Yahoo Lifestyle People Are Sharing Their Childhood Experiences That Would Leave Young People Today Scratching Their Heads
If you're over 30, then you know there are a ton of things that instantly age us when we say them out loud to younger people. For example, saying you remember celebrating birthdays at Discovery Zone will probably get you a big "what's that?" response from a young person today.
Recently, Reddit user mark30322 was curious about those moments when they asked: "Without saying your age, name something you remember from your childhood that younger people would just not understand."
Well, hundreds of people replied with things from their childhood that don't make any sense today. Here are the top and best comments:
1."Hours spent with your finger hovering over the 'record' button to record your favorite song off the radio onto cassette. Also hoping the DJ shuts up so he doesn’t ruin it."
2."Test pattern on the TV, right after the national anthem at midnight."
3."Being able to free roam for miles away from home after school without your parents having a clue where you are."
4."Germany was two countries."
5."Having to fine-tune the TV antenna after you selected the channel."
"Rabbit ears on the TV set. Standing in weird positions by the TV to get the right signal to see and hear your shows clearly."
6."Dialing the phone to call for local time and temperatures."
7."You Can't Do That on Television."
"LOL, I wasn't allowed to watch that because, 'If it's not allowed on TV, then it's probably inappropriate.' Pretty sure my parents just thought it was juvenile."
8."The Archies records on the Sugar Crisp cereal box."
9."Six to eight weeks for delivery."
10."A pencil can rewind music."
11."Calling the movie theater to get showtimes."
12."Cracker Jacks! When I was little, there were amazing prizes in the boxes. Once I got a tiny plastic elephant that you snapped together from the parts. It had a wheel on the bottom and a mahout riding on its back, and when you rolled it along, the mahout went up and down. Later they dropped the prizes in favor of stupid stickers, and now they just include a piece of paper with a link to a lame online game."
13."Going to the corner store by yourself at age 6 to buy cigarettes for your parents."
14."We had a TV made of wood."
15."Rotary telephones."
"And people with those terrible numbers that had a lot of nines and zeros! The excruciating time spent waiting for the rotary phone after a zero was dialed. Aaargh!"
16."Saturday morning cartoons."
"The ONLY reason to get up early on a Saturday. If we were lucky, we had from 7 a.m. to 1p.m. of uninterrupted cartoons and shows."
17."Fotomats. Having to drive up to pick up photos from our vacation."
"And paying a surcharge for express photo service. One hour!!! The technology!!! But seriously, I loved getting photos developed."
18."Sticking your finger in the coin return of pay phones and vending machines to see if anybody left some change."
19."It was f'ing game-changing when my parents brought home a typewriter that had correction tape."
20."Paying for something ONCE and keeping it forever."
21."I remember my parents had a 'VHS rewinder,' it was a machine thats only purpose was to rewind VHS tapes. That's how we binge-watched back in the day. Popped a movie out of the VCR; after it was done, it went into the rewinder. While the new tape went into the VCR."
22."Programming the VCR. The number of times I missed the beginning or end of Dawson's Creek (which aired on Friday nights in New Zealand) is horror young people will never have to endure."
23.And lastly, "Get off the phone, I need to use the computer!"
You can read the full thread of responses on Reddit.
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and/or clarity.
