How simple things were back then. I didn’t have anything but a future. Ronald Reagan was in the Oval, Space Shuttle was flying all the time. Ribbon cables and RS-232. CPUs had at most 16 bits, and if you needed more than 4 or 8K of memory, you could get a floppy drive.
ATM machines had built-in cameras, and banks. Beyond that, no one was looking at you. Computer viruses didn’t exist yet. Ransomware didn’t exist yet. A VCR was way out of my price range. When I saw Blade Runner and Body Heat, it was in a theater, and the fear of being shot in there by a crazed mass murderer was completely nonexistent.
For fun, I could go to a shopping mall and hang out at a Waldenbooks. Or I could go to South Street, the TLA, get a cheesesteak at Jim’s, sit upstairs and watch the people go by on the sidewalk.
Long ago.
ATMs back then? I don’t remember hearing about them back then. I don’t remember eve seeing a person use one until the 90s. And I remember some people called them MAC machines.
....or go to the Granite Run mall and spend hours without a worry, or go to JFK Stadium for Live Aid and sing US’s “40” with everyone else on the El going home, or go to 69th Street and catch Zappa at the Tower.
Boookstores. Hubby and I could take a vacation in a good bookstore.
Not much anymore. The good ones, are all shuttered up around here.
Good post. My recollections too.
Oh, stop it. Except for engineers and a few people like that, nobody is ever going to need more than 4K.
I admit to liking most all of the Air Supply songs. I always had an appreciation for soft rock. Lobo, BJ Thomas and Neil Diamond are other soft rock artists from the era that come to mind). There were many others.
You can still hear these songs on Sirius XM stations like The Bridge and Yacht Rock. Or the Top 40 countdowns on the 70s and 80s stations.