My Kids Will Never Know
Princess and I were headed to Happy Hour at Sonic today to get a half price drink and I was jamming out to some old 80’s jams. When we came to a stop, I turned down the radio and she asked me if I really like that kind of music. I was blaring The Vapors, Turning Japanese and remembering the first time I heard it. I was on the way to the Mockingbird Drive Inn in Dallas. Before I replied I thought to myself, “Okay she is only 7, my kids will never know this type of music. She doesn’t know anything but Justin Bieber and the Disney Channel.” Princess, I like/love my rock/pop/funk music from the 80’s era like you adore Justin Bieber and everyone on the Disney channel. She kind of just sat there with a disgusted look on her face and asked if I could change the channel. Nope.
I started to think about my kids and what they may miss out on as they get older.
23 Things My Kids Will Never Know
- Rotary Phone – There is something about putting your finger in the rotary dial and hearing “click, click, click” by the numbers as you dial.
- LP Albums – The sense of placing the delicate needle on the record and then hearing the crackling through the speakers.
- Saturday Morning Cartoons – Waiting until Saturday morning for cartoons. Funny cartoons. Looney Toons, Hanna-Barbera, Tom and Jerry, and Wacky Races.
- TV sign off – The sound of the static and a rainbow colored screen on the TV late at night when programming is over until morning.
- Pen pals – Those friends far away that you actually write a letter to.
- Cassette Tape – The need to flip over the tape from side A to side B.
- beepers and Pay Phones – The “Beep, Beep, Beep” sound of someone receiving a page on a beeper and using a pay phone to return the call.
- MTV – Back when it just played nothing but music videos.
- Dial Up – The unmistakable sound the modem makes while connecting.
- Going beyond security at Airports – Arriving at the airport 10 minutes before your flight and having your family watch you get on and off the plane.
- VCR Rewinder – Actually needing to rewind the stack of VCR tapes from a weekend of watching movies.
photo credit: adam & lucy via photopin cc - Party Lines – Dialing a phone number, waiting for a “click click“, and then listening as a bunch of random people talked to each other on the same line.
- Disposable Cameras – The idea of actually sending your camera in for processing the film after 24 shots.
- US Mail – Receiving mail on Saturday (which is apparently going to end in August 2013).
- Address Book – Writing down a phone number to find it later and memorizing it.
- Own an Encyclopedia – The pride of having the whole set of the Encyclopedia Britannica on a bookshelf in your home.
- Time/Date – Calling the operator to get the time and date.
- Check – Get paid or pay a bill with a paper check. (Yes, still existent but seems to be slowly evolving to become extinct soon enough)
- *69 – Dial *69 to find who called you last.
- Laundry – The art of hang drying your laundry on a clothesline (another one still around but losing its luster).
- Post Card – Writing a short note on the back of a picture card and mailing it to someone via US Mail.
- Paper TV Guide – Holding a TV Guide in your hand that you can thumb through to see when your favorite TV show comes on next.
- Record – The idea of recording a playlist on a cassettes tape or CD for playback… from the radio each time a song was played.
It is weird to think that several of the things we once did in our childhood have now been modified or phased out over time. I can only hope that all of the changes we go through as we progress can only be good for us… ad our children.
Is there something you miss having or doing? Something your children will most likely never know as they grow?
photo credits in top image:
records – David Gallard (Mr Guep) via photopin cc
mailbox – photo credit: Eric Fischer via photopin cc
letter – photo credit: • Happy Batatinha • via photopin cc