I'm a 30-something, and havent experienced much more than the general membership here, I'm sure, but I get the most amazing "stop and think about this for a second...." moments when I consider how much our world has changed over the lives of us all.
For me - I've lived without a cell phone. I was in high school when people who had pagers were considered to be drug dealers. I grew up with Oregon Trail in my teens. Most people didn't have computers at home. The mountain I lived on didn't have cable TV, so we had only 3 channels. Our roads weren't paved, and Saturday afternoons were spent jumping into the river swinging off vines. Call waiting and caller ID were a really big deal, but we didn't get them because they cost more money.
My grandma tells me they didn't have wheelchairs. She was a nurse in her white cap and skirt and tights. She had an alcoholic, abusive husband at a time when that was shameful to even mention. My grandpa tells me no one on his street had a TV. It was a really big deal when someone got one, and everyone whispered about it.
My 90-something patient told me about how so much of healthcare took place at home because you really, really had to be messed up for mom to go get the horses and carriage ready to go to the doctor. She got in big trouble once when she broke her arm falling from a tree.
What have you lived through? What pieces of history stay with you?
I remember as a little girl when our (rotary) home phone was cut off for six months because my brother had spent several weeks late night calling a girl who lived in the next town. The phone bill was over $600. Ma Bell (AT&T) raped Americans for millions of bogus long distance charges for decades... before their monopoly was finally broken up.
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
Oh, m'gosh, TEEN BEAT magazine! There were several of that ilk I used to buy, but I was out of the market by the time Leif Garrett was popular.
Marlin Perkins on Mutual Of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, YES! The Walt Disney Show, and Movie of the Week; Ed Sullivan, Red Skelton, Carol Burnett!
First TV show I ever saw in color was Sonny and Cher; their background colors shifted and changed all the time, all through the show; it was spell-binding.
Remember when camcorders were the size of suitcases?
I bought one of those used from a nurse I worked with when I was a CNA. She had left a not ready for prime time home movie in the cassette slot...I didn't watch as soon as I realized what it was and who the stars of the show were, but I did get an interesting view of her husband who I had never met before I realized she was in the movie too. I'm not sure who was more embarrassed when I asked her if she wanted that tape back.
I bought one of those used from a nurse I worked with when I was a CNA. She had left a not ready for prime time home movie in the cassette slot...I didn't watch as soon as I realized what it was and who the stars of the show were, but I did get an interesting view of her husband who I had never met before I realized she was in the movie too. I'm not sure who was more embarrassed when I asked her if she wanted that tape back.
As a sophomore in high school, I was mesmerized by the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan controversy surrounding the 1994 Winter Olympics. I remember the disbelief I felt when Tonya Harding admitted to having knowledge about the attack on Nancy Kerrigan. That real-life soap opera kept me glued to the news for months!
Forget Farrah Fawcett & Dorothy Hamill - I go back to the 'beehive' styles of the 60's. And the heavy black raccoon-eye eyeliner.
Remember 1985 "We are the World" US for Africa charity group sing-a-long with Michael Jacksons, Bruce Springsteen, Huey Lewis, Lionel Ritchie, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper, Ray Charles, and many, many more.
And the Coca-Cola TV Christmas song "I'd like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony ..."
There was also 1993 Waco, Texas tragic standoff between the Branch Davidians and the FBI.
The other tragedy in Guyana where they all drank the koolade.
Enough tragedies, remember the old way to view family movies from reels on the white movie screen ... with homemade popcorn.
Why am I stuck on tragedies? Thinking of the thalidomide babies and the DES pregnancies.
The tragedies stick with us don't they? The Challenger, the biggest of bad news days...9/11, Waco, Columbine, Rodney King, The Boston Marathon, Oklahoma bombing, etc, etc. Remember when nobody said "going postal'? These are fairly recent in the history of time, but the news stories still stick in the mind.
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
Beehives! Oh, amoLucia! I remember that those with beehives went to the hair-dresser once a week when they would have it taken down and combed out, washed, curled, dried, and the have the beejeebers teased out of it, smoothed over, sprayed to within an inch of their lives.It took about two hours to do.......
My sister had a room-mate in college who could go out in a stiff wind and her hair actually DID NOT MOVE!
Remember 'flip' hair-do's and those awful clip-on bows for your hair, a la Rose Marie on The Dick Van Dyke Show?
Does anybody remember SPOOLIES? Pink rubber curlers that resembled little martini glasses and could curl your hair like pincurls, but without the bobby-pin creases?
Or the pink hair-tape? My friend in nursing school used to wind that tape around her hair after a shower, the idea being it would encourage your hair to dry straight instead of curling up. Some just used it on their bangs.
My first concert was in 1984, Michael Jackson and we had 5th row seats. Geri curls were in then too, and of course everyone tried to copy the Moonwalk.
MTV and music videos. The first videos are so cheesy now compared to how they've evolved!
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
Concerts I've been to: Beatles (tenth row, EXTREME left of center stage), Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger was about half-an-inch tall), Gerry and the Pacemakers, Maria Muldaur with Jim Kweskin's Jug Band, John Hartford (close up! no stage), The Lovin Spoonful (front row), and Frank Zappa and The Mother's Of Invention.
ellieheart
35 Posts
I remember as a little girl when our (rotary) home phone was cut off for six months because my brother had spent several weeks late night calling a girl who lived in the next town. The phone bill was over $600. Ma Bell (AT&T) raped Americans for millions of bogus long distance charges for decades... before their monopoly was finally broken up.