Tactile experiences you can't get anymore

[HardyGirl]

I was just watching some cool 70s videos on YouTube, and the user kept showing a TV channel knob. In this age of tablets and Smart Phone, it won't be too long before push buttons are obsolete. But there are some tactile experiences I miss, like physically changing a channel w/ a knob, or dialing a rotary phone.

Are there any you miss?

[Mikey]

Pulling a slot machine handle that REALLY turns the slot reels and is not just is a glorified button.

[darkmonkeygod]

Pushing a dash button to start a car is still very disconcerting to me. I want to put a key into a slot in the steering column and turn it. I don't miss the rotary phone. Growing up, my best friend had TWO zeros in his phone number.

[greensavage2000]

Aluminum foil on King Dons or Ho-Hos or Hershey bars. Definitely a rotary dial. Fighting with that cord on the phone.

[Hedji]

CA-CHUNK! Changing the track on an 8-Track cassette deck.

Feeling that firm button lock as you press Record and Play at the same time on a tape recorder, and the feeling of being committed now that you were recording.

Not tactile, but olfactory: The smell of Topps trading card gum, and vinyl capes on Star Wars figures. Those odors stay with you forever.

[jwyblejr]

Pushing the locks on your car door.

[HardyGirl]

Pushing the locks on your car door.

Or even turning the window cranks.

[SKotK]

The 'click-click-click' of the old tactile IBM-compatible keyboards. It was noisy, yes, but boy do I miss the feel of typing with it.

Vinyl cape smell, yes...probably the best smell in the entire world for me.

Also the smell of new electronics from the late 70s/early 80s. I got that rush again when I bought a NIB TI-99/4a computer a while back. I opened the box and got a whiff of that forgotten smell, and it was glorious.

--SKot

[HardyGirl]

OK, here's a few more I thought of:

Winding a watch or a clock.

Opening the pull tabs on a can of soda, or the pull top from a Snack Pack can

Flipping through record albums

Turning a record over

Putting the needle on or taking it off a record

Pulling the brake and spinning out on your Big Wheel

Burning the back of your legs on a hot slide

Turning the radio dial

[johnnystorm]

Hearing the DING! when you pulled into the gas station...
Pushing the typewriter cartridge back at the end of the page...
Rewinding the tape back into a cassette with a pencil...
Working on your own car...
Drinking out of a glass pop bottle...
Kicking a kickball...
Big, thick, color Sunday Comics spread on the floor...

[Boywonder0]

Taking pictures with cameras that required a film cartridge and a "Magic Cube" flasher... Darn cell phones!

[cjefferys]

Pushing a dash button to start a car is still very disconcerting to me. I want to put a key into a slot in the steering column and turn it.

Yeah, it took me a long time to get used to just pushing a button.

Flipping through record albums

Turning a record over

Putting the needle on or taking it off a record

I'm happily still doing these things.

Drinking out of a glass pop bottle...

One of the reasons why I buy a Mexican Coke once in a while, so I can enjoy the cane sugar rush, and enjoy drinking out of a nice cold glass pop bottle.

[SKotK]

Plopping your telephone handset into the cups on your acoustic modem to call up a BBS.

I only had that experience once when I borrowed a friend's modem before getting my own direct-wired modem, but it was still a memorable experience.

--SKot

[tay666]

A few thoughts on things already mentioned.
Not sure if I miss dialing a rotary phone or not, but I do miss the feel of actually hanging up on someone.

About the only thing I miss in a car is the foot switch for the high beams.
Close second would be wing windows. (why don't they make those anymore?)

I still have a tape deck in my car, so cassette stuff isn't something I am missing.

I just drank out of a glass pop bottle over the weekend. Stewart's Black Cherry.

One thing I miss, wasn't all that widespread as far as I know.
Back in the early 70's, the house we lived in, had push-button switches.

Shag carpet between your toes.

The solid ca-thunk of the refrigerator door latch.

[tmthor]

not exactly tactile but that feeling you got every August when the new Christmas catalog came out