Mobile phones were the size of a brick and there was no internet, which perhaps partially explains why the entire nation was gripped by the 1992 World Cup - there was nothing else to do.
It really was a fabulous tournament, perhaps the best ever staged.
Cricket royalty such as Ian Botham, Kapil Dev, Javed Miandad, Imran Khan, Malcolm Marshall and our own Martin Crowe graced the fields both sides of the Tasman for six glorious weeks.
And, of course, who can forget, or forgive for that matter, one Inzamam-ul-Haq. More on the party-pooper later.
The tournament burst into life immediately as New Zealand stunned Australia in the opening match at Eden Park.
The Young Guns had made a tremendous start and Canterbury's Rod Latham had a front-row seat.
Tom was born a couple of weeks after the tournament.
It was a big year for Rod and the expanding Latham family. He opened alongside John Wright in the first game.
Wright was bowled by Craig McDermott's first legal delivery of the tournament.
Andrew Jones did not last long either, trapped lbw for four by Bruce Reid.
Latham chipped in with 26 but it was Crowe's undefeated 100 and a half-century from Ken Rutherford which got New Zealand through to what was a very decent score of 248 for six.
Some frugal and, let's face it, pedestrian, bowling accounted for a star-studded Australian line-up featuring the Waugh brothers, Stephen and Mark, Allan Border, David Boon and Dean Jones.
Spinner Dipak Patel opened and New Zealand's crew of ''dibbly dobbly'' bowlers exploited a slow wicket by taking all the pace off the ball.
Gavin Larsen took three for 30 and New Zealand won by 37 runs.
''There was just a fantastic atmosphere all around the country,'' Latham recalled.
''We didn't have a team of stars but we had a fantastic team and team of real triers. No-one gave us a show, really, apart from ourselves.''
New Zealand adopted the ploy of referring to opponents by the colour of their strip rather than the nation they represented.
Beating the yellow team just seemed a lot easier than beating the might of Australia.
''That took all the hype about who we were playing out of it. They were just 11 guys against us our 11 guys.
''We were also trying things that weren't the norm, like opening with Dipak. It was one of those sorts of things that people weren't expecting. And to give yourself a chance at a tournament like that you had to take a few risks.''
The tournament was beautiful in its simplicity.
There were nine teams and they all played each other once.
The top four went through to the semifinals. Simple as that.
The cricket was of high standard, too, and there were not the mismatches later World Cups threw up.
But the real reason New Zealanders embraced the tournament with such fervour was because Latham and his team-mates were taking on the best in the world and winning.
First Australia then Sri Lanka. In the seven-wicket win against South Africa, Latham made his highest one-day score - a hard-hit 60 from 69 deliveries.
He combined with Mark Greatbatch, who had replaced an injured John Wright at the top of the order, in an opening stand of 114.
It was the first time he had seen Allan Donald in the flesh and indeed many of the other superstars at the tournament.
''It was an interesting dilemma for me because my role in the team when I was opening with Wrighty was to give the ball a bit of a crack. When Paddy came out and did that I was in a bit of a dilemma as what to do. As it turned out we were both scoring at a run a ball and kept going.''
Things ''kept going'' almost all the way to the end.
New Zealand won seven consecutive games but tripped up against Pakistan in the last pool game.
Most of New Zealand was not too disappointed with the result because it spelled the end of Australia's semifinal prospects.
Pakistan had more riding on the game.
It needed to win to get a semifinal berth.
That semifinal was against New Zealand.
Latham was left out of the playing XI but fielded for Crowe, who strained his hamstring while batting.
New Zealand put on 262 for seven. In those days, that was the sort of score you would back yourself to defend.
Pakistan got bogged down in the chase and needed an unlikely 123 from 15 overs.
But Inzamam-ul-Haq transformed the match with some powerful hitting.
He whacked 60 from 37 balls and Miandad played the anchor role with an undefeated innings of 57.
''When you get a guy like Inzamam playing like that, it is pretty difficult to stop. And obviously Martin had got injured and didn't take the field.
''But that is not the reason we lost. I thought we bowled poorly and they had a guy that batted really well. And Javed is a street fighter from the back blocks of Pakistan and he was instrumental in keeping Inzamam going and getting them there in the end.''
Pakistan went on to win the tournament. Tom was born 12 days later, on April 2.
Latham senior rather hopes his youngest son will get to experience something similar this summer.
''It would be pretty cool if he managed to get in the team. And given the way they are playing at the moment, and have been for the last 12 to 18 months, I think they have a real show.
''If they play to their potential, they have as good a chance as anyone else of being in that final and potentially winning it.''
