Yahoo Lifestyle 32 "Wonderful" Things From The Past That The Younger Generations Don't Even Know They're Missing Out On
At the not-that-old age of 39, I've already seen the world around me change a lot. So, I'm fascinated by how even older adults have seen trends come and go. Recently, older adults on Reddit shared wonderful things from the past that younger generations don't even know they're missing, and it made me really nostalgic (yes, even for the things I was too young to experience). Here's what they had to say:
1."As it's the holiday season, the once-a-year airing of holiday specials and movies. No on-demand, VHS, DVD, streaming. It came on once, and that was it. If you missed it, you had to wait. But honestly, it was fun, the anticipation leading up to that day and time, when you'd plop down in front of the TV to watch the Grinch, Rudolph, etc. I miss that."
2."Handwritten letters."
"Particularly thank-you letters."
3."Heading down to the video store on a Friday night and crossing your fingers that there are still copies of the new releases. Getting a massive bag of chips, popcorn, and a soft drink, getting home, and having the best night of the week."
4."The satisfaction of angrily hanging up on someone with an old phone."
5."The concept of feeling totally safe as a kid in school, except for the schoolyard bully and the duck and cover drills."
6."Small towns filled with individually owned businesses that created a community, instead of chains of corporate-owned replicas of the store one town over."
"I moved to a tiny town and it is about a 45 drive to any chain, except Dairy Queen — the only fast-food joint in town.
It is like living in the Gilmore Girls, and I love it. Plus, my husband bought a fixer-upper for $6k about six years ago and has fixed it up cash only.
I work from home and now have about $1.5k in monthly expenses (car, insurance, groceries, etc.) and have a plan to save $700k in the next 10 years.
The American Dream is still alive, at least in rural Minnesota, but most people can’t live without endless consumption."
7."Showing up at the park (without planning) and finding your friends there looking to play — be it a team sport or hide and seek."
8."Secret songs at the end of a CD."
"Oh yeah! My friends and I would always call those 'Track 99.' That reminds me — how about the beep tones at the end of a cassette tape to let you know you had to eject it and flip it over?"
9."Bench front seats in cars. There was nothing better in high school than having your girlfriend with you in a car that had a bench front seat."
10."Not having your entire childhood online for the world to see."
"I'm always glad there were no cell phones when I was a kid. There would have been so many pictures of me being an idiot..."
11."Being able to just disappear for a couple of weeks on vacation. No phones. Nothing. Just loose on the continent on a motorcycle or in a car. No 'checking in.' No work intrusions. Just complete unaccountability until we decided to resurface."
12."Seeing the Milky Way at night."
13."Very specifically, how arcades felt and sounded back in the '80s. You can go to a retro arcade today, but it will not feel the same at all. There aren't all the kids; it isn't busy, the cacophony of all the games going at once, all with the sound turned up. That just won't happen anymore. Go into a retro arcade today and it's either also a bar/restaurant, so that vibe is ruined. Or if it is just an arcade, it's just not the madhouse it used to be. No kids coming and going with stacks of quarters. No constant sound of the quarter machine. You have to pay upfront for an hour time limit or debit cards or whatever."
14."Stupid and small, but I used to love calling time and weather. 'At the tone, the time will be...' We had a rotary phone that would actually call after the first three numbers, so you didn't have to dial the final random four."
"Wow, I’d totally forgotten about that. Thanks for bringing a smile to my face!"
15."Phone booths. If we had to call home and we didn’t have a dime on us, we could dial the operator (0) and tell them we needed to use our 10 cent credit and they would put the call through with no questions asked."
16."Having to wait by the radio for a song to play, then hope the DJ doesn’t talk through the whole entry so you can hit record for the best mix tape. Nothing was more exciting than listening to a mix tape made just for you that way."
17."Calling a business and having a nice, helpful person answer the phone within four rings and then help you."
"I am feeling this hard. Yesterday, I spent 45 minutes on the phone. A total of three minutes, I was talking to an actual human; Two of the humans couldn't help and had to transfer me to a third, who initially kept repeating the script 'til they realized what I actually needed."
18."Being able to go out cruising with your friends and nobody knows where you are or what you’re doing, and the only rule is to be home by curfew. I feel bad for kids whose parents watch their every single move. I can’t imagine how suffocating that must feel."
"On my co-worker's daughter's first day of high school, she was glued to her phone, watching the app she had tracking her daughter (yes, the daughter knew about the tracker). 'Now she's walking to History.' 'Now the day is over, and she's walking home.'
I can't imagine that's healthy for the daughter OR her mother."
19."'White space' in our lives. Six TV channels instead of hundreds. Unscheduled time for kids. Summer evenings where you just sat outside (for me it was a city front stoop where people would talk to each other). Reading the newspaper. Working on your car. Playing card games with your family. An hour of homework instead of endless homework. And on and on."
20."Real social interaction seems to be missing these days. People should have long, thoughtful conversations sometimes. Instead they have shallow conversations and seem to prefer typing out texts rather than an actual phone call. They'll spend so much money and effort to put something on social media so someone clicks like on their page but actually miss simply enjoying the moment. I see people worrying more about taking selfies or videos at events rather than enjoying the event or, shock, talking to their companions."
"At Thanksgiving this year, I watched the parents of a little boy sit at the table looking at their phones while he was trying to get their attention. It made me so sad. He's being raised by people who are privileging a phone screen over eye contact, connection, attentiveness, etc."
21."A bunch of different products have been ruined in the name of profitability. I feel bad knowing kids will grow up thinking shrinkflated products are the normal size of things, like cereal boxes an inch thick and tiny candy bars. And so many of the processed foods in the US were once much better than they are now. I miss the old Twinkies and fruit pies."
22."An attention span."
"I recovered much of mine by spending a couple of hours each morning reading printed books and doing word puzzles on paper. It also just makes for a nice start to the day over a cup or two of coffee."
23."Not having to know everyone's opinions. Thanks to social media, negativity and hate are spewed towards total strangers. I can't imagine people saying some of those things face-to-face with a stranger. I feel like I liked people better when I didn't know everything about them."
24."Nothing. They don't know how to do their own nothing, make up their own games or pastimes. It's all manufactured for them on the Internet, or programmed for them by parents."
25."Prank phone calls before there was caller ID."
26."Truly shared pop culture. Like going to school/work and everyone had watched the same thing on TV on the night before (especially if it was a big "event" like a miniseries or something). More or less familiar with the same music, saw the current movies because you could only see them when they were in the theater."
27."Do you remember when you would wait in line to buy tickets to a concert? It was first come, first serve. And ticket prices were reasonable. I loved it because the best seats went to the best fans. Now all the tickets go to brokers online that are then resold at triple the price. The only one that wins is Ticketmaster."
"Standing in line for hours to buy concert tickets was a social thing. It was fun, and we didn't mind doing it. Total strangers stuck together just hanging out and having fun.
I don't think there is anything like it now, and if there was, most people would just stand there scrolling and not interacting with each other."
28."Drive-in movies. There is only one operating in my entire state right now."
29."Local radio. Back in the '70s and '80s and even into the early '90s, local bands could get radio airplay on their local stations. As a result, they'd get a local following, and people would go out to clubs to see their favorite local bands play. In places like Boston, the club scene was robust enough that pretty much anyone who picked up a guitar could get a gig somewhere. I miss going out to see my friends play at some crappy little club. Kids don't go out to see music anymore unless it's a stadium show with a mega-star like Taylor Swift. I think it's because they don't listen to the radio anymore. And even if kids listened to the radio, these days almost all radio stations that are still around are corporate owned, and there's no way for a local band would get any airplay."
30."The anticipation and excitement of getting a roll of film developed."
"And severe disappointment when mum’s finger was ALWAYS in the way or all the heads were cut off."
31."Dating. You used to meet someone, go to a movie, dinner, or other event, CONVERSE throughout, and learn about each other. Then you went home to your own house and thought about the person you were just with and whether or not you actually liked what they were about and decided whether to do it again. Then, you dated for several months before sex and at least a year before marriage."
"My kids go online, swipe left or right, text someone, set up a meeting, and after a couple of meetings, they're having sex and practically living together. They never learn the nuances of the other person, never find out the skeletons in each other's closets, and then they get married. No wonder the divorce rate is astronomical. You married someone after six months that you are not the least bit compatible with."
32.And finally, "I grew up in mid-Missouri in the '60s. My family didn’t have air conditioning anywhere. It was hot because it was summer. It was normal. I slept against the screen widow and hoped for a breeze. As a young girl, during the long, hot afternoons, I lay in a hammock hung from a metal frame on the screen porch. The ceiling fan was always on. I read chapter books that felt so real my reality faded."
"My family moved into the air-conditioned world in 1970.
I continued my love of books but never completely disappeared into the pages as completely as I did on the shady porch."
What's something from the past that you think younger generations are missing out on? Tell us what you think in the comments.
