Monday, August 8, 2011

remember when?...

amongst our friends of 30-somethings, we like to play a little game
called "things the kids today don't know anything about."  

yeah, it's a terrible name, but stick with me.  the point of the game was partly to poke fun at the
over-technologied kids who stare blankly at us when we mention the rotary phone,
and partly to reminisce all the crazy things that we grew up with which no longer exist.

such as...

- home telephones {i was so jealous when my best friend's family bought a cordless phone - LUCKY!!}
- life before cell phones in general {remember when you couldn't reach someone if
they weren't at home? i know, it was weird.}
- typewriters & word processors {you know, life before any of us had computers}
- juno {the email-only internet service, not the diablo cody movie}
- the zack morris cell phone {aka - the brick}
- dial-up internet {eeeeeee-rrrrrrrrrr-ding!ding!ding!rrrrrrrr}
- floppy disks
- pagers
- 8 tracks
- atari

and a few other non-technology things for good measure:
- pee wee herman, back before... you know... [ahem] ...
- when "the simpsons" were simply a short on "the tracey ullman show"
- the very first "reality" show ever
- USSR & yugoslavia
- the berlin wall
- fraggle rock

and if that's not enough, here's an awesome video along the same lines.
it's funny, because it's true {especially the very end}:



isn't it crazy how drastically the world has changed over the past 30 years?  this weekend was the 20th anniversary of the world wide web. only 20 years! my entire childhood was spent without the existence of the internet, cell phones, and home computers.  now i'm sure every generation gets to adulthood and amazes at the historical changes throughout their lifetime, but i feel like the changes which my generation experienced seem to be so much more extreme.  thanks to the boom of technology through the 80's and 90's, the world is completely different from when i was young.  crazy right?!

23 comments:

  1. We own a phone like that! A red one! Now, it's only a display at my grandma's house because everyone has their own cellphone including the young ones.

    I do agree with you. But you know what, I am glad that I was born during the era that extreme technology is not being widely known yet. I will always cherish the times that I received snail mails from friends and family. And those lazy afternoons where I sat beside our old red telephone waiting for my little friends to ring me up! :) Those own a special vintage part in my heart.

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  2. This really makes me feel old! When I lived in the USA back in 1998/1999 I didn't even have an e-mail, and had only been only a few times!
    We run into some of these things a lot after having Jonas, when we start talking about when we were kids! I think we are some of the few people who still have both a landline phone and a cell, when Jonas starts kindergarden and school his friends won't know what a landline phone is!

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  3. its so funny. so im 23, and can relate to a bit of what youre saying but not all as when i was 9, i had internet in my house. although it was dial up. so i grew up with technology. :) but not like my little cousins who are growing up with social media! its amazing xxx

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  4. I remember being given a student email account when I went to uni in 1995; none of us knew how to use it. And I remember, if my friends were running late, standing outside pubs/cafes/cinemas wondering if they'd simply forgotten. And I know who New Kids on the Block were (someone at my work does not).

    My boyfriend and I were getting freaked out by all the baby product adverts in the middle of Friends last week, but I suppose those of us who watched it first time round are all in our early thirties now and therefore OBVIOUSLY planning to pop out some kids... Yikes, that makes me feel old!

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  5. I'm a 1990 baby and can relate even though I'm only 21. Kids these days are growing up so differently than my generation and the generations before did. Kinda scary to think what they'll turn out to be like... haha


    Peony

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  6. Haha I love this game. Kids today are totally missing out on the fun of taping songs off the radio and making mixed tapes :-) Also I really have no idea how people would meet up to go out before the invention of cell phone - it boggles my mind!

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  7. It really is crazy to think of how much has changed in the last 15-20 years. Do you also remember sneaking phone calls to boys on the "main line" and then hearing clicking when parents/sibling picked up? How many times did you say "I CAN HEAR YOU ON THE OTHER PHONE!!!" Ahh, life before cell phones :)

    Great list, brought back many happy memories.

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  8. I 100% agree. Our generation has seen the most crazy changes.. in my opinion. Before internet, cell phones, and email... the things that we all need and use daily! I love this! It makes me feel old though. :S hahaha!

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  9. Fraggle Rock! Haha! My friends and I were just singing the theme song like we were six again. Love love love all the "remember whens" you posted. Awesome!

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  10. it really is crazy! i think about this all the time - how funny it is that now, i'll freak out if i leave the house without my cell phone...when it seems like yesterday there were only land lines!

    thanks for your words about preschool. he seems to be adjusting a lot better than last year!

    [oomph.]

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  11. I love that I grew up without the internet and cell phones. I cherish it, actually! And I know that if I have kids, I'll want to keep them "tech free" to an extent, so they experience the freedom of long nights playing hide-and-seek outside, and snail mail with relatives and pen pals. And you nailed the noise of dial-up internet. So funny!

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  12. I remember when I was in 7th grade and we first got internet. Hearing the dial up and then the "you've got mail" always made me feel AWESOME. My how things have changed!

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  13. We had a red rotary phone. I loved that thing. my dad and i used to take it apart and then put it back together to see how it worked. You can't do that anymore. Unless you're well versed in LEDS and computer programming.

    And seriously, fax machines can suck it.

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  14. I always think about this and how it affects my students and one day, my own children. I tend to hover somewhere between the amazing advancements that technology provides us in terms of communication and information and the nostalgia of simpler times.

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  15. don't forget Czechoslovakia!! Imagine my selfish sadness when it went to the Czech Republic {only because I learned to spell it in the 6th grade and since it stuck it's a shame it's taking up space in my brain if it is no longer a country}

    this post made me laugh and sigh. We're just on the cusp of the times in our lives when we'll laugh {and be laughed at} for saying 'when I was your age' and the youngn will look at us like we roamed with dinosaurs. FUN!

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  16. and yes, before you mock me, I do realize czechoslovakia was part of the USSR.. =)

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  17. Awesome! But the thigh-master seemed weirdly out of place, don't you think?

    I loved your list. It's funny to think about the way things used to be, not so very long ago. You forget. Thanks for the hilarious reminders!

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  18. Sometimes, I think about men and women who are near 100 years old and how TRULY drastically things have changed since they were born. So much has happened in the last 110 years. It's amazing.

    And when I walked into my room today, I let out a cry of "Kitty Cats, HO!" (ala the Thundercats cry).

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  19. My family and I were reminiscing about this on the road yesterday when we realized how many different electronic devices we had between the five of us in the car-- five phones, two iPods, a MacBook air, and an iPhone.
    The tech thing that gets me, though, is a DVR. The kids I babysit flip through a million recordings of whatever they want (within reason) at any time. There's no "nothing's on!" or scrambling to watch something at a certain time or family gathering at whatever time to watch something together regularly.

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  20. Brilliant read - I remember the dial up internet, the brick sized first mobile phones, and the fact no one was reachable. However I have been thinking about the things people used to do back in the day, NO one would do today: SMOKE when preggers & in the same room as babies and kids, let your kids roam around freely from a young age (maybe a danish thing) car with no seat-belts, eat tons of multi colored candy and wash it all down with cola - hyperactive anyone - ha ha. But we all turned out ok though - thanks Kim had myself a good old giggle.
    Axx

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  21. 1:11 so damn epic !! memories ! hahahahaha i had a good laugh Kim !!

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  22. oh, the 90s! I confessed I was hug Fraggle Rock fan. I loved that theme song.

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  23. I don't know a few of the things you mentioned, but most made me feel nostalgic. I think that the 2000s probably think we're SO old for being born in the 1900s, ha! That's what I used to say all the time as a kid "my kids are going to think I'm so old since I was born before 2000!" Oh, life!

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