Prepare to be shocked, youngsters.

Here’s how old I am:

I remember when Banana Republic sold nothing but faux-safari clothing.

In college, my boyfriend was a computer science major, and I witnessed a rudimentary form of instant messaging between him and another student, someone not even in the room. I thought it was some kind of black magic.

I grew up believing that Charles Nelson Reilly and Paul Lynde were skirt-chasing bachelors.

My first job out of college? I used a manual typewriter. Which may be why I quit after one and a half days.

The television I had growing up was made out of rock, and it was powered by a pterosaur.

Your turn.

Comments

[Chookooloonks]

Dude, when I was young?

- I remember getting our first microwave. That was insane -- food cooked in SECONDS!

- I remember hotly debating that Cyndi Lauper would far outlast Madonna

- Our television "remote control" was tethered to the TV by this long-ass wire that spanned the room

- Michael Jackson was BLACK.

[Sarah Pond]

I am so old that when I was a little kid we got a COLOUR! TV!

We had to get up and turn a dial on the tv to change channels. This is why it was best to sit as close as possible to the screen.

A digital watch and a digital calculator were the HEIGHT! OF! TECHNOLOGY!

I am so old that rock and roll music was actually alternative when I was a kid.

[Lori L.]

The biggest argument I ever witnessed between my parents was whether or not to buy a VCR. My Dad thought it was a fad, and a huge waste of money.

Oh, and all I wanted for my tenth birthday was an electric typewriter. That poor piece of machinery was witness to serious teenage angst!

[Bikini]

We played our music on a reel-to-reel machine. PRE-8-TRACK, baby!

My first video game was a handheld Battlestar Galactica game in which you moved your red dot back and forth to avoid other red dots. And it was AWESOME. I think it required 3 D batteries to run.

[Carrie (in MN)]

I'm so old...

- I remember when "Big Yellow Taxi" was a Joni Mitchell song, not a Counting Crows song.

- I have experienced writing an entire page on my typewriter, getting to the end and realizing I hadn't left enough room for my footnotes, and thus having to type the whole page over again.

[~moe~]

Our parents had a tradition that you got two big gifts during two transitional phases in life - one when you turned 16, the other at high school graduation.

I picked a typewriter for my first present. I still own it and still use it on occasion. (I got luggage for graduation). When I got to college, I was the only one in the entire dorm that had a typewriter and knew how to use it.

I was very popular when people were filling out random applications for grad school or scholarships (which had to be typed but weren't online like they are today...in fact, I don't think online was even a term then).

[CC]

OKAY... when I was young we got a Beta Max Video recorder...and it cost a FORTUNE!!!! And, ANita Bryant was hawking orange juice!

[Jessica]

I remember being in ballet class when someone brought in a Michael Jackson poster. I observed, "it's the duty of a young girl to pretend to fall head over heels for this joker."

And, I thank my lucky stars that Marky Mark had left the skater rally before I ended up with my own personal pair of boxers.

[trish]

calculators were HUGE and only did basic math

[ChasingSanity.com]

I remember my sister buying cheap Michael Jackson crap. Remember when his hair caught on fire with the Pepsi commercial? That ruled!

[Cincy]

Why, I remember punch cards used by the computer science revolutionaries when I was in college...I saw the Bradys and the Partridges when they ORIGINALLY aired...We had a Polaroid black & white Swinger(!)...and then a Betamax. Google that, you mere infants, you.

[Sprite's Keeper]

Who's Paul Lynde?:-)Your turn.

[Kizz]

Paul Lynde as the center square on the Hollywood Squares.

Taping songs onto cassette off the radio.

My mother still has a rotary dial phone.

I remember when Pong came out on Atari.

[susannah aka petunia face]

Great post.

I am so old I remember buying candy bars for a quarter.

The big thing for birthday parties was to rent a VCR. Nobody actually had one of their very own.

That's Incredible! was the only reality show on tv. And it was actually incredible.

[Katie Ann]

When I was young Pluto was a planet and a brontosaurus wasn't an apatosaurus. (Ha, see, even the Firefox spell check doesn't recognize that word.)

/Is only 23 and has little to contribute here.

[Assertagirl]

Some of the kids I work with at the restaurant were like, two years old when Beverly Hills, 90210 was originally on the air.

[rhk]

LOL at the comment above about the argument whether to get a VCR. My Dad was vehemently against us having a stereo and a Sony Walkman (cassette tapes!) because they were redundant and the Walkman thing was a passing fad.

I thought *I* was the only one who remembered that about Banana Republic! Too funny!

How about the days before Called ID, when you could do *69 to automatically call back whoever had just called you and hung up? I also had to really go to bat to convince my parents to get us call-waiting.

[Sarah]

We had a BetaMax VCR, and my weekly allowance was 40 cents, because that was the price of a candy bar. I remember telling my sister that I really, really wanted a peach-colored tunic-and-leggings outfit at the mall, and that it would take me forever to save up for it at 40 cents a week!

[wookie]

I also owned a manual typewriter. I also remember and used instant messaging through those "black magic" commands. I remember feeding punchcards into the computer. I have programmed by typing Hexadecimal codes into the computer.

I had a 56k modem when I first moved out of the house, and my computer had a 286 processor.

[hi kooky]

In our college dorm, there was ONE rotary dial phone in the hallway for the entire floor.

Yes, the Betamax here too.

$35 could get you a sweet pair of well-made penny loafers, perfect for jr. hi dances.

Prairie skirts were HOT. So was Nair.

My dad had a CB radio in our family sedan.

[MissusB]

I remember when Mr. Potato Head only had the one look. And he hadn't met the Missus yet.

I used to read Seventeen magazine when it was actually written for 17 year olds.

[Carrie]

"I want your sex" by george michael played on the radio in H.S. and it was SCANDALOUS!

I didn't understand what it meant that Jack Tripper was pretending to be gay so he could live with two women on Three's Company.

Mix tapes were actually made on TAPES!

I remember people joking about an ACTOR running for president.

[Nothing But Bonfires]

I remember laser discs. Do you remember laser discs? Sadly, they were so short-lived! They looked like a very, very large DVD and you played them in.....a laser disc player, I guess. Oh, and minidisc players! The pre-cursor to iPods! All this early-to-mid 90s technology was so.....sweetly hopeful.

[Meegan]

I saw Star Wars in the theater.

My mom taught a macrame class. And people took it!

I remember where I was when Reagan was shot.

Two words. Martha Quinn.

[karen]

Memos and interoffice envelopes ... that was it. Every thought typed out as an Interoffice Memorandum, cc: Everyone (cc = carbon copy or uppity folks used xc for Xerox copy), initial, make copies, put in manilla file, originals in interoffice mail envelopes. Heh heh. Remember racing to the bank every payday before direct deposit?? Whha hah ha. No ATMs. No cells. Walkmans that played ... cassettes? Remember when you had to actually walk to the TV to change the channel ... all 3 channels? Ahh those were the good o' days ...