Things/Behaviors You Don't See Anymore

[stefano]

He dropped by to say hi to everybody no matter where he went.

Dropping in without phoning ahead. Homes used to be more public spaces, in a way.

Actually, phoning at all, without emailing to set up a call. It's actually quite strange - how you have to organise beforehand to speak to someone on a phone that's on their desk, where they're sitting the whole day.

[Perelandra]

Funny how memories work sometimes:

http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=35509&p=478513&hilit=increasingly#p478513

[Nordic]

Ha! Sometimes when I'm writing an anecdote of mine here, to illustrate some point, I have that vague sensation that I've told that story before.

And I realize that RI is quite possibly like that long relationship where you've already told all your stories and have likely repeated them many times.

Kind of like my marriage.

[Nordic]

Oh oh oh! I have another one. And this is recent -

Remember when you could click on a video on the Internet and it more likely than not would NOT have a fucking ad you had to watch first. (This has become so unusual it's like seeing an animal believed extinct)

[Wombaticus Rex]

Most of my friends think I'm some sort of idiot savant for having a physical sense of direction. I just think it comes from growing up in the woods.

GPS is routinely, hilariously wrong here in Vermont, especially the counties I prefer to spend money in. I have to pipe up and contradict someone's phone/car (is there a difference in 2016?) at least once a week.

Especially entertaining - bless their hearts - are those friends and acquaintances who navigate from the passenger seat. I find that too wondrously strange to be offended. Of all the things they could be doing with that little portal to the Universe...

I essentially make my entire living through the internet yet I dread the thought of faster service out here; it would just encourage the wrong crowd to feel safe.

[82_28]

Funny how memories work sometimes:

http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=35509&p=478513&hilit=increasingly#p478513

Jesus. I thought I had made a post about that but couldn't remember. Oh well. This is the new thread I guess. Sorry to muddle shit up if indeed I did.

[Perelandra]

Nah, these threads are cool! We could probably fill up a whole Nostalgia forum fairly well...sometimes preferable to the alternatives, ya know.


I have a good sense of direction, as well. I'm pretty accurate also with time, so I dislike clocks, always have.

[Novem5er]

Funny how memories work sometimes:

http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board2/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=35509&p=478513&hilit=increasingly#p478513

Jesus. I thought I had made a post about that but couldn't remember. Oh well. This is the new thread I guess. Sorry to muddle shit up if indeed I did.

Haha, that is pretty funny. I think we're all having fun, though. I wonder if there's anything that'd disappeared from between the OP in 2012 and 2016??

I like the anecdotes about GPS, though. I grew up with road maps, and eventually Map Quest print-outs. I'm the last hold-out in my family that doesn't have a smart phone and, thus, a GPS app. I went on a 2.5 hour drive with my dad a few months back to a destination we'd never been before. I asked him casually, "So you know where we're going?"

"Nope. I'm just following the GPS today."

Times they are'a change'n!

For my own personal story on that, about 15 years ago, my buddy and I missed an important turn on an interstate here in Florida. We ended up about 30 miles off-course before we realized our mistake, but rather than backtrack along the Interstate, we decided to turn off and try the backroads to get back home.

It was great. As it got dark, we literally used the night sky to navigate . . . no, not the stars, but the light pollution from distant cities. Florida is very flat, so you can see the glow of a city from a long ways off. With the glow of Tampa at our backs, the glow of Lakeland to our left, and the cold blackness of the Gulf of Mexico to our right, we made it home.

[82_28]

Nothing is quite like the glow of Denver from 300-500 miles away in Kansas. It's just this huge dome. One might not believe it but Denver is in the middle of nowhere so it sticks out like some weird thumb.

[stefano]

On GPS: when I go up to Johannesburg these days I get my phone to do the navigation, and I swear I've forgotten the layout of the place. A few years ago when I had the A-Z (map book) it took an afternoon and I knew my way around. Also, the phone gets it wrong a lot. It's rubbish, I'm going back to paper.

[Asta]

Drive in theaters

The original Loony Toons, rocky and Bullwinkle, Sky King, all things Saturday morning on TV

Three television channels

Party lines

Things made in the USA

Service station attendants

Not being afraid of getting shot by a cop

Planes with real con trails

[Freitag]

Knowing your friends' phone numbers.

[OP ED]

I still know my friends numbers.

Personally I have had the same number on my cell for 17 years. Although I almost changed it once, in a series of incidents actually related to this site (which events also heavily contributed to my not posting as much).

Not only did I used to hug relatives about to board a plane but my friends and I ised to hang out at the airport for fun, meeting travelers and enjoying the 24hr feel of the airport itself. It was great fun and often educational. The last time was September 9 2001.


Bookstores. The big chains never mattered but I miss the tiny places, especially those of an occult nature, which formed the backbone of our community. All gone now

I miss doing things that weren't recorded for all time on Facebook.

Photographs.

Election cycles confined to election years.

This may sound strange but I miss, in some ways, harsher marijuana laws. The fact that I can pay a bribe to buy specific brands in a store seems to have disintegrated the communal aspects of the practice. The fact that I wouldn't currently have time for all that driving around the block flashing headlights stuff doesn't detract from the feeling itself.

Pay phones. Haven't used one since the day Jeff's RI book came out. (I remember it well). I'm not certain that I have even seen one after.

Buying albums.

Being required to watch a television show when it airs or risking missed plot.

Glaciers. (I'm originally from Alaska)

Paying more for cigarettes or alcohol than taxes attached to them.

(Smoking in bars)

(Therefore going to bars)

Star Trek on television. See above.
(From elementary school until my twenties there was always a Star Trek series on TV)

Educational programs that don't assume illiteracy.

Literacy.

[Cordelia]

Three television channels

I haven't had television since 1986, when this was still true. (For me, being around one now is a form of sensory torture.)

Phones ringing until the caller hung up
Answering services
Answering machines
Walking to and from school (and home for lunch)
Gym teachers/coaches who followed their own protocol to deal with school bullies
Rinsing hair in beer and then ironing
Ironing clothes
Carbon copies

[Nordic]

In popular music, when even the bad songs featured people who could actually sing.

(The autotuner needs to be outlawed, banned, destroyed. It is the dioxin of our musical culture)