When Fun Just Happened: A Look Back at the Pre-Smartphone Era

There are times I’ll be driving down I-35 singing along to something on the radio when something like Alan Jackson or early 2000s Kenny Chesney comes on and it will hit me like a ton of bricks to the gut.

Entertainment: Unfiltered & In-Person

We didn’t have smartphones. We had Saturday morning cartoons, actual music videos on MTV, and the excitement of running to Blockbuster to rent Twister before someone got the last copy. You couldn’t just stream a concert. You had to wait in line at the mall and buy a ticket. If you were lucky the people you went with didn’t spend the whole concert “capturing the moment” on their phones because we didn’t have phones, or at least none that fit into our pockets.

The Original Social Network

The mall was our social media network. You didn’t need Facebook to know who broke up with who. You just needed to hang out in the Dairy Queen parking lot long enough to figure it all out.

The Charm of the Corded Phone

Even landlines had coolness to them. The home phone had a cord long enough to wrap around the kitchen table three times. God forbid your mom picks up the other line while you’re trying to have a private conversation with your crush on the phone!

Justice for the Snack Wrap!

And what gives with McDonald’s taking away the Snack Wrap? Why take away the one thing that makes eating a fried chicken tender feel healthy?

The Beauty of Unplanned Joy

I’m not saying everything was better, I love modern day comforts. But every once and a while I miss the days where fun wasn’t planned, it just happened. You were there, you experienced it and maybe that was enough.

Take scroll through the gallery below and see how many of these throwbacks you remember.