<p>speaking of calculators, I remember checking them out of the library because I didn’t own one - and I had to use reverse Polish Notation to use it.</p>
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<p>It was the other way around for me.</p>
<p>Y’all are making me nostalgic. I was definitely a slide rule kid. K&E and Pickett both…still have a couple of bamboo ones around somewhere but I’d have to look at instructions for much beyond division.</p>
<p>I also remember when color radio first came in.</p>
<p>“being the 100th girl in the school to get a Sassoon Cut or the Dorothy Hammill”</p>
<p>I had the Dorothy Hamill!! And don’t you know, about a month after I got that ‘bleepin’ haircut, “Charlie’s Angels” premiered with Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith and all their glorious long hair. I was sick.</p>
<p>What’s a slide rule?</p>
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I do that…grr</p>
<p>My mom says that she actually took a comp class in high school…odd</p>
<p>“up up Ready Write, Circle One, Two, Three, Four One Two Three Four, Now Down and Loop Loop Loop, now up and Loop Loop Loop Loop!” </p>
<p>We did calisthetics in unison for Handwriting class to learn how to make pefect circles up in the air, and to learn how to make swoops and loops. Handwriting was an art form where only the Few could truly be Perfect. Very serious enterprise more important than Jumping Jacks. about ten minutes of that a day.</p>
<p>Pant Suit Day for Girls…Thursdays Only! O boy thanks Gloria Steinem!</p>
<p>Subscriptions to Ms. magazine</p>
<p>Rolling Stone in newspaper format</p>
<p>Virginia Slims cigarettes equated with Womens Lib and Tennis stars (?)</p>
<p>Not sure if these were mentioned…</p>
<p>Playing Solitaire with real cards and not a mouse</p>
<p>Making homemade ice cream with rock salt and a strong arm.</p>
<p>Laying in the grass with your siblings on a summer night and arguing about the constellations. (Can’t even SEE the stars in the Houston suburbs). </p>
<p>Making a ‘flashlight’ with a canning jar and a bunch of ‘lightning bugs’ (that’s Texan for firefly).</p>
<p>One more that only coastal folk will get…
…before we had ipods, jetskis, etc…to entertain us at the beach/bay, kids used to pass the time having pier to pier cabbage head (big jelly fish) wars.</p>
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“spray and brush is all you do then GO! cause Clairol freshens your hair instanty with P S S S S S T”
speaking of hair - winding Tressie’s hair in with a key or having one of your annoying brothers pull it out so far the key wouldn’t work any more :(</p>
<p>speaking of hair
my older D used to take ballet at PNB
a very big deal to get her fine straight hair into a bun and stay that way
it took lots of goop and straight pins</p>
<p>I had the Dorothy Hamill!! And don’t you know, about a month after I got that ‘bleepin’ haircut, “Charlie’s Angels” premiered with Farrah Fawcett and Jaclyn Smith and all their glorious long hair. I was sick.</p>
<p>I remember cutting “wedges” for girls in beauty school, much prefered to the gymnastics involved in giving asian girls with waist lenght beautiful hair- ( but straight) the cut and the permanent curl needed to get their hair to even vaguely resemble the Farrah Fawcett style)</p>
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<p>1/2 of our neighborhood are still grilling with charcoal (H included). There is a friendly but fierce rivalry about what fuel source creates a better tasting meat.</p>
<p>We grill with wood and use a chimney firestarter rather than lighter fluid. We’re actually more old school than our childhoods. :)</p>
<p>At the school where I work, the kids still have to learn to diagram sentences. Unfortunately I grew up in the hippie days and never learned predicate nominative mumbojumbo so I can’t help. Good thing I don’t teach grammer! Math is so much more fun! HOwever, I think it’s increasingly important since kids will all have to learn another language some day and knowing grammer in one language carries over to another.</p>
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<p>How true! My son is struggling with his college foreign language because he really has no idea about English grammar. All he was taught in school seemed to be write, write, write, be creative–but little instruction on the foundations.</p>
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<p>I don’t understand this. We’ve had the wheel for about 7000 years, and people have had luggage in one form or another since forever. So why did it take until about 1990 to put the two concepts together?</p>
<p>Balancing a checkbook (thanks to software).</p>
<p>Socializing <tic> thanks to CC (ROFLMAO)</tic></p>
<p>herbrokemom: I wanted to mention Tressy and always losing her key or having her hair yanked out past the point of no return but I thought it was too obscure.</p>
<p>coureur…so right you are about Why Did Suitcases with Wheels not emerge till the end of the century.</p>
<p>OK
Washing out your white gloves and laying them out to dry.</p>
<p>Learning the perfect way to cover your Mateus Rose wine bottle with dripping wax </p>
<p>Throwing out flashbulbs and then of course “graduating” to those ever so mod Flashcubes.</p>
<p>And why did no one ever think to put a camera on a phone?</p>
<p>(Honestly: I want a phone that’s a phone, a camera that’s a camera.)</p>
<p>Speaking of phones, it’s harder to find hardwired sets (non-wireless) for the home.</p>
<p>I much rather prefer my separate digital camera as well. I’m a bit picky about photo quality, ISO, and lenses, so camera phones just don’t cut it.</p>
<p>Does anyone remember setting up computer hardware before the day of plug-and-play, jumperless settings, and OSes with GUIs? I sure don’t want to.</p>
<p>Ah, I also worked at a hotel switchboard as the operator. We did have those cords & you should have seen ALL the phone light up whenever there was a power outage, indeed it was like “Lucy”! I was only about 14 years old at the time & was mystified as to why folks frequently called down with what I considered very odd requests, like “water.” (Hawaii happens to have some of the best tasting, purest water on the planet & at 14, I didn’t realize how uncommon that was.) The bellhops loved me because I’d send them up to the rooms with a pitcher of ice water & I’m quite sure they got some nice tips in the process. Sometimes, I just told them to go to the bathroom, take the cup near the sink & turn the tap on & drink the water. I’m sure they thought I was on another planet.
Decided that summer I’d never work in Travel Industry & Management, since they were very busy when I wanted to be able to spend time with my family–nights, weekends, & holidays.
There were excellent baggers who could pack groceries nicely & fit everything in without squashing bread or breaking eggs.</p>
<p>Watching sports on television without instant replay. We expect to be able to instantly critique everything.</p>