You wouldn’t believe the bunk feminism was publishing into the mainstream. It has by and large been allowed to drop away, but way back the thought was that the world would be upended.
I remember a friend and I calling some random numbers and we got some guy’s answering machine. So we left messages that sounded like those old ads for phone sex (“For a hot, SEEEEXXXY time, call meeee!!!”), and then we left the names and numbers of these two girls we didn’t like.
:rolleyes:
I’m 40.
My dad stopped the car on the side of the highway so my mom could take a picture of him and I and the car when their first new car went 100K miles. That was a good bit of maintenance he’d done to get that '68 Buick Skylark over the line in decent shape. My Toyota Matrix has 71K and I’ve never done anything more than change the oil (I know, it needs a thorough checkup, and when I get another job, I’ll do it). But if that car doesn’t go 200K miles I’m going to be upset.
We listened to baseball playoff games at school during the breaks on radios about the size of three packs of cards, and the audio was the suck. I would tape my records so I could have something portable.
I’d say that the computerization of things overall is the biggest change. My car regulates itself, I’m typing in the internet, and cable/dish tv is possible because of computers. I shudder to think of how many microprocessors there are in the world now, when 30 years ago the answer would have been very estimable.
My toothbrush vibrates, diet colas abound, white-out doesn’t have to knock you out with its stink, I can purchase any book used in minutes, I have my entire CD collection in my pocket, I receive custom radio shows updated daily or weekly onto the same device. Tennis rackets are never wood.
I suspect in my lifetime most of the industrialized world will be using some version of LED lighting in most applications. The company that cracks the problem of the affordable white LED-based bulb will make an absolute killing.
I was working at a university then (well, I still am … I’ve spent my entire adult life working in academia) and I vividly remember all that nonsense about being “allowed” to use email and the Internet. I had friends who worked at other, more forward-thinking colleges who excitedly told me about “electronic mail” and urged me to get an address, but when I tried to get one, it was like I was asking about state secrets; I just got stonewalling or the run-around. One IT guy I asked (except they weren’t called “IT guys” then) just got a funny half-smile on his face and didn’t say a word. The same thing happened when the university got the Internet; it was very, very difficult to get access. Now every new employee gets a network login ID on their first day. In retrospect I think the IT people were hoping to keep email/internet to themselves and didn’t want the great unwashed masses to find out about it.
I’m 42. I remember:
Trash along the side of the road. Back in those days, everyone threw their trash out the car window. I certainly don’t miss that.
No home computers.
Having just one dial-type telephone in the house (usually in the kitchen).
Always having trouble getting cars started in the winter. (Most cars didn’t have FI or electronic ignition back then.)
Fewer fat people. Back then, it was unusual to see a 40 year old obese woman. Today, it is unusual to see a 40 year old woman who isn’t fat or obese.
Rabbit ears atop the TV. Having 3 or 4 channels to choose from.
Vinyl records, 8-tracks, 45’s, record stores.
People drinking alcohol on the job. Seemed to be commonplace back then.
Huge rock concerts in huge auditoriums.
Steel garbage cans. (Damn rusty things. Hated them.)
Buying high-quality power tools at Sears. Today they sell, cheap, plastic, Chinese-made junk.
People referring to black people as “colored”.
Only bikers and former military had tattoos.
Typewriters. They were loud, obnoxious things. Glad they’re gone.
Phone books three inches thick.
Sears catalogs.
Paper sacks at the grocery.
Cool prizes at the bottom of cereal boxes.
TV repairmen.
Mustaches.
Everyone had a CB radio.
There were no political talk shows on the radio.
An aerial antenna above every house.
Rusty steel spouting on every house.
Airlines that served real dinners on flights. (I remember flying to California when I was 9 years old, and one of the dinner options was filet mignon. I am not making this up.)
Everybody smoking everywhere.
Teachers handing out copies made from a mimeograph machine. Or was it called a Ditto machine? Loved the smell of it.