Oh how far we've come!!

First, I have to thank Candice W. for posting this on her blog--I just died laughing! Everything he says is so so true!
I am always telling my kids how lucky they are to have the luxuries they have--while they roll their eyes at me--compared to when I was growing up!

Things that have changed since I was a kid:

TV...we had 3 channels. I was in 2nd grade before we had a color TV too. And it had rabbit ears...with tinfoil on them, and sometimes my dad would have one of us kids stand next to the TV and touch it for better reception. WE were the remote control. Cartoons were only on Saturday morning for about 3 hours, and then all of us kids would get the boot to "go outside and play". If you missed your favorite show, too bad. There were no such things as reruns, or TIVO. You just missed it.

Music: Record players. Big boxy things that had to be plugged into a wall...and a little tiny needle that had to be placed "just right" on the vinyl record so you didn't scratch out Donny Osmond's voice on the "Crazy Horses" album. When I was in 6th grade, I got a personal tape player and one Donny Osmond tape--which I wore out, literally, playing over and over and over. And the radio--which we knew the phone number to Z100 by heart so we could call in our favorite request a bazillion times, so we could possibly tape it...often we'd miss the introduction but man, we're happy to just have a little of the song on a tape so we could listen to it whenever we wanted!

Hair Styling: Prickly round hair rollers. Under a big blow-up hair dryer that sat on the table next to you, or on the floor, while you are hooked up to it by a short vinyl tube which heat blew through into your humongous vinyl head balloon thingy. To sit there for an hour while your hair dried was not unusual. To make it go faster, my mom would unhook the head thingy, and use the hose to direct the air where she wanted it to dry fastest. For small curls: bobby pins criss-crossed. I got my first curling iron when I was in 9th grade...and it was a steam one that left a few blisters on my head. Blow dryers came out around that time too, as did Clairol's hot rollers!

Cooking: Microwaves came to the public when I was a Senior in high school. No kidding. I didn't know anyone who had one. They were very expensive. I was married when my folks got one, & we all took turns "cooking" things in them just to see it cook! Marshmallows were the best. Oh, and my Mom used to say she had 5 dishwashers: me and my 4 brothers.

Laundry: I remember my granma having a wringer washer and a clothes line--thank goodness we were better off than her--we had a tub washer and a clothes line. Saturday mornings were spent close to home--so we could hang load after load of laundry for my mom on the line. Our clothesline had between 4 and 6 lines that were about 15-20 feet long. And we had to hang the bed linens on the outside, with the undies and personal things inside--so the neighbors didn't know we wore underwear like them. lol Permanent Press was unknown. Full laundry baskets sat and waited to be ironed with starch. Knit fabric came along when I was around 9 or 10 years old, but we didn't have alot of it. Good old cotton was everywhere. When we finally got a dryer, I thought my mom was gonna die from happiness!

Cars: We had 1...and it wasn't new...my mom actually loved her Rambler--you could hear it coming from miles away. I would hide when she came to pick us up from school once in awhile. I was so embarrassed--what a rotten kid I was! And since it didn't have enough seats for all of us, my youngest brother would lay across the back dashboard. Without a seatbelt. And it was legal. But driving barefoot wasn't legal. But drinking beer while you were driving wasn't illegal either. Unless you were pulled over for driving drunk. That was illegal. There was an AM radio in the car. Roll down windows. No A/C. If you were hot, you rolled down the windows, if you were cold, you rolled them up and hoped the heat from the engine would warm up the car. Electric windows & A/C came when I was in about 6th grade, as did the FM radio. When I was in middle school, 8 track players were the rage in the car. No kidding. When I was a Senior in HS, my dad had a Stayin Alive 8 track that we played a gazillion times over, until it magically dissappeared.

Phones: We had one. It was attached to the kitchen wall. And yes, it was a rotary dial. It was alos part of a "party line"--meaning, our neighbors shared the same phone line. And if you needed to make an important call, you would interrupt their conversation, as politely as possible, and then hang up. When they hung up on their end, your phone would give a small ring so you knew the line was not busy and you could make your own call. And, btw, in our home, the phone was "not a toy"--it was very important, and only for business. You got on, made your call, said what was needed, and got off ASAP! Only until I was in middle school did it become an acceptable part of your social life, not a party line...and even then, there were time limits.

I remember watching Phil Donahue in 1982 saying that in the future every home in America would own a personal computer. And that we would be able to buy things like groceries and clothing, book vacations and take classes, pay bills and write letters all from the conveniance of our own home. And I thought,"No way! Who could ever afford something like that?! Phil, you are dreamin' buddy!"

So what about you? What is a modern conveniance we have now that you can't imagine doing without?