I consider myself a product of the 20th century. That's a little easier to say than I just turned 60. I find myself feeling proud that I use a computer everyday, can do some semi-technical things in regards to the digital world, but most of all, I have a certain interest as new gadgets come out. I'm married to a man who absolutely LIVES for the next new thing that's technology-based so I usually have no choice but to oooh and aaah over new gadgets. The internet has introduced so many new ways to communicate and live our lives. Products have been developed just because of the internet.
One thing for sure is that, in my lifetime, things have definitely changed and gotten easier. I made a list of things that 30 or 40 years ago were the norm but now are obsolete. Join me for a walk down Memory Lane, or if you're not in my age category, come learn a thing or two.
Rotary phones: Ah, my pale blue rotary phone that was in my bedroom during my teen years. I was excited beyond words when my parents relented and had the phone company come to our house, install a brand new phone jack (that's a product for a different article), and plug in the long clear cord. I asked for the extra long "curly" cord which attached the hand set to the base so I could stretch it all over my room. Remember that? When your conversations were confined to an area only as far as the cord would stretch? Until cordless phones came along, that is.
Disc drives: You wanted to save something on the computer, share something? You needed those discs. Write on the label what was stored on there. Find a box or basket to store them in.
Roll of film: Here's where I admit today's picture taking is WAY BETTER. I have my totes full of family pictures, baby pictures, school pictures. Recently, on my son's birthday, I wanted to share some and as I was going through the totes I realized how many were blurry, or maybe the color was bad. Today's photos are just beautiful and INSTANT! With a camera and a roll of film, the process was use up the 12, 24 or 36 picture slots on a roll (which could take weeks or months), take the roll to the store, wait 3-5 days, pick up the pictures, look through them and remember that "oh, yeah, this was Grandma's birthday" or another event. And "Oh, wow, he had his eyes closed in every picture or had the red-demon eyes from the flash". Today you take a picture, see it immediately, and send it off to share.
Typewriter: This is the one item I fought my husband tooth and nail over getting rid of. My beloved Royal typewriter. I took an actual typing class in high school for crying out loud. There were jobs where you had to type so many WPM (words per minute) or you weren't offered the job. You couldn't just highlight and hit "delete". You couldn't backspace and make it disappear. You got out the White Out and dabbed the smelly white liquid on the mistake and then waited five or ten minutes for it to dry so you could type over it. I know, computers are better.
8 tracks: Believe it or not, we still have a box of these in our garage, like maybe they'll come back and we'll be ready with our Billy Joel and ABBA collections. Big old cartridges that for sure didn't fit in your pocket and do NOT leave them sitting on the car seat or they were ruined.
Phone book: The last century's Google. White pages for people, yellow pages for businesses. Look them up, hopefully they weren't unlisted (you could pay to keep your phone number out of the book). Every year a new phone book would be tossed on your front porch or jammed in your mailbox. Remember Steve Martin in "The Jerk": "The new phone book's here, the new phone book's here!" You were excited to look up your family's name and see your name in print. Today you "Google" someone to immediately get their contact information.
Analog clocks and watches: Yes, open my jewelry box and you will see an entire collection of watches with numbers on the face, two hands pointing out minutes and hour, some even have a second hand that counts off the seconds. Some I've had since high school--I just keep praying that the batteries continue to be made and new watch bands can be found every few years. My grand children look at them in amazement, compare them to their Fit Bits and Apple watches. What can I say? They have meaning and I know how to tell time by where the hands point. I wonder if Driver's Ed. instructors still tell their students to put their hands at 10 and 2 on the steering wheel?
Vinyl records: Growing up in the 1960's and 1970's, songs were released on 45's. Those little vinyl discs with a hole in the middle which held one song on each side. I remember saving my allowance to buy a new one every week. If you wanted more than one song by an artist, you paid more for an album (33). It held five or six songs on each side and the hole in the middle was smaller. If you had a stereo system or record player, you had to put a special "thing-a-ma-jig" on it to switch from 45's to 33's. Manually move the arm to that favorite song if it wasn't the first one on that side. Don't dance or move around too close to the record player or you'd make it skip. Don't scratch it. Don't take it in your car and forget it--it would warp. Now there's ITunes or just Google your favorite song and VOILA! It's right there on You Tube. Incredible sound. Play it over and over.
I hope you've either had a sentimental journey with me or learned something. I'll continue to note those things that have disappeared from our culture and what is now everyday that didn't exist 20 or 30 years ago. If I missed anything, let me know! Send an email or comment on Facebook--I'd love to be reminded!
