What Old-Fashioned Things Do You Remember?

Transgender Olympic champ decathletes with muscly hairy thighs in heels and very very very brave.

Party-line telephones

Rewinding tapes

I remember being allowed to take liquids and gels through airport security.

I remember being able to smoke on planes

The first ATMs I ever saw was in the spring of 1980, a year after I graduated college, when I was working in SF. When I returned to NYC that fall, I'd cash my paycheck ever two weeks at a bank near my job (59th and Madison) and deposit most of it in the bank, using my....bank book. Remember those little passport-sized booklets?

Mini bikes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ou2PLolvw0I

My mom's first car was an old Saab with a three-cylinder, two-stroke engine. That's a CAR. You read that right.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nis5P1EXX4

Mousetrap, a board game with plastic parts, which my brother and I were given in 1966, I'm guessing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy840XvnQRA

Great post. I'm 48, so a little older than you.

Movies: This was pre-VCR even; never mind Betamax or any of that stuff. If you wanted to watch a movie, you had to go see it. I remember going to the movies with friends, often the same movie every week for a while. I saw Star Wars over 50 times, because every single birthday party I went to for about two years involved going to see that movie. I also remember going to "Restricted" movies, which meant you needed an adult with you if you were under 18. So all the kids in line would ask strangers to enter the theater with them as if they were together.

Intellivision, Apple IIe, Commodore PET: My parents bought my brother and I an Intellivision in 1979-80. I played Astrosmash and an interesting game called Utopia for hours. We got an Apple IIe and a nice dot matrix printer in the early 80s, mainly because other families were getting one. Like the other families, we had no idea what to do with it. Our school got a bunch of Commodore PET computers. The OS was on a normal cassette tape that had to load every time you turned the computer on. You also saved all your stuff on the cassette tape.

Sony Walkman: I had the first Walkman, but what I really remember is my Dad going to Japan for business and picking me up the Walkman II, which was much smaller and superior. Because he got it in Japan, I owned it for many months before it was available in North America. I felt like a rock star. And speaking of rock stars...

KISS: I was the perfect age for the whole KISS army thing (which I was a member of). If you've seen the movie Detroit Rock City, this was my life. I remember having to cut the send-away info square from the cardboard that made up my Destroyer album, which I hated having to do. My friend's father was a manager for Harry Belafonte and had some connections, and got us tickets to see them (with him of course; we were 10 or 11 years old and it was in another city). Gene Simmons wiped the fake blood off his mouth/face with a towel at the end as he was walking offstage and threw the towel at the audience. I caught it, and had it for years. Somewhere along the line it got misplaced.

The Arcade: This is where you went with your allowance. Pac Man, Defender, Frogger, Pole Position, Donkey Kong, Space Invaders, Asteroids... all the golden age arcade games were there. I loved video games, and think things were different when you had to pay a quarter every time you wanted to play.

Pre-cable: Our tv got 4 channels. So did everyone else's. We all watched the same shows. It's hard for younger people to understand how different television was back then - the entire family sat down and watched The Six Million Dollar Man, Happy Days, MASH, Good Times, All In The Family, Carol Burnett Show, and others. When cable came to our city we got a converter box - it was a Jerrold Starcom. At that point we suddenly had about 15 channels, and it seemed crazy.

Milk delivered to your family home every morning. The fuller brush man and other door to door salesmen.

Trucks that would drive by neighborhoods selling services such as sharpening tools.

Gumby, Mr Potatohead

Television with nothing on it after a certain time.

Pocket sized paperback books that actually fit into your back pocket.

Liberal Republicans and conservative Democrats. This actually made it possible to work across party lines.

I'm older than you by two years. Great list.

Hand held video games such as Mattel Classic Football and Mattel Electronics Auto Race. Add to that the 'Lil Professor.

Saturday Nights on CBS - Carol Burnett, All in the Family, The Jeffersons

Baseball cards that meant nothing financially but everything to me.

Captain & Tennille, Sonny & Cher, Donny & Marie.

Wiffleball, Nerf, and an awesome Honda Z50.

Big cars with bench seats. We'd sprawl across the back seat and/or cargo area if it was a station wagon.

Going to a mall/shopping center in a big family group and just being told to meet at a certain spot at a certain time. No cell or smart phone

The TV ads for (US) Census 70

Harrumphing over more modern nuns' habits and consolidations of Catholic churches and schools (in a town of about 15k people)--- hell wasn't far behind if the Polish & Italian parishes were merging so it seemed.

A&W Drive-Ins... the "large" root beer mugs held 16 oz, IIRC, and you were thought a glutton or parched if you wanted more than one (refills full price)

1. Races tabulating results using pop cycle sticks or index cards.

2. Races being a lot more competitive, because there might only be 2-3 races a month within a day's drive of my home. All the local fast guys would show up.

3. Finisher's medal? Huh?

4. Having race results mailed to you on a little post card 2-3 weeks later.

5. Getting tri-folded race flyers in the mail.

- TV remotes that were connected by a long wire

- Commercials that asked you to write to Pueblo Colorado for more information.

- Receiving S&H green stamps from the grocery store.

Good taste, decorum and modesty.

Rotary dial phones - I miss the cool sound they made, but don't miss the sore finger from dialing a lot.

pubic hair, 2 Germanies, phosphates, acceptable bigotry, pay phones, red pistachios, pagers, 3 TV Channels, men on the moon and lawn darts.

Being nervous about calling a girl because her father might answer the phone.

Did anyone ever actually play the game or did we all just set up the plastic-and-rubber-band-Rube Goldberg machine and launch it? It worked maybe 25% of the time; usually it would jam up.

I'd have included the arcade had I been thinking. That might have been number 1 for me. They were always in the mall, usually by the food court. Spend 2 bucks in quarters, maybe last for an hour. I think they were still doing well during the nintendo/super nintendo era but playstation ruined them.

I don't "remember" that exactly, too young to care about politics, but this was true. However, for the people who are complaining about partisanship today, I would note that eras of bipartisanship like that are quite rare in our history: maybe 1815 to 1830 or so and then again from 1945 to 1980. Rabid partisanship usually holds sway.

My dad was running seriously in the late 80s. He told me there was one local race where 5 women broke 18 minutes for a 5K. No money on the line, just a normal race. You can't find a 5K today with 5 men breaking 18 minutes.