Intact families Family sitting down to dinner Single-family homes as opposed to raising children in apartment buildings Respectful, profanity-free conversation in public settings Parents allowed to parent without government interference Bench seats in the fronts of cars instead of bucket seats and center consoles
Hub caps Full-size spare tires Cars that you could work on yourself instead of financing a mechanic shop's monthly overhead Maximum 55 mph speed limits on highways Fewer than ten TV channels from which to choose Laws against statutory rape Automatically offering one's seat without being prompted Please, thank you, and excuse me Good movies Radio dramas Women wearing skirts and dresses more often Women wearing gloves Men wearing suits and ties more often Men wearing hats (NOT baseball caps) All men's underwear was white (well, when it was brand new . . . ) Cleanshaven men instead of "looking cool" with 5 o'clock shadow or scraggly, scruffy, stubbly growth Prayer Respect for teachers Teachers wearing professional attire instead of sweats, t-shirts, jeans, etc.
Mood rings Pet Rocks Cabbage-Patch Dolls Teddie Ruxpin Rock 'Em-Sock 'Em Robots Tickle-Me Elmo Popiel products' commercials (operators are standing by, call before midnight tonight, and wait, that's not all . . . ) Cassette tapes and players, especially the Walkman Betamax VHS The war between Betamax and VHS VCRs Must-See-TV Video Game Arcades Malls Vans (the vehicles) VH Radios 976 Phone numbers AOL, MSM Messenger, chatrooms, DSL, modems that required your phone receiver in its cradle New Coke Music videos on MTV Celebs' exercise tapes TV series with ensemble casts Tie-dye t-shirts Pagers/Beepers PDAs Blackberries The Jerry Curl The Mullet Spiked Mohawks Urban cowboys Valley girls Break-dancing Soul Train The Soul Train Dancers The Soul Train Boogie Line Members' Only Jackets
The DVD came in 97, and went around 2010. Although I still primarily buy movies on that format, I don't think they really make new ones any more. iPods, like the ones that weren't also phones, I think are gone too right? And the popularity of boy bands have come and gone about 3 times over the course of my life. People keep realizing they're s**t and then forget every ten years and we go through the same embarrassing cycle over and over. We're in one right now, again.
I still have a transistor radio (that works) that my sister gave me as a Christmas present more than 55 years ago and you can still get them on line at Amazon.