Hellobee Boards

I'm so old I remember when calling "long-distance" to somewhere else in the state, or the next state over, was super-expensive. If my mom talked to her SIL for more than 5 minutes on Christmas, my dad would be tapping his watch and gesturing wildly to get off the phone before the bill ran through the roof.

And all my mom's friends with teenagers would complain that they could never talk on the phone because their kids were constantly tying up the line talking with friends. Then a few years after that came tying up the phone line with dial up internet...

I like watching old depictions of what people thought the future would look like. I think few people in the 80s or early 90s imagined that there would be such an explosion in communications technology, and such a large fall in the price of transmitting information.

@simplyfelicity: Yes, my parents would be like "whoever is on the computer, GET OFF, NOW".

Oh, and one more... I'm so old that every time I'd whine or complain about something as a kid, the response (from my grandma) would inevitably start with "You may think you have it rough, but when I was a kid during the Depression..."

I miss that generation sooooo much...

I remember using microfiche machines to look up archived newspaper articles.

I remember when the Internet was called the "information superhighway" and the background to all pages was grey. A lot of pages had "under construction" clip art.

I'm so old that I learned how to use an actual typewriter to do reports in elementary school, and my mind was blown when we got to use a word processor in middle school. I'm so old that my parents bought laser disk players to replace our VHS players because they thought they'd be the next big thing.

I'm so old that my high school best friend had a pager, my high school boyfriend's family had a "portable phone" that was attached to a box with an antenna, and my college boyfriend had a "mini cd player".

@twodoghouse: Yes! I would listen forever just to hit record!

I used a cassette walkman and then later a cd diskman.

Our family video recorder recorded onto full size VHS tapes.

I remember using a card catalog at the library. The librarian would hand stamp a little card in the pocket of a book when it was checked out.

I used a typewriter to write reports.

When my family got a Mac SE, it was a big deal. You had to load 9 disks to play a single game.

My favorite game was "Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego."

I remember when ET came out in the theater and we went to see it at the drive in.

When we got the internet, it was dial up AOL and said, "You've got mail" when you logged on.

I remember my dad complaining about how smokey his office building was, since all of his coworkers smoked at their desks. He bought some huge smoke filtering machine to sit on his desk.

I remember when my dag bought a car phone.... it came in a giant bag and had to be plugged into the lighter.

I didn't have a cell phone until graduate school.

@78h2o: I loved "Where in the World is Carmen SanDiego"! Best game, ever...

@808love: Yeah, no, we had our own "special" code. *vom*

@littlebug: hilarious...!

I love this thread! I'm so old we used to lick paper stamps and stick them on an envelope to mail.

I'm so old I remember having to navigate my own way. Checking out the Thomas Bros Guide to figure out how to get to a friends house. Stopping to ask for directions. Debating routes.

If we called someone with the same 3 digit prefix in the same area code, you'd just have to dial 5 numbers to get through. (59464 instead area code + 3 digit prefix + last 4 numbers)

I remember when my dad upgraded from a pager and got a bag phone for the car. He'd only use it to call work b/c it was insanely expensive.

I learned how to read using Stickybear for Apple IIe.

I bought record singles when I was really young.

We used Napster in college and AOL instant messenger ruled. Facebook wasn't available to anyone with an .edu address until the year after I graduated.