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[–] • 3 pts

When I was about 8, we had an old Holden Kingswood station wagon. On cold mornings, to get it started, someone would need to turn the key while another lent into the engine bay and bashed the starter solenoid with a hammer. This went on for a year or so until we finally got around to replacing the solenoid.

[–] • 1 pt

This went on for a year before replacing it

Your story sounds absolutely real.

[–] • 1 pt

100% real. I grew up on a farm. The global maintenance strategy was Run to failure, and that was taken very seriously.

[–] • 0 pt

I know. That's just what I mean. When replacement parts are hard to come by, you have to use whatever you got.

[–] • 2 pts

I still wonder how we all knew to blow in a NES cartridge to get it to work. We didn't have the internet, yet everyone knew what to do.

[–] • 0 pt

Because, someone else showed you. Knowledge was peer-to-peer back then and in a more literal sense than a technical sense.

[–] • 1 pt

The troublesome part of that is that I don't remember when I first saw it. I can remeber all of my birthdays, even my first one, I can remember every kid in every class I ever had, I remember which kids I taught to blow into the cartridge, and remeber others doing it and wondering if every NES console had the same issue. Hell, I even remeber the first time I put a game into the NES and the power light blinked so I just played a different game (I wanted to play Rygar which I had borrowed from a friend, when it didn't work, I suspected it was because that kid didn't use the black dust sleeve/cover that came with the game, so just played some Metal Gear). I remember everytime I ever blew into the game, I would swallow all of the saliva in my mouth first so thay I wouldn't get the connectors wet when I blew. I can remember all of that, but have no memory of being taught to blow into a cartridge.

[–] • 1 pt

Well, there was also the written warning to NOT blow into the cart. Maybe you read that and figured "well shit, maybe that will work".

[–] • 1 pt

Those were the days when if that doesn't work, all you needed was a Philips screwdriver and butter knife to finish the job.

[–] • 0 pt

Be the hero they need and Fonzie that shit.