I am not keeping up. Things move so fast anymore that I can’t believe it’s actually 2012!
What annoys me today is teens and young adults take things I never knew existed, saw or had totally for granted. They expect more from technology, and they whine when it’s not available. So I thought I’d make a list of things that I didn’t have growing up which today we take for granted. Here goes:
When I was growing up there was no:
- Color TV – it was actually just coming out – my parents bought one, it caught on fire and that was the end of that.
- Microwave Oven – we bought one of these after we were married, a Quasar. It still works, and we still have it (35 years later), it’s a huge and heavy appliance and we aren’t sure how to properly dispose of it.
- Canned soda – wasn’t available. Soda could only be purchased at the soda fountain in your local candy or variety store, or in quart glass bottles.
- Bottled water – all water in those days came out of the tap, like it or not.
- Microcomputers, and all that go with them like floppy disks, hard drives, and memory chips.
- Cell phones – if you needed a phone, you would have to knock on someone’s door and ask to use their phone, find a telephone booth and have a dime, or just not have a conversation. No one called to tell you anything, like they’d be home late, or the traffic was bad, you just had to wait it out and wonder.
- The Internet – no online games, no such thing as email, and certainly no facebook.
- Satellite Dishes/Cable TV – we got the NY stations, all 3 of them from a antenna strategically placed on our rooftop – analog not digitally.
- CD or DVD’s – that’s right… none. We did have 8 track tapes and record players. If you wanted to see a movie, you had to go to a theatre. In 1965, the ticket price for a movie was 35 cents.
- Digital Cameras – my dad loved photography, so he had a Polaroid camera which allowed pictures to develop right before your very eyes – otherwise your camera needed film and developing to get a picture – and that method was far from instant.
- Air Conditioning – if you wanted air conditioning you bought a window unit to cool your bedroom. My dad installed an attic fan that basically sucked the outside air in each night. It was powerful enough so that you felt a breeze with your windows open, but it wasn’t always a cold breeze. Air conditioners were available but expensive and most households attempted to do without them where I lived. Most cars also didn’t have them because it was an expensive option.
Anyone want to go back?
I have to say, things were a whole lot simpler in those days…the days where kids actually had to use their imaginations, creativity, and ingenuity to keep from being bored.
I really could do without the cell phones. Yes, it’s a hugh convenience by also a hugh inconvenience at the same time.
Uh…well…sure, I’d go back but maybe just for a short visit.
I’d go with you, because we’d have fun together — and then have “reinforced” memories instead of partially faded ones! Miss you!
Haha, while I’m quite young I tend to pick on my older other half. When I was a kid, we didn’t have much so I didn’t have a computer or central air. He couldn’t believe that I went for the first 14 years of my life with a box fan in the window.
There are things I miss about my childhood but now that I know what we have now, no thanks 🙂 Although, my kids playing outside more would be great. We played outside all the time!
I would miss technology, a lot. I remember times when computers weren’t readily accessible, no clue how I would do without one now!
Such a simpler time! Since I have MS and Chiari Malformation air conditioning is a must so I am not sick 24/7. However I agree with everything else!
My dad knew how much I seriously needed air conditioning too – so he ran a cord around the outside of the house to plug in a window air conditioner in the roon we used when we visited him. No one else ever got to turn that thing on… that was “for Johannah”…. I thought that was really nice of him. A little Rube Goldberg but what the heck, it worked and I was sooooo thankful for it.
I have to say, I couldn’t imagine life without technology! How would we blog?!
I was born in 82, so some things we did have…but I remember when CDs, internet, cell phones and digital cameras came out. And everything was saved on a floppy!! They were even required for school!
Funny you mention Floppy Disks… we are currently selling our inventory of them on ebay. They stopped making them in 2011 – Sony was the last mfg. Now they are harder to get and cost more than the heyday. Our business used to do over 100K of them a month! Boy have times changed!
So thankful for technology, especially the interwebz! 🙂 And I have no idea how I’d survive without central air. 🙂
I’m only in my early 30s, but I do remember some of these things when I was growing up. I don’t think I would mind going back to certain parts when I was younger as you didn’t have to worry about much and be tied down to technology as much as we are now.
YES take me back NOW. I am in my 40s but my kids wouldn’t know what do with themselves if they lived in the times I did at their age!
I have enjoyed the times when we are lacking a piece of “today”. We’ve gone through times where our cell phones were turned off and it was Heavenly!
I’m not that old (29), but I too recall the days of no cell phones, no computers/internet, pre-Facebook days, when you got like 5 local channels on the tv that you had to get up to change the channels! Oh, could you imagine kids these days having to do that!?
I’m only 30 and there are several things on that list that we didn’t have either. We didn’t have a color TV until I was a little bit older, no computers, no cell phones, etc… My husband is only 23 and he has never used a payphone in his life. Isn’t it INSANE what 7 short years changes?
I remember when cable television first became available in my neighborhood. It was the most amazing idea, and my sisters and I would gather around and watch some of the great programming, excited at the many options. It took us a couple of years to realize nobody looked quite like us on any of those channels, but we loved it anyway.
I remember when computers were big and bulky. I was the first kid to have a computer on my block. When I was in college, I wrote a prolific article about the information super highway and what that would mean to us within the next 5-10 years. Nobody paid much attention to my article, but I was right on the money. I was always interested in that kind of stuff!
I remember when our teenage idea of music was taping the dj off the public radio station – not downloading 500 $.99 songs from itunes onto an iPod that costs $249, which an also take pictures, play game and movies, and play whole dance videos.
-Enough already! Whew