Remember when seeing another kid get whacked in the store by their mom was a signal to chill out, because yeah, getting whacked in public was a thing that could actually happen if you acted a fool.
remember when phones that weren't rotary-dial were a novelty? remember when Space Invaders was the only arcade video game available? remember when microwaves were rare, and huge, and everybody was afraid they'd go sterile or blind from being around them? remember when you could actually buy a candy bar for a quarter? remember watching Challenger take off? ;___; remember when we didn't know who killed Laura Palmer?
Remember when the most technologically advanced thing in the home was a combined radio clock alarm-cum-lamp and you had to get off your ass to change the TV channel using a dial on the set?
Remember when you used to wrap aluminum foil around the rabbit ears of your television to get better reception?
That conversation "hold it there, no you've moved it ... oh crap you've lost the signal now! Oh just turn it off and we'll have a game of cards instead." Said no-one in the last twenty years!
I used to love going to my grandparents house because they had one of those huge antennas on the side of their house and always got GREAT reception.
Remember the old AOL sign-up tune? And you could only surf the net if your family wasn't using the phone? Remember when there were actually good shows on Nickelodeon and The History Channel? Remember when Bill Nye the Science Guy was on TV? Remember buying your first video game console? Mine was the Nintendo 64, and it was my Christmas present in 1995. Super Mario 64 was the first game I played on that system.
Remember when kids bonded over the afternoon and Saturday morning cartoons that everyone watched before we had internet? Remember when the hottest game was "Oregon Trail" during computer class? Remember when $1 could buy you an armful of junk food snacks?
I remember that! All those times I've died of dysentery or other horrid disease are innumerable. Once I actually managed to die via gunshot! Yeah, apparently I got shot while hunting buffalo and died. Could never find out who shot me. :[ Traitor.
I think I made it to Oregon like twice in the hundreds of times I've played. Either I died first, then game over; or everyone else died first, I held on for a bit longer before I died and then game over.
I remember the dysentery (and my reaction being, ew, when I realized what it was) but I've never been shot. Wow. Maybe another settler?
Oregon Trail fucked me up. I can still picture the scene when someone in my party died. I associate it with the saddest, darkest things I experience in the present.
Remember when it was cool to wear nothing but a little speedo swimsuit all day long in the summer? My parents would be arrested today for letting me do that! Remember building plastic models of the lunar module for show and tell? Getting your hands all tacky with the airplane glue you used? Remember when every boy in your class could play the riff from "Smoke on the Water" on the guitar, even if they couldn't play guitar? Remember when the coolest thing you could get for your birthday was a pair of walkie-talkies from Radio Shack, because there was no such thing as a cell phone? You and your best friend would pretend to be on Star Trek! Remember when you were so proud of yourself when your Dad let you take the boat to the marina to get the gas tanks filled? Adult responsibility, man! Remember when you did something stupid with your chemistry set in the basement and hoped your parents wouldn't open the basement door for about a week, because the smoke wouldn't dissipate? Remember when you did something important on your own, and for the first time in your life, your Dad thanked you?
Yeah, and kids felt guilty if they disobeyed their parents ...instead of the other way around! God we are old farts, aren't we?
