Mundane things you've done but probably will never do again

Or test a TV vacuum tube for that matter.

Look up a phone number in the yellow pages.

Do research in a law library

Use carbon paper

wear a condom

Put film into or take it out of a camera.

Put a card into or take it out of a library catalogue.

Use a typewriter.

I will probably never pay for cable again.
I will probably never pay 20+% interest on a loan again.
I will probably never file bankruptcy again.
I will probably never live with my mom again.
I will probably never balance a checkbook again. (I write one check a month, for rent, and I don’t need a register to keep track of that)
I will probably never use an overhead projector again.
I will probably never buy a cassette tape or tape player again.
I will probably never buy a dvd again.

A few years ago I was watching an old low budget sci-fi movie. It wasn’t on MST3K but it was that calibre of movie. A flying saucer had been discovered and a Military Stock Character is wondering if it’s from outer space or earthmade, and the Scientist Stock Character tells him it’s definitely alien: he’s examined their computers and the gases in the vacuum tubes are of a type not found on Earth.

Untangle a casette or reel-to-reel tape.

Wear kitty spikes (sprinting grips, not heels.)

Roll down a car window.

Sharpen a pencil

Change the wood shavings in a rodent cage.

Muck a stall

Trade a garbage patch kid card.

Watch MAS*H

Condition a new pair of pointe shoes.

Live in NYC.

Pay 25 cents/gallon for gas.

Stack several records on a turntable spindle.

Get a dental implant, root canal or extraction.

Own a pet other than a cat.

Have sex with 10+ guys in a single night (or even 2).

Eat haggis or limburger cheese.

Have my wallet stolen on vacation.

Drive in a non-English-speaking country.

Wear size 29 jeans.

Pee in two oceans in the same day.

Splice a cassette tape.

Have my appendix removed.

Have a “best friend” who isn’t my partner.

Get married

Have sex

Ride a bicycle

Test vacuum tubes at my local convenience store

Build a radio receiver out of surplus electronic parts

Decipher a capacitor’s value using the old color code

As above for resistors

Live another fifty years

Drive an automobile with a standard transmission that has the shifter handle on the steering column.

Drive an automobile that has a foot operated starter switch

Drive an automobile that has a foot operated headlight dimmer switch

As Sampiro said, watch a black and white TV

Drink from a “Whites Only” public water fountain

Wait for a bus/train/plane in a “Whites Only” waiting room

Listen to adults claim that rock and roll was part of a communist plot (I’m not making this up)

I’m sure there are a few more

Use a pay phone.

Adjust the choke to start a car.

Pump the gas.

  • Type an essay/paper for school…
  • …on a typewriter

Lick a stamp.

I was going to ask about this

But then I read this and the lightbulb went on. It’s astonishing that something so recent historically is so far beyond comprehension that it didn’t even occur to me as a possibility.

Buy vacuum cleaner bags
Burn a CD

Use carbon paper
splice magnetic tape
replace a vacuum tube
carry a pager
record songs off the radio
go deer hunting in the Adirondacks
write a program in BASIC
drink moonshine
climb a transmitter tower

It took me a while too - I guess I just always assumed there would be four.

Change typewriter ribbon
Get married
Use a condom
Burn a music CD
Change a phonograph needle
Play with sparklers
Use a modem
Burn incense

Remain in my car while the gas is filled and the oil is checked by an attendant

Slammed on my coaster brakes