I Remember When...

Mood: Tired (it's a bit past my old lady bedtime)

What I'm Watching: Iron Chef America (...and the secret ingredient is....ALASKAN.KING.CRAB!)

Current Word Count: 7,833 (this is something new I'm trying...including my current "work in progress" word count as a way of reminding myself what I've accomplished and to motivate me to keep working...we'll see how it works for me.)

My husband and I were talking recently about how much life and the world in general has changed just since we were children. Thinking about it, I realized just how little you notice those changes until they're pointed out to you, so I thought I would make my own little "Remember When" list.

I was born in 1973 (do NOT do the math...I feel 23 so I'm 23!), and my husband was born in 1970 (go ahead and do the math on him...he's older than I am!).

And, we remember when...

• Children played outside all day, nearly every day...you just had to be home and on the porch when the street lights turned on at night.


• Using old cigar boxes as pencil boxes was not only acceptable but an actual part of the mandatory school supply list


• Kids had "school" clothes, "play" clothes and "dress" clothes. The minute you got home you had to change into your play clothes (which were last year's school clothes) and Lord help you if you played in your school clothes and got them dirty.


• Saturday morning cartoons were really cartoons and not digital animation. Also? The cartoons were good and lasted all morning long.


• There were only 13 channels on cable television and we thought that was a lot.


• Our televisions didn't have remotes so our parents would make us get up and change the channel. Again, and again, and again...


• Pong was cool and Atari blew our minds with its state of the art gaming abilities.


• Taking a road trip with the family involved things like license plate bingo instead of handheld video games and portable DVD players. Also? We stopped and had picnics at rest stops or on the side of the road because there wasn't a fast food place every 5 miles on the highway.


• A good mini-series (like Roots) could bring the entire family together around the television every night for a week.


• tv dinners came in a tin foil tray (that gave the food that nice, tinny flavor, that you just don't get with the plastic ones).


• Phones had rotary dials and long distance calls were a cause for excitement.


• Computers were for multi-million dollar companies, took up entire rooms and ran on a series of punch type cards.

So there you have it, my little meandering walk down memory lane. Of course there are millions of things I've left out...so feel free to comment and add your own memories. What do you remember?