Remember when...

[Ann G]

We had 2 digit phone numbers in the town where I grew up when I first learned to use the phone. My parents had a furniture store, and the store's number was 96. It was before dial telephones, and we told the operator the number we wanted. We had a private line, much better than having a party line where your neighbors could listen in on your calls.

The local dairy made home deliveries. They had little forms like a checklist, and you filled it out and put it in this insulated box by your front door. They'd put your items in the box.

Xerox machines had not yet been invented, and they still used carbon paper. When I was in college, I had a Smith Corona portable typewriter, and I used that correcting tape or eraseable paper to correct typing errors. Several years later, my first computer was an Apple IIe with a green screen, 5 1/4 inch floppy disks, and a matrix dot printer.

When I was young the only people I had ever met who had tattoos were guys who had been in the navy. Pierced ears were considered a bit daring at that point.

When I was in elementary school girls always wore dresses, never slacks and wearing shorts was really unheard of. If it was cold, we wore slacks under the dress. We had steam heat at our house and at school. In the winter we built snow forts and had snowball fights. If our mittens got wet, we'd lay them out on the radiator to dry.

[Crankin]

Hey, I had a Smith Corona typewriter. Too bad I can't type!
We had a knife man who came down the street ringing a bell to sharpen knives and a daily milkman when I was really little, like under 7. And this was in the suburbs. I remember when we became a 2 car family... I was about 6. My mom used to drive my dad to the train on Wednesdays, before that, so she could go to the grocery store.
I remember watching the Mickey Mouse Club, with Annette Funicello (not Brittney), Bozo the Clown, Romper Room with Miss Jean, and Ding Dong School House. We had Mr. Nicolazzo to cut our lawn and once a couple of years ago, when I was shopping in the city where I grew up, I saw his truck! Well, it must be his grandson.

[solobiker]

Having to roll a car window down with a hand crank vs just pushing a button
I prefer the hand cranks


rotary phones

[smilingcat]

learning to drive my younger sister's CJ5 jeep with manual transmission with my dad siting next to me and telling me more gas and don't dump the clutch... and my sister sneering, snickering and laughing at me. She wanted the CJ5 cause that's what Mindy was driving in Mork & Mindy. I was car free till the 80's .

Oh I also remember NYC subway tokens were 35 cents. I was in college then.

And we weren't allowed to have even a simple four function calculator in exams. Well, back then simple four function calculators weren't all that simple. TI-50 calculator was one of the first scientific calculator. Initial price back in '72 or was it '73 was around $500.00.

I used to know how to use the slide ruler. But haven't seen one since then.

TVs had four available channels even though the dial said 2 through 13. We had ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS. oh TV screens had rounded corners too. I also remember taking vacume tubes (valves for brits and aussies) to the grocery store to check if the tubes had burnt out. It was trial and error to see which tube had burnt out.

Life seemed simpler back then. And I wished to have a personal computer back then, before Apple II/IIe. Before Commodore 64 or even VIC20. First video game I saw was pong and thought wow that's really cool you can play games on your TV.

And yes my term paper was all typed out. Editor used was smilingcat-editor not word. not word-perfect. not open office...

[PamNY]

I remember (and miss) clothes hanging on clotheslines. Apparently I'm not the only one, as there is (or was) "right to hang out clothes" legislation in North Carolina:

http://www.news-record.com/blog/53964/entry/64277

[sundial]

Having to roll a car window down with a hand crank vs just pushing a button

Oh, and those little triangle windows that really didn't let much air in.

[solobiker]

Oh, and those little triangle windows that really didn't let much air in.

I love those windows. We still have a car with them.

I remember the car bingo games..that little board with picures of cows, buildings, bikes and as you saw each item you would slide that little window over the picture. That was the entertainment on car trips for us.

[Tuckervill]

I was thinking when I posted about sitting in the well of a Beetle, that I also remember how empty it was. Nothing but black scratchy carpet. Because we didn't bring any toys, for a 12 hour drive! Not even a scrap of paper.

Karen

[sundial]

Karen, lol.

[solobiker]

on our long trips in my parents stationwagon my brother got that far back to sleep in, my sister got the back seat to lie down on and I got the floor between the front and back seats. Not very comfortable there at all, but since I was the youngest I usually got the last choice.

[badger]

CC: I was there from '81-'86, then we moved to Vancouver. My mom used to cut Randy Gregg's mother's hair

[OakLeaf]

I remember 1200 baud modems, and having to disassemble the phone jack to logon from hotel rooms.

[Tuckervill]

I remember modems that had a cradle that you put the phone receiver on!

Karen

[Crankin]

Yes, when my husband went back to school, to finish his BS, we got this "new fangled" technology, so he could do his homework at home, in that weird, new major, Computer Information Systems. I have a picture of my 6 month old son sitting at the terminal, banging his hands on the keyboard. We had to get the computer paper from some special place that would deliver it, so my DH could see his work. There was no monitor. 1983.

[HappyTexasMom]

Remember when everyone wasn't so tied to the phone, having to answer it, wherever they were? If you called someone and they weren't home, you left a message (or even further back, you tried again later). Now people get irritated with me if I don't answer the phone. Just because I can have it with me at all times, doesn't mean that I do, or that I want to talk on it at all times.