Kids Today Will Never Understand These Old School Experiences
Based on the number of articles I’ve read online about “things today’s generation will never understand”, it’s a popular way for us older folk to reminisce about the past and compare our childhood experiences with those of younger generations.
This topic has been on my mind since seeing this YouTube video where a father challenges his 17-year-old son and a friend to figure out how to successfully dial an old school rotary phone. Not only did that video leave me in stitches, it also reinforced just how different my teenage years were compared to those kids!
So I thought I’d share my own list of things we experienced back in the day that our kids (or grandkids) can’t fathom, either because things are done differently now or because they involve items that are now obsolete. It ended up being a fun walk down memory lane, and I hope you have as much fun reading it as I did writing it!
15 Things That Younger Generations Will Never Understand
With the way technology and science have advanced during my life to this point, my mind boggles to think what I will see before I reach the end of it!
Kids today will never understand…
…waiting for photos to get developed (to say nothing of having to pay for them) and then having to be content with how they turned out — no do-overs, touch-ups, or filters!
…making and taking calls on the ONE house phone with zero privacy, nor the panic of not knowing who was calling and trying to convince whoever picked up the phone to tell that person you weren’t home.
…the ephemeral nature of movies. After you saw a movie in the theater, that was it — you didn’t have a VHS, DVD, or streaming release to look forward to down the road. (That made it really a big deal when a movie finally started airing on network TV!)
…not being able to talk on the phone and be online at the same time, nor the ear-splitting noise that the modem always made when connecting to the internet.
…how long it took to heat up leftovers in the oven or on the stove because microwaves and toaster ovens didn’t exist.
…how much trust was involved in making plans. When someone said they’d meet you at 3:30 in front of food court at the mall, all you could do was show up at 3:30 and hope they’d show up too!
…manually changing the time on every electronic device in the house during Daylight Saving Time or when the power went out, because none of the clocks changed automatically.
…rolling up car windows with a handle instead of a button; unlocking cars with a key instead of a fob; and navigating with paper maps instead of GPS. (My family had a Thomas Guide under the front seat, but we still pulled into a lot of service stations to ask for directions.)
…(or at least not very many will understand) the simple joy of carrying on a correspondence through real handwritten letters sent and received by mail.
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…how it feels to not be able to look something up or verify information on the spot.
…having to plan their banking around the hours that your bank branch was open, nor only being able to shop during business hours Monday through Saturday.
….the mystery of not knowing exactly what their friends are doing or saying or thinking at any given moment.
…calling “time and temperature” on the phone to get the day’s forecast. (I still remember calling 853-1212 in southern California, and that some girls would give that number out to guys they didn’t like.)
…looking up movie showtimes in the newspaper or calling the theater and listening to a long list of movies and showtimes until the movie you wanted to see was announced in the rotation.
And last, but certainly not least, kids will never understand just how boring it used to be to sit on the toilet.
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What is something you think babies born today will never know?
NEW! Can you guess the 5-letter word related to today’s post?
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Go way, way back, Jillee–
How about the cost of seeing a movie at a theater? Back in my day, kids were $.50 and adults were $.75.
No remotes for the TV–YOU were the remote! Every time dad or mom wanted the channel changed, they had you go to the TV and change the channel.
Black & White TV shows only, plus very few stations. And don’t forget the “rabbit ears” on top of the TV console to get better reception AND the antenna on the roof of your house.
Swanson’s TV dinners. The first company to come up with the idea, so we could sit and watch our favorite show–and have dinner at the same time without having to sit at the dining room or kitchen table.
As to manually changing our clocks, we still do, because when the power goes out, all the electric clocks sta
Please log in or create a free account to comment.(Sorry) my post changed!)
…All the electric clocks started blinking on 12:00 until you changed them. We still change ours, and not just for DST.
Having the “high beam” in the car as a button on the floor that you push with your left foot.
45’s, 33’s and 78’s as vinyl records with the tinny sound coming from your portable record player.
8-track and cassette tapes for music IF your car had the capability to play them.
“Penny candy” was just that: it cost a penny.
Soda bottles that you redeem for cash–some states still have what is known as “Redemption Centers,” where you have to return the plastic, aluminum, or glass containers, usually for 5 cents per item.
Making up your own games outside with your neighborhood friends, rather than sitting for hours alone staring at a video game and playing with controllers (Nintendo, Play Station, etc.).
IMHO– we had it a LOT better than the newer generations.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I miss those days…
Driving a stick-shift
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Yup. Still remember it. I had a 1990 car that was a six-speed shift on the floor.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.LOVED that car!
Not sure if I can still drive a stick anymore…
Love your articles. I see so many interesting and unique ways to use things around my house and I look forward each night to just sitting and reading all of the tips that come in so handy. Thanks for taking the time to share with your readers.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Awww Lynn! You made my day. Thank you for your kind words. I am so happy that you love my newsletter and tips! I’m here to make people’s lives easier with bright ideas, simple solutions, beauty routines, recipes, and natural products, to help you create a home and life you love.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I agree about not having the time and temperature numbers anywhere. Rotary dials on phones. The one about party lines – my mom when I was born in the 60s trying to make an emergency call she was in labor with me and trying to make whoever was speaking Spanish understood it was an emergency. Also the 4-5 digit telephone numbers my folks occasionally talk about that when they grew up.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Party lines weren’t a big thing where I grew up, although occasionally we were connected to them.
My son in law grew up with the four digit phone numbers. He’s about 20 years younger than me. He said that it wasn’t too long after the 1970’s when they finally had to dial an area code and a normal seven digit phone number.
(Reminds me of the Andy Griffith Show: “Sarah, get me ___” Andy would say)
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Haha. We had a party line telephone. We also had names instead of area codes – our phone number (yeah I still remember) was Metcalf 3 0610.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.We had TWinbrook 2-8106, and our state only had two area codes.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Now it has five…
Doing engineering drawings manually, including doing all the appropriate calculations on an old style calculator or slide rule instead of using CAD.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.The more experienced of us draftsmen & women didn’t just do drawings, they were works of art with a style all of their own.
Not having a clue how to put a cloth diaper on a baby (with diaper pins)! And what rubber pants were.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I was taught how by my mother when she babysat as I was growing up, so I already knew how to pin the diaper on and use the rubber pants.
We also used a diaper pail. After rinsing the contents of the diaper into the toilet, you would put the used diaper in the pail, add water and one of two products:
“Diaper White,” or “Diaper Pure.” It sanitized the diapers until you could wash them AND it kept the odors down.
We also had a diaper service, where they would pick up the diaper pail, give you clean diapers and a new pail back. It was a weekly service, costing about $5.00 a week.
SO GLAD when ours were born Pampers were invented the year before our first baby came along.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.1968 small town in California, we only had to dial on the rotary phone the last five digits of a phone number, not the full seven numbers when making local calls.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.I guess since our state was next to New York, we were more populated. We had to dial all seven numbers.
Please log in or create a free account to comment.Now we all have to add the area code.