What do you remember...

[Chuck S]

What small things do you remember that your children will not? What do your parents remember that you do not?

I remember:

Phones that "rang" rather than beeped.
Black & White TV.
Computers programmed via "IBM Cards"
Phone "exchanges" like "NEwmark, LAkeview, WHitehall" where the letters on the dial were actually used.
Having to get up out of the chair to change TV channels.
Pocket calculators costing $100
The disinctive odor in the classroom when the teacher would hand out those purple "ditto" sheets.

My Mom remembers:

3 digit phone numbers
The pledge without "under God"
The world without any Disney park
Gas lights & refrigerators
Streetcars in Los Angeles.
Flying on a DC-3.
Seeing the "Spruce Goose" fly, in person.

 

[BuckNaked]

To add to your list:

Telephones with dials instead of buttons
Only 3 (possibly 4) stations on TV
TVs with dials and also TVs with a number pad on the TV

 

[SC Minnie]

Phones that were connected to the wall (couldn't walk all over the house unless you had a super long cord!)

Pop tops on soda and beer cans

 

[escape]

Fun thread!

I remember:
--dialing on a telephone and not just pressing the keypad
--seeing blank checks at the checkout counter - for people to fill in their account numbers
--physically getting up and changing the TV channel
--leaving the car doors unlocked when going out
--leaving the house unlocked when at home
--life before cell phones
--life before the Internet

these are just for starters

 

[lovetheparks]

I remember:

Glass coke and pepsi bottles

 

[malibuconlee]

Don't have kids, but...

Before Cartoon Network, when you actually got up early on Saturday morning to watch cartoons. DH and I agree we both watched until Land of the Lost came on, then it was time to do something else.

Soap Scrimage Football games. Do they still do those, and where did the soap go?

Dialing "0" and getting a real person that was no further away than the next town over. (In my case my aunt!!)

Console television sets. Those were a piece of furniture!!

When there was only ONE movie playing at a time because there was only one screen to show it on.

 

[hemispheredancer]

glass pop bottles
tv antennaes
cardboard milk jugs (and they were 1 gallon jugs!!)
no power steering
110 cameras with that little square flash bulb that had 4 flashes

 

[golfgal]

Record albums, especially when they skip
Dime stores
playing in the "wayback" of a station wagon on long trips (didn't have to wear seat belts)
actually doing math without a calculator
Saturday afternoon matinees at the movie theater that was all kids, no adults and showed kid movies AND cost 25 cents to get in.

 

[cardaway]

Copying music was puting a tape recorder real close to the speakers and hitting record.

 

[tar heel]

telephone party lines -- my grandmother's "hobby" was listening to her neighbors' conversations!
8-track tape players
cars not having a/c
slide rules
no microwaves -- I saw a demonstration of this wonderful new product at 4-H camp the summer I was 11.

 

[SamRoc]

I remember:
Getting milk delivered in glass bottles to a silver box outside my house (this was in the 60's)
Saving up all my pennies so I could ride my bike to the candy store to get all the plastic charms out of the machine
Going to the Brook theater every saturday in the summer to see "monster" movies. (Frankenstein, Werewolf)
Winky dink on tv
Listening to hopalong cassidy on the record player
Having to wait one whole year to watch "Wizard of Oz" on television

 

[buzzlady]

I remember milk machines. You'd put in .75 push the button and get a 1/2 gal. of milk. Not sure if they were all over, but we had one across the street from our house.

 

[cardaway]

Having to leave the house to play video games.

 

[CheshireVal]

Playing outside with the neighbors until dark, and having to be dragged in under threat of punishment.

Those huge old floppy disks that were big and square.

Having to get up to change the channel on the TV.

 

[KAMLEM]

I just told my daughter this the other day. I remember when you had to go to the bank when it was open to take your money out. No ATM's!

 

[imsorry]

Playing jumprope in the street
Playing stickball in the street
Playing skully in the street
(there were no video games or vcr's, dvd's etc. - you found a way to
amuse yourself)

Busdrivers actually carrying real money - you gave him a quarter and got a nickel change!

Going to the library to do a book report - there were no computers

penny candy in an acual "candy store"

new saddle shoes - we never wore sneakers

 

[escape]

Ok, I have some more to add:

--gas at 25 cents a gallon. My MIL remembers lower than that
--Wizard of Oz watching parties (since it only came on once a year)
--wishing we could record TV shows much like we did music
--trick or treating without adult supervision
--being left alone for several hours without adult supervision
--life without Interstates in Arkansas
--standing in loooooooonnnnnnng lines to register for college courses only to be told a class is full by the time you reached the front of the line.

 

[always quiet]

I remember when the tv set was big enough that it was classified as furniture (BIG wooden consoles).

When we got this "roto-tenna" for the tv. You could turn the dial and it would rotate the antenna on your rooftop. I thought we were hot shots because we could watch NY tv channels.

The only time you saw cartoons were between 3 and 5 on weekdays on the UHF channels and on Saturday mornings until noon on normal channels.

Our first microwave was HUGE and really didn't cook that good.

The only outdoor grills were charcoal...much later the gas grills came out and were they ever expensive!

And this is a biggie..........

Going to Disney World when once you were inside the parks, it was virtually impossible for the "outside world" to reach you!!

 

[HayGan]

Rabbit ear attennas
Life without computers (heck they don't even know about floppydisks)
not sitting in a car seat as a child
vinyl records/8 track
leaded gasoline
3 television stations (or at most 5)

 

[ChristmasElf]

I remember phone numbers that started with 2 letters like TL4-5555
ZIP codes that were the city and then 2 numbers
6 cents to mail a letter (1975 I think)
When every school provided busses-the only time a parent took the kid to school was if they were late.
Not thinking twice when your little brother or sister went up to the corner store with another 8 year old to buy a popsicle. (now you wouldn't let your 16 year old go by themselves
I remember staying with my Grandparents for the weekend and seeing her neighbor walking a baby carriage up to the supermarket and leaving the baby out front while she ran in for a few things (1966)
cars with no seatbelts
Miracle Whip was always $1.09
Gerber baby food in the jars were 8 cents each and a little bigger then they are now.
Cash registers where the cashier had to punch the price in for every item
milkman that delivered milk into a silver chest that sat next to the side door into the house
Mr Softee ice cream truck