Used to + Would

Life changed! by Diego Piedrahíta

In the 1990's life was totally different

I used to eat lunch and dinner with my family. We would talk about family plans.

There was no Internet or computer games. My neighbors and I used to play soccer in the street. We would use the light posts as goals.

At school I used to go to the library to wait for an available book to do my homework. Students would have to read a lot to find information.

My grandfather used to tell me stories at nights. We would enjoy his anecdotes.

I used to wear a hat to protect from the sun. I would go to farms, swimming pools and the countryside to enjoy nature with my friends and family. We would prepare the food (fiambre), would take a tape recorder to listen to music and would wear comfortable clothes (shorts): we wouldn't take photos because cameras were not so popular.

When I was 7 years old, I used to walk 30 minutes to go to shcool (I lived in a farm). For this reason, we would keep be so healthy. We wouldn't eat junk food; only in special dates we would eat sandwiches. I used to wear black clothes, because the most popular music was rock.

My sister used to go to school parties, but my parents would go to observe her each 30 minutes.

My parents used to protect me form bad friends. They wouldn't allow me to go out with strange or naughty "friends"

In December, my family used to decorate the Christmas tree, and I would ask Little Jesus for little toys.

When I wanted to call a classmate (girl), I used to collect coins to call her home, but her father would answer the call. I wouldn't say anything and would hang up. At school we used to send "hellos (saludes) with our classmates, and then we would meet to talk, eat an ice cream and show our feelings (declarate: "I like you").

In our free time we used to go the gym. We would exercise for 1 hour and then we would go to eat hot dogs or chips.We used to go to dance salsa, vallenato, tropical and merengue, but we would have to leave the disco before 10:00 pm. We used to promise that we would be together forever!

Our parents used to help us write love letters. They would give us advice and would support us with money.

When my parents bought their first color television, they used to invite the neighborss to watch the soapoperas at noon and in the evening. We would watch the same TV programs, and I would change the tv channels (There was not remote control)

In 2005, when we had our first cell phone, we would spend hours listening to music / radio. We wouldn't chat because WhatsApp didn't exist. We also used to play snake (culebrita) and take photos to share the next day. We used to use the cell phone just for photos, because wifi was not available.

Thank you