Tuesday, 23 June 2009
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Remember When?
This is just a silly post that will tell you that I am becoming an old lady. Does anyone remember what life was like before:
Computers. We used typewriters, and I'm just old enough to remember my mother typing on a manual typewriter on the porch. Clack! Clackclack, thud, clackity clack....ziiiiiiiip, dinngg! Remember getting the paper in just right?
Email. I still love getting real mail, and remember when learning to write a business letter was a Big Deal? Today some companies get business emails like this: Dude, teh iphone don't work, need to send it bck. ur phone sux.
Home copiers. We used carbon paper. Whoa, carbons! Do they still make that?
Microwaves. You defrosted stuff in cold water in the sink or fridge. If you didn't plan ahead, you had breakfast for dinner. There was a funny little implement called a tea kettle. It was high-tech if it whistled.
Clothes dryers. We had one for as long as I can remember, but we used a line outdoors most of the time. Now in most neighborhoods those aren't allowed, which is a great argument against today's modern neighborhood. I'm hoping rules like that get rescinded in favor of greener ideas.
Fridges that didn't dispense water and ice. You had to open the door for those. My folks had this awesome icecrusher fixed to the wall. It was two-toned black and white, and shaped like a rocket, with a crank coming out the side, and very sturdy. I wish I had inherited it. I have a cranking ice crusher now, but it isn't nearly as sturdy. And I don't have a dispensing fridge either. In fact, my fridge is over 20 years old, although it isn't old enough to be called an icebox. Remember defrosting those things? Whoa.
Hair dryers. Today one points a gun at one's head. Back then, you took a bike ride. When I was ten, we got our first hair dryer. You put on this inflatable cap, and sat there for what felt like hours with your hair in curlers if you wanted. It made you look like a temporary mushroom.
Oh, and hair conditioner. After that got invented, I grew my hair long.
Air conditioning. In the South of course, they've had this for a long time, but in CT, we used noisy table fans that made an awful racket. Or maybe ours was just more ancient. It was blue, made of metal, and the noise helped cover the racket of thunderstorms.
Allergy pills. Need I say more?
Healthy Choice Frozen dinners. They were "TV Dinners" back then, awful stuff in foil. Today they aren't bad, alot faster, but they do still have that pre-packaged taste no matter how fancy.
Cell phones and answering machines. I know these are good for safety and convenience. But life could be pleasantly quieter then too.
Digital cameras. You had to wait for a stack of paper photos, many of which were no good, and unable to throw them out because you paid for them, they filled boxes, drawers and albums to overflowing. I'm very glad for today's cameras, and Photoshop. No film, no sending them out to be processed, easy to delete bad ones. The only problem is trying to share them with your friends at the grocery store.
Speaking of grocery stores, remember those old cash registers? We had a neighborhood grocery store with narrow aisles, small metal carts with invariably wobbling wheels, worn hardwood floors and gigantic old brass cash registers. It took forever to get checked out, and you didn't get an itemised recept at the end of it all-- you had to check it closely if you wanted to be sure of the totals. Still-- it slowed life down. The owner was always around-- his name was Gordie Terwilliger; he was tall and thin and always wore a canvas bib-apron. His store was called Gordie's. I think it's still there but of course Gordie isn't.
Maybe it's because I'm at an age where life is just going too fast that I don't mind waiting for things as much. Though this town I live in isn't my hometown, I've lived here longer than anywhere else, and Rich and I are old enough to remember when it was much different. It's improved in many ways-- but it definitely isn't the same town it used to be. Now that I am middle-aged, it's been startling to notice the passage of time has changed to a faster pace. I suppose when I am much older, life will be like being on a high-speed train where, inside, nothing is moving, but outside, everything is a blur...
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Comments (3)
You said, "You had to wait for a stack of paper photos, many of which were no good, and unable
to throw them out because you paid for them, they filled boxes, drawers and albums to overflowing."
Yeah, and I still have boxes of photos I've never put in albums. I keep thinking these will help my biographer some day when I become famous to document my life and have everything in chronological order because of the dates on the photos or at least on the envelopes holding the photos.
My mother had one of those inflatible cap hair dryers. I loved it -- it made me feel so grown up using it, like I was a lady at the beauty shop.
the best thing about those mushroom cap hair dryers was the opportunity to sit down for a bit and read while your hair dried. I loved my mom's. It was white with a pink flower pattern on it, and quite noisy. Now, because it's faster, you do point a gun at your head and hustle along, and run straight from drying your hair to something else. When do you sit down and read or watch a little TV?
and I can just smell that grocery store! Ours was the Emigration Market and we could walk there from our house and sometimes did.