The innocence of a great Friday night line up of the Love Boat and Fantasy Island. pacMan and Atari being everything- and enough.spending time with your family/ loved ones with nothing to intervene like a friggin electronic device. Feeling if safety that no longer exists due to terrorism
My grandma had a party line, so sometimes when you picked up the phone to make a call you would hear her neighbor's conversation. Too bad they were an old couple or it could have been interesting!
Only seeing cartoons on Saturday morning, getting a paddling from a teacher, being able to run from dawn until dusk, only coming in for meals (maybe), and knowing that if they misbehave, they will get their a$$e$ thrashed.
THE SOUND OF DIAL UP INTERNET CONNECTING and then not being able to use the phone or if your friend called you were pissed because you would have to LISTEN TO THE DIAL UP CONNECTING SOUND again.
Saving up a month's worth of allowance to buy Raiders of the Lost Ark on VHS from Sears. Then getting it stuck in a dirty VCR and not being able to get it out. Good times.
If we wanted a new cassette, first we had to save up our money. Then if we were lucky to get a ride to the mall but still not enough money, we would pool our pennies together, one kept the real tape and one would settle for the copy and contribute less money. If it was a cd we had to wait until we got home to listen to it and only some of us had cd players. I was the only one with a stereo that could make a cassette copy of a cd for those who had no CD players or on the few occasions our moms would let us play our tapes in the car. No copyright bullshit. We shared everything :)
Smoking on an airplane! Not that I'd want anyone to experience that now, but when I was 18 and lit up on an airplane, I felt so urbane and sophisticated. Pay phones and worrying about long distance phone bills.
"It's 10 o'clock, do you know where your children are?" Announced on TV every evening. Also, sitting in my Dad's lap when he was driving the car and pretending that I was driving. Hey, it was the 50s and 60s. Most cars didn't even have seat belts, and I don't remember seeing a car seat until in my late teens.
These are all great! I wld add: walking to store by yourself. Not always remembering to lock the doors in your house because really, why wld you? Riding on the running board of neighbors car, slow. Snow!!! Pounds and tons and oodles and drifts and sky high snow! And playing in it all day! Air raid sirens when we were all supp to go in the house. Bomb shelters. Time capsules. And the best? Falling asleep in the backseat of family car on way home, snuggled under your car blanket( which was our woolen carriage blanket from when we were babies), just snuggling and drowsing and falling asleep listening to drone of parents conversation and car motor. Now kids all strapped in to car seats, cant lie down.
Having to wait for your pictures to be developed. PacMan at the UTotem. Playing so hard during the summer, ALONE with your buddies, that by the time you hit the bed you were out! Dragging the hall phone, with the super long coats, into your bedroom closet so that your siblings couldn't hear you. Going downtown to go school clothes shopping. Farrell's ice cream parlor.
BIG DEAL! We didn't have a lot of money, so I always begged for it. Finally one year my sister's chipped in and I got to go with one friend. I was in heaven. All that SUGAR!
Needing 2 keys for a car, one key to unlock the doors, the other for the ignition. Using rotary dial phones and when your phone rang, you never knew who was on the other end!!!!
-making do w/3 networks, PBS and a couple UHF stations
-scizophrenics and other mentally ill being housebound and silent instead of posting on the internet
-respecting presidents no matter what party they are from
-having to use your imagination to jack off to high school hotties instead of giving your buddy $10 to send you the pics from her hacked photobucket acct
Oh wow these posts are a trip down memory lane good job guys! How about getting ONE Barbie for Xmas to last the whole year! If you lost it or role it tough titties!
Standing up and saying the pledge of allegiance every morning in school with your hand over your heart while facing the American flag which was required in every school room.....
always playing hard in sports and playing to win because we kept score and there was 1 winner and everyone else didn't. and we had to learn how to deal with being a sport about losing..
walking home at night through a huge neighborhood all by myself and not feeling the need to worry over look over my shoulder
Hand written airline tickets with coupons that got pulled out by the check in staff....then you would breeze through security in two mins without so much as a pat down....
After earning $10.00 after my first babysitting gig, I went to the mall and bought The Carpenters Greatest Hits record and a pair of wedgie sandals. I had money left over.
Friday nights on Abc. We used to go to my friends house to watch TGIF, some of my favorite childhood memories are from those nights. Not being able to run with your discman because it skipped.
Playing kick the can at the neighborhood condominiums (townhouses), lots of kids out late into the dark and having fun. Buying 45 rpm records (The Stones Emotional Rescue was one I recall, had a LOT of 45's), my first full length LP was Trooper's "Hot Shots" (Raise a little Hell! anyone?)… but I saw on the weekend they are selling some new releases on vinyl now….Galega, Frogger, and Donkey Kong on the arcade machines.. pooling our money for 85 cent pack of cigarettes (probably a good thing they don't do that now)… and yeah, the top 100 on the radio for New Year's.
Being on a camping trip in Wyoming as a kid and seeing stars so bright and close and intense that they were terrifying.
Traveling around the world to places like Pakistan and Afganistan and through the Middle east and Mexico and central and south America and not being a target for kidnapping or a beheading or rape because you were a female and an American.
Chistmas music only played on Christmas Day. Writing checks instead of using a debit card. Only needing $15 to fill up a tank of gas. Registering for college classes by phone.
Being out of reach of my parents by phone or any device.
ReplyDeletePURE COCKE
ReplyDeleteha ha ha I meant COKE
ReplyDeleteWaiting for your fave song to come on the radio so you can record it on your mix tape (on casette, natch)
ReplyDeleteNot going to a shopping mall or being obsessed with buying things.
ReplyDeleteThe innocence of a great Friday night line up of the Love Boat and Fantasy Island. pacMan and Atari being everything- and enough.spending time with your family/ loved ones with nothing to intervene like a friggin electronic device.
ReplyDeleteFeeling if safety that no longer exists due to terrorism
Hanging out with you friends and talking, not texting, skyping, or browsing on the Internet.
ReplyDeleteAlso knowing all your friends in PERSON, not over FB, Instagram, etc.
Privacy. Walking alone. Phones with curly cords. Imagination. Little toys that no one swallowed and a hundred others I'm sure...
ReplyDeleteVideos on MTV
ReplyDeleteThis is so, so sad. When it launched, I'd stay awake to 3:00 AM, in case I MISSED A VIDEO!
DeleteI miss 120 minutes. : ( Yes, I am die hard 90s girl at heart!
DeleteOh! Cold, sweaty coke bottles out of a cooler at the corner store on a hot summer day. A corner store that wasn't a 7/11.
ReplyDeleteMy grandma had a party line, so sometimes when you picked up the phone to make a call you would hear her neighbor's conversation. Too bad they were an old couple or it could have been interesting!
ReplyDeleteThe satisfaction of SLAMMING the phone down on someone who has just stomped on your very last nerve!
ReplyDeleteOnly seeing cartoons on Saturday morning, getting a paddling from a teacher, being able to run from dawn until dusk, only coming in for meals (maybe), and knowing that if they misbehave, they will get their a$$e$ thrashed.
ReplyDeleteHearing the Star Spangled Banner played at midnight and then no more TV until the next day.
ReplyDeleteHanging out with friends on a deserted country road, radios blasting GOOD MUSIC, drinking beer and just...being! No one shot or killed!
ReplyDeleteTHE SOUND OF DIAL UP INTERNET CONNECTING and then not being able to use the phone or if your friend called you were pissed because you would have to LISTEN TO THE DIAL UP CONNECTING SOUND again.
ReplyDeleteGoing online with dial up late at night and the connection sound is so loud it wakes up the rest of the house!
DeleteRenting a vhs tape, popping it in the vcr, and rewinding it when you were done. Or waiting all day to record your favorite song off the radio.
ReplyDeleteSaving up a month's worth of allowance to buy Raiders of the Lost Ark on VHS from Sears. Then getting it stuck in a dirty VCR and not being able to get it out. Good times.
DeleteIf we wanted a new cassette, first we had to save up our money. Then if we were lucky to get a ride to the mall but still not enough money, we would pool our pennies together, one kept the real tape and one would settle for the copy and contribute less money. If it was a cd we had to wait until we got home to listen to it and only some of us had cd players. I was the only one with a stereo that could make a cassette copy of a cd for those who had no CD players or on the few occasions our moms would let us play our tapes in the car. No copyright bullshit. We shared everything :)
ReplyDeleteSmoking on an airplane! Not that I'd want anyone to experience that now, but when I was 18 and lit up on an airplane, I felt so urbane and sophisticated. Pay phones and worrying about long distance phone bills.
ReplyDelete"It's 10 o'clock, do you know where your children are?" Announced on TV every evening. Also, sitting in my Dad's lap when he was driving the car and pretending that I was driving. Hey, it was the 50s and 60s. Most cars didn't even have seat belts, and I don't remember seeing a car seat until in my late teens.
ReplyDeleteI rode on the top of my parent's station wagon once. ON TOP! Can that happen now?
DeleteRiding in the back of a pickup truck. We did it all the time. One of the more memorable times was from Glendale to Valencia to go to Magic Mountain.
DeleteI look back on my childhood and teen years and wonder how on earth I survived.
These are all great! I wld add: walking to store by yourself. Not always remembering to lock the doors in your house because really, why wld you? Riding on the running board of neighbors car, slow. Snow!!! Pounds and tons and oodles and drifts and sky high snow! And playing in it all day! Air raid sirens when we were all supp to go in the house. Bomb shelters. Time capsules. And the best? Falling asleep in the backseat of family car on way home, snuggled under your car blanket( which was our woolen carriage blanket from when we were babies), just snuggling and drowsing and falling asleep listening to drone of parents conversation and car motor. Now kids all strapped in to car seats, cant lie down.
ReplyDeleteAuntliddy..your post reminded me of another..drive in movies..falling asleep in the back seat to the sound of those speakers.
DeleteMy parents would put us all in pajamas before we went to the drive-in movies.
DeleteWe would make popcorn before going to the drive in. The popcorn would be placed into a paper grocery bag (no handles).
DeleteChalking my ID to get in to see a band in an over 18 club.
ReplyDeleteMaking fun answering machine messages!
ReplyDeleteWait for the beep! You gotta leave yo name, you gotta leave yo number!
Not having everything you want at the touch of a button. We had to work and wait for shit back in my day!!! Now get off my lawn, you whippersnappers!
I'm enjoying reading all these memories!
I can remember when there were nine planets.
ReplyDeleteI can remember when there were nine planets.
ReplyDeleteSunshine- in my world there are still 9 planets. I never demoted Pluto and I never eill.
DeleteI agree auntliddy!! I had this VERY conversation with my son. No Pluto??!! Ah sorry, no way man!!
DeleteTaking Polaroid pics of the sexy star on the tv
ReplyDeleteHaving to wait for your pictures to be developed. PacMan at the UTotem. Playing so hard during the summer, ALONE with your buddies, that by the time you hit the bed you were out! Dragging the hall phone, with the super long coats, into your bedroom closet so that your siblings couldn't hear you. Going downtown to go school clothes shopping. Farrell's ice cream parlor.
ReplyDelete**cord. Dang iPhone
DeleteI remember Farrell's ice cream too! They had a birthday "volcano". That was a huge deal to go there on your bday.
DeleteBIG DEAL! We didn't have a lot of money, so I always begged for it. Finally one year my sister's chipped in and I got to go with one friend. I was in heaven. All that SUGAR!
DeleteNeeding 2 keys for a car, one key to unlock the doors, the other for the ignition. Using rotary dial phones and when your phone rang, you never knew who was on the other end!!!!
ReplyDelete-jacking off to swiggle porn.
ReplyDelete-horrible music in the background on pornos
-making do w/3 networks, PBS and a couple UHF stations
-scizophrenics and other mentally ill being housebound and silent instead of posting on the internet
-respecting presidents no matter what party they are from
-having to use your imagination to jack off to high school hotties instead of giving your buddy $10 to send you the pics from her hacked photobucket acct
Oh wow these posts are a trip down memory lane good job guys! How about getting ONE Barbie for Xmas to last the whole year! If you lost it or role it tough titties!
ReplyDeleteOoops I meant if you broke it
DeleteSex with their mother
ReplyDeleteHaving to get up and walk across the room to change the TV channel
ReplyDeleteAnd using those large knobs on the TV set to do it.
DeleteStanding up and saying the pledge of allegiance every morning in school
ReplyDeletewith your hand over your heart while facing the American flag which was required
in every school room.....
always playing hard in sports and playing to win because we kept score and there
was 1 winner and everyone else didn't. and we had to learn how to deal with being a sport about losing..
walking home at night through a huge neighborhood all by myself and not feeling the need to worry over look over my shoulder
sitting in front of the tv and looking forward to watching the cosby show.
Deletegom lawn.. my brother was always locking his keys in the car...
ReplyDeleteSugar..back in the day you could always get into your locked car with a trusty wire coat hanger!!!!!!
DeleteMy grandmother lived in a rural town, and they didn't have to dial the first 3 digits of the phone number. Just dial the last 4 and it went through.
ReplyDeleteFirecrackers in your own backyard
ReplyDeleteWatching Michael Hutchence on stage
No 24 hr tv and news cycle. No Internet. Riding a bike without a helmet. I can't recall one person with a head injury from bike riding.
ReplyDeleteHand written airline tickets with coupons that got pulled out by the check in staff....then you would breeze through security in two mins without so much as a pat down....
ReplyDeleteAhhh the golden years of travel...
Also being my mother's human remote control, lol.
ReplyDeleteThe freedom to go out and play with kids in the neighborhood without having anxious mothers hovering in the background.
ReplyDeleteAfter earning $10.00 after my first babysitting gig, I went to the mall and bought The Carpenters Greatest Hits record and a pair of wedgie sandals. I had money left over.
ReplyDeleteAfter school specials.
ReplyDeleteFriday nights on Abc. We used to go to my friends house to watch TGIF, some of my favorite childhood memories are from those nights. Not being able to run with your discman because it skipped.
ReplyDeletePlaying kick the can at the neighborhood condominiums (townhouses), lots of kids out late into the dark and having fun. Buying 45 rpm records (The Stones Emotional Rescue was one I recall, had a LOT of 45's), my first full length LP was Trooper's "Hot Shots" (Raise a little Hell! anyone?)… but I saw on the weekend they are selling some new releases on vinyl now….Galega, Frogger, and Donkey Kong on the arcade machines.. pooling our money for 85 cent pack of cigarettes (probably a good thing they don't do that now)… and yeah, the top 100 on the radio for New Year's.
ReplyDeleteAdjusting the tracking on vcr.
ReplyDeleteSitting at the bar with my mom, drinking Shirley Temple's. Kids aren't allowed to sit at the bar anymore.
ReplyDeleteBeing on a camping trip in Wyoming as a kid and seeing stars so bright and close and intense that they were terrifying.
ReplyDeleteTraveling around the world to places like Pakistan and Afganistan and through the Middle east and Mexico and central and south America and not being a target for kidnapping or a beheading or rape because you were a female and an American.
Rewinding a cassette with a pencil!
ReplyDeleteChistmas music only played on Christmas Day. Writing checks instead of using a debit card. Only needing $15 to fill up a tank of gas. Registering for college classes by phone.
ReplyDeleteI am in my 30s, but I sound like an old person.
Walking to school.
ReplyDelete