Came across this and thought we need a little humor during out frequent breaks from studying......we need MORE breaks than the youngens.....you know what I mean
Just in case you weren't feeling too old today, this will certainly change things.
The people who are starting college this fall across the nation were born in 1987 . They are too young to remember the space shuttle blowing up.
Their lifetime has always included AIDS.
The CD was introduced the year they were born.
They have always had an answering machine
They have always had cable.
Jay Leno has always been on the Tonight Show.
Popcorn has always been cooked in the microwave.
They never took a swim and thought about Jaws!
They don't know who Mork was or where he was from
They never heard: "Where's the Beef?", "I'd walk a mile for a Camel", or "de plane Boss, de plane".
McDonald's never came in Styrofoam containers.
They don't have a clue how to use a typewriter
Save the earth. It's the only planet with chocolate
On a more pleasant note, I can remember when there was no such thing as cell phones. Remember the first cell phones that came out? They were the size of a refrigerator! :rotfl: Ok, well maybe the size of a shoe box. Ok a little smaller, but still!
I had a cell phone (actually then we called it a car phone) my junior year in high school when they were pretty new. But I had a drive an hour each way for music lessons twice a week and my parents wanted it for me. It was a bag phone and most of the time it was actully kept in the trunk because we only got something like 30 minutes per month on it! Can you imagine on 30 minutes! It was probably 10x10 or 12x12 and had to be plugged in to the cigarette-lighter. I thought it was so cool when my dad got a cordless cellphone the next year!
I'll be 28 in a week and although that's not old to a lot of you, when I was doing the MA program last year my teacher made us all practice typing on a typewriter one day because a lot of them had never used one. At least my typing class was still done on typewriters!
NOBODY wore seatbelts! Ralph Nader hadn't made a stink about them yet. Remember laying in the back window of those big old 1940-something Oldsmobiles and Buicks?
I was born in 78, and corificeats weren't a requirement then. But my parents did have the "harness" that they put me in. It was like a vest that zipped up my front and the a seatbelt could be looped through the back. I asked my mom about it last year and she said that it let me stand up and have some freedom, but would have prevented me from going through the windshield! Whatever!!! Everytime I see my friend put the harness on her dog to take him for a walk I think about that thing!
Oh my!! My father in law worked for a company in the mid 80's and they supplied everyone with cell phones...just like that one! My dh used to think he was so cool carrying it around :rotfl:
Now his phone can be hidden in his palm - how things have changed!
When our prisoners came home I remember one guy getting down on his knees and kiss the ground. I remember how skinny they all were. And I don't even have to mention the name of the war because you all know what I"m talking about.
And I remember when Reagan was elected we all thought he had his finger on "the button!"
The first news story I remember was the hostages being released from Iran. I remember the yellow ribbons and seeing them walk down the stairs from the plane. We used to watch the news EVERY NIGHT without fail; when Peter Jennings died I felt like it was someone I knew.
When I was in the USAF, I was sitting at a table with someone who didn't remember when the Challenger exploded. He was seventeen (he went in the military with his parent's permission when he graduated from HS and was turning 18 in a couple of months). I was only about 27, but I felt as though I was about 87 when I realized he was born in 1983!
I wrote to Ronald Reagan when he was shot and I still have the card I was sent in reply. I thought I was hot stuff when the hand-addressed envelope with the simple return address "THE WHITE HOUSE" came in the mail to ME. I was seven years old at the time. And yes, writing him was my idea; I was all worried because they were saying he was seriously hurt and all I could think about was my parents talking about JFK. So I wrote him, telling him I hoped he felt better soon and that we were praying for him in Sunday School. Of course I got back a prewritten card, but even now I'm impressed by the handwritten envelope and just the fact that I actually got a reply. I always felt connected to Ronald Reagan as a result - I remember having tears in my eyes when he issued his famous challenge to Gorbechev at the Berlin Wall (I'm a big patriotic sap anyway; always have been) and I cried when I watched his funeral.
Our TV had two knobs, picked up a whopping SIX channels on a good day (which was ironically usually when the weather was bad!) but generally just four (which included public TV) and my father used to go out and manually turn the big antenna when a storm would make it move and screw up the reception. DH and I were watching "Awakenings" when he was home last week and it showed Robin Williams adjusting the vertical hold - REMEMBER HOW ANNOYING IT WAS WHEN YOU COULDN'T MAKE THE BLESSED PICTURE STOP FLIPPING???? Or when the picture would clear up if you TOUCHED the antenna, but fuzz back up when you walked away - and it always did that with just a few minutes left in the program, so SOMEONE had to stand there and hold the antenna? I remember the National Anthem playing too! (And Friday Night Videos!)
You used to get stuff REPAIRED, you didn't replace it when it broke. I remember getting new tubes for the old Quasar TV. (I LOVED that TV.)
I was eight years old before we got a car with air conditioning. And it was literally a critical spending decision - even though the car payment was WAY less than $200 a month and the loan was for two or three years. (When I was just under 13 we got a 42 month car loan; I thought my father was going to have a heart attack. I know how old I was because the car was four months away from being paid for when I wrecked it at 16 - LOL! - fortunately it wasn't my fault!)
I remember when the big Christmas gift was Pong (we couldn't afford the real thing, though, so we had a Sears knockoff) and a 13" black and white TV. We have pictures from the Christmas we got the Pong console - you can see it in the background with the B/W TV! My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20 and you saved data onto cassette tapes. Video games now just blow me away.
Our first microwave was so big it took up a whole table top - remember "microwave tables"? And our first VCR cost more than the last set of tires I put on my car! (In fact, I remember RENTING a VCR before we could finally afford one!) NO ONE but Daddy was allowed to touch the VCR and we were in AWE of the thing.
Come to think of it, microwaves and VCRs were practically STATUS SYMBOLS. Uh, Beta, anyone?
The fact that my DH can call me from Qatar on a CELL PHONE and I can talk to him on MY cell phone boggles my mind if I think about it. I remember when long-distance calls to Germany (my brother was stationed there) sounded like you were speaking into one of those phones you used to make as a kid with a string and two cans! And they were UNBELIEVABLY expensive; you only called if someone was practically on life support! (Of course, this was prior to Ma Bell breaking up and telephone deregulation - back when, yes, kids, there was ONE TELEPHONE PROVIDER - BELL TELEPHONE...does anyone else see where phone call prices are heading with AT&T buying back another phone company - isn't it BELL SOUTH they're buying??) Now I call my in-laws in England for seven cents a minute and it's like they're right across the street.
I remember Braniff and People Express and Eastern Airlines and flying before deregulation - back when a plane ticket to Europe cost two grand and it was cheaper to drive to California than fly.
Saturday Night Live was funny, Johnny Carson was king, and "Cagney and Lacey" came on at 10 pm because it was considered "violent". I was just thrilled it came on on a weekend so I could stay up to watch it. I was probably about ten years old.
I remember the first season cliffhanger - yes, I was allowed to watch "Dallas" and my mom and I were addicted, even though I was about eight years old! - and how EVERYONE was talking about who REALLY shot JR (it was Kristin!), even the kids I went to school with!
Remember Apple IIe computers? And how COOL it was when you got to play with one in the library at school? I remember my teacher saying that they were VERY expensive - that they cost $1500 and we had to be VERY careful. (Of course, $1500 was more than my sister's entire first year at UNC cost in 1981. It still blows my mind that she had student loans!)
How about little kids' clothes - Garanimals, anyone? That's going WAY back. I remember running around the department matching up purple monkeys and blue elephants - you could tell what matched by matching the tags up!
THIS IS SUCH A FUN THREAD!!!! Sorry so long - I got carried away in the nostalgia!!
Oh my!! My father in law worked for a company in the mid 80's and they supplied everyone with cell phones...just like that one! My dh used to think he was so cool carrying it around :rotfl:
Now his phone can be hidden in his palm - how things have changed!
Remember when you didn't OWN a phone - you RENTED it from the phone company? So if it broke they'd have to fix it?
And if you had an extension in your room, you were cool, but if you had YOUR OWN NUMBER, you were considered INSANELY WEALTHY???
For 5 years, I worked at a computer rental company. We rented 'em cuz hardly anyone could afford to own one. There were no laptops, so business people coming into town brought their software and rented a computer from us. We would deliver it to their hotel!
I'm only 22 and that makes me feel old!!! Mork and Mindy was my fav show when i was little, i used to play with the tape in cassettes, we still cook popcorn on the stove and i remember orificenal hall on late night tv.
.thumb.gif.55aeaafdb61768ab641b1fab52f42961.gif){kind=avatar}
.thumb.gif.09f7460d3e1ff8d6732564d77b5465cb.gif){kind=avatar}
LanaBanana
1,007 Posts
I had a cell phone (actually then we called it a car phone) my junior year in high school when they were pretty new. But I had a drive an hour each way for music lessons twice a week and my parents wanted it for me. It was a bag phone and most of the time it was actully kept in the trunk because we only got something like 30 minutes per month on it! Can you imagine on 30 minutes! It was probably 10x10 or 12x12 and had to be plugged in to the cigarette-lighter. I thought it was so cool when my dad got a cordless cellphone the next year!
I'll be 28 in a week and although that's not old to a lot of you, when I was doing the MA program last year my teacher made us all practice typing on a typewriter one day because a lot of them had never used one. At least my typing class was still done on typewriters!