Remember way back when...

If you needed to know the time you called the operator.

Your phone was on a party line so when you picked up the receiver you could hear other conversations.

When you turned on the radio you had to wait for the tubes to warm up.

Pop came in glass bottles and you could get a selection in a cardboard case with a handle.
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JimboSaturn · 56-60, M

I'm a little too young for party lines and radio tubes, although our TV had picture tubes.

ArishMell · 70-79, M

@JimboSaturn The cathode-ray tube lasted until really very recently - into the 2000. It had to until modern flat screens of sufficient resolution were developed.

It was responsible among things for computer monitors becoming such big heavy lumps even though all the rest of the machine relied on integrated circuits and physically small discrete components.

Using valves in radios really came to end in the early 1960s with the invention of the portable transistor radio, but they continued for quite a time afterwards in high-grade and high-power audio amplifiers. I recall seeing a 1kW audio-amplifier on test using an electric fire as its dummy load. It was the size of a wardrobe, and two output valves, visible through a ventilation grille, were each about a foot high by two inches diameter. I was told its frequency response was much better than even the most expensive "hi-fi" available!