The other day, someone sent me a funny email about how technology has changed for people over 30. It was really funny. It started me thinking about how much technology and life has changed for people over 50. Here are just a few things. Maybe you can add to my list.
1. We wore dresses to school every day! Sometimes there were special field days where we were allowed to wear pants. My first year at BYU was dresses only. They changed the policy after that, thank goodness. It got pretty cold walking across campus and of course, you wore nylons and dressier shoes with those dresses.
2. Speaking of nylons, there were no pantyhose. You had to wear a garter belt or a girdle that had these little contraptions that hooked over the top of your nylon to hold them up. Strange to think about now.
3. There were no hand held hair blowers. You washed your hair at night and put it up in rollers and tried to sleep on those prickly things. Or, you washed your hair in the morning and wore rollers all day long until it dried. You really had to plan ahead when you were going somewhere! Then later, we got hair dryers. It was a plastic cap with elastic around the edge and a hose attached to a blower. You sat on the floor and did your homework with the bonnet on your head for about an hour.
4. There was no internet or even computers. You did your research assignments with the encyclopedia and shopped at the store, not at home. You had to type everything on a typewriter (we were amazed when electric typewriters made everything so much easier). If you wanted copies, you had to use carbon paper and hope that you didn’t make a mistake!
5. There were TV sets, but only black and white ones. I remember when our friends got a new colored television and invited us all over to watch the Disney movie that came on every Sunday night.
6. No caller ID. You could call some boy you secretly admired, hear his voice on the phone and hang up. He would never know it was you…. Or they could call you and make you guess who was calling and you wouldn’t know.
7. Variety shows were a big thing on TV. Instead of so many sitcoms, you watched shows like The Carol Burnett Show, Andy Williams Show, Sonny and Cher, Ed Sullivan, and even the Donny and Marie Show. There was lots of singing, dancing, and skits.
8. No electronic games. You played board games and Twister was a great date game.
9. No cell phones. You had to use long distance sparingly. It was really expensive. You only talked to your parents once in a while when you were away at college. Your phones all had cords and you were stuck in the kitchen or family room trying to talk to your friends while all your family could hear what you were saying.
10. You had to clean the oven with foul smelling oven cleaner that you sprayed on and let sit for a while before you got your rubber gloves on and scrubbed it clean. YUK!
11. We had record players when we wanted to play music. A favorite thing to get for Christmas was a new record album. Later, in high school, 8-tracks made their debuts in your cars. They were amazing!
12. We had pen pals instead of face book!
