Originally Posted By Lisann22 So this past weekend in conversation someone my age mentioned 45's, the kids in the room looked at us like we were talking a foreign or secret language. So out of the bottom of my entertainment center I pulled out a box of 45's and showed them. We even played them. The kids were amazed. It was their first glimpse at the "old" way to play music. LOL! Got me to thinking about when certain new "inventions" came out as I was growing up and how they affected my life. Here were my biggies: 1. Colored Television and Dryer - we had an Indian settlement check come to my mom, my sister and I in the early 70's. My mom asked if we wanted to bank our money or combine it so we could get the new TV (our current black and white one at that time we had to sock on the side to get the picture to come into focus) and the dryer. We were still hanging clothes on the line at that time. We opted for the new appliances. Man, the day that colored TV showed up it was like 5 Christmas mornings combined. I also remember how good it felt to take towels out of the dryer. So soft, so warm, it was heaven. The next biggie for me was microwave oven and my walkman. Wow! Just wow! Until I pulled a Lucy Ricardo and tried to cook a beautiful 4lb roast in the microwave. It came out as a charcoal. ;< I saved to get the walkman. Man, that changed my life at work. It was so cool to have. Back then it seemed when new stuff came out it was surprising and we were all awestruck. Now it's like I can't keep up with what is happening and we are more demanding in what we want to come out. No real surprises anymore. I guess I'm old. LOL! How about you guys?
Originally Posted By friendofdd I lived on a dairy farm for a couple of years and we had an outhouse and a well with a pump for water. But that doesn't count as I had previously lived with indoor plumbing. Getting our first tv was a biggie - round, b and w, and fuzzy reception through the 40 foot antennae to pick up LA stations a hundred miles away. We got a car with turn signals - no more arms out the open window.
Originally Posted By Ursula I remember OnTv. The sales guy came round the neightborhood. My dad and the guy next door talked with the salesman for a spell and next think you know, we had cable TV. It was a box on top of the TV. It had one switch. It was off or it was OnTV. We were the cool ones.
Originally Posted By jasmine7 I can think of two that were biggies for me. The first was when the phone company finally got rid of party lines in our area & we got our own phone line. It was just amazing to me to be able to pick up the phone without having to be careful of making sure that our neighbors weren't already talking on the line. The second one was when we finally got satellite TV. Living out in the country, we only got two channels, NBC & CBS (once in a great while, we'd get reception for ABC & PBS if the weather was absolutely right), so when my mom and stepdad got DirecTV for our house, it was so wonderful! I was grown and out of high school before I got to experience it, lol.
Originally Posted By Daannzzz The VCR!!! I was a HUGE movie fan back then and the idea that we could have a movie and show it any time we wanted and watch it over and over was awesome. I bought a VCR that was $700 was super heavy and loaded from the top.
Originally Posted By iceknyght I remember when I got my first CD player! It was a boom box with a tape and CD player and I was the happiest boy in the world and am not ashamed to say that Vanilla Ice was my first CD! LOL! My taste has improved since then... But it was so awesome not to have to rewind or fast forward to get to my favorite songs... And the sound! It was awesome! And it was funny, one day we were at my grandmas house and my sister wanted to use the phone and my grandma said sure, use the one in the bedroom... My sister went in and came back out about 5 minutes later with this confused look on her face... My grandma still had one of the rotary dialer phones and my sister had never seen one before and didn't know how it worked! LOL!
Originally Posted By threeundertwo Cable tv. MTV. I think I watched it on the very first day. I was mesmerized. Answering machines. I had one long before my parents did. I had a walkman too, thought it was the greatest thing. My kids can't believe I lived in a time before computers. The internet.
Originally Posted By wonderingalice When my dad, the phone man, installed an extension in my bedroom. I was 15 and felt SO grown up! He even took pieces parts from two housings so the phone was in orange and black, my school colors. Before that, my first AM/FM/Cassette player. Got that for Christmas when I was 12 and immediately started recording off the radio and onto the 30-minute GE cassette tape that came with it. I no longer have the player, but I still have that cassette tape! It includes "River Deep, Mountain High" by Ike and Tina Turner and "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond... AND a silly recording of me and my two best dance team friends doing a goofy imitation of the band director as he sounded when taping our high school band playing the fight song ("Theme from the Magnificent Seven"), and the first song we ever performed to, "South." It's just us copying the band director and 'singing' the wordless tunes... BADLY. *LOL* The VCR, microwave oven and cable TV (in that order) were MAJOR, fought-for additions to the household I shared with my first husband. He was THE toughest nut to crack on those items - gave me the cable TV subscription for my birthday. *LMAO* The first VCR was a Mitsubishi with a wired remote control and cost us over $450! DOH!
Originally Posted By DVC_dad For me it was the VCR first and then those Mattel Hand Held Football games. Not sure anyone remembers those. I was also facinated by the rotor on the TV antannae, the thing that made it spin in the direction of the TV station. I used to turn it and run outside to watch that sucker spin around. Computers! My first was one of the first...I had a Radio Shack TRS-80 <a href="http://oldcomputers.net/trs80i.html" target="_blank">http://oldcomputers.net/trs80i .html</a> and later moved up to a Commodore VIC 20. <a href="http://oldcomputers.net/vic20.html" target="_blank">http://oldcomputers.net/vic20. html</a> Finally I had really made it into computing when I got the Apple Lisa <a href="http://oldcomputers.net/lisa.html" target="_blank">http://oldcomputers.net/lisa.h tml</a> Oh yeah those were the days. I'd give anything to still have those old useless machines.
Originally Posted By ReadingMom When my mom bought our first microwave we were older teenagers. We were the last family on the block to get one. It was really cool to be able to put a cup of water in the microwave and make tea. Also...in 1974 we got a color TV. It was a Curtis Mathis. The TV man came and set it up in the evening. My mom had the TV for almost 30 years. At the end of it's life everything was green!
Originally Posted By DlandJB When we went from rotary dial phones to push button phones. I remember asking my mom what the "#" and "*" keys were for and she said that they were going to be used in the future, but right now they didn't do anything. I also remember when a friend of mine went to work with a new company that offered a service called "voice mail" where you could have all your messages taken by machine. My first mobile phone came in a big square bag and I just used it in the car because it was too big to be carried around. I remember when we got our first color television. The old black and white had a coat hanger for an antenna. And anyone who still has their old 45's and doesn't know what to do with them -- I've still got a juke box that plays them!
Originally Posted By wonderingalice <<When we went from rotary dial phones to push button phones. I remember asking my mom what the "#" and "*" keys were for and she said that they were going to be used in the future, but right now they didn't do anything.>> Your mom had amazing foresight!
Originally Posted By utahjosh This was my first WOW! moment: <a href="http://www.obsoletecomputermuseum.org/ti99/ti99_2.jpg" target="_blank">http://www.obsoletecomputermus eum.org/ti99/ti99_2.jpg</a>
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Wow...this is really interesting to read. Pretty much all of this stuff was around long enough that it's been there my whole life, or at least longer than I needed to use it (like the internet). I think the biggest technological advancement that I actually remember is cell phones. I remember when I was little, my parents would give the babysitter the number of the place where they would be for the night, not just their numbers. I also remember making a first aid kit in Cub Scouts that included a few dimes to make a call at a pay phone. There are just so many little problems that have been solved by cell phones (even if they have caused people to be rude and impatient at times). The only other big advancements that I rememer at iPods (which, while cool and convenient, aren't really that much better than just listening to a portable CD player) and DVD (which are basically the same as VHS tapes, but you have more options). Computers have come a really long way since I was younger, but they were always there, so it's not like they are some huge revelation to me. I remember the days of the dot-matrix printers (the ones with the holes on the sides of the paper that you got to tear off-tons of fun when you're little!), so modern printers are also a lot better. And for those of you wondering, yes, I know what 45's are, and I have actually played a couple before (not as a primary means of listening to music, but they're kind of fun).
Originally Posted By TALL Disney Guy I know Ferret, it's interesting to read these memories from the near-40-and-up crowd. We just don't have quite the same comparisons, lol. I too remember 45s and LPs, and still have some childhood favorites.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Like many Disneyland fans my age, it was a great treat to use the push button speakerphone phone booth in Tomorrowland. The whole family would crowd around and we'd call my grandparents or another relative. "Hi Grandpa! We're calling you from Disneyland! All of us can hear you!" "Is that so? We'll I'll be..." "HI GRANDPA!" everyone would say simultaneously. It was very fascinating for all of us back then. : )
