Monday
Jan052009
Prepare to be shocked, youngsters.
January 5, 2009Here’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.
Reader Comments (254)
My first boss banning computer mice as he believed they were only used for games.
Remember when the only people who wore ear bud things were listening to transitor radios either to keep up with the cricket or because they were trying to drown out the voices in their heads.
Our first VCR weighed 100 pounds and looked like a cassette player on 'roids, and you could only record a show while you watched it.
Wizard of Oz was only on once a year.
I was trying to explain an IBM Selectric to my 6-yr-old daughter the other day. Specifically, how excited we were that we finally had electric typewriters.
In my earlier days as a production artist (for newspapers and magazines), there were no computers. Stuff was printed out of a typositor, waxed and the galley was pasted onto mechanical boards (which we were paid to create). Photostats of the boards had to be shot for the printers.
Also, I remember someone showing me email in college and I told them it would never take off as a form of communication because the addresses were too long.
I saw Star Wars in the theater, also.
My friend's mother rented a reel-to-reel movie projector to show us a movie at her birthday slumber party.
I thought I was lucky because I had a phone extension in my room.
I watched MTV (back when they played only videos) for over twelve hours straight one day simply in hopes of seeing a Michael Nesmith video again. Michael Nesmith! I know.
I watched The Nashville Network nightly because it was one of the few cable channels we got. Urgh.
It played twelve different songs. I loved that damn thing.
I also remember those sticker labels you could make by "punching" the letters and they would come out on red tape with raised white letters.
But when you wrote about the faux safari stuff at Banana Republic, it made me think of the short lived Coconut Joe with really tacky safari prints and neon shirts!
I was outraged when BR put COLOR in their safari t-shirt line. SO lame.
I had jelly bracelets, but my mom said no to jelly shoes.
When I came home from high school, I'd tune in to see if they were playing that brand-new "Bad Medicine" video.
I remember when The Sound of Music first came out.
Our car didn't even have wind-up windows, just a little glued-on knob on the glass that you used to push it up and down.
And if you think that makes ME sound old, my husband can remember taking a stone hot water bottle to bed!
Anyone else remember Swatches? Captain Kangaroo? Romper Room?
I am so old that my first typewriter was manual, and my first "word processor" was made by Brother, weighed a ton, and used typewriter ribbons to print. But you could delete things!
I told me two year old that I had just "hung up" the phone...and then realized that she has never seen a wall phone that hangs up! No wonder she looked confused. It's a mobile phone world, baby!
I remember using payphones all the time and memorizing a collect call number so I could call home if I didn't have change on me.
I remember walking around with a comb in the back pocket of my jeans.
Potato chips at my elementary school were 15 cents.
I remember cheering for McGovern against Nixon outside the ballot box as my mom voted.
Nuff said.
I remember my first tape walkman cost $80 and was the best gift I ever got to that point.
I remember roller skating rinks and coke in a bottle.
For my 6th birthday, I had a roller skating party at the roller rink. There was a disco ball and we did the hokey pokey. I got a green sparkly slap bracelet which was OMG SO COOL.
I had jelly shoes, and spandex shorts, and a skort, and multiple tunics/ leggings of assorted rainbow colors. Scrunchies galore.
Also had to beg and plead for call waiting... but mainly because my mom was and is still anti-tech. We only ever got two TV channels, NBC and PBS, which threw a wrench in my pop-culture awareness throughout the 80s and 90s. I hear I didn't miss much though :)
(25 years old)
My most exciting purchase at about age 10 was a copy of Billy Joel's record album (yes, vinyl!) "Glass Houses"
When I worked as a travel writer I had to use tear sheets, which were basically the old edition of the book torn up and put on big pieces of paper, which I then reworked with all sorts of cool editing codes. BY HAND. WITH A PEN.
Then the next year I worked as an editor for the same travel guide and got to work on a MacIntosh Plus! Whoo-hoo!
The year after that, that travel guidebook was no more! I am the former employee of a defunct publication. How's that for old. Now get off my lawn.