--No video games,ipods,cable TV,cell phones,Home computers,VCR,CD,DVD,etc...--
Transistor Radio!
Listing to a baseball game at a summer family BBQ on a transistor radio was the best.
Transistor radios under your pillow at night, to muffle them when you weren't supposed to be listening. Only AM radio. Stations from cities far away on clear nights. Otis Redding singing "Dock of the Bay" through that pillow in the dark bedroom late at night.
I remember the girls walking home from school in a gang, each with a transistor radio with a little ear plug tuned to WFIL radio (Famous 56) and they all were singing "Build Me Up Buttercup."
We walked to school, walked home for a 1/2 hour lunch,and walked back to school again.
After school I would go to Helen"s Deli and buy a half a sub (fifty cents),16 ounce RC cola in a bottle(15 cents),One small bag of potato chips (10 cents), and two comic books at 12 cents each. Add that up and it comes to less than a dollar!
How I loved my little red transistor radio! But the batteries in those little suckers went dead so fast. I remember holding it up to an electric outlet to get better reception. LOL