You know that you're old school if you can....

... When TV stations made a big deal about showing programming "in color." And when they showed test patterns on a regular basis.

 

....when your hand was the quick channel changer.

 

...when you can remember when you got your first walkman -- and damn that was a sweet day.

 

A McDonald's burger, fries and coke cost less than a buck combined.

 

You would check the bottoms of Hostess packages to see which baseball cards were there for you to cut out before having your mom buy it. I still have my Hostess cards of Hank Aaron, Rick Petrocelli, and one or two other players.

When Topps sold their cards in the triple see-through packs and you'd go through the rack of cards checking to see which pack had the most cards showing that you needed.

 

Get your gas at the local Agway feed store ... on the honor system. Drive up to the pump 24/7 and fill 'er up. Come in once a week and pay off your bill.

Did that first three years I had a car.

And much more general ... we didn't lock our house door at night.

 

How'd that Model T work for ya?
Sorry, couldn't resist...

 

You wanted old school; you got old school.

 

... remember kids playing sandlot baseball.

I don't think I've seen kids playing just to play in forever. Yes, they play Little League and all those other organized baseball leagues. But do you ever see kids from a neighborhood playing sandlot ball anymore? If so, I'd sure like to know where.

When I was a kid (I'm 46 and soon to be 47) we played ball every day in the summer. Every day.

 

Ditto, and I rode my bike three miles through the middle of town to the LL stadium. Nobody does it today.

 

I see a gang-let of kids (mostly Hispanic) playing soccer pretty frequently at the park nearby. Never baseball, though, now that you mention it.

 

I usually had a ride, but there were times I would take my bike a good four miles to my Pony League (13-15, the one after Little League) games.

I was just talking to someone today (actually a player on the team i cover) about how my brother and I would take the bus to the stadium to watch our local MLB team when we were like 13 and 14. Can you imagine parents of today allowing their 13 and 14-year old to take the bus to the stadium by themselves and buy a ticket and watch the game and take the bus back home. I can't. And for that I'm sad. Today's kids will never have it as good as we did. The player I was talking to said he couldn't imagine letting his kids do that when they get that age.