What have you lived through? (Let's reminisce)

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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 had three pairs of LA Gear shoes in the late 1980s. I remember the stone-washed jeans, slouch socks, Jordache, Chic, Calvin Klein, and Sassoon Jeans.

Slouch socks! That's what they were called. And sometimes you'd wear TWO pairs of different colored ones.

lets not forget leg warmers with jeans!

Beyond tight 'designer' jeans (Sergio Valente, Jordache, Sasoon) that went past your belly button. And you never WANTED them to fit in the length b/c you couldn't 'cuff' the bottoms if you did.

In 8th grade or 9th, it was normal to see me and my girl friends in Levi's, work boots (NEVER tied!), thermal shirt with a flannel over it..NEVER buttoned. We were grunge before it even had a name. But we always had hair done to perfection and a face of makeup...

Specializes in ER.

FYI, Shawn Cassidy went to my high school. I remember seeing his parents Shirley Jones and Jack Cassidy on campus once. True story.

Specializes in retired LTC.

My first driving car experience was using my Dad's 1963 Chevy Corvair - you know the one that consumer advocate rebel Ralph Nader became famous for exposing it as the death trap. The motor was in the back and freq exploded.

Old TV shows included Ed Sullivan every Sunday nite (our pizza nite) and you always hurried home from school so you could catch Mickey Mouse Club (if you were young) and original American Bandstand from Philadelphia (for teens - I was too young to get tickets in, but my cousin attended the show to dance). The original Dark Shadows and General Hospital were on in the '60s. There were a couple older ones that started on radio but I didn't watch them.

And a realllly old TV show, Queen for a Day.

Tin foil plates for the classic Swanson TV dinners that debuted in the 1950s.

I have an original Cinderella wristwatch (broken now).

Aluminum fake Christmas trees were THE Trees for Christmas with the multicolored light wheel.

The Christmas craze for Cabbage Patch dolls that first year.

Remember white go-go boots? The fashion thing from TV's Laugh-In, Shindig and Hulabaloo.

Fragrances of Jade East and Canoe for guys; Jean Nate for gals.

Laundry soap suds boxes came with free glasses and towels, and jelly jars were decorative glasses.

You collected Green Stamps at some stores that could then be redeemed for free merchandise.

Specializes in Geriatrics, Home Health.

I was 8 when Challenger exploded. I lived in Massachusetts, Christa McAuliffe was from New Hampshire, and it was a BIG deal.

Being a latchkey kid at 7.

Listening to the radio to find out about school cancellations.

If you got in trouble at school, you got in more trouble at home. If a teacher decided they didn't like you, you had nowhere to turn.

Teachers who didn't just ignore bullying, but actively participated. No, I don't want to go back to that.

Trusting clergy.

Listening to the radio to find out about school cancellations.

Yes, the radio and TV were the ways to get cancellations.

We also had the local fire departments whose fire horn would do a certain number of blows to indicate no school.

Specializes in Psych.

I remember turning on our black and white t.v. and waiting for the tubes to warm up before the picture came on. Going outside to move the antenna for a better picture, until we go rabbit ears.

Watching the three stoogies, the little rascals, I love Lucy with my mom and dad.

Caring for my little sister at home without fear.

Playing kick the can in the alley with all my neighbor friends while our parents set outside talking.

Getting paddled at school.

Buying cigarettes for my mom when I was only 10 years old. Penny candy!

Every kid took a lunch to school in our metal lunchboxes.

Parents sent us to Saturday morning matinee's with a coupon we cut out of the newspaper.

We called the operator to make a long distant call.

Who read the babysitters club and Ramona Quimby?

My daughter. :)

Specializes in Short Term/Skilled.

I watched OJ be found not guilty in the middle of class,

Rainbow bright was my idol

I listened to New Kids on The Block on tape

I pegged my pants

I went through high school without Facebook, cell phones or laptops. We had computers, but they were mostly at home and we had dial up.

Specializes in retired LTC.

Clunky metal roller skates that fit on to your shoes and you needed a 'key'.

Specializes in Palliative, Onc, Med-Surg, Home Hospice.

I graduated from high school in 1987.

I remember when MTV came on the air. "Video Killed the Radio Star" was on for 24 hours.

I played Space Invaders on an Atari game system. And that was considered to be the newest technology

I took computer in high school and it involved writing programs in binary.

I was 18 when the plane crashed over Lockerbie, Scotland. A friend of mine was on that plane. He was on his way home for leave.

I remember the blizzards of '77, '78(Indianapolis) and '79(Chicago)

I watched Superbowl XX on TV when the Bears won the Super Bowl.

I saw baseball in Chicago get ruined when they put lights up in Wrigley Field to play night games. (My friend and I cried)

I watched the news when John Lennon was shot, and cried through my fathers birthday dinner.

I watched the very first space shuttle taking off on TV at school. I was in Junior High

I watched MASH, Emergency!, Hill Street Blues and The Carol Burnette show, and they weren't reruns.

Movies were cheap, gas was cheaper and my mum still freaked out about the cost of food.

Exercise induced asthma was not a diagnosis and as a result, I have screwed up lungs.

And I hated the 80's with a passion and my daughter is wearing some of the same clothes I loathed back then. LOL

Specializes in peds, allergy-asthma, ob/gyn office.

I remember rotary dial phones. My mom smoking in the car with the windows rolled up... (cough, sputter). I remember riding in the back of my dad's truck for trips to the beach. I remember Atari video games, and actually going to an arcade to play others. I remember dippity-do hair gel, sun-in, and blue eyeshadow. I remember having a vinyl record collection, and later, cassette tapes. My dad had an 8 track in one of his older pickups. And yes, I took state boards with a pencil and had to wait for results in the mail...for about two months.

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