ok either this will elicit uniform confusion, or there's going to be like 15 people going GOD SAME immediately:

y'all know what i miss? like, a lot, actually?

hamfests.

as in amateur radio, not pork products

i'm the black sheep of my family in that i am the only one without a ham radio license (A TERRIBLE MARK OF GREAT SHAME, AS I AM SURE YOU'D AGREE). my mom and dad still have some old printed postcards with their handles on them that they'd send to people around the world after chatting, their car license plates for a long time were their ham numbers, etc.

but mostly

hamfests were such great general tech swapmeets