Comments by "CalBob750" (@calbob750) on "PeriscopeFilm" channel.

  1. Back in the good old days you’d get a hundred job applications when hiring for a policeman. Last hiring event…seven.
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  2. In the 70’s possession was a good way to spend time in jail. As if jail ever broke the habit.
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  3. Back in the good old days your TV set had more than a picture tube. It had tubes that controlled horizontal, vertical, brightness , etc. Local drug stores sold TV tubes and had a tube tester. When your set’s picture went bad you took the suspect vacuum tubes with you and tested them on the tube tester. Then you picked a replacement from the ones stocked in the tube tester.
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  4. I was stationed at an Air Force Base in Texas in the early sixties. This was before TV in every room, internet and social media. The only update we had on the Vietnam War was watching filmed footage of B52s carpet bombing the jungles of Vietnam.
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  5. Before Red Bull and energy drinks, if you were an over the road long distance trucker Benzedrine was the fuel of choice to “keep on truckin” in the 40s and 50s.
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  6. The B26 Martin Marauder required unusually high take off and landing speeds that if not met would result in a crash. The plane was called the “widow maker”. Despite the term, the B26 had one of the lowest loss rates of any bomber in WW2.
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  7. Back in the day the average kids train layout consisted of a 4x8 sheet of plywood with painted highways and grass. Plasticville buildings were an addition for realism. Lionel O gauge and American Flyer S gauge were the brands of choice.
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  8. The good old days. This is when bean counters tried to make people think those 13” 2ply/4ply rated tires on your new Falcon Futura weren’t all about giving you less car for more money.
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  9. For the police domestic violence is one of the more dangerous calls. The fighters often turn their violence to the responding officer.
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  10. This film was part of training for new Ohio Bell Telephone Company employees who drove company cars and trucks in the 50s and 60s. This was the era before seat belts.
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  11. “No job is so important and no service so urgent that we cannot take time to do our work safely”. Bell System. The Bell System motto until divestiture?
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  12. If you watched TV quiz shows from the fifties you often saw cartons of cigarettes given as prizes.
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  13. This was also the era of above ground nuclear testing. Very entertaining to watch on early morning TV. This ended when they realized all that fallout was ending up in the food supply. Strontium 90 in milk for example. Winds drifted at high altitude from west to east.
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  14. Anyone who experienced the gas station attendant of the 40s,50s and 24.9 cent a gallon gas, may also remember short sticking and overfilling. Short sticking would occur when the attendant checked the oil. Show the dipstick down a quart of oil and sell a quart of oil…….and result in an overfilled crankcase. Not a problem. It’ll burn off in 500 miles. Don’t forget overfilling to show even dollars on gas pump. You could impress the attendant with that crisp $2 bill you gave him to pay for those eight gallons of gas. Funny, driving down the road there was the distinct smell of gasoline in the air. I think New Jersey still requires attendant pumped gas? Do those old time gas attendants traditions still exist?
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  15. Back when the Salk Polio vaccine was available people lined up to be vaccinated to avoid being the one of 15,000 who died and tens of thousand who were paralyzed each year. Sabin developed an oral vaccine in the sixties which proved more effective.
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  16. When you bought a new car in the 70’s you probably paid $125-150 dealer prep fee. This was to fix the problems that were ignored when the car rolled off the assembly line. The philosophy was “pump em out and off the line” and let the dealer fix the problems. In the fifties a statistical engineer Edward Demming approached the American car manufacturers with the Total Quality Management concept. He was ignored and the Japanese auto industry listened. If you’re old enough you’ll remember the early difference in quality between US and Japanese cars.
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  17. And then along came the “Gulf of Tonkin” incident.
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  18. In the good old days before seat belts and airbags a high speed head on usually resulted in the passenger thrown through the windshield and the driver impaled on the steering column. The big fear against seat belt use was being trapped in a burning car.
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  19. Gunfire in the halls of Congress? This video footage was prologue to the future.
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  20. Interesting footage of Las Vegas. Notice that the stop signs were yellow and black. Red started in 1954.
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  21. Before EMT squads and cell phones in an emergency you first had to find a phone to call an emergency number usually fire or police. No 911. Sometimes you dial “0” and ask the operator to contact emergency squads. An hour wait wouldn’t be unusual. If you had an accident on the interstate in the early 60s there were no mile markers. How far to the nearest home or business phone..your guess.
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  22. Ford got some of the Jeep production because Willy’s didn’t have the production capacity. Apparently, not calling them Jeeps yet. GPW. Scout car.
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  23. In the 40s and 50s it was mostly two lane highways all the way. This meant in hill country you probably had an eighteen wheeler on your bumper downhill. No chain restaurants or motels. Watch for speed traps and chain gangs in the South. You needed a AAA trip tik and a set of maps and guidebooks. St.Petersburg Beach was all Beach and few motels. The family Ford or Chevy had 80 HP and 4/40 Air. That meant four windows down and 40 MPH to keep cool in the sweltering heat in Dixie. Stop at Stuckeys for pecan pralines and ice water on the trip through Georgia.
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  24. I missed the part in the training film where they show how to “short stick “ when checking oil so the attendant could sell another quart of oil. Don’t forget to pump enough gas to show an even dollar amount on the gas pump. Easier to make change. Ignore the smell of gas spilled. The good old days of a full service gas station.
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  25. Let’s not forget that the cable pair used goes to a Central Office. In the CO the CO Tech connects the cable pair with a main frame cross connect to the assigned Office Equipment. The CO equipment provides Dial Tone and call connections to the network through Switching Equipment.
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  26. Another effect on families of returning WW1 servicemen….PTSD ( before it had a name) and alcoholism.
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  27. Periscope Films. Proving once more that we learn from history that we do not learn from history.
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  28. Back in the 60s we were worried that “hippies” would bring about the decline and fall of the USofA. “ Beards and Bombs” was a favorite quote.
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  29. After all these decades and warnings,Hell seems to be the final outcome.
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  30. Ask about the training to “short stick” when checking oil level and keep pumping gas to overflow and make an even dollar sale.
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  31. Cook Cleland had an airport in Willoughby Ohio. The hangar still stands. Just off Euclid Avenue. Cook kept his surplus PBY Catalina’s there that he was going to use for hunting trips to Canada across Lake Erie. The Sohio 57 Corsair was kept there.
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  32. If you read the quotes of Horace Mann you’ll realize America has come a long way in the past twenty years morally and culturally. And all downhill.
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  33. The unit is identified as the 120th Tactical Fighter Squadron from Colorado. Colorado Air National Guard among others referenced. During Desert Storm units such as the 179th AW from Ohio, had aircraft, aircrew and medical personnel deployed during the Persian Gulf War. Air Guard units have been used over the years in support of the mission for decades since this documentary was made. Most states have Air National Guard and Army National Guard Units.
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  34. Despite the 40,000 US deaths during the war, media coverage at home was very limited.
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  35. In the 1940s Ted was probably paid about $80 a week.
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  36. Diesel fueled the rigs and Benzedrine fueled the drivers? More time on the road meant more $$$.
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  37. Thought I’d see more medical staff represented aboard ship. One quick closeup of a centrifuge in action.
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  38. You go to the library and start searching the 3x5 index cards. Oops! Somebody misfiled the one you needed to find.
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  39. That was the radioactive element Strontium 90. That’s why you no longer could see live nuclear above ground testing on A.M. TV. Testing went underground to eliminate the cloud of radioactive particles that drifted east with the winds. Did I say Strontium 90 was ending up in milk? The fallout would fall on pasture. The radioactive material would be transferred from soil to grass then from grass to the cow’s milk. Don’t forget all those troops who were exposed to radiation as part of the above ground testing in Nevada.
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  40. This is a treasure of cultural history and the automobile from the thirties to the fifties. If you lived back then you understand. Oil change and chassis lube at 1,000 miles. Lucky if tires and battery lasted two years.
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  41. To enhance the the Nation’s patriotic fervor “under God” was added to the Pledge of Allegiance in 1954. Keeping with the theme of “Separation of Church and State”.
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  42. If you were a child in the 40s and 50s being fitted for shoes you often heard the shoe salesman say “their a tight fit now, just give ‘em a few days to break in”.
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  43. NELA Park still exists in East Cleveland Ohio. It’s local claim to fame besides employing hundreds of residents from Cleveland Heights and East Cleveland is its annual Christmas light display. Down sized from earlier years. One of the engineers told me that GE could have beat others to the strobe flash market, but the Chief Engineer didn’t want to lessen its dominance in the flash bulb market.
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  44. Durability run? I test drove a new Vega back in the day. It was making a sound like marbles in a can when the salesman started it. The same Lordstown assembly line that gave you the Chevy Cruze.
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  45. GE also had the opportunity to develop electronic strobe flash, but the flash bulb market was to lucrative for the decision makers at GE to pursue. A retired GE engineer told me that.
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  46. Once upon a time four wheel drive was an expensive option that would only be added to a truck if used off road. Now it’s a must have for every new car purchase.
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  47. Or was it Smokey Bear? No “the”.
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  48. Anti Drug, Anti Addiction films. Not very effective. Not even the misery of addiction stops people.
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  49. The sales pitch was “Quality is Job 1” I owned a new 1981 Escort. “Q1” hadn’t reached Job 1 on this vehicle. The quality today far surpasses what rolled off the assembly line in the US in the eighties and before.
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  50. Has the law enforcement image changed? My son joined the local police force 20 years ago among 100 applicants. Last year the city police force was hiring….4 applicants.
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  51. Back in the day everyone had a fear of getting polio. When the Salk vaccinations started in 1955 school kids lined up. If you caught polio you could die or be paralyzed for life. Some victims spent their lives in “iron lungs” to aid breathing for life.
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  52. Based on the vintage of the rolling stock the film footage seems to be mid forties or earlier. Starting in late forties and later Lionel and American Flyer had more realistic proportions and detailing.
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  53. Sirloin steak 50 cents a pound. A good paying job $80 a week. A new Ford $2200. Gas 29 cents a gallon.
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  54. And as we all know Smokey is buried in Capitan, New Mexico at the Smokey Bear Historical Park.
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  55. The good old days when guns were all about “sport or hobby”.
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  56. Another public service announcement transformed into a commercial for a multi billion industry. “When will they ever learn”?
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  57. Only the few remaining veterans of this conflict can know the feeling of relief that they all must have felt when the months and years of conflict ended.
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  58. Ever since the invention of dental implants an office visit at the dentist now requires a second mortgage.
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  59. At the time downtown had..Webb City. World’s largest drug store. The Fountain of Youth, green Park Benches, the Million Dollar Pier, a century old Kapok tree. Al Lang Field. .. training home of the St.Louis Cardinals.
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  60. If you had a job paying $80 a week you were set.
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  61. Thanks to capitalist $$$ and “most favored trade” status, China’s economy went from third world to top 3 in forty years. Go figure?
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  62. “Not a cough in a carload”
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  63. Those Communists never got to overrun the Capital and threaten death to congressmen. Isn’t that what Communists would do?
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  64. Back in the day,when on the road for vacation, the gas station was one of the few places to stop with rest rooms. How clean and orderly the station looked from the outside was often an indicator of clean restrooms. Most station restrooms were filthy.
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  65. Back in the early fifties and before when you shopped at the local grocery store you gave the clerk a list of groceries and he would pick most of the items off the shelves on his side of the counter. The day of the grocery loaded shopping cart would arrive with the supermarket. A bag full of groceries was less than $5.
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  66. “With dope there’s hope” ?
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  67. LSMFT. Lucky Strike means fine tobacco.
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  68.  @frankdenardo8684  or contact the recruiter at your nearest Air National Guard base?
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  69. Four B26 Marauders were used in the Battle of Midway.
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  70. Ever wonder why above ground nuclear testing was stopped? Radioactive Strontium 90 was drifting East in the winds and falling on grasslands that cows would eat. The Strontium 90 was than ending up in the milk supply. Drink milk and absorbed into bones.
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  71. If you thought the Corvair oversteered……..”unsafe at any speed”?
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  72. Despite the melodrama the consequences remain unchanged. 93,000 took the final trip in 2020.
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  73. On active duty Air Force during the Vietnam War this is the footage you might see at Commanders Call. Remember no social media and only limit coverage on three local TV channels. Meanwhile Army infantry was probably going through Hell.
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  74. Kruschev realized the benefits of perestroika for the betterment of Russia instead of behaving like a second rate gangster that uses killing as a way to divert power to fulfill his ego.
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  75. This film was part of the training package for new employees at the Bell System training center. Back when telephone company employees were give training by the company.
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  76. 70 years later we’ve got vandalism under control………NOT!
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  77. Fast forward 70 years and now we respect no one. Time to read “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”?
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  78. Folks alive then may recall the enthusiasm for saving Vietnam from the Communist menace. The “Domino Theory”. Once the draft started reaching into the middle and upper classes, and the body count started rising, the enthusiasm was reigned in.
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  79. In the opening scenes notice under the operator’s chair is a place to hold her purse.
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  80. Don’t forget the St.Louis Cardinals at Al Lang Field in St.Petersburg.
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  81. From an historical perspective you could watch these nuclear tests live on TV. Despite the joy of watching a nuclear “mushroom”, it was finally realized that all that nuclear fallout was eventually drifting to the east. As a result radioactive Strontium 90 was being detected in the nations milk supply. Scientists finally decided to do underground nuclear testing. No more “mushrooms”, no more spectacular photo ops.
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  82. In the 50s and 60s there was an anti seatbelt movement that believed it was better to be ejected from the car (usually through the windshield) than to be trapped in a burning vehicle. In the good old days before seat belts the driver would be impaled on the steering column. People said a car with seat belts must be unsafe. Believe it or not.
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  83. The popular culture warned “Beards and Bombs”. Those hippies were going to tear down America. Hmmm??
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  84. World War 2 US deaths 400,000 in about five years of combat. Covid 19 US deaths in a little over a year 620,000 and climbing. ???
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  85. Anybody alive in the fifties and the sixties will recall the hysteria over “Comminism”. Of course lacking around the clock media to feed the paranoia we had to count on politicians to keep the fear alive. What is more amazing is that Capitalism jumped into buying communist made goods and we helped transform a third world country into a world power. Go figure.
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  86. When you see North America you can eliminate the USofA as a choice. R
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  87. Back before every city hooked in to natural gas, a coal truck would transfer a ton of bituminous to your coal cellar before the start of winter. $30 a ton?
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  88. This is a seriously homogenized version of the hell this war really was for the troops who fought it. A relative talked of how thousands of Chinese troops would swarm over US positions. The only defense was to call in artillery strikes on our own dug in positions. Hundreds of bodies everywhere. At the time media coverage was virtually non existent.
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  89. Agent Philbrick was always in danger of being discovered as a double agent.
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  90. Music with an Asian component would have kept in theme for the images shown. Music reminded me of an overture for “Shenandoah”.
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  91. Just a cultural comment from the seventies. Went to a Drive-in movie in 1970 in Northeast Ohio to see Woodstock the movie. It was a double feature..”Bloodfeast” a horror movie and “Woodstock” a documentary. The audience loved Bloodfeast, but actually booed Woodstock. All those dirty hippies, apparently. There was a lot of cultural animosity toward the events at Woodstock. “Beards and Bombs”. The Peace and Love, Anti War philosophy wasn’t embraced until friends and family got drafted and shipped off to Vietnam.
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