You remember registering for classes freshman year of college using punch cards. Every department had a table set up and you rushed to pick up the punch card for the class you wanted. When the cards were gone for a class the class was full. Then you took your stack of cards up to the table where they double checked, and then put a rubber band around your stack and added it to the pile to be taken to the giant computer later and run through the system.
@LuckyCharms913 I have to use the voice GPS as well and Siri can kiss my —. LOL I am as blind as a bat close up and it drives me crazy. I have taken to putting my iPad next to me because it is bigger.
…when the Casio Pocket Mini seemed small
Your dorm had a phone booth and if you walked by when it was ringing you picked it up asked who was calling and screamed down the hall “Suzy Q, your mom is on the phone”. Our rooms actually had individual phone that you had to have an account to use but NO ONE ever gave that number to their parents.
Remember going to the library to research a company before an interview? Remember getting resumes printed at a print shop?
When I’m entering my information on a website and have to scroll a long way to find my birth year.
…when people stand up on the train/bus to give you their seat.
This actually happened to me at the grocery store not too long ago and scarred me for life. I was buying two bottles of wine.
Cashier: Are you over 55?
Me: What? You have to be over 55 to buy alcohol now?
Cashier: No. It’s Senior Wednesday and I just want to make sure you get the discounts you’re eligible for.
Me: Forget the bag, I’ll just drink them here.
Well, I AM over 55 but I didn’t think anyone knew it because I’m only 18 in my head. Guess I’ve reached the denial stage.
Using Encyclopedia’s to do your homework. Using a phone that had a rotary dial and you had a party line. Being the remote control for your fathers TV. Using one of the first microwave ovens. DOS, dial up Internet, RAM stated in terms of Kb.
There really is too much to list and even more I’m sure I can’t remember!
@ChoatieMom - that is very funny!
I remember my boss in the late 80’s had a mobile phone - it was in and attached to a suitcase that she had to lug everywhere. My dad had a car phone that had to stay in the car. I remember thinking both those things were so cool and modern.
Anyone remember the brief CB radio phase in the 70’s? My parents’ car had one of those as well and we all had “handle’s”…
Lastly, most kids in my dorm freshmen year had a specific time they would get the hall phone to speak with their parents. Mine was 4:30 on Sunday. I remember talking to my BF at another school and having to stand there in the hallway while everyone walked by, trying to have a ‘private’ conversation…
My freshman year, we had one phone number for the entire dorm, which had about 350 girls in it. If someone called for you, they would “buzz” your room. One buzz meant Roommate A and two buzzes meant Roommate B. Then, you’d have to run all over the dorm building to find an available phone – there were only around 10 in the building. If you didn’t get to an available phone in time, your caller would hang up.
I remember coming back from class and seeing that my buzzer had been buzzed, but we didn’t know if it was for me or my roommate, nor did we know who had called or when. It was an absolutely horrible system.
I remember, freshman year, waiting in my dorm room for the boys to call because answering machines hadn’t been invented yet.
Before that, at home my mom would take a message.
After that, at the sorority house, the person on “phone duty” would take a message.
I remember the very first episode ever of “Young and the Restless” and there was no way to record an episode. You had to watch it in real time. Now there are almost no soaps left.
I remember almost the first: portable hair dryers, electric rollers, color TVs,
I saw the beginning of VHS and stores to rent them, then DVDs, and then streaming, and then almost no storefronts anymore. I remember BETA.
Friend’s son is going to Vietnam this summer on an adventure tour (?). He explained to me where Vietnam was and how hardly anyone has ever heard of it.
Remember when your phone number had an exchange, like “WARWICK 88610” and that meant you dialed “WA88610?”
I was at a meeting of a new group (just moved to a new city) and we were having a “games” night. The rules for the game our table leader picked said the oldest person at the table had to go first. Ummm… after everyone else said their ages, I said brightly, “Then I guess it is me!” and rolled the dice. Mortifying…
Boys weren’t allowed in girls’ dorm rooms. Or only during certain hours and, “Open door, feet on the floor.”
Walking and riding bikes all over small town when in 2nd grade with bff 1st grade friend and nobody thought a thing about it. We’d leave in the morning and “be sure to be back for dinner”. Nobody worried. Knew everybody in the neighborhood and beyond. Never imagined what a great blessing that was at the time.
Parents called us in for dinner by ringing the dinner bell near the side door of the house. No cell phones, no texting, but we could hear that thing a half mile away. We were always outside playing.
When you see things that you used (for what seems like not that long ago) in an antique shop: like rotary phones, LPs, and the toys you played with as a kid.
Remember burning punks in the summer? They used to sell them everywhere, now you can’t find them anymore. I ordered them from Vermont Country Store for my own children when they were little. They did not seem as enthralled with them as we were as kids - punks were an essential part of summer for us!