Comments (281)

1. I’m a bit younger than most of these, but the first sound that comes to my mind is the screeching noise a dial-up modem makes when it’s connecting.

   posted by GoF on 11-11-2011 at 3:16 pm

2. I’ll be 57 later this month, and I remember them all. I even remember jumping up and down on the bell at the corner gas station, then getting yelled at by the attendant when he came out and there was no car there.

   What’s even worse is that I still own my old Instamatic camera with the flashcubes that got with it. Now all I need to do is find some 126-cartridge film!

   -”BB”-

   posted by Bicycle Bill on 11-11-2011 at 3:20 pm

3. At 38, I remember every last blooming one of them =)

   posted by Dana on 11-11-2011 at 3:25 pm

4. I remember all of these too and I’m 29. I have a feeling I’m right on the cusp of those memories.

   RE: #6. Whenever I think of that sound I always think of the movie Ghost, right as Unchained Melody starts playing. :)

   posted by nancy pants on 11-11-2011 at 3:33 pm

5. I remember all of them too!

   Another one – which I find very hard to describe to my kids – was the vertical hold knob on the TV. That and adjusting the rabbit ears to minimize the snow – wow, I’m old.

   posted by Betsy on 11-11-2011 at 3:40 pm

6. I am 47 and remember each of them, most of them fondly, despite the fact that technology has made most of the tasks these items represent much easier. I remember when I was young adjusting the antenna, fine tuning knob and vertical/horizontal hold adjustments to tune in far away TV stations, something that just isn’t possible these days. There was a certain sense of adventure about it.

   posted by Gordon Daily on 11-11-2011 at 3:44 pm

7. I’m only 21, but I’ve actually heard many of these sounds. I’ve used a rotary dial telephone, flash cubes, a typewriter, a record player and a percolator. I’ve been places that still use old cash registers and film projectors. The only things I hadn’t heard in real life were the channel signoff and starting of an old tv (I have lived with 6 channels and bunny ears though).

   I know that many people generations older than me think that those my age and younger don’t know about these noises, but you would be surprised how many of us have actually used these things. Plenty of grandparents have kept their old gadgets around, and the internet has wonderfully exposed many of us young people to other gizmos you all may have not kept all these years.

   posted by Mike on 11-11-2011 at 3:46 pm

8. Here’s one that wasn’t listed, fingernails on a chalkboard. Most schools are going to whiteboards.

   posted by Mike on 11-11-2011 at 3:50 pm

9. All…… but the phone and the cash register are the best.

   59 yrs old – can that really be true?

   posted by Mpc on 11-11-2011 at 3:52 pm

10. 46, and all but the cash register. I wonder how many of us experienced flashes of audio memory when we read the piece but didn’t click on the video? Well-written and eerily evocative!

    posted by Marion on 11-11-2011 at 3:52 pm

11. The PBS station here still does the sign off at midnight each night, even though they still air shows afterward.

    posted by Leslie on 11-11-2011 at 3:53 pm

12. Every Jiffy Lube I have ever gone to still has that pneumatic hose that dings inside the shop. My kids have definitely been with me to Jiffy Lube, so I am guessing they have heard it. Just not every week filling up, only once every 3 months or 3000 miles.

    posted by Ian from Baltimore on 11-11-2011 at 3:58 pm

13. @ Mike, even chalk ON a chalkboard. That has a distinct sound that you don’t hear anymore, now that it’s all whiteboards in schools.

    posted by Susannnadanna on 11-11-2011 at 3:58 pm

14. I remember them all too! And I remember using pliers to change TV stations when the knob broke. LOL

    posted by JaneM on 11-11-2011 at 4:03 pm

15. I have heard most of these… i loved the sound of the rotary phone!

    posted by Cattye on 11-11-2011 at 4:04 pm

16. How about the “ka-thunk, ka-thunk, ka-thunk” of old time copiers. We had one in the back of the classroom when I was a kid, it was a familiar noise when the teacher was preparing handouts for the students – which we would then, of course, raise to our faces to smell the fresh ink!

    posted by Kelly on 11-11-2011 at 4:06 pm

17. I doubt any have heard a dial tone. Kids these days all use cell phones which doesn’t have one.

    posted by They Call Me Bruce on 11-11-2011 at 4:07 pm

18. Heard them all. What I REALLY love is going to a musuem with my kids and seeing something behind the glass that I have at home!

    posted by robigus on 11-11-2011 at 4:10 pm

19. At age 38, the only one I haven’t heard was the TV warm up.

    posted by Jen on 11-11-2011 at 4:11 pm

20. I also have dealt with all of these (at 34), but most of them when I was at Grandma’s, as suggested above. We had a few of those things at our house, but my dad was a tech junkie and was always first on something when it got to town. My grandma kept things forever.

    The one I remember is the antenna rotator for the aerial. The buzz as you were waiting for the antenna to turn and the scolding I would get if I reversed the direction before it came to a stop.

    posted by Ian on 11-11-2011 at 4:13 pm

21. all of them, and i’m almost 39

    posted by Wayne Stevens on 11-11-2011 at 4:18 pm

22. I’m 46 and I have heard all of them first-hand.

    posted by PennyL on 11-11-2011 at 4:20 pm

23. 29 and heard them all too. Of course, my parents like to keep things as long as they can – and I worked at a museum.

    posted by Michelle on 11-11-2011 at 4:38 pm

24. I’ve heard them all!

    And how about a busy signal. Nowadays, everything goes to voice mail.

    posted by H on 11-11-2011 at 4:41 pm

25. I’m 48 and I’ve heard all of them first-hand.

    Also, what about the sound of tuning into a radio station using a dial?

    posted by Jeff C. on 11-11-2011 at 5:07 pm

26. I’m 51 and I remember all of them. I even did some of my learning-how-to-type on a manual typewriter at our high school. They didn’t have enough electric ones, so everyone had to take their turn on one of the two manuals.

    Speaking of the sound of a copier (ka-thunk, ka-thunk), I wonder how confused kids are today when they watch Fast Times at Ridgemont High and the entire class smells their mimeographed tests. I remember that smell. It was great!

    posted by Rachel on 11-11-2011 at 5:12 pm

27. How about “picture tubes” or “vacuum tubes”

    TV’s weren’t always solid state, and it was common to see picture tube testers in places like drug stores, to check your tubes and buy a new one if it was bad.

    TV’s like this might have been outdated by the time I cam along, but they lasted into my teens.

    Amazingly, vacuum tubes are are still used today in large amplifiers and musicians are starting to enjoy them in smaller ones, for their quality of sound.

    posted by Morris on 11-11-2011 at 5:23 pm

28. I guess I’m old – 44 today. I’ve heard them ALL!!!

    posted by Susan on 11-11-2011 at 5:26 pm

29. 15 and heard 8 accoutacly, and am familiar with 10 of them. That 7 inch changer I didn’t know

    posted by jeffery on 11-11-2011 at 5:31 pm

30. Remember them all.

    My favorite sound as a kid was the (very) high pitched squeal and ‘pop’ of the old television tubes when turned on or off.

    An then there’s the obnoxious squeal of the old crystal radio kits while you are trying to tune it.

    Come to think of it, my childhood was full of squealing.

    posted by RichEardley on 11-11-2011 at 5:33 pm

31. I asked my 11-year-old daughter to read this list with me. She has heard/seen all of them except the tv warm-up and an actual flash cube. She did point out that there is are a few even older (flash powder) showing in several of the HP movies.
    Also, she suggested FILM CAMERAS. Her step-father and I take and develop pictures but her classmates don’t understand the concept. I think it is more of WHY than the actual process.

    posted by Grace on 11-11-2011 at 5:34 pm

32. Love these! And since I’m in Atlantic City this week, I have one to add. I miss the sound of coins falling into the trays of slot machines.

    posted by feritae on 11-11-2011 at 5:37 pm

33. I’m 25 and have heard all in person except for the tv sign off and the service station bell. My parents and grandparents still have many of the items on here. I remember my grandma dialing her rotary phone, and I learned how to type with an old typewriter, also my grandma’s. My brother is 18 and collects the cameras with the flash cubes.

    My husband and I love going to antique stores, one day we saw a play switchboard, which he wanted to get for our daughter. The problem is, she would have no idea what it was or how to use it! So sad, what children today won’t ever know about…

    posted by Heather on 11-11-2011 at 5:40 pm

34. Amazing, really. I am 40 and to me these wer standard bIts of the background noise of the world. I feel weird now that you’ve pointed out they’re gone. In the 70s when I was a kid they were everywhere. Damn you Technological Revolution!! :-)
    http://pragmocracy.wordpress.com/2011/07/28/living-in-the-future/

    posted by Steve on 11-11-2011 at 5:42 pm

35. I remember them all…I am that old…

    posted by Laurel on 11-11-2011 at 5:44 pm

36. Ok, so at 32 I’ve heard most. The coffee percolator escapes me, as we as the record changer, though we had a record player. I even had a little 45 that came with books from Disney as a kid. The TV though is a very familiar sound, so is the projection, as well as studio recordings and mechanical clicks when the tapes cued for broadcast. But one that come to mind that teens may not be so quick to recognize is the static between radio stations, most are all digital tuners and skip over dead air. And speaking of dead air what about the colorbar tone on a station not actively broadcasting. Or I have a real blast from the past, what about a real operator breaking into your phone call before call waiting!!!!

    posted by Tyler on 11-11-2011 at 5:45 pm

37. I’m 25 tomorrow and I’ve heard most of them. Maybe someday we can redo this list and include the dial-up modem noise that someone mentioned and the squeaking of markers on the markerboards?

    posted by anna on 11-11-2011 at 5:50 pm

38. 47, yep, heard ‘em all.

    posted by Sherilyn on 11-11-2011 at 6:06 pm

39. 26 and I’ve heard 9 of them first hand (thank you grandma and grandpa!). Never heard the percolator or the flash cube (although the old flash bulbs are a definite yes!). Scary to think my kids won’t know what the noise of dial-up sounded like….

    posted by Kate on 11-11-2011 at 6:11 pm

40. Haha, all of ‘em except the cash register ;p

    posted by Zipora on 11-11-2011 at 6:31 pm

41. I’m 46 and collect such things, so my three kids, all under 9, have heard about half of them. It’s up to us to preserve the past for them. Like oral history..so important.

    posted by Cie Hosmer on 11-11-2011 at 6:35 pm

42. How about the quiet buzz of a fast-forwarding (or rewinding) cassette tape approaching the end, and the sudden thunk when it reached the end of the tape?

    posted by Brett on 11-11-2011 at 6:36 pm

43. I can remember all of these and a few others from the 50′s, What ever happen to the days when I was too young?

    posted by MariAg on 11-11-2011 at 6:37 pm

44. I remember the squeePOP of turning the TV off as well. :) I miss the sound of typewriters…

    posted by e-Expeditions on 11-11-2011 at 6:38 pm

45. I am older than all of you I remember them all. I used a Frieden Calculator much like the cash register but with 10 buttons across. The telephone, however, is not old enough. Older versions of the same style of telephone had a slower dial that made a clicking sound between each number. You could actually count the clicks for each number. The television sign-off was the National Anthem, followed by a test pattern and then nothing but static.

    posted by Laurie on 11-11-2011 at 6:51 pm

46. I’ll be 55 in January and remember all of these as well. Wow – the world has changed a LOT!

    What just jogged my memory was waiting for the computer operators to mount tapes. Before I left the work force four years ago, almost everything had been converted to cartridge, and these carrtidges were in silos where robotic arms read and mounted the correct cassette.

    My husband remembers WAY back in the day when they used to code programs on data punch cards. You had to carry your tray (or trays) of punched cards to the computer room. He dropped one of his trays once, and spent half a day getting them back in order gain. Now THAT’s old school!

    posted by Sharona on 11-11-2011 at 6:56 pm

47. The coin return on a pay phone.

    posted by Stefan on 11-11-2011 at 7:28 pm

48. I’m 40 and I grew up with all of these. I remember less than 20 years ago when my husband was going to buy me a nice camera. We debated about film vs. digital. I chose film because I loved film. Now I never use that camera. And I have several unopened rolls of film!

    posted by Angie on 11-11-2011 at 7:56 pm

49. Not only do I remember these, we had then our house. (I’m 32) We were pretty broke then, so not much new anything. Here’s a concept kids in their 20′s would think was crazy: taking T.V.’s, VCR’s, and other household small appliances to the repair shop! It’s just not done!

    posted by foodjunkie on 11-11-2011 at 8:04 pm

50. I’m 46 and have heard them all. We have a manual typewriter that was mine growing up (and all my older brothers and sisters, too.) My daughters’ school still has a rotary dial phone in their basement kitchen so they’ve actually used it to dial a call! They’ve even heard the sound of an 8-track tape changing tracks and a paper-folding machine fold brochures into thirds. What I also grew up in a house with push button light switches and real chimes (like the tubes from an organ) for our doorbell. I miss is the smell of a freshly mimeographed paper and the sound of chalk erasers being clapped to be cleaned (but not the ensuing cloud of chalk dust!)

    posted by Mary Anne on 11-11-2011 at 8:23 pm

51. Other sounds that were overlooked:

    - The sound of winding film in a camera
    - The sound of the analog gasoline pumps
    - The sound of an audio cassette going into a tape player
    - The clicking/popping sounds whenever you closed or opened an older VCR
    - The sound of an old reel-to-reel tape player

    I am few days shy of my 31st birthday, and just the title of this list gave me an amazing sense of nostalgia. Then once I recognised all of them, it brought a smile to my face.

    Thank you.

    posted by Eric on 11-11-2011 at 8:25 pm

52. 43; remember all with the possible exception of the percolator.

    Also, how ’bout a non-digital pinball machine?

    posted by Dusty on 11-11-2011 at 8:35 pm

53. I still use a stovetop percolator!

    posted by Andiscandis on 11-11-2011 at 8:46 pm

54. No doubt I recall all of these (I’m 33) but my 13 year old son has no idea what any of them were. He thought that “Broken Record” was a saying like, “kill two birds with one stone.” Kind of funny the things we have no idea about, but our parents or grandparents recall.

    posted by MetalRose on 11-11-2011 at 8:59 pm

55. How about the quiet buzz of a fast-forwarding (or rewinding) cassette tape approaching the end, and the sudden thunk when it reached the end of the tape?

    And high speed dubbing…. Chipmonks sing Pink Floyd

    posted by Michael on 11-11-2011 at 9:16 pm

56. I’m 32 and remember all but the coffee percolator (did not grow up in a coffee-drinking household).

    posted by Jessica on 11-11-2011 at 9:38 pm

57. I’m 34, but have never heard of the High Flight poem until I saw that. Talk about cheesy. I remember the announcer giving you all the technical details, the national anthem, and then the test pattern. Speaking of which, how could you show that whole thing with no test pattern at the end?

    I remember being my dad’s remote control. I definitely remember the dials…UHF dial too :) Wonder how many black and white tvs are still out there.

    For my secret OCD side, I love and miss the rotary phone. I used to love to dial “0″ just to feel the slide of the dial and the “whirrr” of it going all the way back. I loved it until the operator called our house because I kept doing it. LOL!

    You should put film strips alongside projectors, but did those make noises? How about those slideshow dealies?

    Totally with the fast forwarding and rewinding of the VCR. 10 extra points if it was Betamax.

    My mom’s dresser drawer was always filled with spare flash cubes. Still have quite a few…but no camera.

    posted by Cheryl on 11-11-2011 at 9:58 pm

58. Before I opened this, the first thing I thought of was Dot matrix printers! Offices are so quiet these days…

    posted by Vanessa on 11-11-2011 at 10:04 pm

59. Happy Birthday @Susan!

    I’m 43 and I remember all except the Gas Station bell but I’m pretty sure we didn’t have them in petrol stations in the town I grew up in (in Australia).

    Like @GoF I’d add is the sound of a dial up modem. I’d probably also add the click click swish of a slide projector

    posted by Sharyn on 11-11-2011 at 10:28 pm

60. I can’hear the flashbulbs in my mind, and also the high pitch of the recharging electronic camera flash between shots. Alarm clocks used to have loud bells, not beeps! Watches used to all tic. Before fuel injection, Dad used to pump the gas pedal twice before starting the car. People used to say, “You’re welcome,” not, “You betcha” or “Sure”. After every photo you’d hear the ratcheting of the film being wound. One thing We can still find are those spring door stops that you hit with your slipper in the middle of the night!

    posted by Paul on 11-11-2011 at 11:00 pm

61. 26 here.

    I took apart my family’s rotary phone that had gone into disuse as a child.

    There was a typewriter that I played with at my grandma’s house.

    Informercials aren’t that old! I’ve stared at the test screen.

    The flashcube… I had no idea such a thing existed. I always wondered…

    posted by tom on 11-11-2011 at 11:35 pm

62. Thanks for this list! My husband & I were discussing this very subject last week. You thought of lots more than we did! Imagine the puzzlement of future fans of “golden oldies” that contain some of these sounds, for example, the ka-ching of the cash register at the beginning of Pink Floyd’s “Money.”

    posted by Pirate Queen on 11-11-2011 at 11:42 pm

63. Age: 33. I’ve heard all but 3, 7, and 8. I’ve even caused most of those.

    posted by Chris on 11-12-2011 at 1:36 am

64. I’ve heard only a couple of things but seeing how I’m not even 18 yet, I’ve only heard these things from watching T.V./the internet. I want a manual typewriter really badly though, mostly for the noise of each key and also because it would be really interesting to see how it worked!

    posted by Hammy on 11-12-2011 at 5:54 am

65. I’m so disappointed! I waited through several of these, and they cut off several seconds too soon — the sound I was waiting to hear wasn’t even included in the clip. Examples: The record changer. The entire boring song was played, and just before we got to watch/hear the record being played, the clip was – clipped! Also with the TV sign-off and test pattern – neither was included in the clip. Waste of time! Edit out the useless, time-consuming stuff, and cut to the things promised in the blurbs, please! Great idea, though.

    posted by truefeather77 on 11-12-2011 at 8:00 am

66. im 29 and could hear all of these in my head as I read through the list!

    posted by Julie on 11-12-2011 at 8:07 am

67. P.S. — the typewriter one should include the ding as you approach the far margin, when it’s almost time to do the carriage return. That is a cool sound, and really conjures up the experience. Thanks!

    posted by truefeather77 on 11-12-2011 at 8:10 am

68. 22 here. I’ve heard more than half in person and a few in movies. I only haven’t heard the percolator and flash cubes.

    How about the beautiful whir of a VHS being rewound? Or even just the sound of sliding one in to the VCR? The sound of frustration that ensued when the VCR would *eat* your VHS? hahaha

    …and I just realised that my nephew (age 5) has never heard the squeal of dial-up internet. Sad.

    posted by Tindy on 11-12-2011 at 8:10 am

69. @Susannnadanna:

    Actually, many universities still use chalk boards. I saw a white board at a local community college, but I mainly saw chalk boards on all the college tours I went on a few years ago.

    posted by Mike on 11-12-2011 at 8:56 am

70. 53 and guilty of remembering all those sounds as well as others. We didn’t use a percolator when I was growing up but there were the Maxwell House ads which made the sound famous. I still remember when gas stations had a choice between “self serve” and “full serve.”

    posted by Eric on 11-12-2011 at 9:03 am

71. Three weeks of bell-ringers for the history class there. Great idea.

    Heck, our kids have never heard the loading of an 8-track tape player, either. They don’t know what CONELRAD was, and they don’t know the old emergency alert tones.

    Great collection.

    posted by Ed Darrell on 11-12-2011 at 9:56 am

72. I only noticed that typewriters and record players and rotary phones were gone when my kids were so curious about them in antique stores. Ha!

    posted by Miss Cellania on 11-12-2011 at 10:09 am

73. I’m 42. I don’t remember the percolator, the flash cube nor the gas station bell. Why?

    No one in my childhood house drank coffee, and by the time I started, it was the late 80s and there were no percolators in the cafeteria at uni. Hearing this one is my first ever experience of it.

    We didn’t have a car, either, so I was never at the gas station, and if the sound was in films and TV shows of my ’70s childhood, then it didn’t register.

    We didn’t have a camera until 1975 and it was a Polaroid. I’ve actually never seen a flash cube before this post. No cameras from the ’60s are familiar to me, even though I was born in ’69, and you’d think there’d be some holdover to the mid-’70s of some of these things, I never saw them.

    As for some of the other things, I’m used to electric typewriter sounds, and the smother clik-clik-clik of colour TV sets and faster cash registers.

    The chunk-chunk of 8-tracks switching over, that I remember.

    You really want to freak yourself out, just look on YouTube for when *HBO* would go off the air at night back in the late 70s. They had a cute little animated sign-off of people preparing to go to sleep.

    posted by Brooklynperson on 11-12-2011 at 10:36 am

74. 42 and have heard them all :)
    remember dialing the radio station on the rotary phone, even remember my favorite stations number… get this… 234-0000…. we would spin the dialer back faster than it was supposed to go just to try to win concert tix LOL

    posted by Theresa on 11-12-2011 at 10:56 am

75. i actually remember all of these (age 32) except the tv sign off. there were a handful of small stores and restaurants in and around where i grew up in central CA. my parents still have their rotary phone and coffee urn (though they upgraded both long ago). we had a couple of typewriters before getting an apple II gs in the late 80s. i can still remember our old console tv and a couple smaller tvs that had the separate uhf/vhf dials. the flash cubs i remember because i had an uncle who was all into photography and had all the latest great equipment. my father had and still has his record player with the multi play option–which, incidentally, is awful for the records. up until 5th grade or so there were still film projectors in my school. and i think the only reason i don’t remember the tv sign offs is because i was never allowed to stay up that late!

    posted by chris on 11-12-2011 at 11:44 am

76. i’m 22 and I remember everything except the old tv broadcast at the end of the night

    posted by tuf on 11-12-2011 at 1:51 pm

77. I’m 56 and I remember them all. I still have my stereo turntable and vinyl records and yes, I do still play them.

    posted by Donna on 11-12-2011 at 1:51 pm

78. I am old enough to remember electricity being hooked up to the house, the first lightbulb installed in the kitchen and much later a radio.
    Scubboard for the laundry, which was boiled on the woodstove the night before……
    Them were the good old days?

    posted by fwmn on 11-12-2011 at 2:12 pm

79. Bought a record player, brand new at the Target, last year; it has a record changer and vinyl is back so maybe eliminate that one!

    posted by Tapestry on 11-12-2011 at 2:45 pm

80. I’m 24 and have heard almost all of those. Interestingly enough, in my neck of the woods (small town in northern Saskatchewan) all of the gas stations are full-serve and most have gas station driveway bells.

    posted by Lynniscold on 11-12-2011 at 3:24 pm

81. 33 here and I remember all of them! The ding-ding of the gas station bell in particular bring back memories. My dad owned a Golden Gas Station in Pennsylvania back in the seventies and eighties and whenever I got to hang out with daddy at work, I would hear that bell all day. I would usually get the job of washing the side windows with the squeegee in the full service lane.

    I also have to second the sound of a dial-up modem connecting, a VHS tape rewinding, the high-pitched squeal of an electric camera flash warming up after a shot. Then there’s dial tones and busy signals. The whir of dot matrix printers and the scantron machines.

    My TV (manufacture date 1982) still does that pop after you turn it off. It also has a very brief warm up sound between switching it on and the picture coming on. And, I have to say, watching a commercial for Sprint on the ancient black-and-white TV in that video was kinda funny.

    What about the sound of putting a cassette tape into a tape player/boombox/walkman? Or, speaking of walkmans, how the tape would slow down as the battery ran down? Or the sound of Jiffy Pop in that funky tin foil pan on the stove? (I know you can still get them in some places, but I have yet to find them.) Or bells on store doors to announce a customer coming in? Now they all of digital tones or they don’t bother at all if it’s a big store.

    And this one is specialized, but I also remember the sound (and scent) of opening up a brand-new My Little Pony from the 80s. Nothing more satisfying as a kid than peeling that plastic bubble from the cardboard backing. Now you need a degree in nuclear physics to get toys out of their packaging.

    posted by Rosie on 11-12-2011 at 3:57 pm

82. 57… I remember each and every one of ‘em. I especially liked the old rotary phone sound for some reason…

    posted by Bandicoot on 11-12-2011 at 5:19 pm

83. Some local TV stations still do sign off for the night :)

    I’m 49 and remember all of these.

    posted by Suzanne Lanoue on 11-12-2011 at 5:35 pm

84. 64 – the lady on the phone saying “the time is…two fifteen..and twenty seconds..the time is..two fifteen.. and thirty seconds…” – “number plee-az?” – operator said how many coins to make the call, and dropping them in the pay phone – walking across the tarmac and climbing up into a propeller plane with the engines running – ALL the sounds riding in the Pullman car of a train all night – backfire noise from a car – sonic booms overhead from the “new” jets – air raid sirens tested in town …

    posted by mrh on 11-12-2011 at 5:36 pm

85. I’m 23, and I have heard most of these (I even own and use an Underwood Champion typewriter). And I’ve used a rotary phone, which was always a pleasure–at least it felt like an investment in the action.

    Though I would point out that driveway bells are still very much in use. My dry-cleaner uses one for the drive-thru, and the Valvoline where I have my oil changed does, as well.

    posted by Corey on 11-12-2011 at 6:24 pm

86. I remember all of them! Most notable was learning to type on a manual typewriter, hearing the ping and having to think fast about whether the next word would fit in the remaining space!
    Also remember using the phone – despite the fact my dad would put a lock on it – and shielding it so no one would hear the dial going round with each number dialled!

    posted by Caron on 11-12-2011 at 6:47 pm

87. In Mexico, all radio stations must play the Mexican National Anthem upon the beginning of the broadcast day, which is 12 AM for lots of stations. It can be a real trip to scan through all the stations from about 12:00-12:03 or so, and hear differing versions of the same song on nearly all of them. I think stations here could have some fun with it, recording versions of the anthem that fit their type of music, the orchestral station I listen to just plays the traditional music without the lyrics, would be fun to hear a rock version.

    posted by Melody on 11-12-2011 at 7:53 pm

88. I’m 36, and remember all of them.

    I still remember when I finally got the old B&W tv to put in my room. I actually had my own TV set, and it only took 8 years! Now my nephews have satellite tv and game systems in each room. How times have changed.

    The projector reminded me of those old (30mm?) slide reel projectors, that had a tape you put in a (5 pound, 10 inch long) tape player which would tell you when to advance to the next frame. Anyone miss those? Didn’t think so.

    posted by FriedTurkey on 11-12-2011 at 9:24 pm

89. I’m 47 and I remember all of them very well. I too enjoyed playing with the TV tuner and picking up snowy channels from other cities. On Long Island, I was able to tune into Philadelphia, New Haven and Boston when the cloud cover was just so, and also the UHF channels. I used to do the same with the radio. Electric percolator coffee pots are still sold (Farberware) and I use one every day, although mine is almost 20 yrs old now. They still make the best coffee!

    Does anyone remember the jangle of the set of bells on Good Humor trucks? That sound got everyone’s attention as they went around the neighborhoods, whether you bought an ice cream or not!

    posted by Steve From Long Island on 11-12-2011 at 11:37 pm

90. Hey now….I’m only 16 and I’ve all of these, except maybe 4 and 5. We had a rotary phone in our house until I was about 12 or 13 when it finally gave out, I learned to type on the typewriter my grandma used in the 50′s, and my first encounters with recorded music were via vinyl. Do I get bonus points for my retro upbringing? :D

    posted by Brooke on 11-12-2011 at 11:58 pm

91. How about 8 track tapes. the big KACHUNK between tracks

    posted by rick parker on 11-13-2011 at 12:52 am

92. One of my students was convinced his cellphone was broken because it made an odd sound when he tried to make a call–it was a busy signal.

    posted by Mary on 11-13-2011 at 2:09 am

93. Very Good. And the sound of Rewind one audio cassette? And one modem connection?

    posted by Sandra on 11-13-2011 at 8:35 am

94. I remember them all as well. I was talking to some college students about falling asleep while watching tv only to be awoken by the station broadcast ending for the day. I think they thought I was making it up. They cannot fathom not having something on the tv.

    posted by Paul on 11-13-2011 at 8:40 am

95. i remember all of these products…
    was surprised that you showed an electric percolator; as i grew up with a percolator used on the stove burner & my mom still uses it to this day:)

    posted by lulu on 11-13-2011 at 9:29 am

96. Yes, I have heard them all. Some things are gone forever.

    posted by Marilyn on 11-13-2011 at 9:35 am

97. I’m 44 and remember them all ! My grandma used a percolator so that brought back pleasant memories. I played these for my kids (ages 16 and 13) and had them guess– the only one they knew was the typewriter. They were amazed that you had to wait for the tv to warm up!

    posted by YoSan on 11-13-2011 at 10:10 am

98. was recently noticing with a friend that movie trailer advertisements tend to use the record needle scratch very often for comedic effect. we wonder how long it will continue, since a younger generation will have no idea what the meaning of the sound is, or why it should be funny (even i, who grew up with record players wonder why it is funny). or is this a case of some kind of psychological conditioning that we will no longer question? that a needle scratch in a movie trailer should cue the laughter no matter what?

    posted by Chong on 11-13-2011 at 11:54 am

99. I remember quite a few though the ads and TV stuff we didn’t necessarily get in the UK. It did remind me though, that when I took my 6-year-old son to Amberley Heritage Centre this summer he was completely perplexed by the rotary dial telephone. He just could not work out how to put the number in.

    posted by Julie on 11-13-2011 at 11:54 am

100. I’m so danged old, I had forgotten a couple of them. And I miss them, I really do.

     posted by sillygirl on 11-13-2011 at 11:59 am

101. I’m only 16 and have heard all but one of these in real life! When I was eight I used my mother’s old typewriter for hours upon end, until we ran out of ink. Sadly, there was really no way to get a new one. I really really wish they would come back into style, as useful as computers are, because they just have so much…charm…

     posted by PogieJoe on 11-13-2011 at 12:23 pm

102. I remember all of them and can add a few. How about the slap of chains on a snowy winter street. The sounds of an adding maching totalling a whole bunch of numbers. The sound of a DC 3 starting up on the tarmac and the sound your feet made when walking up the metal stairs.

     posted by John B on 11-13-2011 at 1:08 pm

103. Um, all of them? And that percolator is a cheap imposter. I still have one that’s not electric. :) And people probably hated calling me, because our number ended in 8-0-9. Oh, the good old days!

     posted by leslie on 11-13-2011 at 2:01 pm

104. I remember channel dials. You actually had to get up and walk across the room to change channels. It was barbaric.

     I’ve heard plenty of CD’s do the broken record effect.

     I bet none of you slackers ever bother to rewind your CD’s and DVD’s.

     posted by Steve D on 11-13-2011 at 3:00 pm

105. I’m 29, and the sounds I didn’t know because I’m not familiar with the items at all are the coffee percolator, the flash cube, and the record changer. Interestingly, I remember our family having a little plastic toy camera, probably from Fisher Price or the like, which had a pretend revolving flash cube on it; I had no idea what it was supposed to be, since I had never seen a real flash cube. We did still have a TV with dials when I was growing up, in the spare room, though it was probably from the 70s and didn’t have the kind of elaborate setup that the 1949 TV in the clip had. (Side note: my parents got a smaller dial TV in 1977 that has since gone through many members of my family, and the last I heard, still works just fine 40 years later.) I knew OF the film projector like the one in the clip, but I guess I never realized how LOUD those things actually were.

     I’m basically too young to remember TV station sign-offs, but not completely. Canadian TV kept this tradition going longer, and living in the Detroit area, we could get the local Windsor CBC affiliate with the antenna; when I was young, I turning it on and seeing a test pattern, and then they would BEGIN their broadcast day at 7 am by playing a clip of the Canadian national anthem, which was video of Canadian troops or Mounties or the like raising the Canadian flag. I enjoyed that CBC actually kept the tradition of signing off for the evening and broadcasting a test pattern for around five hours until 2004, I believe. Like the commenter Cheryl, I had never heard the poem Top Flight, and never even knew about it until now. Also, I’d just like to point out that clip had the most awesomely bad, cheesy early 80s video and audio rendition of the national anthem I’ve ever heard.

     My submission to the Dead Audio Hall of Fame is not a purely mechanical noise, but still a memorable one nonetheless: the Screech of Doom that would play, at unfathomable volume, at the very end of a VHS tape if you didn’t turn it off in time. The picture would usually go all white or something; I’d guess maybe this is what happened when the VCR would read the “empty” tape at the end that the program had not been placed on. If the tape we were watching as kids had long since ended but we were no longer paying attention, I remember the mad dash to the VCR to hit the stop button once the Screech of Doom alerted everyone in the house to the fact that we had neglected the VCR.

     posted by Ben on 11-13-2011 at 3:19 pm

106. At 54 I have heard all of these. And some in foreign languages.

     posted by Dennis Myhand on 11-13-2011 at 3:22 pm

107. I’m 20 and I remember about half of these (rotary phone, typewriter, changing channels, national cash register, broken record), but I grew up with a bunch of antiques in my house.

     posted by D on 11-13-2011 at 3:30 pm

108. Was that movie of Storytown USA? Fond memories; my Mom worked there as a teen. Getting a little misty thinking about it.

     posted by Carol on 11-13-2011 at 3:55 pm

109. What about the beep that accompanied filmstrip projectors??

     posted by Pablo Hosehead on 11-13-2011 at 4:13 pm

110. I am 16 and have only heard the rotary phone and manual typewriter in the flesh.

     posted by Twoey on 11-13-2011 at 5:47 pm

111. Of course I’ve heard them all – I’m ancient!

     We’ve still got rotary dial in the kitchen…. best working/sounding phone in the house.

     posted by oldfolkie on 11-13-2011 at 6:10 pm

112. I’m 54 years old, and I can name a number of things never brought up on this list.

     • My 1946 Western Electric rotary phone — with steel base and which caused a bunch of my original floppy disks to be accidentally erased because they were stored too close to the phone. Cloth, not coil, line between the receiver and the phone.
     • TV remote controls that actually made a “clicking” sound
     • An 8-track tape changing “channels.”
     • A 5-1/4″ floppy disk and the rackets they can make
     • My Apple dot matrix printer, which I still have. The kids are stunned by it
     • A “slide-select” cable channel selector (limited to only 40 channels)
     • An outhouse (my grandparents didn’t get indoor plumbing until the 1970s)
     • 78 rpm records — especially played on a crank-up Victrola!
     • Slide rules
     I used several. One was for basic math/calc/trig/etc. Another was used to calculate exposure times for lithographic film in offset printing for halftone reproductions. Another was used to calculate film development time based on developer concentration and temperature.

     And despite what Morris may think, vacuum tubes are still very much in use. I have two very modern guitar amplifiers made by Peavey which employ four or six of the 6L6GC power tubes and a Marshall amp which requires the use of 10 vacuum tubes. I don’t care for the sound that solid state amps deliver, and neither do a large number of professional musicians. Problem is, tubes are much more expensive today since they aren’t produced in such massive numbers as 30 years ago.

     And Cheryl, that poem wasn’t “cheesy.” President Reagan quoted it when the Challenger exploded after its launch in January, 1986. He excerpted parts of it to say

     “to slip the surly bonds of earth, to touch the face of God.” It’s burned into my memory.

     And if Hammy really wants to buy a manual typewriter, I’ve got two he can choose from. I have a 1926 Remington and a 1954 portable, but it’s a lot harder to use. Look me up. allendavis58@sbcglobal.net.

     posted by Allen on 11-13-2011 at 6:16 pm

113. you have to listen to them first hand… listening by way of movies, internet etc doesn’t count.

     posted by andrew on 11-13-2011 at 6:27 pm

114. I’m 25, have personally used 3 of those (flash bulbs, rotary phone and manual typewriter) and have heard the rest on TV or in Movies… well except for a record changer I guess I missed out on that one ;)

     posted by lizmo on 11-13-2011 at 6:46 pm

115. Soon you’ll have to add the dial up tone for internet to this.

     posted by lizmo on 11-13-2011 at 6:47 pm

116. At 27, I actually know all of these sounds from my childhood.

     1. My grandfather had rotary phones until he passed 10 years ago. The phone company even offered to pay him to switch but he refused.

     2. My dad would type out the songs on his mix tapes on our manual typewriter

     3. I still own one since I do not drink coffee but need one when my mom comes to visit

     4.my first camera (a spy tech) required flash bulbs

     5. My dad only replaced out tv with a dial in 2000 and my tv in college was a cabinet unit as well

     6. Still listen to records

     7. This one is actually new to me. Since NJ still requires an attendant to pump your gas they still have the bell and I’ve only lived in the state for 5 years.

     8.Our local UHF stations in Cleveland would still sign off when I was really young

     9. The antique store I frequented as a kid had a manual cash register

     10. I was the nerd who always volunteered to run the projector in school. Although by high school we had laser disc players. Not sure ipf this has to do with my age or school district being out of date

     11. Again still listen to records. Although as a kid we left one our records too close to the heater and it warped and would skip

     I’m not sure if I had a normal childhood though. My family never rurally ket with the times. My dad bought his first computer 3 years ago and still does not have a cell phone. I guess there were some advantages to growing up lower middle class :)

     posted by Matthew J on 11-13-2011 at 6:57 pm

117. Boy that was a cheeze-filled Star Spangled Banner, even by 1982 Standards. Who did it, Vangelis?

     posted by Ron Hyatt on 11-13-2011 at 10:09 pm

118. young punks, i went to a one room school house and we only had one outhouse. the out house had three holes and boys and girls used it, and usually at the same time…

     when we finally had a telephone, it was a party line and each home had a specific ring, ours was two long and a short (letter G in morse code)…

     posted by bullsballs on 11-13-2011 at 10:49 pm

119. The sound of a pneumatic tube as the cartridge with your money when off the central accounting room. (Age 63). It is not the same as a pneumatic tube at the drive up bank.

     One store I remember (hardware store in Schenectady, NY) had mechanical carts that took your money away.

     The sound of a Linotype machine at the local newspaper. My paternal grandfather was an operator.

     posted by Dave Barnes on 11-13-2011 at 11:04 pm

120. Modem connection routines…

     posted by Niali on 11-13-2011 at 11:38 pm

121. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WE9eCGjMPE0

     The mechanical tuning fork TV remote! In case you ever wondered why old people call it a clicker. Some of them made a really funky da-doing noise but the one in the video operated outside of human hearing rang.

     posted by epobirs on 11-14-2011 at 12:19 am

122. Have heard them all. I’m 43. Thought of a couple to add: Rewinding a Cassette tape. The CHA-CHUNK of an 8-Track tape changing tracks. A Mimeograph machine. A dot Matrix Printer.

     Cheers! Robert

     posted by Robert on 11-14-2011 at 2:45 am

123. When I was 12 or so I’d get rotary telephones at tag sales and make them work again. So I love that sound. Rotary phones rule. I still have one in my room, next to my iPhone charger.

     posted by Ahmed Kazikian on 11-14-2011 at 3:15 am

124. How about the ping that would tell you to move the filmstrip forward or to turn the page on those old Peter Pan read along records and books.

     posted by Xavier Lopez Jr. on 11-14-2011 at 3:27 am

125. I’m 29 and I’ve heard most of those before. I’m sure when the next generation has grandkids they’ll will laugh at them for watching YouTube and text messaging. They’ll laugh at the sheer absurdity of Facebook and Twitter.

     posted by nyxxie on 11-14-2011 at 7:35 am

126. I am 47 and remember all those sounds. And now a little bit of a nit pick. 45′s were singles. Albums played at 33 and 1/3 rpm’s.

     posted by Cynthia on 11-14-2011 at 7:44 am

127. I’m 20 and I’ve heard all of these sounds. And so has my 16 year old sister. I actually have a rotary phone in my room and I just heard an old cash register yesterday.

     posted by Abigail on 11-14-2011 at 7:46 am

128. I, of course being a babyboomer, have heard all of these sounds. This is a great article. It brought back a lot of memories. I miss most of these things. Thanks you for the reminder.

     posted by Ann alka WorkingBoomer on 11-14-2011 at 8:26 am

129. Rotary phones? I go all the way back to “number please” and party lines.

     posted by Judy on 11-14-2011 at 10:27 am

130. The sound and (literally) intoxicating smell of a mimeograph machine churning out copies.

     posted by PartiallyDeflected on 11-14-2011 at 10:33 am

131. I’m 33 and I am proud to say that I have heard all of these wonderful sounds in my lifetime!! :D

     posted by Rina on 11-14-2011 at 10:42 am

132. 51. I remember all these. In the deep south, up into the 70s, a lot of radio stations signed off @ sundown. And they played “Dixie” AFTER the “Star Spangled Banner”.

     posted by Border Bonnie on 11-14-2011 at 11:18 am

133. I remember all of theses!!!
     How about the tick-tick of a wind up clock? and How many of us played our records backward to hear a message????

     posted by Kris on 11-14-2011 at 11:19 am

134. I know that I am late to the party but for anyone still reading a few years ago I noticed a sound that is rarely heard any longer. I used the live in Las Vegas back in 1969. Even though I was too young to go into a casino, you still walked by them. When I went back three years ago, I was surprised to no longer hear the coins hitting the tray when someone wins. It is all done electronically with paper slips. You no longer get the tray full of coins but a slip of paper for the cashier.

     posted by Phrank Loyed on 11-14-2011 at 2:15 pm

135. Two variations on the typewriter, the gentle chuck-chuck sound of an IBM Selectric was distinctive and pleasant. The other is a teletype. Most people never heard them in person, but the sound was the stereotypical lead-in to most news stories.

     We also have to mention hearing “This is Paul Harvey” on the radio.

     posted by Old Geek on 11-14-2011 at 2:26 pm

136. When do we start getting asked why we “dial” a phone number instead of “entering it” on the keypad?

     posted by Richard A on 11-14-2011 at 2:47 pm

137. 39 and I remember all of them EXCEPT the TV channel changer. Here in the UK we only ever had ones that didn’t click (because of the dual standard VHF/UHF 405/625 line business pre 1980-something).

     However I do recognise the TV channel changer sound and ironically these days I’m much more familiar with it than any of them – mainly due to the Misfits (excellent) “Static Age” album :)

     posted by Simon C on 11-14-2011 at 3:04 pm

138. You don’t hear coffee percolators anymore? How else do you make coffee on a camping trip? And don’t give me that instant coffee crap!

     posted by Mike on 11-14-2011 at 3:06 pm

139. I remember some really elaborate channel sign-offs from when TV channels used to timeshare on satellite as one “channel” ended and another “begun”. Good times.

     posted by beemoh on 11-14-2011 at 3:25 pm

140. I remember all of them. I used a manual register when I first started working at Kmart and I’m 47.

     posted by Joanna on 11-14-2011 at 3:29 pm

141. I still have a percolator coffee.. use it every day.. that k cup stuff and Mr. coffee never make it hot enough for me. and I refuse to nuke it..

     posted by NINA on 11-14-2011 at 3:30 pm

142. 33 and I remember all of them except the TV sign off, because my parents severely restricted my TV viewing growing up. My parents still have an old, red rotary phone (property of AT&T) from 1977.

     posted by law talking girl on 11-14-2011 at 3:40 pm

143. the smell and sound of a mimeograph machine at school…

     posted by gem on 11-14-2011 at 3:47 pm

144. There was one sound I haven’t heard in years: at the top of the hour, and I mean exactly at the top of the hour, the TV networks would broadcast a tone denoting the exact time. This was then followed by the beginning of the show.

     posted by Tom on 11-14-2011 at 3:48 pm

145. What about department-store paging chimes? http://www.hark.com/clips/vlbqsybshm-departmentstorepag-pe191801 They’ve been replaced with disruptive, annoying public address systems in almost all stores… although the store I work in actually stills has the equipment and it’s relatively easy to set off by mistake.

     posted by John on 11-14-2011 at 3:53 pm

146. Great list, here’s some of mine.

     The sounds of a 8-Track tape changing channels (Ker-Chunk!)

     A cassette or VHS-Betamax video tape being rewound.

     An analog AM radio being tuned.

     (a little new but a lot of “kids” have never heard this sound) A phone modem dialing up and connecting to another computer.

     posted by OnlookerTX on 11-14-2011 at 4:00 pm

147. I wonder if magazines published articles in the 1940′s, asking readers if they remember the sound of a horse’s bridle or the faint clank and clatter of lighting an oil lamp. By the 1940′s, people weren’t too far removed from those sounds, just as we here in 2011 aren’t too far removed from the sounds of rotary phones and percolators.

     Incidentally, I’ve found old rotary phones for sale online, complete with little touchtone boxes so you can still use them without trouble. I keep thinking about getting one…

     posted by RJ on 11-14-2011 at 4:33 pm

148. I’m 15 and I’ve used/heard all of these except the gas station bell, a live TV signoff and a percolator. My grandparents still havent switched to computers or regular phones and have a really cool basement filled with all of these things. I loved going over there when I was 5 because my brothers and I would spend hours down there, finding new things at every visit. Many of my friends have been exposed to these things, so it’s not as uncommon as you may think for us to see and use these things.

     posted by Ryan on 11-14-2011 at 4:37 pm

149. Scratch that, I have used a coffee percolator.

     posted by Ryan on 11-14-2011 at 4:40 pm

150. I’m 38 and remember them all! The cash register is probably the least likely at my age, but I did frequent shops that still had them in my youth.

     posted by CK on 11-14-2011 at 5:23 pm

151. I’m 41 and have heard most of these in person in my lifetime.

     Maybe this one is less common, but my first clock radio had a pseudo-digital display; it showed the time in numbers, rather than on a clock face, but each number was on a little plate that flipped to show the next number; the display was illuminated with an incandescent bulb. I remember lying in bed and hearing the “flip” every 60 seconds, a double flip every 10 minutes, and every hour the sound of all 3 plates flipping at once.

     posted by Jenny on 11-14-2011 at 5:56 pm

152. I’m 39 and I remember all of them. *shudder at sudden sense of age*

     posted by ajollynerd on 11-14-2011 at 6:12 pm

153. I do NOT miss percolators. There’s a reason they sound like a flushing toilet–it aptly described the quality of the coffee they made..

     posted by Scott on 11-14-2011 at 6:52 pm

154. When I was a kid, I loved those old cash registers and the sounds they made. I was fascinated, those fingers so nimble and accurate! I wanted to be a cashier when I grew up.

     posted by Mary Larkins on 11-14-2011 at 9:21 pm

155. All of them. I’m so fing old.

     Also, had a TV with an early acoustic remote — little chimes with spring loaded clappers.

     posted by pjcamp on 11-14-2011 at 9:21 pm

156. I’m 46 (will be 47 in April) and can remember all of those sounds, especially the “sheek-sheek” noise the movie projectors mad as the reels unwound. That took me right back to third grade, yes it did.

     posted by Liam Wescott on 11-14-2011 at 9:32 pm

157. Just turned 50 and I remember all of those. What about the pop and crackle of the vinyl LPs being played? I feel oddly nostalgic for that one. It felt like the music was really being played by musicians. That being aid, I do like the purity of the music without those extra sounds.

     posted by Jen on 11-14-2011 at 10:32 pm

158. Love all these sounds. A bit of nerd phone trivia: the rotary phone noise was made by completing & interrupting the phone circuit in rapid fashion. Dialing “5″ did it five times, “9″ nine times, “0″ ten times. So you could “dial” a number without the dial by hitting the switchhook really fast and pausing in between numbers. This worked the last time I tried it about 5-10 years ago on a touch-tone only phone.

     posted by 46yearold on 11-14-2011 at 10:41 pm

159. at 45, i clearly remember all these. just the other day i was reminding my husband about the sound a needle used to make when it reached the end of a record while the record still kept turning (chik, chik, chik).

     when i was a little girl, my grandparents had a tv channel selector that changed the position of the antenna on the roof (according to grandma). i loved the chunka-chunka-chunka sound it would make when i changed the channel!

     we, too, still have a percolator.

     posted by kelly on 11-14-2011 at 10:44 pm

160. 52. How about the scrunch of black rubber galoshes – the ones with the metal buckle clips – as you trudged two miles to school. In a blizzard. Uphill. Both ways
     :-)

     But seriously – remember them all.

     Also, if you have an iPhone and 99¢ to waste, they have rotary dial iPhone apps that are a hoot, and dial out. No operator or 411 though.

     posted by John on 11-14-2011 at 10:53 pm

161. Thank you for including Milton’s Bells gas station bells as “Sound Number Seven”.

     http://www.miltonsbells.com

     I remember all of the sounds as if it were yesterday and miss several of them. They were part of a much slower time.

     posted by Milton on 11-14-2011 at 11:17 pm

162. How about the sound of clapping erasers, the sound of an original, glossy paper using, fax machine? :). 47 and I’ve heard all but the register (possibly heard at an olde timey type store.)

     posted by elizabethk on 11-14-2011 at 11:55 pm

163. Why does this article assume everyone has kids?

     posted by gibble on 11-15-2011 at 12:07 am

164. I’m only 27 but I remember most of these things. Especially the percolator. I used to wake up early in the morning at my grandparents’ house and not be able to fall back asleep because of the sound of that percolator. From inside my room at their place it sounded like someone snoring.

     posted by Chris on 11-15-2011 at 12:14 am

165. Sounds from my college days as a EE/CS major in the early 1970s:

     1. The weird sound when you pressed the keys of an ASR-33 Teletype machine.

     2. The various satisfying mechanical sounds as you used an IBM model 26 keypunch. This punched “IBM cards”.

     3. The sound of an IBM “chain” printer.

     - John Atwood

     posted by JohnInNV on 11-15-2011 at 1:33 am

166. i’m 17 and i remember most of them, but most only in movies. rotary phone: we had a broken one with the wiring removed for the toddlers to play with in sunday school, but the number dial still worked. type writer: my aunt and uncle had an old typewriter but it was broken. i liked to hit the keys and hear the clacking noise as a kid. i admit i’ve never heard a coffee percolator or a square flash cube before. heard old tv’s in movies and tv shows set in the 50′s. hear record changers in jukeboxes which are surprisingly still popular, although most are probably fake now. heard tv sign-off, old cash register, and old projectors on tv/movies. only heard a legitimate record skip on tv/movies but some of my CD’s used to skip and even my music on my computer sometimes skips if my computer starts lagging.

     posted by anon on 11-15-2011 at 1:33 am

167. Ummm

     You can still buy Coffee Percolator at most any kitchen stores.

     If you live outside the city there are plenty of gas stations and garages with those bells.

     And as for anything to do with record players, they still make them and LPs, and i can bet my children will one day light up a spliff at some liberal arts college i’m paying for while listening to these.

     posted by Chris on 11-15-2011 at 2:23 am

168. I am 21 and know all of these sounds (the tv station sign of in the austrian version though)
     What does that mean now?

     posted by Austrianton on 11-15-2011 at 4:13 am

169. I’m only 17, yet I still recognise all but the sound of a record changer.

     posted by Guglielmo on 11-15-2011 at 5:21 am

170. I’m just shy of 36, and I remember all of them. In fact, we had a phonograph till I was 12, and a manual typewriter when I was 17. The old cash registers, though, belong to my very-early-childhood walks home from school, stopping at the ice cream parlor with my Dad. Good times. :)

     posted by Cairsten on 11-15-2011 at 6:25 am

171. So funny and thanks for the walk down memory lane. At 44, I have heard them all. My kids came over to see what I was laughing at.

     posted by As Cape Cod Turns on 11-15-2011 at 6:49 am

172. I am only 20 so I am not familiar with most of these. Only the typewriter and Peculator and the broken record I have heard before.

     For my generation first thing that comes to mind is the screeching sound that a Dial Up modem makes.

     posted by Charles on 11-15-2011 at 7:01 am

173. I’m 20 and know all of these sounds apart from the radio, the percolator (we never had coffee at home), and the gas station bell as we didn’t have those in England.

     Mostly I know the noises because my parents gave me typewriters and old phones to play with, and my Dad still has his record collection :P

     posted by Olivia on 11-15-2011 at 7:48 am

174. I have personally heard/caused most of these at the age of 34, but another that I miss is the little “click-click” of floor-mounted headlight dimmer switches. I had an old truck that actually went “THUNK! click-click,” as I had to kick it to each time to loosen the rust enough for it to move!

     posted by Ross on 11-15-2011 at 7:50 am

175. At 18 I remember all with the exception of broken record and gas station bell

     posted by Adam on 11-15-2011 at 8:16 am

176. No one mentioned the sound that moms made when you used your Winky Dink crayons on the TV screen without mounting the transparent film first.

     posted by geezer on 11-15-2011 at 8:52 am

177. These are the sounds of my childhood, which seems a little odd considering I’m 24. The only only one I haven’t heard in person is the TV sign off, but I have seen/ heard it in movies etc. One thing was wasn’t mentioned was the noise analog gas pumps made.

     posted by Michelle on 11-15-2011 at 10:19 am

178. i’m 32, and i’ve heard all but the TV signoff (i was always in bed by 10:00 when i was a kid) :-)

     posted by supercarrot on 11-15-2011 at 12:34 pm

179. I’m 31 and I remember all of these, except the percolator. My family never had one of those. My parents still have 2 working rotary phones in their house.

     posted by Liz on 11-15-2011 at 12:57 pm

180. I remember every last one of ‘em! As Bob Hope used to sing, “Thanks for the memories.” :)

     I remember going with my husband to buy a new television in September of 1986. The salesman asked us if we wanted a remote control with it. We responded, “No, we’ll never be so old and lazy that we can’t walk across the room to change the channel.”

     ROTFL!!

     And, you know, I got rid of that old TV set just a year or two ago. (I got rid of the old husband before then. :P )

     posted by Teresa on 11-15-2011 at 1:36 pm

181. I would add the sound of twirling the tuner dial on an AM radio and hearing all the stations as you went by……….

     posted by Jason on 11-15-2011 at 1:40 pm

182. I’m only 74 and i remember being around BEFORE many of those things were around. Like the Television and the flash cubes. There were flash bulbs , but they were a bit different than the cubes. Also we had party lines , where when you picked up the phone someone might already be on the line.

     posted by wayne robinson on 11-15-2011 at 3:47 pm

183. the Gas Station bell page has a virus on it.

     posted by dirwulf on 11-15-2011 at 4:33 pm

184. I’m 17. Have heard all of these, actually..

     posted by Dane on 11-15-2011 at 8:17 pm

185. I remember all of them, although I admit, I know the cash register only because we used to have an old one up in the attic of my great-granddaddy’s grocery store.

     posted by scyllacat on 11-15-2011 at 11:11 pm

186. I’m 37 and I remember all of them. My favorite sound that I remember is the TV warming up (because of when I would turn on my grandparents’ TV). It made a very distinctive hum, starting off loud and then got quiet quickly, the second you turned it on. Sometimes I think these kids are missing out on the coolest stuff. Typewriters were the bomb.

     posted by me on 11-16-2011 at 1:56 am

187. Then, there’s the whistle, buzz and static tuning in the radio, present when the signal faded in and out. What about the wind up cough and revving of the old aircraft engines (pre-turboprop) and the stewardess moving along the aisle offering chicklets to relieve ear pressure in those non-pressurized compartments. I got my “Junior Pilot” wings from the pilot on an American Airlines flight at age 7 (1958). Do kids still take their baseball cards and clothespins from their mothers’ clotheslines to make those motorcycle sounds on their bicycles?

     posted by Dayv on 11-16-2011 at 7:42 am

188. This list is being discussed on the Free Beer and Hot Wings radio show right now. They are quizzing their interns with the sounds

     posted by HockeyZombie on 11-16-2011 at 8:13 am

189. I’m 26 and I’m familiar with all of these sounds. They are great sounds, in my opinion.

     posted by Matthew on 11-16-2011 at 11:13 am

190. Metal wheels of strap on your shoes roller skates.

     posted by Clyde on 11-16-2011 at 5:27 pm

191. I will be 40 at the end of the year and I remember all these sounds fondly. I wonder what our kids will remember that their kids will have never heard or heard of….

     posted by Catronia on 11-16-2011 at 6:00 pm

192. Yes metal wheels with the key to tighten up the skates on your sneakers!
     Time to get home was when your Dad whistled and the street lights turned on.
     We made up our own games and Albums were to be treasured. You remember looking at the pictures and words getting to know your band. Now it’s in 6pt font small print on CD case – how long will that last?

     posted by AdonPro on 11-16-2011 at 6:19 pm

193. Nice choice for number 6! Box Tops

     posted by Dom K. on 11-16-2011 at 8:48 pm

194. “Don’t touch that dial!” was a RADIO phrase, the lead-in to the radio show “Blondie.” And not every location had three TV stations available. Growing up in a valley in Connecticut, I got only one, WNHC-TV New Haven. When we moved from Bridge St. to Hilltop Road, we suddenly got 8 stations–the 7 New York stations plus New Haven.

     And not all TV stations had the same sign-off, though most did include the National Anthem. (At my college radio station, we signed off with our alma mater.)

     posted by Ivan B on 11-17-2011 at 12:50 am

195. Other sounds (apologies of they were mentioned in the comments): elevator gates, steam locomotives (though people have heard them in movies), telephone operators asking “Number, please?” The coin changers streetcar conductors carried. Streetcars, for that matter. The crackle of a lever-type ice tray releasing its cubes. . . .

     posted by Ivan B on 11-17-2011 at 1:07 am

196. I remember all these sounds, but the coffee percolator really brings back memories. For day-to-day coffee making, my parents used one of those glass Pyrex stove-top percolators (remember those??). They had an electric percolator that they used only when entertaining, which was rare. So when they broke out the electric percolator, you knew it was a Really Big Deal.

     Another sound that our kids will never likely hear: that of Polariod instant cameras http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUYoeYF7Gdk

     posted by Brian on 11-17-2011 at 9:23 am

197. We were kind of poor when I was a kid (31 now), and we had most of these things in our house. Old TV with tube and rabbit ears, rotary phone, manual typewriter, coffee percolator, all familiar sounds of my childhood. I still say the coffee is “perking” when it’s brewing.
     The funny thing is, I hadn’t heard the record changer because my dad only had a regular turn-table.
     They used an old projector at my school, so that sound brings me back too.
     I lived in a Goldrush area, so there were a ton of “ye olde shoppes” around with VERY old cash registers (think late 1800s).
     Grandma had an Instamatic camera with the flash cubes. She lived right next door and loved to take pictures, although she always cut people’s heads off.
     I’ve only heard the gas station bell in movies, though.

     posted by Cyan on 11-17-2011 at 11:36 am

198. I’m 56; the minute I heard the percolator, I could smell the coffee!

     I remember sticking a pencil in one hole of an audio tape cassette and swinging the tape around to rewind it.

     One sound I really do miss is the sound of Morse code being keyed. My dad and I were both ham radio operators in the old days when you had to have a Morse license before you could go to voice.

     Also, the scritch of a pencil over paper as someone is writing. Love that sound, hardly hear it any more.

     posted by Rowfan on 11-17-2011 at 12:46 pm

199. Gas Station Driveway Bell

     Still alive and well all over the state of New Jersey, we don’t have self serve gas – THANK GOD
     So every gas station has them.

     posted by -dan on 11-17-2011 at 2:02 pm

200. The rotary dial telephone and typewriter are my favorites. I remember my father had an old rotary phone that I used to tinker with.

     posted by San Fernando on 11-17-2011 at 2:30 pm

201. How old AM I?? I remember ALL of these.

     posted by Lorie Shewbridge on 11-18-2011 at 3:57 am

202. Not so much the sound, but the experience of shifting a three-on-the-tree manual transmission.

     posted by bob on 11-18-2011 at 9:00 am

203. 1. I HATED to have too many 0s in a number– on a rotary dial it too FOREVER!
     2. For the typewriter they left out my mother’s curse word as she got down the end of a page and made a typo
     3.percolator schmercolater
     4. I was in charge of the bulbs when I was a kid…we had a camera with the individual bulbs and was SO happy when we got a camera that used these flash cubes! “isn’t that wild?”
     5. We had a tube black and white TV until I was 10….I watched it in my basement until I was in my teens and the bulb wore out. WOW – that color TV was awesome – and it was only about a 19-22 in.
     6. LOVED the crackly sound of my 45s and when the next one would drop and you had that first few seconds of just record static before the music would start….
     7. Not only did you drive over the “hose” so the bell would ring at the gas station – a guy would literally RUN out to fuel up the car and check your oil – so cool.
     8. I don’t think I ever hear them sign off but I do remember waking up to the signal after who knows HOW long everyone had fallen asleep with the Tonight Show on….
     9. Some stores in Ireland are still using these!
     10. We actually owned one of these at home – I remember not only the sound but the smell of this thing running…
     11. First of all designing woman wasn’t on THAT long ago…was it? Secondly….it was funny when records would skip. If you were at home you could jump and it may get it going….if it was a radio station (usually on a weekend) you knew someone was not manning the place and it was funny to see how long it would take.

     posted by Patty on 11-18-2011 at 11:41 am

204. At 46, I remember all of them. Ah, memories.

     posted by Brevard on 11-18-2011 at 1:43 pm

205. How about the sound of a Ditto (Mimeograph) Machine that you could hear down the hall in school?

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0wUcCInJ2o

     posted by Michael on 11-18-2011 at 3:35 pm

206. Not only do I remember all those items, I even taught classes using the manual typewriters and also typed all my work on my Master’s on my own manual typewriter

     posted by Jean on 11-18-2011 at 8:11 pm

207. I remember every single one of these >.<

     posted by Dan on 11-18-2011 at 8:42 pm

208. At 70 I remember them all and also a few more

     posted by Skip on 11-19-2011 at 8:03 am

209. Since I still have most of these items (my rotary phone is actually a GE telephone lineman’s Butt Set) I guess that REALLY dates me…

     Nostalgia is sometimes a Good Thing.

     posted by TCHall on 11-19-2011 at 11:28 am

210. I remember EVERY ONE of them!!
     (and I also sell the ding ding driveway bells)
     I never liked the flashcubes, but I had a Brownie Starflask just like in the commercial, and I still collect 45′s (the records, not the guns) :-)

     posted by Don Dellmann on 11-19-2011 at 2:50 pm

211. Remember? I’ve owned all but three of them. They were brand new.

     posted by JDMurr on 11-19-2011 at 3:22 pm

212. I remember them all. Baby boomers are sure getting OLD!

     posted by Marcia Leidig on 11-19-2011 at 4:56 pm

213. I am 18 and I have heard all but two of these sounds I gues that’s why everyone calls me an old soul.

     posted by Courtney on 11-20-2011 at 3:05 am

214. I have heard all of these I am 57 kids just don’t know now adays how things have really changed some for the good others for the not so good kids don’t use their imagination any more

     posted by JoAnn on 11-20-2011 at 6:43 pm

215. I remember each one of those, was born 1960.

     posted by Darrell Grays on 11-20-2011 at 6:45 pm

216. Whst about the sound of a mangle? Or a pressure cooker? A steam train? A tram? Or free speech….? I mean unsanitised, un-pc free speech? :-)

     posted by Greg on 11-20-2011 at 7:05 pm

217. i’m 17 and i know most of these sounds…

     posted by wolvesvane on 11-20-2011 at 7:57 pm

218. I still have two working rotary dial phones. Even my push button phones provide interesting sounds, as they are analogue, not than digital phones.

     posted by David Reed on 11-21-2011 at 4:57 pm

219. One more sound our descendents will most certainly never hear: that of coins being dropped in a pay phone (or anything related to a pay phone, for that matter). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RojweUcXyUU

     posted by Brian on 11-21-2011 at 5:37 pm

220. I am 21, just recently had my birthday. I know most of the sounds on the list without watching the videos. I also know most of the sounds mentioned in the comments. I’m noticing how much people are underestimating how much young people know about older technology. Just because it’s generally not in use anymore does not mean it’s forgotten. And I haven’t even grown up with most of those on the list. I did, however, play with my great-grandmother’s rotary phone. :) My 19 year old boyfriend is also familiar with these sounds and wants a rotary phone because he loves how they look and sound. Share these sounds with your kids and grandkids. They may love them as much as you do.

     posted by J.W. on 11-22-2011 at 1:01 am

221. Rachel I dont think kids now are going to be watching “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”. Movies your kid will never see.

     posted by Melissa on 11-22-2011 at 5:17 am

222. Kara, thanks for stirring memories of my childhood and teen years. One point: some gas stations still have the bell, especially in Oregon where state law requires that attendants pump gas, not customers.

     posted by John Soares on 11-22-2011 at 4:51 pm

223. I’m 18 and know all of those sounds :/

     The gas stations bells are still common place around here. And we’ve got a rotary phone up in the kitchen.

     I’m the minority of my age I’d imagine.

     posted by CP on 11-22-2011 at 11:12 pm

224. The sound of advancing the film.

     posted by Lara on 11-23-2011 at 3:56 pm

225. The sound of tinkling milk bottles in their tray being delivered by the milk man early in the morning.

     posted by Holly on 11-23-2011 at 3:58 pm

226. I was thnking about steam engines. The last steam produced was in China in 1986 I believe and is now on a scenic railroad in Boone Iowa.

     posted by Peter Gatliff on 11-23-2011 at 9:27 pm

227. Thank you for putting this collection of old sounds together. I am the owner of Milton’s Bells gas station and driveway bells (sound number seven). It is always fun to talk with customers who remember riding their bicycles, as a kid, across the driveway hose of the old full-service gas stations.

     posted by Milton Alberstadt on 11-28-2011 at 1:14 am

228. Age 29. I remember 1-3,5,7, and 9 – 11. I mostly grew up in a three generation household so that would be why I remember so many there was a lot of junk in the basement, and there was a working rotary phone in the house up until I was 23. i remember when TV’s were furniture and their cases were made out of wood. Same with this record player stereo system that was in this huge bureau. Damn I’m getting nostalgic thinking about what eventually went from home to grandpa and grandma’s.

     posted by Sean on 11-28-2011 at 8:38 pm

229. I’m 20 and I remember most of these. But my family likes to keep stuff like this around. We still have (and use) our typewriter, two record players, an AM radio, and a Victrola that you have to wind up. We don’t have a rotary phone, but we have an even older candlestick phone. The one you have to hold the one thing to your ear and the other part to your mouth. You can’t dial on it, but you can answer it.
     I love this old stuff. :)

     posted by Amanda on 11-29-2011 at 4:05 pm

230. I’m 31 and I’ve heard most of these sounds although I never personally experienced the station “sign off.” I live in NJ (aka “we don’t pump our own gas”) so I hear the lovely chimes in the majority of gas stations I go to.

     One of the “lost” sounds that I will never forget is the sound of rewinding or fast forwarding your favorite tape and hearing the distinct high pitched noice indicating the brown tape somehow unraveled and your tape was ruined. Man, that noise would make me FLY across the room to try to stop the destruction! lol

     posted by Numero10 on 11-29-2011 at 9:20 pm

231. I remember every sound (age 54). Kids nowadays also rarely hear or see static when you turned to a station that you couldn’t pick up on either TV or radio, thanks to digital technology and cable.

     My “Aha” moment when my daughter was 3 (she’s 21 now) was when she was playing “grocery checkout” and instead of pretending to use a cash register or key in prices, she simply swept them over an imaginary scanner and went “Beep”.

     posted by Richard on 11-29-2011 at 10:29 pm

232. I got on old VCR and some tapes at a garage sale one summer. After I watched “Say Anything” with my 9 and 12 year olds, I asked them to rewind it. I repeated it several times before they said they heard it, they just didn’t know what “rewind” meant.

     posted by Jille on 11-29-2011 at 11:36 pm

233. Anyone who remembers the days of the pre-electronic (even before computerized) cash registers will remember that taxed items had to be rung through first, the tax added on manually, and the non-taxable items put through. Cashiers who think they have it bad, now should have had to face down a Saturday shopping line and sort through 8 carts of goods hunting out the taxable items first (you had to memorize every type of item in the store that was or was not taxable), punch them in — chunk, chunk, chunk, cachunk; chunk, chunk, chunk, cachunk; chunk, chunk, chunk, cachunk; chunk, chunk, chunk, cachunk…) and then look up the tax on the list and punch it in… then proceed with the non-taxable items.

     There were always people who didn’t understand what you were doing and get exasperated, challenge you (as would the next customer…. and the one after that) and you’d have to explain, like it was YOUR fault there were taxes; and then they would line up their carts along the wall and check their bill, item by item, to make sure you hadn’t cheated them. God forbid there was a penny out!

     posted by Anneke (Mudhooks) on 11-30-2011 at 10:21 am

234. ’bout to be 52 and I’ve heard every single one of those sounds MANY times. Thanks for the memories!

     posted by Butterfly on 11-30-2011 at 11:35 am

235. Not only did this bring up memories of sounds, but also smells. One I will never forget is the smell of mimeographed paper tests that teachers handed out. The machine was hand cranked and made a loud Klunk, Klunk, Klunk. In College, I remember the sound of the punch cards being sorted. The movie projector brought back memories of working at the local drive-in theaters, with the speakers you put in your car window.

     posted by Gloria on 11-30-2011 at 2:59 pm

236. …Oh, Yes, I remember every one of these sounds and miss many of them ( all except the typewriter)…

     posted by Barbara on 11-30-2011 at 5:12 pm

237. Too many posts above to read them all!
     How about the sound of a DC-3 airliner warming up, and the sound of a steam train starting up, the sound as it streams by you, and the sound of that steam whistle? There might be a few in museums or vacations spots somewhere, like the cog train in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

     posted by GBArg on 12-1-2011 at 7:39 am

238. I’m 21 and I remember/have heard all of them except the tv station sign-off. Though I did know of it..my dad would always remind me of the days when tv wasn’t 24/7. Haha!

     posted by Danny on 12-1-2011 at 5:26 pm

239. Everything but the perculator – my folks always drank instant coffee! (With a dollap of evaporated milk)

     posted by Elizabeth Ray on 12-2-2011 at 11:30 am

240. I’m 27 and I remember them all

     posted by Heather on 12-2-2011 at 10:32 pm

241. I remember all of them. Each and every single one of them. Not only do I REMEMBER the sound of the flash cube, but I actually USED flash cubes — the MagiCube brand name — on the first camera that of my own that I ever possessed! That gives you one clue about my age.

     And I will give you another clue. One thing that wasn’t shown here, that IMFAO *should have* been shown here, is a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Perhaps you could consider adding that?

     In any case, can you figure out approximately how old I am, now?

     posted by Mark Harvey on 12-3-2011 at 9:19 pm

242. I like the suggestion of a DIALUP MODEM connecting– I remember being able to tell if the sweet tones of the “SCREECH-cough-HUMMM” were connecting or not..

     **sigh** Ahhh the not-so-good-old days (a decade or so ago)

     posted by AkaskaJOhnboy on 12-5-2011 at 11:06 am

243. 56 here, it wasn’t the ka-chunk of the 8 track that was irritating, but the way the song faded out in the middle, changed tracks, and then faded back in.

     And those little plastic yellow things that you put in the center of a 45 record so you could play it on an LP spindle without a “real” adapter.

     One more – standard bias tires, snow tires, and recaps. All changed with bumper jacks.

     posted by jdr on 12-9-2011 at 11:23 pm

244. I just got through brewing a cup of coffee on my *stovetop* precolator; my son has a turntable (and teaches my grandsons the joy of The Beatles on vinyl); I remember party lines (and out phone number starting with letter, CIrcle5-4298); I recall when flashcubes came out (and you used flash BULBS in your Kodak Brownie Hawkeye); saving Texas Gold stamps from HEB’s, saving them & sticking in the little books to redeem them for stuff; filing the points on my 1959 Chevy; cigarettes were 35 cents a pack and gas was 29 cents a gallon.

     posted by RaulJones on 12-11-2011 at 1:20 pm

245. I’m 20 and i’ve heard every single one of them.
     Then again, i was raised in the south. Some things people just never get rid of.
     Mawmaw had her dial TV until the rabbit-ears no longer worked right. (2004)

     posted by Rachel on 12-11-2011 at 10:42 pm

246. I remember all of these sounds. Technology has brought us some wonderful things, but, I feel it has also robbed us of our humanity in many ways. When these sounds were commonplace, I feel the world was a better place then.

     posted by Dana on 12-12-2011 at 10:27 am

247. At age 60, I remember all of those. The television warming up must be the earliest. I remember how amazed I was when visiting my grandmother in a small town in Iowa in the ’50′s. You picked up the phone receiver and asked the operator for whoever you wanted to speak with!

     Thanks for the memories – and I so enjoyed the Designing Woman clip. I miss them!

     ~Mad(elyn) in Alabama

     posted by Madelyn Magruder on 12-12-2011 at 12:27 pm

248. A politician telling the truth is one they’ve never heard.

     posted by Skully on 12-12-2011 at 1:18 pm

249. I’m only 32, but Iremember them. Part of the reason is that my mother was born very late in her parents’ life, so all my aunts and uncles on her side were much older, as were my grandparents, and I was exposed to most of those through them.

     Here’s one: How many people remember that once upon a time, the rotary phone was hardwired into the jack–You didn’t used to be able to unplug it from the wall.

     posted by Patrick on 12-13-2011 at 1:15 pm

250. I’m 40 (just turned it a couple months back), and I remember all of those sounds – I had to play a couple of them to be sure, but they are all familiar. My folks were never coffee drinkers, but my grandparents were, so I guess I must have heard the coffee perking at their house.

     I was surprised at the warm fuzzy feeling I got listening to the manual typewriter! :-) From the time I was born until I was in high school, my dad was constantly working on his education – he finished his B.A while I was in diapers, his M.A. when I was in grade school, and got his Ph.D. when I was either a sophomore or a junior. When he wasn’t doing his own schoolwork, he was typing other peoples’ papers or doing translation work to bring in some extra money – he could type 100+ words per minute. He was still using a manual typewriter while I was little, and I remember how excited I was to be allowed to touch it!

     Thanks for all the memories!

     posted by Bonnie on 12-13-2011 at 1:15 pm

251. Great list! I brought up this topic at a Christmas party Sunday and another one worthy of mentioning is the CB radio coming across on the TV audio. That seemed to be a common occurance when I was young, but technology has all but eliminated the interference.

     posted by Mark on 12-13-2011 at 5:13 pm

252. At 57, I remember each and every one!

     posted by Mary on 12-13-2011 at 6:50 pm

253. I’m under 40 and have always used a Coffee Percolator. I use a chemex too always have a percolator.

     posted by a on 12-16-2011 at 2:30 pm

254. I am 18 and remember 7 out 11.
     That telephone nd replenish my childhood days.
     Awesome guys, great collecton.

     posted by Akshay on 12-17-2011 at 12:41 pm

255. Heard all of these and most of those mentioned in people’s posts. (56 years old)
     Filmstrip projectors that updated with the cassette tape and the beep to advance the filmstrip; then automation itself, the filmstrip projectors could advance itself with the tape!

     posted by Bev on 12-19-2011 at 9:46 am

256. I would like to add the sound of film advancing in a camera as you turned the knob. :-)

     posted by Anne S. on 12-19-2011 at 3:12 pm

257. I’m able to remember them all–and was reminded of an orchestral composition called “The Typewriter” and a Stan Freburg song “Green Christmas” that ended with a hallelujah chorus of ringing cash registers. That intoxicating smell everyone remembers from school came from a spirit duplicator not a mimeograph.

     posted by Kathryn Kemp on 12-21-2011 at 12:18 pm

258. About the TV signoffs, there’s a legend that a political candidate knew his opponent bought the 1:00am to 1:15am time slot, so he bought the 12:45 to 1:00 slot and at 12:55 he played the national anthem and showed a test pattern until 1:00, so people would turn off their sets and not see his opponent’s message.

     Geezer, if you also drew for Winky Dink, do you remember Boing Boing McGurk, the cartoon boy who spoke only in sound effects?

     posted by Scotty on 12-23-2011 at 2:21 am

259. I beg to differ; I’m a young teenager and the proud owner of a manual typewriter and a record player.

     posted by Georgia on 12-23-2011 at 10:56 pm

260. All of them but 7, because there was no such gas stations in my country (Bolivia), but all the rest of the sounds are kept deep inside my memory…

     posted by Gevalher on 12-28-2011 at 12:05 pm

261. I’m 57 and now feel ancient. Got me thinking about other sounds from the Way-Back machine… rock bands before synthesizers and portable keyboards; scratching a record; sitting with a “bouffant” cap on my hair to dry it; the sound of cracking the ice in a metal ice tray; doorbells… and parents yelling for their kids to come inside for supper.

     posted by lindan johnson on 12-29-2011 at 5:33 pm

262. Steve Matzura

     posted by In all the discussions about phones, what about the sounds made by the two kinds of pay phones (I can hear it now--"what's a payphone?")--the three-slotted ones and the single-slotted ones. The three-slotted ones had a slot for each coin--the nickel, dime on 12-30-2011 at 5:10 am

263. 21, I’m not sure what the coffee one is all about. But otherwise, all of them. Is it unusual to know these sounds? I think some of them I feel like I know from memory but they’re probably only from movies and things. I know I’ve never actually witnessed the end of the night tv broadcast, but I do recall being 4 and watching Poltergeist and being heinously confused as to why the television just cut off. A lot of these sounds are familiar just from my studies in film and communications. I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard a flash cube, but I remember it from something.

     posted by Panik on 1-2-2012 at 3:56 pm

264. I canNOT tell you how much I loved this post… :)

     posted by Helenann on 1-3-2012 at 12:14 pm

265. I’m way too young to remember these in wide use, but I always remember going to my grandma’s house and playing with the rotary phone and the typewriter, and if you have never heard a record player, you are truly missing some musical quality

     posted by Jack on 1-7-2012 at 12:31 am

266. Born in 1954, I remember them all. There are still plenty of gas stations here in New England that have those “alarm hoses” to chime when someone pulls in. Another place to hear a typewriter is in Leroy Anderson’s orchestra composition of the same name. Here is a link to one of the readily available videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2LJ1i7222c

     And oddly enough, sometimes CD’s can malfunction in such a way that they repeat a few seconds of music, just like records did. Probably for a similar reason, although I don’t know for sure.

     posted by Karen on 1-7-2012 at 1:23 pm

267. An elevator operator saying, “Floor please?”

     posted by Doug on 1-9-2012 at 9:00 pm

268. A beeper.

     posted by Doug on 1-9-2012 at 9:07 pm

269. I remember the cash register. I also remember they had this little “slide” with a round tray at the bottom. When you gave the cashier your money she’d hit the “Final Sale” button (or whatever it was) and your change would come down the slide. I always bugged my mom and dad so they’d let me keep the change.

     posted by Dragon's Human on 1-9-2012 at 10:28 pm

270. “I know that many people generations older than me think that those my age and younger don’t know about these noises, but you would be surprised how many of us have actually used these things. Plenty of grandparents have kept their old gadgets around, and the internet has wonderfully exposed many of us young people to other gizmos you all may have not kept all these years. ”

     Thanks, Mike! I’m 23 and have also heard every single one of these sounds/used the machines that make them. I remember station sign-offs too, didn’t those go away at some point in the 90′s? I also remember getting up early in the morning as a kid and sitting in front of the rainbow test pattern waiting for PBS to come back on.

     posted by Michelle on 1-10-2012 at 10:57 am

271. I’m 20 and I’ve heard all of these except the bell, coffee percolator and the TV signoff (which I’ve only seen through videos). Every Sunday of my childhood was spent at my grandma’s house, which hasn’t been remodeled since she moved in when my mom was a kid, so I was exposed to things like TV dials, rotary phones and records early enough that I thought nothing of using them. Basically, 1/7th of my childhood was spent in 1962.

     posted by Katie R on 1-12-2012 at 12:50 pm

272. I’ve heard all but three… and I’m only 25. I guess I grew up with a lot of old stuff. :D

     posted by Heather on 1-13-2012 at 11:20 am

273. I love the sound of real silver coins jingling in the pocket. I’ve gone so far as to buy old silver coins to be able to jingle them. It’s melodic.

     posted by tommieg on 1-13-2012 at 4:25 pm

274. wow I remember all of these (38 years old) but a few of them even seem old to me

     also, I remember fondly that TV-smell that the screen produced by the massive static charge it would build up – now that I’ve smelled ozone, I’m pretty sure that’s what it was

     posted by Ham Solo on 1-14-2012 at 5:11 am

275. I grew up with most of these, still remember full service stations in my area and I’m only 33. My wife’s parents still have a percolator almost identical to the one in the video. They’re thinking of getting a new one, living here in New Zealand they actually still sell the things despite the awful coffee they turn out.

     posted by Madison on 1-16-2012 at 3:41 am

276. I’m 50 and I’ve heard them all.

     posted by Victor on 1-16-2012 at 11:48 am

277. At 31, I remember all of these sounds vividly except for the cash register.

     posted by Jennifer on 1-16-2012 at 11:54 am

278. I rember all of them.I am 63.And you forgot a couple the transitor radio and the ringer washer

     posted by linda on 1-18-2012 at 11:07 pm

279. What happened to the margin bell on the typewriter that warned you to hit the carriage return as soon as possible?

     posted by John Minger on 1-19-2012 at 5:34 am

280. What a great trip down memory lane! As kids, we’d ride our bikes over the rubber bell ring at the gas station. Simple fun!

     posted by Terry on 2-5-2012 at 9:56 pm

281. 50+, and I’m familiar with all of them…

     *sigh*

     My Regards

     posted by Bob Reed on 2-19-2012 at 9:56 pm

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