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