re: What would you miss if you had to go back in time and live in the 1980s and/or 1990s?

My son. That's literally it.

I’d miss the blue mountains on Coors.

Someone earlier said the ability to download music.

The internet did exist in the 90's, but it was in its toddler years and speeds were very slow. But you could still send emails to people and chat rooms existed. Regarding music downloads, the way you do this is by having friends. You and a buddy go the mall and go into the record store and one of you buys one tape or CD, the other buys another tape or CD, then when you get home you simply copy them. 2 for 1. And friends at school, someone has a tape/cd you want to copy, and if you weren't a complete dick, they'd let you borrow it for the weekend so you could copy it. Or if it's a really good friend, they'll just copy it for you and give it to you.

Of all the tapes/cd's I ever owned, probably 10% were purchased and the other 90% were copied/burned.

I had a black panasonic dual tape deck that had "hi-speed dubbing" from deck to deck, you could copy a whole 45 minute tape in five minutes.

The only money you spend are for Maxell blanks, hi-fi yo.

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Harder in what way? I obviously don’t mean you personally, but in general.

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You spent a lot more time going to the bank, going to the hardware store, going to the post office.

Information was far harder to come by. You could plan a trip with a map, but you didn’t know if the roads would be closed or under construction or what detours you’d have to take. There was a service where you mailed off your itinerary, and they sent back a marked up map with the info (and a suggested route). It took a few weeks, and the data was already out of date when you left. And have you ever tried to fold one of those old maps?

If you needed to know something, you went to the library (15 miles one-way for me). They might have it. Or they might have to order what you needed. They might have a newspaper from a major city.

To communicate with someone, you called their land line if they lived close. If not, you had to call long distance, and that shite was expensive. Other than that, we had mail, which was pretty slow.

You got a job usually through knowing someone, or want ads in the paper. But you’d better get that paper early and be a first caller.

We had FM radio. We got to listen to what the DJ played. That included, in my home town, “Daddy Cool Breeze.” Your choices were pretty much pop country or pop rock.

We did have Sonic. You needed cash, though. They didn’t take credit cards.

You had to keep up with your checking account balance by hand, with pen and ink. If you got it wrong and bounced a check, they’d post the bounced check next to the cash register where everyone you knew could see.

Shops were mostly 8 to 5 and closed Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday. The clothes you wore were what the local shop had or what you ordered out of the Sears catalog.

Cars were shitty and ugly. Trucks weren’t much better. And they were far less reliable than today.

If you missed a show you wanted to watch on TV, you were SOL until it re-ran (if it did). You knew what was on TV from the TV Guide.

In my town, the two-screen theater was a big deal. The mall looked like the promised land to us.

Many rural areas weren’t on “city water” or sewerage. We had wells (with water softeners) and septic systems.

You listened to albums or 8 tracks, and music was far, far more expensive. And our sound systems made an iPhone speaker sound like a tuned symphony hall by comparison.

You lost power if there was a thunderstorm within twenty miles. And we didn’t have generators.

The grocery store selections were far more limited. You sure didn’t have nine kinds of apples. Iceberg lettuce was pretty much it.

Moosehead and Gilly’s were our most exotic beers. Michelob was considered top shelf.

Driving from south Louisiana to North Louisiana took close to twice the time it does now.

Your mommy didn’t pick you up at school. You walked, biked, or took an unairconditioned bus.

We called wfh “not getting paid.”

And ties. If you were white collar, you wore one to work every single day.

shite like that.

So maybe “far harder” was a stretch. But a helluva lot less convenient isn’t.

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It was less convenient for sure but I miss the old music stores. Spent so much time thumbing through tapes and CDs in there as a teenager

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OK this is where nostalgia takes over and must be stopped

Thanks to the net I've heard thousands of music tracks I wouldn't have been exposed to otherwise. In many cases super-duper-obscure things I couldn't have heard no matter how much money I spent on record collecting

TBH, I have to acknowledge that

80's were a better world. Would miss the internet and smart phones.

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Someone earlier said the ability to download music. The internet did exist in the 90's, but it was in its toddler years and speeds were very slow. But you could still send emails to people and chat rooms existed. Regarding music downloads, the way you do this is by having friends. You and a buddy go the mall and go into the record store and one of you buys one tape or CD, the other buys another tape or CD, then when you get home you simply copy them. 2 for 1. And friends at school, someone has a tape/cd you want to copy, and if you weren't a complete dick, they'd let you borrow it for the weekend so you could copy it. Or if it's a really good friend, they'll just copy it for you and give it to you. Of all the tapes/cd's I ever owned, probably 10% were purchased and the other 90% were copied/burned. I had a black panasonic dual tape deck that had "hi-speed dubbing" from deck to deck, you could copy a whole 45 minute tape in five minutes. The only money you spend are for Maxell blanks, hi-fi yo.

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Or you’d get 15 cd’s for a dollar and then spend a year or so wondering if they’d ever actually come after a 15 year old for not following the rules on the scam.

I'd be happy to go back and live in the 90s and sacrifice my smart phone,ect.

America is still America. Nashville real estate is dirt cheap and cost of living is low. The Tennessee Volunteers are a perennial top 5/10 program. A "state of the art" new NFL stadium is being built in downtown Nashville as the Titans are about to embark on their magical SuperBowl run that united and captivated my entire city. Football is still football and you aren't punished when you decleat someone using your helmet. The Braves still play on TBS everynight and have the most dominant pitching staff the sport had ever seen to that point despite it being the era of steroids. Oh and we never lose the division, win four pennants and a World Series. Generally speaking nobody gives a shite about political differences of others. No social media poisoning society

Yes just give me my brick car phone, VCR and a walkman and tell me where to sign the contract. Life is good.

I got away with everything back then! Nobody had iPhone cameras everywhere you went!