air conditioning, indoor plumbing, washing machine and dryer, ball point pen, power tools, sneakers
GPS see the website for my book
Www.gpsdeclassified.com
My video game skills have not advanced beyong Pong and Space Invaders.
Not my dad. He had me!
i also remember recording favorite songs from the radio... the hard part was to end the recording before the deejay or a commercial came on...
Thanks! I am old enough that this is quite relevant to me.
I think it was 1975 when my grandfather purchased an early Texas Instruments calculator. Just the most basic of functions (add, subtract, multiply, divide). I think he paid around $300 for it.
My dad was in the Air Force stationed at a radar facility along the Gulf Coast. He told me how seagulls used to come swooping in off the gulf, fly too close to the towers, and immediately drop to the ground. An hour later they’d still be sizzling on the inside. I pointed out that he had missed his chance to invent the microwave oven.
I recently disposed of a non-remote television set I had purchased in 1991. And it was my primary set well into this century. It was obsolete even when purchased, but having grown up with such sets I thought paying extra for the remote was a waste. Thought about trying to get it fixed, but when Pennsylvania banned old TV’s from landfills I was afraid I might get stuck with it forever.
I got a TI-99 computer one year for Christmas. After spending 6 1/2 hours writing hundreds of lines of Basic code to accomplish something I could have done with a pencil in 60 seconds, I decided “it will never catch on!” and pushed it to the back of the closet. Total lack of foresight on my part.
Ahh, Pong! My brother and I spent hours on the display model at Sears. My dad thought it was stupid and refused to buy one.
Worked Christmas of ‘85 in an electronics store. The first really big Christmas for VCR’s. Sold over 300 units myself between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. They ran about $350. On a really good sale you could pick one up for $299.
Low-end individual cassettes went for about five bucks apiece.
When my cell carrier tries to upgrade me I tell them thank you, but I am perfectly happy living in the 80’s.
Though I refuse to believe that women EVER went without hair dryers.
RE: Rotary phones.
They were ‘real’ fun when radio stations did that “be the 7th caller and win” contests.
We got an Amana Radarange in 1976. Three buttons, two twist knobs, no turn tray. Top of the line.
Of all those, the modern “smart phone” as exemplified by the original iPhone and all it’s imitators, has been the most disruptive. That can be good or that can be bad.
Dropping land line phone typically more than offsets the cost of the cell plan unless you’re heavily into texting and downloading videos and such, which usually is due to teens on the plan. There’s a decent camera and video recording system in the phone, a calculator, basic and even full versions of business software, internet connectivity, GPS, it’s become a fairly indispensable device if all or even most of the capabilities present in the device are used.
I can foresee a day in the not too distant future, when “computer” and “camera” cease to mean anything to the average person beyond their cell phone.
Besides all of the above, there was actually a time when cars didn’t all have air conditioning, power windows and locks, and/or remote entry key fobs with alarms.
In the distant past, “alloy” wheels on cars were often not even an option and certainly not common and many cars had 14” wheels with 15” reserved for large cars and full size pickups. 17” wheels were a relic from the 30s.
Remember overhead projectors and filmstrip projectors?
How about chalk and chalkboards, and those special chalk holders the teachers could use to draw lines on the board to teach penmanship (back when that subject was taught).
How about the evolution of ski equipment - remember cubco bindings and leather boots and 6 foot skis?
How about photography, from kodachrome to digital in just a few decades - amazing.
What about the button on the car floor to turn on the headlights?
Copy machine
Fax machine
WHY DID NOBODY THINK OF PUTTING WHEELS ON LUGGAGE??!?
(Sound of hyperventilating)
How did we ever live without it?
Okay, I can’t have been the only kid to have to climb up on the roof of the house to adjust the TV antenna when it got stuck as Dad was down on the ground telling me if it was good.
I kind of miss those vacuum tube testers at the grocery and hardware stores.