Things That Once Amazed Us but We Now Take for Granted

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Barbara L

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Another thread made me think of this. I'll never forget that day in White Front around 1970 (give or take a year). A woman was demonstrating this gadget called a microwave oven. We watched her cook hotdogs in it and were amazed by the speed at which they cooked! Now I stand there urging the microwave (how long has it been since I have added "oven" to its name?) to "HURRY UP!"

So, what once amazed you but you now basically take for granted? It does not have to be cooking related.

:)Barbara
 
What a great idea, Barbara!

Not something I saw, but something that was part of my childhood.

There are those of us who remember Dick Tracy. Okay, then, do you remember his two-way wrist radio? Well, guess what, it's here.

Look at all our modern electronics. PDAs, cell phones that take photos, etc.

Dick Tracy would be amazed.

And, by the way, we'll never put a man on the moon.:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
 
The computer. When I was a kid there were none. Then there were the behemoths made of all kinds of vacuum tubes and other large components that were limited to universities and some very large compahies. But now we all have them in our homes, on our laps at airports and at all sorts of places, well, we could not live without them. And all people under the age of thirty or so take them for granted.

It has expanded everyone's world. I remember my first TI-99 computer. It was little more than a toy, you could not do very much with it.

Now I am connected to the world. I continue to be amazed. But yep, I do usually take them for granted.
 
computers, computers, computers..........where were these marvels when I was in high school and university????????? I had term papers every semester from my sophomore year in high school till when I graduated from Texas A&M in 76. Even had a term paper in invertebrate ecology????? Do you know how many notecards I went thru and placing them on my bed like poker cards for the best play?? And none of this downloading of Google or Wikipedia to get info------late, dusty hours of poking thru old bound mags and relics only to find that your article that you were panting to have was either being bound & not back for another 3 months or some cretin had cut it or torn it out.........yep, those were the Dark Ages for sure.....never mind the email and staying in touch with everybody
 
oops forgot to mention the first Texas Instruments calculator. DH was a grad student and it had just come out.........no, kidding we saved and scrimped to have him be able to afford it....he was in Mechanical Engineering and needed it........we still have it and would probably be considered an antique today..........it didn't even rate as a scientific calc. ---just basic functions and it cost nearly cost $200--a fortune back then but so nove at the time
 
...I remember my first TI-99 computer. It was little more than a toy, you could not do very much with it.

Now I am connected to the world. I continue to be amazed. But yep, I do usually take them for granted.
We had a Texas Instruments computer too. We just played games on it, but they had the best games! Their Munchman was much better than PacMan!

It's funny, we begin to take all these things for granted, but let them break down and we fall apart!

:)Barbara
 
I just remembered something else. I remember when I was in high school (I graduated in 1975), everyone was in awe of the kids who ran the video equipment. And then when they came out with video players (Beta of course) for home use, that was something! VHS wasn't far behind, but I remember the first pre-recorded video tapes available for sale were extremely expensive. We rented, but we couldn't afford to buy them at first!

:)Barbara
 
oh, do I ever remember Beta tapes-----engineer hubby convinced me that they were better "constructed and designed" than the VHS---btw----if you're dating or married to an engineer... the words "construction and design" can take over all decisions in the future.....listen to your inner instincts....I watched Beta tapes being phased out and VHS taking over....boy what a dummy I was!!! One good thing out of all of this.....I can tease my DH about it hahaha
 
TV,- people crowding around the shop window down town watching black and white TV.
Refrigerators,- saved me a lot of work riding my bike down to the butchers shop every morning to get a block of ice for the ice chest.

When I think about it, we have come a long way in just my life time, now we take so much for granted.

We would never have dreamed that one day we could communicate instantly with people on the other side of the world with a screen and a keyboard.

I have just found out that my great-great Grandfather was transported out from England as a convict, he got seven years in the Penal Colony for robbing a coach, his booty was 11 schillings worth of odds and ends.
 
While I am still rather amazed at some of the things we are doing in space, I think it is easy to take it for granted. For example, I think (though was not born) that back during the "space race", some of these things must have been quite amazing (the first satellites, the moon, etc). Now, we have robots roaming around on mars taking soil samples, pictures, air samples and we have probes smashing into asteroids moving at tens of thousands of miles per hour. Pretty amazing stuff that doesnt get much attention anymore.
 
I remember...monochrome video display adapters...barely. Sorry, I'm 25.

Camera phones are pretty amazing though. Definitely a sci-fi concept. That's one thing I look forward to when I eventually get a cellphone.
 
Thanks attie, yep TV.

When I was a young kid we had none. Then we got a GE, I think it measured about a yard in length, was very heavy (diodes, triodes, all kinds or resistors and capasitors) and the screen was about 8 inches. Yep.

And we loved it. Had to have the TV repairman in all the time until we realized we could take out the vacuum tubes and take them to the pharmacy and test them. That was great about half the time, but the there were too many other components that went on the blink. The TV repair guy was there with great regularity.

I suppose I have become inured to the amazement of the TV.

But to turn my interest to cooking, it is Teflon. Wow, has that changed everything.

Although I rarely use it now.
 
I guess I gotta go with cell phones.
My uncle had one of those first ones, the size of a brick, I thought it was so cool! Now mine is the size of a credit card AND i can take pics and video with it!
Also video games. We had Radio Shack version of "pong" it had 4 games on it and the dials were conected. all just lines and dots. To see the graphics and things DH can do on his xbox 360 is something else!
Oh, and internet. Wow.
 
I think digital cameras are amazing. I worked with film cameras for over 40 yrs. Got my first digital camera in 2003.
 
Barbara, thanks for this thread. It really got me thinking.

We have been living in a most amazing period of history. The twentieth century was an unparalleled period of technological growth. While I wasn't around for the whole century, I have witnessed the arrival of many of the most amazing devices that have become commonplace.

Consider these:

Television
Color Television
Portable radios
Air Conditioning
Personal computers
VCRs
DVDs
Microwaves
Blenders
Food Processors
Frost free refrigerators
Electric Can openers

Cars - Look at how cars have changed! Think of a Model T Ford that had to be hand cranked to start up, and compare that to a 2008 average car. They have automatic transmissions, navigation systems, sound systems, AC, heat, power everything...

The list goes on.
 
which brings up another question....would you want to go back???? I'm not sure....I love computers too much though I'm not very adept at using them....no, I like things the way they are
 
which brings up another question....would you want to go back???? I'm not sure....I love computers too much though I'm not very adept at using them....no, I like things the way they are
I would not want to go back. I like new technology.
 
Andy, add to your list:

Indoor Plumbing
Flush Toilets

My mother can tell me that they didn't get indoor plumbing at her parent's farm until sometime within the last 60 years.

I am old enough to remember records and record players. I mean, actual vinyl! Cassettes were just becoming the thing. My father had a fairly decent record player, as well as a reel-to-reel machine. Then, CD's hit the market.

My first couple of radio's were the "walk-man" type. Small, extremely portable, most cassette player than radio, as the circuitry for radios kept getting smaller and small.

Now, we have portable MP3 players. You don't even need to take your CD's with you when you travel, that is, if you even purchase music on a CD anymore.

Here's another way to look at it. Go and watch one of the original Star Trek eppies. You all already mentioned cell-phones. Our cell phones can do much more than a Star Trek Communicator. There was one eppy where you see some nurse use a weird device to spray some kind of liquid over a patient. That device quickly became common-place. It was a spray-mister, used for cleaning chemicals today.

Can you imagine what is going to happen in the next 50 years?
 
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