Cassette Futurism

I lived in that era. Things were slower and simpler in many ways, and brands had more personality. They weren't all so samey and companies weren't so big and faceless that they were completely immune to repercussions.

Home computers were mostly expensive toys that lived in designated spots in your home that you visited occasionally, not omnipresent passengers that were always with you, tracking your movements and constantly jabbing at you for attention.

Most things were written with pencil and paper. Businesses used typewriters. When you called a company you got a human being who lived in your country who could take time to actually help you with your problem. Store staff were knowledgeable about the products they sold, particularly places like Radio Shack.

People talked in the checkout line and at the register. Grocery stores devoted half an aisle to magazines and newspapers, and people actually had the time to read them. Nobody assumed a father with his crying kid in public was a predator who kidnapped a child. Taxi drivers knew the fastest way to get anywhere by memory.

There were fireflies in the evenings in the country, and there was more country. There were moths and butterflies and so many bugs in the summer that your windshield needed cleaning at every gas stop. People wanted to save the whales and stop the hole in the ozone and prevent acid rain, and through cooperation and legislation we actually did two of those things...

Later in the decade, when the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union was making overtures of peace, when computers became actually useful and the Internet first came to homes, when there was international cooperation in space, we were all really filled with a degree of optimism for the future that seems so pure in hindsight.

Not everything was great. Domestic cars were awful. Gays had to hide because coming out of the closet would destroy your life. There was lots of sexism and misogyny in the workplace. Reagan was president and he really ruined many things that never recovered. TV shows were mostly terrible.

But I'd happily go back and re-live those years. And probably invest heavily in Apple and Microsoft. And maybe accidentally run over a real estate developer in Manhattan while he was crossing the street.