I was thinking the other day about how many things have come along since I’ve been in the world. I’m 47 years old, so I guess that’s plenty of time to do some inventing, but the list really is amazing when I started to write them down…
I lived in a world before…
- Microwaves
- Cell phones
- Color television
- iPod/iPad/iPhone
- $10 movies
- Red Box
- CD’s
- DVD’s
- Blue Ray
- DVR
- Amazon.com
- Internet
- WWW.
- Cassettes
- Mp3
- Personal computers
- Men on the moon
- Kindle
What else? (Add to my list…)
There’s been a lot of changes in my life… How about yours?
Ron,
Actually the first microwave was called a Radar Range and was first sold in 1947, that was even before me!
Ha! I didn't know that. interesting.
9-1-1
I remember having a plastic card next to the phone in the kitchen with the numbers to call for fire, police, paramedics, poison control (my brother and I were dangerous, what can I say?).
At first I thought you meant 9/11 as in the date we just memorialized. That date certainly changed usBut yes. I remember having to know the separate numbers and the little cards and magnets with them on it. The first push button phones had a button for each of them.
Wow! Nobody has said 8 Track yet!?
Ha! Of course.
Child car seats and non-smoking anything.
Yes. It used to be ok and even fashionable to smoke many places
Before Chick-fil-A
Blue laws – couldn't buy alcohol OR gasoline on Sunday
E-coupons
Gas was less than $1 per gallon
Bubble gum was 2 for a penny
Gas stations were full service – pump your gas, check your tires, your oil and clean the windshield
McDonald's was about the only fast food
Those are good. I would miss Chick Fil A for sure
– Presidential primary didn’t begin so soon
– Usually only applied for jobs in your region (before churchstaffing.com)
– Before 5 Guys Burgers!
– Discovered gender of children at birth
voicemail systems, and multiple phones in our homes. I still remember the beige, rotary-dial phone at home, and this long phone cord that probably could stretch to another State.
Ha! That's funny. I remember some people loving to untangle those cords. I wasn't one of them. And now I use Google Voice and don't have a home phone.
GPS
Disposable diapers
Beepers (okay-some still use them)
Pagers (at restaurants)
3D movies
Xbox & Playstation
OK … I'm a few years older than you, Ron, so let's see … I lived in a world before
– automatic transmission was a standard feature
– 230 channels and nothing's on
– "the full color network – NBC"
– same-day flights from Vancouver to Halifax
– The Beatles
– "I just tweeted my blog post" was considered an understandable sentence
That's a great list. Wouldn't have come up with most of these.
Color TV, Mandatory Batting Helmets in MLB & NHL, Indoor Plumbing in the Mountains, Free substitution in College Football
Thanks. Interesting list. Mark Sweeney emailed to say we did have color TV in the 50's. It was a novelty very few had and crowds gathered to watch.
Mark is right, I was thinking about where I lived and I was not even aware of color tv until the early 60's. Did not have it in our home until 1969.
I didn't have it into the 70's.
Bicycle helmets
Remote controls
Soccer in the US
VCRs
20+ MPG Vehicles
Power locks and windows
5.1 Surround Sound
Blue M&Ms
Cassette tapes, central heating, shopping malls, contact lenses, copiers (remember those duplicators you had to ink yourself?) …
central heating, shopping malls…wouldn't have thought of…
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says:
Texting
Blogs
I'm curious Ben….with our age difference, which of these would be on my list but not yours?
So I'm just a few years younger than Ben (27). These are the ones from your list that would also be on my list:
Cell phones
iPod/iPad/iPhone
$10 movies
Red Box
CD’s
DVD’s
Blue Ray
DVR
Amazon.com
Google
Facebook
Twitter
Internet
WWW.
Kindle
I found it interesting that the list is very skewed to the latter half of your life. I only had to delete 5 items (color TV, cassettes, men on the moon, microwaves, and personal computers). Probably shows the exponential rate of increase in technological innovation.
ANY airport security
seat belts in cars–let alone the laws.
police cars had blue lights
That is wild to think we had no airport security to speak of…wild…
Here's a few more:
Macintosh
Self check-out lines
Touch screens
Car airbags and seatbelt laws
yes…self-check lines…need computers for that…don't we? And touch screens…love them.
I'm just a hair older than you so I'll add
Apple, Microsoft, seat belts, air bags, touch tone phones, ink jet/laser printers; there's probably more, but I'm forgetting 🙂
Good adds. I wasn't sure about seat belts…did we have them or did we just not use them? Yea…the old rotary dial phones….
I'm pretty sure they weren't around when I was really young… and someone else mentioned self-check out lines..made me think that I should add self-service gas stations.
Yes. That's true
Twitter: theycallmebarr
says:
The radio and the telephone?
Haha. Just kidding you, Ron. My great-aunt lived from 1898-1999, I always marvelled at all the technological changes that occurred in her lifetime. Change – the original constant.