I remember the good old days when I used to have to type reports to turn in for homework. Because my Dad felt that only secretaries would have to use computers, our family never had one. This is when I would have to grab a case that felt like it was 150 lbs., put it on the table, open it up, and plug in the typewriter. I used to hate messing up and then breaking out the liquid whiteout to fix my mistake. You see liquid whiteout is not like whiteout today, you have to wait for it to dry rather than just rolling the whiteout onto your mistakes like how these kids do it today. Eventually we bought an electric typewriter that had an erasing strip. That was like a dream come true. I used to write things out on our typewriter and watch carefully as I pressed the erase button and one by one the letters would disappear. It was a wonderful marvel of technology.
Eventually my parents got a divorce and my mother saw the wisdom of having a computer at the house. The typewriter didn’t get much action after that until my brothers and I all served as missionaries and filled our missionary applications out. We used the typewriter to avoid our really bad penmanship.
You see before we had this amazing machine I would have to write letters and mail them off through the USPS so my friends would be informed about what was going on with my life. There was a very pretty girl I met while she was vacationing here in California from Tennessee. We wrote back and forth for about two to three years, all handwritten, all mailed through the USPS. Eventually we lost touch.
Now that we had this computer I was able to unplug our phone, and plug in another phone line that was attached to our computer. After that was done I could log onto our AOL account and send letters through the World Wide Web!!! Whenever I would log onto our AOL account it would take about a minute before we were actually “online”. All the while our computer would make this hideous sound like it was sending a fax or something. Now-a-days these kids just have to press one button and they are online instantaneously! Oh, that reminds me. You kids probably don’t even know what a fax is now do you?
Ah Man, I remember the good ole’ days.
What stories will you tell your kids and grandkids about your ancient past?
7 comments:
I have a few...
1) VHS: I'm sure our kids will think it's crazy we actually had to rewind our movie!
2) Film in cameras or videotapes.
3) No cell phones. If we didn't have money to use a payphone, we would have to wait until we got home to make a call or get our messages.
4)DVR/Tivo.
5) Cassette tapes. Cars are hardly made with them these days.
I'm sure there are more, but it's totally true. I keep thinking of the time that my kids and grandkids will make fun of me for being born in the 1900's!!! Sounds so ancient!
Dial-up internet. I can remember being kicked off AOL while I was IMing with someone online. It was so frustrating!
Pagers. I never had one, but I knew plenty of people who did. One of my dad's clients uses a pager still, but he is a doctor so it's ok.
When I was younger, we did not have a remote for our TV. So I trained my brother Eric on how to change the channels for me. I drew out a copy of the keypad and then would show him which buttons to push (this was before he knew numbers), then he would walk up to the TV and push the buttons. That sounds ancient. Also, we didn't have cable on our TV so we only had like 5 channels (I finally graduated to cable when I moved out to get married).
Luckily, I am not old enough to say I lived before microwaves. They became affordable right before I was born.
I was telling Kenny and Jill about this the other day. When I lived at home my mom would buy great cereal. My favorite was Reese's Peanut Butter Puffs. The problem was that everyone else loved them too. So only 3 or 4 people got to enjoy them before the box was gone. Once I started going to seminary, I ate breakfast after I got home, and most likely the Reese's Puffs would be gone by then. So before I left for seminary, I would pour myself a bowl and then hide it. Brilliant, I know!
This is such a great post. I remember using a type writer and loving the magical backspace that would make the letter disappear.
Phones with a cord--you could only walk so far before the cord would tighten.
Not having caller ID--we had to actually pick up the phone without knowing who it was.
Huge bulky computers.
I don't know if it was only on older TV's-but I remember liking when there was a little circle of rainbow when the TV was turned off-it kept getting smaller and smaller til nothing.
I think we got the typewriter with the delete feature in 1989 (when Scott and Chris entered high school). Making you 9 yrs old. Just how many reports did you type before you were nine? Or did mom type them?
I am going to havve to agree with Jeff and call BS on the typwriter.
Jeff & Chris,
I'm not sure what reports I had to write but I do remember having to type on that typewriter and having to use liquid white out to fix my mistakes. How would I have remembered doing that if it was after we got the new typewriter? I know I was young but I do remember using it.
Mike, your brothers have a good point eh. At 9 years old you probably had like 20 reports to do a week.
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