You must not have been around in 1979...

Posted By: SM on 2005-08-30
In Reply to: lines at the pumps, 2-3 cars long. - why?

We had lines that were BLOCKS LONG! It was ridiculous. I sure hope that doesn't happen again. I'll just stay home and swim in my pool. The heck with driving.

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lines at the pumps, 2-3 cars long. - why?
- Our refineries are closed - Because
  - oops - Because
- You must not have been around in 1979... - SM
  - it is my understanding - Snow Bunny
    - I lived in So. Cal in 1979 and they lines were atrocious. - NM
  - Does anyone remember only being allowed to gas up on odd or even days sm - m
    - I remenber it well - UGH
      - Oops, I mean remember - UGH
- Possibly because gas could go up even further SM - Endiqua
- Because gas is going up like crazy, supposedly going up - DUH
  - Gas Prices Shooting Up - IA MT

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me too. I started in 1979 at the age of 24 sm
I turned 50 this past May. We had selectric typewriters and the dictation was done on some kind of dictaphone system that had these little disks that were that floppy plastic kind of like when you would get kids records out of the cereal boxes. Remember that stuff. They were the size of a CD now. I remember when we first got cassette tapes. I thought I was in hog heaven. When I started with Transcriptions Limited in 1983 (now Medquist), we had selectric typwriters, typed on paper, different kind for each report and each account and got paid by the page. They delivered the cassette tapes to your door (at least where there were offices in the area) and picked up the work the next day. At least back then I actually knew people and saw them every day and got acquainted. Not like today. If you had too many accounts and too many types of paper you wound up getting paper "mites". For you younguns who don't know what paper mites are, they are little tiny creatures you cannot see but they will bite at your anikles. You have to spray for them! Kind of like fleas but smaller. I use to hire my two sons when they were small to separate the paper and pile it up by accounts and type or report. The little guys were 6 and 8 and they learned a lot quick. I paid them so much a page and finally my oldest asked me one day, how much I made page! He was 8 years old. I knew I was in trouble. But, then again this was the kid who took his Twinkies to school and sold one for a quarter and ate the other!

Now I sound old, but those really were the good old days.

O yes, I remember when Transcriptions Limited/Medquist got the IBM wheelwriter and then finally one day computers! I had been on the MTs system since tehy developed it in the late 80s and just this past March went on the DQS system. If they change again, I won't be here. Don't want to learn another one. haha

O yes, I learned in highschool on an old black manual typewriter (Olivetti I think), not sure and then we went to the really sophisticated stuff, the ELECTRIC TYPEWRITER which at the time I hated as much as I hated the computer the first time I used it!

Thanks for the memories!

P.S. You yunguns, 50 is not that old!

Carter was I think 1979 - not old at all.....nm

I am making less now than in 1979
but I am not working 2 full time jobs, have cut down to part time and loving it.

1979 vs 2009

First, don't get me wrong, I definitely think we should be paid more.

However, in 1979, you were likely using a typewriter, no such thing as computer and delete/backspace, no such thing as Google, no such thing as sending in reports with the push of a button, which makes things much, much quicker and efficient, which makes more typed. We should have better insurance, though.

I imagine it took at least three times longer to type a report then than it does now with computers, Google, better references, et.

1979 and 2009
I don't know what went on in 1979 because I was 10 but I do know that in 1990, the school I trained with was still using typewriters and in my first job, although they had computers, were using tapes, which we had to use a magnetic to erase. Heaven forbid that someone erased the wrong tape. Talk about a doctor being PO'd.

I had one too!! a 1979 piece of junk.

And if that wasn't bad enough it was chocolate brown.

My blinker knob fell off and I had to shove a pair of tweezers in there to work the blinkers. I couldn't wear heels or they'd get wedged in the holes in the floor board and one tire had a big bubble in it.

I can't believe I even dared drive that thing.

I lived in So. Cal in 1979 and they lines were atrocious.
x

Started in 1979 when I was 18, worked in office at MQ while it was still
.

I'm making less per hour in 2009 than in 1979!

I'm making less per hour in 2009 than in 1979!
In 1977/78, I made 6 cpl. at a transcription company. Had full medical benefits, paid sick days, a cushy, comfortable office, and monthly CASH (like, real paper dollars!) bonuses for 'Transcriber of the Month'. Of course, back in 1977, I could fill a 20-plus gallon gas tank for just under $18-20, too.

IBM Selectives before, but In 1979 where I worked we had computers
and loved them; however right before then we had IBM Selective typewriters and you could honestly fly on those, well I could anyway. I think anyone who ever used the IBMs would tell you they loved the keyboard. I don't think it took 3 times as long because we were trained better to start with. I spent a year studying before being turned loose on actual incentive pay plus payroll. The typewriters had correction tape you put on and used that way. When making an error you simply backed up, hit the same error again, your new letter and on you went. It was fast and seems like then you did not have as many to go back and say, oh add this, erase that, start over and so on. The first computer we got was honey also. Don't remember the name but I do remember having a Wang in the 80s, loved that one and no internet but still did straight over 2000 a day. We were our own good references, did not rely on the internet.