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

[Lilia A]

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

Depending on how young the kids are, they don't call them cell phones. It's usually smartphones or just phones, but since many households don't have landlines anymore, cell phones are the only phones they know.

I got one. Having a 1Mbps download internet connection and feeling like you own the world because no one has ever had such fast internet. Oh and another one, having to buy a wifi adapter because you just bought a desktop and everyone knows that those things didn't have built-in wifi reception. Ok and one not tech related, paying less than $1.5 for a TTC ride. That one makes me sad, actually.

 

[made_in_canada]

Rolling down car windows by hand

I took my kids to a touch a truck event and there was an old fire truck there. My kids were fascinated by the window crank. They had no idea what it was. They’ve also asked about rotary phones in older kids books.

 

[A.H.Black]

No chips as such. I remember when Fritos first hit the market, then Cheetos, then Doritos. Before that, it was just potato chips - which we used on top of casseroles and to make crispy chicken (crushed with corn flakes). No bread crumbs unless you made them.

 

[Prancer]

- Curfew

Curfews, both parental and civic, absolutely still exist. Kids get arrested in the burg for being out too late on a pretty regular basis.

Rolling down car windows by hand

There are still cars that have crank windows. A lot of my young female students drive Chevy Sparks and crank they do. My daughter has a Mazda2 (no longer sold in the US) and it has crank windows, too.

Landline phones

Their grandparents often have them.

Writing checks

And addressing an envelope for snail mail. Neither of my kids recognizes US postal stamp on sight.

 

[Amy L]

My 2014 Nissan Versa has crank windows. I hate them but otherwise it's a sturdy little cheapish car that's served me well so far.

 

[Cachoo]

Film projector to show family movies

A camera to film family outings that had a massive light attachment for indoor filming.

Sadly—open discrimination in all sorts of ways. I distinctly remember hearing that a local restaurant had a “No Mexicans” sign.

 

[her grace]

Microfilm

 

[Cachoo]

Cigarette tv advertising: The Marlboro Man, You’ve Come A Long Way Baby ( Virginia Slims), Winston—tastes good like a cigarette should…and more…
Cigarette smoke everywhere: At work in the office, in restaurants, on planes etc…

 

[Amy L]

Cigarette tv advertising: The Marlboro Man, You’ve Come A Long Way Baby ( Virginia Slims), Winston—tastes good like a cigarette should…and more…
Cigarette smoke everywhere: At work in the office, in restaurants, on planes etc…

Candy cigarettes! My parents owned a gas station when I was a little kid. I remember the fake cigarettes were gum, and I think maybe some kind of vaguely minty candy?

 

[once_upon]

Curfews, both parental and civic, absolutely still exist. Kids get arrested in the burg for being out too late on a pretty regular basis.

True. The college curfews I was referring to were extremely restrictive.

Dates or nights out were limited to 2 per month and one could be out to 11:30 pm and one was 10 pm. Unless you were working the 3-11 shift at the hospital.

Deleted rest of post

 

[Vash01]

Writing checks, apparently!

I still write checks- fewer than I used to. I have automatic payments and I pay my credit cards by cell phone. However, I write and mail checks to my painting teacher. I still hand a check to my yard maintenance guy.

 

[Garden Kitty]

Trying to line up pagination when you made a revision to a paper you had typed.

 

[my little pony]

driving around lost. one of my first jobs was substitute teacher and every day I went someplace different and if they gave me any directions at all it was all landmark based like "2 or 3 lights after the cemetery." once a road was closed on the way to my grandparents and we were lost for hours. every time we stopped to ask someone it just got worse.

 

[PRlady]

driving around lost. one of my first jobs was substitute teacher and every day I went someplace different and if they gave me any directions at all it was all landmark based like "2 or 3 lights after the cemetery." once a road was closed on the way to my grandparents and we were lost for hours. every time we stopped to ask someone it just got worse.

As someone born without any sense of direction, I feel seen.

 

[Karen-W]

And addressing an envelope for snail mail. Neither of my kids recognizes US postal stamp on sight.

Nahhhh... that's not true at all. Younger niece and some of her friends used to write and mail each other letters pre-pandemic. They enjoyed doing it and then would tall about their letters the next time they saw each other, which was usually at least once a month, sometimes more frequently. Granted, they lived in different cities, but they enjoyed the novelty of snail mail.

My contribution to this discussion - pay phones! Especially the "do you accept a collect call from...?" being the code for the parents to know it was time to pick their kid up from wherever they were, lol.

 

[Japanfan]

Trying to line up pagination when you made a revision to a paper you had typed.

Typewriter white-out for mistakes.

Telephone books.

The yellow pages.

 

[Vagabond]

Cursive
Pencils
Manual pencil sharpeners
Writer's bump
Aerograms
Film
Transistor radios
Telephone booths
Collect calls
White tennis balls
Lickable postage stamps
Kennedy half dollars

 

[just tuned in]

Bouncing around in the back of the station wagon with no seat belts.

We had 4 kids in my family -- 3 girls and a boy. There was a gap of 12 years between me (the oldest) and my brother. On car trips, the three girls sat in the back seat of the car, and our little brother lay longways across our laps, and we girls fought over who would get the head, and who would get the feet.

 

[PRlady]

Televisions that you got up to change the channel.
Top 40 on AM radio.
Morris the cat.
Cars without seat belts

 

[Cachoo]

Glass pop bottles in vending machines. My parents insisted Coca Cola was better in an icy cold bottle. (And you could get a deposit back if you returned it)

Hamburger, fries and drink that were the portion size of a Happy Meal as a regular adult meal.

No drive-thru windows

 

[emason]

Green Stamps

 

[Dobre]

The excitement of getting picked to be one of the two kids to go down to the special eraser machine to clean the erasers.

Chalk Board Easer Cleaner Machine Old School Vintage School - Etsy

Little Giant Vintage Chalk Board Eraser Cleaner. These were in the boiler room with the custodian. Every child wanted to clean the erasers on this cool machine. One of a kind. Works Heavy 10lbs Large quantity Adult School Chairs https://www.etsy.com/shop/oldgoatandhorse?section_id=24913589

www.etsy.com

 

[Evgeniafan]

Bouncing around in the back of the station wagon with no seat belts.

We had 4 kids in my family -- 3 girls and a boy. There was a gap of 12 years between me (the oldest) and my brother. On car trips, the three girls sat in the back seat of the car, and our little brother lay longways across our laps, and we girls fought over who would get the head, and who would get the feet.

That was so much fun. Riding in the back of a truck. Standing up in the car .

 

[Prancer]

Nahhhh... that's not true at all. Younger niece and some of her friends used to write and mail each other letters pre-pandemic. They enjoyed doing it and then would tall about their letters the next time they saw each other, which was usually at least once a month, sometimes more frequently. Granted, they lived in different cities, but they enjoyed the novelty of snail mail.

I guess I just don't know enough young people.

 

[Vagabond]

When I was in second grade, some of my classmates and I went to the "soda fountain" (the sort of shop where you could buy soft drinks, milk shakes, and the like) across the street from our school. Do second graders do such things on their own any more?

 

[Cachoo]

I still write checks- fewer than I used to. I have automatic payments and I pay my credit cards by cell phone. However, I write and mail checks to my painting teacher. I still hand a check to my yard maintenance guy.

I keep mine around but my new yard guy likes Venmo. So I switched for him.
I remember life before ATM machines and I wonder if we will see them disappear as people conduct transactions on their phones. I wonder if paper money disappears.

 

[annie720]

Girls not being allowed to wear slacks to school (pubic). In my case, that lasted until my junior year of high school. In elementary school we could wear slacks under our dress when it snowed, but they had to come off when we got to school. When my older sister was in college, shorts could only be worn on your dorm floor. You could wear long pants in the lobby to get your mail, but only dresses/skirts were allowed outside of the dorm. William & Mary, mid-late 60s.

 

[once_upon]

I keep mine around but my new yard guy likes Venmo. So I switched for him.
I remember life before ATM machines and I wonder if we will see them disappear as people conduct transactions on their phones. I wonder if paper money disappears.

True story - my husband worked on the software development for ATM. I actually told him it was a silly thing to do. "Why would you drive up to a machine to get cash? Just go to the bank on Friday evening and get cash out."

He liked to remind me of that for 25 years or so. Then one day it didn't seem to be that funny anymore. Every now and then, he'll mention it. But mostly we do online banking so even the ATM is becoming a not so important thing.

 

[Lilia A]

I keep mine around but my new yard guy likes Venmo. So I switched for him.
I remember life before ATM machines and I wonder if we will see them disappear as people conduct transactions on their phones. I wonder if paper money disappears.

I think ATM machines will eventually disappear, but it will take a long time. Kind of like pay phones. They used to be everywhere and now they're pretty much only at airports and at a few other places. But ATM's, I think bank tellers will be limited to one per shift before ATM's disappear. But I agree that people aren't using them as much. Most transactions can be done with mobile banking and most places accept Apple or Google pay, in addition to credit/debit. I still carry emergency cash with me just in case, but most people I know stopped doing that a few years ago.

 

[Cachoo]

Reading through this I do wonder how much Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos and a few others have changed our lives. If someone would have tried to describe my current phone to me in, say, 1980 I would have a hard time grasping anything except making a phone call.
I don’t miss rotary dial phones.