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?
Specializes in Peds Urology,primary care, hem/onc.
I LOVE this thread!
I was born in 1976.
1) we did not have cable until I was in middle school. Even then I was only allowed to watch Saturday morning cartoons, Disney channel, Nickelodean and "Little House on the Prairie".
NO MTV or HBO even though we had it.
2) I remember our first VCR (it was VHS, I do remember Beta too). Our first movie my mom bought was Gone with the Wind (I have no idea why).
3) I remember seeing ET in the movie theater
4) Acid wash jeans, those slouchy socks, jelly shoes (had em in all colors), members only jackets, jelly bracelets
5) In the 90's I was total grunge with the flannel shirts and the Doc Martin boots
6) I had an Atari, never had a Nitendo (parents would not let me) but I used to go over to my friend's house and play Mario Brother's all the time
7) I remember the VCR that had the remote attached to a long cord.
8) I loved my Babsitters Club books, Sweet Valley teen (My mom would not let me get SV High for some reason), Judy Blume books. Was never a fan of Nancy Drew although I did get a couple of books for a present. I had Teen Magazine (could not get Seventeen for some reason)
9) My parents had car phones that were attached to the car. My first cell phone was when I graduated college.
10) We had the station wagon with the third row seat that faced backwards.
11) Tragedies:
I had the day off from school the day of the Challenger Explosion (not sure why). My grandfather took me out for breakfast and as we were walking back up to the house my mom was yelling through the window that it had exploded. We watched it on TV all afternoon.
I remember the start of the Gulf War. We had a dear family friend who was like my big brother who was in the Air Force and over in Saudi Arabia. I remember watching all of the anti-aircraft fire video you saw on TV and was worried they were shooting at his plane. (they weren't and he came home safely).
9/11- We were on Vacation in Florida literally a mile down the road where president Bush was staying. We were all excited about him being so close and there was tons of secret service up and down the beach days before he arrived. I walked into the living room in the condo we were renting and my Mom was sitting there staring at the TV white as a ghost. It was just after the second plane hit the WTC and she had seen it happen live on TV. We were glued to the TV for days. I watch the towers fall live on TV. We then left early from our vacation due to a hurricane coming. We had to "hijack" the rental car and drive home b/c there were no planes flying. When we dropped the car off at the Airport close to my parents house, they had just reopened the air space so we saw the first planes taking off as we were leaving. I remember asking the same family friend who was in the Gulf War (he was in the AF reserves at that point) if he was going to get called up and he initially said no. A week after 9/11, he called me at work to tell me he was called up and was leaving in an hour (his wife barely got to the airport to say goodbye) and he could not tell me where he was going but it was not stateside. It was terrifying (he ended up being fine and was on a base in Europe somewhere but he could not tell us until later). I remember going to NYC that December and the plane flying right over Ground Zero. My parents went down to Ground Zero that trip but I just could not do it. We did visit some of the firehouses and police stations to thank them.
TWA Flight 800- this was the plan the blew up over Long Island in 1996 just prior to the Olympic in Atlanta. At the time, they thought it was terrorism. (it wasn't). One of my friends from HS was on the flight and I heard about it on the NBC nightly news. Word had not spread yet that she was on the plane and her family had moved to FL so they were interveiwing this family from FL who lost their daughter on the flight and then they flashed her yearbook picture and I lost it. My mom heard me hysterical and came rushing in my room and by that point the interview was over and it took me forever to compose myself to tell her what happened.
When I graduated college in 1998 and starting working my first nursing job in Atlanta, gas was 69 cents a gallon. Could fill up my SUV for less than $20. My starting pay (as a BSN) was $14.10 an hour.
I remember glass IV bottles, Glass Chest tube drainage bottles (before pleurovacs), croup tents, Q1 hour glucose checks when on TPN, drawing the fluid out of a procardia tablet and knowing how much to give for a certain dose. I remember learning how to do drip rates.
I had the requisite pin curl perm in middle school, the "Brenda Walsh bangs" and all the hairspray. I had the banana clips and the t-shirt clips to pull your t-shirt to the side. I cuffed my pants/jeans really tight.
I remember you paid by the minute for long distance (no phone plans that included that, no vonage etc).
I remember taping the Top 40 countdown on the radio. Later on remembered burning CD's to make mixes (prior to that you made mix tapes). I remember when you bought digital music online illegally (no other way to get it, no Itunes/Google Music).
We had a laser disc player that the discs were as large as a record.
I remember the fall of the Berlin Wall and Tienamen Square. I remember when Reagan was shot.
Loved Bon Jovi and U2 (still do). Remember My mom buying Michael's Jackson's Thriller Album and my Dad loved the song "Manic Monday".
I was only allowed to pretty much cartoons on Saturday and then I had to go out and play. Played all day until it started getting dark (no street lights where I lived). My friends and I were out by ourselves. We were disciplined by the neighbors when we needed it. My Mom would stand on the front porch and yell "DINNER!!!" and I would come running. No helmets when riding bikes/skate boards.
I had dial up internet in college and all 4 of us in our house had to decide use the internet/talk on the phone. I remember compuserve and AOL and chat rooms. I did the chat rooms when I was in HS (with no supervision from my parents as the computer was in the basement) and we had NO idea how dangerous it could be.
I remember when we got call waiting and thought it was such a cool thing.
I had the clear plastic phone that showed all the insides of the phone and I thought it was cool.
I remember when MTV was all music videos and thought VH1 was a poor second.
Thought my Dad's pager (he was an MD) was cool. Had no idea the thought it was only for drug dealers until I got to high school/college.
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
This PSA from the 60s scared me to death when I was a little kid. I used to go to my grandparents and bawl "I don't want you to be like Johnny Smoke!" My grandmother told my mother if I didn't stop doing that I wouldn't be allowed to visit. LOL...I think she was exasperated.
This thread is great. I'm really enjoying reading about all the things people remember.
I was born in the late 80s. Some things I remember:
Saturday morning cartoons, then playing outside with my brother and friends. We'd go home for lunch, then go back out and play. We knew not to go too far from home, and had to be home by the time it started getting dark.
On school days, I'd change out of my uniform, do my homework, then spend a couple of hours reading. I loved, and still do love, reading. I still played with friends, but was always a shy, quiet child who preferred to be alone. I began spending much more time inside and alone reading books.
TGIF - shows like "Boy Meets World", "Step by Step", and "Sabrina the Teenage Witch"
Nickelodeon and all of it's awesome shows like All That, Rocko's Modern Life, Rugrats, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Are You Afraid of the Dark?, Roundhouse, Ren & Stimpy, and so many others. I remember watching SNICK on Saturday nights.
Baby Sitters Club books
Goosebumps books
Lisa Frank products (all the colors!)
Cigarette vending machines. There was a little store down the street from my house that had one. The store had a small group of regular customers that would hang out and talk, listen to music, drink a few beers, and watch sports (Kinda like a bar, but not really. Minors were allowed inside.). I remember going there with my dad. He'd give me money and send me to the machine to get his cigarettes, then send me over to the cooler to get a bottle of beer for him and a bottle of Barq's root beer for me. While he talked to his friends, he'd give me money to play music on the jukebox and to play the pinball machine, then he'd walk me back home to hang out with my mom when I got bored.
The smell of the purple ink from the ditto machine
I remember answering machines with the tiny little cassette tapes. I also remember when my parents got caller ID. It was a little box that was separate from the phone.
Oregon Trail - You have died of dysentery.
Giga Pets
The Box - a TV channel that you were able to call and request music videos for a fee (I think it was 1.99 per request)
MTV still played music.
Nintendo. I remember blowing in the cartridges, which really didn't do anything, but we thought it did. I loved Super Mario.
Not having a cell phone. I remember my mom getting cell phone when I was in middle school. It was one of the ones that flipped open at the bottom. I didn't get a cell phone until I was about 19. I'm still not all that into cell phones and only have one for when I'm out and need to contact someone. I can't stand when people are constantly talking on their cell phones or so into texting that they can't even look up when crossing the street. Put the phone down and enjoy whatever it is that you're out doing.
Specializes in Peds Urology,primary care, hem/onc.
Remember how the camcorders had those mini tapes and you needed a separate cassette that they went into to play it on your VCR? If you lost that cassette, which we did, you were SOL!
Remember how the camcorders had those mini tapes and you needed a separate cassette that they went into to play it on your VCR? If you lost that cassette, which we did, you were SOL!
@ No Stars In My Eyes, approximately what year was it when you, as a child, bought cigarettes? That is incredible! I would genuinely like to know!:)
I had a similar situation. It was 1987/88. A friend's mom asked her and me to go the store and get cigarettes for her (we were 8 and 10). They refused to sell them to us and her mom sent us back with a note asking that they sell them to us for her and they did.
I had a similar situation. It was 1987/88. A friend's mom asked her and me to go the store and get cigarettes for her (we were 8 and 10). They refused to sell them to us and her mom sent us back with a note asking that they sell them to us for her and they did.
I did the same thing around 1983/84. I hated doing it but my mom bribed me with candy bars.
Well, I hated stinking like a cigar all the time and worrying my mom would get cancer, and she very cruelly informed me she didn't care. I was 8. But that's toxic crap for another thread I guess.
Chia pets are still around. I think because it's a gag gift item.
Yep, I actually bought a chia pet mouse that grows catnip for my cat for Christmas. It's still in the box though, so I have no clue yet if it will actually grow anything. I kind of forgot about it until now, so thanks for reminding me!
rnsrgr8t
395 Posts
I LOVE this thread!
I was born in 1976.
1) we did not have cable until I was in middle school. Even then I was only allowed to watch Saturday morning cartoons, Disney channel, Nickelodean and "Little House on the Prairie".
NO MTV or HBO even though we had it.
2) I remember our first VCR (it was VHS, I do remember Beta too). Our first movie my mom bought was Gone with the Wind (I have no idea why).
3) I remember seeing ET in the movie theater
4) Acid wash jeans, those slouchy socks, jelly shoes (had em in all colors), members only jackets, jelly bracelets
5) In the 90's I was total grunge with the flannel shirts and the Doc Martin boots
6) I had an Atari, never had a Nitendo (parents would not let me) but I used to go over to my friend's house and play Mario Brother's all the time
7) I remember the VCR that had the remote attached to a long cord.
8) I loved my Babsitters Club books, Sweet Valley teen (My mom would not let me get SV High for some reason), Judy Blume books. Was never a fan of Nancy Drew although I did get a couple of books for a present. I had Teen Magazine (could not get Seventeen for some reason)
9) My parents had car phones that were attached to the car. My first cell phone was when I graduated college.
10) We had the station wagon with the third row seat that faced backwards.
11) Tragedies:
I had the day off from school the day of the Challenger Explosion (not sure why). My grandfather took me out for breakfast and as we were walking back up to the house my mom was yelling through the window that it had exploded. We watched it on TV all afternoon.
I remember the start of the Gulf War. We had a dear family friend who was like my big brother who was in the Air Force and over in Saudi Arabia. I remember watching all of the anti-aircraft fire video you saw on TV and was worried they were shooting at his plane. (they weren't and he came home safely).
9/11- We were on Vacation in Florida literally a mile down the road where president Bush was staying. We were all excited about him being so close and there was tons of secret service up and down the beach days before he arrived. I walked into the living room in the condo we were renting and my Mom was sitting there staring at the TV white as a ghost. It was just after the second plane hit the WTC and she had seen it happen live on TV. We were glued to the TV for days. I watch the towers fall live on TV. We then left early from our vacation due to a hurricane coming. We had to "hijack" the rental car and drive home b/c there were no planes flying. When we dropped the car off at the Airport close to my parents house, they had just reopened the air space so we saw the first planes taking off as we were leaving. I remember asking the same family friend who was in the Gulf War (he was in the AF reserves at that point) if he was going to get called up and he initially said no. A week after 9/11, he called me at work to tell me he was called up and was leaving in an hour (his wife barely got to the airport to say goodbye) and he could not tell me where he was going but it was not stateside. It was terrifying (he ended up being fine and was on a base in Europe somewhere but he could not tell us until later). I remember going to NYC that December and the plane flying right over Ground Zero. My parents went down to Ground Zero that trip but I just could not do it. We did visit some of the firehouses and police stations to thank them.
TWA Flight 800- this was the plan the blew up over Long Island in 1996 just prior to the Olympic in Atlanta. At the time, they thought it was terrorism. (it wasn't). One of my friends from HS was on the flight and I heard about it on the NBC nightly news. Word had not spread yet that she was on the plane and her family had moved to FL so they were interveiwing this family from FL who lost their daughter on the flight and then they flashed her yearbook picture and I lost it. My mom heard me hysterical and came rushing in my room and by that point the interview was over and it took me forever to compose myself to tell her what happened.
When I graduated college in 1998 and starting working my first nursing job in Atlanta, gas was 69 cents a gallon. Could fill up my SUV for less than $20. My starting pay (as a BSN) was $14.10 an hour.
I remember glass IV bottles, Glass Chest tube drainage bottles (before pleurovacs), croup tents, Q1 hour glucose checks when on TPN, drawing the fluid out of a procardia tablet and knowing how much to give for a certain dose. I remember learning how to do drip rates.
I had the requisite pin curl perm in middle school, the "Brenda Walsh bangs" and all the hairspray. I had the banana clips and the t-shirt clips to pull your t-shirt to the side. I cuffed my pants/jeans really tight.
I remember you paid by the minute for long distance (no phone plans that included that, no vonage etc).
I remember taping the Top 40 countdown on the radio. Later on remembered burning CD's to make mixes (prior to that you made mix tapes). I remember when you bought digital music online illegally (no other way to get it, no Itunes/Google Music).
We had a laser disc player that the discs were as large as a record.
I remember the fall of the Berlin Wall and Tienamen Square. I remember when Reagan was shot.
Loved Bon Jovi and U2 (still do). Remember My mom buying Michael's Jackson's Thriller Album and my Dad loved the song "Manic Monday".
I was only allowed to pretty much cartoons on Saturday and then I had to go out and play. Played all day until it started getting dark (no street lights where I lived). My friends and I were out by ourselves. We were disciplined by the neighbors when we needed it. My Mom would stand on the front porch and yell "DINNER!!!" and I would come running. No helmets when riding bikes/skate boards.
I had dial up internet in college and all 4 of us in our house had to decide use the internet/talk on the phone. I remember compuserve and AOL and chat rooms. I did the chat rooms when I was in HS (with no supervision from my parents as the computer was in the basement) and we had NO idea how dangerous it could be.
I remember when we got call waiting and thought it was such a cool thing.
I had the clear plastic phone that showed all the insides of the phone and I thought it was cool.
I remember when MTV was all music videos and thought VH1 was a poor second.
Thought my Dad's pager (he was an MD) was cool. Had no idea the thought it was only for drug dealers until I got to high school/college.