The next generation...

[AnaKhouri]

I wonder if kids will seomday look at Peanuts comics where Snoopy is writing and say, "That's a weird-looking computer."

[MoonCat]

Vinyl records are back and are a very big deal for collectors right now.

A few years ago I was with my brother in a thrift shop and a kid (I say kid, he was probably in his late teens) asked us "how does this thing work?" He was looking at an old record-player.

My first impulse was to say "And why do you think WE would know?"

My brother explained the weird old "antique" machine.

[It's me]

using a non-GUI operating system (cough cough Windows 3.1)

Well, Windows 3.1 was a GUI.... although referring to as an operating system would be pushing things at bit!

How about having four feet of encyclopedias as the go-to for looking stuff up? Library card catalogue that was, well, cards? 35 mm film camera? Record stores?

Crap. Now I feel ancient! : D

[chikenlady]

mimeographs..
camera film

[EricKei]

Vinyl records are back and are a very big deal for collectors right now.

I sure hope so, lol >_>

Friend of mine was once a DJ (now semi retired) and wants to thin out his collection by dropping down to only 500 vinyl records or so. He's valiantly trying to sell the remainder -- over two thousand of them -- for more than a buck apiece (CL and eBay have both ended up with people trying to complain that even that much is far too high) and pay off a bunch of bills....Problem is the damn things are currently occupying a wall at MY house.

In all seriousness, if you know of any businesses (et al) that might be in the market, drop me a PM and I'll contact them with details (95% house, trance, dance, electronic)...

[BeenThereDoneThat]

Being excited when your favorite movie came on TV so you could watch it again...since there was no OTHER way to see it...

[Merriweather]

I was helping my granddaughter with her Girl Scout camera badge. I happened to have an old (yeah, late 90's ) film camera. She was ok with the concept of film, but just couldn't get over no screen to see the photo you just took.

Don't get me wrong, I love most new technology - digital cameras are heaven after a life of film & developing costs, always rationing how many photos I took. And instant access to movies, music, etc. is wonderful.

But we have lost things as well. Some things that kids now will never experience -

Listening to an album (or cassette or CD) over and over in the same order, so much that years later, if you hear one song, you sort of expect to hear the next track start.
(Not to mention having an album with a tiny scratch or skip - to this day, when I hear the Stones Ruby Tuesday, at a certain point I expect a little jump).

The excitement of waiting all year to see a movie that's always aired around a particular holiday (I remember Wizard of Oz every Thanksgiving).

Long letters in the mail, and penpals from all over the world (wow, a stamp from another country.....).

Having one or two movie theatres in town, movies changing every week or two - almost every teenager in town seeing the same movie on the weekend, and talking about it at school all week.

Double features. And maybe a cartoon, too (sorry, I'm not old enough to remember the news reels ). Oh, and movies that are shown several times a day, and once you pay, you can stay in and see it again - my sister and I saw Hard Days Night 3 1/2 times when it came out (my Dad actually came into the theatre and found us and dragged us home halfway thru the 4th showing .

Being out and about and totally out of touch with the world until you got home. Having to find a payphone if you wanted to call home. Having someone paged if you knew they were in a certain store and you needed to reach them (my mom used to page my dad almost everytime she sent him to the grocery store, to add something to the list - they knew his name well there

Having your home phone ring, and not knowing who was on the other end until you answered it and they spoke. And not being able to call them back unless they gave you their number.

Having only networks, and maybe PBS & a local channel or two, if you were in a large city. Watched on a TV in black and white. That you had to get up and cross the room to in order to change channels, turn on or off, or adjust volume. With a rabbit ear antenna on top that you had to tweek now and then for good reception. And a horizontal hold to press when the picture rolled.

Not only no home computers, but no calculators either.

I'm sure I'll think of a few more - I'm a dinosaur

[Kristev]

Yes, I too remember many things.

[EricKei]

80's style "portable" phones that were these massive...things...that you damn near needed two hands to hold up to your ear...and, Heaven help you if it was "portable" but not wireless, as that meant lugging around a power pack the size of a mini-suitcase x.x

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Being excited when your favorite movie came on TV so you could watch it again...since there was no OTHER way to see it...

This.

Of course by the time I was in high school, I had a VCR to tape those episodes with (and the tapes were around $5.00 each for a standard grade VHS) - Man, I thought I was in heaven once I got my own cable box soon after and could tape all those reruns to my heart's content.

Now everything's out on DVD or coming soon. No anticipation now . . . you can simply watch what you want when you want it.

[Marmalady]

Waiting for 'Top of the Pops' to be on TV once a week. For years, that was the only chart music show on TV. Miss Top of the Pops? Not likely.

Parsing a sentence (resolving the sentence into its component parts and describing them grammatically)

[EricKei]

"New Math" -- not that I was sorry to see it die a stinking, flaming, horrible death. At least, where I was in elementary school, they had just been valiantly attempting to teach us New Math for a year or two when it was officially shitcanned. Naturally, they picked up with standard math again right where we would have left off, had we actually been DOING it that way...I think you can see the problem here. The frustration it caused gives me math anxiety to this day. I can DO math (at level, not great, not badly, just average), but I hate doing it. Oddly enough, I loved geometry/analysis...and loathed physics. It's just math disguised as science.

I STILL don't know the distinction between New Math and the real thing, either.

Parsing a sentence (resolving the sentence into its component parts and describing them grammatically)

Wha...? This isn't done anymore? That's pretty basic stuff, or at least it was when I was a yung'un. It might explain why some people these days cain't tawk or spel too gud. Damn mouth-breath-ers. You gotta use it or loose it boyz and gurlz...