Sometimes I think back on how life was like in the 80’s and shake my head in disbelief. To see how far we’ve come with technology is astounding to me. I’m feeling a bit nostalgic so let’s talk about it, shall we? Shhhh…..don’t answer (I put my index finger up to your lips), just listen……
I Love the 80’s-Telephone
I think the biggest thing that has changed is the telephone. In 2017, the thing I use my phone for the least is talking on it. I HATE TALKING ON THE PHONE! In the 80’s no one had cell phones unless you were the Wolf of Wall Street. You had a landline and if you were lucky, you had several phones all over the house. Sure, this increased the chances of your sister picking up another phone and listening in but you could usually tell because you could hear the background noise or you may have a mouth breather on your hands.
A new phone started out with a cord that measured 6′. After a year of multi-tasking while on the phone, you could now walk out of your house and to the stop sign and still be connected. That cord stretched and stretched and stretched. If you weren’t wrapped up in it, you were busy lassoing it around the phone receiver. I once used the phone as a weapon and the cord as a whip to hit my sister who wouldn’t stop laughing at me. The more I hit her, the more she giggled and the more it pissed me off.
And how about the busy signal? Was that not nails on the chalkboard? Dear God!!! For years my best friend’s family NEVER had call waiting and her mom (whom I love dearly) would be on the phone with her best friend all the time when I wanted to be on the phone with my best friend. Eventually they did get call waiting so she could switch over to me to tell me she was talking to her best friend and to call back in an hour. Obviously I can’t win.
I Love the 80’s-Shopping
Amazon Prime Now is available in my area. I can choose from thousands of products and have it show up on my doorstep within a few hours. Are you kidding me? Then I get pissed last week that they can’t bring me my wine the same evening. #FirstWorldProblems, right?
So in the 80’s we had catalogs- the 2 biggest being Sears and JC Penny’s or what I lovingly refer to as Jacque Pena. For $10 you could buy this encyclopedia of clothing, comforters and power tools. Can you believe we had to call in our order? Yes children born after 1990, we had to PHONE IN OUR ORDER! At least you spoke with a human being right away….and they spoke fluent English. You even had the option to mail your order in; I shit you not. How long did that take? I don’t know, I’ve blocked it out of my memory. For faster service we could have our catalog order delivered to the local pharmacy that had a little wrap desk dedicated to Sears catalog orders. I think this took 3-4 days which completely blew my mind.
So you get your new Palmetto jean skirt home and try it on only to discover it doesn’t fit! You can’t just return it in the store like you can today. Nope, you had to start the whole damn process over again. Weeks! This process could potentially take weeks!
Your other non-brick and mortar option was shopping on tv. QVC quickly became my mother’s favorite channel. Suddenly we had diamonique rings, the entire Sweatin’ Into the Oldies collection and facial moisturizers showing up at our door weekly. I don’t think I’ve ever been enticed in my entire life to buy anything off of QVC. Just the fact you have to say you bought something off QVC immediately disqualifies you from any sort of cool.
My next post is going to stroll down memory lane of entertainment and how we got by without Google. I can’t believe we are still alive to talk about it. Ok, I’m going to go fly my son’s drone now.
Oh the phones! I loved those things … and hate the ones we have now 😉
And the jean skirt sheesh … I think I went through 3 before I got the right one … and I was positive it looked good lol.
Btw … I have just figured out how to get to the part of your blog so i can comment!! Yuss … feeling super brilliant today 😉
Wait….this is excellent info! What steps did you have to take to comment on my blog? I may need to add a note at the end of each post to direct people.
After my recent cull, I thought I had remedied everything cos there were limited blogs in my feed; but with yours, 2 sites came up? Would that be right? But I couldn’t comment on the one that comes up in my feed.
On the bottom of both of these posts you had a link … something like, ‘first posted on …’, I hit that, and it took me straight to your site … where I can comment.
I wonder if some of that has to so with Apple / Safari or my settings, to though … because Apple asks me if I want to continue to comment on a ‘unsecured’ site … I hit Yup 🙂
I loved the phones!!!
And I do miss the 80’s!!! lol!
Me too….but more bc of the music!
Oh yes!!
The Sears catalog was my jam back in the day! And, come to think of it, I can’t remember the last time I heard a busy signal. Kids don’t even know how good they have it now.
It was so big and I would go through it multiple times, discovering things I didn’t discover the first 5 times. Ha!!!
my friends & I had code words we said on the phone when we thought someone was listening on the other line. Looking back, I can’t really blame my parents – I did used to chat for about 3 hours at a time. Now days, I barely spend 5 minutes on the phone XD
Isn’t that the truth. I can’t remember the last time I saw my son talk on his phone. If he wants to communicate other than texting, he face times. I avoid talking on the phone like the plague.
hehehe the telephone and shopping are certainly biggies, but I’m still bummed that the mullet is no longer vogue…
Business up front and a party in the back! Yes, the man of 1980-something could indeed have it all! ???
lol I am the same! I used to love chatting on the phone, now I do that less than anything!
Now my phone is for maps, finding yummy food, checking public transport times and reading blogs/news!!
I’m a 90s kid and still remember spending hours on the phone with my friends, dialing other friends with 3 way which was a big deal. We also had dial-up internet and had to stretch the 20ft telephone wire to the family computer in the other room and wait for it to connect which took all of 10 minutes (on a good day).
I work for retail and we still have some customers that mail in orders and actual checks. It’s some sort of living fossil….