Circular TV channel dials, 1-12. VHF/UHF Selector box. Loading a VCR. Rewinding or fast-forwarding cassettes. Pressing multiple buttons to record to tape. Returning a typewriter carriage. Using a remote control "clicker."

This!! A couple years ago I drove upstate for a residency in a Lexus we inherited from my husband's grandmother. And old thing, very automatic and before electronics took over. I'd been driving for two hours on the highway and had just turned off onto smaller roads. At some point I was approaching a cross roads, with a stop sign. My feet and hands went automatically to downshift gears as we were slowing down. It's been YEARS since I've driven a stick shift yet somewhere this "haptic nostalgia" emerged out of nowhere! Thank goodness I realized what was happening before I accidentally braked to a stand still.

I love recalling how it felt to put a VHS tape into a VCR: the hollow rattle of the cassette, its shimmy-bang congruence with the carriage of the player, and the way the carriage pulls the cassette out of your fingers like a wary dog taking a treat, with a wheeze and a shudder as the doors judders shut.

We had a rotary phone hanging on the wall of our kitchen for most of my childhood. Making a call as a younger kid was always a little bit exhausting— having the arm strength to rotate the dial, the mental energy to remember the number, and the bravery to say “hello this is Caroline. May I speak to…”

My Dad’s old stereo had very solid clicking knob selectors, slightly indented push buttons that had just the right amount of resistance before giving with a satisfying thump, and heavy smooth-turning dials. A warm light lit up the green-tinted glass in front of thin orange needles that swayed with the volume. I will never forget the feeling of putting a new record on the spindle and flipping the switch to drop it on the platter, the warm hiss from the speakers before the music poured out.

i remember the feel of the fabric of the back seat of my grandparents' 1972 chevy impala as if i am sitting there and running my hands over it right this instant

See also:
* poking into the payphone to check for change
* endlessly fiddle-flipping the ashtray on the plane open and close
* rolling down the car window
* pushing in and pulling out the molten-hot car lighter
* settling the removable faceplate back onto the car radio

https://bsky.app/profile/kottke.org/post/3lgga2xim2b2u

Some of my favorites, old IBM mechanical keyboards (not the new "gamer" ones), sliding in an audio cassette, landline phones' hard raised buttons (not flush, squishy ones), old light switches, OG PlayStation and Dreamcast button to open the flip top lid...I could go on.

Just thought of a good one: putting a cartridge into the NES and seating it with a firm press.

The Sony Discman's internal whir after you've placed your CD, shut the lid & hit play. A very specific low vibration from within.

Allllllll the buttons on my dad's Dictaphone. At some point he gave us our own cassettes so we could play around with it and not mess up his dictation.

Watching videos on the Knob Feel YouTube channel gives me haptic nostalgia for my parents' Marantz stereo receiver that they got when they got married (1979) and finally pooped out 10 or so years ago. The knobs moved so well.

Neither my wife, nor I have ever had an automatic transmission car in our thirty years, but we sadly recognize that our 2018 Accord will probably be the last in that long line (Driving an automatic reminds me of driving a golf cart, no matter the horsepower). I especially enjoy using valet parking at hotels and seeing the younger people befuddled, then calling for their old fella, if they have one. When they don't, it stays out front of the hotel for the weekend. And then there's the cheap record player we bought last year that I enjoy flip-flip-flipping through the bargain bins for, and the weird font old typewriter I picked up (and struggled to carry to the car) at an estate sale. It's a level of silliness on some level I guess, but I love these things so much.

Hitting the carriage return arm on a manual typewriter (gazes wistfully out the window)

What comes to mind for me includes: the quiet, clicky press of the buttons on my mom’s Hewlett-Packard scientific calculator (landscape orientation, if you saw one?), the slightly indented rectangular locks in my parents’ 1980s Honda Civic for pulling up and pushing down, and the heavy, squeaky lid of the wooden mailbox on my childhood home. Not sure if that last one counts, but the miniature replica of my childhood home as a mailbox …is definitely lost to obscurity.

Putting together yellow plastic Hot Wheels tracks with their weird tongue and groove system, various wacky door lock pulls and manual window rollers in cars of yore, and smashing down the rectangular light up buttons on an old multi line phone to switch lines in one of my first newsrooms.

The pull knob on old analog vending machines - of the kind that sold candy bars or cigarettes. They were similar to the plunger/shooter on a pinball machine (even those are less common now) and made a satisfying "ka-chunk" noise when you pulled them and they released your purchase.

I immediately thought of the “antenna rotator” we had in the early 80’s. I was 8 years old and we had a large TV antenna on our house so my dad could quite literally “tune in” to cities far away (in this case about 70 miles to Cleveland for Browns football games). The ‘rotator’ was a box with a big lite-up plastic dial to move the antenna 360 degrees to get a signal from far away. I used to love the weird, almost sticky and dull, plasticky, plastic-on-plastic resistance when you started to move the dial. It felt like you really had to use some muscle to get that dial to turn. Then a sharp CLICKETY-SNAP when it locked into the next degree. Then… THEN! That was followed by the thick KA-CHUNK of the mechanical indicator below the dial that showed the position of the antenna. You could feel the KA-CHUNK through the dial, right after the CLICKETY-SNAP. So it was CLICKETY-SNAP… KA-CHUNK… CLICKETY-SNAP… KA-CHUNK. Double whammy. It was also a fun game… turn the dial and run outside to stand there with your friends and stare in awe of how cool it was that your 8 yr old self was making this thing on your house spin around! Here’s YT clip of the dial in action… https://youtu.be/P9kKt7wW2PI?t=439

I used to haunt video arcades in the 80s, and I loved the big dial for the game Tempest. It was large and heavy, and when you spun it there was a satisfying whirring noise and the momentum would keep it spinning around under its own steam. None of the recent retro gaming systems include the dial, so Tempest is no longer as cool as it used to be.