In what way(s) are you "retro?"

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I’m 61, so I’m definitely getting up there. In many ways, I am a thoroughly modern woman–in my clothing, my full-time job, my lack of domestic skills (sewing? what’s that?), my computer, etc.

BUT…I have retained some of my “retro” ways:

Flip phone
No cable TV
Stick shift car (the old stick shift, not the new kind)
No social media other than a few online forums. No Facebook, etc.
Don’t shop online ever–I’ve never ordered anything online
Still drink sugary sodas and diet sodas.
Don’t intend to decorate my home “shabby chic”!
I listen to CDs, and have no idea how to use “iTunes” or even what it is.
I still subscribe to the newspaper and read it everyday.

My husband is “retro”, too–he uses a typewriter and/or fountain pens.

We heard about a man who lives his life as though this were the 1940s. His home, his wardrobe, his accessories, his car–everything about him is a throwback to the 1940s.

How about you? What “retro” things do you do?
 
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I attend the Traditional Latin Mass and sing Gregorian chant 🙂. We also have five children, whom are not permitted to own any computers, mobiles phones, or tablets.
 
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Peeps said:
Still drink sugary sodas and diet sodas.
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This is considered retro? I thought drinking soda was still really common. I know a lot of people where I live refuse to drink it, but they’re also stereotypical elitist hipster snobs who would eat their own feces if it somehow gave them a sense of superiority over others.

Anyways, personally, this is about as retro as I get:
 
Let’s see" I downsized my TV with a Firestick. The Van is 14 years old. Got a very basic cell phone for ememrgancies. Kept the Landline. Wear clothe ’ until they wear out. Can cook, sew and mend, Have old-fashioned Stereo with radio, 8 track, and record player, keep old socks for dusting and cleaning.
I could go on. The Firestick saves me about $1,200 per year. Why pay for an overload of reruns and inappropriate TV shows. I still get most of the channels and EWTN.
 
I kept the woodstove and open fire place when we bought this house.Raise poultry for eggs and meat ,grow a garden,dry the clothes on the line.Try and shop only once a week.
 
Off the top of my head:
  • Write with fountain or dip pens. I do keep a few ballpoints on me for others to use, or for me to use on those increasingly rare occasions when I’m filling out forms in multiplicate (“YOU ARE MAKING 8,174 COPIES—PRESS HARD” 😛)
  • All laundry dried on a line or rack (although this isn’t really retro where I live; clothes dryers are rare here)
  • Manual transmission gasoline-powered car
  • Correspond principally via postal (“snail”) mail; still send postcards when on vacation and paper cards at Christmas
  • Everyday attire is what others would call “business casual” to “full business dress”—no jeans, no shorts, no sport shoes unless I’m actually exercising, etc. I frequently have people ask why I’m “so dressed up”…I’m not. This is how I dress 😁
  • No Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn or similar. I once had a Twitter account but never had any of the others.
In my mid-20s, I didn’t have a TV. It wasn’t by choice, but I came to appreciate its absence pretty quickly. Once I was able to acquire one, I elected not to. Most productive six years of my life. All that came to an end when I got married. Would go back to those days in a heartbeat, but The Husband won’t hear of it. 😞

Edited to add that I’m in my late 40s.
 
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I am 66 and I am retro in many ways. I don’t have cable tv, I have antenna tv. I
haven’t a clue how to do ITunes. I never watch shows or movies on my phone.
I don’t like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or any of the other social media things.
I don’t do yoga. I still like my carbonated
sugary drinks.
I don’t own a computer anymore, just a Kindle and a smartphone. Catholic Answers is the only online forum I belong too. I don’t use my Kindle to read books.
I still check books out from the library.
I drive a used car. I don’t want Alexa in my house or anything similar.
I can’t sew or haven’t in years, but I can cook and iron, but I don’t can vegetables or fruit. I don’t have an electric can opener. I don’t pay bills online.
 
Drinking soda, especially the sugar pops, has a terrible stigma. It’s being blamed for everything from cancer to erectile dysfunction to depression! And certainly for obesity–which I can go along with.

And it’s simply not “cool.”

I caused a scene in a Starbucks the first time I ever went in one (with a group of friends who wanted to get coffee). I went through the line and ordered a Coke. The impeccably-groomed young man said, “We don’t sell Coke. We have grapefruit soda and other ‘natural’ sodas.”

I was shocked! And i said so! And I told them that they SHOULD sell brand-name soda. And I told them that I would walk to the restaurant next door, buy a Coke, and bring it back into Starbucks! And I did!

The people in the line were certainly entertained! I wasn’t mad or angry, just kind of disenchanted with the great and powerful Starbucks.

Starbucks still doesn’t sell any brand of sodas other than those crafty-types. Yuck.

But they let anyone come in an use their bathrooms, and sit in their restaurant.

So maybe that’s another “retro” part of me–I don’t frequent Starbucks. If I want to relax with a soft drink, I’ll go to either a McDonald’s, or a local diner.
 
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Peeps said:
Drinking soda, especially the sugar pops, has a terrible stigma. It’s being blamed for everything from cancer to erectile dysfunction to depression! And certainly for obesity–which I can go along with.
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I guess I don’t consider retro to be something that simply has a bad stigma. If that were the case, eating at McDonald’s would be considered retro, but obviously that hasn’t stopped people from going to McDonald’s.
Peeps said:
The impeccably-groomed young man said, “We don’t sell Coke. We have grapefruit soda and other ‘natural’ sodas.”
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I didn’t even realize Starbucks had soda. Maybe I haven’t looked at the menu hard enough. Then again, I don’t normally look at the menu, just ask for a regular coffee.
Peeps said:
Starbucks still doesn’t sell any brand of sodas other than those crafty-types. Yuck.
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Hey! I love some craft sodas. Crater Lake (Portland-based) makes absolutely fantastic root beer and cream soda. I also liked Virgil’s cream soda.
 
ZMystiCat said:
I guess I don’t consider retro to be something that simply has a bad stigma. If that were the case, eating at McDonald’s would be considered retro, but obviously that hasn’t stopped people from going to McDonald’s.
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Agreed. I view something as “retro” simply if it is something that everyone once used or did in the past but now very few use or do. The reason(s) for the demise of the article, action, activity, etc. is/are secondary, but there has to be an actual demise, not just a notion that there should be one or that one is imminent.

I know lots of people who drink soda, and I do so myself. It’s a common current practice and thus not retro (at least in my opinion).

As for craft sodas, Blenheim makes tasty small-batch ginger ale—and has been doing so for one year longer than Canada Dry. “Craft” doesn’t necessarily mean “newfangled.”
 
Do you have to turn a crank to get the player going? 😉

We have records but nothing to play them on 😭
 
Still use a clothesline.
Still have a landline.
Still have a push lawnmower.
Don’t have a smartphone.
Not on Facebook, just CAF and Pinterest.
I cook most of our meals. From scratch.
Have 2 cars that are over 15 years old.
I prefer old furniture and houses to new.
Won’t read books on kindle.
Pay our bills by check, not online.
No online banking.

Now get off my lawn!
 
I drink instant coffee and I use a P38 can opener.
 
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I don’t know. I like older music (anything from about 1986 and prior), but I listen to it on my devices. Although I do occassionally pull out the old vinyl because I love the sound.

I don’t do snapchat, instagram or twitter, but I am on Facebook.

I don’t know if there’s anything else that would make me retro.
 
Have you noticed though, that many of the soda companies are returning to their old designs on their cans, and even re-airing their old TV ads? I love the bright Pepsi can! Coke is going the opposite and doing a shiny metallic can, but Coke is also raising their prices and losing business over it.

In my work group of around 60 people, mainly millennials, Gen X and Gen Y, only the older people like me drink soda. Everyone else carries around a water bottle or a coffee cup and they usually bring in their coffee from Starbucks or one of the local coffee shops. Their recreational drink of choice is either wine or craft beer. I think in my circle, soda is considered “ancient,” and people even talk about banning it. I work in a hospital, so maybe that’s why–there really isn’t any nutritional value whatsoever in soda. It just tastes yummy.

My kids don’t drink soda, even though they were raised with it. (They are in their mid 30s).

So maybe it’s not retro, but I think it’s certainly becoming rarer except in the teetotaler circles and families.
 
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