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?
@ 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 remember going to the corner store for my mom and getting her cigarettes. I was in 5th grade so it was around 1979. Same store with same owners (who had known me since I was 10) a few years later (I was now a pre-teen to early teen) wouldn't sell them to me without a note from mom. It was around age 14 or 15 that they wouldn't sell them to me with or without a note.
I was in high school from 1983-1987. Smoking age was 16. We had a student 'smoking area' IN the school courtyard as well as outside by the cafeteria doors. We were able to go to the smoking area between each class and during lunches.
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
China Beach. I loved McMurphy. Didn't anyone watch China Beach?
Oh..and in the late 60s early 70s there was a show about a black nurse named Julia. I had Julia Colorforms.
I watched "China Beach." I was in my first nursing job when that series started; I wanted o much to be like "McMurphy." I remember the show "Julia" as well.
I graduated nursing school in 1985, so pretty much everything you posted is what I remember.
Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
I remember the Beatles and their breakup.
I remember my brother showing me where his number was on the draft list in the newspaper, and it being so far down he wasn't going to have to go to Viet Nam. I remember the college riots. I especially remember our POWs coming home, and how disgracefully our nation treated the returning soldiers.
-getting a black and white TV so we could watch the first moon landing. And later finding out that the Star Trek uniforms were color coded, and Johnny Carson's stage curtains had striped colors!
-learning to drive my dad's Jetstar 88Oldsmobile, which he measured and told me many years later, was actually an inch longer than his Ford 150 pickup truck in the 80s.
-wearing white polyester pant suit uniforms, with heavy white nursing shoes. I made the long neck lanyards that we attached the narc keys to, because they kept getting lost in people's pockets and going home with someone. Using black ink for days, blue for evenings and red for night shift charting.
WoW!!! Does time fly!!! My first experience learning how to drive was with a car my brother had souped up and the shift was on the steering wheel, you could tell what part of the town a person lived by their 5-digit telephone number, we got one local channel, no cable at that time, we stayed out until the "street light comes on" then had to be in the house. Our bikes were spider bikes and that was how we got around. When I was in nurses training we wore our caps all the time and there were special "nurses shoes" that had shank supports. We used our bare hands to start IV's which we did in nursing school!! Universal precautions did not come into effect until after AIDS was identified. I happened to be home the day of 9/11 and remember seeing the second tower flown into by the plane and feeling this overwhelming sense of loss.
Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.
oh gosh, now you are going to hear from an oldie:
I remember when hospitals did not have emergency rooms. In case of emergency, go to MD office.
I remember my grnadmother nurse getting trouble for wearing a stethescope (did she think she was a doctor?)
I remember getting under my school desk for nuclear war drills
I remember when we got a TV. All black and white shows, all live, and the networks (3) were off by 9 pm.
By the time I was in high school I had a transistor radio to hang from my car rear-view mirror. Growing up in Memphis, that meant I got to hear Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and others doing live shows.
I remember when people sat around in the evening and talked to each other.
I remember lying in the summer clover at night to watch Sputnik rotate the Earth.
Cars had two keys, one for the door and one for the trunk.
Nuff for now-----
All of the above, except my transistor radio was just a tad larger than a pack of cigts, and had a one-piece earphone; the sound quality was absolutely of the tinniest,scratchiest, hissiest quality, but none of that mattered! It was a miracle to have a small, portable radio!
Saturday morning cartoons starting very early in the morning. No sleeping in or you'd miss them until the next week.
The youngest in the house was the 'remote control'.
the knob breaking on the tv meant a pair of plyers were the way you changed the channel.
This new thing that you could watch movies 24/7! They called it HBO (I was in grade school).
The Charles Chip guy coming weekly..loved the chips!!
The Fuller brush and Avon lady coming to the door.
Going to school, coming home and doing homework as fast as possible to go outside and play. Playing until dinner and right back out afterward.
Being grounded was not being able to go out and play (worst punishment ever!!)
Rotary dial (and always wondering what the # and * buttons were for, at that time they didn't do anything) phones with cords. We had a HUGE one that me and my sister stretched out so bad you could go into almost any room in the house with the receiver! LOL
When 'push' button phones came out.
When Total Phone started (thats what we called it..it was call waiting and 3 way calling). Ohh I was in heaven!
When answering machines were beginning to be used in private homes.
bicycle with banana seats
Fridays were pizza and soda night. We never had soda in the house except on pizza night. (i still don't like or drink soda)
Beepers/pagers. Only drug dealers had them, then 'average' Joes did.
Bag car phones
Dial up you paid for in hours. X amout of hours per month was X amout of dollars.
Typing class in high school, as well as stenography class (I can still do it), home ec was another class.
The central computer for our class took up 3/4 of the room.
DOS
Roller skating Friday or Saturday nights
When disco was cool..and when disco died
my first concert..8th grade, Neil Young
This 'outrageous' and 'slutty' new performer...and her 'Like a Virgin' song that caused contraversy..world..meet Madonna
When Michael Jackson had a nose and skin color and when he was just slightly different, not out there odd!
The Shaun and David Cassidy debate..who was cuter. Then--I thought Shaun..now--looking back David!
When gloves were unheard of doing patient care. Never, ever wore them. Even after AIDS made its appearance it was rare to worry about gloves..then univeral precautions
Nurses in all white, white stockings, white shoes, white sweater and caps.
AC, power windows...all unheard of in cars. The high beam for your headlights was a nob on the floor by the brake (very difficult for this 4ft 11in person to use )
cars had keys! imagine that. Some had 2 or 3. One was for the ignition, one for the doors, trunk and glovebox.
walking everywhere. Miles and miles just because.
Microwaves were as big as mini-refrigerators
33's and 45's, 8 track tapes.
smoking in hospitals, grocery stores, eating establishments...everywhere.
having to do research in the library and using encyclopedias (dewey decimal I hate you)
you didn't just answer to your parents...everyone's parents kept an eye on every kid.
being respectful of parents, elders, people of authority. No back talking or sassing them. You did what you were told when you were told to do it.
when my town got its first fast food joint..McDonalds..my sophmore year of high school
snow days off from school were unheard of.
drinking age was 18.
Watching the Challenger explode on live TV. (My mom saw it in person..she was wreck). One of my high school science teachers was in the running to be the teacher on the Challenger. And watching his face as the explosion happened.
The gas shortage
Swanson frozen TV dinners in metal trays
Watching mutual of omaha on Sunday evenings, came on right befor the Disney movie of the week.
When you were the 'odd' one because you came from a single parent home. (my dad passed right before i started kindergarten, so my mom was a widow at a very early age and never remarried). Single parent homes (in my area) were almost unheard of, regardless of why it was a single parent home. Times changed..when my daughters friends realized her mom and dad lived in the same house and actually got along and loved each other... :)
being a latchkey did and no one thinking twice about it.
not everyone got a trophy, no one was a special snowflake...you didn't get rewarded just because you showed up. If you put in no effort, you got nothing. Did your very best..didn't always mean you would get something for it.
fearing the note or call from the teacher. Ohhh what was mom going to do?!
When a school mate got pregnant in high school and she was NOT allowed to be in school. She had to be home schooled until the baby was born. Baby was at our high school graduation...ohh the stares and the sideways looks.
when TV was a way to escape reality..not filled with all scripted 'reality' shows.
I remember the principal coming to my first grade class and telling us that the President had been shot. We were all sent home, my neighbor picked us up from school. My mother was weeding the front yard and I think crying. I ran and told her that the President was dead.
I remember going to the doctor's for a check up and seeing the hypodermic needles soaking in rubbing alcohol in a glass container. The syringes were made of glass and reused.
I remember when people started getting color TVs in the late 60s
I remember when the Beatles came to America the first time. My family subscribed to LOOK magazine and they were on the cover, I was very young and wondered who those strange looking men were with long hair.
I remember seeing news clips of the Vietnam war on TV every night. And there were protests. My parents were against the war.
Every year the Wizard of Oz would be shown on TV, something we looked forward to. When we finally got a color TV in 1970 I found out that, once Dorothy landed in Oz, the movie was in color!
I remember my favorite cartoon was Underdog and favorite song Seasons in the Sun, riding my bike for hours on end, rollerskating at the local rink every weekend. I would space out to the music and strobe lights and have so much fun. My favorite TV shows included Lost in Space ...Danger Will Robinson, Land of the Lost, I Dream of Jeannie and Bewitched. Then Friday fright night with pizza and pepsi.
Listening to music on an 8 Track like Abba Dancing Queen, Rocky Mountain High by John Denver, and listening to the Carpenters before Karen Carpenter died from extreme dieting.
Remember my Aunt had a party phone line in the country on the farm, where other people could listen in! Crazy! Also bailing hay at harvest time and how my country cousins were so strong they could throw the bales across the hay loft in the barn when I could barely lift them!
Remember Christmas at my grandma with the Christmas tree covered in tinsel, big colored Christmas lights, my Grandpa dressed as Santa with a horse and sleigh and jingle bells.
My grandma would sleep on the pull out couch when she came to visit and we would stay up late watching scary movies Friday night.
We had no cell phones or computers when I was a teen. Instead had typewriters and any mistakes would need white out correction liquid to fix! Remember carbon copies and shorthand in my secretarial training program. Enjoyed shorthand was supposed to be a secret language to use with my friend but she dropped out of shorthand before we could use it.
Would get sent to the "cube" for sneaking out of school and going across the street to get a Pepsi because soda was not allowed and there were no vending machines. Would make a party out of it, bringing in snacks and sharing it with everyone else in the same boat! We must have driven the teachers crazy with our antics!
Remember working at an insurance company out of high school with a chain smoker clerk who always had a cigarette lit, back when smoking was allowed in the workplace! Glad I quit after two years before I was harmed by all the smoke! Wonder when it was finally outlawed!
Remember the nursing boards was a full two day affair with pencil and paper. Spent the first night up all night cramming, then 8 hours of testing and had to come back the next day for another day of testing! Didn't find out the results till months later when they mailed it to you. Glad I passed, but didn't tell how you did.
Thought we were going back in time with cell phones because of the pay by the minute, phones used to be that way for local and long distance before it became unlimited.
Remember my friend in the military calling me about September 11 and they were at Defcon 4. I thought she was joking with me till I turned on the TV and saw the planes hitting the towers!
Remember carbon copy paper anyone? It was frequently used at my elementary school. I do remember record players during "Library" at school. I grew up outside and read lots of books.
(worst punishment ever!!)
:roflmao: When I read that you remembered when Michael Jackson still had a nose, I absolutely LOST IT!
CT Pixie, BSN, RN
3,723 Posts
I remember going to the corner store for my mom and getting her cigarettes. I was in 5th grade so it was around 1979. Same store with same owners (who had known me since I was 10) a few years later (I was now a pre-teen to early teen) wouldn't sell them to me without a note from mom. It was around age 14 or 15 that they wouldn't sell them to me with or without a note.
I was in high school from 1983-1987. Smoking age was 16. We had a student 'smoking area' IN the school courtyard as well as outside by the cafeteria doors. We were able to go to the smoking area between each class and during lunches.