Something "kids" today wouldnt know about....

[once_upon]

This may be silly and boring/no interest in, but what's something you experienced/did growing up, that would be something someone younger than you might think really really strange?

When I was a freshman in college we had one telephone for our floor of 30 dorm rooms. It was next to the lounge and any of us answered it yelling for the who it was for.

On Tuesdays and Saturdays nights, we would stand in line to have our turn at making an outgoing phone call. Limit was 5 minutes (most of them were shorter than that because of costs of long distance charges).

- Curfew
-Dorm parents.
-Receiving living room, where your date picked you up.

 

[quartz]

Hitch-hiking.

 

[skategal]

8 track, Cassette tapes and CDs.

Vinyl records seem to be making a bit of a comeback among certain groups of teens.

 

[Cachoo]

MU4-6752 Anyone recognize this?

 

[Judy]

8 track, Cassette tapes and CDs.

Vinyl records seem to be making a bit of a comeback among certain groups of teens.

I miss vinyl records lol.

what kids wouldn’t know about - cell phones! (That’s an easy one).

 

[once_upon]

MU4-6752 Anyone recognize this?

Phone number?

 

[Cachoo]

Phone number?

Yep—I don’t know why I remember something from 60 yrs ago. There was also the silver box on the porch where the milkman delivered glass bottles of fresh milk and picked up the used bottles.

 

[Amy L]

Waiting for a song to come up on the radio or MTV (!) with the cassette/VHS player in order to record it.

Trying to "save" a cassette by slowly, carefully rewinding it with the help of a pencil.

Being the youngest kid, therefore the designated channel changer when the living room TV didn't have a remote.

Rotary phones!

Dialup modems! The generational war that started everytime you were online and one of the parents wanted to make a phone call.

 

[tony]

what kids wouldn’t know about - cell phones! (That’s an easy one).

Kids today wouldn't know about cell phones? Okay then..

I was going to say dial-up modems as well. 20-30 minutes to download one song. Hours to download one video. Only having a home phone and AOL blocking the line all day. Blockbuster and Family Video and all of that. Cursive.

 

[Japanfan]

Rotary phones.

Things that lasted a long time, especially TVs.

 

[Cachoo]

Counting back change—the cash register I first worked on was not a computer so the cashier had to know how to do this.

Running a charge card and tearing out those pesky carbons.

The addictive smell of the mimeograph machine when in use.

 

[Tesla]

Typewriters

 

[Vash01]

Typewriters

Film cameras and processing the film roll to get prints

Rolling down car windows by hand

Landline phones

 

[PRlady]

Mimeograph machines and That Smell. My friend and I were talking about that this morning!

 

[JJH]

Party lines on telephones.
Taking the the bus downtown to go to the library with a friend when you're both 8 years old.
Walking to school by yourself or with a friend from second grade and up. Crossing a 2lane highway with no light. Crossing Main Street with a light. No crossing guards.

Carbon paper. Does anybody still use carbon paper?

No window unit air conditioners.

 

[Cachoo]

Overhead projectors
S&H Green Stamps
Does anyone sell butterscotch sundaes anymore?
The last Automat closed in NYC in 1991.

 

[once_upon]

Overhead projectors
S&H Green Stamps
Does anyone sell butterscotch sundaes anymore?

Dairy Queen.

 

[once_upon]

Yep—I don’t know why I remember something from 60 yrs ago. There was also the silver box on the porch where the milkman delivered glass bottles of fresh milk and picked up the used bottles.

Our best friend's dad was a milkman. Delivered milk to all those milk cartons up to late 60's.

 

[Cachoo]

Overhead projectors
S&H Green Stamps
Does anyone sell butterscotch sundaes anymore?

Dairy Queen.

Not here… They dropped it.

 

[once_upon]

Label makers - hours of punching letters to make overhead transparencies for class instruction

Glass syringes. I know we also used to reuse needles- I'm not sure when or how we sharpened them. Glass baby bottles.

 

[Cachoo]

Cars that were slow to start in cold weather
Sears Wishbook’s arrival before Christmas packed with all sorts of toys.
Homemade treats for Halloween
Yearly celebration of May Day when we made baskets with flowers for our neighbors
No disposable diapers and professional diaper services if affordable

 

[Buzz]

TVs with just two channels and no cable boxes.
Hand washing clothes
Hand written letters!

 

[once_upon]

Wringer washers - my aunt couldn't believe that I actually used one at my other grandma's house. And it wasn't the fancy electric one her sister had (my other aunt).

Butter churn, that took forever

 

[Vash01]

Telegrams

TV without remote control

B&W TV

 

[Jenny]

All of the above, plus seeing someone on tv and wondering what you've seen them in or trying to remember a song lyric or arguing about whether a celebrity was dead or alive or who was the guy who played on that team and had the funny name and it would nag on you for days, weeks even months, and now you can have your answer in about 5 seconds.

 

[Cherub721]

Buying a TV, antenna, and radio and then just using it and not having to pay a monthly fee.

 

[PRlady]

All of the above, plus seeing someone on tv and wondering what you've seen them in or trying to remember a song lyric or arguing about whether a celebrity was dead or alive or who was the guy who played on that team and had the funny name and it would nag on you for days, weeks even months, and now you can have your answer in about 5 seconds.

My brother in law and I were complaining about this last night because our brains are stuffed with that kind of trivia and nobody needs us anymore. Of course we are older and memory is failing anyway.

 

[Amy L]

My brother in law and I were complaining about this last night because our brains are stuffed with that kind of trivia and nobody needs us anymore. Of course we are older and memory is failing anyway.

There are plenty of people too lazy to even Google I fight with my husband about dumb trivia all the time and I have to pull out my phone to prove I'm right and boo-ya My brain is exclusively stuffed with trivia and our usefulness has dimmed but it has not died.

 

[Cachoo]

A tennis match with wooden racquets; less power but more rallies and more moving to the net

Skating figures (not that we knew much about them since we only sporadically saw figure skating on tv.)

I grew up with two drive-in movies within a mile of my home. My parents took us often when we were kids.

 

[genevieve]

Writing checks, apparently!