Childhood then vs. now

[trales]

Here are a list of random things DD will not get to experience that were a huge part of my life.

1. Hours in front of the radio waiting for that song to come on to hit the record button to make that perfect mix tape for you and friends.

2. Units or multiples: those clothes with stirrup pants, and tunic and waste tube that coordinated.

3. Dragging the phone around the corner with a 100foot cord to keep you parents from overhearing your conversation.

4. Wipe boards on dorm room doors.

5. Writing letters to friends from summer camp and decorating them with stickers and pictures.

6. TV that you had to get up and turn the dial to change the channel.

7. An apple IIe with a dot matrix printer. :jammin:

What did I miss.

[mdb78]

Oh yes, I remember those long phone cords!

Snoopy ice slushy maker thingie... Boom boxes..lol :)

I was a child in the 80's and I loved watching Mr. Wizard's world, You can't do that on Television, Silver Spoons, Punky Brewster ( I so wanted her treehouse and bedroom)...

[Jenny_A]

-Using an actual card catalog (a big cabinet with all those little drawers) to find a book.

-Looking up a subject in the encyclopedia to do a book report.


DD called a telephone a "cell" for the longest time. Even the telephones in the house were "cells".

How times change!

Jenny

[s_gosney]

Snoopy ice slushy maker thingie...

I actually saw some of these at Target the other day, so maybe there's hope!

[gatorsmom]

I LOVED "You Can't do that on Television".

Ok, I may be dating myself a bit here but do you remember:

Neighborhood party lines- no they weren't for "having parties."

Making popcorn on the stove in a pan with oil. Who does that anymore?

Cars without cupholders? You could buy those plastic hanger things to hang a soda on the cardoor. Remember those?

When seatbelts weren't mandatory? My brother and I would sit with our faces plastered to the glass window in the hatchback sticking out our tongues at the cars behind us. Or ramming into him when my mom turned a sharp corner. scary....

[wolverine2]

I so remember sitting by the radio ready to push the record button if a song I liked came on... those very early mix tapes with the latest Madonna, Michael Jackson, and Duran Duran.

-Typewriters. Even in the 2 years between my brother and me, it switched from 9th grade typing class to word processing.

-Junior high? (7-9)

[LarsMal]

When seatbelts weren't mandatory? My brother and I would sit with our faces plastered to the glass window in the hatchback sticking out our tongues at the cars behind us. Or ramming into him when my mom turned a sharp corner. scary....

- On road trips we would put the seat down in our station wagon, or later take it out of our van. We would put sleeping bags and pillows there and sleep wherever we were going- YIKES!

- LOVED Silver Spoons, Family Ties, The Cosby Show, and Growing Pains. I love when The Cosby Show is on Nick at Nite!

- Saturday morning cartoons were only on a couple channels!

- Getting excited once a year when The Wizard of Oz was on TV. Making popcorn and watching it as a family.

- No caller ID- either answer the phone or don't!

- leg warmers!

[MontrealMum]

My brain is not functioning so well post-baby, but here are a few I remember fondly:
-sitting in the "way back" backwards facing seat of a station wagon
-flip sides, B sides and 8 tracks !
-rabbit ears and tinfoil to adjust our black and white - which only got 4 channels
-when drops and adds in college were still accomplished via punch cards in the old hockey arena - argh!
-having to carry change for, well, anything - seems like everything takes smart cards or credit these days - tho, I think that may be a change for the better
-that annoying pause during overseas calls

And things that probably won't be much different...

I remember my dad saying "turn the lights out when you leave a room", or "shut the **** window, do you think I want to heat the whole neighborhood"...during the energy crisis in the 70s

[Tondi G]

Twilight Zone Marathons on Thanksgiving and New Years I think it was!!!! Now you have to get the sci fi channel for them!!!

Atari and then nintendo

we had a Snoopy snow cone machine.... I think my mom might even still have the thing somewhere packed away! LOL

[LarsMal]

Atari and then nintendo

Oh, Frogger, how I loved Thee!!!

Tetris and Super Mario Brothers rocked, too! Those were the only games my brothers would let me play!

[StantonHyde]

Record Players!!!! Records--Vinyl, Album Covers, the scratch and pop of a vinyl LP

Cassette tapes

Captain Kangaroo, Mr Rogers

Standing in line for Star Wars vs putting in the DVD

When Star Wars "started" with episode 4

Sitting in the car while mom went into the grocery store, Fighting over who got to sit in the front seat when we were 8 and 6

Using a pay phone

No air conditioning in cars-ugh, no videos in cars--ugh

[trales]

I remember the roll down windows in the car and squeezing 5 of us in the backseat and a few more in trunk area. Who need an SUV to take a birthday party out for pizza.

Having to adjust the rabbit ears on the TV while my parents said "left, no right" ect.

When TV dinners first came out and it was rare for a restaurant to have take out and no one delivered.

[Pennylane]

Oh, the memories!

-Listening to Casey Kasem's top 40 Weekly countdown on the radio.

-Leaving the house at 9 am and running around the neighborhood with all my friends, all day, until dinner.

-Drive In movies with the family

-Riding everywhere in the back of my dad's pickup truck

Ann

[wolverine2]

[QUOTE=MontrealMum]
-sitting in the "way back" backwards facing seat of a station wagon

Hey, we still have a "way back" in our 2002 Taurus wagon!

We actually also have rabbit ears on our TV as well, but that's not too normal these days!

[gatorsmom]

Using a pay phone




The PAY phone! I remember my mom teaching me that when I got older and was old enough to go out without her I should always have a dime in a special pocket of my purse in case for an emergency call home. A dime! If only a cell phone call cost a dime!

[maestramommy]

90 minutes worth of Bugs Bunny and friends on Saturday Mornings!

Totally remember hitting the record button. One summer I recorded "Every Breath You Take" multiple times on the same tape.

Listening to the soundtrack of "Sound of Music" and "My Fair Lady" for years before I saw the movies on my dad's reel to reel.

LPs! But our kids will grow up with them, because I got a lion's share of practically new classical recordings that FIL amassed before he passed away.

roller skates? With metal wheels? Or even better, the ones that attach to your tennis shoes:boogie:

[billysmommy]

Making popcorn on the stove in a pan with oil. Who does that anymore?




ONG!!!!! My younger brother still makes it this way and it is SO perfect!!!! He LOVES popcorn and no one else makes it like him ~ I love when he comes over and makes us popcorn. Maybe I can talk him into it tonight :)

[LarsMal]

Oh, the memories!

-Listening to Casey Kasem's top 40 Weekly countdown on the radio.

-Leaving the house at 9 am and running around the neighborhood with all my friends, all day, until dinner.

-Drive In movies with the family
Ann

Yes, yes and yes!!!

Have to add- crying while listening to some of the "long distance dedications" (isn't that what they were called?)

Playing flashlight tag until 10 o'clock at night without a care in the world. I can't imagine doing that these days.

I can still remember seeing ET at the drive-in. Oh, the memories!

[Marisa6826]

Having to turn the dial on the radio reallllly slow to find the 'sweet' spot with no static and the reception was PERFECT to listen to the Bay City Rollers. :P

The first cable boxes that were STILL attached to the TV with the really long brown cable. It had three levels and HBO was in the middle on the left (if you were so lucky to *have* HBO)

Going to drive in movies for double features with your parents, dressed in your jammies in the station wagon (the Disney movie was always first and the 'grownup' feature second), where they would put the speaker on the edge of the rolled down window after driving up to the wooden post it was hung on

Poprocks and the rumor that Mikey from the Life commercial died from eating them while drinking soda

Learning how to drive in a car where the way to turn on the highbeams was with a button that was on the floor up in the corner by your left foot, and the alternative to cloth seats was vinyl ;)

-m

[npace19147]

Smurfs!

Riding my bike around the neighborhood, playing kick the can with neighbor kids...

[Fairy]

Snoopy ice slushy maker thingie... Boom boxes..lol :)

Oh, no, no, no. They still make that sucker. I saw it in a classic toy catalogue this past holiday season. Google it, and I am sure you'll come across it. Oooh, I loved that slushie maker!

[Fairy]

-Using an actual card catalog (a big cabinet with all those little drawers) to find a book.


Um. They don't have those anymore? I haven't been to a library in forever; we do alot of Barnes & Noble, then bring one home. I should do the library more often, I know. But ... no more Dewey Decimal System with the cards? Really? I'm old.

[Fairy]

Using a payphone. Definitely.

The knowledge at age 8 that sitting in the backseat was very uncool.

Laying down in the car with the car blanket.

Some still exist, but not too many --> Roller Rinks

I still have the typewriter my parents got me for my HS Graduation to take to college. It was the top of the line at the time ... and the end of the line shortly thereafter.

Rolling your own car windows up and down. Locking and unlocking car doors manually.

Winding a watch.

What it's like to miss an episode of your favorite show and having that sinking dread that you're going to have to wait some long months till the re-run plays over the summer. If you're lucky.

Being careful not to expose your film too early.

Eating pure sugar and crap, like suzie-Q's and Ding Dongs and Twinkies with wild abandon.

Having to do all written communications with a lead or ink writing implement.

The $ .18 stamp.

Mr. Hooper, the real Kermit & Ernie, and David.






I have to go cry, now.

[momtoonegirl]

This is a fun thread :)

How about the plastic Halloween costumes that came in a box.

Steel lunchboxes with matching thermos.

The video game system Intellivision (I had the Atari 2600)

BetaMax, VHS videotapes, and LaserDisks

I wonder if I've given away my age here........

ETA: Learning to drive on a car where the gear shift was a long stick-like lever attached to the steering wheel.

JiffyPop popcorn

[kijip]

Making popcorn on the stove in a pan with oil. Who does that anymore?


Um, me. The microwave stuff is gross and air popped in a machine is tasteless! But then again, I have a red rotary dial phone so consider the source. :hysterical:

[MontrealMum]

Um. They don't have those anymore? I haven't been to a library in forever; we do alot of Barnes & Noble, then bring one home. I should do the library more often, I know. But ... no more Dewey Decimal System with the cards? Really? I'm old.

Dewey is still around, that's the classification system that assigns each book its number for shelving purposes, but most libraries are now using OPACs - that's library-speak for the theoretical card catalog being online. Most *actual* card catalogs have been disassembled to make room for other things in libraries, like computers and more books. At my university they are using the old cards as scrap paper in the library! [no, I'm not just a huge geek - I'm doing post-graduate work in information studies]

Speaking of changes in libraries - try to find one that actually has someone to check out your book. It's all self-check lately like in the grocery stores. Yet another thing that's gone by the wayside...

[tylersmama]

Using a pay phone


Does anyone else remember using the pay phone to "click" people? You would dial but not put any money in. The person you called couldn't hear you unless you put money in, but if you flipped the hook, they could hear it clicking. We always used that when we needed someone to come pick us up from school after practices. Could've just been a NW Ohio thing... :D

[MontrealMum]

I don't remember that about pay phones, but I do remember jimmying the parking meters outside my highschool with a key to fool it into thinking that a penny was a quarter!

[ThreeofUs]

Um, me. The microwave stuff is gross and air popped in a machine is tasteless!

Gotta third this. Yummy! But then we're a rabbit-ears-on-the-tv type family, too, so we can watch the hour of PBS we catch per year.... :)

-Being able to roam the woods at night, just me, or walk to a friends' house (literally over the river and through the woods) without fear.

-Eating non-organic strawberries (that tasted perfectly sweet and tremblingly ripe) with abandon.

-Making "snow slushies" from the fresh-fallen snow and slurping them up with glee.

-Driving all by myself without restrictions at 15.75 years.

-Using "wite-out" to retype over typos. Typos, in fact, are also going the way of the dinosaur, at least in word-processing packages.

[tylersmama]

Um, me. The microwave stuff is gross and air popped in a machine is tasteless! But then again, I have a red rotary dial phone so consider the source. :hysterical:

I *hate* microwave popcorn. The Whirley Pop (http://www.popcornpopper.com/24000.html) is the best. invention. ever. And practically foolproof!

Although...on the theme of this thread....Jiffy pop! That was good stuff!

[elektra]

-Pacman and Pitfall on Atari. I was in the Pitfall fanclub! You had to take a snapshot of your tv screen showing your score and send in the photo to get a patch to sew on a jacket. Our screen was all fuzzy because if I played for a long time it would start to crap out.
I was Ms. Pacman for halloween one year too.

- Drinking Jolt cola at slumber parties

- Driving up the CA coast while my little brother and I slept in sleeping bags in the bed of our Chevy S-10 truck with the camper shell. Then having my dad actually stop the car when we were goofing around too much and telling us to "grab the bumper", and then proceed to spank us on the side of the road! Can you imagine seeing that happen today? Dear Dad would have been arrested!

-Riding bikes without any kind of pads or helmet, at age 6. Just cruising around the neighborhood by yourself or with friends while Mom and Dad were at home doing whatever.

-Care Bears (they made a comeback I know!), My Little Pony, Cabbage Patch Kids, Garbage Pail Kids, Make It and Bake It, Smurfs

- Ricky Schroeder- the love of my life!

- Wax On, Wax Off!

-Actually knowing people's phone numbers

-Watching Little House on the Prairie every day after school

- Jelly bracelets and shoes

-Pegging your pants

-Aqua Net hairspray

[julieakc]

- Hello Kitty (I know it's still around, but it was HUGE back when I was a kid)

- staying up late to watch Friday night music videos (pre MTV)

- disposable flashes for cameras - cubes, then came the long thin ones with 8 flashes

[bnme]

I loved reading all this!

How about life before the internet! How did we ever get anywhere with out mapping it first!

[Fairy]

Yeah, but sometimes I map it and still get nowhere.

[pb&j]

Speaking of changes in libraries - try to find one that actually has someone to check out your book. It's all self-check lately like in the grocery stores. Yet another thing that's gone by the wayside...

My local public library has actual people doing the checking out!! I love it!! :)