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?
You guys are all way to young! I remember seeing Sean Connery/James Bond movies as a teenager. NO ONE will ever be as cool as him!
My best friend had a record of music from the movies...."Music to Read James Bond By" I think it was called? The theme song is running through my head right now, along with Goldfinger.
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
Little Golden Books!
Scuffy the Tugboat? Great Grandpa Bunny Bunny? The Poky Little Puppy? The Saggy Baggy Elephant?
*The Little Boy with the Big Horn
( a kid practicing his tuba in a row boat way out on the ocean so he wouldn't disturb the neighbors; the song was 'Many a brave heart is asleep in the deep, so beware, BEWARE, BEWARE......the tuba tones going lower and lower with each "Beware"...)
*Mrs. Ticklefeather and Her Puffin Bird Paul (They lived in a penthouse; Paul went missing and was found and returned by a policeman)
*The Kitten Who Thought He Was A Mouse (I still have this one and the illustrations are adorable and sweet!)
*Mt. Bear Squash-You-All-Flat (A collector's item; rare! WISH I had a copy!)
--I remember being so sheltered that when we first saw Boy George on MTV, it was a days long debate over whether it was a man or a woman!
--Hall and Oates...my first musical love. I remember laying in front of my TV where the stereo was, with the gigantic headphones on, listening to Hall and Oates albums over and over and over.
--Air Supply! No middle school dance was complete without some Air Supply!
--Twist-a-beads and Add-a-beads!
--Obsession for girls and Polo for the guys
--mini skirts and leg warmers
--Sweet Valley High books (also loved the Cheerleaders series...)
--friendship pins (beads added to safety pins that we would all trade).
--scratch and sniff stickers
--Marathon Bars!
--gum cigarettes that actually "smoked" when you blew on them.
--those candies that came in little plastic containers shaped like garbage cans or coffins, with correspondingly shaped candy inside.
--big level haircuts....parted down the middle and feathered back on the sides!
--Designer jeans....Jordache, Gloria Vanderbuilt, Calvin Klein
--Being spotted at K Mart was worse than death!
--being put on hold by friends with 2 way and falling asleep waiting for them to come back
--Arcades...Pac Man, Qbert, Frogger, etc.
--Dolphin and Dove shorts (California in the 70's!)
Remember good 'ol scavenger hunts that were a part of most parties in the late 70's and early 80's? You'd break up into teams with a list and go house to house collecting items! First team back with all the items won! (Can't imagine sending my kids out to do that now!)
Real Coke (I loved that stuff when I was about 8 and am still sad it didn't make it!)
Being so excited when my parents got a waterbed!
Rubik's Cube
Laff-A-Lympics on HBO
American Bandstand
Wanting to be a Solid Gold dancer when I grew up
Fame!
Mork and Mindy
Watching a show called Emergency! with my dad every week
Getting our first VCR which also had our first remote which was attached with a long cord. I could just picture myself, legs crossed, pushing buttons from the couch...living the easy life.
Tato Skins chips
Fixing my giant hair for high school and finishing it off with a bottle of Rave
I think at one point every member of my family had a water bed! Our cats would always jump on them and poke holes with their claws. We invested in a lot of patch kits!
I also remember going into Dillard's at the mall and gazing longingly at the Swatches! I don't think I ever actually got a Swatch, but I did get a Guess version that was like a Swatch, which I loved.
Farawyn
12,646 Posts
Head shops.
(I think they're making a come back.)