Do You Remember When?

All this packing, combined with reading some old letters that my BFF still has from our teen years has made me very nostalgic.  It made me want to play Do You Remember When.  So, I apologize if you are probably under 32ish, you may not get any of these references.

Do you remember when VHS and BETA came out?
Our family friends were one of the first families to get a VCR, so we would always watch movies when we went over there.  They had James Bond, Sound of Music, The Muppet Movie and most notably, Grease.  We watched Grease every time we went to visit them.


Do you remember when Sony Trinitron was the latest in cutting edge TV Tube technology?
We had one for years and years until it stopped working.  I think the color started to go, and then              the picture died.  Some time after that, we got what seemed like a huge TV.  It was probably a 40 inch or something, big and heavy.  The neighbor's drug addict son broken in and stole it.  Then my dad bought this tiny tiny white portable job.  He would watch it in the bedroom.  He would bring it to work and leave it in the car.  Then he would bring it home again at night and watch it.  I would come home to visit, and we would actually hook it up to a VCR on the kitchen table and watch movies on it.

Do you remember when The Simpsons first appeared on TV?
I don't remember the year, but I do remember watching it on the Tracey Ullman show.  There was the one where Maggie went on some big adventure.  And then when it became it's old series, it sucked, because it was on the same time as 60 Minutes, so I would have to surrender the TV to my dad.

Do you remember when kids could leave the house by themselves and go play for hours without parents even giving it much thought?
I was pretty much a latchkey kid.  I had two older sisters, so I think at a young age we were left to our own devices after school, sometimes until late at night.  We were not allowed to go anywhere without tracking down our parents on the phone (the landline, which was all we had) and asking, of course.  But, sometime in junior high when my sisters were always off doing their thing, I started riding my bike around the neighborhood every day after school.  I might go to the lake, or to a friend's house or just ride around.  If I had asked to go to a friend's house, there would have been suspicion or hesitation from my parents.  For whatever reason though, if I said I was going to go bike riding, no problem.

Do you remember when call waiting became an option?
It was a revelation!  My oldest sister was always on the phone.  My mom was a physician who was always on call.  So, my mom was always getting onto my sister about "tying up the phone".  So, my sister added call waiting onto the phone line.  I don't know how she got my parents to agree to an added expense - maybe she said she would pay for it?  Anyway, my mom got even more frustrated, because she simply didn't like my sister sitting and talking on the phone for hours.  Even worse, my mom probably saw that it irritated my dad, so she would have to figure out a reason for my sister to get off the phone.  Now, I barely talk on the phone, so I rarely have to use call waiting.

Do you remember when Laverne and Shirley moved to California?
That was weird......

Do you remember when most families of all your classmates went to church every Sunday?
Or maybe that just depends on where one grew up and what school one went to?

Do you remember, if you went to church every Sunday, going to eat after church? 
I remember.  It was usually special.  Not special as in fancy, special, as in, the moms didn't have to cook.  If we were visiting our friends (who had the VCR) all the Filipino families would go to either Popeye's or Captain D's.  It was fun.  The kids on one side of the restaurant, the adults on the other, taking up half the joint.  If we were home and it was just my family, we would go to Morrison's Cafeteria (I liked the corn and desserts there), Shoney's, Bob Evans, or maybe Taco Bell.  For some reason Taco Bell was a real treat.  I think it was because it was kind of out of the way or something.

Do you remember when CD players first came out?
Not to date myself, but I was in high school, I believe.  I saved my money and got a Sony portable CD player and these crappy speakers.  My first CD was The Stone Roses.

Do you remember when cell phones first came out?
My sister had one of those big phones with the suitcase power pack.  I remember thinking how cool it was.  We didn't get our first cell phones until pretty much everyone else already had them.

Do you remember when you stopped writing letters and notes and started writing emails?
I remember my email address in college was like 20 characters long, and some of the printers were still dot matrix!

Do you remember when "hooking up" could simply mean holding hands or kissing?
Back then, cheating on someone could also mean holding hands or kissing.  Now, cheating generally means vaginal and penile intercourse.  ("I did not have sexual intercourse with that woman.")

Oh, one more:  Do you remember when Michael Jackson was just an innocent pop star role model?
I mean, if it weren't for Thriller, would he have risen to anywhere near the fame to which he rose?

Feel free to add your own Do you remember whens....