A fresh New Year coming up gave me an idea. Most of the time I feel young. Younger at forty-five than I did at twenty-five. Then I make the mistake of thinking about, “back in the day.” When did people start saying that anyway? While I was thinking about my past, I came up with fourteen things I remember from the seventies and early eighties that would seem incomprehensible to a lot of young ones today.
I remember when there were no cell phones and no cordless phones.
I remember when we had a rotary dial phone.
I remember when kids rode skateboards and bikes without helmets, elbow pads or knee pads and no one thought anything of it.
I remember when there were no airbags in cars.
I remember when it was okay to toilet paper the trees, put Crisco on locker handles, and dump newspaper in the halls for Senior Day in high school and no one called the cops.
I remember when kids could neck in the hallway in high school and no one called the cops.
I remember when boys’ pinched girls’ fannies in junior high and they didn’t get hauled in for sexual harassment.
I remember when girls wore hip hugger bell bottom pants (what they called them in them there days by golly), long straight hair parted in the middle, smocks, and platform shoes…the first time they were popular.
I remember what boys’ hairstyles looked like in the 70’s…it’s coming back now.
I remember when I bought an album or a single and played them on a stereo turntable.
I remember when there were no seatbelts on the bus.
I remember walking three miles to school in the snow uphill both ways (and if you believe that one I have some swamp land…)
I remember when word processors were made by Wang (and I don’t mean Vera Wang.)
I remember my first date…and wish I couldn’t remember it. LOL!
Okie dookie, there you are. How many of you have a few “remembrances” from back in the day…whenever that day might be?
December 29th, 2007 at 5:30 am
Great post Denise!!
I remember when the back of station wagons were playgrounds for long trips.
I remember when dogs went with their owners everywhere
I remember when the no 2 pencil ruled
I remember when not handing in your homework in a class was an automatic two hour detention.
I remember when the Eagles defined the feel of summer.
I remember watching the news, catching glimpses of a strange country called Vietnam and straining to see if I could find my neighbor in the devastating shots.
I remember crying when the Cronkite announced the soldiers were coming home.
I remember horror when they did and not everyone cheered.
I remember when we only had three channels on the TV. Two of them fuzzy
I remember rushing to get my chores done by 5:30pm on weekdays so I could watch the Bugs Bunny Roadrunner hour.
I remember Walter Cronkite who brought me the world and through the nuance of his voice prepared me for the good and the bad.
I remember flower power and Volkswagon beetles.
I remember Roe vs Wade (though it was a few years before
I understood it’s importance)
I remember the excitement of getting into college followed quickly by the confusion of just what did I intend to do once I got there.
I remember Intellivision, Space Spartans, and Stampede
I remember the myth of the home computer.
I remember the mystery “plague” of Aids.
I remember thinking what was the point of the world wide web.
I remember thinking nothing exciting would ever happen in my lifetime.
December 29th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
Love this post Denise!!!
I remember Atari being the only video game system with Pac Man and Space invaders.
I remember moon boots.
I remember passing notes rather than emailing or texting.
I remember DOS… computer programming my Sophomore year of high school.
I remember when there was no such thing as Windows as in life before Bill Gates.
I remember having to walk everywhere, parents did NOT give rides.
I remember big hair with lots of hair spray.
I remember pop music.
I remember life before rap music.
I remember 8 track and cassette tapes, hell I remember vinyl records!
I remember Crest toothpaste in only one formula.
I remember winter hats with big puffy tassels.
I life before the seatbelt law when you could lay in the back window of your parent’s huge-ass boat of a car, and when they slammed on the brakes you fell off and onto your sibling who got totally miffed. Snicker.
I remember roller skates rather than roller blades.
I remember children’s pedal cars.
I remember when holding hands or even a kiss made a girl all dreamy.
I remember gas being $.89 - $.99 a gallon.
I remember electric and manual typewriters.
I remember Hee Haw and Sha Na Na.
I remember Love Boat and Fantasy Island.
I remember black eyeliner, melting it with a lighter to make it go on smoother and thicker.
I remember shaker sweaters and Guess jeans.
I remember Madonna in mini skirts and tights…before she had metal cones for breasts.
I remember when music wasn’t about hate and negativity.
I remember when cruising with your friends on a Friday or Saturday night wasn’t illegal because we were actually just cruising and not looking to do a “drive by”.
I remember when they launched MTV… Martha Quinn and the gang.
I remember sitting down for family meals at the kitchen table every night.
I remember when talking back to a parent wasn’t an option.
I remember when spankings in public were legal (don’t ask how I remember
)
I remember Pepsi One.
I remember laying in the sun, tanning using only baby oil.
I remember when there was a clear line between right and wrong without shades of gray.
I remember Pop Rocks and Bazooka bubble gum.
I remember Jolly Rancher sticks.
I remember break dancing.
December 29th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
I remember typing papers on a Smith-Corona portable manual typewriter,
And square pizzas,
And the original McDonald’s hamburger,
And no locks on the school locker,
And the Twist,
And the debut albums by the Beatles and Elton John,
And frozen custard at the little roadside stands, YUM,
And that I was in the school library when I heard Kennedy had been killed.
December 29th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
Great post, Denise. I remember buying my lunch for 21c - a doughnut and a pie. Eek, I think I’m gonna stop right there because I’m not really very old.
December 29th, 2007 at 3:19 pm
I remember:
Hula hoops
Blackjack and Teaberry gum
No seatbelts in cars
When cars were stick-shift only
When doctors made house calls
25 cent a gallon gas
When John F. Kennedy was assasinated
Chubby Checker
When children could be disciplined in school
The Korean War
Walking 3 miles to grade school—no it wasn’t uphill both ways
December 29th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I remember staying out until dark playing with your friends, and no one worried about you (too much).
December 30th, 2007 at 8:16 am
This is great because I remember all those things too. I’d like to add I remember filling up my gas tank for $5.00 (and I do mean filled up the entire tank…from empty to full).
I don’t remember Kennedy being shot (a couple of years before my time) but I do remember where I was when Regan was shot.
I remember the first computer class I took and we all had to share the one “computer” in the room and it was attached to a huge stove size box that sat at the front of the room.
I remember when chicken nuggets from McDonald’s were first introduced.
11 years ago I worked for an attorney that still believed that the Wang word processor was the greatest invention ever. He refused to upgrade to a “regular” computer. I remember working on a huge business deal with him that involved another law firm and we had to use Word to make corrections and additions on some forms and he was so amazed at this wonderful “new” invention. Still it didn’t get me off that darn Wang! He was finally forced into upgrading, unfortunately it was after I left to be a stay at home mom.
December 30th, 2007 at 12:11 pm
Hi Denise! I hope you are having a great day. I have to admit I am not too old, so don’t really remember the 70s and only the late 80s to a good extent. But what I find really funny is my kids’ impatience with VHS tapes. We only have a couple–old copies of original Sesame Street shows–and each time I have to rewind they seem to think the wait will kill them. Just cracks me up. Ah, for the days when you couldn’t just hit menu and select the clip or track you were after.
December 30th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
i remember when, playing capture the flag with my friends was better than any tv program. when you could spend all day chaseing a butterfly or caterpiller… ahh to be a kid again
January 1st, 2008 at 11:57 am
Denise A. Agnew