Kristin Nilsen 0:01
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Carolyn Cochrane 0:46
So we had the film which in the case of an instamatic was you didn't have to, you know, thread it through it was oh, remember they were like,
Michelle Newman 0:53
like, it looks like ovaries. Yeah.
Carolyn Cochrane 0:57
And you just clicked it in oferece. In the sound like we're saying, Come on get.
Michelle Newman 1:14
That'd be great. We'll make you welcome to the pop culture Preservation Society. The podcast for people born in the big wheel generation who didn't hide when someone knocked on the front door.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:28
We believe our Gen X childhoods gave us unforgettable songs, stories, characters and images. And if we don't talk about them, they'll disappear like Marshall will and Holly on a routine expedition. And
Kristin Nilsen 1:41
today we'll be saving the perfectly normal things from our Gen X childhoods that sound unimaginable, inconceivable and positively dystopian to kids today, a phone book, what the hell is a phonebook? Stay tuned kids and find out just how tough your parents had to be to survive the Dark Ages.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:58
I'm Carolyn. I'm Kristen.
Michelle Newman 2:00
And I'm Michelle. And we are your pop culture preservationists.
Kristin Nilsen 2:06
This is a long time coming. And it comes directly from the questions we get from our children. What's a phonebook? Where does the stamp go? And what is this folded paper thing with roads on it? Most of our kids grew up in an era that differed so vastly from ours, that our childhood would be positively unfathomable to them as if they might die if they had to live the way we did with no GPS, no cell phones, no internet, but mostly they can't even envision it. They're not like, Oh, I'm so happy. I have this convenience. So I can take pictures every minute of every day of my life with no sense of scarcity. Instead, they can't conceive that it's ever been any other way. Life is never going back to the pre internet slash pre cellphone era. And our kids have no concept of how we survived.
Michelle Newman 2:53
Are we happy about that? Like, are we? You know, is that a good thing? Or because sometimes I wonder about that. I honest goodness cannot remember how I found my way around like a new city. Like I go back and I think back to Niger. Think about it. 1996 We moved to Bloomington, Indiana, and my husband was working like an internship up in Indianapolis. And it was like an hour. And I remember one day he's like, meet me for lunch. And I was like, Sure. Okay, how did I get to him to the lunch spot? How did I find parking? I honestly don't know. Oh,
Kristin Nilsen 3:27
that's coming. Because I literally had to sit down and go, St. Kristen, how did this go? Because it's so analog. And it's and we've become so thoughtless, about how we do things nowadays that we can barely remember how we did it before, right. And I
Carolyn Cochrane 3:43
think our brains are probably shrinking because of that in some ways, because you really had to be do some logistics in your head when you were traveling without a map. And now you're just listening to that voice turn right at the next stop sign. Or
Michelle Newman 3:57
I think that's my favorite thing about new technology is like Google Maps or whatever. Because, you know, I just moved to a new city a couple of months ago, my life depends on my Google Maps, my Apple Maps, I don't know how to get anywhere without it. I think I remember my sister one time showing me she was moving. And she needed to get from I mean, oh my gosh, I don't even know let's just say like Dallas to somewhere in Georgia. And she showed me she had a stack of index cards. And she had directions written one at a time. It was like, you know, I 90 260 miles and then should take it and flip it to the next one. And then I think well then we were like looking down when we made it wasn't really saying we did I write directions down on a pad of paper. I didn't get out a map while I was driving.
Kristin Nilsen 4:47
There's no doubt that most of what we are dealing with here are things that make our lives more convenient. That is true, but sometimes in handing us that convenience, it takes away something else like that. Like Carolyn said, using your brain, or anticipating something, or enjoying something, because you know, you don't have full access to it all the time. So there's a little bit of joy that gets lost in the translation. When you have to sit and wait for your song on the radio, you probably enjoy that experience a hell of a lot more than when you just have anything you want. Whenever you want.
Carolyn Cochrane 5:21
You probably got introduced to different songs to while you were waiting, even just like speed through and just listen to the ones you knew and wanted to hear. Yeah,
Michelle Newman 5:29
maybe I think that there are definitely some things that I miss. But I think overwhelmingly I like things better now than I did, then just I love the immediacy and the convenience of things. But regardless of if it's better or worse, we thought it would be fun to crowdsource this idea and presented our social media followers, this prompt names some things we experienced in our Gen X childhood that our own kids will never understand. And you guys clearly had been thinking of this very topic for a long time, because man, did you immediately have things, so many things, things the three of us hadn't even thought of? They were amazing. And so we decided to just base this entire episode on many of your responses. So thank you, everyone, for pretty much writing this outline on this episode for us. Yes,
Carolyn Cochrane 6:25
you guys. What we're going to do right now is just bring up some of those things you mentioned. And we're just going to chat about them like we're some old women at the early bird buffet, talking about the olden days. And this This, ladies and gentlemen, is why I started this podcast why I wanted to do it. I wanted to sit and just riff about these things that we don't have any more than we miss and laugh about them and maybe you know get a little teary about some of them. But this this is why so I'm so excited for today's episode
I'm going to bring up a topic that resonated with our listeners. Anything about smoking, you guys smoking, smoking, smoking. Oh my gosh. But the thing that got me and I just chuckled chuckle chuckled was ashtrays, ashtrays as decor. Like I can remember the ceramic ashtrays in, in my home growing up like there was one shape like a pineapple. And we're gonna say that yes. And we would also make them they were a very popular gift to create with that clay like
Kristin Nilsen 7:41
pottery class, you'd paint it and glaze and
Carolyn Cochrane 7:43
glazes. Oh my gosh. And one of our followers shared that she remembers making them in Vacation Bible.
Kristin Nilsen 7:55
God wants to make sure you don't ash on the carpet. I guess
Carolyn Cochrane 7:59
that just that made me laugh so hard. And then just put me down that memory lane of ashtrays. Oh, yeah.
Kristin Nilsen 8:06
Parents did not smoke. And then we had ashtray. Same.
Michelle Newman 8:09
I mean, it was part of the coffee table decor. That's great. Right? Well,
Carolyn Cochrane 8:14
if you had company over like at a cocktail party or something you might have full company that smoked no
Michelle Newman 8:19
one in my house smoked and I probably still made them as gifts to
Carolyn Cochrane 8:24
the assumption that Yeah, everybody smoked or newest smoker. So Let's all make those. And I remember in the like, pottery class or whatever, putting my finger in between the Mason places where the cigarette would dress.
Michelle Newman 8:37
Yeah. Well, and think of how they were almost like little pieces of art. Can you guys picture the ones with like, almost like the little beanbag at the bottom. Maybe those were your camping ashtrays, or the ones that stood on stood on a stand. So those are right next to the couch. Believe or where you didn't want him to lean forward and happier. And then just remember in every car you had a little pullout on the side or my ours was always filled with like chewing gum and stuff. I would stuffed them with trash like Kleenex and yeah, it was a little garbage can.
Kristin Nilsen 9:07
Garbage. Tiny little two inch by two inch garbage cans. Yeah. And you
Carolyn Cochrane 9:13
guys I have to tell you, since neither of your parents smoked, mine dead, and the nastiest thing to do was be to clean the ashtray. Which side of the eye now, which would sometimes somehow be my job, which seems just really awful. But yeah, you'd have to like go dump it in the trash can all the butts and everything. And then you'd have to wash it like with some dish detergent and get your hands on there. Yeah,
Michelle Newman 9:39
I was gonna bring up to one thing as a child who was super sensitive to smoke and we flew on airplanes a lot. Oh God. And so we always would have our tickets in the non smoking section. But you know, when you're trapped in an aeroplane and the first 10 rows are smoke, and they were always at the front, so the smoke just WAF did back to you, you know. And so I just think it's so funny that There was a smoking section on the airplane when basically the whole thing was just a smoke, basically, yeah. A tube. Do
Kristin Nilsen 10:07
you remember when you would go to a restaurant and the hostess would say Smoking or non? Yes.
Michelle Newman 10:12
Oh gosh, yeah. And it doesn't matter. No,
Kristin Nilsen 10:15
we're all and so my mom was super judgy about smokers and smoking. And so my mom is the one sitting in the smoking section holding her nose like this.
Carolyn Cochrane 10:25
Well, let's rewind it a little bit. Because really, when we were young, there wasn't a choice. It wasn't there wasn't smoking, or it was oh, no, not for not for a while at least. Yeah. Well, I know what I think it's also state by state. That might be a state regulation. I'm in California, right? Yeah. California, Minnesota. The hip. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I just remember it always being, you know, smoking everywhere. And so again, I never gave it a second thought that I might have smelled like that. Because so many of the places that we went allowed smoking. I mean, think about it. You could smell them hospitals.
Kristin Nilsen 11:03
Yes, movies. Oh my god.
Michelle Newman 11:06
They're waiting rooms.
Kristin Nilsen 11:07
There's a very famous movie theater that the people who grew up in the Twin Cities are going to know what I'm talking about. It was called the Cooper theatre. And it was round, the whole building was round. And the thing that was famous about the Cooper theatre was that it had these little pods, you had your seating area, right, the theater seating, but then there were these little space age jets and like pods that were elevated off to the side with with like lounge chairs, like mid century lounge chairs, and ashtrays that was for the smokers. Special seating.
Michelle Newman 11:38
Yeah, well, I think the thing that blows my kid's mind today, if we're going back to what do our kids not understand that that is very foreign to them. Imagine and people could smoke on an airplane or whatever. But imagine this, you're in high school, walking from, I don't know, biology to algebra, which are in totally separate buildings. And to get there, you have to walk through a cloud of smoke, cigarette smoke, which is not from the open windows of the teachers lounge where they all went to smoke. No, it's from the smoking section of your high school. The area I then was designated for student smokers to you guessed it smoked cigarettes at school. And so I wouldn't die right now all the way back around like buildings like I would walk so far out of my way. Because it was like Well sure that it pictured like Freaks and Geeks where they're like, oh, like in a remote area that almost has like a fence around it. The smoking section at our high school in Richfield High School in Washington, was right in the middle of the path you had to go to get from one building to another
Kristin Nilsen 12:45
you guys definitely not allowed to smoke in high school. Oh, wow. This was 1983 84
Michelle Newman 12:49
and then I moved to Suero High School in Scottsdale, Arizona and there was a smoking section there. I think the first year I was there, but then by the time I was a senior there wasn't well, I'm
Carolyn Cochrane 13:00
gonna Trump all of you. We did have a smoking section. Only seniors could smoke, though. Interesting. It was indoors. So it was right off of the cafeteria. So if you wanted to use the bathroom in like right near the cafeteria, you had to walk through the smoking section. And I will trump probably a lot of people except those that maybe listen who went to Bishop Eustace prep. We had teachers that smoked while they were teaching. They had an ashtray up on the desk. And my friend Cindy recalls, you know, when you would do like the reading where you'd go up and down the you know, the rows and read out of the textbook and she would meet maybe be not paying attention and she remembers one of our teachers flicking his cigarette ash into our textbook. Oh,
Kristin Nilsen 13:49
my God, this is I'm like one of the Gen Z kids right now. I am freaking out.
Carolyn Cochrane 13:55
We'll think about it. The campaign for anti smoking really kind of started to kick up actually in the 70s. So yeah, I think I've shared with you guys before we'd be in health and they'd have this lung that came in like a plexiglass box and it was like this is a smoker's lung. This is a healthy lung. And again, as I've just said, my parents smoked all their friends smoke, so you would go home with this knowledge of oh my gosh, my parents lungs look like that. I would hide my parents cigarettes from them and then I get in a lot of trouble probably one of the most successful health campaigns think
Kristin Nilsen 14:31
about our guys stuck and it's stuck. Yeah.
Carolyn Cochrane 14:37
The good old days
Michelle Newman 14:54
making me literally nauseous so I'm gonna move on to something that when we first decided to do this episode, I was talking to Brian about I was asking him, what are some of the things that you remember that, you know, nobody knows today or our kids don't know today. And this one we both thought of, and we had so much fun sharing and remembering this. So, you know, when we wanted to go see a movie, which was all the time because that is what we did. How did we know what was showing where it was showing, or what time it was showing? Well, one of two ways. There was this thing called a newspaper, that some people got delivered to their homes each morning, and it had a section devoted to movie times. But the best part was that it was a two page spread of movie ads, with like, the little tiny pictures of the stars or whatever the movie poster was, with the locations and times and teeny tiny writing and a little grid below it, you guys, I swear I would read that two page spread like it was literature. Like, even if I wasn't going to the movies, I studied those movie posters, because we didn't get to see
Kristin Nilsen 16:02
what movies were out there. And I had a little tagline and a picture. And it has said who it was starring. That's how you decided, yeah, oh, I really want to
Michelle Newman 16:10
see Star Wars. And so underneath it would be the main theaters that was showing. But then over on the side, there would just be another page that just had all the theaters, because also there was a lot more movie theaters than there are today. But if you didn't get the newspaper, which we didn't all the time, what do you do? Well, we had these things called telephones that I'd actually use, like you'd hold it against your ear. Instead of looking at it, and you'd call the theater close to your house, and there was a recording of all the movies showing with the movie times. But if you got distracted, because you were waiting for your movie, but then you got distracted and you started to talk to someone or you were doodling on your paper and you missed the movie you were interested in, you had hang up, you want to call you would go around the horn, you want to listen to that whole day recording again, and raise your hand if you know for sure many times, you had to call and listen three or four times are using hands raising hands. I know listeners are too because you got distracted or you were listening for a certain movie, but then you'd get distracted by one before and you'd be like oh, oh, that was showing too. And you try to find a pen to write it down. It keeps on
Kristin Nilsen 17:21
moving well and you remember my Glen theater was in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. And so this is early 90s or mid 90s. We're still calling the movie theater in the 90s to find out what movies there are. And the guy who owned the Glenn theater in Glen Ellyn Illinois. He was not from Illinois. I think he was from New Jersey. And the recording will go thank you for calling the Glen Theatre in theater one. Romeo and Juliet and I just the one that I will never forget in theater for don
Michelle Newman 17:56
don cat not that's one thing I miss. This is an I'm really miss looking at all those movie ads in one place. It was movie posters. So
Kristin Nilsen 18:07
just the ease of it. I cannot tell you how many times recently where I've been like, Hmm, what movie? Should I go see? And where do I even begin? I don't have a source. So I'm just gonna start Googling how much I would love to just grab the variety section of the newspaper and open it and just look at the pictures and then oh, look, it's at the medina theatre at four o'clock. Let's go. Hi. I long for that. That is so much easier than what I do now. tapping, tapping tapping No, no, I didn't mean Southdale Amenti. Dinah Oh, God, what is that and you can
Michelle Newman 18:37
also compare so like if you happen to live kind of in you know, the epicenter of maybe four or five theaters that were all about the same distance from you. You can look down and you could compare when times they were showing now those are different websites you have to go on you have to go into the a dyno. Yeah, the website, the whatever. So also, I just think it was the experience, the very tactile experience. Those are the things I missed. It was the opening paper. And, and you know, the three of us and I know lots of you listening, we're all big fans of things like that, like People Magazine type. You know, teen, you know, Tiger Beat magazine. We like pictures. Yeah, we like pictures of celebrities. We'd like movie ads. We like that. Yeah, that's part of it for me.
Kristin Nilsen 19:18
And then you remember movie phone? Did you ever call movies? And there's a call, you would call movie phone, which was like 44444444. And then it would be automated. And they would say for that darn cat press one for Star Wars. Yeah, press two. And then it would tell you all of the theaters that had that movie and the times. And of course if you guys are Seinfeld fans, you remember when Kramer accidentally got the movie phone number transferred to his phone, and he just decided to be movie just do it. Yes. He's going Why don't you just tell me what?
Speaker 1 19:57
Oh, and welcome to Movie default. If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see press one. Come on, using your touch tone keypad. Please enter the first three letters of the movie title now. You selected Agent Zero? That's correct. Press one. What? You selected brown eyed girl? If this is correct, press one. Why don't you just tell me the name of the movie use? Okay,
Kristin Nilsen 20:37
so here's here's something to think about. So I watch how Liam listens to music. And it is not leisurely. Liam pulling up a song on Spotify is like an activity, he has access to any song, all the songs anytime, day or night at the drop of a hat. But he'll pull up a song, stop it, go to another song, change his mind. No, not that one, whatever, on and on ad infinitum. And there's great dissatisfaction in that act. And I said to him, like, Do you know what I had to do? When I was a kid, if I wanted to listen to a song that I liked, if you want to listen to a song, here's what you have to do. Number one, wait, you just have to listen to the radio and pray. That's all you can do. Unless, number two, you like that song so much that you save your allowance for five weeks, because you probably get $1 a week for allowance. And after five weeks, you'll have $5. And then on the weekend, you'll ask your mom to drop you off at the mall, where you will buy the album that that song is on for $4.99. You've never heard any of the other songs on the album. But if you want to hear that song, you'll just have to take that chance. Or there's one more option. Number three, if you happen to have a tape recorder, you could go back to number one, which is wait. And you sit next to the radio with your tape recorder. And when your song comes on, you quickly press play and record at the same time. As fast as can't come. You won't get the beginning of the song. Yeah, it'll be cut off. But you know, these are just the sacrifices that you make. And you will love listening to that song whenever you want, even though goes clunk, and cuts off at the beginning of it. I just feel like that there's an example of a convenience, like the ultimate convenience, right? And it would be very hard for a kid who listens to music that way today to argue that that's a bad thing. I have everything I want. Yeah, whenever I want. I don't know they should all look up to me.
Michelle Newman 22:43
Well, and I feel like I'm so mixed on this one. Because Carolyn, like you said back at the beginning about music and waiting and everything you just described, Kristen, I can go back to even gosh, probably around the year 2000. So it's not like you guys, I want to say it's not that long ago, but
Kristin Nilsen 23:03
it's like an adult ago. Oh, no. Now adults,
Michelle Newman 23:07
it's an adult on the go. That's my new favorite expression. Okay, well, here's the story. There was a song you guys know the song. It's called the promise. It's by a band called when in Rome. I'm sorry, but I'm missing.
So this was a song that my husband and I we loved in college and like night, let's say 1988 89 We're dating but like you said, Kristen, that when it would come on the radio, we would turn it up. We loved it. We loved it. So let's fast forward to about the year 2000. You know, mp3 players are starting like iPods and stuff like that. I don't have one. So I don't have this capability yet. For some reason, that song. I thought of it and I hadn't thought of it in you know, a decade or more. And I couldn't remember what it was called who it was. I could only remember parts of the words and I couldn't remember the chorus. And it was driving me crazy. About two days later, my husband comes in and yes, he had used a computer and he had Googled something but he had printed off the lyrics of the song. That's it. I didn't have a way to hear the song because we didn't have Spotify or anything yet. And just reading the words to the song. I could hear it in my head and you guys I started crying Oh god, I broke into tears because I got so I welled up with this nostalgic feeling of being 19 years old and dating him and driving around in his crappy Toyota and us holding hands listening to the song. It just brought me back to that like dating feeling or something. I don't know. It was so nostalgic. I got so emotional without hearing it. I could start singing it. But because I hadn't heard it in so long and I didn't have access to it. It was just this magical moment for me. And then very quickly the years past 2005, six. Anyway you we all start getting one mp3 players and iPods. And I thought that was the oh my god I can listen to, you know the promise anytime I want. And now yes, when it comes on a playlist, I love it, but I don't get that feeling
Kristin Nilsen 25:16
that's significant, Michelle, that shows that scarcity actually helps us feel something that we don't have access to otherwise. So it's almost like that access to things all the time. It robs us of a little bit of joy, it takes a we have a JOY Yeah, access to a joy that our children do not have access to. Exactly.
Carolyn Cochrane 25:45
And we've talked about it before just the the listening like let's say you do get the $5 and you go and buy the the album, just the act of listening to an album and the process of taking it out, you know, out of the sleeve and putting it on the turntable. And if you did listen, you know all the way through it kind of told a story. And if you had it gatefold album, you had stuff to look at while you were listening to the music. It was it was an experience. Not just oh, I want to listen to the song. It was an activity.
Kristin Nilsen 26:16
Yes, exactly. Something that we were doing. It was not something that was happening in the bank while we were actively
Carolyn Cochrane 26:22
involved in it, not passively. What
Michelle Newman 26:25
you just said Carolyn, if it had a gatefold album, you could look at it while you were listening. When was the last time you sat down? And just looked at the album cover? Or if you're just listening on Spotify just sat and listen to the lyrics of a song and but no, what are we doing? We're doing the dishes. We're running around, we're outside walking, we're we're doing something else we're driving. We're
Kristin Nilsen 26:48
nobody when you're reading that album, you can see that Joe Walsh played guitar on Shadow dancing. I mean, that's good information. But when you're just doing the dishes, you don't have access to that. I mean, that's the kind of information that will give Carolyn nipple lightning, right? Like, whoa, Joe Walsh.
Carolyn Cochrane 27:04
It was godfather. It's I don't know, but I bet it's gonna be great. Gonna be
Kristin Nilsen 27:10
some Bastion. There's one. There's one other very short lived form of buying a single song we of course could buy 40 fives but that you still have to save your allowance for one week and then get your mom to drop you off at the mall. But Amy on Instagram commented, she said I told my daughter that I owned a single of a song that we had heard, which was by the way, I'm too sexy for this show. Right? And she had her her daughter's like what's that word? You just said? I love the word a
Michelle Newman 27:41
single I don't know what that word you don't know like a single Is it a cassette? Because a 45 Yes. I don't know if I ever owned
Kristin Nilsen 27:47
a single song on a cassette and it was called a single. I
Michelle Newman 27:50
owned albums that are just the one song like I still have my wild boys. My Duran. Yeah, wild boys. The LP single LP Yeah. Huh. Wow. You know, the more you know, the more you know. Yeah. Never too late to keep learning
Speaker 2 28:06
6460 to 65
Carolyn Cochrane 28:14
Okay, a very, very popular topic that came up from our listeners and followers had to do with that ancient piece of machinery called the telephone tele from telephone tell everybody, so many memories associated with that and things that our children will never ever experience. And I just want to share some that I was kind of Husker dude with when I came across them when our listeners and followers share them. One I just loved it said we will never have the satisfaction of slamming down the phone for emphasis at the end of a call.
Michelle Newman 28:53
That's fantastic.
Carolyn Cochrane 28:55
Oh, yes. Oh my gosh, that was
Kristin Nilsen 28:58
like tap it super hard. Do you ever
Michelle Newman 29:01
pick it up and slam it a couple times? Yes.
Carolyn Cochrane 29:06
Did you ever pick it up to see if there was a dial tone because you were waiting for a call that hadn't come yet? Like from your boyfriend and you're like, oh, maybe the phone isn't working.
Michelle Newman 29:18
But if you heard the dial tone, you'd take your fingers and if it was a if it was on the wall, you would push that little thing in the middle did it? Oh yeah. If it was the type that hung up, you know, that sat on like the table. It had the two little kind of knobby things that stuck up yeah, it hit those to make sure yes.
Carolyn Cochrane 29:37
Which on sometimes like on TV, which never worked in real life, but you know, sometimes they would do that and then like they get somebody they'd be like pushing Oh, Sarah,
Kristin Nilsen 29:45
Sarah. Just be pushing
Carolyn Cochrane 29:47
that thing down over and over. Can you connect me with the sheriff?
Kristin Nilsen 29:52
Think about like the Navy. This is what you're gonna say no good. We use the word we still say hang up. We hang out up the phone. We're not We're not hanging anything on anything anymore.
Michelle Newman 30:03
You're right now yes, but
Kristin Nilsen 30:05
it came from when the those big old telephones were on the wall and you hung it in a little cradle. Yes, that's exactly right. But we should say we poke it off. So I poked off.
Carolyn Cochrane 30:15
We turned you on. Yeah, yeah, go off. That sounds like poke off. Sounds like something else. Another thing I thought was a good memory was our children. And any child going forward will not know what just a seven digit phone number is. We did not have to dial the area code. I know
Michelle Newman 30:34
because we all have different area codes. Now. That's part of our phone number now.
Carolyn Cochrane 30:39
Exactly. And cities that you always knew 713 was Houston. Well, now I think Houston has maybe four area codes. It's totally insane. Now,
Kristin Nilsen 30:47
every single person has a phone number, whereas back then every single house right had a phone number. So that's a that's exponentially more phone numbers. Definitely.
Carolyn Cochrane 30:57
And the fact that each house only had one phone presented a whole nother set of unique circumstances that our children will not have to experience like calling their friend and praying that their friend answered the phone and not their father or mother and you'd have to make small brother. Yes. And you'd have to try to think of something to say while your friend was taking their time.
Kristin Nilsen 31:22
And there's etiquette there that we were taught that our children have no idea about. I feel like we should roleplay right now. Like, hello.
Michelle Newman 31:31
Yeah. Like you could. Hi, may I please speak with Carolyn,
Kristin Nilsen 31:34
who's calling please. This is Michelle. Just one minute. And then you put your hand over the receiving and
Michelle Newman 31:40
you're like, Oh, my God.
Kristin Nilsen 31:46
Maybe learn on the room. He wants to know what you want.
Michelle Newman 31:53
I just interested my kids today will ask things like I can remember when they were both in high school. And I'd say oh, you know what, call ahead to Pancake House and see if you can get us on the list the waitlist, because you know, we're going to get there and it's going to be 45 minutes, and they would panic. Oh, panic, oh my gosh, are like, yeah, great public speakers. They were theater girls, they're competent. They would panic. And ultimately, they would refuse, they would say I went 45 minutes. And I would say, Are you kidding me? I'm not gonna call you need to call and I would give them the script, I would say you need to say, Hi, how long is the wait right now? And then if they say, Oh, it's 45 minutes, you say? Oh, is it possible for us to put our name on a waitlist? And they are they're like, terrified. They're gonna say no, our kids today, I noticed, are terrified of speaking with someone else on a telephone because they don't know how
Kristin Nilsen 32:45
even someone they know even someone you know, was we were given an instruction booklet. Like, I remember when my mom taught me when you call somebody that you would actually identify yourself and you I'm gonna get my phone again. I actually have a phone I'm putting on my ear right now.
Michelle Newman 33:01
She has a really.
Kristin Nilsen 33:03
And I'd say, Hello, this is Kristin Nielsen. May I please speak to Lizzie. Like that was I had to identify who I was. And they would say just a minute, please. Like there was a whole routine that you went to. So we didn't have we weren't scared because we had a script that we were taught and there was a proper way to do it.
Carolyn Cochrane 33:21
Yeah. And everyone did it. Did either of you have to answer the phone in that way? Where you said hello? Nielsen residents, Chris? Oh,
Kristin Nilsen 33:28
yes. No, Nielsen residents? Yeah. No, I
Carolyn Cochrane 33:31
didn't have to. But I went through a little stage when I did it because I think I'd seen it on TV or something. And I thought it made us sound like all waiting 20 or something. So that's how I was going to answer the phone did
Michelle Newman 33:41
either of your parents and for me it was my mother had this had a special hello voice that she did. So anytime the phone would be ringing. She'd start clearing her throat anytime and should go. So she could be like just talking to us normal and like say right now she's talking to us and the phone would start ringing she'd go Hello. I'll never forget it. Hello. It was kind of breathy and it was like a hello and no, and it would drive her crazy. If a friend would just say is Michelle there? Yes. It's not. That's not polite. Not like could I be speak? Hi. Could I please speak with Michelle? That's better. That's different, even if they don't identify themselves, but she would just it just just bird was rude. Yeah, she's like, there is Michelle there. Yeah. And rude, isn't it? Michelle? That is a little like, Oh, hello.
Carolyn Cochrane 34:35
And think about it to a phone conversation used to be kind of special and different. You know, when we were growing up, especially if it was a long distance call. Just about to say
Michelle Newman 34:46
let's talk about long distance.
Kristin Nilsen 34:48
Saturday mornings, my grandma would call. Yes,
Carolyn Cochrane 34:51
it will because of course it was less expensive because we had to pay like by the minute. And so you look for those times when it was less expensive. Since like after 11 on weeknights, or Yeah, the weekends, we could not Sunday evenings we would call my grandmother but every once in awhile we mess up and it was during Lawrence Welk. And she would say, you have to call me back. Like she went in. I mean, it was a special conversation, but she still yeah wanted 50 cents for that. Wait for her to say call me back.
Kristin Nilsen 35:20
Well, waiting till after 11
Michelle Newman 35:22
We could call my daddy Colette. Like when we wanted to call daddy we would say, uh, you know, the end, they would say a collect call from Michelle, will you accept? You know, because probably because my mom was like, I'm not paying for you to call him. So I just remember him saying you can call me collect anytime you can call me collect.
Kristin Nilsen 35:43
Do you remember calling to RSVP? Like that's how you had to RSVP to a party. Right now we have e vi or you email somebody or you just click Yeah, you text you click a box. But you would get a party invitation. And it would say RSVP to this number. And you would have to pick up the phone and say, Hello, this is Kristen Nielsen calling. I would like to RSVP to Lizzie's party, please. And then Oh, thank you, Kristen. And then she'd mark it down. Yeah. Mom had to field all those calls. Getting to talk
Carolyn Cochrane 36:13
on the phone was kind of this rite of passage. Like, I have this vague memory of having to be a certain age before I could answer the phone. Or I could actually dial the phone to call a friend's house. It wasn't just something that you just automatically got to do. For me it was I guess, learning those rules and the etiquette of using the phone. I think it was maybe even a brownie or girl scout badge or something where you Oh, I bet it was you got to learn?
Michelle Newman 36:38
Sure. Yeah, that's where you learned your scripts. You know, I still have my girl scout badge book, my juniors I should look and see if it's in there. You know, you guys, there's so much I mean, we could go busy signals, answering machines, all of this kind of stuff. I think I think we need a future episode. Just I think so to Gen X telephone, you know, behavior and everything we did, because we don't have time today to get into because I'm thinking the other
Kristin Nilsen 37:02
day, I have so many more Yeah, that our children just don't have any idea. So
Michelle Newman 37:06
listeners look forward to that.
So if there's one thing that distinguishes Gen Z's and millennials, I'd say it has to be the sheer amount of photos they take. And they know they can take and they don't hesitate to take no cuz they can and ensure we Gen X or certainly I am speaking for myself. But I think everybody, we certainly appreciate the ability to take 58 photos of our brunch, or 34 pics of our cat sleeping on the couch that she sleeps on every damn day. But when we were kids, it was different. We had these little metal rolls that contained something called Film, film. That's f film I L M Yes, fill canister. And that's what was used to capture pictures on. It was magical to us. And our cameras were just that they were cameras whose sole purpose was to take pictures. And that's all. That's all they did. They didn't video record. They play a song on it. Nope, nope. That's all they did. And I tell you what we thought our cameras were pretty wonderful. I bet all of us can remember our first cameras. Oh,
Kristin Nilsen 38:27
yes. It was a Christmas gift. Yeah, we're really grown up. It was like sixth grade. I think I got my first. Kodak. instamatic. Yes,
Carolyn Cochrane 38:34
Dakota and I was Matic eight,
Michelle Newman 38:36
I think nine, I got a Polaroid camera. And you guys, I could watch that thing I got but here's the thing. It's a great gift. But it's the whole reason I've never gotten my girls those cool little cute, you know, colored cameras when they were little, because I got the Polaroid camera with the box of film. And of course, I burned through the film because how cool is this? And the film is really expensive. And I don't have a job. I don't have you know, I'm nine. And nobody ever bought me more film. That's my email. Maybe once a year, I got a bunch of film. So it kind of sucked. But take one
Kristin Nilsen 39:11
one picture a month. Yes.
Michelle Newman 39:15
But anyway, the camera, our cameras had a little door that opened to expose the inside. And that's where it would snap that little metal metal canister of film. And then you have to remember then you'd have to pull out that tiny bit of film and attach it to the other side and close the door really quick. And sometimes you put a little vignette expose that first photo, but you wouldn't know it until you got the film developed. And let me explain those foreign words to any Gen Zers or millennials who are listening. Because once you would take on all 24 or 36 photos, that's all you can take. Remember you can take 124 pictures
Kristin Nilsen 39:52
and don't be a dummy and buy a like a roll of 12 photos. Yeah 12 Is 2436 you
Michelle Newman 39:58
would go on like vacation Shouldn't maybe you would bring two rolls of film that meant you could take 48 photos on your entire vacation. But you'd have to take that little canister out of your camera and you'd have to drive it to the photo developing store. And then you'd have to put it in an envelope with your name and address and your phone number because listeners you knew those things by heart. Those are things you did you read, you knew your own phone number. You didn't know other people's phone numbers, you did not get to see or know what your photos looked like, for a day or a week.
Carolyn Cochrane 40:28
I mean, you couldn't waste 15
Kristin Nilsen 40:31
No, the scarcity, the scarcity involved. Liam actually has his grandfather's film camera, and he's really into it. And when he first watching the learning curve of how he's learning to use this camera was hilarious, because at one point, he's taking pictures of like, the sky, and some trees, and he's like, Oh, that wasn't good. I'm gonna take another one. And I was like, no, no, no, no, you can't just take pictures willy nilly, you'll run out of film. And he was looking at me like this, this term run out of films like what are you talking about? Remember the thing, the little strip that you put inside the camera that runs out? Then
Michelle Newman 41:09
you have to buy more with money? Yeah, like your phone. You don't have to go by it with your phone and have to have money like paper money
Kristin Nilsen 41:17
you want and think about it? Do they even know the origin? Like why do we call a selfie a selfie? Is because it's only with this new technology that we can take photos of ourselves. We couldn't you could try and turn your camera around. Maybe aim it in the vicinity of your face but you have no idea if you're in the picture or not.
Michelle Newman 41:37
Oh yeah, we used to Brian and I used to try to do it all the time in college and they would come out and it would just be a big flash and then it would be like half your face or
Kristin Nilsen 41:45
a nose just got your nose well let's
Carolyn Cochrane 41:47
I'm speaking a flash. I want to backtrack a little to that Instamatic camera Christina that you were talking about. We got for Christmas because if you're like me, I got that little box. I think Michael Landon picture might have even been on the press. And it had the pocket instamatic. You guys was this like long rectangular slim box of a camera. And then mine had this like lawn? What do I want to call almost to be like looking structure that you put a flashbulb on the top of and then you clipped this thing into the camera. So the flashbulb in mind didn't go directly into the camera was on this like extended thing that came out of the top of the camera. It also had a wrist a little wristlet thing that you could clip on to the camera so you can carry it around. So we had the film, which in the case of an instamatic was you didn't have to, you know, thread it through it was remember they were like,
Michelle Newman 42:41
like, it looks like ovaries. Yeah.
Carolyn Cochrane 42:44
And you just clicked it in? Like two round things. But yeah, so there was the scarcity of one the film because you only had X amount of photos. And then if you were going to take the photos indoors, you had only X amount of flashes, I find the flash flash. Oh
Michelle Newman 43:05
my gosh. So
Carolyn Cochrane 43:07
and you had to be really careful. Because if you were outside, you didn't need a flash bulb. So you needed to make sure you took the flash off to waste a flash wasted. Right? And so it was this little cube that four on there and then would turn.
Michelle Newman 43:24
And when you haven't turned the
Carolyn Cochrane 43:26
film to you how to remember to advance to advance the film or Yeah, double exposed.
Michelle Newman 43:30
Yes, it was pretty cool, though, when you finally got a camera that did it for you. But I was gonna say to there was automatic 35 Different kinds of film. There were different speeds. There were different sizes. So you could go and buy your film for a vacation, get to vacation and be like, Are you kidding me? I bought the right like I bought 800 speed film, right? Or something like Oh, the speed.
Kristin Nilsen 43:50
That's right. You'd be like, do you get 100 speed like insider outsider? Yeah. Do you remember how Shaun Cassidy talked about when he would do his concerts that when people's flashes on their cameras, because you'd have to take your flash off and put a new flash on? And these girls in their frenzy would take their flashes up and whip him at the stage? And they were sharp? That's terrible. It's terrible. It's not injuring him. I know. And they were doing it out of love.
Michelle Newman 44:21
I just remember going and picking up your pictures and how like a birthday party and how for me it's just I just have a feeling of disappointment like always,
Kristin Nilsen 44:29
always. And you couldn't even wait you would always look at them right there in the photo store. Oh, yeah.
Carolyn Cochrane 44:34
We're in the car if you went yes photo, that photo mat.
Kristin Nilsen 44:37
Yeah, right. Right. You can't wait till you get home and and all of you get like one photo that was good. But also remember, we didn't throw away photo so all those shitty photos where it's just your nose or halfway exposed, you put them in the album, well, or it was wet in the photo or you put
Michelle Newman 44:57
them back in the sleeve and then In the year that you never think is going to get here, 2023. And you move and you see that you have two hubs and you have literally 1000s of photos that you decide to go through before you move. And then you give up because you realize 95% of them are just crappy blurry pictures, and you know, you should throw them all out, but you don't have that kind of you don't have that kind of patients. So you put them back in the tub and they're now they now reside in your basement.
Carolyn Cochrane 45:24
If you're lucky enough, you have the double, you got double prints.
Kristin Nilsen 45:29
doubles. Remember, you get doubles for free and that was like a big perk. Oh, yeah, I really need two pictures of my nostril.
Okay, so here's something that's interesting that I don't think kids have a good idea about, you know, what we didn't have when we were kids. This term did not exist. Parent pickup. There's no pair of pickup. What do you mean, you didn't get picked up? You did not chauffeuring is a thing that we Gen X parents do. We Gen Xers we line up and pickup lines we show for two games and practices and lessons and activities. We drive and we drive and we drive and we go through the drive thru to get dinner quick, before dropping our kid off at the next activity. Even just going to and from school, you have student drop off parent pickup, these are modern day terms. You know how we go to school, we took the bus or we walked. That was it. The only time you got to ride was when you were getting picked up early for a dentist's appointment. That's the only time your parent came to get you. You didn't even get rides to your games. Because guess what? Your parents didn't go to your games. You took the bus with your team. And then you walked home or you took the activity bus. And when you got home, your parents said How was your game? And then you told them how the game was sometimes they'd go to the big game, right? They go to the big game. And this is this is so hilarious. Somebody commented, JK sa says, My I remember my sister and I riding our bikes to 6:30am swim practice at four and eight years old. Like Gosh, riding their bike PS,
Michelle Newman 47:08
what is the statute of limitations on when we can call CPS or
Kristin Nilsen 47:11
years old and eight years old? 630 in the morning riding their bikes to swim practice.
Michelle Newman 47:16
Oh my god.
Carolyn Cochrane 47:17
I remember once Andy shared with our kids that he remembers riding his bike on the first day of kindergarten all by himself. Yeah. And the kids were like, my mom didn't take you and help you carry in your school supplies. That was in he was like No, and we biked home for lunch. And then he went would ride his bike back to school. And they were just like, in kindergarten and on the first day. It was beyond their comprehension. It is
Kristin Nilsen 47:46
beyond their comprehension. How could you ever do any of these things by yourself? Well, that's because we didn't let them. My dad says when he was in kindergarten, he's six years old. And his mom was working. And she was working late. And so instead of walking home, she needed him to work to walk to her office, she worked for the phone company. And so she gave him directions like you're gonna walk down this street and when he get to school Street, then you're gonna turn left and then when you get to this street, well, he's six. And he must have missed a street or something. Is it pretty soon he's in a neighborhood. He doesn't recognize it. He doesn't know where he is. And he's just wandering around the streets. Finally, a truck from the telephone company comes with a guy that he knows you know, he's probably like, the the telephone company guy. Bob, here comes Bob. And so Bob comes driving down the street. He's like, Hey, Gordon, what are you doing over here? And he's like, I can't find my mom. Oh Ha. So he puts him in the telephone company truck and takes him to the office. Now my dad will say he realizes he didn't know at the time but he realizes now his mom was probably like, where is he? He must be lost Bob go get in the truck, go find Gordon. Go drive around. I
Michelle Newman 48:57
can think back. You know my sister and I would just spend a whole day on Saturday playing and like the they were building new homes like in a development next hours and we would play in all the half built homes and they would be like our whole house. We can tell this is the kitchen you know, there are probably nails everywhere. And we would play in those houses all day long fall off the second story. Yeah. And my husband grew up and Half Moon Bay, California and he says he remembers leaving in the morning like say on a Saturday and sometimes it'd be with his friend and sometimes just by himself and it would be wandering and like the big seagrass is down by the beach. So he's like near the ocean. You know, they only live like a couple blocks from the ocean head go to the Thrifty drugstore to get an ice cream. He'd be he'd be a hit have all these games had to hit come home at dinnertime. Yeah, he was wondering, like seven years old, eight years old, but it was like what brands out playing? Yeah, we were just out playing. Speaking of safety, you guys when we visit my dad and West Texas. We would drive from his little like one stoplight. Like town to the other town to go to where the big grocery store was or to go shopping. And it might have been 3040 minutes. And my sister and I would ride in the back of his pickup truck sitting on the wheel wells hair weddings, he's going like 60 miles an hour. Thinking it was so fun. And, and I think, you know, it's not any different than when I was with my mom, back in, you know, Arlington, because I was climbing all over that car. I wasn't sitting with a seatbelt, I would lay in the back, I would climb from the front seat to the backseat, like, I don't know, it just seems like seatbelts weren't a thing. And car safety wasn't an issue.
Kristin Nilsen 50:39
Until one day my parents decided it was a thing. And they're like, everybody buckle up. And we were like, it was like the biggest travesty. Like how can I live with this thing around my waist and my grandparents lived in Southern Oregon. And we flew into Portland, and they came to pick us up. My parents. My grandparents were these really interesting people because they were very refined, artistic, educated people. But then they had this wild side to where then they bought a ranch and became like ranchers. So they pick us up in their pickup truck, which is just a two seater. Right. And I have, I have five people in my family. And so we all wrote in the back of the pickup. It had a topper on it. So it was nice, but we like climb in with our luggage. And we drove from Portland to Southern Oregon in the back of the pickup with the topper on it. It's a couple hours, probably. Oh, yeah. It's definitely a couple of hours. We're just like chatting back there. Remember,
Michelle Newman 51:35
when we did our road trips episode, someone said, I don't know the comment was about something else. But then they just casually threw in there because my baby brother was on the floor. Yeah. We were laughing like, there were car seats in this family. They just bundled they probably wrapped them up a little burrito around and they just set him on the floor. Between her mat. You know what if you pull out twin your feet, you can kind of like protect them a little bit
Carolyn Cochrane 52:10
so, Kristen, when your grandparents picked you up at the airport on that trip? Did they come all the way to the gate to pick you up? Oh,
Kristin Nilsen 52:18
hell yeah. And I bet my grandpa had a weapon. Like this holster. You probably need a rifle. He always carried a rifle when we were walking around the ranch. I can't leave this in the car. Bring it inside. Yeah. Oh, yeah, they will. All the way in and the way they probably got to the gate like an hour early. We wait for us. So then it's like a big party when you get off the plane. Yes,
Carolyn Cochrane 52:48
you go run into there.
Michelle Newman 52:49
Oh my god. My 28 year old though still has very clear memories of walking to the gate shimmy. Oh, yeah. Tim. I mean, wow, guys, she was six and 911. This is all post 911. She was six years old. My mom would come all the time to visit or we would go to Arizona to visit my mom. So she has very vivid memories of running to my parents used
Kristin Nilsen 53:09
to go to the airport for dates. And they would have a little dinner and then they'd watch planes land.
Michelle Newman 53:15
That's a great day. Yes. Yeah, it was really fun. Because kind of an exciting place to be.
Carolyn Cochrane 53:19
It was very exciting. As I believe.
Michelle Newman 53:30
I wonder you guys, do you ever wonder who maybe that actor is in the show you're watching? Or maybe you're in the middle of a good book and you wonder what else the other author has written? Or how about when you're arguing with your partner about which country Mount Kilimanjaro was in? And you know, you're right. But he's insisting he is. Guess what we had to do? We had a wander. Think about at the end. Like now we can look up the answer immediately in our pocket computers known as our phone. But we had to wonder. And then we just had a fight with our partner about being right about where Mount Kilimanjaro is. But think about all of the things and on a daily basis that you wonder for less than a minute before you grab your phone. And you Google it you look it up you go to the website to see how much it is. You say Gosh, I wonder if and and the word wonder goes through your head 829 times a day. I wonder if anthropology has those pants and my size? How am I check really quick? Oh, I wonder if that books at the library right now. I'm gonna check really quick.
Kristin Nilsen 54:39
And now whatever you're doing is over you were reading a book and now now I'm now I'm googling on my phone and I'm not going to go back and I'm going to check social media quick. And now an hour later I'm like, Whoa, what was happening in my boat? Yep, yep.
Carolyn Cochrane 54:52
And what would you have had to do for the for those two examples you set
Kristin Nilsen 54:55
up a library when you would have to have
Carolyn Cochrane 54:59
picked up the phone phone and dialed it
Michelle Newman 55:01
would have to open your phone books on Botosani through a store you would have to and you have to know how to alphabetize? Because you have to find you go to the Yellow Pages and where do you even find anthropology? Is it in the A's? Is it in the under the mall? Is it? Where is it? But anyway, you have to call them. And then you have to ask them. Yeah, or if you if you don't know, if the library has it in, you probably have to go to the library. And then you have to look through the card catalog or you ask the librarian or you call the library. It's a process. It is a process. Yeah, I will say that there's definitely a sadness of that we've lost that wonder. But this is definitely one of the things that I love having the capability to know things and to know if that books in the library and to get in on the whole the whole list.
Carolyn Cochrane 55:46
One of my favorite memories of my parents would be this exact example, being at the dinner table, you know who was in that movie? And they would have this back and forth? Oh, Wasn't he in that movie? Oh, and they would do that in front of us. And I just thought it was the coolest little conversation. And I was amazed at how much they knew. And then my mom would know, oh, she used to be married to so and so. It was delightful. And it is still one of my favorite memories. And to your point, Michelle, it's like, I got to watch my parents wonder and converse and figure this thing out kind of together in front of me. And I still cherish those memories. Maybe it's only time they don't know, we'll
Kristin Nilsen 56:27
just a scary will our brains evolve to no longer wonder because your parents were chewing on it? Right? Right working it out. They're figuring it out. And eventually, by the end of dinner, they're gonna land on it. And that's a brain function. Are we going to lose that brain function? Will we evolve? I
Michelle Newman 56:45
don't know. And you think about and like I said earlier, this is one thing that I actually like, and I know like Carol, I mean, think about it, you would never be able to go down a rabbit hole. If you're because think about the way your brain your process with your computer in front of you. And you can just keep clicking links and links and links and links. And you're like, well look at all this information I just found out. But at the same time, just the simplicity of not knowing unless it's something obviously that's, you know, life or death, like, you know, it's have to know all them know, and also it's dangerous. How many times have we gone on WebMD? I would rather wonder and how many, you know, we know our doctors, I would say 99% of doctors tell you do not Google this. Do we not go on Monday? Yes. And we've all done it.
Carolyn Cochrane 57:29
Remember that Peter Brady, when he always think of Peter Brady, like Carolyn, you don't have all the information like Peters, you know, pages respect together and whatever. And he, or whatever.
Michelle Newman 57:42
Yeah, this lack of us wondering can be dangerous for us, you know, for that, but at the same time, I just feel like sometimes I just kind of want to not, it's exhausting. You constantly have to feel like we have to know because we can. And sometimes they just want to not know. That's
Carolyn Cochrane 58:00
okay. Your world is not going to end it is not life or death. Like you said, Kristen, and I feel like that almost is this underlying current of my whole life. It's just the sense of urgency like the answers available, it's there, you can find it, go go go. And it's really doesn't sit well with kind of the way I'm wired. So I'm always feeling like I'm behind the eight ball and that I I could do that next thing because it's available to me. So why aren't I doing it? Well, and
Kristin Nilsen 58:28
it keeps you from connecting with whatever activity is you're even if you're even if you're watching a movie, you are no longer connecting with the movie when you're now googling who that actress is. When you are with a person. I think our kids could attest to this. How often are our kids on their phones when they're with their friends? When you are when you grab your phone? You're no longer connecting with that person.
Carolyn Cochrane 58:51
Right? You see his joy pass person?
Kristin Nilsen 59:02
Any food? Do? They remain? Okay. I'm really glad that you brought up the Yellow Pages. Michelle, because I don't think Liam knows what the Yellow Pages are. The phonebook alone the idea that every person in a city was listed in a book with their address and their phone number for our convenience in alphabetical order. I think our kids would be shocked. I think Liam knows about the phonebook. I don't think he knows about the Yellow Pages. What a wealth of information the yellow pages were and I use the hell out of the Yellow Pages. Because think about it if you in in the era before GPS or the Google. If you wanted to find out where a store was. You had to go to the Yellow Pages. And then you had to find the alphabetical listing of this business that you want to visit And you can see the address, but you like whom that address doesn't look interesting. I don't that's not familiar to me. Okay, so I'm going to call them, and you would call the store. And you'd be like, Hello, can you please tell me directions to your place of business? Yeah. And then they would say, Well, tell me, where are you coming from? I'm coming from south of the city. Okay, so you're going to come up to 35? W. I mean, this was a common occurrence. This is how we found how to get places. We talked to human beings, right?
Carolyn Cochrane 1:00:29
Oh, I could go on a whole just soapbox about that. Yes. Just the interaction that we had with other humans. Oh,
Michelle Newman 1:00:36
yeah. Like, what did they teach kids in school, like if they taught us how to alphabetize. So we could use the phone book or so we could use the dictionary or so we use an encyclopedia. Kids today just have to know how to use their phone or the computer. Because, let's say in 1979, or 1981, you had to write a paper on the murders of Charles Manson, which is grizzly. But that was a hot topic. For sure it is the process, you have to go to the library, the actual building the brick and mortar, you have to have someone drive you to the library, or you have to write in my case, I rode my bike to the library, you then had to know how to use a card catalog. And you had to know that because they they taught you that in school. So then you have to look in the card catalog under em. And I know some kids today would be like, why not? See? Let's just carry on.
Kristin Nilsen 1:01:28
Skill, that's a skill. Are you looking for murder? Well, then you have to find a subject that's a different card catalog. That's the subject card is it is
Michelle Newman 1:01:37
a different and you have to know you have to you have to find it in the card catalog. And then you have to know how to use that Dewey Decimal system because then you have to find the books on the shelf. Or you have to get an encyclopedia, the M encyclopedia. And that's a whole different thing.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:01:53
And guess what? Your best friend is also at the library because that's also where you would go to hang out if there was a research paper do all of a sudden, everyone else there. Someone else already took the M encyclopedia.
Michelle Newman 1:02:07
were checked out all the books
Kristin Nilsen 1:02:10
are gone. But
Michelle Newman 1:02:11
what about if lucky you you discover that there are many articles about the Manson murders from the year it happened, which is 1969 and they're contained on microfilm. Oh, the micro gens ears as camera film. No, these are articles that are scaled down onto film that once you thread it to a little film projector, you can see it but it's teeny tiny and it goes really fast. Or maybe they're on a flat sheet called micro fish. And you put it between these glass slides like a microscope and then as you're zooming it around to try to find it. It's like lucky if you don't get a seizure. Because it's like going
Kristin Nilsen 1:02:47
to a giant screen.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:02:48
I'm getting hives right now. I'm getting hives. I actually if it was if it wasn't in like a bound journal. No, I know what you're talking about the bound journal with all the articles, right? Yeah, actual magazines or the articles weren't on the shelf. It was just on microfilm or microfiche? Forget not available. I might have even chosen a subject based on what had the most journals like hardcopy things that I could find in the
Kristin Nilsen 1:03:12
right because newspapers were not bound newspapers were only microfilm and microfiche. Don't
Michelle Newman 1:03:18
even get me started on writing the paper. And you know, typing it out and then white out and all that kind of stuff. That's that's
Carolyn Cochrane 1:03:24
Oh, what No,
Kristin Nilsen 1:03:27
no, it's on the typewriter. Oh, yeah. The stuff in the right place. Oh, bad.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:03:30
You had to do the MLA or the Al two styles you could pick from Oh, and the bibliography
Michelle Newman 1:03:38
and do you guys remember sometimes you were pressed for time and if you're on a typewriter, and you've made a mistake, and you put the white out and you don't have time to wait for it to dry completely, so you start typing too fast and that just makes a bigger mess. So you put more whiteout on and then you and then you end up typing over basically a little white out mountain. So your your paper has kind of like these big globs of dried white
Carolyn Cochrane 1:04:00
out and so does sort of the keys because if it wasn't right, yes and the key isn't all the way black because it still has the white and
Kristin Nilsen 1:04:08
then there's nothing you can do. You can't type on it anymore. And so you'll end up taking a ballpoint pen Yes. Why? And an arrow down to where the whiteout mound is you're blowing
Michelle Newman 1:04:17
on the White House.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:04:19
Oh God, like I would do that. Like I'd be trying to fan it. So that's when you got that tape that was really exciting. You know that tape and just put and you push the letter and somehow so much
Kristin Nilsen 1:04:30
fatter? Yeah, so much you know that Michael Nesmith mom invented whiteout right, Michael Nesmith from the monkeys. Yeah, he's a billionaire and
Michelle Newman 1:04:39
MTV episode. Yeah. Thank you,
Carolyn Cochrane 1:04:41
Michael Nesmith mother. Yeah, we appreciate that.
Kristin Nilsen 1:04:45
This conversation is making it very clear that Gen X parents and Gen Z children might represent the greatest generation gap in history. Technologically. We actually lived very similar lives to our parents with just a few exceptions things like our parents had a TV but we had more TVs. They had a telephone, we might have had two telephones. But this gap between us and our children, it's because we had analog childhoods compared to our children's increasingly digital childhoods. It's like the dark ages compared to a futuristic science fiction novel. It's crazy. That being said, I also think that Gen X parents show more concern, listen harder, validate more, understand their kids better than any other generation in history of parenting. Ironically, ironically, we're so separated from them, but I think we're so much more focused on them in a different way than our parents. We're no disrespect previous parents. We're just doing it differently. We are more connected to our kids than any other generation that came before. For better or worse. We did not get to everything today. Not even close. We didn't talk about maps and atlases and Gazda tears. I had a gaz a tear there. Valerie from Instagram said, I think I drink two glasses of water my entire youth.
Carolyn Cochrane 1:06:10
Right, well and Linda Chilton, we're proud of a memory that our kids will never have hand winding a wristwatch. Yeah. Oh
Michelle Newman 1:06:17
my gosh. Yes. And when we had to go like back
Carolyn Cochrane 1:06:20
and forth, back and forth, or you would break it evidently or something. So yeah, there are a lot more situations out there.
Michelle Newman 1:06:27
Oh, yeah, there's so many. And there's so many examples that listeners you gave us that we haven't gotten to yet. And trust us because we also came to this conversation with lists of things we haven't gotten to. I think we're gonna have to do another episode one,
Kristin Nilsen 1:06:41
we're gonna have a part two coming sometime soon in the future. Maybe next season. We'll see. I definitely foresee another episode of the Gen X slash Gen Z generation gap in our future. Stay tuned. Thank you, everybody, for listening today, and we'll look forward to being with you again next week. This
Carolyn Cochrane 1:06:56
episode today is brought to you by Laura and Alison, Susan and Christopher, Lisa, Barbara, Susan. And last but not least calling.
Michelle Newman 1:07:08
These are just some of the Patreon members and one time donors who support makes this program possible. Thank you. If you'd like to join them, go to our website and click on the Support tab. In
Kristin Nilsen 1:07:21
the meantime, let's raise our glasses for a toast courtesy of the cast of Three's Company to good times to
Michelle Newman 1:07:27
Happy Days, to
Carolyn Cochrane 1:07:28
Little House on the Prairie cheers,
Michelle Newman 1:07:31
two
Kristin Nilsen 1:07:33
glasses of water my whole youth. The information opinions and comments expressed on the pop culture Preservation Society podcast belongs solely to Carolyn the crush ologists and hello Newman, and are in no way representative of our employers or affiliates. And though we truly believe we are always right, there's always a first time the PCPs is written produced and recorded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, home of the fictional w j m studios and our beloved Mary Richards nananana who keep on truckin and may the Force be with you
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
