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Users Of This Online Group Reveal 30 Things That Were Considered Regular When They Were Kids, But Now They Don’t See It Anymore
A lot of things tend to change as time goes by. Some of these changes are more noticeable than others as they tend to impact our lives more strongly. But have you ever found yourself remembering something and realizing that it’s no longer here or that it has changed completely? Well, one Reddit user under the nickname @u/AnalysisFrequent was curious to know some examples of these occurrences, so they asked others online “What was normal when you were a kid, but you never see anymore?” The question that received almost 8k upvotes made many people online think about all the things that were so common back in their childhood that no longer exist or have been replaced by something else.
9k comments included answers about encyclopedias being used instead of Google search, the need to remember a phone number, or the unwritten rule to invite your friends to go play outside by simply showing up at their house instead of writing them a text message. Some remembered times when they used to have collections of cassettes, tapes, or CDs that we no longer use now.
What are some of the things you remember from your childhood that seem to no longer exist? Leave your thoughts in the comments down below!
More Info: Reddit
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#3
Using a set of 20 y/old encyclopedias as reference for my homework. JFK is president!
Chucky Cheezburger 2 years ago
So much outdated information. Back in 1987, I was looking up something and found in the school library that stated "Someday, men will be able to land on the moon." That's how old it was.
#5
Thousands of Monarch Butterflies and Bees during the summer.
Now my Wife and I get excited when we see ONE monarch bf in the backyard where we planted a bee and bf friendly garden.
Detroit Citizen 2 years ago
I can not remember the last time Ive seen a butterfly. Which is sad.
#6
Popping in a game and have it just start right away. Im old (39) and I picked up a ps5 about a month ago. Had to set up an account go through internet settings, pop in the game I bought to find out it needed an update which took about an hour... Im glad we have the tech we do. But video game consoles of the past few gen make me miss 90s and early 2000 consoles.
#7
Phonebooks.
Detroit Citizen 2 years ago
Who else here remembers that you could call time, for well, the time.
#8
Neighborhood kids getting together to play till the streetlights came on
#9
Cassette tape innards strung out along the highway, glimmering in the sunlight.
#10
Pay phones and answering machines
Thegoodboi 2 years ago
BOOOOP "Thegoodboi pick up! Pick up pick up.." *rustling, crashing* "Pick up pick up" WHAT DO YOU WANT!?
#12
Candy Cigarettes
Benita Valdez 2 years ago
Oh and the bubblegum cigarettes. They had like a very fine powdered sugar under the wrapper so you could blow it and it looked like smoke was coming out.
#13
Computer paper filled with lightly printed numbers and it had tear off sides. My dad used to bring lots of it home for us kids to draw on.
#14
Fireflies...
I swear I saw them every year, in our back yard or when we went camping etc.
Now I never see them no matter where I am... except for a few nights in the summer of '21 after I moved to a new house. It was so nice to see them again
Benita Valdez 2 years ago
Sorry to hear people don't see them anymore. I still see plenty of them but they are definitely not as abundant. I also see less bats at night which makes me sad; it wasn't officially summer until I saw bats
#15
Moms yelling from the front door to their kids to come home for dinner
Thegoodboi 2 years ago
Falling out of trees and bouncing right up into a sprint hoping pizza is for dinner
#16
Quicksand in movies and TV shows
Detroit Citizen 2 years ago
Was it just me or did we all think quicksand was a real and present danger as kids? Ive lived in Metro Detroit my entire life and its not known for its quicksand but boy oh boy did I fear it. And the Bermuda Triangle.
#18
Video games only working on channel 3
Chucky Cheezburger 2 years ago
Dating myself here, but I remember we had a Pong type system. There was a box that the console plugged into that attached to the 2 screws where the antenna connected to the television. TVs that didn't have a coaxial input...just the VHF and UHF antenna screws. When I figured out how to hook that up, I felt like a got darn genius.
#19
Snow for Christmas
Detroit Citizen 2 years ago
THIS~ I live in Michigan, the Great Lakes State, Winter Wonderland. Winters used to have snow by Thanksgiving now its December and rain. Plus winters used to be warmer, the past decade or so they are just biting cold. Too cold to snow.
#22
Parents smoking in a car with kids with the windows rolled up
Kookamunga 2 years ago
EVERYONE smoking EVERYWHERE. Cars, malls, hospitals, offices, airplanes....
#23
Just walking right in to an airport terminal.
Sans Serif 2 years ago
Those were the days! Beyond crowded planes and tight seating, this one thing sucked much of the joy out of flying! When arriving at the airport and simply boarding the plane turned into a three hour process (while understandable), it'll just never be the same...
#24
Printing out directions from Map Quest 😂
Kookamunga 2 years ago
Going back in time further - using the road maps (purchased at gas station!) and once you unfolded it it was ginormous. huge-map-6...583726.jpg 
#26
Fruit bats. There used to be a *ton* of them in my neighborhood as a kid and every evening you could look at the sunset as twilight set in and see flocks of bats flying around.
Apparently, around the time I was in middle school, a fungal disease ravaged the local bat population and they never recovered. You never see them anymore.
Funnily enough though, at the time, a local high school girl had this huge campaign to set up bat feeders to help bolster the local bat population and help them survive the fungal disease by giving them easy access to food. Said local girl has since become a federal Park Ranger as an adult and currently works for a state fish and wildlife service.
Benita Valdez 2 years ago
It wasn't officially summer until I saw bats at night. There are definitely much fewer these days
#27
McDonald’s play places
Taryn Bailey 2 years ago
That's why I want to go to the city museum in st Louis. It has an adult sized play place.
#28
Calling almost anything you didn't like "gay".
Lakota Wolf 2 years ago (edited)
We all did this as kids where I live (it was a synonym for "lame"). But then my best friend came out to me when we were 12, and I erased it from my vocabulary as a slur/insult. It's the same way we've learned to stop using the R-word ("mentally disabled") as an insult and how to properly ask someone their pronouns. We can learn and change and grow... we just have to WANT to :)
#29
General dysfunction and chaos, yet having fun. It was absolutely crazy the things that went on, everybody knew everybody. There was nothing to do, yet always something going on, and you were part of it whether you wanted to be or not. I guess that’s how it goes in a small town? I was a little kid and tagged along running with the crowd that my parents knew.
Now, I’m far away and alone. All those people from my past went to an early grave. I’m not part of anything.
I love being alone and stable and secure, but I can’t help but have nostalgia for the craziness that went down when I was little.
#30
Taking pickles from the pickle barrel at the deli with a pair of tongs and placing them into a wax paper sleeve.
What do you think ?
ellenmcdowell142 2 years ago
Memories like the corners of my mind. Misty water colored memories, of the way we were.
Helena 2 years ago
And thank you for that. It is going to be stuck in my head the rest of the day.
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ellenmcdowell142 2 years ago
Memories like the corners of my mind. Misty water colored memories, of the way we were.
Helena 2 years ago
And thank you for that. It is going to be stuck in my head the rest of the day.
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