Things about your childhood that would baffle younger people of today

Not my kids, but students...

When I was a college freshman (97-98) we could either register for classes at the College Registrar's desk or over the phone at a designated time, entering codes for each class. These days you register on the computer.

That beats my time (85-86) when we signed up for classes in a huge gymnasium (state university) with three-part forms...
 
Couldn't get the permit until 16 in PA. But, there was no requirement of anything other than parents should drive around with you. You got your permit, turned around and got in the line for the license test.

It was done back then at the State Police barracks by State Police through a course in the parking lot. I did mine in an '83 Ford Escort. Tires squealed through the S turns and the officer chuckled and told me I'll get in trouble if I drive like that. 3 point turn, if it was another inch wider, I would have done a complete u-turn. The line was out the parking lot, down the road, and spilling out into the main road of 16 year old kids trying to get in for the driver's test. Last thing I had to do was parallel park in front of the building and it was so busy, the officer just told me to pull in and park and skip parallel parking.

I never practiced parallel parking. The first time I ever parallel parked was when my own 17 year old daughter had her permit 2 years ago and asked, "can you teach me to parallel park?" We were in the little course at the DMV she asked what I was doing on the phone. I was looking up youtube parallel parking, LOL.
That's nice of the officer to let you skip parallel parking.

Back then, as my state has gone to a graduated license system, in order to get your license you had to sign paperwork saying you did 50 hours of supervised driving, 10 of that 50 hours had to be nighttime (I'm not saying that everyone actually did a full 50 hours though lol). That might still be part of the requirements not positive.

I don't know how the driver's test at the DMV works honestly as I actually did driver's ed through a private company. It was an 8hr coursework day followed by 3 separate 2 hour driving lessons that you could do at your own pace so you could get it done in days or months whatever worked for the student. They picked you up too from your house or from your school. Now they taught parallel parking but my state does not require it. That driver's ed class allowed me to bypass the written and driving portion of the test at the DMV which was also required for a license so it was like a 5min process for me after that.

I will say parallel parking saved me when I was on campus working because almost all the parking spots were parallel after they stopped allowing University employees to park in the parking garage attached to the Campus Union for free. I'm good with my tiny car but I doubt I would be as good with a larger vehicle lol. My husband I would say is better overall at parallel parking because he's done it with more variety of vehicles than I have. I think he learned in driver's ed too but not at the same place I had mine at.
 
That beats my time (85-86) when we signed up for classes in a huge gymnasium (state university) with three-part forms...

I worked in higher education for almost 10 years, and my former boss told me about how they did that when she was a college student, and later when she started working in higher education. There were times during new student registration that I wondered if doing that would have been more effective.
 
Our family use to pick up AAA travel books for each state/section of state for trip planning.

As for National Parks, I remember as a child going with my mom to Ticket Master on the reservation day (however many weeks/months out) to snag our annual camping reservation for Yosemite. Later it would evolve to making phone reservations, constantly hitting redial at the designated time.

Now that you mention it, I think my Mom also got the AAA travel books too! But, I have more memories of the big yellow envelopes arriving from various states stuffed with brochures.

We never made it to Yosemite as a kid in the 70's. Wondering if they were the only NP to do it that way, because it is one of the most popular NP's in the country? We definitely didn't have to do anything like what you describe to any of the NP's we went to and always found a place to stay.

I am envious of your childhood and getting to go to Yosemite every summer!!! I have been lucky enough to go twice as an adult! (2009 and 2012. We were one of the last people to stay in the "tent cabins" before the big Hanta virus shut them all down! That was scary!) Anyway, I LOVE Yosemite and it is my second most favorite NP. Hoping to go back again in 2 years!
 


Not my kids, but students...

When I was a college freshman (97-98) we could either register for classes at the College Registrar's desk or over the phone at a designated time, entering codes for each class. These days you register on the computer.

When I was a college freshman ( 1979-80 ) We got assigned times to register by the first letter of last name and class. You went into a huge room with a desk for each department and pulled cards for the class you wanted to take then took the cards to the registrar to have your schedule for the next semester built. When the cards were gone the class was full. I was in a major where some classes were only offered say spring semester -miss it this year and you had to wait til next.
 
11:45 pm - 12:00 am Thursday was the only start time for a theater’s newest release vs. today’s 7 pm Thursday start time plus more start times.

Looking in a newspaper for movie start times.

Blue Laws.

Sears Christmas catalog was today’s Amazon.

Sex Ed was separated by your gender.

Turning your bike upside down and pretending to make ice cream with it.

Making homemade vanilla ice cream in a wooden barrel.

Spotlight. Hide and go seek in the dark with a flashlight in the neighborhood. When you found someone with your flashlight you yelled Spotlight.

Slip and slide.

Open school campus where you could leave and come back during lunch.

Ranch dressing was only available in restaurants or homemade.

Not such thing as cookie dough ice cream.
 
20190220_202158.jpg Here's one I didn't even remember. I saw two classic films at the movies last month. Both had an intermission. Beautiful visual prompt and everything.

It was an "oh crap yeah" moment. I must have been relatively young when they stopped that.
 
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Here's one I didn't even remember. I saw two classic films at the movies last month. Both had an intermission. Beautiful visual prompt and everything.

It was a "oh crap yeah" moment. I must have been relatively young when they stopped that.

I remember how our local community plays always had one (sometimes two) main intermission.

It would be either welcome or an annoyance, based on how badly one had to (or didn't have to!) use the restroom and/or stretch one's legs. :cutie:
 
Walking around town picking up pop bottles and returning them to the store for money. Smaller bottles were worth two cents, quart bottles were worth five cents. Then spending the money on candy and getting a bag full.
 
Beta vs. VHS
Film for cameras (panoramic, 110 mm, 35 mm), including developing them and waiting a week for the pictures to come in
Atari
Cartoons like Smurfs, Strawberry Shortcake, Transformers, He-Man, She-Ra, all those "classics" remade :P
TVs without remotes!
Antennas for TVs (interior and exterior)
Bricks for cell phones (see "Pretty Woman" for a sample)
Paper coupons
Doing math when there was no electricity ;) <--I still remember the old supermarket when the electricity went down, we couldn't use coupons and the cashiers had to calculate the cost of the fruit with the non-digital scale.
 
My DB was just telling me his DD was complaining about not having any milk one day and he told her she should get on her bike and ride the corner store (which is literally on the corner of their road and not far) and go buy for them like he used to do for our parents - her response "come on dad, it's not the 1900's anymore"!!

When I was in elementary, I went to a small private Catholic school up through 8th grade - teachers used to give us their money to walk and pick them up lunches at near by restaurants. We were also able to leave, with parent notes, and walk to and go to lunch at those restaurants as well on certain days.

Another thing - not being able to readily research a vacation location. A good example, my parents brought us to WDW in 1986 - never knew River Country even existed then!
 
My DB was just telling me his DD was complaining about not having any milk one day and he told her she should get on her bike and ride the corner store (which is literally on the corner of their road and not far) and go buy for them like he used to do for our parents - her response "come on dad, it's not the 1900's anymore"!!

When I was in elementary, I went to a small private Catholic school up through 8th grade - teachers used to give us their money to walk and pick them up lunches at near by restaurants. We were also able to leave, with parent notes, and walk to and go to lunch at those restaurants as well on certain days.

Another thing - not being able to readily research a vacation location. A good example, my parents brought us to WDW in 1986 - never knew River Country even existed then!
All of our elementary schools and the high school have open lunch. In elementary, you send in a form stating if your child will be eating in every day, and you then need a note when they are going out (sometimes my kids would walk home for lunch), and it’s typical for the 5th/6th graders to go out a couple of times a week, all of the schools have establishments in walking distance that offer lunch specials. There are tons of venues by the high school to feed 1200 students in one hour (and there is a small cafeteria as well).
 
JARTS! JARTS were legal and absurdly dangerous. How anybody thought those things were a good idea amazes me. But we loved them for all the wrong reasons. That said, most of our best toys came from things we made. Bike ramps were old boards laying on some bricks or a rock. We built tree forts using wood we found in dumpster or "found" on construction sites. My bike was a mix of parts I salvaged from the town dump. We played games like home run derby using an old tennis ball and a broken shovel handle. My family had money, we just never thought to ask our parents to buy these things. These days bike ramps are molded plastic, tree forts are built by parents to ensure they meet the HOA requirements (if they're even allowed). Bikes cost more than I paid for my first car.
 
When I was a kid, we got a polio vaccine on a sugar cube. A SUGAR CUBE. That was such a treat, I wanted to get in line again.

Sending my sister on a bus from Phila to Brooklyn NY. to visit relatives. You think we were sending her across the county on a stage coach the way we acted like we'd never see her again.

I got mine this way too.
 

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