying in physical media though. Other than my phone, I don't own a digital camera. I have film cameras. I have a collection of records and a turntable. I even have a good-quality Pioneer cassette player (for what it's worth!).

There's something highly satisfying about being able to touch photographs and touch music. I always think digital photographs have less value because they're rarely printed out. You don't go through that process of unpacking them from the processing lab and looking for the finger on the lens and the poor exposures and as a child, that was something we did a lot. I miss that.

I also have a wired landline phone. One day I may even get one that I can mount on the wall.
 
With you Bo. I have a push button landline phone. Had it for 30 years, & it works just fine. I hate - no, detest my mobile phone. Even though it's not the latest smartphone thingy, it still manages to be a royal PITA. As a phone, it's F useless. It has a keyboard for text use & other stuff I don't understand, but the buttons are so small, anything bigger than an amoeba would struggle to use it. I can't see the screen properly anyhow, & don't even get me started on touchscreen stuff.

Text is a good idea for sure, but unless you were born last week, it's so laborious to operate. Text is the only mobile phone "extra" I find of any use, & even then, only to bug the crap out of someone who doesn't answer the phone, or get through to someone BECAUSE THE SIGNAL IS CRAP!!!!
 
I know people who don't have landlines, and they experience problems where they lose signal and actually have to leave their homes to make a phone call. Of course, it doesn't happen all the time, but what an inconvenience, I say.

Bo, you live in LA. I cant imagine that there is anywhere within a hundred miles of you that doesn't have pristine cell phone coverage.

Text is the only mobile phone "extra" I find of any use, & even then, only to bug the crap out of someone who doesn't answer the phone, or get through to someone BECAUSE THE SIGNAL IS CRAP!!!!

I cant speak for the UK, but here I literally get cell phone service EVERYWHERE. I would have to go out of my way to find a place where I dont get coverage. I got coverage at the top of the tallest mountain on the east coast. The real advantage of texting is time. I can send a text in the amount of time it takes somebody to answer their phone.
 
I liked life better before the internet. I don't detest technology, I just find it to be a waste of time. I gave up my $140 phone bill years ago and bought a cheap cell phone that can still access internet somewhat, if needed. So I use it to browse DW. All I do is text mostly and talk now and then. My bill is only $25 per month.

Plus, now the government is more intrusive into our lives.
 
Haha - yeah, I almost complained about those little pad thingy's too. Someone at work tried to sell me on getting a Kindle or something to read stuff, and I was open enough to try it, but I ended up returning it. Another battery to charge, and when it goes obsolete, then what? Give me an actual book any day!

QUOTE]

Bo, I love my kindle fire. Not just for books, I watch movies everyday at lunch on Netflix using it with a set of noise cancelling headphones, its awesome. and....I can carry multiple "books" at once, not just one. I hear you though, to each his own.
 
I love my vintage Luddies and Zildjians, but I draw the line at vintage hardware. I also couldn't see myself going back to analog phones, typewriters, etc. Although I do use an antennae (sp) for my local television stations.

I also own a '68 Olds Cutlass S, but it is way to impractical for everyday use. But that's just me...
 
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