Two fics, two days - both set in the early 1990s

[conuly]

Fic one: Protagonist very recently, like, last week, left home to live with a friend. Protagonist wonders how his newly estranged family found him, then reflects that "the internet still exists". Technically a true statement in 1994, however, it's perhaps a bit more likely that they just used the phone book.

Fic two: Protagonist is touristing in NYC, casually stops in a bodega, buys a flip phone so he can text people. Not in 1992 he didn't - texting via phones was only just invented that year and phones were bricks!

You gotta laugh. Kindly and gently, but still - you gotta laugh!

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Comments

[conuly]

And even those credit cards don't go back so far. Before that, if you had credit, it was a tab.

[kengr]

Another "period detail"is that in the 70s, if you took credit cards, you had to look them up in these books (the size of a phone book but only about half an inch thick) to see if the credit was canceled stolen.

If it was listed in the current book(s) and you accepted it, you were out the money. I was working as an assistant at Saturday Market, and well remember fumbling thru those tomes.