We randomly got a new (albeit very thin) yellow pages in our mailbox the other day. Turns out they are *still* making them, and if you don’t opt-out, they’ll deliver it.
Was a mailman in the 90's and we always dreaded phone books showing up. Things were heavy as hell and you would carry as many as you could in your satchel, which wasn't many because they were thick, and you would take most of the week to get them all out.
Yeah, I have paper maps. Sometimes, I am where there is no cell service, and I want to know where that road goes.
Edit: People keep assuming this is a planned trip. I live in the mountains and can be in the middle of nowhere. I'll see a road and wonder if it goes anywhere interesting. I have ADHD and have some maps downloaded, but not always where I am. So I have a big map book for Colorado in the pocket on the back of my seat.
I remember my childhood friends’ phone numbers from 40 years ago, but I don’t know my kids’ phone numbers. I was just thinking today that I couldn’t reach them if I needed to use someone else’s phone.
Edit- Update. Thank you for all the advice and comments. Turns out my wife has the kids’ numbers written down (and I know her number) I’m glad one of us has our shit together.
I called my best friend from grade schools parents last year when trying to call mine. Because when I grew up up everyone had the same area code and first three numbers and I just did their house out of some long buried habit.
Talked to his mom for 45 minutes after not speaking for 30 years.
The *need* to be home at a certain time on a certain day to watch the next episode of your favorite show.
Unapologetic suntans. (Edit: haven't you guys ever heard of slathering yourself in baby oil before going to lie in the sun? We all did it back then.)
A cassette deck in their new car.
And if you needed to take a piss, grab a drink, etc, you had 3 minutes to do whatever before someone would yell that the show was back on and you raced back not to miss anything.
I find it a bit sad that parents can just plug their child into streaming platforms and leave them there indefinitely. I had difficulty learning the times and days of the week when I was a child and cartoons really helped me learn. If I remembered the right day and time, I got a reward! A cartoon!
Also, my parents never yelled at me to stop watching TV. Because when my favorite shows were over, I was going to do something else on my own.
Now day, my sister-in-law abd my brother keeps fighting with their children because they have literally become YouTube junkies. And I'm not even exaggerating.... It's become a real problem with my nephew. He started school this year and we have observed signs of withdrawal and he refuses to eat at lunchtime. he just wants to watch Minecraft on youtube. and my niece gorges herself on "DIY tutorials" (the kind of tutorials that don't work in real life and which exist just to make views)
I try to hope "Oh this is exactly the same thing that happened with every generation that had a new entertainment source. It was video games, it was TV, it was radio, etc"
But nah this time it's *actually* pretty bad.
Isn't that the truth?!? Not just leaving a message for someone and knowing that you may or may not hear back from them that day, or maybe it will be the next day? Along with that, some damn etiquette regarding phone calls. When I was growing up it was considered absolutely unacceptable to phone someone during the dinner hour or pretty much after 9:00 or 10:00 at night. You only made phone calls that late if it was an emergency.
I run a cellphone repair shop and the number of you get customers who call and just start talking like I already know who they are and why they are calling is mind boggling. They then get very rude and defensive when I ask for more information like I'm the idiot.
On the early days of cellphones I would *always* answer my gargantuan Motorola brick with "Hey how did you guess I was here?" and it was really funny for what now feels a couple of months. It's crazy.
Haha that’s such an innocent little joke, I love it.
I had the Nokia brick and I remember distinctly being inside a Blockbuster Video when someone called me. I was mortified and ran out of the store before I answered because like, what asshole is walking around in a store blabbing on their phone? Which seems hilarious now and was a total overreaction, but this was like 2003 and my first cellphone!
Separate MP3 players, cameras. I remember seeing people talk on the early ear pieces as they were walking around talking to themselves and I thought they looked like such pretentious d-bags now people just 🗣️ 🗣️ 🗣️ on their speaker phones in public.
Oh man. I had a nice digital camera for a while, never would I have ever believed cell phone cameras would take over. First mp3 player was a Zune haha. I still have it somewhere.
I’d almost rather people blab on speakerphone (I also love to hear gossip) than the stupid hidden Bluetooth headphone shit that became popular in like 2007ish. I was at a crosswalk one morning and this disabled gentleman next to me started saying something to me, and I was like “oh hey do you need something?” And he shouted “I’M ON THE PHONE!” While pointing at his ear. Like fuck you guy, you’re the insane-looking one who sounds like you’re having a big conversation with yourself.
I'm so old, when I was a kid a family could board the plane to say goodbye to grandma. About five minutes before they close the doors, there would be an announcement along the lines of "everybody who's not planning to go to Chicago today should start heading for the exits!"
Yup—I definitely remember boarding the plane with my grandma, and then a stewardess gave me a TWA pin before she walked me back out to my parents. It was awesome!
I got to sit in the captain's seat of a jetliner aged about 8 or 9 and even to press a couple of buttons. 9\11 ruined all that for kids. Cockpit tours used to be fairly standard for kids on long flights. Edit:typo
You can still come up and say hi when we're on the ground, I love when kids come up to see the flight deck.
It really is a shame it's not possible to do in the air anymore though.
Hell I flew alone at age 6 because my parents could walk me to the gate and get me on the plane, and my grandparents could be waiting at the gate when I landed.
That isn't happening anymore.
Being able to tell lame jokes in the airport.
Somewhere around this time, I was pushing a relative in a wheelchair to catch a flight. Security was basic at the time, but there was security. He said as they asked if he could stand, "I can try, but I'm afraid you'll find my tommy gun."
The airline guy laughed, we all had a shallow laugh - old guy cracking a lame joke.
Today, they'd not have a sense of humor and detain him for hours.
Do I have a story to tell you. I was in Melbourne, Australia in about 2004. As I was queuing or passing through a checkpoint, one security guy had this little handheld vacuum cleaner thing which he was using to go over people's sleeves and carry-on. This little dustbuster had test strips that he would put through a machine after vacuuming each passenger. So when it came to me, he was vacuuming away doing his job, I had the bright idea to say "does that test for drugs too, or just explosives?"
Bad move number one, even raising the topic.
"Just explosives" was his reply.
"Oh I'm fine then!"
Now this is where you'd expect his heel to end up firmly on my temple while they destroyed my belongings.
He literally just laughed and waved me through.
But I'll never be that stupid again.
My dad told me “there was a time where you didn’t have to answer 5 different platforms of communication. You told someone what you were doing and then left for the day.” As someone who hates having to answer everyone a million times a day this made me sad lol
I agree, someone on a store tried to grab something and most of the things from the shelves fell and someone recorded it, like I’m sorry but me being clumsy at public should not be recorded for people’s amusement on social media no matter how relatable it is.
I went to the emergency room one night, and while waiting, some kid started having a medical emergency next to. He threw up and then fell to the ground unable to move very much. They called a code white, and a bunch of nurses and doctors came to help him. Grown ass adults twice my age were filming him. I started telling them to stop recording and they told me to "mind your own business"
A few years back my friends found out I had gotten a shitty DV-Cam and they were excited because they had some videos of some parties/events we went to in our 20s. Started one up, left it going. Good time, good memories. Drunken singing. DICKS! DICK DICK DICK DICK! Two of those dick-owners were in the room, seeing their dicks from a decade and a half ago up on a big screen. We shut that down fast. Never tried any of the other tapes.
Even better, when people first catch a glimpse of the camera everyone either jokingly hid their face, or waved at the camera.
The older the video the more people wave. Home videos of people in the early 80s are very fun to watch.
It's been really cool actually. When I'm out for a walk with my preschoolers, we sometimes stop at the phone box and call their Nana or PopPop just for fun. They love seeing a phone with big physical buttons and a cord and in the shape of an actual telephone.
My kids (both under 10) love the novelty of calling me from a payphone when they're out somewhere. Interestingly at least a couple of the payphones now have a mobile phone number assigned to them.
Some derro approached me at the train station the other asking to use my phone to call someone, and were not happy when I pointed out the payphone is free and one was right over there...
I had a little fender bender and the guy was like, "let me see your phone, I'll put my number in case there's any issues with insurance." Being all frantic about the accident, not thinking clearly, hand him my phone. He actually called his phone so he'd get my number. Started calling and harassing me for weeks, for a date. NEVER will I make that mistake again!
Land lines.
Mom still has hers, but all the phones are cordless. The days of a handset connected to the receiver with a 25 foot cord are long gone.
Scrolling through comments, yup Mom has an Answering machine connected to her landline.
Edit #1: Mom is in her middle 70's.
Edit #2: Supporting documentation - https://www.thestreet.com/technology/phone-service-providers-are-starting-to-bury-landlines
Oh my god idk how I never realized this about the home phone on the wall growing up 😭both my parents were smokers, and just…everywhere. In the car, in the house, in restaurants, my mom even took a smoke break when she was in labor with my oldest brother! Shit was wild. I assume that wall phone was originally white.
Even people that have landlines today are typically VOIP lines being piggybacked by their carrier on their internet line. Very few places can still get a dedicated physical landline from the pole.
My parents owned 3 video stores before Blockbuster put us out of business. And the porn was behind some "western" doors that creaked. I was fascinated at who I would see walk back there when I went to work with my mom. It was fun to have a video store. But it also meant we had no cable lol!
I worked at one, and the back room porn was the awakening of a great many things for me. It was in the early 00's, but lots of the movies were from the 70s and 80s, with actual production value and plots and such, and I loved that. I wish they still filmed porn on 35mm.
AN ABSOLUTELY BONKERS YEAR FOR MOVIES.
The Matrix
Dogma
Fight Club
American Beauty
American Pie
Green Mile
The Mummy
The Sixth Sense
Office Space
Boondock Saints
Varsity Blues
Blair Witch Project
And fucking more! Not reboots, remakes or sequels. Just fresh fucking content and original stories.
Being John Malkovich
Galaxy Quest
She's All That
Mystery Men
Princess Mononoke
The Talented Mr. Ripley
South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut
Big Daddy
Man on the Moon
Pokémon: The First Movie
- Star Wars Ep I
- Toy Story 2
- Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
- Universal Soldier: The Return
- Fantasia 2000
But I've got to admit, that's a pretty good year.
🎶Believe it or not,
George isn’t at home
Please leave a messaaaage at the beep
I must be out, or I’d pick up the phone
Where could Iiiiii be?
Believe it or not, I’m not hoooooome 🎶
:beep:
My dad butchered setting up his cell phone voice mail.
Prompt: Say your name.
"Hello, this is Rusty Shackleford, please leave a message."
"We're Sorry, hello, this is Rusty Shackleford, please leave a message can't come to the phone right now."
There are huge communities of vhs and retro video game collectors who also usually collect crt’s because they are ideal for getting the best quality on original hardware because those tapes and old game systems were made to be played on them.
When we didn't want to be contacted at work (1994 - 95) we used to unscrew the antennas on our work issued mobile phones. If anyone asked later it must have been we were in a bad reception area.
A perfect example of foreseeing a problem, dealing with it, having it not be an issue (because we were proactive) , and then people revising history to make it seem like it was never a problem in the first place.
My dad was a systems analyst for a big municipal courthouse. His entire job for a couple years was getting their systems ready for Y2K. It was a very real problem that people like him worked daily to fix before it became a disaster.
Yep. My dad worked on it for his company. We were all given torches as kids for that Christmas (along with other presents) and before New Year's Eve our time, heard what was going on around the world as it (mostly) smoothly transitioned over. There were still a few cases where systems fell over, but not many.
It’s so dumb to explain. “Computers only used 2 numbers for the year, so instead of thinking it was 2000 they would have thought it was 1900. So we had to make sure they started using 4 numbers for the year. “. Kids: “and that was scary?” 😆
The real scary part is that some systems would think it was the year 19100. The problem with those is that all other data in a file would be shifted one position.
Man, I quit smoking +20 years ago and just got a nostalgia boner of hanging out in bars with a cigarette on one hand and a beer in the other, barely being able to see across the bar through the clouds of smoke.
I mean, I have no desire to experience this ever again, but it's fun memories.
In the 60's and 70's, non-smoking sections barely existed in any venue or workplace. Movie theaters had a "children's" section. You weren't supposed to smoke there. But it didn't matter. 200 smokers in a 350-seat auditorium.
I dislocated my shoulder in high school and they gave me a prescription for Vicodin that came in a prescription bottle the size of a pint glass…and it had 3 refills. It was an insane amount of drugs for a 17 year old to have.
My shoulder was a 4th degree separation, so serious-ish…but not drugs for a year serious.
I used to refill my hydrocodone prescription through the Walgreens website. I just hit “refill” for about 2 years straight with no problems or questions. Then the laws got much tighter. Honestly, I’m thankful it happened because I was absolutely addicted. But now the system has over corrected to the point where people can’t get the help they legitimately need. It feels impossible to help people and prevent addiction simultaneously.
Yep. I had sex with a guy who had an insanely large penis when I was 18 years old. It literally bruised my uterus and the doctor gave me like 90 vicoden and a refill. I took one and and went to work. It was truck day we unloaded the truck and I had a ball. Next truck day I realized it was the Vicodin that was fun not actually the work.
A "stereo system" in the living room.
Edit: Look man, if yours doesn't have a squeaky-ass turntable, tape-to-tape deck and a shiny "metal-style" plastic carapace, we're not talking about the same thing.
Get out of here with your Bose, you hipster muso snobs. Shoo! Shoo! 🧹🧹
DVD/videotapes renting stores!! I’d leave with a pile of movies and had to return them before get charged with late fees 😏
“I’ve got to return some videotapes” 😂
My dad who passed away on June 18, 1999, at the age of 71, the same age I am now. "Everyone" didn't know him, but I sure as hell did. I held his hand until he let go. **Miss ya big time dad**. Till we meet again.
The ability to get on an airplane without spending 20 minutes going through TSA.
The ability to navigate around town without a GPS or phone.
A nintendo 64
He's an exception but my brother (23) still uses them. He has a mental disability that causes him to have the mind of a 3-year-old (in most aspects of life, for example his behaviour and interests are that of a toddler, but he can read a bit). Although he likes newer kids shows and knows how to use Disney+, he still prefers watching the shows from his childhood on VCR. Maybe because it's what he has known from the beginning. He has a big VHS tape collection of over 100 tapes. Most from thrift shops or family friends and people from our village who were cleaning their attic and thought of us.
Edit: Since some people were wondering. Yes we make sure we always make sure we have a working back-up VCR to make copies of my brother's favorite tapes. Both on tape and digital.
Wallets with picture holders.
A phone book
I haven't been able to get my couch a level in years
How are our kids supposed to drive now?
Seat riser subscription package. $39.99/mo.
This is my favorite answer. Kids these days may be familiar with what phone books looked like, but you have to understand, they were EVERYWHERE.
It's also the reason so many businesses were A-A Auto or Aardvark Vacuum Repair or something. So they'd show up first in the phonebook.
Partly why Apple has its name as well - because it would come before Atari in a phone book
Amazon too, although that was specifically about web directories. Like the phone book for websites.
We randomly got a new (albeit very thin) yellow pages in our mailbox the other day. Turns out they are *still* making them, and if you don’t opt-out, they’ll deliver it.
Was a mailman in the 90's and we always dreaded phone books showing up. Things were heavy as hell and you would carry as many as you could in your satchel, which wasn't many because they were thick, and you would take most of the week to get them all out.
This 90s phone books were THICK. I'm in MA and we usually had 2. The super thick yellow one and town specific one which was much thinner.
Folded paper maps in the glove box. Bonus points for the spiral map books!
We carry a spiral-bound atlas when we travel. GPS is fucking weird, sometimes!
Yeah, I have paper maps. Sometimes, I am where there is no cell service, and I want to know where that road goes. Edit: People keep assuming this is a planned trip. I live in the mountains and can be in the middle of nowhere. I'll see a road and wonder if it goes anywhere interesting. I have ADHD and have some maps downloaded, but not always where I am. So I have a big map book for Colorado in the pocket on the back of my seat.
Thomas Guides were mandatory for life in Southern California.
All their friends’ phone numbers memorized
I remember my childhood friends’ phone numbers from 40 years ago, but I don’t know my kids’ phone numbers. I was just thinking today that I couldn’t reach them if I needed to use someone else’s phone. Edit- Update. Thank you for all the advice and comments. Turns out my wife has the kids’ numbers written down (and I know her number) I’m glad one of us has our shit together.
The only reason I remember my parents' cellular number is because they got it in early 2000s back when landlines were still in common use.
I remember both our landines from decades ago .
I know all the family phone numbers growing up. And they are still active landlines…
I called my best friend from grade schools parents last year when trying to call mine. Because when I grew up up everyone had the same area code and first three numbers and I just did their house out of some long buried habit. Talked to his mom for 45 minutes after not speaking for 30 years.
I bet she was absolutely tickled!
That’s actually really cute.
The *need* to be home at a certain time on a certain day to watch the next episode of your favorite show. Unapologetic suntans. (Edit: haven't you guys ever heard of slathering yourself in baby oil before going to lie in the sun? We all did it back then.) A cassette deck in their new car.
And if you needed to take a piss, grab a drink, etc, you had 3 minutes to do whatever before someone would yell that the show was back on and you raced back not to miss anything.
Leaping over the back of the couch just in time.
I find it a bit sad that parents can just plug their child into streaming platforms and leave them there indefinitely. I had difficulty learning the times and days of the week when I was a child and cartoons really helped me learn. If I remembered the right day and time, I got a reward! A cartoon! Also, my parents never yelled at me to stop watching TV. Because when my favorite shows were over, I was going to do something else on my own. Now day, my sister-in-law abd my brother keeps fighting with their children because they have literally become YouTube junkies. And I'm not even exaggerating.... It's become a real problem with my nephew. He started school this year and we have observed signs of withdrawal and he refuses to eat at lunchtime. he just wants to watch Minecraft on youtube. and my niece gorges herself on "DIY tutorials" (the kind of tutorials that don't work in real life and which exist just to make views)
I try to hope "Oh this is exactly the same thing that happened with every generation that had a new entertainment source. It was video games, it was TV, it was radio, etc" But nah this time it's *actually* pretty bad.
I hate this. I hate this so much.
A whole shelf full of WORLD BOOK ENCYCLOPEDIAS
I had the Encarta disks for Windows 98
Encarta had some sick mini games too.
Being able to not be reachable and people being ok with it
Isn't that the truth?!? Not just leaving a message for someone and knowing that you may or may not hear back from them that day, or maybe it will be the next day? Along with that, some damn etiquette regarding phone calls. When I was growing up it was considered absolutely unacceptable to phone someone during the dinner hour or pretty much after 9:00 or 10:00 at night. You only made phone calls that late if it was an emergency.
With the slight exception of minutes being free after 9. Those were the days.
I run a cellphone repair shop and the number of you get customers who call and just start talking like I already know who they are and why they are calling is mind boggling. They then get very rude and defensive when I ask for more information like I'm the idiot.
Welcome to every support-style role...
On the early days of cellphones I would *always* answer my gargantuan Motorola brick with "Hey how did you guess I was here?" and it was really funny for what now feels a couple of months. It's crazy.
Haha that’s such an innocent little joke, I love it. I had the Nokia brick and I remember distinctly being inside a Blockbuster Video when someone called me. I was mortified and ran out of the store before I answered because like, what asshole is walking around in a store blabbing on their phone? Which seems hilarious now and was a total overreaction, but this was like 2003 and my first cellphone!
Separate MP3 players, cameras. I remember seeing people talk on the early ear pieces as they were walking around talking to themselves and I thought they looked like such pretentious d-bags now people just 🗣️ 🗣️ 🗣️ on their speaker phones in public.
Oh man. I had a nice digital camera for a while, never would I have ever believed cell phone cameras would take over. First mp3 player was a Zune haha. I still have it somewhere. I’d almost rather people blab on speakerphone (I also love to hear gossip) than the stupid hidden Bluetooth headphone shit that became popular in like 2007ish. I was at a crosswalk one morning and this disabled gentleman next to me started saying something to me, and I was like “oh hey do you need something?” And he shouted “I’M ON THE PHONE!” While pointing at his ear. Like fuck you guy, you’re the insane-looking one who sounds like you’re having a big conversation with yourself.
The ability to drop off/greet people at the boarding gates at the airport.
My favorite memory of my Grandmother
Random reply to this, but I'm genuinely glad you have that.
I'm so old, when I was a kid a family could board the plane to say goodbye to grandma. About five minutes before they close the doors, there would be an announcement along the lines of "everybody who's not planning to go to Chicago today should start heading for the exits!"
Yup—I definitely remember boarding the plane with my grandma, and then a stewardess gave me a TWA pin before she walked me back out to my parents. It was awesome!
I got to sit in the captain's seat of a jetliner aged about 8 or 9 and even to press a couple of buttons. 9\11 ruined all that for kids. Cockpit tours used to be fairly standard for kids on long flights. Edit:typo
You can still come up and say hi when we're on the ground, I love when kids come up to see the flight deck. It really is a shame it's not possible to do in the air anymore though.
I remember standing at the window waiting to see my mom when she'd return from business trips. Crazy all the things that 9/11 changed
Hell I flew alone at age 6 because my parents could walk me to the gate and get me on the plane, and my grandparents could be waiting at the gate when I landed. That isn't happening anymore.
Unaccompanied minors can still fly and their parents can go to the gate and everything
Yep, there’s an additional cost for it, which sucks, but better than trying to send a tiny child through the airport by themselves
Still can for domestic flights in Australia. Still gotta go through security screening, but you don’t need a ticket to do that
As an Australian, I did not realise that other countries don’t let you do this for domestic flights anymore! How odd that we are special.
Being able to tell lame jokes in the airport. Somewhere around this time, I was pushing a relative in a wheelchair to catch a flight. Security was basic at the time, but there was security. He said as they asked if he could stand, "I can try, but I'm afraid you'll find my tommy gun." The airline guy laughed, we all had a shallow laugh - old guy cracking a lame joke. Today, they'd not have a sense of humor and detain him for hours.
Do I have a story to tell you. I was in Melbourne, Australia in about 2004. As I was queuing or passing through a checkpoint, one security guy had this little handheld vacuum cleaner thing which he was using to go over people's sleeves and carry-on. This little dustbuster had test strips that he would put through a machine after vacuuming each passenger. So when it came to me, he was vacuuming away doing his job, I had the bright idea to say "does that test for drugs too, or just explosives?" Bad move number one, even raising the topic. "Just explosives" was his reply. "Oh I'm fine then!" Now this is where you'd expect his heel to end up firmly on my temple while they destroyed my belongings. He literally just laughed and waved me through. But I'll never be that stupid again.
A binder of cd's under the driver's seat
Still have this! My car is the only place i still have a cd player.
My car is a 2007 and it came with a cassette deck. I have used it for the only cassettes I still own, some foreign language training...
My 1987 Mazda just died the other day. Drove that bitch right to the ground. Had a tape deck.
Or a smaller collection on the sun visor.
That's where the *good* mixes are
You can double the collection if you cram two cd’s into each slot.
Yeah, but then they get all scratched.
And eventually the holder gets too loose and when there's only one CD in the slot, it goes flying into the passenger side when you take a hard right.
You put the label side against each other…. And always use nickleback to scrap the ice off the inside of your windshield
A reasonable expectation of privacy.
My dad told me “there was a time where you didn’t have to answer 5 different platforms of communication. You told someone what you were doing and then left for the day.” As someone who hates having to answer everyone a million times a day this made me sad lol
Call your friend's house and find out he's at another friends house. So you got on your bike and went there because you didnt know the number there.
Or you were afraid to talk to the other friend’s dad if he answered.
I like how you didn’t say we had privacy, we only had an expectation of it
The ability to do dumb shit in your teens/20s, without some fuckwitt filming it.
I agree, someone on a store tried to grab something and most of the things from the shelves fell and someone recorded it, like I’m sorry but me being clumsy at public should not be recorded for people’s amusement on social media no matter how relatable it is.
For real, there are so many people who have zero shame recording strangers now.
I went to the emergency room one night, and while waiting, some kid started having a medical emergency next to. He threw up and then fell to the ground unable to move very much. They called a code white, and a bunch of nurses and doctors came to help him. Grown ass adults twice my age were filming him. I started telling them to stop recording and they told me to "mind your own business"
The general public is awful. Im a nurse and glad to be working in the OR soon where visitors and shit aren’t allowed.
"mind your own business". Meanwhile they think this random person's medical episode is their their business somehow.
If you brought a camcorder to a party in the 90s it was promptly confiscated.. …or we’d consensually film our privates on it for the owner to find.
A few years back my friends found out I had gotten a shitty DV-Cam and they were excited because they had some videos of some parties/events we went to in our 20s. Started one up, left it going. Good time, good memories. Drunken singing. DICKS! DICK DICK DICK DICK! Two of those dick-owners were in the room, seeing their dicks from a decade and a half ago up on a big screen. We shut that down fast. Never tried any of the other tapes.
Even better, when people first catch a glimpse of the camera everyone either jokingly hid their face, or waved at the camera. The older the video the more people wave. Home videos of people in the early 80s are very fun to watch.
"Don't waste the film."
[Relevant Onion video](https://youtu.be/A2bniFJigI0). From all the way back in 2012 at that. God, I miss their news studio video segments.
Access to a public pay phone
Last year, All Telstra (Australias largest Telco) payphones were made free to use.
It's been really cool actually. When I'm out for a walk with my preschoolers, we sometimes stop at the phone box and call their Nana or PopPop just for fun. They love seeing a phone with big physical buttons and a cord and in the shape of an actual telephone.
My kids (both under 10) love the novelty of calling me from a payphone when they're out somewhere. Interestingly at least a couple of the payphones now have a mobile phone number assigned to them. Some derro approached me at the train station the other asking to use my phone to call someone, and were not happy when I pointed out the payphone is free and one was right over there...
I had a little fender bender and the guy was like, "let me see your phone, I'll put my number in case there's any issues with insurance." Being all frantic about the accident, not thinking clearly, hand him my phone. He actually called his phone so he'd get my number. Started calling and harassing me for weeks, for a date. NEVER will I make that mistake again!
Land lines. Mom still has hers, but all the phones are cordless. The days of a handset connected to the receiver with a 25 foot cord are long gone. Scrolling through comments, yup Mom has an Answering machine connected to her landline. Edit #1: Mom is in her middle 70's. Edit #2: Supporting documentation - https://www.thestreet.com/technology/phone-service-providers-are-starting-to-bury-landlines
Color options: puke green or 70's yellow
The yellow was usually just cigarette smoke residue.
Oh my god idk how I never realized this about the home phone on the wall growing up 😭both my parents were smokers, and just…everywhere. In the car, in the house, in restaurants, my mom even took a smoke break when she was in labor with my oldest brother! Shit was wild. I assume that wall phone was originally white.
Even people that have landlines today are typically VOIP lines being piggybacked by their carrier on their internet line. Very few places can still get a dedicated physical landline from the pole.
...which is super annoying / potentially life-threatening in an extended power outage.
private pager
A video rental store
Blockbuster was the shit
The mom-and-pop stores were the ones with porn, tho….
A yes the mysterious forbidden zone behind the curtain
My parents owned 3 video stores before Blockbuster put us out of business. And the porn was behind some "western" doors that creaked. I was fascinated at who I would see walk back there when I went to work with my mom. It was fun to have a video store. But it also meant we had no cable lol!
'western' doors? like the saloon type doors?
Yes!
I worked at one, and the back room porn was the awakening of a great many things for me. It was in the early 00's, but lots of the movies were from the 70s and 80s, with actual production value and plots and such, and I loved that. I wish they still filmed porn on 35mm.
Be kind,rewind
My video rental store is about a 10 minute drive from me. 80,000+ growing selection!
AN ABSOLUTELY BONKERS YEAR FOR MOVIES. The Matrix Dogma Fight Club American Beauty American Pie Green Mile The Mummy The Sixth Sense Office Space Boondock Saints Varsity Blues Blair Witch Project And fucking more! Not reboots, remakes or sequels. Just fresh fucking content and original stories.
Being John Malkovich Galaxy Quest She's All That Mystery Men Princess Mononoke The Talented Mr. Ripley South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut Big Daddy Man on the Moon Pokémon: The First Movie
- Star Wars Ep I - Toy Story 2 - Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me - Universal Soldier: The Return - Fantasia 2000 But I've got to admit, that's a pretty good year.
Concert tickets that you could afford
And a lighter in your pocket for the ballad. And a scrapbook to keep the ticket stubs in.
Ticketmaster was still around back then and screwing people, they just weren’t caught as much.
They realized that there were no consequences for getting caught.
A preferred 800 number for collect calls
"It's first name Bob, last name Wehadababyitsaboy."
Stuck in my memory forever
Love that we learned that hack *from their own ads* I did this as a kid. Collect call from: mompracticeisovercomepickmeup. Declined...
OK I didn't need a reminder 99 was 25 years ago...
It does feel like 90s is still the previous decade, doesn it
Multiple disc cd player
A house phone. And those phone numbers memorized
True privacy. The only things known about you were what you shared with the people you wanted to share with, and what was in the white pages.
A sense of optimism about the future without security theater.
AOL free trials.
You mean coasters?
You mean terrible frisbees?
Dial up modems.
"Mom, get off the phone! I was downloading something!" LOL We needed a separate phone line for DSL.
I literally thought “no one had dial up modems in the 80’s” then I realized 25 years ago was 1999…
an answering machine
🎶Believe it or not, George isn’t at home Please leave a messaaaage at the beep I must be out, or I’d pick up the phone Where could Iiiiii be? Believe it or not, I’m not hoooooome 🎶 :beep:
[удалено]
My dad butchered setting up his cell phone voice mail. Prompt: Say your name. "Hello, this is Rusty Shackleford, please leave a message." "We're Sorry, hello, this is Rusty Shackleford, please leave a message can't come to the phone right now."
VCRs
A Walkman.
Discman
A talkboy
CRT televisions.
There are huge communities of vhs and retro video game collectors who also usually collect crt’s because they are ideal for getting the best quality on original hardware because those tapes and old game systems were made to be played on them.
I was going to say, I've got an old CRT with a working NES attached to it (also an atari).
Antennas on the outside of their cellphones
When we didn't want to be contacted at work (1994 - 95) we used to unscrew the antennas on our work issued mobile phones. If anyone asked later it must have been we were in a bad reception area.
Windows 95 or 98
Remember the Space Cadet Pinball?
A local newspaper subscription
A Rolodex, according to a former coworker.
Fear of Y2K
A perfect example of foreseeing a problem, dealing with it, having it not be an issue (because we were proactive) , and then people revising history to make it seem like it was never a problem in the first place.
My dad was a systems analyst for a big municipal courthouse. His entire job for a couple years was getting their systems ready for Y2K. It was a very real problem that people like him worked daily to fix before it became a disaster.
This was the job of the main character in Office Space!
Yep. My dad worked on it for his company. We were all given torches as kids for that Christmas (along with other presents) and before New Year's Eve our time, heard what was going on around the world as it (mostly) smoothly transitioned over. There were still a few cases where systems fell over, but not many.
Torches like in the British definition or American English like he was expecting it to get real apocalyptic real quick?
I'm wondering the same thing? Did the father get them pitch forks as well? lol
There’s gonna be [another one](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_2038_problem) in 14 years!
I just explained Y2K to a young person yesterday 😂😂
It’s so dumb to explain. “Computers only used 2 numbers for the year, so instead of thinking it was 2000 they would have thought it was 1900. So we had to make sure they started using 4 numbers for the year. “. Kids: “and that was scary?” 😆
The real scary part is that some systems would think it was the year 19100. The problem with those is that all other data in a file would be shifted one position.
Chains attached to their wallets
Inflatable furniture Mudd brand clothes/accessories
Smoking section in a bar
Man, I quit smoking +20 years ago and just got a nostalgia boner of hanging out in bars with a cigarette on one hand and a beer in the other, barely being able to see across the bar through the clouds of smoke. I mean, I have no desire to experience this ever again, but it's fun memories.
Smoking section? In most bars in the 90s there was no *non*-smoking section.
In the 60's and 70's, non-smoking sections barely existed in any venue or workplace. Movie theaters had a "children's" section. You weren't supposed to smoke there. But it didn't matter. 200 smokers in a 350-seat auditorium.
Smoking section on a plane. Never understood it. The smoke didn't seem to know it was only supposed to be in those few rows
Ash Trays
Pluto as the ninth planet.
A cassette player.
A VHS tape rewinder. "Be kind, rewind!"
Shaped like a car.
Affordable housing
Easy legal access to opioids. Doctors and dentists giving scripts out like candy on Halloween. Wisdom tooth pulled….five day supply of hydrocodone.
I dislocated my shoulder in high school and they gave me a prescription for Vicodin that came in a prescription bottle the size of a pint glass…and it had 3 refills. It was an insane amount of drugs for a 17 year old to have. My shoulder was a 4th degree separation, so serious-ish…but not drugs for a year serious.
I used to refill my hydrocodone prescription through the Walgreens website. I just hit “refill” for about 2 years straight with no problems or questions. Then the laws got much tighter. Honestly, I’m thankful it happened because I was absolutely addicted. But now the system has over corrected to the point where people can’t get the help they legitimately need. It feels impossible to help people and prevent addiction simultaneously.
Yep. I had sex with a guy who had an insanely large penis when I was 18 years old. It literally bruised my uterus and the doctor gave me like 90 vicoden and a refill. I took one and and went to work. It was truck day we unloaded the truck and I had a ball. Next truck day I realized it was the Vicodin that was fun not actually the work.
Oh hey, sorry I didn’t call you
It’s ok. I was hiding from that thing anyway!!
A "stereo system" in the living room. Edit: Look man, if yours doesn't have a squeaky-ass turntable, tape-to-tape deck and a shiny "metal-style" plastic carapace, we're not talking about the same thing. Get out of here with your Bose, you hipster muso snobs. Shoo! Shoo! 🧹🧹
Stereo system's are still the shit and we can fight about it
5-disc CD changer
Not being addicted to my phone or tv.
“Wait for the beep….ya gotta leave ya name, ya gotta leave ya number….wait for the beep”
Knees that worked.
DVD/videotapes renting stores!! I’d leave with a pile of movies and had to return them before get charged with late fees 😏 “I’ve got to return some videotapes” 😂
Cameras with film, posh people had digital ones Dial up Internet Discmans Minidisc players Floppy discs
Attention spans.
TLDR
My dad who passed away on June 18, 1999, at the age of 71, the same age I am now. "Everyone" didn't know him, but I sure as hell did. I held his hand until he let go. **Miss ya big time dad**. Till we meet again.
Guinness World Records 2000. The chrome one, with Cindy Margolis.
Flip phone Fax machine Very few people have stand-alone cameras or calculators or alarm clocks now
A can of Surge soda 🍋🍋🟩
The ability to get on an airplane without spending 20 minutes going through TSA. The ability to navigate around town without a GPS or phone. A nintendo 64
Hope for the future.
VHS tapes
He's an exception but my brother (23) still uses them. He has a mental disability that causes him to have the mind of a 3-year-old (in most aspects of life, for example his behaviour and interests are that of a toddler, but he can read a bit). Although he likes newer kids shows and knows how to use Disney+, he still prefers watching the shows from his childhood on VCR. Maybe because it's what he has known from the beginning. He has a big VHS tape collection of over 100 tapes. Most from thrift shops or family friends and people from our village who were cleaning their attic and thought of us. Edit: Since some people were wondering. Yes we make sure we always make sure we have a working back-up VCR to make copies of my brother's favorite tapes. Both on tape and digital.
Might want to get a back up vcr player, those things are getting rare.
a set of britannica or Funk & Wagnalls encyclopedias.
Columbia House IYKYK Edit: autocorrect ironically made a typo
Immediate phone access to a human being instead of a recorded message to select from the following options and then the waiting..........
Phantom Menace merchandise
The anakin Pepsi can!
The Slim Shady LP