I am back heading up our Throwback Thursday this week. Thanks to everyone who completed our survey. Lauren and I have decided we will post a more scaled down version of Throwback Thursday in April so look for our post as usual on Thursdays. If you are doing A to Z, you may still find it possible to join in.
If you care to join us, it’s easy.
- Write your own post sharing your memories and leave a pingback to this post in the comments.
- You can use the photo above in your post to make it easier to find.
- Tag it with #TBTMemory or #IRememberWhen.
- If you do not wish to write your own post, feel free to tell your story in the comments below.
This week’s prompt is: Technology Influences. The post this week might benefit from the use of photos! Just remember to give credit where credit is due!
You can use the questions that follow to spark your memories or you can answer them as they stand. It is totally up to you.
- What kind of technology existed around your house as a child?
- What technology do you remember coming into your home for the first time?
- What kind of televisions or radios did you have – post pictures if you can find them.
- How did music technology change in your lifetime? When was the last time you purchased music? In what form was the music?
- Did you have a home computer? If so, what was it? Did you have a webcam? Did you stream content with it?
- What kind of phone did you have? Do you have a landline today?
- Did you have toys with integrated technology, robots, automation, etc?
- What technology ‘blew your mind’?
- When did you get your first cell phone? What brand and model was it? Did you carry a pager?
- Is there any current technology you refuse to own or have in your home?
My post follows:
The only technology that existed in my grandparents’ homes, were Victrolas or radios. My grandmother had a large Victrola in the bedroom upstairs. It played 78rpm records and it fascinated me. Both my grandparents had electric clock radios. Eventually each purchased a small black and white television.
Telephones were probably the biggest technology change in my childhood. Our first phone was a on a party line we shared with four or five other families. I remember listening in on other people’s calls and having them listen in on mine. (When my parents moved back there in 1973 they had the first private line due to my mother’s illness.) We never had but one extension in our house, usually located in the living room or kitchen.
Color television was the next big technology. I still remember going to our neighbor’s house on Sunday evenings just to watch the intro to “The Wonderful World of Disney” or seeing the NBC peacock in full color.
As far as music, we eventually had a small record player. My siblings and I only bought 45 rpm records until we got into perhaps junior high. Our record player had a converter that went over the center spindle to accept 45s. Eventually there were yellow snap-in inserts that converted the large hole in the center of the 45 to a small hole. We always stacked records to play one after the other. No wonder they all got scratched up.
After that, Christmas presents always seemed to include albums by our favorite groups. I remember having The Association’s Greatest Hits album with the words to all the songs printed inside the album. That was the only way I was able to memorize the words to ”Along Comes Mary”.
For portable music I had a transistor radio with a leather-like case that required a single 9 volt battery. I took it everywhere. In the years that followed I had a cassette walkman, a CD walkman, an MP3 player, an iPod and now a phone. I have not purchased any music in years the last being from the iTunes store. We donated most of our CDs and occasionally I run across a random cassette in a box, but there are no 8 tracks lying around.
We had a Commodore 64 at home, usually used by my children. There was a koala pad attached (an early drawing tablet) and story writing software. I wrote my first Basic program on that computer. My manager at the time had an Osborne computer which he used as a laptop on when he flew.
My first cell phone was purchased in 1996. It was a Nokia. This was the annoying ringtone.
I did carry a pager for years and years before the company issued cell phones for everyone. Yes, there was a time I carried two cell phones and sometimes a pager, too.
Today I have a MacBook Pro, an iPad and an iPhone. I still have my iPod which I rarely use. I mostly stream music now. Hubby has an Android phone and two or three Windows computers and at least two Raspberry pi’s. We no longer have a landline. We stream our television rather than subscribe to a cable package. I do not have Alexa and have turned off all the listening features on my smart devices other than Siri on my iPhone and iPad. None of my household appliances talk to me.
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