Yahoo Lifestyle 15 Once-Normal Behaviors From "Back In The Day" That We Absolutely Could Not Do In 2025
When you reminisce about the past, it might be hard to imagine doing some of those things you did then in 2025. So, when we asked the older adults of the BuzzFeed Community to share, "What's one thing normal at your time but is now bizarre to even think about?" a lot of them mentioned things I forgot ever existed. Here's what they said below:
1."Going to Disneyland or any theme park on a whim not costing $2,000 for the day. We used to go on a weekend as a family at least four times per year in the early and mid-'90s just because we could. Now, families are going into debt for this. They don't have to charge as much as they do at all, but greed knows no bounds."
2."Paying in cash. I remember paying everything in cash, and now it is weird. I always use my card, even for small purchases."
3."Having to go to the library to take out books to research a topic. Now you can just go on the internet."
4."I remember having to 'call time' to make sure all of our clocks were set correctly. Also, making prank phone calls because caller ID wasn’t a thing yet."
5."I remember when using a pay phone cost a dime. My dad gave me a dime to call my mom at home before we left the store, and I had to walk back to him and ask for a nickel because the price had gone up to fifteen cents."
—Pahz
"Checking the slot return of pay phones, you walked by just in case someone didn't retrieve their change. I found a quarter once!"
6."I remember that in order to change the channel on the TV, you did it by hand and then sat back down. Additionally, all television programming was done at 11:30 p.m., and then the national anthem. Good times."
7."A lighter and ashtrays in the car. Starting in elementary school, clay art projects and nearly every kid made their parents an ashtray. We had a lot of ashtrays!"
8."I once explained to my 7th graders that when I was a kid, if I missed a favorite TV show, I’d have to wait until the summer reruns to see it. One of the boys raised his hand and asked, 'Why didn’t you just watch it on streaming?'"
9."Eating in a restaurant full of smoke. People would light up for their after-dinner smoke and coffee. Tables had ashtrays with the name of the restaurant on them. People could buy them to use at home as souvenirs."
"Last time I spent a night out at a bar, I came home and realized how awesome it is to come home from a night out and not need to fumigate your hair and clothes."
10."Being super excited to thumb through the newspaper so you could see which movies were playing in the theaters that weekend and what the showtimes were. And there were WAY fewer new movies that came out, but almost every one that did was worth seeing. You can’t even keep up with all the movies they release now, and most of them are crapfests."
11."Comic books you could buy at the five-and-dime that were 12 cents."
12."Looking forward to Friday nights because it was Blockbuster night! Drive out, get a movie or two, maybe a video game, and candy. Hope you got there and the new release still had copies available. Make a special trip out on Sundays to return it. It was mind-blowing when they started to carry DVDs. Good memories."
13."Going to eat somewhere and putting some money in a jukebox to hear songs, which meant everybody there got to hear your choices. Fancier places had devices at each booth that let you select songs without having to wait in line at the jukebox."
14."My high school offered a bowling class. It was a P.E. credit and held at a nearby bowling alley. Since bowling alleys are notorious for being smoky, our teacher didn't care if we smoked during that class. We also learned how to score bowling on paper, and that's literally the only time I've ever used paper scoring for bowling because it was the late '90s and electronic scores were already implemented everywhere."
15."I remember going to the drive-in theater, and two of us would hide in the trunk and two of us would climb on top of our station wagon. I remember falling asleep with my girlfriend on top of the car during the late feature after a necking session. Great fun!!"
If you're an older person, tell us the "once-normal" things from back in the day that would be considered outdated today in the comments below.
