Yahoo Lifestyle 17 Grandparents Shared The Things They Had To Explain To THEIR Grandparents, And It Just Shows Some Things Never Change
I'm one of those people who is resistant to change. If it ain't broke, why fix it? Well, I recently stumbled onto a Reddit thread that has opened my eyes to the fact that it's always been like that. Here are 17 stories of grandparents who were resistant to "the next big thing" in their day, which were things like microwaves and debit cards.
1."My father (born 1922) told me his grandfather refused to believe in radios; he figured someone was pulling his leg."
2."My grandma was born in 1925. She once told me that her 4th-grade teacher told the class that in the future, you'd be able to talk to a person across long distances while seeing them at the same time! My grandma vividly remembers thinking that it was the dumbest thing she'd ever heard."
3."My lovely grandma used her microwave for one thing only: heating water. It was adorable. She also only used email once. Her message to me... 'Your dad made me do this. I'll never be the same again. Love, Grandma.'"
4."LOL. When my mother passed away in June 2018, I realized my dad had no idea how to use his debit cards because my mother handled everything like that. We had to go to an ATM to actually practice taking cash out and then go into a shop to practice using the card to pay for things. He was totally blown away, and after using contactless to pay for some newspapers, he exclaimed, 'My god, It's so easy!!' The shopkeeper could barely conceal her laugh."
5."Family legend has it that my farmer grandad (still with us, in his 90s now) tried to stop his first tractor by shouting 'whoa!' at it like he would with his draft horse. The tractor, obviously, ignored him entirely, and grandad and the machine ended up in the canal."
6."My dad tried to turn my CDs over like records in the early '90s."
7."When my great-grandmother first had electricity installed in her house, she was given an electric clothes iron. After ironing, she would insist on leaving it plugged in and placed on a high shelf 'so the leftover electricity would drain back out.' Apparently, it took a long time to convince her that electricity did not work like water."
8."My Grandma, who was in her 90s and had email, thought that the email was 'delivered' to her inbox by people. My mom would tell her she sent her something, and my grandma would say, 'Well, they probably haven't delivered it yet,' when most likely it was in spam."
9."I had to teach my grandparents how to use their first answering machine. They tried to record their 'nobody is home' message, and we got a recording of them arguing over what button to push to record. Very funny and cute. 'I think this is the button?' 'I already pushed it, Mary! Now, what do you do?! Damn contraption!'"
10."A record player. They have three speeds: 33 rpm for LPs, 45 rpm for singles, and 78 rpm for the old-timey records. My grandparents had theirs set to 33. I was messing around with it and left it at 45. They called my parent, ranting that I had broken it. I told them how to fix it by just moving the control that is slightly visible at the front. The next time I visited, they accused me of breaking it again. I had to change the setting and was told never to touch it again. The irony was completely lost on them."
11."Convincing a grandparent that he was not going to be able to replace his manual shift car with a newer car that was going to have the shift lever on the steering column like he was used to."
— u/[deleted]
12."My high school got computers my senior year. Admin hunted for a teacher who had a free period so they could teach computer class. One of my favorite school memories is the football coach standing at the front of the room offering extra credit to whoever could figure out how to turn the computer on."
13."Child-proof caps on medication in the early '70s. None of the adults could figure that shit out, so they'd hand their bottles of meds to the kids for us to open. Everyone thought it was funny as hell."
14."One of us left a GameBoy at my grandma's house, and she started playing on it. She loved it. We all chipped in and got her one, and eventually, she would hide it when the kids came over so no one would mess with her score. Miss you, nanny."
— u/Ask_me_4_a_story
15."I asked my grandpa (born ~1930s) what the 'devil technology' was when he was growing up. He said his parents refused to have a television in the house because it would ruin them. He and his friends had to run off to the barber shop anytime they wanted to watch TV. Also, automatic windows in cars are evil. According to his dad, 'If you're too lazy to roll up a window, you're too lazy to drive a car.'"
— u/[deleted]
16."When my paternal grandmother (born 1898) first moved into a house with an electric stove, my mom got a call asking her why the burners were making tons and tons of smoke. Apparently, Grams had been 'lighting' the burners the same way she did with her wood and gas stoves: with matches and kindling. Under the stovetop, there were piles of half-burnt sticks, matches, and wads of paper- not to mention a thick layer of ash. It took a couple of takes, but she eventually got it. Then years later, when someone gave her an electric iron, we found out that she cut the cord off and set it on the stove to heat up, like a 'real' iron."
17.Finally: "Of all the possible things: zucchini. They weren't a common vegetable at the time, not to speak of cultivating them. When I plopped a few seeds in the cucumber plot, my grandmother was horrified by the devil's weed. It was a good year; the leaves were as big as an umbrella, and understandably, they were a bit startling. Once curiosity won over suspicion of new things, zucchini became a staple in the village. Sadly. I don't like zucchini; I only wanted to grow some random seeds for the fun of it. Soup, bread, salad, and even CAKE were suddenly made with them. Hork."
Do you have a silly grandparent story? Tell us in the comments below!
