Re: OT - OLDER THAN DIRT QUIZ

[David Hall]

good pipe tobacco or a standardized cigarette. Lots of folks in the more rural past grew tobacco and used it, but we want something better than that big leaf we grew out back. Same with alcohol. It's not that hard to make (see Luigi's post abot 50 gallon of homemade wine) and yet we do not have a nation of brewers and distillers. (I believe it is just as legal to make moonshine for your own consumption as it is beer and wine). I see no reason to believe that after the novelty wore off that people would be out growing their own and they certainly wouldn't be planting a lot of backyard coca trees.

Dave Hall

[Doug Miller]

In article , [e-mail] (David Hall) wrote: [snip]

Nope. Not a bit legal. Not in the United States, anyway.

-- Doug Miller (alphageek at milmac dot com)

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

[Larry Jaques]

On Mon, 05 Jan 2004 15:43:18 -0500, Cape Cod Bob brought forth from the murky depths:

That's worked well with all items on the black market, hasn't it? Nobody uses that expensive heroin, cocaine, crack, etc. do they?

What taxes do is reinforce overexpenditure by the gov't.

As to smoking, subsidizing tobacco and then taxing it to the hilt doesn't make sense. It's hurting the people (us) in multiple ways.

---------------------------------------------------- Thesaurus: Ancient reptile with excellent vocabulary

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[Charlie Self]

Larry Jaques responds:

Agreed. And that's something that needs absolutely NO reinforcement.

Presumably, there is no subsidy on tobacco. What it is is an allotment system that keeps anyone from growing extra tobacco, except for personal use. Presumably.

Charlie Self "Brevity is the soul of lingerie." Dorothy Parker

[Larry Blanchard]

You're right. But it used to be. Many decades ago (1955?), I sent off for a booklet from, IIRC, the department of agriculture. It showed how to build your own still. In the back was a registration form you were supposed to fill out and send to the revenuers.

But then somebody decided to "protect" us :-).

[Mark]

Not cocoa trees in the back yard as they need a different climate.

But my daddy could buy tomatoes, corn, cucumbers at the local mart. I wonder why he grew his own. ?

[alexy]

LOL!

[alexy]

Bringing the discussion back on topic (well, almost!), my Milwaukee Delta bandsaw (also from 1949) has a sticker on it from the hardware store in Middleton NY, with the phone number 8993.

[CW]

[Charlie Self]

It was still in use within its own calling zone in Bedford, VA in 1988. I think it was '89, maybe '90, when we got a lot more convenience...I could dial England directly, but could no longer dial my up the road neighbor with 4 digits. Had to use 7.

Somehow, that never computed, particularly since it had been 30 years since I knew anyone living in England.

Charlie Self If God had wanted me to touch my toes he would have put them higher on my body.

[ranck]

This is one of those "old time" things I can't really relate to. Growing up in New Jersey, the home of Bell Labs, our phone system got all the latest and greatest stuff early on. I remember "Direct Distance Dialling" in the early 60's. We could dial our own long distance, even overseas, without any operator intervention or even dialling a "1" first. To the best of my knowlege, you still don't dial a "1" for long distance in New Jersey. Maybe that's changed. We got "TouchTone" a few months after I saw it at the New York Worlds Fair in 1964. I never even heard of 4-digit dialling until I was an adult, and then it was in an historical context. I had heard of, but not experienced, a party line until I moved to Virginia in the late 1970's. After 25+ years I've finally gotten used to the "1" for long distance.

Bill Ranck Blacksburg, Va.

[Charlie Self]

Bill Ranck responds:

Yeah, my mother used to have the no "1" dial in Dobbs Ferry, NY many years ago. I stayed with her for a month (only seemed like 6 years to both of us) when my first marriage broke up, so I found that out quickly. Same in an earlier apartment she had in Yonkers. I got used to that quickly, then moved to Bedford, VA where you needed the 1 and could still use 4 digits to get the neighbor up the road. Hell, it's faster to walk up and talk to him than to dial him in these days of "mod cons."

Another historical context: when I was living in Albany, NY, and later the same year ('72) in Milton, WI, I could sequence dial by calling the operator, giving her the list of numbers I needed, then each time I finished a call, she dialed the next one for me. Great feature when you needed 10-15 calls in a row, and jog dials don't replace it.

Course, that was back in the days before I took diuretics to keep the blood pressure down.

Charlie Self "Take care of the luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves." Dorothy Parker

[ranck]

My mother was a telephone operator back in the 30's. I remember when dear old Ma Bell introduced 3-way calling, and she said that was no big deal, she could do that for people on her switchboard back in the day, but it was against the "rules" because the operator had to stay in the circuit to make it work. Of course, the switchboard she worked probably didn't support dial phones at all. But, I wasn't born then.

Shhh! I've been avoiding my doctor so I don't have to hear about my weight and blood pressure . . . ;-)

Bill Ranck Blacksburg, Va.

[David Hall]

During college (1980 through 1984) I worked in the Bureau of Business Research at West Virginia University. For some reason a project was being done that required collecting and reviewing the telephone books from all of the independent telephone companies in the state. I was amazed at the number and small size of the independent telephone companies still operating. My favoeite one had a one page typed "phone book". The first number listed was "The Pay Phone". No location was given or apparently needed. I assume everyone knew where "The Pay Phone" was located. Everyone had a 3 digit telephone number. I believe that this was in 1983. I never did understand how you called someone from outside their little telephone company switch.

The community where my mother grew up got outside telephone service from the C&P Telephone Company during the late 1960s. Until then, the only telephones were on a single wire to which all phones were connected. There were NO telephone numbers - you knew whether the call was for you based upon the number and length of the rings - still used hand cranks to generate the rings, too. One person at the end of the line had a connection to an outside telephone and could somehow connect it into the local "peanut line" if someone needed to make or receive a call with the outside world. Dave Hall

[George]

Steeping switches pretty much a thing of the past, but they're what made such things possible. We've still got a firebar with 20 volunteers on it, though I have to wonder how they're accommodating that. Went to seven numbers in late 80's.