technology related sensory memories from my childhood
- sliding the metal cover on floppy disks
- the slight resistance of inserting cassette and video tapes
- ripping off the strips of holed paper off of dot matrix printer paper
- rolling the wheel on a disposable camera to take another photo
The heaviness and rubber texture of the roller ball in a computer mouse, and the little ring of lint
Unkinking the curly cord of a telephone while you talked
The -peww sound and slowly fading image of a crt monitor turning off, and then running your finger through the static on the dusty glass
The crunch of opening or closing a plastic Disney vhs cover
The sound effects in kidpix
Extending and collapsing metal antennas and using them as magic wands
Manually rewinding cassette tapes by spinning them around my fingers
Playing with the rubber casing of the buttons on a Walkman–pulling them away, rotating them, slipping them from side to side on the stiff posts of the buttons
The audio and visual static at the end of a videotape
The satisfying thwap-thwap-thwap as you page through a well-filled CD sleeve book
How weird and small and light the first cordless phone felt
Sticking your fingers into the holes of an older relative’s rotary phone they still have yet to replace, and pushing to get the dial to turn and the oddly-satisfying click-click-click to get to the right number.
The sheer loudness and weight of a typewriter: the loud clack! as keys struck paper, the high-pitched warning ding! at the end of the line, the whirring zip! of shoving the heavy carriage back to the start.
The blockiness of computer monitors and towers: huge boxes with sharp lines, cases a roughly textured matte beige.
Depressing the power buttons into the casing of various electronics – and if you didn’t push hard and deep enough, it wouldn’t turn on at all.
Turning the heavy handle on the inside of the car door, and the window lowering in soft jerks.
The weight of your parents’ camera and the strange milky brown of new film being installed before the back of the camera was shut with a soft click.
The actual smell of the camera film.
The smell of the house after getting the first window-unit air conditioner. (It smelled like other people’s houses, not ours.)
The high-pitched, barely audible whine of the television tube.
The sound and feel of turning the TV dial really fast, past the empty channels (and it was faster for UHF than for VHF, since there were so many more UHF frequencies.)
E v e r y t h i n g about the slide projector–the back light when the man lamp isn’t on, the sound and feel of the fan, the motion and sound of the slides being pushed in and pulled out and the carousel advancing, the clunk when the direction is changed, and the glow of the images…
The heavy feel of turning the film strip in class. That God awful BEEP.
that awful squeak when you used the new piece of chalk on the board.
spinning the dial of the radio to find the right station and the joy of finding some obscure station that you could only get if you fiddled with the knob just right.
A scratched CD skipping in the same place every time.
Placing the arm of the record player down, how sharp that needle could be.
The gargantuan effort of trying to turn the wheel of a car with no power steering.
the cracked, sharp, extremely hot vinyl seats of your parent’s van.
Watching the analog numbers flip on the pump at the self serve gas station.
The heat expelled from the side of the teacher’s overhead projector and the smell of non-toxic transparency markers.
The gradual slowing of the Walkman as the batteries died.
Pulling a 5.25″ floppy disk out of a cloth-paper sleeve.
The heft of the gray, brick-like Gameboy and perching like a gremlin under a table lamp so you could actually see the screen.
The ksssshhhhh-boing-a-boing-a-beep-kssssssssh of the modem connecting.
Sticking your finger through the swinging silvery door of the coin return on a payphone and scooping forward to look for change.
Sliding the switch on the splitter from TV to AV to watch a movie.
Pressing your nose to the tv screen and seeing the tiny, tiny vertical bars of red, blue, and green
The smell and unnatural chill of freon when the car air conditioning came on.