Last week I had two teenagers with me for a few days, and since I didn't know they were coming, my pantry wasn't capable of feeding everyone. Althought I made an emergency run to the store, I ended up taking them out to dinner. After the first 20 minutes of watching my grandson and the two teens playing on their phone, I politely asked all three to let me see their phones. I promptly put them in my purse. Yep, you guess it. It took at least five minutes for them to shut up long enough to let me respond. I told them that if they wished to pay for their diners themselves, I would give them their phones back. But, if they expected me to pay for their dinners, then we would go by my rules. I told them that I would let everyone pay for their own diner, but as takeout, that I could have a better dining experience at home watch TV. Guess who won, and no hassles the next night either.
At 11 or 12, I ordered two of these from some surplus type place, maybe Johnson Smith & Co., in Detroit. They had no dials on them, looked plain just like below. Strung a wire from the house to the garage, had one in my "lab" in the basement (where at 14 I blew away my face making blasting powder), and the other out in the garage. Ran off a 6-volt battery, but had no way of ringing the other end. In later years, I saw more and more what saints my folks were to put up with such a brat. Frank
You liked things that go bang too, eh? When I was a wee snot I got into my dad's black gunpowder stash. I dug a small hole in the ground, poured it full of powder and piled some dry grass over it and lit the grass. The grass burned off and nothing happened. As I reached over to poke at the grass, KABOOM! I lost my eyebrows and front hair. Had I not been wearing glasses, it could have been bad.
@Ike Willis Now we both "fessed" up! I had a big porcelain mortar & pestle, like the pharmacy guy, and was mixing something called "Berge's Blasting Powder", had sugar, shaved wax, sulfur, and Potassium Chlorate. Had read all the warnings about chlorate, even knew it was what made toy caps go bang. But, the book said "triturate together". Could not find triturate in the dictionary, so figgered it meant mix. After about the third or forth stroke, the stuff, maybe 2 cups, burned real fast, not as quick as black powder, the hand holding the pestle got it worst, kinda shielded my face, felt extreme heat, touched my cheek, felt nothing, like touching cardboard. By then the smoke was drifting up the basement stairs, following me as I rushed to the bathroom, nearest mirror. My Mother found me there, checking. The old man swore, took me to the ER. Face was 2nd. degree, how my eyesight made it, I dunno. Very bright orange flash of flame the size of a basketball. Eyelashes and brows gone, hair caught fire in front. Lips made eating real rough, drank stuff through a straw for a few weeks. I was out of 8th. grade class for maybe a month. Got back, face looked like a purple plum, the kids laughed and ridiculed me. So, I entered high school the next year like an outcast. Bad time for a kid starting to ogle the girls! Eventually I started looking human again. Chemistry took a back burner after that. The interest centered on high voltage stuff, Tesla Coils, Neon Sign transformers. Like I said, the poor folks..........Frank
To be totally honest with some of you..........you're showing your age when talking about cell phones and other things that people use. This is 2016 and the "electronic" age. A number of things that some of you liked years ago, and are gone now, will never return. That can be unfortunate, but it is also reality. My wife loves playing the games she has on her iPhone and I have two games on mine that I sometimes play. Sometimes we will be "out to dinner" and using our iPhones for one reason or another. I remember, a few years ago, we went to a local restaurant that had some booths with small color TV's in them. To us, it was kind of awesome. I did walk over to a waitress station and ask one "how do you feel about TV's in these booths?". She told me, "I hate it and think they should be taken out. If families want to watch tv, they can do that at home while eating pizza." I thought to myself, "wonder if she would still have a job if the Manager knew what she had said to me." Of course I said nothing about what she said to me.
I enjoy having my iPad, and would never EVER even think about going back to using some obsolete computer after having the convenience of the iPad. The iPhone is great; but I don't talk on the phone very often, and hate texting; so the need for a smartphone is pretty much lost on me. I do love the camera on the iPhone, and don't even have a regular camera any more. Robin is going to get the new iPhone 7 Plus; so she will be giving me her old iPhone 6 Plus, as soon as she gets the new one. I am excited about having the larger phone ! Mine is the same iPhone 5 that I have had for several years now, and Robin has been telling me that it is time for a newer one. Sometimes, when Bobby is at the hardware store, and I am waiting in the car, I do read on the phone, so having the larger phone will be great for that, and I think it has a better camera as well. The new iPhone 7 Plus has 3 cameras on it, so very sophisticated. One is a telephoto lens, and when you take portraits, it will automatically blur the background for you and focus on the portrait. The other two are the regular front-facing and back-facing cameras. Robin takes lots of pictures; so I am sure she will love her new phone when she gets it. Since she also has the Apple Watch, she does a lot of the things just using that now. Still, I think that people spend too much time on the phones. Not only just in restaurants and grocery stores; but driving down the street, sitting there after the light turns green, and almost anywhere. The ones with the earphones are even worse, they look like they are walking along and talking to themselves. I try to remember to take my phone along, but don't talk while driving unless absolutely necessary, and then I will pull over out of traffic while I am on the phone.
@Cody Fousnaugh - the waitress was right - restaurant is not a place for TV The art of conversation is a dying art