Retro Roadmap – The 1990s Version – Pre Internet! #TBT
Mod Betty has been “Retro Roadmapping” long before she even coined the term 🙂 And now it’s crazy to realize that my Vintage Road Trips from back in the day are now almost vintage themselves!
I thought I’d share a few snapshots of how we did these things BEFORE THE INTERNET EVEN EXISTED!
I had a 3 ring binder (remember those?!) with notebook paper(!!), pocket folders, index cards and dividers. There I would jot down places I had heard of, stuff newspaper clippings, and once I even collected up a list of the diners I had looked up in the yellow pages, word-processed it and printed it out via a fancy dot matrix printer!
Once I’d find a place – using a paper map  of course, because there was nothing else – I’d visit, hoping that the place was still there, and open. I’d try to eat there or get my thoughts of the place then run out to my car and take notes – by hand of course. These were just meant to be the rough drafts of something…something I wanted to share with people, but how? My plan was to create a fanzine using a Xerox machine and a stapler, but then life got in the way.
I never stopped tho – I couldn’t – this is what I LOVE to do!
Remember – there were no digital cameras, there were no phone cameras, cell phones, Instagram, Facebook, Myspace, Flickr – nothing like that.
Wanted a “selfie” in front of a vintage diner? You better have someone there to point the camera – filled with film – at you and hope you look good! You wouldn’t know how the photo turned out until weeks later, when you finished the roll of film, dropped it off at the drugstore where they’d mail it away to get printed, get the prints back and hope for that you got at least one good shot where you didn’t look dumpy or like you had your eyes closed.
So that’s how we did it back in the day – and that’s why I had to wait for technology to catch up with ME so I could bring you all along on my Retro Roadmap road trips, to share the cool vintage places and retro fun that is out there!
🙂
Mod B
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Marifran Ritchie
April 3, 2014 at 9:52 pmawesome!
Janet
April 4, 2014 at 5:32 pmGreat reminder of how we used to get and share information!
Phil
May 24, 2014 at 2:53 pmStill watching your web site. This is great. What a shock sometimes, to see old photos of yourself looking younger I do the same and shock myself… sorry about the 1leg. I never knew. Black and white or monochrome shows the age of photos as well. x
Jack
October 15, 2018 at 9:06 pmMy favorite part of our local diners was always the table side jukebox. Mom and Dad would be talking and I had a grand time twisting the dial to see what I would pick if only Dad would give me a quarter…
Jnj Gibbon
October 15, 2018 at 10:15 pmThis is great! We still jot down places we read about and would like to visit or places we’ve been & would def return too. Of course, there’s also some check ins and selfies….but keeping it a mixture of old and new.
Phil
October 15, 2018 at 10:15 pmStill watching your web site. This is great. What a shock sometimes, to see old photos of yourself looking younger I do the same and shock myself… sorry about the 1leg. I never knew. Black and white or monochrome shows the age of photos as well. x
HP
April 3, 2014 at 1:56 pmI LOVE this! Kids these days…they have no idea 😉
Mod Betty
April 3, 2014 at 2:00 pmSeriously! And we easily forget as well! I mean back in the day it was “must have fancy camera, must have publisher lined up, must have a gazillion dollarz” to do anything like this. Now it’s practically free! And not that I’m making any money from it, but I wasn’t making any $ back then either 😉
Mod Betty
April 3, 2014 at 2:20 pmSeriously! And we easily forget as well! I mean back in the day it was “must have fancy camera, must have publisher lined up, must have a gazillion dollarz” to do anything like this. Now it’s practically free! And not that I’m making any money from it, but I wasn’t making any $ back then either
RetroRoadmap
April 4, 2014 at 8:34 pmWord, hon!