Tomorrow we will be playing a game we call "1985". That is the year Scott and I met. If it didn't exist in 1985, we don't use it. No cell phones, no lap tops, no smart TVs, no wifi, no debit cards (only ATMs). We will be using paper maps if we need to go to a new place.
We did this with the boys in high school. Left the house, pulled over, took their phones, and handed them paper maps. Told them to get us to Bangor. The two hour trip took four hours, we got very lost, had to find a grocery store to pay with cash (too late for restaurants) and ate dinner sitting in the back sitting cross legged in a circle, in the back of our Honda Pilot.
We had a BALL! Highly recommend.
We had no idea how tech dependent we were until we tried it the first time. We would come to something, have to stop, and have a discussion on how we did that thing without our phones.
“Wait… did they have ATMs in 1985?” We didn’t even have phones to look up when ATMs were a thing. 1967, who knew? We had to have a long chat to remember our first memory of using a cash machine.
We had to replace cat videos with actual cats.
But the boys learned to read maps. And this other crazy thing happened.
WE TALKED TO EACH OTHER ALL DAY!
We thought tomorrow would be a good day to play 1985 again. So you won’t hear from me ‘till Thursday.
First of all Ginger - great photo! I think I had that same dress back then LOL
Secondly - what an amazing idea! I think I'm going to put this one into operation this week. I just need to convince hubby and darling daughter (she will be the tougher nut to crack)
Computers haven't done us any favours. Yes, some things are much easier (I can't find my way out of a paper bag without a GPS but sometimes it's fun getting lost) but in general, our lives were happier and more relaxed before technology took over.
Thanks for sharing this. Maybe we should each have a day like this once a month or so?
Great concept, but there's so much we did in 1985 (or 1975, 1965) that we cannot do today. Back then we had a nice spiral-bound street atlas (still have it, but it omits newer streets). We didn't need mobile phones because there were pay phones all over the place. No ubers, but there were taxi's. etc etc.