Remember life before email?

Remember life before email? I do. Vaguely. As I recall, we used things called "pens" and "stationery" and "stamps" to communicate with each other over long distances, or used a quaint invention called "a telephone."

Seems so long ago, doesn't it? But it was really just 20 years ago (less) that email started to take off. (Though can you believe, AOL, which, yes, still exists -- I know! -- it going to be 30 this year?! And that there are some people who still have @aol.com email addresses? Hi Steven!)

At the beginning, many people had no idea how to use this newfangled technology, as BMW playfully reminds us in this fun/funny Super Bowl XLIX ad featuring Katie Couric and Bryant Gumble...



Actually, I know people, make that many people, who still don't understand how email works, or know how to properly use or manage it. But since some of them read this blog, I will not name names.

Now it is hard to imagine life without email.

(You know what else is hard to imagine? Going back to how we dressed and wore our hair in the 1990s. Though I hear animal prints are going to be big this spring!)

RELATED "BOY DO I FEEL OLD" ASIDE: While having dinner the other night, the spouse mentioned that my mother, while clearing out her apartment of over 40 years (for an upcoming, long overdue, renovation), happened upon a box of old 78s and 45s. To which our teenage daughter replied, "What are '78s' and '45s'?"

We asked her to guess. She had no clue. (Anyone else feeling incredibly old now? Granted, 78s were before my time, but I fondly remember 45s.) The spouse explained to her that they were types of records (which required another short explanation) -- and that 45s were the iTunes of their day, which I think is a rather brilliant description.