A Trip Down Memory Lane (Part 2)

I stumbled across something recently that I immediately connected with. I jotted down a bunch of the things mentioned in the article, but can’t recall where I saw it. It may have been on Facebook or Reddit. At any rate, I thought this was something that might jar your memory, too!

You can find the first batch of memories in Part 1 here:

A Trip Down Memory Lane (Part 1)

Let’s continue with Part 2 …

Video rental stores

I can remember the first time we had a VCR. To rent tapes was quite expensive at first. Over time, it became the thing to do on a Friday or Saturday night.

I remember walking through the store to get to the New Release Wall. Often times, I would wait until a movie came out on video to see it. The only problem was that sometimes all the copies would be checked out. There were plenty of times I’d see a film I didn’t even know existed. I would pick up the box and read the synopsis on the back and we’d make a decision as to whether or not to rent it.

Then, of course, you’d always check out the classics. Movies were still a bit expensive to buy at the time, so I would rent Smokey and the Bandit, Cannonball Run, and so many other movies I had grown up with.

I truly miss browsing the shelves to see what movie to watch. I miss sitting on the couch with a bowl of microwave popcorn with the lights down watching videos without the issues you’d experience at the movie theater.

Making plans – looking up movie times

Before videos, you went to the movies. But before you could do that, you have to get a newspaper and look up the movie times. Theaters would take out full page ads to promote the movie times. I remember your entire date revolved around the times that a movie would start. Dinner before or after the movie – depended on when the show started.

Sometimes, you could call the theater and they had a dedicated phone line with a recording that gave show times and the movies that were showing.

Calling a friend and talking to their parents first

I remember how many times I would call up a friend and their parents would always answer. Some of the parents were nice and would chat with me as I waited for my friend to get on the phone. Other times, they were short.

As a teen, when I called a girl to chat, I was always freaked out if their dad answered the phone! “That Keith boy is on the phone for you!” Yikes!

If the conversation went on for more than 20 minutes, which it often did, my folks or their folks would get on you because they had to use the phone. Summers I would spend a lot of time on the phone, mainly in the evenings talking to girls who I had a crush on.

When TV went off the air at night

Back in the day, when there were only 3-5 channels to watch on TV, many stations went off the air at night. Today, if you wake up in the middle of the night, you can turn on the TV and get 100 stations of stuff to chose from. When I was a kid, however, you would turn on the TV and see the above test pattern with audio of a single tone playing loudly.

“This concludes our broadcast day” the announcer would say. Sometimes it would be followed by the National Anthem and then the test pattern. Because of this, I would grab my little radio and listen to the late night DJ’s and my love for radio was born.

Sitting down to read a book because nothing was on TV

When we only had a few channels on TV, there would be those times when there was “nothing to watch.” It was then, that you would go to the bookshelf in your bedroom or living room and grab a book to read. There were many hours spent reading books on my bed. My imagination took me to the streets of London, or the deck of a ship as I read adventure stories. I wish I had read more as a kid.

Saturday morning sitcoms/cartoons

Saturday Mornings were heaven for my brother and I. We grabbed a bowl of cereal and plopped down in front of the TV to watch cartoons. Bugs Bunny, Scooby Doo, the Laugh-O-Lympics, Captain Caveman, and more! When the cartoons were done, there were other shows on we watched like Dr. Shrinker, The Monster Squad, and Electra Woman and Dynagal. Those shows bring back many fond memories of Saturday mornings. It was the perfect way to kick off the weekend!

Not being accessible to work outside of the work hours

It is far too easy for employers to reach employees today. I get work email on my phone, although I try to avoid looking at it when I am not there. Employee burnout is high in every profession. The line between work life and home life is blurring. People are bringing work home with them. They are taking work calls during “home time.” This, to me, is unacceptable.

Work needs to stay at work. They get 40 hours of my time during the week, and sometimes more than that (even though there is no pay for it). I try my best to ignore anything work related when I am home. That needs to be my time with family.

I truly miss those days when you only had to think about work when you were there. I miss the days before cell phones when you could actually play 18 holes of golf without having to read text messages or emails from work. If I am out on the beach, the last thing I want to be doing is answering an e-mail.

I love the fact that we can have a phone with us to call someone in an emergency or snap a picture of a neat moment, but when the tech starts to intrude on family and leisure time, we are only adding to burn out or losing precious time with what is really important.

A Trip Down Memory Lane (Part 1)

I Remember …

Instant Win Bottle Caps

I used to drink a lot of pop. Back in the days before plastic bottles were a thing you used to have a bottle opener on your key ring so you could open them up. Pepsi, Coke, Faygo, and just about every other soda company would run contests. You would open your drink and immediately look under the cap to see if you won something. Sometimes it was a gaming system or a bike or cash prize. Most of the time it was a free pop.

Pepsi ran some “cap” contest where you had to spell “Pepsi Spirit” to win cash. Trying to find an “R” was a challenge!!

Today, any kind of “cap” contest involves a code that you have to enter to see if you win. Who has time for that?!

News only being on at 6 and 11

In my opinion, there isn’t enough news to warrant having it on as much as it is. Where I live, there is news at 4am, 5am, 6am, 7am, 4pm, 5pm, 6pm, 7pm (usually National News), 10pm and 11pm. Then the 11pm newscast is repeated at some point during the overnight.

Recently, a news crew was at the local children’s museum where Sam had taken Ella and AJ. They asked if they could shoot some footage of her playing. Sam agreed, but had to decline doing any on camera stuff because she was chasing the kids around and it was close to lunchtime. At any rate, that night we watched the 4pm, 5pm, and 6pm news hoping to see the story. It never aired that night.

In watching those three news casts it was the same stories and same news clips over and over again. It was a rehash of the hour before with very little new information. Why do they feel we need so much news? It is SO depressing. There are very few “feel good” stories on there.

I miss the days where there was a 6pm and 11pm newscast.

Buying New Music

This is going to show my age. There was a time when you bought new music that you had to hope it was good. All you knew was the single that was released to radio. In many cases, you would go to the record store and pick up the 45 of that song and then pick up the album when it came out a few weeks later.

There was no way to preview songs on an album prior to buying them. Today, you can hear clips of every cut and decide whether you want to buy it. Not true for me and my generation.

I’m not saying that there were not albums that were good from beginning to end – there were! However, there were plenty of times where you bought the album and were disappointed that the only good song was the one they were playing on the radio!

Another downside to albums was that you’d have favorite songs that were never released to radio stations. That always bugged me. As a former radio guy, I completely understand how and why songs get on the radio now, but had no clue back then.

Phones – Corded

In reality, I could probably do an entire blog on phones, but I won’t.

Today, we carry our phones around in our pockets and we are accessible any time. But back in the day, phones were screwed to the wall of the kitchen or planted on a table near a couch. And they were plugged into the wall – very immobile.

I saw phones go from the dial phone (like above) to the push button:

Eventually, they went cordless and you could walk around with them from room to room.

I used to remember patterns for friends phone numbers. Looking at the phone above, I can still see the pattern for my best friends number. I remember spending hours on the phone with friends growing up.

The thing about phones that was in the initial article was the fact that as a kid, whenever you called your friends at home, you would often have to talk to their parents before they came to the phone. Sometimes this was awkward. If I was calling a female friend, I was almost always intimidated if their dad answered the phone. I can remember one time hearing, “That Keith boy is on the phone for you…”

Being accessible

This kind of goes along with the above sub-topic.

Today, with the cell phone technology, we can be reached by phone, text, e-mail or on social media. I truly miss not being accessible to work outside of work hours.

I have mentioned this before, and I know I am not alone. I have three or four apps on my phone exclusive to work. Why? “So we can communicate with you, if necessary.”

My home life should be my home life. I don’t want to be reading work emails at home when I am not working. If it is truly important, like you need me to cover a different site or something like that – call me, or better yet, text me. Otherwise, work can wait till I get there.

I have my work email on my phone. I don’t look at it when I am not there. I shouldn’t have to. If a meeting is cancelled – text me so I don’t come in. If there is something that I need to know beforehand that cannot wait – text me. My time away from work should be just that – away from work.

More to come …