Blast from the past: Commodore 64!

My first computer ever was the Commodore64. Pacman. Math. Command line interface. 5" floppy disks. That chunky, huge keyboard.

Pure bliss.

The Commodore64 has been resurrected, with gusto!

LINK

Do you remember when everything had buttons, dials and things to manipulate? Now everything is - or will be - touch screen interfaced.

Do you remember when...

Books were made out of paper and not electrons?

Now we have pads/e-book readers. It's cool, and versatile...but until it feels the same, with wrinkled pages and the old bookshelf smell, it will never quite be the same.

Do you remember when...

...music was
performed live?
on 8 track tape, LP or 45 record?
on cassette tape?!
on audio CD?
on audio DVD?
on .MP3, .WMV?

Do you remember when...

crosswalk signs told you when you could "WALK" or "DON'T WALK" ? Now pictures light the way.

Do you remember when...

KFC was popularly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken and not its acronym?

Do you remember when...

...you used, "Well, when I was a kid..." for the first time, ever, in a sentence?

Do you remember when...

...you would hop in your Radio Flyer wagon and your best friend would push you all over the place? (Or push you down a steep hill?)

Do you remember when...

...you could make a cape out of any coat by just wearing it by the hood?

Do you remember when

...during the heat of Summer, the garden hose was the obvious choice for a refreshing drink (and cold shower) of water?

Do you remember when...

...fresh milk would be delivered daily to the front porch in glass bottles?

Do you remember when...

...that cell phone wasn't easily placed in your pocket, but sat on your counter top as a paperweight ? (yes, it was the size of a few bricks!)

Do you remember when...

...you would type letters on a manual or electric typerwriter, and somehow, no matter how hard you tried, the keys would always jam together?


click, click, click ,click...kachinnnng!

Do you remember when...

...life seemed simple?

And that it was only because you didn't quite understand how the world worked then, or know any better. You assumed the adults always had a handle on everything, but the world was really a big, confusing, complex place. It still is.

Do you remember when...

...any of the Presidents of the United States of America were inaugurated, and you watched it during class time live on TV?

...you watched, during class, the election results for any Presidential Election?

Do you remember when...

...your allowance was just a quarter? Two quarters? A dollar?


Your "allowance" was actually your take home salary?

Do you remember when...

... the Russian space station MIR came falling back to earth, and Taco Bell promised every person in the US a free taco if it hit a 40'x40' floating target in the South Pacific?

Do you remember when...

...Pluto was a planet? Then it wasn't? It was debated both ways?

Do you remember when...

... dial-up bulletin board systems (BBS) were the cool way to chat online, play multi-player games, share files, programs, documents and even surf the internet?

Do you remember when...

...a fidonet address, the equivalent of 1990s e-mail was more than 30 characters in length? (!)

Do you remember when...

...there were volumes of encyclopedias and other books to sift through for research papers?

And we had to photocopy the relevant pages to take home?

(Now we have Wikipedia and fully-searchable national and international databases that we can print from on demand?)

Do you remember when...

...the only elective choices in middle school were art, home economics, band or choir?

Do you remember when...

...a cardboard box transformed magically into a race car, space ship, time machine, or submarine?

Do you remember when...

...you could go see a newly-released movie for just $2? And get popcorn for $2?

Do you remember when...

...1-800-###-#### was the only toll free number?

Now we have 800, 877, 888, 866, etc...

Do you remember when...

...dialing a phone number you only had to dial 7 numbers, not 10?

Do you remember when...

...nearly every state had only 1 area code?

Do you remember...

... as a kid, wearing waxed lips?

Do you remember when...

...in elementary school there would be a "mobile library" that brought part of the city library to the school every week?

Do you remember when...

...filling up for gas the service attendant would check your air pressure, wash your windows and check your oil and washer fluid level...for free?

Do you remember when...

...your teacher wore a suit and tie every day for class?

Do you remember when

...cellular phone service text messages were free to receive and 10cts to send?

Do you remember when...

...actual slides were used in slideshow presentations? (now we use powerpoint and posterboards!)

Do you remember when...

...teachers used overhead projectors to write notes on a large screen?

Do you remember when...

Computer hard drive storage was

1MB?
3MB
16MB?
256MB?
1GB?
4GB?
10GB?
40GB?
100, 200, 500GB? 1TB?

Do you remember when...

Do you remember when... computer storage was on a

...5" floppy disk?
...3.5" floppy disk?
...Tape Drive (?!)
...100MB Zip Disk?
...250MB Zip Disk?
...CD?
...DVD?

...removable HDD?
...External HDD?
...USB thumb/flash drive?
...SD/CF card?

Do you remember when...


...teachers used 35mm film rolls, with a synchronized tape player, to display films and movies?

Do you remember when gasoline was 99cts a gallon?

Do You Remember When?

"Do You Remember When...?" is a blog dedicated to good things gone by the wayside. Remember stuff from your childhood? Your generation might remember fondly. Another generation might remember oddly.

Still, technological advances and societal changes have pushed many things into the history books. Help us remember here. Even though these things may be archaic and obsolete, we probably wouldn't be here today without them.

While many of these memories are from Generation Y, feel free to suggest your own. Because good memories span all lengths of time.