Being a baby boomer I can remember life before Television. In 1956 my mum won a TV in a contest before the first telecast and have total recall of all of the rellys and neighbours coming to our place to watch the grand opening of TV.
I can remember life prior to Shopping Malls and recall being blown away by Sydneys first mall, Roselands when it opened in the early 60's. I can even remember when Flemings,Maroubras first supermarket opened in the late 50's. My mum had never seen anything so amazing and she's still adicted today at the age of 89.
I can remember when we had to go next door to Mrs Suttons place to make a phonecall as they were the only folks in the street with one. There was a red phone booth on nearly every other corner though if she wasn't home! BTW, Have you noticed that phone booths are fast disapearing from the landscape? I can remember using my bosses car phone in 1977 and finding that it was a major drama to make a call. You had to park on top of a hill, phone an operator to transfer you then maybe, just maybe you may have got a crackly, distant sounding phonecall through. Seeing 70's TV prIvate eyes talking on their car phones while driving along was bullshit as I found out. That technology didn't happen until the early 80's.
I can remember when cars didn't have automatic transmissions. My dad bought a new EK wagon with a new fangled Hydramatic trans and it was so awful he only owned that car three months, trading it for a R type Valiant manual. I remember cars before air conditioning, disc brakes, and even radios. Now all of those things are a given, even in the most basic model.
I can remember when the album cover was almost as important piece of art as the vinyl record it contained. I can remember walking into Tower Records in Hollywood, California in 1982 and not seeing single vinyl album. It was the first CD only shop and it freaked me out. Now CDs are old school. I can remember life before computers where your knowledge was gained from reading books. I always maintained that I wouldn't become a "child of the computer age" and didn't see the need to own a computer. Back then I used to type my magazine pieces on paper using an Olivetti typewriter (still own it) and send them in by Australia Post. Then in the early 90's GE asked me to send my stuff in on floppy disc so I used to go to a typing service and ask them to transpose it to disc. I'd then snail mail it in to ADB. I can remember a time before emails, when if you wanted to communicate with someone, you'd ring them or write them a letter via snail mail.
I could go on infinitely but you get my drift. Without really thinking about I've lived through some of the most important and accelerated social and technological change in history. Like Paul earlier said, it'd be cool to be a witness to what life will be like in another 50 years.
