I grew up before cell phones and internet AMA

amother

DarkGreen

Tue, Jan 02 2024, 10:58 am

amother Violet wrote:

We made long distance calls after 11 because it was cheaper. During the day we only spoke for 3 minutes. A call from eretz yisroel was an occasion. It sounded very far away.
My Israeli relative called every motzaei shabbos and rang three times so on shabbos afternoon we knew it was him checking in.

Remember when cell phones started becoming common (it was the size of a cordless phone), you bought a certain amount of minutes per month..... and service was free after 9PM. (Something like that.)

amother

Honeysuckle

Tue, Jan 02 2024, 11:05 am

amother Brass wrote:

were there credit cards back in the day ? If yes were there points ? how would you know how much you had ? When swiping a credit card would it get approved in seconds or did it take a minute or two ?

Were there ATM machines (I am asking because wondering if they work with internet) ?

Obviously online shopping didn't exist then but shipping was available... When shipping an item from USPS etc... were there tracking numbers then ? did it take longer for items to arrive those days ?

OK feeling super old.

Yes they were credit cards but you did not swipe them as other posters have said. There was a machine that you placed the credit card on with some papers with carbon copies and slid it over to make it imprint. Then you signed for it in person. Then they called the credit card company to verify That you were who you said you were with your drivers license. I worked in a store and it took me a long time to learn how to do that.

There were no tracking numbers or anything for shipping.

The first time I saw an ATM machine was in the early 1980s. Aside from that you went to the bank filled out a withdrawal slip and got your money.

It was cheaper to make long-distance phone calls after 9 PM and then even cheaper after 11 PM. And yes, the first three minutes were a certain price and after that more so you literally had to time yourself and be off the phone.

My father used to take the phone off the hook at 10 o’clock, so it wouldn’t ring and disturb him. After he went to sleep, I put it back on the hook so that my friends could call me.

amother

Tulip

Tue, Jan 02 2024, 11:06 am

amother Brass wrote:

We used to order from Lands End and Eddie Bauer. We received the catalog and called in with our order. I don't remember how long shipping was but definitely not 2 days.
2 day shipping for no extra cost is only a thing since Amazon Prime. Others have shortened their shipping time only because of competition with Amazon.

When I was young I always had quarters in my pocket in case I had to call my mother on a pay phone.

giftedmom

Tue, Jan 02 2024, 11:10 am

amother Tulip wrote:

My mother used to return lands end items after years of use because of their lifetime warranty. Do they still have that? We used to have all our coats and boots from them. And more.
Anyone else drool over the American girl catalog and cut and paste the pictures?

amother

Jetblack

Tue, Jan 02 2024, 11:12 am

I grew up before cellphones.
I remember when we switched from the rotary phone to a regular phone that was attached to the wall with a twirly cord. My grandparents still had a rotary phone for many years after we switched. Today's kids would have no idea how to dial on a rotary phone.
We had a fax machine at some point and that was considered fancy.
My father was one of those "rich" men with a car phone and I was so embarrassed of it. Once, one of the neighbors looked into my father's car and saw the car phone. She started making a huge deal about it and I was mortified.
When I was out of high-school, some people started having celphones. But if you did, it was considered not classy to talk on the street.

We started out oir marriage in Eretz Yisroel, and when we moved to America, I still didn't have a cellphone for a while, though by then most people did.
I remember getting a ride with someone from work, and she was on the phone the whole time. I thought she was extremely rude for talking on the phone while I was in her car. Today it's considered more normal (though I still think it's somewhat rude. )

amother

Brass

Tue, Jan 02 2024, 11:12 am

amother Honeysuckle wrote:

LOL

Chayalle

Tue, Jan 02 2024, 11:17 am

I remember when we got our first cordless phone, but it wasn't touch tone - every time you pressed a button, you had to wait for the number to "register" (can't think of a better way to explain it, but there was a sound associated with each number that had to "process" before you could hit the next button.) Later on my parents got touch-tone, and it was so awesome to be able to dial my friend's number and be talking to her less than a minute later.

When DH and I were engaged he used to call me at work, cuz that's where I had the most privacy. At home the phone was in the kitchen.....

Lemonade 2323

Tue, Jan 02 2024, 11:46 am

amother Honeysuckle wrote:

Forget cell phones- I got my first cordless phone as a baby gift when I had my first child in 1992. Before that every phone was corded either hanging on the wall or on your desk.
It was so exciting to be able to talk on the phone while sitting on the couch and nursing the baby!!

Yes!!! I got a cordless around the same time when I had my 3rd child.

Oh the excitement of walking around the house on the phone whilst tidying up and folding laundry! Seemed like it got done by magic. And feeding your baby on the couch, the comfortable one which the corded phone didn't reach!

amother

Amaryllis

Tue, Jan 02 2024, 12:25 pm

I was born in 1980. I got my first cell phone when I graduated from college in 2003 and was living in an apartment in Washington Heights with a couple of other girls. My parents already had a family cell phone for a couple of years that was bought as a car phone to use only in case of emergency. My first cell phone was for calls only. Texting was a huge innovation.

My parents were early adopters of computer technology. My father had his own business that he ran out of our basement and he had a PC when it was still unusual. At some point when I was in high school he upgraded his computer and his old one became a family computer and all our friends used to want to come over and play computer games (back when they were on discs!). I remember the switch from writing papers for school longhand to typing them on the computer! Imagine writing a 10 page paper as a first draft and then having to rewrite it by hand! I remember a snow day in 7th grade where I was stuck inside all day doing that while my siblings were outside having fun.

We entertained ourselves more easily I think back then. We spent a lot of time outdoors riding bikes and climbing trees and running around having water fights in the summer or making up our own games. We played board games and read a lot. My mother took us to the library every Friday with a huge piece of luggage to fill up with books for all of us for the week. We spent Sundays doing fun activities or visiting family. Kids weren't so scheduled with extracurriculars.

There are many things I appreciate about current technology. With my oldest child, who is now 16, I used to have to run around to 2-3 stores every month to stock up on a big box of diapers that was cheaper than the smaller packages. I would go to Walmart and they'd be out of stock so I'd go to Target or Toys 'R Us to find the right size. Then the next month I'd go back to whichever store had had it the previous month and they'd be out of stock so I had to run around. By the time I had my next child a few years later (some SIF issues) I could click a few buttons on my phone and diapers would show up at my front door. That was such a a timesaver! But I definitely waste a lot of time on my phone these days that I would be better off applying elsewhere. It is nice to have a siddur, GPS, novel, phone, calculator, compass, browser, TV, and radio at my fingertips whenever I need it though.

Chayalle

Tue, Jan 02 2024, 12:50 pm

amother Amaryllis wrote:

My parents were early adopters of computer technology. My father had his own business that he ran out of our basement and he had a PC when it was still unusual. At some point when I was in high school he upgraded his computer and his old one became a family computer and all our friends used to want to come over and play computer games (back when they were on discs!). I remember the switch from writing papers for school longhand to typing them on the computer! Imagine writing a 10 page paper as a first draft and then having to rewrite it by hand! I remember a snow day in 7th grade where I was stuck inside all day doing that while my siblings were outside having fun.

I'm a few years older than you are. My father is an Actuary (now retired) and he worked on computers. I remember going with him to his office in NYC and seeing the company computer, which was the size of a refrigerator. I used to entertain myself by punching nonsensical punchcards.

I was pretty young when he got our first family PC, so he could do work at home. I was the only one in my class, for years, to have a PC at home, and yes, classmates were fascinated by it. We had some pretty primitive games that came with the PC (like a donkey you could jump from one side of the road to the other to avoid some pretty slow moving cars) but we got pacman, donkey kong, and Frogger pretty quickly. Initially we had to use the arrow keys on the keyboard to play. I remember how excited I was when we got our first joystick.

When my father got his first modem, he explained to me that his computer could now send files over the phone line. They took forever and no one could use the phone while he transmitted his work.....(eventually my parents got a second phone line.) Who woulda thunk about the internet back then.....

mha3484

Tue, Jan 02 2024, 1:10 pm

amother Amaryllis wrote:

I was born in 84 and this sounds soooo much like my experiences too.

amother

Milk

Tue, Jan 02 2024, 1:25 pm

keym wrote:

Did anyone else have a mother who would make sure to be off the phone at 11 or something so Dad can call the house to check in?

It was a thing. You made up when you were going to call someone so they could keep the line clear

It also meant 9-5 job ended at 5. What could you do at home?

My mother would only allow us to talk on the phone for a limited time every night in case someone was trying to call. Eventually she got us a second line. When call waiting came out, it was like the most amazing thing. Caller ID was also cool. At first some people had it and some people didn’t.

amother

Opal

Wed, Jan 03 2024, 1:57 am

amother Milk wrote:

Caller ID used to be a small appliance you connected to your phone. Like a little box with a screen on it. It was really cool when it came out!
Before that we would press *69. Anyone remember the tv commercials "Not in time? Press star six nine"
Lol with a little girl running to answer the phone and missed it by a second.

amother

Green

Wed, Jan 03 2024, 3:09 am

amother Honeysuckle wrote:

When I was a girl I didn't mind sitting in one place shmoozing on the phone. But when I got married, that was so annoying. So we bought an extremely long coiled phone wire (I think 100 feet) which basically reached all over the whole house, so I was able to sit on the couch, put away laundry ....

2-3 years later the cordless was invented.