- I was so mad, I slammed the phone down good and hard. (Why would you shatter the glass on your phone?)
- The meeting was so small we could have held it in a phone booth (What is a phone booth?)
- Directory assistance (remember calling the operator and asking them to find the number for you.)
- Long distance phone charges (it used to cost extra to call to the next town.)
- Reverse the charges, or collect calls (Unless they have an uncle in prison.)
- A floppy disk. (What is a disk?)
- Don't touch that dial. (When was the last time you had a TV with a dial knob on it?)
- VHS or Betamax?
- The flip side. (Remember 45 rpm records with the B side?
- Pick up on the extension.
Thinking about it, technology has changed so much in the past 30 years, things that were commonplace, are now unknown, things that were science fiction, are commonplace. I will leave it to the anthropologists to theorize if the pace of technological change is accelerating, or not. But the high tech of today, is likely to be the museum piece of 30 years from now.
The rental SUV in Cleveland last weekend, had GPS in the dash, not new but it is becoming ubiquitous. It had active lane departure warning, side radar (handy on something only slightly smaller than an aircraft carrier.) Tech that 25 years ago didn't exist and now is common. I am looking forward to self driving cars. I hope they are perfected and commonplace, by the time I need to quit driving.
These are so good.
ReplyDeleteThink of more
DeleteRemember physically turning the channel on the television. And how TV stations played the national anthem and went off the air after Johnny Carson, and you had only the test pattern, so you just went to bed.
DeleteI remember that
DeleteYeah, that's all horse-and-buggy stuff now, isn't it!
ReplyDeleteWhen I think of the change that happened in my grandparents liftimes.
DeleteI guess there is often initial resistance to tech developments and maybe that is why I am very cynical about self-driving cars. Given the variables and hazards of everyday life and travel, I visualise many unnecessary deaths once the roads are packed with these semi-robotic vehicles. To me it is a step too far and beyond common sense.
ReplyDeleteGood points, traffic accidents are already a leading cause of death.
DeleteI feel so very, very old. I will be 67 in a couple of weeks which is too young to feel old! I actually saw a teen twenty years ago trying to work a rotary phone. She was pushing the holes. I miss typewriters. I miss the phone number for calling the time lady. I remember getting our first princess phone. Pink it was.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be caught dead in a self-driving car, mainly because I just may be caught dead in a self-driving car. I'll stop now.
Happy Birthday soon. You are only a couple of years older than I am, and that is not old (if we were trees.) There are self driving taxis in Phoenix, the next time I am there, I want to try one, just so I can say I did and lived to tell about it. Well hopefully I live to tell about it.
DeleteIt is amazing how much has changed in such a short period of time. The very first time I went to London in 1985, I called home from one of those red phone boxes.
ReplyDeleteTravelers checks - my first trip to London was 1990.
DeleteI doubt we will ever see self driving cars commonplace in our lifetimes. The variables are just too great. Safety and warning systems are becoming much more sophisticated.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the B side of a 45 record could become more popular than the A side.
I've never thought about it but we have lost the satisfaction of slamming down a phone handset.
Cheques have almost completely disappeared. We've only used them to pay the balance when we've bought a new car and they are bank cheques not personal cheques, otherwise not for perhaps forty years.
I still write a few checks each month
DeleteWhat surprises me is how quickly we adapt to these advances to the point that we can hardly remember what it was like to live without them. I find myself watching older movies and TV and thinking how many plots would no longer work with the simple addition of a cell phone.
ReplyDeleteSassybear
https://idleeyesandadormy.com/
We have one phone plugged into the modem
DeleteI recall party lines.
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on and stay safe
I remember being excited when I built my fist house and had a private line
Delete