Remember When?

This weekend I went on a whirlwind trip around Upstate South Carolina to attend several wedding/wedding related events. On my way home Saturday evening, I stopped at a gas station in Union, SC to fill up. My friend Trina laughed at me, okay, I laughed at myself, too, as I stood standing at the gas pump unsure of what to do. You see, this gas station didn't have pay at the pump. It's been so long since I've bought gas at a gas station without pay at the pump that I forgot what to do. I seriously stood there and stared at the gas pump like an idiot!

The experience got me thinking about all of the other things, technology upgrades and cultural changes that have changed how we do things, so much that we often forget what we did or how we did before! Here is my list of remember whens:

1. Remember when to change the channel on the TV you actually had to get up and turn the nob. Now, this wasn't all that bad since there were only about 12 channels to choose from and two of them were those UHF and the other letter one that were just fuzz, at least on my TV. I also remember that the adults in my life used me and other kids as the channel changers. Hmmm...

2. Remember when you really only did have 12 channels to choose from, and in my hometown, three of those were duplicates. We got two NBCs, two ABCs, and two CBSs. So not fair! Oh, and I fondly remember those Disney Channel free preview weekends. I was so excited to get to see the Mickey Mouse Club and KIDS Incorporated. Now I have over 100 channels and still sometimes can't find something to watch. Something is wrong with that!

3. Remember when you had only three choices for the color of the text and graphics (I use that term liberally in this instance) on the computer screen: green, amber, or blue. How far we've come!

4. Remember when the locks on car doors were manual. Parents had to do that long stretch reach to open the passenger side doors and the doors in the backseat for their kids! It made it a lot easier to "break in" to the car when you accidentally locked your keys inside, too. And everyone was responsible for locking their own door when they got out. I sure got in trouble for forgetting that when I was a child!

5. Remember when you needed information on some topic and you actually had to go to the library, look up a book in the card catalog (which incidentally had actual cards) and go find the book, spending hours getting the information you needed. I don't think they even call them card catalogs anymore. It's the Library Database. If they do, some kid, or teenager, is going to ask that question one day that will make me feel as old as the punch card computer system...why is it called a card catalog??? Now, if you need information, for instance, lyrics to a song, you just sit down at the computer and find the info. in seconds! I'm so thankful for this upgrade!!!

6. Remember when the first cordless phones came out and they only had the pulse dialing. It was as bad as having a rotary phone. And, if you ever had a rotary phone in your house and were trying to win a contest on a radio station, say you needed to be the ninth caller, you had to move the radio by the phone, dial all of the numbers except the last one, until they open the lines for the contest. Oh, and if you were in a hurry, it was such a pain to have a number with a zero in it. It took forever to dial!

7. Remember when you heard a song on the radio and wanted a copy, you had to wait until the song came on again, be ready with your trusty tape player and record the song from the radio broadcast! You got the DJ and any background noise in the room. This was when top 10 countdown shows and nightly request and dedication shows were very important. You knew you were guaranteed to hear the song then! You always had to be prepared. And oh, the horror, if someone accidentally recorded over your favorite song. Oh, how I love you iTunes!!! And my Blackberry for that matter. Just last week I heard a portion of a song on my way to church that I just had to hear again. I recognized the artist's voice, looked it up on the internet while stopped at a red light, found the song on youtube and listened to it the rest of the way to church! Wow...we've come so far.

8. Remember when TV dinners came in metal pans that had to be cooked in the oven. And the only good parts were the Mac N Cheese and the brownie! But you had to be careful because if it was cooked too long, the brownie would be too hard to eat. Yum!!!

9. Remember when people actually kept a collection of maps of different states in the glove box of the car, just in case. Okay, maybe this was just my family. I remember stopping at the welcome centers for each state (which were on major US highways at that time, not interstates) to get a free map! And the welcome center going into Florida on US 1 also gave away free orange juice and grapefruit juice. Always a stop for our family!!! It's so sad to drive by there now. I think they finally tore the abandoned building down. But the GPS has replaced the need for maps. Much more compact and you don't have to figure out how to fold it back the right way in a small confined space. GPS might just be a gift from God!

10. Remember when McDonalds used their own characters to make their playground equipment. No ball pits or tube slides. There were the fry kids on springs. The Hamburglar had the thing where you climbed up the ladder, and played inside the hamburger, like a prison (maybe I should rethink how great this was...) and if you were really adventurous, you could climb up the ladder and look out the hole of his hat. Grimace was a cage like thing where you got in and shook it from side to side, but I remember needing several kids to make this work the right way, or at least to make it fun. The Captain Crook slide...just a slide people, but so much fun! And the see saw thing. Not sure what characters were on it, but oh well. And we can't forget Ronald McDonald. He wasn't really a piece of the playground. He just kind of watched over everything. It doesn't sound like much fun now that I've described it. Maybe that's why McDonalds opted for the current versions of their playgrounds!

11. Remember when you actually had to wash dishes by hand, oh wait, I still have to do that! I am my own dishwasher. Fun times...

What's on your list of "Remember when?"