When did your family first get...

[jds1911a1]

As I was reading the thead in the comics section about Legends of the superheroes someone mentioned they had recorded it live when it was on in the 70's. Knowing how expensive a vcr was then got me thinking about that "special items" that we all have now that were a huge deal when your family got them, I'm sure a thread like this has been done before but I haven't seen one recently so here we go. So when was the first time your family got ...

a brand new car - it was a 1974 pinto hatchback for Mom baby blue and dad a Pinot wagon inbrown with the faux wood panels. Mom got side swiped a few month slater and my grandfather was fixinx it when he told them to "sell the death traps". they sold them for a loss just before the news about them catching fire came out. After that it was 6 more years before we had a new car again. in between it was cars resurected from a junkyard or our family got via the Dead relative inheritance program (you need a car well no one wants this one from Aunt Bertie you can have it for ...)

a Big Color tv in 74 (A 30 IN console from Mongomery wards) I was too little to know how much the fols paid but I rember it replaced a 19" black and white that must have been from the 60's, but we couldnt get all 6 channells (the local NBC station was channel 3 and was just awful to watch) it has knobs and it was replaced in 1985 becasue the knobs wouldn't work anymore. that led to our first tv with a remote. That tv lasted till 2005

a non Party line phone -1975 the same year we were able to make a call without talking to an operator

A video game - Pong in 1978, we finally upgraded to an atari 2600 in 82. Still have them both

Cable in 1981 so dad could watch his Phils and sixers on Prism and we finally could get the local NBC too plus WOR new york so I got Dr who on Satudays in the am plus the local PBS broadcast and New Jersey network pbs I was in who heaven. and it was a scandalous $20 a month (dad griped every month writing the check)

a VCR it was a top loading vhs from Quazar in 80 it had 2 channel knobs just like the TV one for UHF and one for VHF I distinctly remember this was $800

a non rotary service "portable" phone 1986

[Spawn67]

This is a good question. Kids today will never know what it was like when we first got these things. I think about this all the time.

My grandparents bought a color t.v. in 1971. I was born in 73. That t.v. lasted until about 88. I spent my entire childhood over at their house watching that t.v. You would have to wait for about 5 min for it to start cause the color would have to adjust. I remember on saturday mornings watching wrestling with my grandfather and we would play with the bunny ears to get a clear signal. I really miss those days.

My family got our first cordless phone in 1985 for christmas. We have pics of that day. It was a huge deal because we could be anywhere in the house and not have the chord. I remember going outside that day and calling a friend from outside and being way excited.

As far as video games we got our first atari 2600 in 1981. The kids in the neighborhood had one and I wanted one. I can't even begin to tell you the countless memories I had playing atari.

We first got cable in 1984. We moved from the city to about 20 miles outside of it. It was a huge deal for us because we had now about 40 channels which was standard back then) I have countless memories watching hbo showtime etc back then.

We got our first VCR in 1981. It was a HUGE deal. I recently asked my father how much he payed for it back then. He told me $700. I have good memories of going to our first video store which was tiny. That VCR lasted until 2000 I kid you not. Wish I kept it for sendimental reasons.

[Mikey]

First new car we ever had was my mom's 1968 Chevy Impala

That thing was literally a tank

[HardyGirl]

Well, let's see...

I really couldn't answer about the car, b/c I don't know if the ones my dad drove before I was age 6 were new or used.

A color TV: Well I believe it was in 1972, but it didn't last long. My dad bought a color set w/ a remote (bug stuff) for my mom's birthday. But he was such a cheapskate, that he bought a floor model. It lasted a few months, and then broke down. No one ever bothered to get it fixed, so that was the end of that. When we moved from NYC to CA in '79, we stayed w/ my brother for awhile and he had a color set.

We never had a party line phone. (not while I was alive!)

I got my Telstar video game (pong) for Christmas in 1978.

We first got cable in 1981. We had a black box sitting on top of the TV w/ a dial w/ lotsa of numbers on it.

When I lived w/ my dad, my older brother bought us a VCR in 1983. Since we couldn't get cable (b/c there was a huge mountain blocking the signal), my brother jury rigged the VCR to get some cable channels.

I briefly had a cordless phone when I was married in 1987. But I've pretty much always had home phone w/ a cord and either rotary or push buttons. Still do.

[Earth 2 Chris]

As I said in another thread, 1984 was the year we got

A VCR
Cable
A microwave

I tend to think of that as the best year of my childhood. I was 9 all but two weeks of 84. Super Powers came out. He-Man and GI Joe RAH were going big, and Transformers had just hit. My sister was in her junior and senior years of high school, so it's the last time the family dynamic was completely intact before she went off to college. Good times.

I don't think my parents owned a NEW car while I was at home. Newer used cars, but never a new one.

Chris

[Allie Fox]

I'm not too sure about the car or color tv.
I think my parents bought a new Chevelle in 1970 or so (I would have been two or three) but I can't say for sure.
I don't remember having a black and white set as a primary. We did have B/W tvs but only in our rooms (my sister and me).

I don't remember a party line either. I do remember the operator though. We could call the operator and request a phone be rang by saying the city and the last five numbers (a la PEnnsylvania 6-5000). That lasted until about '74 or '75 I think.

PONG was our first home video game. But we kids were not allowed to play with it unless Dad said it was okay as it was "his" game. I don't think he played with it ten times after getting it for his birthday or Christmas or whatever.

I'll say sometime in 1980 as the probable time for us getting cable. I can remember having to turn the knob on the tv to change the channels as a very young kid but we almost always had the converter box from the cable company. I do remember when HBO was only on in the evenings.

Our first VCR was around 1982. A top-loading Quasar as someone mentioned above. Ours didn't have the knobs though. It was "digital." I remember Dad having to leave a deposit of 50 clams per video when we would rent movies from the P.C. Richard and Son.

[silveralex]

I was the guy who mentioned recording Legends of the superheroes. Yep, my Dad was a gadget freak (not unlike me ... : ) ), so he bought a VCR and a home video camera (black and white and big bulk blue thing) in the 70s, must have cost him well over $1000! The brand was JVC, I think.
I used to fool around with the camera, trying to make stop motion movies.

We also got a radio shack TRS80 Model 1 PC when they first came out - 1978 or so? I learned to program on that thing (4k RAM ! )

We had color tv as long as I recall, not big ones, but they were color.

Cable didn't come until 1985 or so.
AOL dialup was in the early 90s - maybe 92?

[Rallygirl]

A brand new car - My mom had a new 1968 Camero before I ever came along. When my parents got married, they both sold their sporty cars and bought a family car,...a 1970 Monte Carlo. I still laugh at that "family car". After I came along, the first new car was a 1976 AMC Pacer X. I remember going for test drives in both a purple Gremlin and the Pacer. In the end, the Pacer won because you got to cram it full of Town Club pop and potato chips.

A big color tv - Sadly, not until I moved out on my own. We always just had a small portable black sand white set. After it died, by folks just kept buying little used sets.

A non Party line phone - In 1973, when my dad started a construction business and business calls took a priority.

A video game - My grandparents bought us an Atari 2600 for Christmas in 1979 or 1980.

Cable - Not until I got married! There is still no cable out where my folks live, nor was there at my first house. And we were all too darn cheap to pay for satellite.

A VCR - while we weren't big tv watchers, oddly enough, we got a VCR quite early. There wasn't even a video rental store in town when we got it. We had to drive to the big city for tapes.

a non rotary service "portable" phone - I don't remember ever having a rotary phone growing up. Dad's desk had a push button phone with fake crocodile skin on it; tasteful to be sure.

[Figuremod73]

My memory is hazy on this one.

Cable: Had to be around '84. I remember watching TBS a good bit back then. Starcade (videogame show) was still on. They would show endless hours of The Honeymooners and Gilligans Island as well as old cartoons. The Braves were always losing but I would still watch.

Game System: My first was actually an Intellivision. Probably '83 or a little earlier. Like a brat I was sorta upset it wasnt a Atari but after getting into Night Stalker and its Combat clone I liked it. I got an Atari 2nd hand not long after anyways. This was back when the whole family was at least sorta interested in them.

Dont remember the phone. It was a rotary until the '90s. I do remember getting an answering machine. It was loud and annoying and took a long time to learn how to use.

[Gorn Captain]

My family first got a TV around 1960. It was the first one in their village, and everybody came over to watch it.
Just when everybody was crammed into the living room, there was a power outage in the whole village, and there was no electricity for the remainder of the evening.
Best remark goes to my sister, who spoke the immortal words "why can't we just watch it by candlelight?"

[Donkey Hoatie]

First brand-new car we had was in 82 or 83 when I was about 11 or 12. A brown Chevy Caprice Classic station wagon. It was stolen in 83 when my dad and little brother went down to a Bears game. The police found it stripped down and on blocks about a week later. Insurance repaired it, but it never ran the same again.

First color TV was probably somewhere around 78 or so.

We never had a non-party line phone. But got our first cordless one at some point in the 90s. It wasn't that big a deal, since we had about 5 phones in the house, including one that was right next the pantry, so you could have some quiet time.

First video game was an Atari 2600 back at Christmastime in 83.

Got cable in about 88 or so. Never had any movie channels until the cable company gave us one of those "Free month of HBO and Showtime" promos and then never turned it off. My dad called and mentioned we were still getting the channels, but the company looked at their records and said they weren't showing we were getting them, so don't worry about it. Thanks to that little gaffe by the cable company, my brothers and I were able to watch gems like Ski School 2 about 500 or so times a year and bask in the glow of gratuitous nudity.

Got our first VCR in about 83. When was the first V show on? I remember recording that one. Oh, and some episodes of Hill Street Blues.

[Wee67]

This thread was worth it alone for John mentioning Prism. I loved watching Prism back in the day. How else could see what was going on at the Spectrum but viewing it through a Prism

[Mikey]

I totally forgot about PRISM

[Earth 2 Chris]

I think my parents had a color TV before I was born, or before I can remember. I do remember our TV being in the shop and borrowing my grandparents' old B&W TV.

Chris

[Figuremod73]

I remember getting the black and white tv from my parents room. I was so excited, thinking back I was probably given it so they could have the living room tv once we got cable. HBO had more naughty movies back then I guess.