When I was a kid, there were no...

[MoonCat]

...The thread about "shit that makes me feel old" inspired this.

There were no:

Cell phones
Fax machines
Home computers, laptops, e-readers or tablet computers (so no email, no internet, video games, etc.)
"Walkman" type cassette players
CD players
MP3's or digital anything
Coffee shops like Starbucks on every corner
Microwave ovens
Crock pots (slow cookers)
Mega-malls
Huge theater complexes with multiple screens
Computer-generated special effects, surround sound, 3D effects
Flat-screen TVs
Keurigs
Weed-whackers
Leaf blowers
Airbags in cars
Sunblock (as opposed to tanning lotion)
Tanning parlors
Home pregnancy tests
Viagra-type drugs
CPAP machines

I'm sure there's more but that's just want I can think of quickly.

But still no flying cars...

[otakuneko]

You so old!

Um, out of that list, let's see....well there's a few I'm not sure about...but...

Cell phones
There were barely home computers... just in their infancy...
MP3 was a ways off
WTF was Starschmucks
Flat-screen TVs
Keurigs
Airbags in cars
Viagra etc.
Surround Sound, but not CG or 3D unless you're only counting modern 3D...

Pretty sure CD players are almost as old as me and fax machines, microwaves, and the Walkman definitely pre-date me.

After all, the first fax was sent before the first telephone call.

[Kittish]

Add to your list, MoonCat, there were no remote controls. Well, unless you count making the kids go change the channel as 'remote control'.

I don't think microwaves came along until I was 6 or 7 years old, I remember having this gigantic ungodly heavy metal box with the dial that was very very freakin picky about what you put in it for a number of years, until I was a teenager.

Computers already existed when I was a kid, but it wasn't until I was almost out of elementary school that they shrank down into something that didn't require a large room to house. I remember in 5th grade, we had this wonderfully exciting project in math class, we learned how to program computers!! Basic was the only computer language there was.

Home arcade systems didn't exist when I was a kid. I remember Pong! coming out. Hell, I played it. When it was new. For that matter, video games didn't exist when I was born, though they did by the time I was old enough to appreciate them. Centipede, Omega Race, Pac Man.... that was cutting edge technology.

[MoonCat]

Kittish, yeah, there were gigantic computers big enough to fill a room, in labs or the military or wherever, I'm too lazy to look it up now. Just nothing in homes, until Commodores, Ataris and things came out ;D

[firecat88]

When I was a kid, there was/were no:

~ Cell phones
~ Xbox or Playstation
~ iPads
~ Reality TV, unless you count stuff like Cops
~ Food Network
~ SciFi/SyFy Channel
~ Cartoon Network
~ Nicktoons were only just becoming a thing. Back then, it was just the Golden Trio of Doug, Rugrats, and Ren & Stimpy.
~ DVDs
~ There were barely CDs either. They were extremely new tech when I was a kid
~ Internet wasn't a widely used thing until I was in 6th grade.
~ Facebook
~ Twitter
~ Tumblr
~ GPS
~ MP3s
~ Priceline, Expedia, or any other way to know if a hotel had vacancies unless you called or drove there.

[Teefies2]

Ok so far, I'm the oldest to post!

When I was a kid, there was no color TV!!!!! When we got a color TV, I was around 6 and the ENTIRE block came over to watch it the first night!

There was also no self-serve gas stations or registers, and malls were just becoming a thing.

Now get offa ma lawn! :-P

[dalesys]

1951 on...
No seat belts.
TV Screen was round.
I remember the first LPs, direct local dialing (Tommy Two-Five, anyone?), segregated schools, Nearest freeway was the Pennsylvania Turnpike From Hampton, VA)...

Stereo radio was one channel on FM and the other on AM.

[Bright_Star]

I'm still waiting for flying cars, moving sidewalks & by now we should have had people living on the Moon & have been to Mars several times by now

[Seshat]

I'll just say I was born the same year man landed on the moon, and Woodstock happened.

[Sheldonrs]

I'll just say I was born the same year man landed on the moon, and Woodstock happened.

And my family got it's first color TV to watch the moon landing...in black and white. LOL

[XCashier]

I'll just say I was born the same year man landed on the moon, and Woodstock happened.

I'm one year older than you. My list is the same as MoonCat's, except for the crock pot.

I am feeling old. Many of my coworkers, and at least one of my managers are young enough to be my children. Then again, my only child hasn't hit the teen years just yet, so there's that.

[cindybubbles]

I was born in 1978, so I spent my childhood years mostly in the '80s and my teenage years in the '90s.

CDs and Laserdiscs were the newest fad and DVDs didn't exist yet, and Blu-Rays? Well, they would be blue and they would be rays, but not the kind we have right now.

3D animation was still a novelty, and 3D movies never took off like they would now.

Ah, yes, the Saturday morning cartoon! Countless hours of watching TV, plopped on the floor while eating my favourite cereal! Ah, the memories!

[Severen13]

DVDs and DVD players (My dad got our first VCR in 1986)
E-mail
Tablet computers
Online shopping (how did I ever live without that? )
NetFlix
Gazillions of TV channels


I was born in 73 and remember having to *gasp!* get up and change the channel!!!

[Chromatix]

When I was little, my mother still used a "twin tub" washing machine - something very like this. That was a royal pain to use, compared to today's ubiquitous front-loaders.



The larger, left-hand tub was where the actual washing happened - instead of the whole tub rotating, there was an impeller which induced currents in the water, which the clothes would follow. When it was judged that sufficient washing had occurred, it was necessary to lift batches of wet clothes out of it with large wooden tongs, to transfer them to the spin tub for partial drying. It got unbalanced so easily that the standard way to use the spin cycle was to hold on to it for dear life.

We also had a rotary-dial phone and a black-and-white TV for rather a lot longer than most people, but at least I slotted neatly into the "home microcomputer" period.

[NorthernZel]

Born in '74.

From what I remember, colour TVs were starting to pick on, but most households still had black/white ones.

My mom's boyfriend at that time in the '80s (they split up but are still good friends to this day) was the first one in the neighborhood to own a CD player, but that was because he worked on a ship so he bought the newest gadgets whenever he was in Asia :-) So he had a CD player, but almost no CDs because they were just actually beginning to produce them in Europe.

Other gadgets that we take for granted today but were "exclusive" back then:

• 1st gen SodaStream machines (the syrup used back then was AWFUL)
• Microwave ovens (but no microwave dinners or recipies avaiable = very expensive tea kettle)
• Hi-Fi systems with double cassette deck
• Cable TV (our carrier was so low-security that I could pick up MTV via a transistor radio, and the equipment needed to hack into a PPW channel could fit into a lightswitch)

On the other hand, we didn't have stuff like reality shows and shitloads of commercials... which actually I'd be happy with not having