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Pegasus
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I bought my parents' first microwave as a Christmas present.  When I was in grad school.  :)

 

I first used a microwave in grad school too.  That was when I discovered that you don't put metal pots in microwaves.  :P

 

My kids already know that.  And they also figured out how to record TV shows (though we don't actually watch TV), which is something I don't know how to do.  However, they just learned today how to place a call on a "regular phone" - you know, one of those gizmos that plugs into the wall at work.  They called me all proud of their new skill.

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Poor farm kid. There was a decommissioned air force base about 8 miles away. We spent every summer in those buildings (when we had time off). Everything was still there --desks, projectors, refrigerators -- inlayed tile, bathrooms -everything except lights, air, heat, and water. We went into the general's office and played saving the world. We snuck into the abandoned houses and marveled at the appliances still in the kitchens. Broken glass all around us, we explored. Met 'hobos" and teens making out. Brought the old red portable record player strapped to the back of the bike and we danced in the club's ballroom. 

 

Would I let my kid do that now ---no, no, no! Too dangerous, but it was the most fun thing we had. 

 

Who knew that years later I would become a military wife?!

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I remember being devastated when my favorite tv show switched to the night we went to church.  There was no recording or watching it later.  I got a neon green princess phone when I turned 16, it was a HUGE deal!

 

Computers were just coming out when I was in high school.  They were the TRS 80's someone else mentioned.  The teacher called them "trash 80's".  I took Computer Science and was so excited to get in the class because everyone wanted it.  The only thing I remember learning was making a short program that caused the computer to count to 100. 

 

Also in high school, they only required 2 years of math and 2 years of science.

 

Going to a friend's house to watch MTV was a big deal at the time.

 

When I was first married at 19, I remember going to Kroger all the time to write a check for cash.  I had check after check for $20 to Kroger!

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In elementary school we had a computer room.  There were maybe 10 computers in there.  So we'd go there once in awhile for a computer lesson.  Usually it was three kids to a computer.  I remember this long set of steps written on a chalk board.  So we'd practice inputting the steps.  After all of that it just changed the color of the screen.  I though computers were pretty useless.  LOL

 

 

I can remember taking a week long camp at the local community college as an elementary student.  We spent the week in class learning to draw squares on the green and green computer screen through a complex set (to us) of strokes on the keyboard.  

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Pretty much everything said.... also my dad provided lots of computer punch cards for my Kindergarten Class for us to make poinsettas from them.

 

I was in the first class that could register for university through the phone if you had touch tone phone.... we had push button, but I had to go to a payphone to register (and that was a lot of buttons!)

 

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk

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  • Playing down the street or in the woods for hours and only coming home when our parents yelled for us
  • Laying in the back of the station wagon for long trips (my dh had to lay on top of the luggage on their trips--LOL)
  • Taping songs off the radio because I didn't have the money to buy the cassettes
  • Making mix tapes with my double deck stereo (still have it!) complete with turntable (still works--but don't have records anymore!)
  • Sending postcards when on vacation
  • Playing crazy old weird board games when we went to grandma and grandpa's house
  • jello salad every Christmas made by grandma
  • UHF and VHF, TV antennas, the clicker dial (I had one of those TVs until I got married!!)
  • ordering music from Columbia House 10 CDs for 1 cent
  • Slightly gross, but in addition to playing in creeks we also played in my neighbor's yard when it flooded.
  • Riding our bikes about a 1/4 mile away to the back of a private property where we picked wild blackberries (my parents knew!)
  • those swanson TV dinners (I was partial to the one with the brownie) and HeeHaw or Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom on Saturday nights when we had a babysitter

ETA: we did have an 8 track player for awhile in our car also!!

 

 

Edited by cintinative
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Speaking of no security . . . My dh travels a lot and sometimes we'd take him to the airport. Back in the day the dc and I would go a little early, grab a TCBY and eat it in the gate area while watching the airplanes and waiting for dh to come off the airplane.

 

I also remember as a kid, one of the free activities we did as a family was walk around the airport terminal looking at all the different airplanes.

My dad used to take occasional business trips.  I remember a couple of times we picked him up at the gate, and he walked back on the plane with my sibs and me in tow so he could show us what seat he sat in.  We got to look in the cabin and meet the pilots.

 

Also one time my uncle took my cousins and me to the airport, just for something to do.  He had a bunch of hardware in his leg because of a car accident.  He went through every metal detector he could find.  We thought all the commotion was great!

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When my family first moved to where I live now, there were only two phone exchanges. The first two numbers were the same and only the last one was different. You could make a local call by dialing the last number of the exchange, then 4 digits of the number. This was 1970.

 

I remember this as well. My parents always gave their phone number in clusters of two digits. Thirty fifty eight instead of 3058

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Oh my word, wanna hear a story?

 

Remember the phones that didn't have the easily removable jacks?  They were in the wall and hard to remove?

 

When my friend's parents died, about 17 years ago, she and her siblings were cleaning out the house.  They knew her parents had 2 of these types of phones.  Both were heavy, black, rotary, and solidly into the wall.

 

They found out after opening their mail, that they had been paying $7 per MONTH for the use of those phones (renting the phones themselves) for 50 years!

 

The phone company actually said they couldn't stop the bills until they brought them BACK and turned them in!

 

That is $4,200 for renting those phones over the course of 50 years.  I can't remember if that was per phone or for both together.

 

Crazy.

 

My in-laws had a rotary phone until about 2008.  They had been renting it since about 1940.   :svengo:

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Tinsel on the Christmas tree - You know, back before we knew anything about safety hazards! 

Dot matrix printers - My college had two, it was quite the line at the end of the term (I learned BASIC in college and we used Word Perfect)

After School Specials - They came on once a month. I loved them. 

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Are you also familiar with the big chicken?? I wonder if it's still there, I haven't been down that way in ages. 

 

It's still there. I used to go by it when we went to my favorite quilt store, which closed this week.  :crying:   I don't know anyone who ever went there to eat, it was just used as a landmark...turn right at the Big Chicken!

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It's still there. I used to go by it when we went to my favorite quilt store, which closed this week.  :crying:   I don't know anyone who ever went there to eat, it was just used as a landmark...turn right at the Big Chicken!

 

We ate there. Once. It was when we first moved here--went there just so we could say we did. 

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Most of the shoe stores waited on people.  They'd measure your foot and bring out various pairs to try. 

 

Maybe some super fancy places still do this, but no back in the day they all did that. 

 

 

The Stride Rite in our town still does this.  I took DS there just because it was so easy, and somehow it was easier for him to just pick a pair from what they selected rather than running all over town trying to find stuff that fit at different places.  I still take him there now, to get his feet measured and to try on shoes to see what is comfortable, even if we ultimately don't end up buying from there.  Oh, and they also keep a record on index cards of every person and what shoes they buy over the years, with dates.  I thought that was interesting.

 

I always wondered if all Stride Rites did this, but I remember walking into one in some mall in a larger city, and they did not.

Edited by Ellyndria
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We have a Clark's in town. The assistant measures your child's feet with an electronic gauge, then goes to get a selection of suitable styles in the right length and width. She will thread the laces for you, then check the fit by watching the child walk, pulling at the heel, and running her hands all over the feet.

 

 

Yes, this is what they do at our Stride Rite.

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I remember standing up in the middle of the back of our VW beetle when I was 4, hanging on to the front seats, so I could see out the front window when we were driving.

 

I also remember laying down in the back seat in my pajamas when my parents went to a drive-in movie, and just sleeping that was until we got home.

 

Later on we got an old, used Greenbriar van where the back seat was basically a bench with big cushions on it.  No seatbelts.  And the seatbelts in the front were just lap belts.

 

I remember wearing seatbelts when we finally got cars that had them, but in the back they were just lap belts in the backseat.  And I'd still see plenty of people riding around in the back of pickups.

 

I didn't do prank calls personally, but I remember my friends and I calling boys we liked and then hanging up because we were too scared to actually talk to them, and at least they didn't know who was calling.

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My children will not the joy of prank calls:

Is your refrigerator running? Yes? Better go catch it.

Do you have prince Albert in a can? Yes? Well let him out?

Hanging up on a boy/girl because you were afraid to say anything. I don't think they are afraid anymore. Kid today seem pretty brazen with there snapchat and instagram.

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I was putting in my contacts yesterday and thought of you all when I had a flashback about hard lenses. I had soft lenses from day one, but I had friends who wore the hard ones -the kind that would pop out of the person's eye.  Remember the shout, "Nobody move! I lost a contact." ?

 

 

 

It did? The things I learn here! 

 

I knew carbon copies weren't around anymore, of course, but I didn't know the meaning of the abbreviation had actually changed.

 

I didn't know that either. I thought is was just a term that remained the same even though the action changed - like "dialing" someone's phone number.

 

Tinsel on the Christmas tree - You know, back before we knew anything about safety hazards! 

 

 

My mom was very particular about the tinsel on our tree. No one could put it on except her, and she did it one strand at a time.

Edited by Lady Florida
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Remember when it was a privilege to work in the school cafeteria? Fifth graders helped serve the side dishes--usually the fruit/veg--and sixth graders got to collect the lunch money. Lunch cost only a quarter back then.

 

Remember being one of the few people picked to go thread the film projector while the other kids were doing their school work? And then running the film forward for a minute so you could then run the film backward and see everything un-happening? :laugh:

 

Remember having 2 full recesses plus lunch recess and morning milk break? I hated milk break because I hated milk. Only kids who were allergic to milk could have juice.

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- waiting until the television would start sending their evening program, of course there was not such a thing like all day television

- moving the television to the attic to get Belgian television :)

- taking turns reading aloud codes like: 999, 876, 332 to my father who typed them in. After 1-2 hours of reading we had a new computer game...

- absolute silence for 30 minutes to hear all kind of strange noices on the radio, recording them from the radio on cassette. And then putting the cassette in the computer desk to discover what computer program it was :)

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I bought my parents' first microwave as a Christmas present.  When I was in grad school.  :)

 

I first used a microwave in grad school too.  That was when I discovered that you don't put metal pots in microwaves.  :p

 

My kids already know that.  And they also figured out how to record TV shows (though we don't actually watch TV), which is something I don't know how to do.  However, they just learned today how to place a call on a "regular phone" - you know, one of those gizmos that plugs into the wall at work.  They called me all proud of their new skill.

I have a friend in the middle of a custody battle and her ex took away her dd's cell phone. I think he was afraid she would record him drinking with the video feature. Anyway, my friend told her kids that if they needed to call her they could use the LAND LINE, she had them memorize her number. They were shocked to learn that their dad had a land line. Fortunately my friend knew where it was in their house. They now call her whenever they want using the land line, lol. They had never used a land line before. It was very funny to me that they had to be taught about land lines.

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My children will not the joy of prank calls:

Is your refrigerator running? Yes? Better go catch it.

Do you have prince Albert in a can? Yes? Well let him out?

Hanging up on a boy/girl because you were afraid to say anything. I don't think they are afraid anymore. Kid today seem pretty brazen with there snapchat and instagram.

My ds works in a call center for IPhone support and he gets prank calls all the time. He is very good at playing along so that he gets a resolution out of them. His boss loves his willingness to get a resolution from someone who claims their phone isn't working because it was inserted into an orifice. Everyone has their talents.

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We frequently went to drive in movies.  There may be a few left out there, but when I was a kid there were a lot more of them. 

 

Our community still has a drive-in movie theater! It had the original screen until just a few years ago when it was damaged by a storm and had to be replaced by a new smaller screen.

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Watching an episode of the Brady Bunch, my kids were stumped by Alice making ice with ice cube trays. It never occurred to me that they hadn't seen ice cubes made that way.

 

I do remember my mom always being aggravated with my dad for taking the last ice cube and then it took hours to make more.

Well some of us live primitively and must still resort to this ancient custom. ;)

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Watching an episode of the Brady Bunch, my kids were stumped by Alice making ice with ice cube trays.  It never occurred to me that they hadn't seen ice cubes made that way.

 

I do remember my mom always being aggravated with my dad for taking the last ice cube and then it took hours to make more.

 

Um, that's how we get ice. And I fuss at both dh and ds for leaving one or two ice cubes in the tray. 

 

Well some of us live primitively and must still resort to this ancient custom. ;)

 

Whew! Glad to know we're not the only ones who live primitively. ;)

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A few years ago, my sister took her three youngish kids to visit my dad. Dad still had (at that time) a wall phone with a long, spirally-twisty cord. Her kids asked what it was (since they had never seen a phone with a cord before), then proceeded to play with it for the next few days, completely fascinated by the corded phone on the wall with the long twisty-spirally cord. (LOL)

We've only had cellphones for the past 10 years or so. I misplace mine frequently. My DS once suggested that it would be great if phones could be permanently attached a charging cord so I didn't have to look for mine.

 

The only place he's seen a phone with a cord is at a museum that had a small communications display! That was after he had his idea and he was fascinated. He was a little surprised to learn that when mommy was a girl people didn't take their phones away from their house.

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I remember:

 

- how exciting it was when my dad brought home the Atari

 

-typing school papers on a word processor, then getting a PC with a word processor and AOL my senior year

 

- carrying my little case of floppy discs in my backpack so I could work at the university computer lab

 

-my first cell phone plan that came with 60 minutes of talk time... per month

 

-taking photos into the drug store to be processed and having no idea if any of them would turn out

 

-calling ticketmaster over and over and over trying to buy newly released concert tickets

 

-Wheeling the dishwasher over to the sink and hooking it up to the faucet to run it

 

-passing intricately folded notes in class

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I remember being left to wait in the car with my sister while my mother picked up packages at Eaton's.  My sister would talk to the people walking by in the parking lot which really ambarrased me.

 

Walking across the big road to the corner store to buy 5 cent candy.  The guy who owned the store was Lebanese and used to pinch kids cheeks when they paid.

 

Also - being sent to that same store to buy cigarettes for my parents.

 

Smashing my mouth on the dashboard because I had no seatbelt on.

 

The day we moved to a new neighbourhood, my sister and I, age 4 and 7 respectively, taking off on our bikes to explore with some kid while my parents got the furniture in.  My sister had a bad fall on a hill, she looked like she's been in a brawl.

 

Being allowed to drive our bikes miles and miles through trails and on roads to a lake and a farm, to catch snakes and frogs.

 

My dad lived out in the country and there were all kinds of different things there:

 

My sister used to listen to other people's calls on the party line.

 

There was no drier so after we brought the wash in in winter it was frozen and the pants would stand up on their own.

 

In the morning the house was freezing until we could get the kitchen stove and the Franklin stove in the living room lit.

 

Being allowed to go back in the woods fishing, or sledding by myself, or down to the beach (with tides of 3-2 meters!) to muck around.  No one thought there was any need for supervision.

 

Being allowed to drive the pick-up truck on the back road.

 

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Okay, who remembers when L'eggs pantyhose actually came in plastic eggs? The eggs were usually white, but sometimes came in special metallic colors and were great for kids' crafts. :)

My mom used to put them in the toe of our Christmas stockings when we were teens. :)

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Okay, who remembers when L'eggs pantyhose actually came in plastic eggs? The eggs were usually white, but sometimes came in special metallic colors and were great for kids' crafts. :)

Yep, I spent a fortune on L'eggs sheer energy in suntan. Then later I upgraded to hanes pantyhose

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I remember those old credit card machines. If the purchase was over a certain amount (I think $50 for Visa and $75 for discover) we had to call an 800 number to get an authorization code. LOL

And I used to work in the call center that handled those calls. Actually it's where I met my dh since we both worked there in college.

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Waiting for Saturday to go buy the latest popular LP record, then taking it home and listening to it over and over again in my room on my turntable.

 

Riding my bike all over the place . . . without a helmet.

 

Lots of fun TV programming comes to my mind:

 

Saturday morning cartoons - Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour . . . and SchoolHouse Rock songs interspersed throughout the morning. All watched on a little black and white TV.

 

The Mickey Mouse Club, Family Classics on Sunday afternoons, Ray Rayner, Bozo's Circus (my mom and I made it on that show when I was 5).

 

The build up to and finally the wedding of Luke and Laura on General Hospital.

 

Watching the test flights of the space shuttle when it piggy-backed on the jumbo jet.

 

Being ticked off that the Watergate hearings interrupted regular programs. We were on a camping vacation when my mom turned on the car radio and we heard about Nixon's resignation.

Edited by jelbe5
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