I remember...
when personal computers didn't even exist in science fiction.
when arcades were full of nothing but pinball and other mechanical games.
when cigarettes first went up to almost a dollar, but I could still get them from a vending machine that couldn't accept over fifty cents.
cigarette vending machines.
vinyl records that you couldn't bend because they'd break.
album liner notes, and advertising on inner sleeves.
when buying an album and listening to it was an experience.
hi-fi.
when stereo was a new concept.
transistor radios.
when digital watches were a cool innovation.
when five (or was it six) blade razors were only a joke on Saturday Night Live.
when General Realisimo Francisco Franco was still dead
when Jane was an ignorant slut.
when nerds were not cool.
when hippies were cool.
when people gave a crap.
when music was always new and innovative.
when heavy metal was a term only used by scientists.
when cassette tapes were going to destroy the music industry.
when "sweet home alabama" wasn't a phrase you would ever hear in New England.
when everyone had to tie their shoes.
when PF Flyers came with a decoder ring.
when all houses were built with front porches.
TV stands.
the remote control was the first person to stand up in the room.
Mercury Comets
the Interstates still being built.
roadside cabins and travel attractions on every state highway.
diners everywhere.
soda fountains and ice cream shops.
when penny candies were still a penny.
butcher shops.
leaded gasoline and hi-test.
when a three speed bike was a big deal.
when curve-under handle bars were still yet to be seen.
sticking playing cards in your spokes with clothes pins actually sounded just like a motorcycle.
when it snowed starting in November, and it STAYED until April!
metal bladed sleds (American Flyers).
electric trains were the best presents ever.
Aurora slot car race tracks.
building models.
tin cup and string "telephones."
BB guns.
when I could never understand how Dad could drink that foul smelling beer.
when "I got your message" meant you got a letter in the mail.
when you could dial a phone by clicking the receiver cradle.
when it was a big deal to have a long cord on your phone.
when split entrance ranches were a cool innovation in home design.
when you never had to think "sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name," because everyone in town knew your name.
when the school desk chairs were attached to the desks, and the desks still had inkwells, and names carved in them from probably from the early nineteen hundreds.
when school busses didn't have any padding except on the seats.
when school busses had signs up front that said, "No standing or sitting in front of the white line."
when standing on the school bus was often the only way to get to school.
no seat belts in most vehicles.
when baby car seats "hooked" over the front seat and had steering wheels.
when kids slept laying down in the backs of cars on long rides.
when everybody smoked cigarettes, and smoked them everywhere.
when it was common to be offered a smoke if you were anywhere near someone taking one out for themselves.
when grandma's chicken soup was supposed to cure everything, and it did.
when if your father said we was going to kick your ass, he actually did, and nobody ever thought anything of it.
when a sandbox was a box full of sand that little kids played in.
when a computer was what that big building downtown was built for.
computer punch cards.
paper driving licenses.
when Autism was an extremely rare and very severe disorder.
mopeds.
Watchamacallits, before they ruined them by putting carmel in them.
candy bars were ten cents.
there were only about ten different kinds of candy bars on the candy shelves.
you could open a candy bar by tearing off the end of the paper wrapper.
all the candy bars were melted in the summer because very few stores had air conditioning.
wooden walk in beer coolers in the back of the store.
the eggs they sold were picked up at the farm that morning by the guy behind the counter.
sometimes the eggs still had chicken droppings on them.
bread boxes.
if you said "homophobic," people would probably think you were talking about fear of homogenized milk.
nobody ever said the word "homosexual."
if you were a called a drinker, you were automatically assumed to be a drunkard.
people who drank now and again were not "drinkers."
pistachios were always red.
bars with shuffle boards.
when kids were allowed in bars sometimes. (how do you think I knew about the last one?)
when the only technology on grandma and grandpa's lists were telephones, radios, wrist watches and Gramophones.
when the attic was a huge place you could actually stand up in full of really cool stuff you weren't supposed to be, but you'd disappear up there anyway until you got caught.
And...
I remember when I was able to think of a lot more than this.
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I'm not likely to be around much longer. As before when I first signed up here years ago, I'm finding that after a long hiatus, and after only a few days back on here, I'm spending way too much time here again already. So I'm requesting my account be locked, banned or whatever. It's just time. Until then, well, I dunno...