Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
42 Things That Were Totally Normal In The ’80s And ’90s That Seem Totally Alien To New Generations
Things that make up and shape our daily lives seem a natural part of it. And while these circumstances might seem to be changing faster nowadays, it is enough to hear about such experiences as “sitting by the radio and waiting for one’s new favorite song to come on, so one could record it on a cassette tape” or “being on the home phone when all of a sudden someone in the house picks up another phone and tells you to 'get off'” from people who lived them and one might feel time slowing down, as if one has been transported back in time when certain things were and felt different. These people are sharing exactly these kinds of experiences from the recent past by answering one Redditor’s question: “What was a perfectly normal situation for you in the '80s-'90s that the younger generations just can’t relate to?”
More info: Reddit
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Sitting by the radio waiting for your favorite new song to come on so you could record it onto a cassette tape. And hoping the jack**s DJ didn’t talk over the first 45 seconds. (Spoiler alert: He always did!)
RELATED:
#2
Parents kicked you out of the house and telling you to be home when the lamp posts came on. They had no clue where we were or what we were doing. My brother and I would play on the train tracks and under a bridge. I think about my kids doing the same and it stresses me tf out.
Edit to add, Saturday morning cartoons. I'm sad for my kiddos to not have the experience of getting up early to not miss cartoons before getting kicked out of the house for the day.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
I'd spend all day in the park or in the library. XD I remember when I was a kid in the 90s, pet stores actually sold pets. I remember I walked to the pet store by myself at age 10 and bought my first kitten, all by myself, with my own money, no parent/adult with me, and the pet store owner didn't bat an eye. Wild days XD
#3
Calling someone’s house and having to speak with their parent before talking with them.
TheGoodBoi 1 year ago (edited)
"So and so is grounded and can't talk right now. Aren't you grounded too??" Oh...Uh...*hangs up at light speed*
#4
That TV just stopped broadcasting late at night.
My kids still can’t comprehend this one
Missy Corron 1 year ago
And there were 5 or 6 channels max!!! When HBO came out it was a few more channels, $10 a month and was completely commercial free!!!
#5
Going with your parents to Blockbuster to rent a movie and hoping a copy (VHS tape) was still available and not completely rented out.
ArodTheHorrible 1 year ago
The hot new releases always had about 50 of the same movie displayed... Yes!! There is a tape behind this one!!!
#6
Going to a restaurant and being asked “would you like to sit in Smoking or Non-smoking”?
There were smoking sections *on airplanes*.
TheGoodBoi 1 year ago
Smoking, non-smoking, didn't matter where you sat, you got cigarette smoke from the dragons in the smoking section lol.
#7
Getting a new "TV Guide" each sunday with the newspaper and obsessing over it for hours highlighting what shows/movies you wanted to watch Calling the movie theater to get showtimes Shopping at Sears
#8
Watching the news to see if your school scrolled across the bottom was cancelled because of inclement weather.
#9
Having to stop at a gas station and ask for directions and pay attention to what the clerk is saying.
Bonus: waiting to call long distance after 9pm because it was free. Then getting very excited when they dropped it to 7pm.
#10
Being on a phone call with someone using the home phone when all of sudden someone in the house picks up another phone and tells you to get off
TheGoodBoi 1 year ago
You could very faintly hear another line pick up. You and your friend go silent because you were talking about girls :P. "Sooo the weather huh? Oh yeah maybe we could go outside and play huh? O_o"
#11
Writing and receiving letters by post.
Doctor Strange 1 year ago
You do realize you can still send letters, right? The post office still exists. When I was dating a girl, and I went on a trip to Europe, I made sure to find a card and mail her a letter every day. That way she'd know I was thinking of her, and would have something she could touch and hold in her hand to remind her of that.
#13
Going out as a kid from dawn til dusk without your parents being able to contact you or know where you are. Then knowing you have to go home when the street lights come on.
ArodTheHorrible 1 year ago
Or when you heard your mom yelling your names out to the whole neighborhood.
#14
Dedicating songs on your local radio station.
MrsFettesVette 1 year ago
A Senior in our high school called up the local radio station and dedicated a song to my best friend- a 9th grader. It was the stuff of legend, the whole school knew Mark dedicated "Love Thy Will Be Done" by Martika to her. A senior in like with a freshman.
#15
Someone calling the landline and disconnecting the internet
#16
Riding your bike around town with no destination, looking for a pile of your friends bikes so you can hang out.
Having your friends’ phone numbers memorized
#17
Having to wait or be somewhere you don't want to be like visiting your mom's friend's house or at the bank with NOTHING to distract you but your own mind. My parents never bought me a handheld game nor did she have room in her handbag for my books. So I just had to BE in the moment.
Alexej Dvorak 1 year ago
Hah, I have a vague childhood memory of being at the bank with my parents when they bought their first house. I was around 7 or 8 years old and they were printing out bank statements after finalizing their mortgage I assume. It was just like OP describes it. In my memory it took hours and I was just there with them with nothing to do and not understanding a single bit of what was happening or why. To this day it is the memory that immediatlely comes to mind when I try to think of when I was the most bored in my entire life.
#18
Going out into the world with no cell, a map in hand, hoping to find the new address you’ve never been to, and then in addition to that, hoping the people you were going to meet up would get there.
If you got there and your friends weren’t there, the most you could do was ask the business to lend you their phone or walk to a pay phone and call your friends house phones to see if they picked up. If they didn’t, you had no way of knowing if they were late, selling you out, or dead.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
I had a Thomas Guide map. Friggin thing was 3" thick on a ring binding. My dad gave it to me. I loved that thing XD
#19
This is more 90’s-early 00’s but the ability to just... not be reached sometimes? And that was okay?
It stresses me out that there’s this social pressure to be available at all times, and people get upset with you if you don’t respond to a text fast enough etc. but as a kid we’d call each other on the home phone sometimes and if you didn’t pick up it was just assumed you were busy and nobody was actually UPSET with you over it. Obviously I love being able to keep in contact with friends on a more regular basis, but the constant pressure to be accessible to people 24/7 or you’re some kind of bad friend is too much and it really does a number on my anxiety. I miss being able to call/text/message someone back at my leisure and not have to have a “good enough” explanation ready as to why I was “ignoring” that person.
#20
I was thinking the other day about how I applied for out-of-state college (1989.) How did I even do that? Did I write to them and ask for an application, the fill it out and mail it back? When I applied to graduate school (1993) how did I even know which schools had my program? Did I go to the library or something?
Sitting here in 2020 imagining doing those things with no Internet, it seems impossible. But since I don’t even remember how I accomplished it, it must have been pretty mundane at the time. Sounds like a f*****g hassle if you ask me!
#21
Calling collect and saying your message really quickly instead of your name so the other person doesn’t have to accept the call
#22
Having arguments about factual information and having absolutely no way of determining who is correct.
Apatheist Account2 1 year ago
There were things called libraries...but we had encyclopaedia and dictionaries in the house.
#23
Hanging out at the high school after school was out with no supervision. I was floored to learn kids can’t do that now. I spent hours sitting on the floor in some back hallway with friends, not wanting to go home, doing my homework, waiting for my ride to get out of practice.
#24
Going through catalogues (remember Lillian Vernon?) to find things you like, then filling out the order form, mailing it with a check, and waiting 6 weeks to get your stuff. And during that 6 weeks you have no idea if they even received your order or not!
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
Or being too poor to do this, so you pored over the catalogs and circled the items you WISHED you could order XD
#25
I feel like kids today will never know boredom like I experienced when I was a kid. We were poor and didn't have any videogames, there was no Candy Crush on your phone, no Netflix, if your friends were busy you'd just have to make up your own game or watch one of the 5 videos you actually owned for the 347th time, but even that wasn't always possible if your parent/s wanted you out of the house for a while. So you'd just walk around hoping to run into some kids you knew.
I also remember my sister and I would watch MTV, wait for our favourite music video to come on, then record it on VHS. We had two tapes full of music videos. I wish I had those tapes now, there were some bangers on it.
MrsFettesVette 1 year ago
I remember being bored at my grandma's and reading whatever books she had, which were usually mysteries and it always turned out to be a good time.
#26
Having to spend hours in the library to look up information you needed. I had to write a 10 page paper on the industrial revolution for school, it took days to find what would take moments now.
Nice Beast Ludo 1 year ago
The most boring class ever was solely writing a research paper and following all citation and references. Had to have at least 10 references and only 3 could be online
#27
Being out and realizing you're going to miss the beginning of whatever tv show you wanted to watch.
#28
Turn on the Game Boy with the cartridge in.
Did the game start?
Yes. Enjoy
(2) No. Pull cartridge out, blow into the contacts like a f*****g mad harmonica player
Put in back in and turn on the Game Boy.
Did the game start?
Yes. Enjoy
No. Try Again (2)
Edit: Thanks for the Award! First time ever to get one! Little me didn't know how contacts work so I just copied what other kids back then did lol. I wonder when did that myth started...
Austin L 1 year ago
This was actually bad advice. You are blowing stuff that can add to the problem over time. The reason this temporarily works is because the contacts are scraping away gunk and creating a better electrical connection. You can do the same thing by just inserting and removing the cartridge a couple times or ideally use a high concentration alcohol and a swap to clean the cartridge's contacts.
#29
Convincing your sibling to get up to change the channel
Todd Boughn (Strange Agent) 1 year ago
Then, of course, when Dad was watching I was the remote.
#30
I grew up in a very rural part of Ontario, Canada. Since there were so few households in the area, it was not profitable for the telephone company to give each home a private line. Instead, our community had a "party line". Every household was on the same telephone line and you could pick up the phone receiver and hear Betty from down the road having a conversation with her sister. You would have to ask to have the line and you would have to listen for the "click" to know if Betty left or if she was still listening to your conversation. I remember more than once, asking in the middle of my conversation, "Betty can you please leave?" and having her respond "Oops, sorry" and then hang up her phone.
Nice Beast Ludo 1 year ago
That reminds me of Little House on the Prairie and nosy Mrs. Oleson listening sinisterly to all the private conversations and starting trouble
#31
I was born in the mid-70’s and have my clearest childhood memories during the 80’s, graduated HS and college in the 90’s. Here are a few of my favorites:
1. Requiring a landline to talk on the phone, even pre-cordless landline phones. Think long-a*s coil cords to take the phone to your bedroom for a private conversation.
2. Downloading files, online gaming, or faxing to be disconnected cuz mom decided to make a call.
3. Using a paper map to go places or relying on dubious directions like “turn left at the second or third light, I can’t remember which”
4. Going to a theater to see movie trailers... like they didn’t even show them on TV.
5. 4 local TV channels that could only be tuned via antenna.
6. a 20” 4:3 ratio TV being considered large.
7. Getting pissed that there wasn’t any leaded gasoline available and you need to use that s****y unleaded c**p.
8. Arguing the virtues of seat belts and motorcycle helmets. Also, cars still on the road that didn’t have seat belts.
9. smoking sections on airplanes being a new thing that people were pissed about. Used to be you could smoke anywhere on the plane.
10. Smoking literally everywhere. Restaurants being hazy with smoke.
11. Needing an encyclopedia set to verify facts.
12. Phones only being used for voice communication.
13. Cell phones costing hundreds of dollars per month. Making a mistake and falling asleep talking to your SO on your cell phone and getting an $800+ bill for the month.
14. Cell phones weighed in pounds. Think 2 lbs strapped to your belt.
15. Hardwired Cell phones in your call so you didn’t need to haul a heavy-a*s phone around with a crappy antenna. If you knew a real estate agent in the 80’s they probably had one. My mom did.
16. Needing a pager and a cellphone for work. Page to make sure someone is available so you didn‘t waste your minutes.
17. Minutes being something you regularly budgeted for and managed.
18. Russia being the bad guys and fear of nuclear war being a regular topic of conversation.
19. the world seeming A LOT more mysterious and interesting... I can’t over stress this.
20. Hanging out in music stores looking for hidden gems and picking up girls.
To name a few
#32
Calling your bf or gf house and hoping that they pick up instead of their parents.
#33
There being nothing on television.
I watched the weather network for longer than I should when I was younger because it was better than soaps and sometimes nothing was on.
With streaming services and even YouTube / shorter videos like tic tok you can be watching new content 24/7.
Little overwhelming!
#34
Spending $15-20 on a CD as well as spending entire days combing thrift shops, p**n shops and flea markets looking for CDs and cassettes on the cheap
#35
Standing in line with quarters in hand to play a video game
MrsFettesVette 1 year ago
Putting your quarter on the cabinet to signify that it was your turn next.
#36
Video games had no dlc and you unlocked everything through mere grinding. Good times.
Bored something 1 year ago
Having to change floppy discs ultiple times during the installing process.
#37
Snow days. The school didn't text or email you, no one called.
What did you do? Sat there watching the news with basically a stock ticker going across the bottom and if you missed your school...oh well time to spend another 20 minutes or take the trip and see if the doors are open. This was made worse because some schools (like mine) would wait until the last possible minute meaning you could be at the bus stop waiting because the 'call' was made 5 minutes before the buses start their route. If you were lucky someone's parent would drive by to say there was a delay, other times you basically stood there for 20 minutes (in the snow) before deciding it had to be delayed...but wait the bus could just be slow (which also wasn't unheard of) now 45 minutes late everyone is convinced it must be a delay.
so you go home and yes
Nice Beast Ludo 1 year ago
We used to check if the parking lot was plowed the night before. This was only after we moved to MD. In CT they were on top of the plowing and we only missed 1 1/2 days once during a blizzard. Otherwise we had like 4 snow days and lots of 2 hour delays. Then moved here and missed an entire week over 8 inches of snow. Got 2 feet in 2010 and they called it "Snowmageddon"
#38
Wondering who invented the hot dog and being unable to find out
#39
Raves. Real ones. Calling an info line which gave you the location of a map point where a guy in a car gave you the location of the party. Then driving around in the worst parts of Detroit with the windows down listening for the bass thump until you found the party.
#41
Not mine but my sister
"You have a collect call from *momi'matthemoviespickmeupat5please*, would you like to accept the charges?"
#42
Meeting at the arcade
Blyss Blyssylb 1 year ago
And going there with only $1.00 ... Figuring out how to play half a day on .50¢, priceless
What do you think ?
Brainmas 1 year ago
Calling the theater and listening to the recording to tell you the times, or looking in the newspaper. Also, post internet, pre smartphone, writing down or printing MapQuest directions before leaving the house.
PE is me 1 year ago
I was bullied as a kid and I still seemed to have had a better time than kids these days are having.
Load More Replies...
Sky Render 1 year ago
I remember the days of wood chip "bark dust" playgrounds, where the safest thing you could do was walk about the outer edge because all of the stuff on the playground was pretty much designed to make you hurt yourself badly if you fell off (and the jerks always made sure you did fall).
V 1 year ago
I remember even further back when our playgrounds had gravel for 'soft fall.' So many broken bones and bloody noses. And now we all have issues with arthritis. So I am glad younger generations don't have to deal with that.
Load More Replies...
Philenzortia 1 year ago
A few days ago I had to explain to a 15 year old girl how a cassette worked, then an LP, suddenly I was talking about the struggling of having a discman and the blessing of using an iPod. She didn’t know what where ANY of these devices……I really felt old 🤭
Brainmas 1 year ago
Calling the theater and listening to the recording to tell you the times, or looking in the newspaper. Also, post internet, pre smartphone, writing down or printing MapQuest directions before leaving the house.
PE is me 1 year ago
I was bullied as a kid and I still seemed to have had a better time than kids these days are having.
Load More Replies... Sky Render 1 year ago
I remember the days of wood chip "bark dust" playgrounds, where the safest thing you could do was walk about the outer edge because all of the stuff on the playground was pretty much designed to make you hurt yourself badly if you fell off (and the jerks always made sure you did fall).
V 1 year ago
I remember even further back when our playgrounds had gravel for 'soft fall.' So many broken bones and bloody noses. And now we all have issues with arthritis. So I am glad younger generations don't have to deal with that.
Load More Replies... Philenzortia 1 year ago
A few days ago I had to explain to a 15 year old girl how a cassette worked, then an LP, suddenly I was talking about the struggling of having a discman and the blessing of using an iPod. She didn’t know what where ANY of these devices……I really felt old 🤭
Related on Bored Panda
