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Ten modern conveniences we take for granted that didn’t exist before 1970.

Ten modern conveniences we take for granted that didn’t exist before 1970.

I especially like the picture of the audio cassette and the pencil with the caption, “Our children will never know the link between the two.”

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

6 comments

  • A few comments:

    3) At the 1977 Boy Scout Jamboree, AT&T had a booth with side-by-side rotary and touchtone phones. Everyone was amazed at how much more convenient the touchtone was. Our family got our first touchtone in 1980. And yeah, you hoped the party you were calling had an answering machine.

    7) There are some in the current generation who do know the connection between a pencil and music cassette. For some years now some bands have only released music on cassette.

    9) I got my first calculator in 1978, and it did little more than the four basic math functions, plus square roots. My junior year in high school I bought a TI – 55. Programmable with an LED display. Yes, I did have the belt pouch. Curiously, I found later while taking advanced math courses in college that a TI – 30 worked just fine, as those courses were more conceptual and involved less calculating.

  • joe

    In 1970, most cars did not have air conditioning, this includes large Chryslers and Buicks and the likes,(yes it was optional), now even the lowest rung economy car has air conditioning, almost always standard. I would also guess many homes did not have a/c also, but as incomes grew and as women and wife’s started working in the office, the need for a/c also grew in the home, When I was a child, I was the t/v remote! I think maybe a larger contrast would be what we didn’t have in 1914, in many respects, the things we have today would not even be dreamed of by the rich and well to do in decades previous to 1970.

  • For reasons completely unrelated to Mr. Zimmerman’s post, I am simpatico on the car A/C thing. I’ve been looking for some 60’s Detroit iron the last couple of years, but I’m completely spoiled by auto A/C. It is hard to find a ‘cool’ car with factory A/C. I’m pretty much resigned to buying a car, and having A/C retrofitted.

  • Joe

    Vintage air, I think.

  • Pzatchok

    I have built several cars over the years and in fact the after market complete systems like you get from companies like Vintage Air are actually better looking and better fitting than almost all the factory systems.

    Just put one in a ’54 Ford F1. Looks factory. Its granda’s franken truck for her daily driving.

    Classic Auto Air I think sells factory style systems to go into almost everything.

    You have to remember that almost all the systems from each manufacturer back then were built almost identical to each other. Most parts from one Chevy would actually fit any other Chevy with a little fitting.

  • joe

    on the automotive front, one of the things that we lost in 1970 was the vent window on many cars that you could flip open and even direct outside air onto yourself, in this regard we went backwards.

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