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36 Things From The Recent Past That The Younger Generations Get Completely Wrong
Interview
You can read books and watch movies about the days gone by but you probably won't understand what a certain era felt like as well as the people who lived through it.
So when Reddit user WeirdJawn asked older platform users to share what young people have gotten completely wrong about past decades, their post received plenty of replies.
From the entertainment industry to social movements and everything in between, continue scrolling to learn what history looked like when it was still the present from the ones who witnessed it.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
Being a young "boomer" was not easy. I worked in a steel mill, night shift, at age 18. I was the first woman to work in the foundry. I had to be escorted to and from the lavatory because my boss was afraid I would be assaulted. Then I finished nursing school and was propositioned by doctors. In my final career I was a PM at an engineering firm and was told repeatedly that I did not deserve the job. I hope younger women realize what us "older ladies" did to pave the way.
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#2
That feminism isn't some mouldy concept from the distant past.
In the US, sexual discrimination in education wasn't outlawed until 1972, which just happened to be the same year unmarried women were legally allowed access to birth control. Additionally, prior to 1974 women were not allowed to have credit cards or loans in their own names, they were simply authorised users of their husbands' credit cards. Some employers also required married women to have their husband's permission before they were offered employment.
When people talk about how women in the 1950s and 1960s stayed married even when the marriage was clearly rocky, it was less about devotion and more to do with the lack of equal access to education, work and finances. The divorce rate skyrocketed in the '70's but not because women were suddenly wanton and looking for a good time, it was because they were no longer forced to remain in a bad marriage as a matter of financial survival.
TheAmericanAmerican 1 year ago
The current Male Loneliness Epidemic is a direct result of this. Back in the day, young men could be absolute monsters to women and yet still get married and settle down because women HAD to have a husband to have any kind of life. Today, women are more independent and free(not entirely, but more than ever) so they can say "no" to the POS dirt bags. The dirt bags aren't happy.
We managed to get in touch with WeirdJawn and they agreed to tell us more about their post.
As with many ideas, it popped into the Redditor's head unexpectedly. "To be honest, I was probably pooping or on break during work," they told Bored Panda.
"I've always been interested in generational differences and curious how people from different generations perceive others. I feel there can be a huge disconnect between generations, especially when they're not interacting with each other."
#3
This will be hard to believe for many - but MTV used to be amazing
#4
I don't think they understand the extent to which we were "Free Range Children".
In the summer time, we would leave the house at 10AM and we would rove far and wide with our friends all day. We would often not be back until 9PM.
Usually we had to be back at certain times for meals but aside from that, we were off having adventures with our friends.
Riding our bikes through slag dumps, riding our bikes through trails out in the woods, climbing things that were not safe to climb, throwing lawn darts and general daredevil s**t that kids today cannot fathom.
Rick 1 year ago
We used to play war games and shoot low velocity bb guns and throw firecrackers at each other.
Yer maw 1 year ago
Yup, I'm an 80's kid and I wandered far without my folks having a clue or having any way to contact me
Xitxarel•lo Panda 1 year ago
77 here......my bike was my PRECIOUS.... miss that days ........
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toowise 1 year ago
When I was 14, I'm 61 now, myself and a mate decided to go camping at a place about 150 odd miles away. We told our respective parents and their reaction was "OK have a nice time, when are you back?" Then off we went hitch-hiking to the Lake District (UK). I was talking about this at work the other day and the young lad in the warehouse couldn't believe we had that much freedom at 14 and then asked....... "What's hitch-hiking?"
Ozymandias73 1 year ago
70s/80s kid here. I remember literally riding my bike for MILES either w/friends or by myself and being gone all day. Occasionally, stopping home or said friend's house for lunch or something to eat then back out again until dinnertime or later. Such a simpler time then.
Michael Braisher 1 year ago
You also had Latchkey Kids, where they were slung outside when their parents were up at dawn for work, then came back after school alone a few hours until parents returned.
Hiram's Friend 1 year ago
Oldest child of a single mom. As soon as the youngest (4 years younger) was old enough for school, My mother went back to work at her old job. I was in charge of them until my mother got off work at 5 pm (1700 for the metrically inclined).
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Captain Flapjack 1 year ago
Yep. The only time we came in was for dinner, lightning or a tornado.
Nikki Gross 1 year ago
You just summed up our childhood growing up in the south! 😁
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Thomas Biorogue 1 year ago (edited)
We really were feral. I probably put a million miles on that old banana seat Huffy. We lived way, way out in the country so we'd be miles from home, out on some old dirt road somewhere. Playing in creeks. Eating wild plums and drinking from windmill tanks. It was clean! Just had to wipe the moss away and shoulder a cow out the way sometimes.
Andy Cran 1 year ago
not a million miles away from my childhood...lived rural but also next to the coast (best of both worlds) in UK
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kirsty.macculloch 1 year ago
My mum used to pack us sandwiches for the day, roamed the local countryside with dogs and horses, was awesome.
Javelina Poppers 1 year ago
As a teenager in the 60s, we swam and water skied in the canals pulled by a car or truck.
Bernd Herbert 1 year ago
Yep, I grew up in the 80s in Germany and I was basically outside constantly.
Aaron Kara 1 year ago
I'd go outside with my step bro's and bat apples. Lay things on the ground to ollie over. Climb a tree. Doge projectiles. Pee on stuff. The 90's was wild, man.
Lydsylou 1 year ago
I'm not gonna give my actual birth year but it's between 1995 and 2010 and me and my cousin's did exactly this. We also were constantly putting ourselves in danger climbing 60ft high trees etc but what annoyed us is the other kids who couldn't do this because their parents wouldn't let them.
Bored Trash Panda 1 year ago
I have told my son some of the stuff we did as kids being "free range children" and he was very shocked lol
Xitxarel•lo Panda 1 year ago
I hited in my head by my BMX ......lots of blood.....and never went to the hospital cause I was grounded and feared of my dad. My old sister freaked out hahahhaha I have I really good scar, well I have 3,, in my head ......good times :)
Jamie NotRightNow 1 year ago
we learned about pedo's from a very disturbing episode of "Different Strokes" involving a creepy bike shop owner cause no way was a teacher gonna even touch (pun intended) that one in late 70s or 80s
Jumping Jellyfishes 1 year ago (edited)
When we were kids and deciding what to do for the whole day outside, one of popular options was "exploring", which meant we went roamed the wild undeveloped woods, blazing our own trails. Only unintentionally happened upon an alligator once, but apparently we spooked it and it ran from us (fortunately)
Jeannie 1 year ago
We were up and out the door early and gone all day. Thirsty drink from the hose. Gotta use the bathroom outside u less you're a girl then I had better not make a mess. Rainy days mom would open the garage. She cleaned in the morning watched stories in the afternoon and dinner was on the table when dad walked in the door. I had lots of chores and lots of responsibilities. Was allowed to roam far and wide, but I was never alone.
Jane Hower 1 year ago
I remember being on a bike ride with kids from block and we were FAR from - fell and really scraped up my knee to the point I screamed at them to 'knock me out', fortuntally the didn't, but what a painful ride home. Wtih cell phones a pick up would have been quick and easy.
Jonathan Setter 1 year ago
this was totally a variable thing, based on individual families attitudes, location, and societal position. So yeah, for many working class or lower people, it was totally true... but not everybody, you can't say it was true for everybody. And the higher up the social ladder you go, the rarer it became. And of course more common in quiet, safe, suburban streets than on the mean part of town. If you parents thought there was a high chance of you being raped, mugged or murdered just walking down the street, then no, it was not true at all. Truth be told, we were not safe back then either and parental attitudes now are a GOOD thing, not a downgrade.
Robert Miller 1 year ago
I grew up next to the 3rd largest rail yard in the US .....jumped my first train at 9 .
Gracie Mae 1 year ago
Those were the days! It's how we learned to be independent, test our boundaries, and form serious friendships. I miss that era--kids today can't be turned loose like we were because of all the perverts and assorted criminals...
bigoldthor 1 year ago
Sometimes for entertainment, my brothers and I would break sticks off of fallen branches and make "boats". We would race them down the creek to see who had the better boat. Would do this for hours. (Gen X'er)
Catharina Geerts 1 year ago
I lived in those days and can hardly fathom this. Being a girl (and having a strict father too), I wasn't on the street that much and certainly not that long. Coming in ultimately 5.30 h, half an hour before dinner.. I remember that in my first year of High School, bedtime for me was 8.30 pm.
Kyle Simonson 1 year ago
We used to have wrist rocket (a highly effective kind of slingshot) crabapple wars. Man those things hurt! And if they didn't hurt it was gross rotten crabapple all over you.
Claudio Toshio 1 year ago
Climbing trees! I think about it now and it was so high! If I fell, it may have been certain dead.
Max Fox 1 year ago
This is more baby boomer childhood, though in smaller cities and some suburbs it continued until the early 1990s. Most boomers and older Gen-Xers had that, and some younger Gen-Xers, and a small number of older millennials. The life that you see on "Stranger Things" was disappearing in many places, especially in the big cities and the suburbs of the big cities as panic about "stranger danger" and such took hold. Stranger Things was in a small town, which is why life was still like that.
Tjoori Vids 1 year ago
Make that leave at 6am and not be back until dark -- which was often 11pm. Our parents rarely knew where we were all day.
bookbuddy 1 year ago
I used to wake up, pack a lunch, go into the woods (40 miles of woods) with friends, assume we would find our way back, and go home when the sun started going down. And my parents were always home because parents STAYED home. Going out was for people dating, parents stayed home.
Jamie NotRightNow 1 year ago
our find my kids were 6ft long fiberglass rods with orange flags attached to the back of our banana seated bikes
PeepPeep the duck 1 year ago
My little sister has 4 kids now and she can’t fathom the thought of leaving the two twins who are 12 to look after the other two (2&8) while she goes around to the corner store, it’s such a contrast as we were left alone while parents worked from age 6 for me (3 my sister ).
Jamie NotRightNow 1 year ago
and porn wasn't online...it was a magazine someone swiped from their dad...that was generally kept in a wooded area under something like cinderblocks....
Niklas S 1 year ago
We were free. No bubble wrap, no trackers and our world was COMPLETELY separate from our parents most of the time.
Dr Robert Neville 1 year ago
Was talking to my old next door neighbour (born 1930's) and he was reminiscing about cycling to Brighton beach on bright summers days when he was a kid, that's 100 mile round trip, this must have been post war but can you imagine that on an old steel bike, likely with solid rubber tyres.
Junebugjump! 1 year ago
It was incredibly fun and could be dangerous. I grew up on the Irvine ranch, one of the biggest farms in SoCal. We have bb guns and 22s. There was a game reserve girl hunting. I was gone all day even in first grade.
Kathryn Baylis 1 year ago
But back then, most neighborhoods were full of people who were, or had been, parents themselves. Families on the same street all knew each other, and if they saw a neighbor’s child doing something they shouldn’t, like crossing a busy street that no parents would let their child cross without them, believe me, the kid’s mom knew about it long before the kid got home. Same goes for seeing someone bothering a child, neighbor’s kid or not. People would appear out of nowhere with whatever they could grab in their hands (hammer, baseball bat, heavy wooden rolling pin) to beat the c**p out of the perv, while someone was calling the cops, and someone else calling the kid’s parents. The child may have been officially part of only one family, but everyone in the neighborhood was looking out for them when their family couldn’t.
Frank Russell 1 year ago
"Come home when the streetlights come on." When that didn't work my mom had my dad install a big bell on the front porch. If you missed the ringing for dinner you were SOL.
Kristopher Still 1 year ago
Everyone saying all the things they used to do (shoot BB guns and be missing from the parents etc) is exactly what the same people are complaining about the kids of today doing.."bet their parents dont even know where they are!" Its fine when you was a kid but now you are older its not.
Skp2MyLou 1 year ago
Our parents had a general idea where we were and who we were with. If we were needed they called the parents to see if we were there, and they were usually right . Also, our small town had an all volunteer fire department so the firehouse had a whistle they tested every day at 6PM. When that whistle went off we had to head home for dinner and usually we're in for the night, unless it was to go to a neighbor's house to play.
Vix Spiderthrust 1 year ago
This is a classic example of the rose-tinted spectacles in action. Paedos, like cancer and suicide, were no less common - it's just that they weren't talked about
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Dar Mal 1 year ago
not mass murderers...serial killers....there's a difference~
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The generation gap that was so in evidence during the '60s has resurfaced, but it is not as disruptive as it was during the Vietnam era, a 2009 study suggests.
A Pew Research Center study found that 79% of Americans see major differences between younger and older adults in the way they look at the world, while a Gallup Poll from 1969 discovered that a slightly smaller percentage, 74%, perceived major differences.
Today, although more Americans see generational differences, most do not think they're divisive. That is partly because of the areas in which they arise — the top ones between young and old, according to the Pew Research Study, are the use of technology and taste in music. Behind them are attitudes toward different races and groups, moral values, religious beliefs, respect for others, political views, and work ethic.
#5
How on-time you had to be for your favorite shows because there was little to no chance you’d see that same episode again until they (hopefully) did re-runs during summer.
I remember waiting anxiously for the nightly news to be over so I could watch my favorite TV shows. Commercial breaks were just mad rushes for the bathroom, or to the kitchen to get something quick to drink.
#6
They understand restaurants had "smoking sections" and that bars & clubs were filled with cigarette smoke. But I don't think many understood how pervasive smoking was. There were ashtrays and people smoking literally EVERYWHERE. Jury boxes had ashtrays in front of every juror. Judge smoked, lawyers smoked, the gallery smoked. You smoked on planes, trains, busses, taxicabs, and all transportation centers. You smoked at the library, the PTO meetings at schools, the town hall and all city offices. Hell, you could smoke at the courtyard at my High School as a student. You smoked in the elevator and on the escalator. The mall. Sports venues. Doctor's offices. Hospitals. The movies. The plays, opera, concerts and every other public performance. A non-smoker would come home often smelling like smoke. One was constantly surrounded by smoke. It was insane.
Zedrapazia 1 year ago
For people that have asthma and other respiratory issues this must have been an absolute nightmare.
After going through the discussion, WeirdJawn noticed that, "one of the common themes [in the thread] was refuting the oft-repeated sentiment of Boomers having it easy, the economy always being great, and everyone being able to live a good life on one paycheck from someone with a high school diploma."
"I don't think people can have a 1 to 1 knowledge of what each generation goes through," the Redditor said. "However, I believe the internet makes it easier than ever to understand other people's lived experiences because you have the opportunity to hear from people you would have never encountered prior."
#7
Women weren't valued. Full stop. If you know any woman 60 or older who is a business owner, doctor, attorney, C suite professional, tell them thank you. You have no idea what they went through to get there.
#8
Journalism has changed. You used to be able to trust in the integrity of the journalist. Now, they're interchangeable, and all we know is the network. It has changed the way we trust the new media, and it's not good. We shouldn't underestimate the danger of this change.
BewilderedBanana 1 year ago
Not only that, the standard has gone down as well. There are far fewer real journalists these days, and many more people just regurgitating c**p they've seen on social media or spending all their time coming up with a sensationalistic headline for an article with no substance.
"I would recommend that people young and old make the effort to get out of their comfort zone and talk to different generations," they added. "Volunteer at a nursing home, Boys' and Girls' club, etc. We can all learn a lot from each other if we're just willing to listen."
Writer William Safire also didn't demonize the generation gap, saying in his book Safire's Political Dictionary that it can be either "a frustrating lack of communication between young and old" or "a useful stretch of time that separates cultures within a society, allowing them to develop their own character."
#9
Probably just how often you had to accept that you couldn't find out the answer to something. If you had a question you could ask your family, maybe your friends, maybe your teachers, and your last chance was the check the library. But if the library didn't have the answer, then you just had to accept that you weren't going to get an answer (or you'd have to hope to come across that answer someday in the future). Now you just ask Google and get 10 answers in just seconds.
#10
How self sufficient you had to be. If you got a flat tire, you had to change it yourself or walk. You had to make arrangements to meet up with friends well ahead of time and then show up. The world before cell phones was completely different.
LakotaWolf (she/her) 1 year ago
My dad taught me all the basics of car maintenance. I also had a Thomas Guide map in my car. Ah, the 80s/early 90s… XD
#11
I am definitely an older Redditor (born in 1949). What today's young people don't appreciate is how, growing up, we had to invent our own sources of fun. There were no video games (which I enjoy playing), just 3 channels on a black-and-white tv (we didn't get color until 1967), and no real entertainment aimed at kids. All we could do is interact with each other and play established games like marbles or maybe an organized sport like Little League baseball. There was a baseball diamond, overgrown with weeds, across the street from us, but mostly we played in the woods that surrounded us, climbing trees pretending to be pirates or some such. I loved the bookmobiles that would visit my street, and I must have read every biography (all bound in blue covers) in my elementary school library. It was a different era with many fewer distractions and much more time for sustained imagination. Being a different place and time, we developed different skills for interacting with the world and each other than young people do today. Was it better? That's hard to say. We tended to have an insular view of our own little world, while today it is hard to escape what it happening everywhere on Earth. We had to wait days for a letter to arrive, and we shared a party line with our neighbor's phone. That is a far slower pace than today's instantaneous texting culture. (Yes, I do text.) Some things have been lost while others have been gained. That's the way it always will be. Just wait.
Tamra 1 year ago
I agree with the statement "some things have been lost while others have been gained". One great modern thing is that, because of the internet, my son has friends all around the world and talks to them daily. He's exposed to other ideas and traditions from all around the world, and knows so much more about other countries than I did as a kid.
#12
That all 80's and 90's music was good. There was plenty of c**ppy music released then like there is now, it's just that the cr**ppy music got buried quickly while the best hits continue to get played today.
#13
People say that the 80s were all about consumerism, which is true, but the products were well made and fixable. Towns had repair shops for everything. You just didn't buy a disposable TV. If it broke you took it in to get fixed. Nowadays if your TV breaks its tossed and you get a new one.
Edit: TVs are just one example that I used. Look at many different examples under the comments e.g. shoes, household appliances, cars, et cetera.
BewilderedBanana 1 year ago
Sad but true... Been shopping around for appliances and the advice i got from every single outlet is to buy the cheapest model from a relatively reputable brand coz i'll be replacing them in a few years anyway. the much more expensive models will have some extra features, but they're not necessarily designed to last longer.
#14
I remember lying in bed every night worrying about nuclear war happening. This was late 70s early 80s. That was a huge fear for a long time.
#15
Up until video rental stores in the early 80's, at school the next day every kid was talking about what was on TV the night before, as every single family was watching tv together every single night. With some exceptions, most people watched the same thing as their schoolmates or co-workers, just to be a part of the conversation.
Shannon Mallory 1 year ago
There was also the fact that movies only came around for broadcast once a year, so the entire country would tune in together to watch The Wizard of Oz, The Ten Commandments, A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving/Christmas, The Sound Of Music - and there wasn't another option. You got one chance a year to see the movie.
#16
That it was incredibly common to just not have pictures of events or other things we see as important now. Not only did we have entire vacations where no pictures were taken, we could go months without a single picture being taken of any member of our family unless it was particularly notable. A trip to St Louis? No pictures. A trip to Disney land? Maybe a picture at the entry gate or one of the souvenir pictures of us with a character. A trip to zoo? No pictures. An average day? Forget about it! Frequently, the only pictures taken were at major holidays like Christmas or on someone's birthday.
UpQuarkDownQuark (he/hey you) 1 year ago
I have something like 50 pictures of the first 40 years of my life.
#17
Landline telephones had seriously great audio quality. Better than anything for remote conversation today, in my opinion. I distinctly remember being a teenager and just talking on the phone with someone late into the night, hearing them breathe and sigh, hearing their every little sound. There wasn't the lag and the noise canceling and the high compression that ruins telephony today. It was a much purer way to feel like you were closer to someone than anything we have today.
#18
how common drinking & driving was. Until MADD came along, people did this routinely. It's where "one for the road" originated.
Josephine Blogs 1 year ago
"Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is a non-profit organization in the United States, Canada and Brazil that seeks to stop drunk driving". I had to Google it.
#19
There was a horrible amount of poverty in the 60s, 70s and 80s. That whole thing about one job supporting a family of four is not true at all. However, until Reagan came along and destroyed benefits for struggling people they had government help. They also don't understand how absolutely f*****g horrible it could be for women in the workplace. Our mothers and grandmothers had to fight to be treated decently not to mention equally. Harassment, limited opportunity, inequal pay for the same work. My mother was forced to quit her job when she was five months pregnant because pregnant women shouldn't work. Same with my grandma but she was made to quit teaching when she got married. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Girls, you owe your Grandmothers a lot.
John Harrison 1 year ago
Errr ... just because there was a lot of poverty doesn't mean that the "one job supporting a family of four" isn't true.
#20
Kids think Y2K was a joke, but the panic was real, people legit thought computers would end us.
#21
The 80’s was not day glow. The 80’s was brown and grey with a dash of pastel towards the end.
Skinny Pig 1 year ago
It was both. As a kid I had a day-glo neon bedroom but the rest of the house was tan and beige
#22
A lot of people sound like they think we lived in silent bubbles because we didn't have smartphones and computers weren't common.
On the contrary, we talked a *lot*. Like, A LOT. If you had questions you talked. Then you went to the library. And then you talked some more.
And wrote letters. And passed notes like crazy. The chatter never f*****g stopped. People would scold women for gossiping and make jokes about it, but the men were just the same.
Everyone is like, kids these days have no privacy, but you couldn't kiss your boyfriend on the street without hearing about it from every f*****g rando in the neighborhood.
#23
Maybe not everyone’s experience but for me there was casual violence everywhere. Smacking kids was not only tolerated but expected. Hit by parents, friends parents, random adults in the neighborhood, teachers etc. Then you’d get beat for making the teacher hit you. “What will the neighbors think” was real
Shannon Mallory 1 year ago
Oh yes. And the psychological torture that accompanied the violence, too - like being made to cut your own switch, or listening to the snapping of the belt as they came to spank you
#24
Young people today think it's normal to carry a water bottle or other drink with them everywhere. My teenaged neice and her friends apparently can't be out of the house for more than 5 minutes without having a drink in hand lest they suddenly die of dehydration. She can't comprehend that we used to walk a half hour (another rant for another time) to school without having something to drink the entire way, or that the school simply did not allow any drinks in the classroom (and many employers didn't allow drinks at your desk either).
#25
My mom had to request a non-smoking hospital room when I was born.
#26
I remember having to call stores to ask them if they had something in stock before actually making the trip to get it.
keyboardtek 1 year ago
I still do that as when you check online for stock status, the computer often has incorrect data. I hate to drive 45 minutes to the nearest Home Depot only to find the item was not actually in stock when the website assured me it was.
#28
Probably under estimating how few choices there were.
today, it seems like everything imaginable is available in a variety of sizes, delivered to your door overnight.
catalogs and mail order, with 4-6 week delivery
Malls were the best thing ever. all the stores in 1 place, and not downtown.
Hippopotamuses 1 year ago
Actually. I miss late nights, independant shops and department stores. There's no variety any more.
#29
My grandmother smoked basically every second she was awake from age 13-75. She loved it and said she would rather die than stop. She smoked in her house and car. Even in bed. I used to stay with her a lot. I went to a strict private school for High School, they were on campus off campus, which meant you had to conduct yourself the same way at home as at school. My parents went out of town for 2 weeks, I had to stay with my grandparents. I was about 15 and knew i smelled like an ashtray- what could I do? I had to stay with her. Even my hair smelled like it. So I’m at school and I get called out of class and sent to the principal. He explained to me that several teachers had complained that I smell like smoke and he knows I have been smoking before I come to school. I told them I was staying at my grandparents and my grandmother smoked nonstop and that’s why. They said that was not true because my hair smelled like smoke and that only happens if you smoke. So they’re about to suspend me, they call my parents. My parents had to tell them I was staying with my grandparents and that’s why. I was so embarrassed and self conscious until my parents got back and I got to go home. Also when we moved my grandparents to another house, we took down everything from the wall. Realized the walls are yellow from smoke, where something had hung the walls were bright white. I often wondered what my grandmother lungs looked like after this
#30
TV used to be incredibly important. It wasn’t just a thing to do if you were bored. There were certain TV shows that nearly everybody watched, and if you didn’t watch them you’d still have to listen to people talk about them. I hated the Dukes of Hazzard, but I could tell you the main characters’ names and sing most of the theme song.
We used radio to listen to music. A lot. There were 8 tracks, records, cassettes, etc. so you could play music whenever you wanted, but radio was where a lot of music was discovered. Much love to Queen and the Buggles for their tributes to radio.
Andy Frobig 1 year ago
I remember the kachunk-kachunk as the 8 track switched directions, sometimes mid song
#31
A lot of the time you were bored s**tless. In the U.K. TV had three channels, and most houses had one TV. If someone in the house was watching something you weren’t interested in, then that entertainment avenue was gone. You had radio of course, and that was much more important in my early years. Books and comics too. But I still remember hours and hours of complete and utter boredom.
John Harrison 1 year ago
Kids used to be masters at finding ways to entertain themselves. We'd take five parts from three different board games and make up a new game. Or mix up tag, football and Simon-Says, and come up with something new. I honestly wonder if kids do that at all, nowadays.
#32
How brown the 80s was, everything furniture cars wall paneling everything was brown.
#33
The 60s weren't *all* flower children and hippies, and the general population reviled protestors back then every much as much as they do now, for the same reason: media representation. Anti-war protestors were painted like antifa and BLM are now by the media, i.e. most made them out to be quasi-terrorists. I personally supported what they were doing as an 8 year old, but my family thought they were horrible.
#34
There was not something like a computer or the world-wide-web. Information moved slowly and whole areas of industry were dedicated moving information around on paper.
Michael Braisher 1 year ago (edited)
As a kid, I used to look at encyclopeadias as an out-of-reach grail to covet, and enjoy as some kind of indulgent luxurious privilege. Cost a bomb of course. So when the multimedia PCs started running Encarta and others, I was truly transfixed. And when the fad for multimedia encyclopadias quickly faded - even before boradband was ubiquitous - I was dumbfounded again that these would be put on the covers of computer magazines. There was no other way to get rid of them to a mass audience, or to promote one of the final latest releases. I still have a collection of things like this and they always evoke wonder.
#35
How hard life was, and how comparatively easy and good it is now. I have had two friends who in recent months have had children born with conditions that would have resulted in death even 20 years ago, but with today's medical advances will likely live full lives. Of course, these treatments are very expensive, but obviously it's a price they will gladly pay. Young people today complain about the cost of health care as some abomination and yet totally fail to appreciate how good our medical system is.
Young people today complain about 40 hour work weeks as if it's a violation of human rights, but even when I was a kid I worked long days in high school, and my grandparents told stories about their childhood and lives in the depression where if you stopped working at 40 hours, you simply starved. My grandmother grew up with 6 siblings in a 2 bedroom apartment with a single mother. Now people with 2000 sqft homes complain because they pay so much in rent that they have to take fewer vacations.
Never before in human history have so many people enjoyed so much luxury.
BewilderedBanana 1 year ago
The problem today is with the extremely skewed distribution of wealth. They do not complain about working 40 hour weeks. They complain about not being able to make ends meet DESPITE working 40 hour weeks, and sometimes more than one job, while the people further up the chain are getting huge bonuses and living in mansions. As for the cost of health care - from what i read online, it most definitely is an abomination in some places where even essential things like insulin or chemotherapy cost thousands per month when they available free in other countries (free as in part of a national health care system). In any case "we've had it worse, so it's ok for you to suffer as well" is hardly a valid argument (and i'm definitely not in the "young people" demographic any more) :)
#36
How little we had and how hard the average young person had to work to get what people today take for granted. Asia hadn’t yet opened up to provide cheap goods, and most of what you needed to buy had to be produced in your own country. Like if you look at old newspaper flyers from the 80s, a sweater on sale at the discount store costs more than an average sweater today, but minimum wage is six times as much. Most kitchen stuff cost the same in 80’s dollars as today. Printers, cheap computers, TVs were easily a couple months pay. It was just really hard for people starting out because there was no “cheap” alternative for basic goods to tide you over until you could afford better. Getting dishes, cutlery, pots and pans, a mattress, basic furniture etc was all a struggle. Unless you had a wedding with well off relatives it could take years before you had enough household essentials to be comfortable.
Also, a word about comparing what people could afford then compared to now. When people compare 80s dollars to today, you gotta remember that there’s a lot of adjustments in the standard of living and the formulas for calculating costs between years is weighted heavily by housing and transportation. So all the comparisons people do about haw many years salary to buy a house then and now don’t take into account how s****y life was for people who couldn’t afford a house.
What do you think ?
Joshua David 1 year ago
When I was young 20s, I 100% thought being 30 was old. I thought nothing could be better than those years. Kids now feel the same way. However, all the babies in thier lives be it thiers or not, will rebel against everything they're doing now while calling them old in the process. This has been around as long as people. No one thinks they're going to get old, and if they accept it young, they feel it will be a millennia before that happens. I think when I hit 27 I started realizing it wasn't going be long. I'm 45 now and that was yesterday.
Jumping Jellyfishes 1 year ago
Jokes and what are now considered memes were passed around via paper copies that had been copied over so many times, sometimes it was hard to make anything it out
DeoManus Argentem 1 year ago
I'm one of the elder millenials (40) - we had cellphones in high school (yes, we called them that - a phone if we were outside the house). We didn't have texting or email on them yet. We also had libraries and in-person conversations. Degrees, experience, and diligence were valued. Now, get off my lawn!
Gardener of Weeden 1 year ago
Look here you young wippersnapper! I demand you respect your elders (64) and MOW my lawn. and while you are at it - weed my garden!
Load More Replies...
Tyranamar Seuss 1 year ago
Remember how many filing cabinets there were? And you could get a job actually filing things. Where you'd end up with really dry hands and a million paper cuts. I'm amazed when I see actual paper files now.
Gardener of Weeden 1 year ago
I worked for a 100% online company - The president insisted on keeping EVERYTHING in hard copy in a filing cabinet. NO scanned backup. One day he is looking for a file and screaming about where could it be and it must have been filed wrong. I asked why did he just not look it up in the system ( not knowing he was nuts) - I don't trust computers! they will crash and you will lose all your info. - I guess he never heard of backups.
Load More Replies...
Papa 1 year ago
I have one that no one mentioned. At least in my small town, only rich people or businesses had personalized checks for their bank accounts. Every store had books of blank checks for each of the local banks lying on the counter near the cash register. When you paid by check you grabbed the appropriate one, filled it out and signed it, and handed it over. The store would take them to the bank to deposit every day or so, where a human would have to decipher the signature and handwriting to know whose account it belonged to. Then at the end of the month they would return your cancelled checks to you, along with your monthly statement. My grown children look at me like I have two heads when I explain that to them.
Fiona Aitch 1 year ago
Most of these are just old people whining about "young people these days'. Loves in the past were not better or worse - just different.
Gozer LeGozerian 1 year ago
Excuse you. Most of us grew up this way. And by the way, shall we pull stats on kidnappings and murders back then?
Kalon Suszko 1 year ago
One thing the "BABY GENERATIONS" don't realize is how much us boomers (and can include Gen X in this) have seen in our lives. I was born in 1963, graduated in 1981. 1981 only valedictorians were able to access the computer room...that consisted of twelve computers. PONG was the game for 100 dollars in like 1973. By 1983 we had Nintendo and choices of pixelated games...Mario and DK. Microwaves became affordable. Was probably the same year, 1983 my Mom bought one...Mom my bro and I all fascinated with this new gadget...wow take a frozen dinner and in 4 minutes its heated and ready to eat...no more 30-45 minute wait for it to cook in the oven. Home desktop PCs by 2000, for 400-500 dollars...wasn't even thinkable in 1980 the year before I graduated. Phones between 1990 and 2010....sheesh. Anyone born after 1995 will never understand what us boomers and GenX people have witnessed within our lifetime. Only way they will is if we blow ourselves to bits in a war....no more electronic left and
Sera 1 year ago
My grandfather was a computer programmer, so my mom, Gen X and just a few years younger than you, had a computer in her house in the 1970s and was learning how to use it as a child. When I was a kid, I'd get to go on the internet at my grandparent' house, carefully supervised by my grandfather in the Wild West of 90's AOL chat rooms. They were the only people we knew with internet access at home. The rise of the internet has been a crazy journey to watch over my own millennial lifetime.
Load More Replies... Gracie Mae 1 year ago
Talk about a trip down memory lane! A lot of this stuff is so on point, but even though we didn't have technology, it was a childhood I wouldn't trade for anything. We didn't have helicopter parenting, and not all of us that learned lessons the hard way became insensitive jerks that took out our anger on others. Spankings were a part of growing up. While I was was might be considered abused in the discipline department, my kids got spankings & thanked us for them when they got older. And there is a difference between spankings and beatings. Spankings taught me that actions have consequences; beatings taught me what not to do to my kids.
Joshua David 1 year ago
When I was young 20s, I 100% thought being 30 was old. I thought nothing could be better than those years. Kids now feel the same way. However, all the babies in thier lives be it thiers or not, will rebel against everything they're doing now while calling them old in the process. This has been around as long as people. No one thinks they're going to get old, and if they accept it young, they feel it will be a millennia before that happens. I think when I hit 27 I started realizing it wasn't going be long. I'm 45 now and that was yesterday.
Jumping Jellyfishes 1 year ago
Jokes and what are now considered memes were passed around via paper copies that had been copied over so many times, sometimes it was hard to make anything it out
DeoManus Argentem 1 year ago
I'm one of the elder millenials (40) - we had cellphones in high school (yes, we called them that - a phone if we were outside the house). We didn't have texting or email on them yet. We also had libraries and in-person conversations. Degrees, experience, and diligence were valued. Now, get off my lawn!
Gardener of Weeden 1 year ago
Look here you young wippersnapper! I demand you respect your elders (64) and MOW my lawn. and while you are at it - weed my garden!
Load More Replies... Tyranamar Seuss 1 year ago
Remember how many filing cabinets there were? And you could get a job actually filing things. Where you'd end up with really dry hands and a million paper cuts. I'm amazed when I see actual paper files now.
Gardener of Weeden 1 year ago
I worked for a 100% online company - The president insisted on keeping EVERYTHING in hard copy in a filing cabinet. NO scanned backup. One day he is looking for a file and screaming about where could it be and it must have been filed wrong. I asked why did he just not look it up in the system ( not knowing he was nuts) - I don't trust computers! they will crash and you will lose all your info. - I guess he never heard of backups.
Load More Replies... Papa 1 year ago
I have one that no one mentioned. At least in my small town, only rich people or businesses had personalized checks for their bank accounts. Every store had books of blank checks for each of the local banks lying on the counter near the cash register. When you paid by check you grabbed the appropriate one, filled it out and signed it, and handed it over. The store would take them to the bank to deposit every day or so, where a human would have to decipher the signature and handwriting to know whose account it belonged to. Then at the end of the month they would return your cancelled checks to you, along with your monthly statement. My grown children look at me like I have two heads when I explain that to them.
Fiona Aitch 1 year ago
Most of these are just old people whining about "young people these days'. Loves in the past were not better or worse - just different.
Gozer LeGozerian 1 year ago
Excuse you. Most of us grew up this way. And by the way, shall we pull stats on kidnappings and murders back then?
Kalon Suszko 1 year ago
One thing the "BABY GENERATIONS" don't realize is how much us boomers (and can include Gen X in this) have seen in our lives. I was born in 1963, graduated in 1981. 1981 only valedictorians were able to access the computer room...that consisted of twelve computers. PONG was the game for 100 dollars in like 1973. By 1983 we had Nintendo and choices of pixelated games...Mario and DK. Microwaves became affordable. Was probably the same year, 1983 my Mom bought one...Mom my bro and I all fascinated with this new gadget...wow take a frozen dinner and in 4 minutes its heated and ready to eat...no more 30-45 minute wait for it to cook in the oven. Home desktop PCs by 2000, for 400-500 dollars...wasn't even thinkable in 1980 the year before I graduated. Phones between 1990 and 2010....sheesh. Anyone born after 1995 will never understand what us boomers and GenX people have witnessed within our lifetime. Only way they will is if we blow ourselves to bits in a war....no more electronic left and
Sera 1 year ago
My grandfather was a computer programmer, so my mom, Gen X and just a few years younger than you, had a computer in her house in the 1970s and was learning how to use it as a child. When I was a kid, I'd get to go on the internet at my grandparent' house, carefully supervised by my grandfather in the Wild West of 90's AOL chat rooms. They were the only people we knew with internet access at home. The rise of the internet has been a crazy journey to watch over my own millennial lifetime.
Load More Replies... Gracie Mae 1 year ago
Talk about a trip down memory lane! A lot of this stuff is so on point, but even though we didn't have technology, it was a childhood I wouldn't trade for anything. We didn't have helicopter parenting, and not all of us that learned lessons the hard way became insensitive jerks that took out our anger on others. Spankings were a part of growing up. While I was was might be considered abused in the discipline department, my kids got spankings & thanked us for them when they got older. And there is a difference between spankings and beatings. Spankings taught me that actions have consequences; beatings taught me what not to do to my kids.
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