Things our kids can't imagine...

[Magpie]

Add to this - the teacher asking to borrow a pocket knife, and nearly every boy in class reaching for his pocket LOL

Wow, I got in a HUGE amount of trouble, back in 1980, for bringing a Swiss Army knife to school (Ontario, Canada, public school, Grade 3). I just wanted to sit and work on carving a stick I had, but some kid spotted me with the knife and went running to the teacher screaming. The teacher lectured me about bringing a "weapon" to school, took away my knife, and I spend the rest of the next few days with a pack of my classmates following me around chanting gleefully, "Killer! Killer! Who were were you gonna kill, killer!?"

Sigh... Not actually the worst memory I have of elementary school, though.

 

[Liberty Belle]

Is that a Canadian thing? I've never heard of phone numbers with letters?

I never had one (I'm 49), but my mom did (she's 74).

 

[AndreaDM]

Waiting for a radio station to read the list of school closings and hope you heard yours. Now you get emails and texts, it's on FB and websites.

Yep! And we always turned the radio on right after our school would have been read, then we had to sit and listen to all the Saint schools lol!

Getting milk delivered to our house in glass jugs.

 

[Liberty Belle]

Knowing exactly when The Grinch and The Year Without a Santa Claus were going to come on tv, because if you missed the one showing, that was it.

Simple birthday parties with cake and ice cream at the birthday child's home (no bouncies, laser tag, etc).

Rolling down car windows.

 

[Magpie]

Rolling down car windows.

Heh... our car is 15 years old. Our windows roll down.

Edit: Just out of curiosity, I looked it up. About 6 percent of all modern cars still have manual windows. This includes the Ford Fiesta, Chevrolet Silverado, Toyota Tundra, Kia Rio, and the Versa.

 

[sam_gordon]

Is that a Canadian thing? I've never heard of phone numbers with letters?

It was before my time, but I'm pretty sure the US had them (maybe back in the 40's or 50s?).

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

2 girls from my volleyball team (6th grade) didn't have a ride when practice ended at 8:00 last night. Took until 8:15 to get a phone answered & 8:30 to get Dad there.

I graduated HS in 1985 and a coach was required to stay for the last kid in those days. Most who had to call had a "trick". You'd use the pay phone, make a collect call to Mom, she'd refuse the charges, but knew that was the signal to come pick the kid up LOL

Off topic. But sort of related the post I quoted. My dad told me a story about when he was younger and wanted to impress his father (my grandfather). He dropped a letter to him in one of the big blue post office mailboxes in town and intentionally did not put a stamp on it. Only he wrote my grandfathers address where the return address should go and the letter found its way to my grandfathers mailbox without ever using a stamp. I wonder if this still works?

 

[sam_gordon]

You'd use the pay phone, make a collect call to Mom, she'd refuse the charges, but knew that was the signal to come pick the kid up LOL

I remember using the payphone in our school atrium when it was time to be picked up and once the parents answered, "clicking" the bar. Parents would hear the click and say "we're on our way". Then we'd have to wait 15-20 minutes (oh the horror!).

 

[Lilacs4Me]

Off topic. But sort of related the post I quoted. My dad told me a story about when he was younger and wanted to impress his father (my grandfather). He dropped a letter to him in one of the big blue post office mailboxes in town and intentionally did not put a stamp on it. Only he wrote my grandfathers address where the return address should go and the letter found its way to my grandfathers mailbox without ever using a stamp. I wonder if this still works?

Haha, that is an awesome trick!

Although I'm sure someone will point out the money it still costs the post office to "return" the letter. Still....super creative!

 

[mi*vida*loca]

2 girls from my volleyball team (6th grade) didn't have a ride when practice ended at 8:00 last night. Took until 8:15 to get a phone answered & 8:30 to get Dad there.

I graduated HS in 1985 and a coach was required to stay for the last kid in those days. Most who had to call had a "trick". You'd use the pay phone, make a collect call to Mom, she'd refuse the charges, but knew that was the signal to come pick the kid up LOL

Oh I remember calling collect froma payphone and when you had to say your name you would send a QUICK message. "Mom pick me up!" Sometimes if I was waiting for a bus or train I would call a friend and say the payphones phone number instead of my name. That would usually take two calls though. Then my friend would call me back and we would chat while I waited for my bus or train.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Knowing exactly when The Grinch and The Year Without a Santa Claus were going to come on tv, because if you missed the one showing, that was it.

Simple birthday parties with cake and ice cream at the birthday child's home (no bouncies, laser tag, etc).

Rolling down car windows.

My kids won't even pull the knob up to unlock the door. If they are in the back seat and can't push the automatic button to unlock the doors they wait for me to push it up front. I can't imagine what they would do if they had to roll down their windows.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

1) a telephone with a cord and rotary dial
2) no microwave oven
3) TV aerial on the roof. Get three chanels, one of which is reasonably clear
4) cursive writing

MG

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

I'm adding another....

Listening to records and tapes

Believe it or not vinyl records are making a big comeback among college students. My DS has started collecting records from the 60's and 70's. We actually got him a nice record player for Christmas this year!

ETA: Didn't read far enough...lots of people mentioned this already!

 

[mill4023]

But, I do think they do find it hard to imagine not being able to Google an answer to any question that occurs to them, the moment they think of it.

I think this is really the biggest one. The amount of information instantly available to us at any time, no matter where we are, is really astounding.
I was born in '71, so I grew up before the internet, and it's even hard for me to imagine how we used to have to do things. In addition to just getting answers to questions, think about how people did things we take for granted as being quick and easy now, like booking plane tickets or hotel reservations.

 

[stm61]

Having to wear dresses or skirts to school. Separate PE and health classes. The phone numbers with letters were around in the late 60's- early 70's.

 

[Party.Of.4-NY>>>FL]

Haha, that is an awesome trick!

Although I'm sure someone will point out the money it still costs the post office to "return" the letter. Still....super creative!

So true.
I have decided I will take a stamp from my desk drawer and throw it in the garbage. There......my father's debt has now been settled.

 

[NAB]

Cursive writing, no one writes anymore they either print or of course type. My kids have a hard time reading cursive writing and they are 16 and 19.

Actually respecting teaching in class and not having a phone to fill in there spare time at school . You either took a book out or just sat there and never complained to about it either. Wouldn't want to be a teacher these days. The things my kids tell me I usually say they let you do that...like eating in class...we never ever wanted to be caught chewing gum or anything in class.

 

[loves to dive]

No color TV and only 3 channels with rabbit ears on top.
No microwave
Pay phones
Roll down windows on cars
Cars with actual back seats
Heck with no internet, no computers
Manual typewriters
No digital clocks
AM radio only
8 track tapes
Going on car rides on Sundays, I loved these. The whole family would climb in the car and we would just go for a ride
Drive in movies
Ten cent cokes
No space program


Man, now I'm feeling kind of old.

 

[ImDMous]

Lining up at the local ticketmaster window at 6 in the morning because concert tickets were going on sale at 10.

Lining up for the movies at noon to see the midnight premiere of LOTR. All our movie theaters have assigned seating now and tickets go on sale a month ahead for big openings.

Racing home after school because your friend was going to call at 3.

Waiting until 8pm to call grandma in NY because long distance calls were cheaper at night.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Using the Dewey Decimal System and card catalog at the library to find books.

Research papers were hard back in the day! Limited to what your library had for books and having to hand print or use a typewriter.

I teach 6th, 7th and 8th Language Arts. We are doing research papers right now. They are still hard - all that MLA citation stuff is overwhelming to them. They also struggle a bit with the research because I do make them visit a library. They have to use one real book and one periodical (magazine, newspaper or scholarly journal) that was originally circulated in print (it can be archived on the web now though) and a website. They are all over the website, but struggle with the book and periodical.

Cursive writing, no one writes anymore they either print or of course type. My kids have a hard time reading cursive writing and they are 16 and 19.

Actually respecting teaching in class and not having a phone to fill in there spare time at school . You either took a book out or just sat there and never complained to about it either. Wouldn't want to be a teacher these days. The things my kids tell me I usually say they let you do that...like eating in class...we never ever wanted to be caught chewing gum or anything in class.

We also teach cursive at my school in grades 1-5. When they do research (especially in high school and college), primary source documents are often written in cursive. Hard to read these documents if you don't know cursive.

ETA: I teach at a classical school, so our curriculum is a little different than most public schools.