Today is my 38th birthday. To celebrate, I thought I’d create a list of things that didn’t exist, or at least weren’t pervasive, when I was 28, 18 and 8. I’ve tried to focus on some things that are basic to daily life, and to show the evolution of those things through these decades. It’s amazing to see how much our daily lives have changed over these decades. My oldest child, Abbey, is 9, and I wonder what the list will look like when she’s 39. Read on to the extended entry for the list. And check back from time to time — hopefully I’ll add to it over the next few days.
Things that Didn’t Exist or Weren’t Pervasive When I Was 8 (1974)
- Desktop Computers
- Bioengineered medicines
- Word Processors
- Graphical User Interfaces
- Praise Choruses
- Floppy disks
- Home mimeograph machines
- Japanese cars
- Baseball contracts worth more than $1 Million
- Democratic / non-communist Eastern European countries
- Megachurches
- Overhead Projectors
- Suits without neckties
- Reggie Jackson as “Mr. October”
- Most of the NFL
- A World Series victory for the Red Sox
- Projection TVs
- Rap
- Home video
- Domestic terrorism
- 401K plans
Things that Didn’t Exist or Weren’t Pervasive When I Was 18 (1984)
- Home Computers
- AIDS
- Ink Jet / Laser Jet Printers
- Windows
- Church music using trap drums
- CD-ROMS
- Desktop publishing
- Japanese luxury cars
- Seven game baseball league championship series
- Free travel between East and West Berlin
- Seeker-sensitive churches
- Powerpoint
- Casual Fridays
- Donnie Baseball
- About a quarter of the NFL
- A World Series victory for the Red Sox
- Projection TVs that worked properly
- Grunge
- Compact Discs
- International Islamic terrorism
- Mutual Funds
Things that Didn’t Exist or Weren’t Pervasive When I Was 28 (1994)
- The Web
- Antiretroviral drugs
- Color laser printers
- Stable versions of Windows (hmmm….)
- Electric guitar solos in church
- Gigabyte hard drives
- Blogs
- Luxury SUV’s
- Baseball wildcard teams
- The Berlin Wall
- “Emerging” Churches
- Laptop projectors
- Full time business casual
- Mariano Rivera as a closer
- Parity in the NFL
- A World Series victory for the Red Sox
- Plasma TVs
- Emo
- DVDs
- The Homeland Security Department
- Guaranteed pensions
One reply on “My 38th Birthday”
Today (December 21, 2004) is my 38th birthday, and I Googled “38th birthday” to see if anybody else was wallowing in self-pity as I am. That is how I found your page. Happy belated 38th birthday. Hey, I’m more than a month younger than you! (OK, small consolation for me.)