From https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/ ... ce/546902/ we have:

There’s a question going around on Twitter, courtesy of the writer Matt Whitlock: “Without revealing your actual age, what’s something you remember that if you told a younger person they wouldn’t understand?”

This simple query has received, at this date, 18,000 responses. Here is just a tiny selection:

• A/S/L
• Pagers
• Manual car windows
• “Be kind, please rewind”
• “Waiting by the radio for my song to come on so I could record it on a cassette tape”
• Floppy disks
• The smell of purple mimeograph ink
• WordPerfect
• Busy signals
• Paper maps
• Winamp
• Smoking in the hospital
• The card catalogue

What would we add?

For me, I think of pre-WWW communication forms such as Usenet first ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usenet ) or BBSes.

I guess a young person would understand what a transistor radio does, but not why they were so important at the time. Same for Sony Walkman later on.

Sending letters snail mail through the post.

No direct deposit. And those little booklets for savings accounts. Checks. Having only 6 or fewer TV channels. Not being able to record any TV show. Dirty magazines. Drive-in theaters. Using a library because there was no Google only to find Encyclopedia Britannica was 7 years old or more. Paying a dime for a 5 minute phone call in town.

Commodore 64. Litmus test for millennials.

A telephone you actually had to rent with a metal hook that kept you from unplugging it. When the cable broke you didn’t have a phone until the repairman came out because there was no Home Depot.

Pretty much every business closed on the weekend. 7-11 was a groundbreaking store because they were actually open from 7 am to 11 pm. Every other store was 9-5 or 8-6 if you were lucky.

When you couldn’t put gas in your car, the attendant did it for you.

Smoking at your desk.

Hand crank photocopiers

“Sending away” for something via mail, and somehow being ok with waiting 4-8 weeks or more for it to arrive. Especially when I won’t even order something now unless it offers 2 day shipping!

Carbon paper. Onionskin paper. Whiteout.

Pay phones
AM/FM radio
Turn signals

Re: “Waiting by the radio for my song to come on so I could record it on a cassette tape”: my Dad used to have a reel-to-reel tape machine. Some radio station would announce they were going to play some album end to end, and he'd make sure to be able to record it. If he didn't like it, he'd just reuse the tape for something else.

bombayduck wrote:

Sending letters snail mail through the post.

Yes, in college I used to write letters to girlfriends because calling was too expensive. Also, they seemed to like it, and it was always a pleasant surprise to get one back from them. Now most people can't be arsed to answer the phone, and there's always Tinder/Grindr/etc.

seb146 wrote:

No direct deposit. And those little booklets for savings accounts. Checks. Having only 6 or fewer TV channels. Not being able to record any TV show. Dirty magazines. Drive-in theaters. Using a library because there was no Google only to find Encyclopedia Britannica was 7 years old or more. Paying a dime for a 5 minute phone call in town.

When I was in college if a professor assigned a research topic you had better run to the library to get the research material you needed, because if you didn't, the one and only copy of the relevant material would be gone if you didn't. Even then, half the time the stuff you needed wasn't there.

seb146 wrote:

No direct deposit. And those little booklets for savings accounts. Checks. Having only 6 or fewer TV channels. Not being able to record any TV show. Dirty magazines. Drive-in theaters. Using a library because there was no Google only to find Encyclopedia Britannica was 7 years old or more. Paying a dime for a 5 minute phone call in town.

Yep. Good old Sears catalog, also Montgomery Ward was around too.

LittleFokker wrote:

Pay phones
AM/FM radio
Turn signals

Most young'uns seem to understand what radio is, but wonder why adults still listen to it.

I don't think terrestrial radio has much of a future to it.

LittleFokker wrote:

Pay phones
AM/FM radio
Turn signals

Thanks for the remind. I probably need to check my blinker fluid level. Every time I change lanes, I get honked at and get a very special, one finger salute. LOL

Dialphone
Microfiche archives at the library
Overhead projectors
Cheques (never ever even seen one in NL, did see them in England)
Fax machine
Office without internet / e-mail

Travelers Checks
Phone service paid by the minute
Holding an antenna to tune in a TV show (or banging on the side of the TV as it ages to bring the picture back by shifting the tubes)
All metal strollers (those things were beasts)
No car seats
Leaded gas
Changing your own oil

The Minitel

Every French home had one. Many people had one on their work desk too, often along with a PC.



"The Minitel was a Videotex online service accessible through telephone lines, and is considered one of the world's most successful pre-World Wide Web online services."

Telex machines
Spirit duplicators
Dial phones
TV shutting down overnight

DL717 wrote:

Holding an antenna to tune in a TV show (or banging on the side of the TV as it ages to bring the picture back by shifting the tubes)

TVs with dials and knobs, and without remotes
Antenna rotators

Revelation wrote:

DL717 wrote:

Holding an antenna to tune in a TV show (or banging on the side of the TV as it ages to bring the picture back by shifting the tubes)

TVs with dials and knobs, and without remotes
Antenna rotators

Black and white tv!

Some from my early days in computing:

Real 'core' memory.
Paper tape.
Punch cards.

When I started working for British Airways in the mid-1970s, they ran the airline on 4 x IBM 360-65 mainframes in a room the size of a hangar. Those four massive computers had a grand total of 256Kb of memory between them!

Revelation wrote:

Re: “Waiting by the radio for my song to come on so I could record it on a cassette tape”: my Dad used to have a reel-to-reel tape machine. Some radio station would announce they were going to play some album end to end, and he'd make sure to be able to record it. If he didn't like it, he'd just reuse the tape for something else.

Your dad? How old are you, if I may ask? I'm 52 and in my younger times I had a reel-to-reel myself. Actually, several of them.

Someone mentioned self-service at gas stations, New Jersey and most of Oregon don't allow self service, an attendant must serve you.
Some other items::
No ATM's. had to go to a bank to get cash, deposit a check when openm usually 9-3 Mon-Fri, maybe to 5 PM on Friday. Paper checks.
Tobacco product/cigarette ads
Credit cards not connected to a particular store or gas station brand - ie: Visa/Mastercard/Discover.
Cheap walk-up and standby airfares (including to/from JFK/EWR to LHR/LGW), no luggage fees, got served meals even on relatively short domestic US flights, only limited metal detector and x-ray searches to get to gate. Non-flyers having access to airport gates.
Legal drinking in most states in the USA at age 18
Cars and homes without air conditioning, maybe only a fan
Good paying private sector jobs with full health care and pension benefits.
Affordable college tuition.
Freedom as a child to roam the streets of your town or just play outside with fear of perverts
Board games you played for hours instead of video games
The only legal places to gamble were in Nevada or horse racing.
4-wheel drive vehicles were trucks not SUV's.
No seat belts or only lap belts.
Kid seats were a cheap one you hung over the front seat.
Physical punishment by teachers in public schools (and most private/religious ones too) for violations.
If got cancer, had a heart attack you usually died soon.
Professional sports players had to have off-season jobs
Legal racism as to Black persons, mainly in the SE USA.
No legal Gay Marriage. GLTBQ's had to be 'in the closet', subject to police violence and harassment
Pot not legal.
No video cameras watching every street, buildings
Native Americans were called Indians.
Not in fear of someone coming into your school, workplace, public area and a victim of a mass shooting or terror act.

petertenthije wrote:

Revelation wrote:

DL717 wrote:

Holding an antenna to tune in a TV show (or banging on the side of the TV as it ages to bring the picture back by shifting the tubes)

TVs with dials and knobs, and without remotes
Antenna rotators

Black and white tv!

Went through that with my kids watching old movies . They were like... WTF?

Telephone calling cards. $0.10 a minute.

ltbewr wrote:

Someone mentioned self-service at gas stations, New Jersey and most of Oregon don't allow self service, an attendant must serve you.
Some other items::
No ATM's. had to go to a bank to get cash, deposit a check when openm usually 9-3 Mon-Fri, maybe to 5 PM on Friday. Paper checks.
Tobacco product/cigarette ads
Credit cards not connected to a particular store or gas station brand - ie: Visa/Mastercard/Discover.
Cheap walk-up and standby airfares (including to/from JFK/EWR to LHR/LGW), no luggage fees, got served meals even on relatively short domestic US flights, only limited metal detector and x-ray searches to get to gate. Non-flyers having access to airport gates.
Legal drinking in most states in the USA at age 18
Cars and homes without air conditioning, maybe only a fan
Good paying private sector jobs with full health care and pension benefits.
Affordable college tuition.
Freedom as a child to roam the streets of your town or just play outside with fear of perverts
Board games you played for hours instead of video games
The only legal places to gamble were in Nevada or horse racing.
4-wheel drive vehicles were trucks not SUV's.
No seat belts or only lap belts.
Kid seats were a cheap one you hung over the front seat.
Physical punishment by teachers in public schools (and most private/religious ones too) for violations.
If got cancer, had a heart attack you usually died soon.
Professional sports players had to have off-season jobs
Legal racism as to Black persons, mainly in the SE USA.
No legal Gay Marriage. GLTBQ's had to be 'in the closet', subject to police violence and harassment
Pot not legal.
No video cameras watching every street, buildings
Native Americans were called Indians.
Not in fear of someone coming into your school, workplace, public area and a victim of a mass shooting or terror act.

The last one you mention went down in the 50s and 60s when the serial killer came to prominence.

ltbewr wrote:

Tobacco product/cigarette ads

Some of which were very funny/clever, the "Wait 'til I finish my Saratoga!" campaign for Saratogas and "You've come a long way, baby!" for Virginia Slims in particular.

ltbewr wrote:

Credit cards not connected to a particular store or gas station brand - ie: Visa/Mastercard/Discover.

Conversely, credit cards that had no Visa/Mastercard/Discover affiliation and were ONLY good at a particular store or gas station, e.g. your J.C.Penney card could only be used at J.C.Penney, your Amoco card could only be used at Amoco.

Credit cards with no magnetic strip that had to be manually imprinted by the sales clerk, and you had to be sure and get the carbons from between the copies of the charge along with your receipt. Related to that, having to write down your tag number on the charge form every time you bought gas on a credit card (to this day I still remember the tag numbers of my first two cars because of this).

No "Pay at the Pump" at gas stations and having to go inside at least once every time you bought gas.

ltbewr wrote:

Legal racism as to Black persons, mainly in the SE USA.

Sadly not gone yet.

So you could have a VISA card from VISA ? Or do you mean from your bank ?

Here cards are most commonly provided by banks, although you can also get ones from supermarkets.

Total, despite having many stations in the country, doesn't offer cards to people, only to companies (I have one for my company car).

A portable computer....


Tugg

Aesma wrote:

So you could have a VISA card from VISA ? Or do you mean from your bank ?

Major credit cards (Visa {formerly BankAmericard}, MasterCard {formerly MasterCharge}, Discover {initially only available at Sears}, and American Express) came straight from the credit card company itself. All that was printed on the front was the name of the credit card company, the cardholder's name, the account number, and the expiration date.

Aesma wrote:

Here cards are most commonly provided by banks, although you can also get ones from supermarkets.

I seem to recall that one could get major credit cards through one's bank even long ago, but if memory serves they had to be tied to an existing checking or savings account in which you had to maintain a minimum balance. I think this service may have been geared more towards business owners than individuals.

Aesma wrote:

Total, despite having many stations in the country, doesn't offer cards to people, only to companies (I have one for my company car).

Interesting. I can understand wanting to cultivate corporate/fleet business, but not offering cards to individuals would seem to be leaving money on the table.

Tugger wrote:

A portable computer....


Tugg

OMG, the memories.

I took one of these Compaq bad boys home from work for a weekend once. Nearly gave myself a hernia the thing was so damn heavy.

I love the fax.
When possible, I still use it.
At home, sadly, with optic fiber it is not possible anymore. The router is downstairs in the living room, my fax is on my desk in the house office upstairs.

WinMX and Napster. I do remember downloading songs at 7 Kbs with 56K and dialup connection seemed so high speed.

Modem dial screeches
Paper aircraft tickets
Computers not linked to the internet.
Floppy discs
78rpm records
Paper maps

Aesma wrote:

So you could have a VISA card from VISA ? Or do you mean from your bank ?

Here cards are most commonly provided by banks, although you can also get ones from supermarkets.

Total, despite having many stations in the country, doesn't offer cards to people, only to companies (I have one for my company car).

Visa.

scbriml wrote:

Some from my early days in computing:

Real 'core' memory.
Paper tape.
Punch cards.

When I started working for British Airways in the mid-1970s, they ran the airline on 4 x IBM 360-65 mainframes in a room the size of a hangar. Those four massive computers had a grand total of 256Kb of memory between them!

Yep, today's yoot will never know of the days when programmers were cheaper than machine time or additional memory so you made the programmers do wonderful things like overlays instead of just adding more memory.

Another one: bytes that are not 8 bits long. Ref: DEC's PDP-6/10/20/etc, IBM mainframes before System 360.

WildcatYXU wrote:

Revelation wrote:

Re: “Waiting by the radio for my song to come on so I could record it on a cassette tape”: my Dad used to have a reel-to-reel tape machine. Some radio station would announce they were going to play some album end to end, and he'd make sure to be able to record it. If he didn't like it, he'd just reuse the tape for something else.

Your dad? How old are you, if I may ask? I'm 52 and in my younger times I had a reel-to-reel myself. Actually, several of them.

Just a couple years older than you.

Reel to reel tape was popular with audiophiles but by the time I had an income the cassette tape had taken over every other market.

Reel to reel was just too inconvenient except for home use.

All my friends had 'boom boxes'.

I bought myself a cassette deck for my college-era stereo, which consisted of ill matched tube amp, am/fm tuner, and cassette deck, all in a stained plywood rack that I built myself, with speakers bought in a 'grey goods' sale held in a hotel room that I learned about because someone was handing out flyers.

The stereo is not a part of the lives of today's yoot. They have some sort of bluetooth soundbar or speaker box paired with their phone and they're good to go.

The original giant laser disc.
VHS movies costing about $100 for big titles like Star Wars.
Photo booths in parking lots.
Running free in the neighborhood, unsupervised, until the street lights came on.
Coffee in a can. No Mr. Coffee to make it in. Whatever happened to MJB? That was my first coffee.
Backward facing seat in a station wagon. That was so freakin cool.
Water beds. Put the motion in the ocean!

How about a world with no Asian food?

That's how things were in my yoot spend in US suburbia.

I think it wasn't till the 80s till I had "Chinese" food, and that really is "Chinese-American food".

Of course the "big cities" like New York or even New Haven had such food, but it hadn't extended out to meat-and-potatoes suburbia.

Also a world with no fast food.

I remember pizza restaurants showing up in the late 60s / early 70s, and the first hamburger chains a bit later than that.

In the same time frame "TV dinners" were in vogue, and of course undermining family values, according to some.

Before that, maybe a local diner would make things "to go" but it was far from routine at least in my town.

Revelation wrote:

How about a world with no Asian food?

That's how things were in my yoot spend in US suburbia.

I think it wasn't till the 80s till I had "Chinese" food, and that really is "Chinese-American food".

Of course the "big cities" like New York or even New Haven had such food, but it hadn't extended out to meat-and-potatoes suburbia.

Also a world with no fast food.

I remember pizza restaurants showing up in the late 60s / early 70s, and the first hamburger chains a bit later than that.

In the same time frame "TV dinners" were in vogue, and of course undermining family values, according to some.

Before that, maybe a local diner would make things "to go" but it was far from routine at least in my town.

Definitely the fast food thing. McDonalds was about it. We did have a decent Chinese restaurant near us. It was a big deal to go there and it was laid out like a supper club. A guy opened it shortly after The Korean War. He died a few years back and my parents say it was recently closed. Guess the kids didn’t want to keep it going anymore.

This will get people riled up. Sambos...

Remember that nasty ass dessert in the TV dinner that would scorch your mouth? Even after it sat there for 20 minutes? What the hell was that?

Standing in line for a movie in a single, giant screen movie theater at noon for a 3:00 show because the noon show was sold out. This wanna be IMAX stuff today is nothing compared with a 70mm film on a 120’ screen. Also said show running in the same theater for months and still being sold out. Jaws, Close Encounters, Star Wars, Indiana Jones...All major events with lines as far as one could see. It was wild. Small screen multiplexes are a joke, though I’ll hand it to a few for a Dolby Cinema. They got the audio down perfectly. Needs some screen size help though.

Speaking of those films, at least the originals, nailed it without CG.

TV channels shutting down for the night, going off the air. They'd show the test pattern for a while then go dark.


Tugg

Wife and I stayed at a, not so modern, hotel this weekend. Still had a landline phone with cords and all. My son asked what it was. Told him it was a phone. "but where is the screen dad?"

I looked at my wife and we both laughed.

I still have the OE tape deck in My 87 Integra, with a case full of tapes....
The remote control for the TV that was a box with 30 buttons with a upper and lower level switch as well as a cord...
The day we all got a VCR for Christmas!....
A 15" TV or a Color TV...
Records... though gaining in popularity again...
So much good stuff on everyone's list....
3spd on the Tree....

seb146 wrote:

Having only 6 or fewer TV channels.

Having 3, two of them only starting transmission at 3pm

"You've got mail!"

Best regards
Thomas

scbriml wrote:

When I started working for British Airways in the mid-1970s, they ran the airline on 4 x IBM 360-65 mainframes in a room the size of a hangar. Those four massive computers had a grand total of 256Kb of memory between them!

The 360-65 wasn't sold with less than 128k RAM, no less than 256 after 1974.

Best regards
Thomas

seb146 wrote:

No direct deposit. And those little booklets for savings accounts. Checks. Having only 6 or fewer TV channels. Not being able to record any TV show. Dirty magazines. Drive-in theaters. Using a library because there was no Google only to find Encyclopedia Britannica was 7 years old or more. Paying a dime for a 5 minute phone call in town.

You still use cheques in the US and I know dirty magazines are still a thing, not sure why when internet porn is so easy to find.

The sheer terror of living during the Cold War; drills to practice sheltering under school desks, the loud city-wide alarms, the seeming inevitability of nuclear war.

The 60s were a head trip for that reason.

tommy1808 wrote:

seb146 wrote:

Having only 6 or fewer TV channels.

Having 3, two of them only starting transmission at 3pm

"You've got mail!"

Best regards
Thomas

Channels signing off for the night. No infomercials. Now, those bloody things are on the radio!

Kiwirob wrote:

seb146 wrote:

No direct deposit. And those little booklets for savings accounts. Checks. Having only 6 or fewer TV channels. Not being able to record any TV show. Dirty magazines. Drive-in theaters. Using a library because there was no Google only to find Encyclopedia Britannica was 7 years old or more. Paying a dime for a 5 minute phone call in town.

You still use cheques in the US and I know dirty magazines are still a thing, not sure why when internet porn is so easy to find.

Not many people use checks. I probably see two or three people a month using them, and I live in an area with an average age of 70.

Dirty magazines were such a taboo thing back in the day. Today, we discuss porn openly with no shame. Back in the day, we had to drive across town to a store where no one knew us. Trust me. Porn was much different then.

tommy1808 wrote:

scbriml wrote:

When I started working for British Airways in the mid-1970s, they ran the airline on 4 x IBM 360-65 mainframes in a room the size of a hangar. Those four massive computers had a grand total of 256Kb of memory between them!

The 360-65 wasn't sold with less than 128k RAM, no less than 256 after 1974.

Best regards
Thomas

All I can tell you is that they had been there for a number of years and each only had 64kb of core memory. They were never upgraded until they were replaced by Amdahl 470 mainframes in the late 1970s. BA's real-time reservation system ran on a single IBM 370-168.

mbmbos wrote:

The sheer terror of living during the Cold War; drills to practice sheltering under school desks, the loud city-wide alarms, the seeming inevitability of nuclear war.

The 60s were a head trip for that reason.

Being given GI Joe toys for Xmas as a school kid, seeing coverage of the Vietnam War on TV every night, drawing the obvious connection between the two.

Knowing kids not that much older than me that were drafted, some that didn't come back, some who did come back but were mentally scarred for life.

Pondering the imponderable choice: should I go to the military or Canada....

Luckily the Vietnam draft ended before I was of age, but I had no way of knowing that earlier on.

In the end I did end up registering once Reagan restarted it, but by then the odds they'd want me were pretty small.

scbriml wrote:

tommy1808 wrote:

scbriml wrote:

When I started working for British Airways in the mid-1970s, they ran the airline on 4 x IBM 360-65 mainframes in a room the size of a hangar. Those four massive computers had a grand total of 256Kb of memory between them!

The 360-65 wasn't sold with less than 128k RAM, no less than 256 after 1974.

Best regards
Thomas

All I can tell you is that they had been there for a number of years and each only had 64kb of core memory. They were never upgraded until they were replaced by Amdahl 470 mainframes in the late 1970s. BA's real-time reservation system ran on a single IBM 370-168.

My uni rocked a 370 when I first got there in the early 80s.

A few years later it was upgraded to 3080.

At the end of the 80s I was an IBM employee and we were using a 3084 solely to read email and write documentation.

It blew my mind that we were using such a big machine just to read email.

seb146 wrote:

tommy1808 wrote:

seb146 wrote:

Having only 6 or fewer TV channels.

Having 3, two of them only starting transmission at 3pm

"You've got mail!"

Best regards
Thomas

Channels signing off for the night. No infomercials. Now, those bloody things are on the radio!

TV channels showing old black & white movies late at night, many of which were classics, instead of infomercials.

Old and/or bad horror movies shown on TV on Friday nights and presented by a sometimes laughably "creepy" host, of which Elvira was arguably the best.

TSS wrote:

seb146 wrote:

tommy1808 wrote:

Having 3, two of them only starting transmission at 3pm

"You've got mail!"

Best regards
Thomas

Channels signing off for the night. No infomercials. Now, those bloody things are on the radio!

TV channels showing old black & white movies late at night, many of which were classics, instead of infomercials.

Old and/or bad horror movies shown on TV on Friday nights and presented by a sometimes laughably "creepy" host, of which Elvira was arguably the best.

Rhonda Shearer on USA UP! All Night. The first time I moved to PDX, I had a TV with no cable. One of the channels was an "independent" channel based in Salem. One stormy night, they were showing the German thriller "M". The right time to see that movie.

IIRC, there was a show on either TBS or USA called "Night Flight" that showed alternative music videos. The only place to show music videos anymore seems to be YouTube. MTV or VH1 do not anymore.

I was born in 1975, so here goes...

*Checking into the hospital a full day before my operation, so they could do a full day's worth of tests, admission, everything, plus getting a tour of the operating suite and recovery room. I had lots of surgeries as a child--at a children's hospital two states away (with a corresponding two day drive beforehand and a stay at a Best Western motel on the way). Now it's "drive-through surgery" as I call it--check in early the morning of surgery, and discharge that afternoon often.

*TIME-LIFE Books, usually sold via TV commercials. My favorite one as a child was the "Mysteries of the Unknown" book series; the commercials for which were appropriately ominous. TIME-LIFE also sold music by subscription (tapes, records, and CDs) using commercials. All these commercials had the "blue screen" at the end with phone number and payment options for ordering.

*World Book Encyclopedia at home and using the school or public library to do all my research for my reports and papers through elementary, junior high, and high school, and in college, using the campus library or interlibrary loan to get materials for writing papers. I did not start using the Internet until 1996, by which time I was a sophomore or junior in biology at college.

*Writing papers by hand or on a typewriter, through the middle of college (1995 or 1996), before discovering word processing. I learned typing from my mother in childhood (on her ancient Remington portable manual typewriter), then typing class on IBM Selectrics in junior high school (late 1980s).

*As Seen on TV commercials for just about everything, with the "blue screen" at the end of the commercial showing the phone number to call and what payment methods to use (credit cards)--including the aforementioned TIME-LIFE Books and music series, as well as program-length infomercials for strange products.

*Book and record club adverts in magazines (get so many LPs/tapes for a penny, etc.).

*Adverts in the back of comic books and other children's magazines for "sell this many items, get these neat items in return". These prizes included bicycles, toys, gadgets, etc.

*Station wagons, conversion vans, and minivans were options for family transportation. I grew up in station wagons, and my family later got a conversion van, later a standard 12-seater van (for pulling the camping trailer), and finally a minivan.

*Huge wooden console TVs and coffin-sized stereo cabinets, all from Magnavox, etc. 13 channels on TV, and we used LPs and cassettes for our music.

*Piano lessons and other music lessons were commonplace as a rite of passage for childhood. I grew up on piano lessons and still play.

*Charlie Brown desks, textbooks, 35mm film projectors, libraries, band/music rooms, giant cafeterias with melamine lunch trays, and recess on full-on playgrounds were part of school. I recently revisited my old elementary and junior/senior high school district where I was once a student, and they have gone to using iPads for everything (i.e. no textbooks) in all grade levels. Corporal punishment was part of school discipline (spanking or paddling usually).

*My first experience with computers was in school, in the 1980s and early 1990s, with 3.5" floppy disks, BASIC programming, desktop computers including Apple II and the first Macs, and "The Oregon Trail" and "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing" among others. My father had a Zenith desktop PC at home from 1985 on, with the aforementioned floppies, for use in his home tax-preparation side business. I hardly ever used it, except when Dad and I used the first generation Microsoft Flight Simulator and my younger sister played children's educational games on it. I didn't start learning how to really use computers until high school and college.

*Camping (in a tent, fold-down trailer, or other camper) was a summer tradition; most RVs were basic but nice then--nowhere near as fancy as they are now. Trailers could be towed by station wagon, large sedan, minivan, or full size van. There were fifth-wheel trailers around, and specially fitted pickup trucks to pull them (and I saw adverts for tricked-out pickups as tow vehicles for fifth-wheels). There were clubs like Good Sam Club for RVers, as well as campground directories the size of telephone books. There were also RV/trailer magazines (Trailer Life).

*Church was traditional. Hymns were sung from hymnals by everyone in the congregation, to the accompaniment of the organ and piano. It wasn't a rock concert then. Preaching was done by a suit-clad pastor at a big wooden pulpit. Everyone sat in long pews; my family took up a whole pew. Everyone dressed up for church. Sunday school and children's church service were done with flannelgraph and an old upright piano. This was Sunday morning and Sunday night. Wednesday night was for AWANA Bible club for kids, youth group for teens and Bible study for adults. I still go to traditional churches and play the piano and violin in them. I particularly favor "Spock churches"--my term for traditional churches with traditional music and teaching style of preaching, with no emotionalism, just like Spock and other Vulcans (from Star Trek) might do church.

*Childhood activities and hobbies included building models of cars or planes, setting up model railroads, playing Little League baseball, art and music, going to summer camps, and endless other things, long before there were screens and miniature phones that do everything.

*Video games were played on consoles such as Atari/Colecovision/Magnavox Odyssey and included PacMan, Missile Command, Pong, etc. Arcades were still around.

*Flying was still something special. It was something to prepare for and anticipate (if you were not already a frequent business traveler). I used to go to my local travel agent to book flights, hotels, and other arrangements. Tickets were actual paper stock tickets in colorful ticket jackets specific to the airline and its branding. Anyone could go to the gate to meet and greet or see off passengers and security was more basic. Economy/coach was roomier and had inflight service such as meals. There were domestic widebody flights. My home airport FWA had real mainline jets as well as commuter airliners, long before going all RJ. Going overseas was something to dream about for years, then when the opportunity finally came, there was a lot of preparation for it (travel arrangements, getting traveler's checks, packing a big suitcase, etc.). You usually flew from a big airport close to home, then connected in NYC (usually at JFK) to go to Europe, or connected at LAX to go to Asia, or at ORD. And you were more than likely to be on a 747.

*Travel agents were where you went to book travel, and they had telephone-book-sized global hotel directories called "Hotel and Travel Index" listing just about all the hotels in the US and around the world (many of which advertised in the Index). I enjoyed reading the "Hotel and Travel Index" books!

*Cruises were almost all-inclusive (long before separate charges for most things), and ships were small compared to today's giant floating blocks. Ships actually looked like ships. Long before Disney had their own cruise line, they had "The Big Red Boat" operation going on with Premier Cruise Line as the "official" Disney cruise program. (Disney also partnered at times with Eastern and Delta Air Lines.)

*Cars were distinguishable from each other, even within manufacturers. And green was actually available, so was faux wood trim (for station wagons).

*55mph was the national speed limit.

*Everything came by mail (letters, bills, magazines, etc). There was no email or online ordering. We "sent away" for things by mail (or called to order them by phone) and waited weeks for them to arrive in the mail.

*I remember rotary dial phones, and later on, pushbutton phones, all of which either hung on the wall or sat on a desk or table top. The phone was an appliance. ATT or other large phone companies owned them and billed by the minute.

Too many other things to list.

SmithAir747