Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Gone, or almost gone, but not forgotten

The Beloit College Mindset List comes out every year as a reminder of the cultural reality of entering college freshman. For instance, one of the items on this year's list is, "They have never used a card catalog to find a book." (I will take issue with #51: Britney Spears has always been heard on classic rock stations. I think they meant pop/Top 40/CHR/whatever the format is called nowadays.)

Going along with that, I also recall hearing something on NPR a couple years ago about sounds that will be lost to history, like what you hear when a dial-up modem is connecting. I can't find specifically what I wanted, but perhaps it was part of a packaged collection that is being sold.

In the spirit of the list and that radio piece, I've been trying to think of things that are obsolete and will vanish in time or on the verge of disappearing. I've come up with:

-The sound of turning the radio dial. I was thinking in terms of cars, where digital tuners have reined supreme for a long time, but I guess that standalone radios may still have dials. Tied to that...

-The sound of a tube radio warming up. Growing up my dad had an old radio with AM, FM, and shortwave bands. In the morning I would hear him turn it on, which was usually a signal that I needed to get up (or would need to soon) for school. You could hear the voices go from deep and distorted to the warm analog sound when it was properly warm.

-The rotary telephone and the sound of dialing it.

-A dial on a TV for changing channels and the sound of turning it.

-The wired TV remote. When we first got cable TV at home, we had a keypad remote control with a wire running to the box.

-The console TV with wood paneling.

-The Cassingle.

What else should be on such a list?

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1 Comments:

At 8:01 AM, Anonymous LittleWit said...

I know I am not a college freshman and that was oh...almost 10 yrs ago but I definitely did you use a card catalog to find books when I was younger :D

Hmm sounds that will go obsolete...35mm camera rewinding the film when you finish the roll?

 

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