# Who misses back when... (there was no internet, cell phones etc.)?



## Doril (Nov 2, 2013)

Back when there were no cell phones (and you had to be home if you wanted to receive a call)
Back when there was black and white TV
Back when there was no internet

Add your "back whens"
What else do you miss? What would you like to have back? Why?


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## Guest (Dec 15, 2013)

I fondly remember cassette tapes and waiting by the radio to tape my favorite songs when I was a kid. I remember my old walkman and when all phones had the long springy cord. You had to stand or sit there in one spot to talk. I remember having to look up information in books instead of surfing the net. I remember bad 80's sitcoms. Oh how I miss 80's TV


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## Doril (Nov 2, 2013)

Goodness, I miss my walkman, too. Phones with a chord . I remember my first boyfriend calling me at home, and me pressing myself as much as I could into a corner so no one would hear my conversation. So funny. 
Those were the days.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

I always used to say that I wanted to be able to communicate to the world via a keyboard - I have never been so good at public speaking and stuff like that. Now I can. I guess there are times I appreciate the older times, but mostly it has to do with TV. I like being in front of the TV at a certain time and watching shows in real time. Yes, I have a DVR and use it, but I watch the shows I record within 24 hours. I HATE this "Don't talk about that! I haven't watched it yet!" And it never ends! Look, you get a week - if you haven't watched it by then, you aren't going to...let me talk about the show!


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

When we were in high school, my brother talked on the phone with his girlfriend in the phone booth across the way at the Getty station.  There was no privacy on our only corded phone in the dining room.  I love this memory.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Kitten said:


> I fondly remember cassette tapes and waiting by the radio to tape my favorite songs when I was a kid. I remember my old walkman and when all phones had the long springy cord. You had to stand or sit there in one spot to talk. I remember having to look up information in books instead of surfing the net. I remember bad 80's sitcoms. Oh how I miss 80's TV


Ah yes. I remember one hour each week on friday we had the top 10 songs. I had to find just the right spot with the radio and the telescope antenna to get the best reception. Nobody was allowed to come in for that hour in fear of disturbing it. 
And if I didn't hit the start recording just right, I had to do it all over again the next week. Hoping of course the song was still in the top 10. . I am a total 80's gal. I still listen to my 80's songs, I just put them on the amazon cloudplayer and now I can blast them through the roku and the stereo. Some I had to go on the darknet to find the Mp3's as they weren't available. My 80's happened in germany so the music was a bit different.

Our one phone was in the hallway, the very cold frozen hallway.

I remember jumping on my bicycle to ride 5 kilometers to go to the library to get books and later on my mofa. I am so spoiled now with my kindle.

Instead of being on the phone, or on the computer as young teenagers, we would cycle to the next town and sit in the tee laden for the afternoon. A tea house. We would play board games, hang out, talk silly stuff and drink pots of tea. 

Though I couldn't imagine being without the internet anymore now. Its opened such a wide world for me. I am an introvert and the web has made connecting much easier. Plus all that info at a fingertip.

Sure was a different time and its really difficult to explain and convey to those that were born later. I guess just like any generation you had to have been there.

Didn't we have more hairstyles in the 80's than any other generation though? Holy moly I did some crazy stuff.


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## spotsmom (Jan 20, 2011)

Before video games, my mom would send my brother and me outside in the morning and tell us if we came home before lunch we better be bleeding.  We  were always outside scheming, riding bikes and being active.

I really miss there being a home telephone where when you called the number you didn't know which member of the family would answer.  Now, you call the cellphone of the person you want to talk to (unless they only "speak" via texting or something like that).  Takes a lot of spontaneity out of conversations.

I also don't like the way that since electronics, etc. people are losing the ability to simply talk to one another one on one.  Or to write a letter to someone.

Guess I miss the old days.  As my husband says "the entire western US was settled without a cell phone".


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## Doril (Nov 2, 2013)

Great "back whens". You know what I really miss? I miss handwritten letters. I love how convenient emailing is, but there
was just something special about handwritten letters.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

I miss music videos on MTV. Not long ago someone was talking about how when Michael Jackson debuted "Thriller" it was must-watch, event TV. 

I still listen to the radio - with actual DJs, but I miss the heyday of radio. 

I also miss letters. I stayed in touch much better with friends back when I had to write them actual letters.


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## Book Master (May 3, 2013)

I miss being able to take a little pocket change and spending the day on Saturdays at the movies. You could get in, buy a super large cola, all the popcorn and candy you could eat plus watch movies.

I miss spending the week when I was little with my grandmother during summer school break. She would take me to town and we would stop by the drugstore for ice cream at the bar. Alot of good times with her.

I miss the late 70s and 80s! You could do alot with money during those days. Now it takes so much money to make a living. It is getting crazy out there!

I miss seeing kids playing outdoors. We use to get together and play ball, football or baseball, it never mattered. You saw the kids bike riding and doing other outdoor activities.

There is so much those of us had back in our younger days that the youth and those a little older missed out on. Life has drastically changed for the worser but only the ones who have lived through it know the true difference. 
BM


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## Guest (Dec 18, 2013)

I always try to leave the house without the cellphone.


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## cork_dork_mom (Mar 24, 2011)

Rotary phones - calling someone with a 9 or a 0 and messing up... have to start all over! 

TV dinners in the tin trays, cooked in the oven... while watching Starsky and Hutch... hubba hubba  

Roll up windows in the car and push mowers.

I was the remote for the TV...  and there were all of 4 channels (5 if the weather was clear).

I was a senior in high school when MTV first aired. We didn't have cable so we all went to a friend's house to watch videos.


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## Guest (Dec 18, 2013)

I forgot all about rotary phones. They were such a pain! I remember hand written letters fondly - me and my first boyfriend used to write to each other. I loved getting the letters in the mail and it's so much nicer than email. I haven't received a hand written letter in years. I miss them.


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## Atunah (Nov 20, 2008)

Rotary phones, yeah, we had that. Our older neighbor lady could not dial on one and they didn't have a phone either. So when she wanted to make a call, she came over, paid 25 pfennig and I had to dial the number. I did the same for her adult son who had polio and so couldn't dial while on the crutches since our phone was in such an odd place in the house. 
That was a memory I haven't had in a long time. 

I used to letter write, but I don't think anyone could read my handwriting today. It was bad enough back in the day.


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

The only parts of "back then" I miss are summer vacations and having my parents responsible for all the bills. 

I still write letters; some of them even by hand and sent by mail; others are sent via email.

Betsy


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## cork_dork_mom (Mar 24, 2011)

I'm still a big letter writer. Sadly the only people who write back are my Auntie's and senior book club ladies. I'm afraid when they're gone I won't have anyone to write to  . Which is a real shame because there's some beautiful stationery out there!


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## Chad Winters (Oct 28, 2008)

I miss being able to work on my car...I use to change spark plugs, fiddle with gaskets and carbs. Now its like this hi-tech black box that I don't dare touch.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

Does anyone remember that some people used the eraser end of a pencil to dial on a rotary phone?


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Chad Winters said:


> I miss being able to work on my car...I use to change spark plugs, fiddle with gaskets and carbs. Now its like this hi-tech black box that I don't dare touch.


This is why we have a 1968 Austin Mini Cooper S....


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

Sometimes I miss typewriters. I mean, they are still around, but they are tough to find ribbons for or maintain. When I was a kid, I had a manual typewriter I got at a garage sale as my first one - the one I wrote so many horrible short stories on back then. There was something so cool about pounding those keys.


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## Seamonkey (Dec 2, 2008)

For the most part I don't miss anything.  I miss people, parents..

I love technology.

BUT, I was happy without the technology.  It was exciting to HAVE a B/W tv and gather to watch something together.  We would sit with my dad and watch Victory at Sea.. which showed where he had been in WWI..  

I enoyed earlier adult years when it would have been absurd to think that people would be all pissy if you weren't basically on call 24/7  .. at some point I did have a beeper and was on call at times, then there was a modem,  then a terminal connected to work..  I stopped working before I had a cell phone and I still have mine off most of the time and use it to help me, not to be on call unless I offer to be.

I remember more time for reading, being outside..  commercials that were merely sort of silly, not x-rated..


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## cork_dork_mom (Mar 24, 2011)

balaspa said:


> Sometimes I miss typewriters. I mean, they are still around, but they are tough to find ribbons for or maintain. When I was a kid, I had a manual typewriter I got at a garage sale as my first one - the one I wrote so many horrible short stories on back then. There was something so cool about pounding those keys.


My high school graduation present was an IBM Selectric typewriter.... with a correcting ribbon !!! I thought I was All That!!


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## Nancy Beck (Jul 1, 2011)

I loved all my cassette tapes, but I'll tell you one music format I DON'T miss - 8 tracks. Gads, they were horrible. If you wanted to hear the song again right away, you had to wait until the stupid tape went around again. Good riddance to that!

Ooh, I remember when we got our first color TV. That was in 1973. My mother's sister already had a color TV and had color TVs throughout their house, so that was always special.

Which brings me to the one thing I do miss most of all: my aunts and uncles. Almost all are gone now, and sometimes thinking about all the Christmases we all hung out together in my one aunt's teeny tiny house brings tears to my eyes. That aunt with the house is the last one I have left, and she is ancient - 99 years old, going to be 100 in January.


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## mlewis78 (Apr 19, 2009)

Nancy Beck said:


> Which brings me to the one thing I do miss most of all: my aunts and uncles. Almost all are gone now, and sometimes thinking about all the Christmases we all hung out together in my one aunt's teeny tiny house brings tears to my eyes. That aunt with the house is the last one I have left, and she is ancient - 99 years old, going to be 100 in January.


I miss the people in my family who have died: great Uncle Harold (1902-1983) -- we lived in his house and he was the most generous man I ever knew; my father (1918-1990); brother Russ (1945-2005); grandmother; 3 aunts and their husbands (all on my mother's side); two cousins . . . I better stop there.


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## *DrDLN* (dr.s.dhillon) (Jan 19, 2011)

Back when there was more love and fewer things....


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## anguabell (Jan 9, 2011)

When Christmas was Christmas.
Without retail pushing it from September, without Christmas decorations put out months in advance, without... gift cards (yes, I perfectly understand the rationalization behind it, but still...).


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## Doril (Nov 2, 2013)

Kitten said:


> I forgot all about rotary phones. They were such a pain! I remember hand written letters fondly - me and my first boyfriend used to write to each other. I loved getting the letters in the mail and it's so much nicer than email. I haven't received a hand written letter in years. I miss them.


 My first boyfriend and I also used to exchange hand written letters, even if we were in the same highschool. I could express myself so much better that way.


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## Doril (Nov 2, 2013)

mlewis78 said:


> Does anyone remember that some people used the eraser end of a pencil to dial on a rotary phone?


Yes . I think my mother used to do that.


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## Doril (Nov 2, 2013)

Nancy Beck said:


> I loved all my cassette tapes, but I'll tell you one music format I DON'T miss - 8 tracks. Gads, they were horrible. If you wanted to hear the song again right away, you had to wait until the stupid tape went around again. Good riddance to that!
> 
> Ooh, I remember when we got our first color TV. That was in 1973. My mother's sister already had a color TV and had color TVs throughout their house, so that was always special.
> 
> Which brings me to the one thing I do miss most of all: my aunts and uncles. Almost all are gone now, and sometimes thinking about all the Christmases we all hung out together in my one aunt's teeny tiny house brings tears to my eyes. That aunt with the house is the last one I have left, and she is ancient - 99 years old, going to be 100 in January.


Our neighbors bought a color TV first. Let me just say, my brother and I used to pay them LOTS of visits. The cartoons really came alive


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## Carol (was Dara) (Feb 19, 2011)

Like Kitten, I sorta miss cassette tapes. CDs scratch too easily. I also have fond memories of VHS tapes and of my parent's old dial phone.


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## swolf (Jun 21, 2010)

I miss playing baseball with my friends.  We'd head to the field in the morning, and not come home until supper.  Lunch was green apples we got off a tree next to the field.  And the field itself would become a fine dust after us playing on it day after day. 

Bell-bottom jeans on girls.

Cool things in cereal boxes.

Cool things your parents would get with gas station fill-ups. 

Getting excited over the fall TV season.

Getting all new clothes for starting school.

Kennywood Day for my school.  (Pittsburgh thing.)

Sending film off to be developed and being surprised what's on it because it's been so long since you took the first pictures. 

Being light enough to walk on top of frozen snow. 

Staying home sick from school and watching game shows.


Things I don't miss:

Watching a movie or TV show and going crazy because you can't figure out where you saw that actor before.

Having only four TV stations (five if you include the UHF one that used that weird antenna.)

The TV antenna on top of the house that spun around (ka-chunk, ka-chunk, ka-chunk)

If you missed a movie at the theaters, you had to wait a couple of years before it came on TV.

Being reminded constantly we were under the threat of nuclear annihilation.

No score on the screen during sports broadcasts.


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## Doril (Nov 2, 2013)

swolf said:


> I miss playing baseball with my friends. We'd head to the field in the morning, and not come home until supper. Lunch was green apples we got off a tree next to the field. And the field itself would become a fine dust after us playing on it day after day.
> 
> Bell-bottom jeans on girls.
> 
> ...


Your back whens are great. I miss most of those thing too. Especially sending film off to be developed and shopping for new clothes before the school term starts.

Keep them coming.


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## Joyce DeBacco (Apr 24, 2010)

Gosh, so many things I'd forgotten about, but I can't really say I miss them. I do, however, miss being able to operate the TV without worrying about pushing the wrong button and screwing up everything. I'm not very techy, and I don't even own a cell phone.

And, yeah, like others have said, I miss the people who are no longer around. 

Joyce


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

Book Master said:


> I miss being able to take a little pocket change and spending the day on Saturdays at the movies. You could get in, buy a super large cola, all the popcorn and candy you could eat plus watch movies...


No, that's not the way to do it. We would stop by the dime store first (do they even have those any more?) and buy some candy by the pound, and then take that into the movie theater a couple doors down from there. (You had to be unobtrusive about it.)

On a more serious note: while it's fun to wax nostalgic about the good old days, I think it mostly is just that: nostalgia. Were the times really better, or were our perceptions of them just more innocent and less jaded, simply because we were younger? Is every new technological advance for the worse or for the better? As in most such things, I'd say it's pretty complicated and there is no simple answer.

I for one would not want to give up the advances that appear to be saving a friend at work from cancer. For that matter, I wouldn't want to give up KBoards. So, yes, I do have some fond memories of my life growing up in the '60s (and perhaps a memory or 2 from the very late '50s), but I really have no desire to go back to them.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

I was fortunate enough to experience a wide range of changes, from 8-track & LP, going to the post office to use a phone and 2 for 1c lollies... but I have to say, no, I would not want to be without my internet ( cellphones I can live without, but I'm hard of hearing anyhow  ).  From the very start of computers & connectivity for the consumer, I was there and getting every bit that I could.  Can't wait for 1GBps links and transposed reality.


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## nico (Jan 17, 2013)

I was just talking about this with my boss yesterday…i miss walking on the railroad tracks to the municipal pool with my friends in the summertime, not a care in the world (except if a train was coming!).


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## *DrDLN* (dr.s.dhillon) (Jan 19, 2011)

I was happy then and I am happy now. But we are losing human touch...


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

There are people I miss, but not the lack of technology. 

If I don't want to talk on my cellphone, I simply don't answer it. If it's important, they'll leave a message.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

I am notorious for NEVER answering my cell phone. I prefer people leave a message and I can call them back - or text me. It drives some of my friends crazy.


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## MrPLD (Sep 23, 2010)

balaspa said:


> I am notorious for NEVER answering my cell phone. I prefer people leave a message and I can call them back - or text me. It drives some of my friends crazy.


Very much the same here. Even for my main business ( repairing computers/phones ) I block all voice calls, FB, email, text/SMS me, but don't voice-call me. Too easy to have half an hour wasted by chit-chat when you're desperately trying to get other jobs finished. Best thing I like though about it is that you have a verifiable record of things.


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## metal134 (Sep 2, 2010)

balaspa said:


> I am notorious for NEVER answering my cell phone. I prefer people leave a message and I can call them back - or text me. It drives some of my friends crazy.


Same here. I mean, on the one hand, I could never picture going back to a time before cell-phones (granted, I'm only 32 so I've had one for most of my life), but sometimes, it feels more like a leash than a convenience. However, this was more true when I was in my 20s than now. Then, my friends and I would call each other for no particular reason and sometimes, I would just want to be left alone, but the phone wouldn't shut the hell up. Now, we are in our 30 and most of my friends have families and full time jobs, so we only really call each other when we have something to say.

As to the rest of it, no, I can't say I miss any of the "before this or that". The internet, MP3 players, all this technological stuff has made my life better. yeah, I said it! While I may fondly remember cassette tapes, CRT tvs, corded phones, having to get my music from the local radio station, etc, I don't miss any of them.


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## Guest (Mar 12, 2014)

swolf said:


> Cool things in cereal boxes.


Once in a while you can still find them but you have to look. I got a _four light saber spoons _ about a year ago from boxes of Kellogg's cereal. (And yes, we eat a lot of cereal in our house we didn't just buy the cereal to get the spoons stop looking at me like that)

I miss phone etiquette. At least five times a day, I get a call at work that doesn't begin with "hello" "good morning" or any sort of greeting, but rather "Yeah, who called me?" Well, I don't know, sunshine. I have *a hundred phone extensions* in this building and they ALL ring to the front desk if you are simply looking at the caller ID. Why don't you listen to your message and figure it out?

I miss people not expecting you to drop EVERYTHING you are doing and respond to their text, call, Facebook post. I love my friends, but sometimes...

Kelly: Why didn't you call me back earlier? I called you an hour ago!
Me: I was eating dinner.
Kelly: No, seriously. Why didn't you call me sooner?

or

Heather: Did you see my post?
Me: What post?
Heather: The one I just posted.
Me: I'm in the middle of a content edit. I'm not on Facebook.
Heather: You have to see it!
Me: Fine. (logs into Facebook). It's a cat photo, Heather.
Heather: My God. Why are you so grumpy?


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## Guest (Mar 12, 2014)

Speaking of this topic:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/kevin-bacon-gives-millennials-a-history-lesson-about-the--80s-162525915.html?vp=1


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## nico (Jan 17, 2013)

*pours some out for all his friends who got nuked*


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## Alessandra Kelley (Feb 22, 2011)

Not I. I _love_ living in The Future!

I still have my original Walkman, and it still works. The battery compartment has been held on by a piece of masking tape for thirty years, but I can still play cassette tapes on it.

I don't miss great heavy corded rotary dial phones either, although I wouldn't mind having one on my desk the way I wouldn't mind one of those upright phones from the 1920s.

I don't miss having to rely on whatever I could scare up at the local library for art references. Nor do I miss taking photos and having to wait a few days before I could even see if they came out.

I do miss when Cracker Jack had awesome prizes, real plastic and metal toys you could actually play with instead of flimsy nothings.

Oh wait. _That never happened._ By the time I was a kid all Cracker Jack prizes were nothing more than a single sticker or temporary tattoo. Such a letdown! I had to listen to stories of my elders who got real whistles or rings or tiny dolls in theirs.

I hated the clumsy, clunky, ugly style-free 1970s and 1980s, hated being chained to the TV if I wanted to watch anything, chained to the phone if I wanted to talk, reliant on the chance holdings of the local library, if there even was one, to read anything that wasn't on the bookstore shelves now now now, and reliant on the local news and maybe a stray "Punch" or "Economist", if I was lucky, to learn about world events.

Nowadays I have information at my fingertips and a million resources I can draw upon for my life, for my work, for fun. I can talk to people around the world about things I am interested in.

I may not have a flying car, but I love this the future.



NogDog said:


> No, that's not the way to do it. We would stop by the dime store first (do they even have those any more?) and buy some candy by the pound, and then take that into the movie theater a couple doors down from there. (You had to be unobtrusive about it.)


They do have them. They're called "dollar stores" now.



anguabell said:


> When Christmas was Christmas.
> Without retail pushing it from September, without Christmas decorations put out months in advance, without... gift cards (yes, I perfectly understand the rationalization behind it, but still...).


Wait, when was that?

I'm almost fifty, and I have read MAD magazines older than I am complaining about that very thing (okay, not the gift cards...).


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## CatherineM (Jan 9, 2013)

EelKat said:


> My first car had an 8Track Player in it.
> I still have the car, but don't miss the 8Track Player.
> 
> I miss vinyl records. Cover art was so much better when it came in large 12x12 almost poster sizes.


Not only was the cover art better, but, so was the sound. I don't care what anybody says.

There's no more record stores anymore. 

I get mine from Ebay because I'm forced to.


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## metal134 (Sep 2, 2010)

Alessandra Kelley said:


> Not I. I _love_ living in The Future!
> 
> I still have my original Walkman, and it still works. The battery compartment has been held on by a piece of masking tape for thirty years, but I can still play cassette tapes on it.
> 
> ...


I agree with every single damn word of this post.


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## Abalone (Jan 31, 2014)

I recently turned 24. I remember cassettes. Hard not to, considering I still have dozens of them, including my own mix-tapes. I also happen to remember jamming them a lot as a child... I remember mid-1990s 56K. 

Cell phones are interesting. I've never wanted one or had one bought for me. The latter pissed off my family when I was in middle school and also in high school. You know, something about being safe and all. I'm still not sure how a phone made me safer. Don't get me wrong, I don't believe that radioactive BS. I love electronics and new gadgets. After all, I am  a computer engineer. Even now my family bugs me to get one. I simply don't like cell phones. They've always been a headache for me to use, even the most basic of ones. Ironically, my work has given me a cell phone, as each employee is given one. I just happen to keep it on silent, charge it once every two weeks and never use it unless work calls me on it, and that's only happened once since I started at the current company. 

I don't like tablets, mostly because their file system isn't operable within a tablet OS, especially iOS for iPad. I do like my Kindle reader, but that's just for books, and because my townhouse doesn't have space for 10 shelves of books. 




Signed,
A really weird mid-20s man.


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## Alan Petersen (May 20, 2011)

I miss when there wasn't Facebook and social media. Wondering whatever happened to that old girlfriend from grade school/high school. Or that girl I had a crush on in the 8th grade. Now it seems everyone and their brother is over-sharing on Facebook with a gazillion photographs of their whole life. Takes away from the wistful memories we once had before social media. Those people are no longer frozen in time like they use to be.


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