Remember the days before...

[jeanor]

Originally Posted by GailC

I remember mom buying a "handheld calculator in the early 70's-just basic function and it cost $70!!! It would be worth alot on Ebay now.

We bought a calculator just like that at Sears... I think it was around $70. I found it a few years ago when I was going through my dad's things after he passed away. It was a Texas Instruments.

My parents paid $500 for our first microwave... remember what big monsters those were.

As far as rotary phones go - we still have one

my husband had it when I met him and we've hung onto it because it rings so loud. You can hear it ring even when you are outside, vacuuming etc.

 

[katachtig]

Originally Posted by jeanor

My parents paid $500 for our first microwave... remember what big monsters those were.

My first major purchase when I got my first real job was a $700 microwave. And I still have it after 20 years.

 

[beckiboo]

How about watching TV...you just watched whatever was offered on the 3-4 channels...no cable or satellite...or VCR or DVDs. When ds was little and watching a TV show, he wanted me to rewind it! He couldn't understand that not everything was on video for us to rewind and watch again!

When I was little, we had a black and white TV, but the neighbors were "rich" and had a color TV. One night a week, we would go over to watch Batman, because it was shown in color! (At the time, a lot of shows were still black and white!)

How about kitty litter. It used to be just clay kitty litter. Now there are so many options...I hardly know what to chose!

As for debit cards and ATM's....I don't have a debit card or ATM card. I'm still going to the bank on their hours, or cashing a check for over at the grocery store! LOL!

 

[beckiboo]

Originally Posted by katachtig

My first major purchase when I got my first real job was a $700 microwave. And I still have it after 20 years.

My current microwave was $2 at a garage sale...and it works just fine!

 

[katachtig]

Originally Posted by Beckiboo

How about watching TV...you just watched whatever was offered on the 3-4 channels...no cable or satellite...or VCR or DVDs. When ds was little and watching a TV show, he wanted me to rewind it! He couldn't understand that not everything was on video for us to rewind and watch again!

We had the worst reception too. It was close enough to the mountains that we had a faint double image.

 

[rosiemac]

Originally Posted by valanhb

Yeah, but there were only 4 channels to choose from, so it wasn't too taxing.

We had 3!

I'd be lost without my mobile now, not to mention the computer, DVD player, microwave etc..etc..

And i always remember when i was young my parents talked about " The good old days ". I couldn't do their era knowing what i know now

 

[rosiemac]

Originally Posted by gemlady

Telephone party lines?

Did you have those in your country as well!!!

I remember when i was about 18 i rang my mum from work to tell her what i fancied for tea that night, only to get Ian our neighbour who shared the party line and was trying to make a call out. I told him instead and he went to my mums house to tell her

 

[krazy kat2]

My first car had the high/low beam control on the floor, and you tapped it with your foot.
I remember being so excited because we were getting a big floor model color tv. Then my favorite show, Dark Shadows, was still in B&W.
Crap, I'm old!

 

[sar]

Originally Posted by rosiemac

I remember when i was about 18 i rang my mum from work to tell her what i fancied for tea that night, only to get Ian our neighbour who shared the party line and was trying to make a call out. I told him instead and he went to my mums house to tell her

That's great!!

That reminds me, I remember when community was a community!

 

[rosiemac]

Your not wrong there Sarah!. Neighbours WERE neighbours then.

 

[pushylady]

Originally Posted by krazy kat2

My first car had the high/low beam control on the floor, and you tapped it with your foot.
I remember being so excited because we were getting a big floor model color tv. Then my favorite show, Dark Shadows, was still in B&W.
Crap, I'm old!

In my first car you had to turn the key in the ignition, then push a button on the floor for it to start!

When we were kids, we still had black & white tv.
I still don't have a cell phone!!!
Our current microwave dates from the dark ages. It's massive and has been working perfectly since the day they made it. My neighbour's micro died the other day - it was just over a year old.
I'm so old I can say "they don't make things like they used to!"

 

[lillekat]

I remember the days before photocopiers.....

 

[sar]

Originally Posted by LilleKat

I remember the days before photocopiers.....

Yeah, when you'd get work sheets in school copied in purple photostat ink!

I also remember the days before floppy disks were encased in plastic!

....and when computer games came on casette tapes!

 

[gailc]

Actually when I was growing up no one had credit cards-it was strictly cash!!
Mom would give sis and I each a dollar and we would buy penny candy at a local drug store and comic books-like Richie Rich, Casper, Archie etc... They were 12 cents!!! I saved all of them as I have a couple #1's and several lower than #10!!! We used to buy Mad magazines and Cracked magazines too (I have kept those too!!)
Doritoes-I remember when they were introduced a bag was 39 cents. The only diet soda was Tab and Fresca-it was a big deal when diet pepsi was introduced!

 

[babyharley]

Wow, I must be really young, I don't remember any of this stuff!

 

[katachtig]

What about learning to type on an old typewriter? When I was in high school we had some electric typewriters which were really fun to type on. Everytime you hit the return key, the carriage would slam to the right (which gives us the term carriage-return for the young whipper-snappers who only know computers). After about 10 minutes, I had to readjust the machine because it slowly was moving sideways. And of course there was carbon paper. I just "loved" erasing the same stupid typo 5 times.

 

[rosiemac]

Oh good grief do i remember the old typwriters

It was brilliant when they introduced the little tippex sheets to get rid of any typing errors instead of rubbing

 

[valanhb]

And on those manual typewriters if you went too fast you would "jam" them when all the keys got stuck at the top. LOL

 

[oz'smum]

Originally Posted by jeanor

I always told them that when I was little... "I" was the remote.

I can remember my parents having me turn it on, off, up, down, channels etc.

My children were our remote too. It was one of the first things they learnt to do. "Go press the button.....no not that one, the other one....there's a good boy....

)

 

[white cat lover]

Originally Posted by valanhb

Yeah, but there were only 4 channels to choose from, so it wasn't too taxing.

We don't have cable/satellite or whatever at all, so we still only get 4 channles! The saddest part is 3 of them are the same!

(not really we get a dozen or so channels).

My mom just got a new cell phone a year ago. Her's was one of the "big as a brick" ones. She only used it twice.

Mack, I'm 19 & remember some of these things! I remember when my mom bought a new typewriter in the '90s. We have a really old computer that the screen is yellow from the early '90s, too. We also have one of the big printers. I canont for the life of me remember what they're called. The stupid thing is 6' wide & 6' long, I swear! That's from the early '90s, too!

All those things are so "vintage"!

Sorry if that made any of you feel old!