Growing up as a kid, i had a lot of fun and experience especially with these at my disposal which aided in forging me into a hybrid homo. I'm one of a few that had a taste of the frills of the 20th century and blended well with the thrills of the 'New Age(Computer Age).
Here are some of the things the children of this generation(and of course the next) won't recognise or relate with;
PAGERS
Many business men clipped these wireless devices onto their belt loops as a way of receiving voice messages. Translation for kids: It was basically the first form of texting, which once upon a time you couldn't do on a cell phone (we know).
VHS TAPES
The black boxes you played in your VCR (another mystery to kids these days) were kind of clunky and you had to rewind them when you were done viewing. But the worst thing ever was when the film was pulled out — if you couldn't wind it back up, the days of watching that film were totally over.
VIDEO RENTAL STORES
Sure, these stores survived the VHS and offered DVDs for awhile, but not On Demand or Red Box rentals. Too bad, because there was nothing like shopping through the new releases on a Friday night (although we haven gotten used to the ease of picking a flick from the comfort of our PJs).
CHURCH KEYS
Before pull tabs or twist caps, the pointy ends of these tools were used to puncture beer and soda cans — one hole was for pouring and the other was for ventilation. However younger generations never knew what life was like before they could open sodas without an opener. Even they name sounds totally foreign to today's kids (no, it's not the key that will unlock the local chapel).
CASSETTE TAPES
Think of it as the original CD. Raise your hand if you have vivid memories of waiting until your favorite song came on the radio so you could record it on a cassette for later? And don't get us started on the beauty of mix tapes (sigh).
LIBRARY CARD CATALOGS
Doing anything manually just sounds like a lot of work, especially sifting through drawers and drawers of cards to find the book you needed from the library. We kid, it wasn't that bad — but it was a lot more time consuming than today's computerized method.
THE DISCMAN
While kids probably know what CDs are (hey, cars still use 'em ... for now) they might not recognize this portable player. MP3s essentially wiped this technology from existence, since they're lighter and don't require you to carry your entire CD collection around with you to listen to a different album.
OLD-SCHOOL CAMERAS
Especially ones with flashes like this! While this kind of looks like something from outer space (just us?), it's actually a camera complete with quite an epic bulb. Meaning, no, not all cameras could fit into your back pocket and also be used to surf the web and text back in the day.
FILM CANISTERS
Next came these nifty containers. It was a little annoying buying a new canister of film each time you wanted to take more pictures, but it's all that anybody knew. Plus we'd be lying if we said those black tube containers weren't super useful around the house.
DISPOSABLE CAMERAS
But for the laziest of the lazy came disposable cameras. You could just drop the entire device in a bag to get developed and they were almost unbreakable, making them ideal for kids or klutzy people. Today, do kids even know what it is to get a photo "developed?" Nope.
FLOPPY DISKS
Sure, now kids only know them as the
save button symbol on computers , but before that floppy disks were used to store files and transfer them to different devices. But scratch the metal part and you'd risk losing your data forever (the horror!). I used to guard mine like my life depended on it.
rECORD ADAPTERS
This probably looks more like a frisbee to kids than anything, but these nifty tools helped accommodate LPs to fit onto different record player turn tables.
ENCYCLOPEDIAS
AKA the first Google (seriously). Since the super search website wasn't invented until 1998, these leather bound books were the source of all of life's hardest questions. Sounds like a lot of work, right kids?
PALM PILOTS
People used these nifty gadgets to keep track of their calendars and address books. But since they didn't have wifi connection, they were basically a poor man's smart phone.
PAPER MAPS
Pulling over to the side of the road to pull out a giant map is probably something your kids have never experienced. If fact, we bet they don't even know what MapQuest is, let alone appreciate how many pages of directions you printed off in your lifetime.
SKATE KEYS
Even with the skates right next to the keys, we bet your children still don't know why anyone would need those keys — metal roller skates once required a key to hand adjust the length and fit for the each person.
THESE COLORED BARS
If you turned your TV late at night you might have (
annoyingly ) run into this "test pattern" — something today's Netflix obsessed kids probably can't even comprehend.
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