I'd definitely miss videogames and the internet, that's for sure.
- film, animation, tv — all the great stories of which can be penned down on paper or retold in oral tradition.
- Seriously though, just because we can't watch the Star Wars movies anymore doesn't mean we'd automatically forget about Luke Skywalker, we'd be retelling his adventures to our kids ourselves.
- music recordings — learning an instrument and covering music has never been so important.
edited 20th Mar '11 7:50:02 PM by annebeeche
Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.This may sound stupid, but the thing I would most miss in an After the End scenario? Air conditioning. I happen to really hate the weather where I live, and living without air conditioning would make my life utterly miserable.
I assume, by the way, that this is referring principally to things people would miss. I suspect, or at least hope, that most people would most miss any friends or relatives they lost during the plague.
If it helps, the Anglo-Saxon women used cloth pads and drawers on their periods. (They went commando when not on periods.)
But that's just my perspective.
See the history of menstrual pads
Disposable pads are a more recent invention. Before disposable pads, women used reusable ones.
edited 21st Mar '11 2:40:20 PM by annebeeche
Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.“How does a handwave involving FHP become a plot point?”
Basically I justified No Periods, Period
My world didn’t completely end. I’d established that there are scattered tiny pockets of civilization. One of them is Pheonix (a research facility in Rhode Island). Pheonix provides drugs, food, occasional shelter, and access to electricity in exchange for servitude. All my characters either work for Pheonix or know someone who does.
When I realized that my world would have run out of FHP I just threw in that Pheonix also provides the type of birth control that stops your period.
This later provides evidence that a pregnancy was intentional.
edited 21st Mar '11 3:28:44 PM by HistoryMaker
Never mind the fact that women have been getting by using cloth rags as menstrual pads for centuries.
But hey, if it works for your story, go for it.
edited 21st Mar '11 3:55:29 PM by annebeeche
Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.
It does work for my story. It reinforces the hold Phoenix has on these people.
However there are definitely groups who have and/or want nothing to do w/ Phoenix or their drugs, and they would definitely be going the old fashioned way.
I know FHP’s aren’t a “can’t live with out it” thing like clean water. Just something we’d miss like chocolate and air-conditioning.
Which brings me back to the original question: what would you miss?
I thought of some: clean clothes every day, regular showers, and the Olympic Games
edited 21st Mar '11 8:13:17 PM by HistoryMaker
Soft inner clothes that you wash regularly (if you can afford soft inner clothes to begin with), rough outer clothes that is probably washed less often.
Scandinavians and the people of Ancient Japan both did this.
- Oh man, people would miss spectator sports like hell.
- Many people would miss living in a nuclear family unit. A rebuilding world that requires a lot of manual labor, and the cost of a place to live, requires that people live together in larger units.
- Miss having their own bedrooms, and bedframes. You are sleeping in a pile of blankets wherever there is room on the floor.
- Lots of furniture. You'll have to cut it down for firewood, and also make floorspace for your fellow family members and roommates.
- shampoo, body washes, and all that fine crap—learn to figure out how to use soap for everything, and to make the stuff yourself
- having everything ready-made for you.
edited 21st Mar '11 9:27:37 PM by annebeeche
Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.Toiletrooms (rather, the associated comforts thereof - toilet paper, running water); Physical idleness (I have bad joints and so moving around much is painful - otherwise I would love to be out and about more, anyways, however); The freedom to be picky about my food; ... I'm not actually certain that there is much that I'd miss beyond a "eh, well, that's inconvenient" level. I tend to just get by all the same whenever circumstances change, given a bit of time to adjust.
TV Tropes, meaning I wouldn't be able to compare the real post-apocalypse to fictional post apocalypses
That would be hilarious. I bet there are hard core tropers who have all the After the End tropes memorized, that would comment on the actual apocalypse in trope-speak: “this is turning into such Scavenger World” “no it’s more of just a Crapsack World” “well I guess Our Zombies Are Different!”

The world more or less ended in a plague about 10 years ago. Mankind is only now barely beginning to rebuild. Lots of things were lost: The Internet, most air-travel, most governments. In a world like that what would you (or your characters) miss?
For example, my main character (a badass yet childlike young woman) misses chocolate, fireworks, and Disney World, partially because her “best memory” involved all three.