I'm too young to remember Viet Nam and Watergate, both of which happened when I was still pretty young. I do remember the big deal of the US's bicentennial, which happened when I was 9.
Our first phone numbers were only five digits. I still remember our old house number: 3-9530. Eventually it went to a seven-digit number. There were two area codes in Massachusetts: 617 for the eastern part of the state, and 413 for the western part of the state. You could call anywhere within your own area code, IIRC, for no extra charge. If you wanted to make a long-distance call, you waited for evenings or weekends. I remember what a huge deal it was when our area code changed from 617 to 508. And it seemed like a blink of an eye when the suburban areas got divided again into 978 and 781. Nowadays, the old 617 is the area code for Boston only, and the outlying suburbs are all 508, 781, or 978. Oddly, I don't believe the 413 area code has ever been subdivided. Not enough people live out there. ; )
My first cell phone was as big as a brick, had an antenna, and took up half the inside of my pocket book. My service plan was like $13 per month. I could send and receive calls--that was it.
We had mimeograph (?) machines when I was a kid. I don't recall my first experience with photocopiers, probably it was middle school or high school.
When I first started working this job, in 1993, there were maybe two or three photocopiers on the entire campus, and one or two fax machines. We had no email. If you wanted to make a long-distance phone call, you had to call the college operator for an outside line. No internet access. They were still using Word Perfect. It was a huge deal when they finally switched us over to Microsoft software. Because my boss was the dean, she qualified for an email account through one of the bigger colleges in the neighborhood. But she was technologically so challenged that I used the account for her, which I had to dial into via modem.
When the college finally got its own web site and email, in 1997, it felt like we had joined the modern world at last. At the same time, they upgraded our phone lines, so we could dial long distance from our own offices. What joy; we had left behind the horse and buggy era for good.
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branchandroot
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Date: Thursday, 26 March 2015 03:54 pm (UTC)Our first phone numbers were only five digits. I still remember our old house number: 3-9530. Eventually it went to a seven-digit number. There were two area codes in Massachusetts: 617 for the eastern part of the state, and 413 for the western part of the state. You could call anywhere within your own area code, IIRC, for no extra charge. If you wanted to make a long-distance call, you waited for evenings or weekends. I remember what a huge deal it was when our area code changed from 617 to 508. And it seemed like a blink of an eye when the suburban areas got divided again into 978 and 781. Nowadays, the old 617 is the area code for Boston only, and the outlying suburbs are all 508, 781, or 978. Oddly, I don't believe the 413 area code has ever been subdivided. Not enough people live out there. ; )
My first cell phone was as big as a brick, had an antenna, and took up half the inside of my pocket book. My service plan was like $13 per month. I could send and receive calls--that was it.
We had mimeograph (?) machines when I was a kid. I don't recall my first experience with photocopiers, probably it was middle school or high school.
When I first started working this job, in 1993, there were maybe two or three photocopiers on the entire campus, and one or two fax machines. We had no email. If you wanted to make a long-distance phone call, you had to call the college operator for an outside line. No internet access. They were still using Word Perfect. It was a huge deal when they finally switched us over to Microsoft software. Because my boss was the dean, she qualified for an email account through one of the bigger colleges in the neighborhood. But she was technologically so challenged that I used the account for her, which I had to dial into via modem.
When the college finally got its own web site and email, in 1997, it felt like we had joined the modern world at last. At the same time, they upgraded our phone lines, so we could dial long distance from our own offices. What joy; we had left behind the horse and buggy era for good.