Before Cell Phones, Social Media & Streaming, I had to

Lying in bed, not going to sleep, listening to the police radio on the far end of the FM scale on my classic radio handed down from my grandparents.

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And the toy catalogue from, I’m not sure, Germany or UK probably? with toys we could only imagine of. It was like a holy bible for us.

Watching Bravo or Popcorn magazine my friends aunt from Germany was sending to her. She always had the coolest stuff from Germany, Haribo, Bravo, clothes, crap we were all collecting (mostly coloured little papers, with Disney princesses etc, crème de la crème were the ones that had some nice fragrance or glitter on)

Watching MTV actually playing music.

First Big Brother reality show, everybody was watching this bullshit.

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Aaah, I had one too! Also got it from my grandparents! My mom blew up the lightbulbs inside by pushing the wrong buttons trying to get the radio off because I had to make homework instead of listening.
I kept that radio almost all of my life despite it didn’t work anymore. Still regret I’ve trown it away a couple of years ago :disappointed_relieved:

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Speed dialing took about 15 seconds

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And what about the trick to hit the plastic thingies on top repeatedly and thus dial a number?

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Didn’t know that trick, I managed ones to enter a radio quiz (forgot the name, but it was popular. You needed to dial quickly when the quiz was open. I came through, but chickened out and hang up :see_no_evil:, while I had all the correct answers.

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And photos? I remember one photographic film had like 32 or something photos, you had to bring it to photoshop, pay little fortune to have them done just to realise that a lot of them are moved, not sharp or photobomb with finger on the lens :slight_smile:
And then, if they were printed on shiny paper, making your mother angry if you leave fingerprints on them (not on purpose ofcourse :wink:) before she put them in the album.

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How in the world did hit the thingies on top of the phone dial a number?

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Hit 'm the number of times for one number (six time for a 6), then pauze, then hit again and repeat until done.
@Mischa84 My first camera, 1974ish.

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We had tin cans with a string attaching them. ( for a phone)

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The first pager I had was the size of a huge boom box and weighed about ten pounds. ( 4.53 Kg ) The only good thing about it was the pager noise that came out of it was really super loud.

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This thread is like, totally tubular :grin:.

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And putting card in the spokes to sound like a motorbike

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I remember doing that too! We used wooden clothes pins to attach the cards to the spokes.

This entire thread brought me down childhood memory lane.

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Getting coal before winter deposited in front of your cellar to be shovelled inside.
Putting down the ash before heating the oven.
Freezing before someone put on a fire.
Hating my brother when he didn’t put on the fire. :grimacing:

Not having landline until the 90s. When you planned meeting a friend you were there.

Getting sandwiches for school I didn’t like and hid behind the bed and forgot about them :nauseated_face:

Playing matchbox with my brother.

Having the selection of 3 TV channels and having to walk to the TV to change.

Doing what

Doing dishes and battle who had to dry. Ahhh, doing the dishes on Christmas :scream: never ending story.

Roads that were made to fall asleep as there were so many bumps in the road.

When your mom cleans your face with her own saliva :nauseated_face::zipper_mouth_face:

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Having a 25 foot phone cord so you could sneak in the other room with your staticky connection.

The biggest advance besides the birth of the internet was a cd player with 10 seconds skip protection lol.

A high speed vhs rewinder was pretty sweet too :joy:

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VHS :slightly_smiling_face: and going to the rental shop to choose a film for the night… Forgetting to take it back and getting charged extra.

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Recording the weekly top 40 on your cassette player to make your own playlist and making one full of love songs to give to that person you fancied.

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One local movie rental place had “be kind; rewind” stickers on all the tapes.

Also remember renting the actual vcr machine from the shop with the movies.

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And dialing a wrong number in the number and having to start over. Pressing the hang up thingys and waiting until you finally got a dial tone.

Knowing you’ve already lost the free T shirt giveaway for the 15th caller on the radio…:disappointed:

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