Ten Things Iconic to Baby Boomers – Which their Kids/Grandkids Find Quaint.

“how sad and bad and mad it was – but then, how it was sweet” ― Robert Browning

Baby boomers, as children, saw the world their parents and grandparents grew up in as a strange land – far away. Now, their children and grandchildren look at the world they grew up in the same way.

Bearing that in mind, here are a few golden oldies.

1. THE RECORD PLAYER.

For baby boomers, the action of unsleaving an LP, EP or single, putting in on the turntable, taking the tonearm and putting it on a vinyl disc to play music, is grafted to their souls.

It was on a record player that fans could play Elvis, the Beatles and Pink Floyd time and time again. No other music player could produce that frying bacon hiss at the beginning of a favorite track.

And let’s not forget LP cover art.

Honorable mention – the Cassette Player.

It might not have the emotional resonance of the record player, but the cassette player – with the creation of the Dolby B hiss reduction system in 1970 – became popular because of its portability and use in cars. It also allowed the user to create personal play lists years before MP3s came to market.

Dishonorable mention – the 8-Track.

This format – promoted as an expensive upgrade by car manufacturers – had some popularity, exclusively in the US, from the mid 1960s, through the 1970s. But technical deficiencies and shoddy manufacture capped their appeal.

2. A MAN ON THE MOON.

On July 20th 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. Just over 3 years later, on December 14th 1972, Eugene Cernan became the last.

3. ROTARY DIAL PHONES.

Rotary dial phones – which allowed for callers to by-pass manual exchanges – came into widespread use in 1919. In 1963, Touch Tone technology became available. But the rotary phone was still predominant in the residential market until the end of the 1970s.

The rotary dial is so ingrained in the popular psyche that we still talk of “dialing” a phone.

4. TRANSISTOR RADIO

In November 1954, the first transistor radio, the Regency TR-1, came to market. Contrary to myth it was an American product – although Sony soon became synonymous with the device.

The transistor radio changed how Americans listened to music. With the miniaturization permitted by transistors, music could be taken anywhere – including away from parents’ hearing – which may have helped the rise of rock and roll.

By the 1980s Sony’s Walkman, and the like, sounded its death knell.

5. IBM SELECTRIC TYPEWRITER

The iconic IBM Seletric was introduced in 1961. It replaced the individual arms for each letter with the “typeball”, quickly nicknamed the “golf ball”. Instead of moving the paper on a platen, the golf ball travelled across the paper. The golf ball could also be easily removed – allowing for changes of font in a document.

At the height of its popularity the Selectric accounted for 75% of the sales of electric typewriters to the commercial market.

6. SUPERSONIC TRANSPORT (SST) – CONCORDE

This hugely expensive exercise in national pride was a joint venture between the French and the British. The first one flew in 1969 and it entered commercial service in 1976. Only 20 were made, of which 14 were used for passenger service. After one of the planes crashed in 2003 it was retired.

The Russians also produced an SST, the Tupolev Tu-144. It actually flew before the Concorde – and was faster. But a series of crashes and other technical flaws forced the fleet out of service after only 55 commercial flights.

7. GO GO BOOTS

Go Go boots were introduced in 1961 as the first boots worn for fashion rather than the weather. They became hugely popular after Barbara Streisand wore them in a spread for Vogue in 1965. The boots complemented the ever shorter styles favored by young – and not so young – women in the late 60s. And by the 1970s they were mainstream.

8. PORN STAR MUSTACHES

(If you remember this guy, you were there. No, he is not a porn star).

In the early 1970s porn went mainstream with the classics “Deep Throat”, “The Devil in Miss Jones”, and “Behind the Green Door”. The male porn stars of the time almost universally sported lush mustaches.

9. DOUBLE-EDGED SAFETY RAZOR

A patent for a double-edged safety razor was granted to King Camp Gillette in 1904. It remained a standard of shaving until the molded plastic safety razor was introduced in 1971. Its blades were made of carbon steel – which rusted unless thoroughly dry -until 1965, when Wilkinson Sword introduced stainless steel blades.

10. POLAROID SX-70 INSTANT CAMERA

In 1947 the Polaroid company introduced the Land Camera Model 95 and ushered in instant photos. But it was a messy affair with developing chemicals everywhere. And you couldn’t touch the photo until it dried. In 1970 the company introduced the SX-7o which “spat” the pictures out, fully formed. The camera was produced until 1981. You can still buy film for it.

Honorable Mention – Super 8mm Camera.

The Super 8 movie camera was introduced in 1965 and was wildly popular until replaced by video cameras in the 1980s. It replaced the Standard 8 camera. Technical advances such as cartridge loading and “in-camera” editing made shooting movies easy for the amateur cinematographer. The camera was so good that the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme D’Or was awarded to “The Man Who Met Himself” – a movie shot with a Super 8.