Things our kids can't imagine...

[Magpie]

I have some old crocheting magazines from the 60's and 70's and the "Pen Pal" sections are full of rather desperate, sad letters from women basically begging someone to write to them. One example begins, "I am a shut-in and all I can do is enjoy TV and crafts..." Many others mention living on farms or in rural areas, away from other people. It's so much easier to reach out for human interaction these days, even if it's from behind a screen!

Obviously, people are still lonely, but I think kids these days would find it hard to imagine being quite so cut off from everyone else.

 

[ELSA711]

Only getting to see The Wizard of Oz once a year. I always looked so forward to that night and loved every minute of it.

I always tell my kids about this, we looked forward to it every year! It was such a big deal in my house

 

[Squirlz]

Writing a letter to a pen pal, or anybody for that matter, and waiting for them to write back.

 

[AppleDumpling]

Great thread. I can relate to most of these things. Besides all the electronic stuff, TVs, phones, cars, music formats, etc., I can think of some simple everyday things like:

Ice cube trays- I always spilled the water and made a mess.

Churchkey can openers- before pop tops on soda and other cans.

Hanging the wash to dry outside on a clothes line with clothespins.


The milkman, the ice cream man, the paperboy, the bookmobile.

Drive in movies, no drive-thrus at fast food places or banks.

Penny candy, Swanson TV dinners in the foil trays, sweet cereal with names like Sugar Pops and Super Sugar Crisp.

Making coffee in a percolator on the stove. Making popcorn in a pot (or JiffyPop, which we always managed to burn.)

Big high swing sets and seesaws on the school playground. We girls played hopscotch, snail, and jump rope, while the boys played handball, "kill the guy" (with the ball), or flipped baseball cards.

Ladies (of a certain age), two words: sanitary belts.

 

[penn19]

We had it when I was younger. I'm from Pa.

I texted my mom and asked her and she never heard of it, either. Maybe it's regional.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

Standing in line up to 2 hours for most rides at WDW Magic Kingdom.

 

[Tattylou]

Great thread. I can relate to most of these things. Besides all the electronic stuff, TVs, phones, cars, music formats, etc., I can think of some simple everyday things like:

Ice cube trays- I always spilled the water and made a mess.

Churchkey can openers- before pop tops on soda and other cans.

Hanging the wash to dry outside on a clothes line with clothespins.


The milkman, the ice cream man, the paperboy, the bookmobile.

Drive in movies, no drive-thrus at fast food places or banks.

Penny candy, Swanson TV dinners in the foil trays, sweet cereal with names like Sugar Pops and Super Sugar Crisp.

Making coffee in a percolator on the stove. Making popcorn in a pot (or JiffyPop, which we always managed to burn.)

Big high swing sets and seesaws on the school playground. We girls played hopscotch, snail, and jump rope, while the boys played handball, "kill the guy" (with the ball), or flipped baseball cards.

Ladies (of a certain age), two words: sanitary belts.

I still have ice cube trays....they still get spilled every time I fill them.

 

[Tattylou]

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!

Yes I had meant records/tapes as the only option...no digital downloads, ipods, phones, etc

 

[Gumbo4x4]

My mom used to talk about enjoying diagramming sentences, too! They'd stopped teaching it by the time I started school (the 70's).

We still did it in the 70's here. Was an okay tool for basic sentence structure, but eventually we found ourselves being graded more on the complexity of the diagram than we were on the actual English. I hated it, and it's probably the ONLY thing I learned in K-6 that I couldn't do today.

 

[Tattylou]

No ATM or debit card

Walking home from school every day to eat lunch

Manual typewriters

No atm or debit cards. That just sounds like a nightmare even to me. By the time I had a job in high school, atm cards existed.

I remember we had a type writer. My mom would type on it. I had a word processor in high school for typing papers.

 

[Tattylou]

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

Lots have said this already, but my 3rd grader is learning cursive currently. So, that's still a thing.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Lots have said this already, but my 3rd grader is learning cursive currently. So, that's still a thing.

I'm happy to see it's making a comeback!
My sister is a teacher in Connecticut. She said they stopped teaching cursive there many moons ago.

MG

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

Oh - Diagramming sentences. I don't think they are taught to do that anymore. I used to love it!

Oh my, I still teach that too!

 

[Tattylou]

I'm happy to see it's making a comeback!
My sister is a teacher in Connecticut. She said they stopped teaching cursive there many moons ago.

MG

Yes, he's been learning it this year. We live in Massachusetts. I had heard it was obsolete, but I guess not.

 

[AppleDumpling]

WDW being only the Magic Kingdom. On my first visit (1975 I believe), that was it. One park, three resorts: the Contemporary, the Polynesian, and Fort Wilderness. We stayed at FW and were allowed and encouraged to pool hop to CR and the Poly! When I think back now, I can't imagine spending a whole week there with just MK but we did.

I don't recall there being posted wait times but also don't recall waiting very long for any rides. We had the paper ticket booklets with the A-E rides and of course needed to buy extra E tickets to go on the good rides more than once. IIRC, my favorite that trip was the submarine ride, aka 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. And I still have the classic black Mickey ears I got as a souvenir.

 

[Tattylou]

Standing in line up to 2 hours to for most rides at WDW Magic Kingdom.

I was watching a home movie with my cousin from a 1991 trip to WDW when we were kids....I actually don't think my kids can imagine going there with no fastpasses....like just winging it. I know ppl still do that, but we don't.
Although I can remember a time when the longest wait I'd ever seen was 60 min for splash mountain when it was new.
I miss the Disney of the 90s - never as crowded or as scheduled, it was kind of nice.

 

[Liberty Belle]

Great thread. I can relate to most of these things. Besides all the electronic stuff, TVs, phones, cars, music formats, etc., I can think of some simple everyday things like:

Ice cube trays- I always spilled the water and made a mess.

Churchkey can openers- before pop tops on soda and other cans.

Hanging the wash to dry outside on a clothes line with clothespins.


The milkman, the ice cream man, the paperboy, the bookmobile.

Drive in movies, no drive-thrus at fast food places or banks.

Penny candy, Swanson TV dinners in the foil trays, sweet cereal with names like Sugar Pops and Super Sugar Crisp.

Making coffee in a percolator on the stove. Making popcorn in a pot (or JiffyPop, which we always managed to burn.)

Big high swing sets and seesaws on the school playground. We girls played hopscotch, snail, and jump rope, while the boys played handball, "kill the guy" (with the ball), or flipped baseball cards.

Ladies (of a certain age), two words: sanitary belts.

I hated those metal ice cube trays. My skin would always stick to them.

 

[Aliceacc]

A time when you could not buy a bottle of water. Water was free. It came in a cup or from a water fountain, not a bottle.

 

[karmic]

No direct deposits- had to go to the bank with a paper check to deposit and get cash for the week
Passbook savings accounts
No 24 hour TV- National Anthem then done for the night

 

[CdnCarrie]

Ice cube trays- I always spilled the water and made a mess. That's all we have at our house? What do you use? I guess some have the ice makers on the fridge. My kids know all about them as they are the ones always using all the ice.

Hanging the wash to dry outside on a clothes line with clothespins. We had one in our backyard. Some people still do this.


the paperboy We still get paper delivered on the weekends and we have a "paperboy" delivers the flyers.

Drive in movies Ours just closed about 10 years ago so lots of teens here have been. Still some around in small towns. Took our kids to the one in Wisconsin Dells a couple years ago.

Swanson TV dinners in the foil trays, sweet cereal with names like Sugar Pops and Super Sugar Crisp. Don't they still make TV dinners? I still occasionally buy sweet cereal for the kids. Their favs are Krave and Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Big high swing sets and seesaws on the school playground. We girls played hopscotch, snail, and jump rope, while the boys played handball, "kill the guy" (with the ball), or flipped baseball cards. Seesaw in school yard in my husband's home town that the kids have played on several times. But they are gradually getting rid of them. They scare me! Girls at my kids school still play jump rope.