Sometimes when their dad and I are being goofy, but trying to make a point, we go all “back in the day” on our kids. You know, “back in the day we had to walk to school, in the snow, up hill, both ways.”
There’s profuse eye rolling and tolerant sighing, patronizing laughs and an occasional, “Yeah, right.” But, I don’t think either of them actually consider that there really was a “back in the day.”
For instance, back in the day, my family had a single, 24-inch black and white TV, with only three VHF stations and a grainy UHF Public Broadcasting Station. There might be an aerial on top of the house, and rabbit ears on the set (wrapped in aluminum foil), to help improve reception. We children were the remote controls.
Back in the day, there were no wireless phones, no cell phones. I remember my grandparents having a party line and that their calls were one short, two long rings. I can even remember when you had to start using area codes when making a call… on a rotary phone.
We were lucky to have oscillating fans to help cool off the hot Tennessee summers. Air conditioning, when we finally got it, sat in the living room window. There was none of this new fangled central A/C.
At one point when they were very little, we did have a stereo turntable, actually listened to vinyl LPs. That was until our toddler son managed to remove the drive belt… still can’t figure out that one.
My children will never remember a time when they didn’t have a large screen, HD color television (in multiple rooms); a cell phone, a car stereo that played CDs (or could sync to their MP3 players), or live in a home that couldn’t be cooled or heated with flick of a switch. They will not remember a time when they didn’t have a personal computer.
The changes that technology have gone through in the 20 years they have been around are astounding. I cannot imagine that changes we’ll see in the next 20.
What changes have you seen during your lifetime, that your children now take for granted?
Thin spiral notebook 
Our giant antenna sat in the backyard. When we changed the channel (manually) we also had to go out and turn the antenna to get a better reception. Of course, the reception was best while someone held onto the antenna. Thanks for the memories.
If you enjoy stories and memories of the past, please drop by 1950 Suburban Adventures.
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Oh gosh, this brings back memories! I remember getting our first microwave! And a VCR! What an invention that was! I remember hearing about the possible introduction of check cards or debit cards. I remember thinking, “No way will a plastic card ever replace cash and checks…”
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I’m sitting here nodding my head, as we must be around the same age. My siblings and I were the remote control and would yell, “Place saved,” when we got up to turn the channel. Otherwise, we lost our seat! We also had an old metal fan in our bedroom that had to be started by spinning the blades with a ruler to get them going after turning it on.
My son wouldn’t know what to do if he couldn’t “pause” the live game so he can leave the room and start back where he left off when he returns. We pay extra on the satellite bill for that luxury, and I can’t see us giving it up. Back in the day, indeed!
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I forgot about “place saved,’ my brother and I did that too. I do think that sometimes my kids believe I’m making up stuff about what we did or the gadgets we had.
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This summer we stayed at an funky old house on a lake in New Hampshire for a week. There was a manual typewriter in the dining room. The kids were fascinated by it.
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Growing up with only had three channels… it was a big deal when we got a 4th. I grew up in the country and cable tv wasn’t an option. I kinda miss just having those channels. Forced me to read more.
No remote control either. Had to get up to change channels.
And our first computer had a monochrome screen, and I remember Basica.
Ahhh… could go on and on. Things sure have changed fast through the years
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I have to smile as I watch my grandkids, ages 4 and 7, fly through the operation of anything electronic. It’s like that ability is now in their DNA. My granddaughter saw an old telephone in an antique store and said, “Wow, look at the nifty coffee grinder.”
Sigh…
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Sam came to a real turning point in his little life when he realized that
1) I did not have “Just Dance 3” as a kid
2) In fact, I didn’t have a Wii
3) Indeed, Wii didn’t exist.
4) I couldn’t just play it on my handheld game instead because
5) We only had something called Atari, and that didn’t come out until I was at least his age.
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none of my daughters will ever use a payphone or a rotary phone. When I tell them about having only 4 channels, they don’t believe me. My favorite story to tell them is growing up across the street from the coca cola bottling plant and taking glass coke bottles back there and getting a free coke in return or five cents.
The biggest thing is telling them about reference books like atlases, dictionaries, encyclopedias, maps, thesauruses, etc. It’s all online.
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It’s amazing how far things have come. My kids are still really young so who knows what sort of things they will reminisce about during their “back in the day” rants 😉
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