How the world changed while you weren't looking
There was a time when planning a family road trip or beach vacation required weeks of phone calls, mailed brochures, and a travel agent who held all the power. The friction was real, the effort was enormous, and somehow, Americans just accepted it as the price of getting away.
For decades, millions of American workers could count on a simple promise: stay with a company, do your job, and retire with a monthly check that would last as long as you lived. That promise has been quietly, systematically dismantled — and most people under 40 have no idea the old version ever existed.
There was a time when planning a flight meant calling a specialist, waiting days for confirmation, and paying fares that would make your eyes water today. We got faster, cheaper, and more independent — but somewhere in the efficiency, the whole ritual of travel quietly disappeared.
On February 28, 1983, 106 million Americans sat down and watched the same television program at the same time. It was the M*A*S*H finale, and it may have been the last true moment of shared national attention that television ever produced. What happened next changed more than just how we watch TV.
In 1975, the average American supermarket stocked around 9,000 products. Today that number is closer to 47,000. The store didn't just get bigger — it got weirder, more anxious, and oddly more revealing about who we think we are.