It is strange how clearly we can remember a color from decades ago. A certain kitchen green can bring back an entire room. A candy wrapper can remind us of the corner store. Even the shade of a telephone can place us in a particular house at a particular time. However, plenty of things we now recognize instantly once looked very different. Sometimes manufacturers changed a color because technology improved. In other cases, television, advertising, fashion, recycling, farming, or even government rules pushed the change along. A few transformations happened so gradually that many people barely noticed them. Looking back, though, they reveal how much ordinary life has changed right in front of us.
#1: Tennis balls changed from white to yellow
Turn on footage of a tennis match from the 1960s and something feels slightly off before you can quite place it. The little blur traveling over the net is usually white. For much of the sport’s history, balls were made in white or black, depending on which provided better contrast with the court. Television eventually complicated that tradition. Broadcasters and tennis officials found that a fluorescent shade was much easier for viewers to track on a color TV screen, particularly during fast rallies. Yellow was officially permitted by the International Tennis Federation in 1972, although not every tournament hurried to adopt it. Wimbledon remained loyal to white for another 14 years and finally switched in 1986.
