T
his summer, we invited our listeners to take a journey back in time to the analog era. In this series, titled "My Analog Life," we shared stories about how technology has transformed various professions, featuring photographers, architects, DJs, and even harpists.

    To wrap up this series, we reconnected with three of our previous "Marketplace" guests who shared their experiences of work in the analog age. Gretchen Blough, a customs broker in Erie, Pennsylvania, remembers when fax machines were an integral part of her job, particularly when sending documents to ports.

    "We'd have to print out the file, then scan it into the fax and send it," Blough said. "It was a bit cumbersome."

    Nowadays, almost everything is handled online. "We ask people to email the documents or we email them directly," Blough said. "We no longer have a dedicated fax machine."

    Mindy Palmer, a real estate agent in Missoula, Montana, started her career in 1998. She remembers taking photos of houses using disposable cameras for clients.

    "The internet was still in its early stages," she said. "People weren't constantly browsing real estate websites."

    Back then, billboards and print advertising were crucial for her career. "We focused on consistency," Palmer said. However, today's real estate agents prioritize building reputations as influencers on social media.

    "I'm happy to be at this stage of my career," Palmer said.

    Laurie Stewart, CEO and president of Sound Community Bank in Seattle, started her banking career as a teller in 1968 when she was a freshman at the University of Washington.

    "The only constant over the years is that there's still cash involved," Stewart said.

    Much of her job involved updating customer passbooks and bank ledger cards in a posting machine. Now, most of a teller's duties have been automated or digitized. "We don't even process checks anymore," she said. "We just send an electronic image."

    Stewart isn't nostalgic about the posting machine or encoding the bottoms of checks for processing. "I don't miss any of that," she said. "I do miss those customer interactions."

    To hear their stories, click on the audio player above. And if you have an analog story of your own, feel free to share it with us using the form below. Your story might be featured in a future edition of "My Analog Life."

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