I grew up in Swaziland (similar size to New Jersey, population back then of 700k). We didn't get TV until my teens. Once we did get it it felt connected. Wha

I grew up in Swaziland (similar size to New Jersey, population back then of 700k). We didn't get TV until my teens. Once we did get it it felt connected. What many people do not know is that the price of TV shows is based on country population and prosperity, so we could see British and US shows as they cost the broadcaster virtually nothing. Communication with family (all over the world) was via snail mail, and as a kid typically consisted of letters thanking for birthday/xmas presents. In person visits would be every 3 years or so. We were on a shared phone line (two longs, two shorts) until getting direct dial in the mid 80's. The shared phone line was a two digit number. The direct dial was five digits with no area codes. Contrast this with instantaneous Skype now. Techie goods as in the rest of the world were available (eg Atari 2600, Walkman, VCRs, computers) but were considerably more expensive and harder to afford. I was somewhat fortunate in that an American benefactor donated 15 Apple II computers to my high school in 1983, providing we learned Logo. Later in the 80s my dad bought me a copy of Borland's Turbo C which was very expensive but worth it. We also had a Sinclair Spectrum, but could only afford the 16kb version. You would devour every bit of printed documentation, read magazines and books from cover to cover several times over etc to make sure you got maximum value. In general the main difference to now and the UK/US was self reliance. You had to be able to solve issues because no one else could do it for you. For example you had to be able to fix your own vehicles (or at least limp them back). You would need to be able to fix anything that broke, possibly making replacement parts yourself. You'd need to improvise. Almost everyone was their own McGyver! And a random story for you. A tropical storm went through the country and power was out for 3 days. A friend had a video tape he rented in a player when that happened. You can't eject video tapes unless you have power. The video store wanted to charge a late fee despite the fact that they wouldn't be able to rent the tape out to anyone else.