15 years ago (1/5th of my life!) I wrote the following blog post:


As a Future Fossil of America, I am currently old enough to remember, back in 'the day', how little a person had to know, or do, to get by in life.  Was that a better time?  How the heck would I know?  I'm still doing my best not to know or do much.

I remember when there was only AM radio.

I remember when there was only 13 possible TV channels.

I remember gasoline being under 25 cents per gallon.

I remember what a clutch pedal is, and 'three-on-the-stick' means.

I remember when I only had one possible phone number.  And if I couldn't reach a person by phone, I only had two alternatives, a telegram or a letter.

I remember when doctors made house calls.

I remember when there was no monthly welfare checks or debit cards.  

I remember when teachers and school administrators spanked kids to keep order in schools.  If that didn't work, they kicked yer ass out.

I remember when getting arrested was really a 'thing'!

I remember when pregnant teenagers (girls, for the most part) would go away, have the baby, give it up for adoption and then come back to school, like nothing had happened.

I remember when getting a whittling kit for my birthday was the coolest thing EVER!

I remember when all a kid needed to have fun was a door to the outside.

I remember when retirement meant living with one of your kids.

I remember when you could cure whatever you caught from having sex.

I remember when sex was only face to face.  Seriously, that's the way it was way back then!!

I remember when religion was just a simple opiate; you sparked up on Sundays and life was good; different brands of opium, but the same effect was achieved.

I remember when being a mormon was, overall, fun; not the apparent pain-in-the-ass it has become now.



In the world today, I'm asked to stuff more information in my brain on a daily basis than my grandparents had to store in their brains in a month.  And I can't keep up!  If you think you're keeping up then it's 99% a certainty that you're not getting all the sleep you need.

Will too much tension snap the cables being twisted so tightly?  And if so, what will be the result, civil war or just civility?

I don't gotz ta know; I'm just curious.


   

I remember every one of those things although I only remember three channels on the television and we only got two till they put the radar tower on the top of the mountain.


"I remember when all a kid needed to have fun was a door to the outside."

This This this. This is what the world is missing. They've moved miles beyond the rest of what you wrote, but they need to retrieve this one.

I remember Kick the Can, and Hide and Seek, and jumping out of the rafters in the barn onto the hay and skating on the crick when it froze over and the whole neighborhood roving like a gang on weekends and we actually looked at clouds instead of storing a multitude of selfies in them.

Nowadays I can't keep up. And I don't try. I don't have a single app. I have embraced my dinosaur status. Having little short term memory is very freeing. Your brain gets to a point where it doesn't accept crap anymore.

Most of the world is on virtual Life Support now what with all the technology everyone is connected to and they are so lost without.

I wish I could remember though not to pat anyone on the shoulder. You can get sued. We used to be able to do that. I miss it.

I remember when being a mormon was ok. Now you can't. Instead of I can't I'm Mormon it is I can't I'm a member of the church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints.

I remember when the high beam switch was a foot switch left of the brake or clutch.

I remember S&H Green Stamps.

I remember when sex education was National Geographic and the Sears catalog.

I remember when the Hill Cumorah Pageant was cool.

I remember Golden Question tie tacks.

Hell, I remember tie tacks.

I literally had to look up "tie tacks."

Seriously.

You poke a pin through the tie, and the gizmo that clips on to the back of the pin has a little chain with about a ¾ inch bar on the end of the chain that slips through a button hole.

Yeah, used to be a thing.

I still use a tie tack on the extremely rare occasions I wear a tie.

Having just celebrated a birthday that brings me close to mid 70's in age, I'll chime in from a female perspective

I remember getting on my bike at age 7 and riding to the corner grocery store to buy penny candy that actually cost a penny. I rode on the side of the road or the sidewalks and always felt safe doing so.

I remember heading to the local swimming pool every day with the same group of friends in the summer and staying for hours. My parents never worried about me doing that. A summer unlimited pass was $10.

I remember in the 5th grade pulling the hair of the snobby girl at school with another friend and both of us being sent to the principal's office. We got a stern talking to. My shame was complete when I got my report card and saw that my grade in conduct had been changed from a B to a D. Explain THAT to your parents!

I remember roaming around the whole town on Halloween with friends (sans any adult supervision) and knowing which houses had the best homemade treats. We never worried about them being unsafe to eat.

I remember not being allowed to wear any other clothing to school except dresses or skirts and blouses. This continued until I graduated from high school. I never remember having a snow day in the winter, but until the mid 60's having several days off in the fall so we could go pick "spuds" for 12 cents a gunny sack full. two of us picking 100 sacks earned each of us $6.

I remember my primary and mutual bandelos and wearing them proudly.

I remember driver's ed and getting my daylight driver's license at age 14!

I remember when TV stations (all 3 of them) going off the air at midnight with the playing of the star spangled banner.

I remember having a party line on our telephone. I confess that I listened in on the conversations more than once when I was about 8-9 years old.

Because I had a nice record player, my house was a hang out for listening to records and just gabbing about the latest football or basketball game or who was going steady or just broke up.

One of my regrets is sticking with all my mormon friends and not cultivating more close friendships with other classmates.

As older teens, how many of you ‘fogies’ had a regular ‘cruising’ spot?

And how many of you remember the statement it made when the girl sat right next to the male driver as you cruised that street?

. . .and the corollary, three guys sitting in front and at a strategic moment, the guy next to the passenger door bends over so that he can’t be seen, thus leaving the other two sitting alone in the car, right next to each other.


I believe that anyone who drives without seatbelts is an idiot, but during all those seatbeltless years, we never gave it a second thought. If it weren’t for how horribly the tobacco industry treated us, we’d have probably been more vociferous about how the Big Three car makers treated Americans.

Oh my. I still have a clutch pedal but 5 on the stick.

We only had 3 tv channels. I remember one phone in the house and everyone listened to what was said.

Having been born in 1936 I also remember those things.
I also remember returning home from sunday school and both my parents were crying.
when I asked why I really didn't understand the reply
"The Japanese just bombed Pearl Harbor"
I'm an old guy! Huh!

Dial phones.

When we visited my grandparents in rural Utah in the 1960s, they still used shared party lines. Different ring sequence (i.e., short-short-long) for each household on the party line, and I was sternly admonished never to pick up when the phone rang with a "code" other than my grandparents'. (Of course, I'm sure that rule was rigidly observed by all </s>, since there seemed to be no secrets in that tiny town.)

Candy cigarettes.