# How are things THE SAME as when you were a kid? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 5, 2026, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041 "2026-04-05T15:26:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/22 "2026-04-05T18:26:44Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > People still use dry cleaners to launder their work clothes. That really depends on the industry. Overall, the percentage of people who wear suits and other clothes that require dry cleaning has dropped tremendously. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/23 "2026-04-05T18:34:09Z")
Someone more knowledgable will have to fill in the details but, until very recently, wasn’t various sets of US military issue small arms unchanged since the Vietnam war? Various military jets like the B52 and A10 are still in service. Are any 1960s/70s design helicopters still in service? ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/24 "2026-04-05T18:42:39Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > The library is the best place in the world. If that hasn’t changed for you, you’re lucky. Since “remodeling”, my local library has very few books. It’s all computers and “maker spaces” and crap like that. I used to go to the library almost every week. I was so disappointed in seeing what they did to it that I almost cried. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/25 "2026-04-05T18:43:58Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > When I was a kid, I never heard anything about climate change _per se_. What generation are you? As a Millennial, we heard a lot about it in middle school and up, but it was called global warming back then. > [@Shalmanese](#): > > Are any 1960s/70s design helicopters still in service? The Apache is still in use, as is the Chinook, probably others too. And of course the M16 rifle. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/26 "2026-04-05T19:08:54Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > When I was a kid, I never heard anything about climate change _per se_. The first time I remember hearing about it was Paul Harvey “debunking” it with the old “in the early 70s they thought there was going to be global _cooling_! Those wacky scientists and their flip flopping stances!” canard. Probably some time in the early 80s. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/27 "2026-04-05T19:15:41Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > > [@Moriarty](#): > > > > People still use dry cleaners to launder their work clothes. > > That really depends on the industry. Overall, the percentage of people who wear suits and other clothes that require dry cleaning has dropped tremendously. Yeah, my work clothes are literally pajama pants and a t-shirt. There’s no way I’m sending those to the dry cleaners. I think the last two suits I bought were both eaten by moths before they ever made it to the dry cleaners. McDonald’s little cheeseburgers still taste exactly the same as they were when I was young. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/28 "2026-04-05T19:19:04Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > > [@Moriarty](#): > > > > People still use dry cleaners to launder their work clothes. > > That really depends on the industry. I guess I meant that it’s still a viable business. George Jefferson could still own a bunch to end up in his deluxe apartment. We haven’t really come up with a different way to specially clean fabrics. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/29 "2026-04-05T20:49:36Z")
In the ‘60s, us kids were told that mankind was too puny and insignificant to really change anything about our planet. That was back when there was exactly _one_ billionaire — J Paul Getty. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/30 "2026-04-05T20:53:51Z")
A kiss is still a kiss. A sigh is just a sigh. The fundamental things apply. Moonlight and love songs are never out of date. ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/31 "2026-04-05T21:08:17Z")
The US is still measuring things with Imperial units. When I was in elementary school, the teachers all seemed sure that by the time I became an adult, we would be using the metric system. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/32 "2026-04-05T22:57:33Z")
Train conductors still wear those old-style pillbox caps (at least on my local commuter railroad). ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/33 "2026-04-05T23:33:33Z")
> [@VanillaHazelnut](#): > > I remember people ignoring others while reading a newspaper, watching television, etc. Our parents worried about cable TV and video games instead of smart phones and social media. > > There are definitely issues with smart phones and social media, but some modern complaints did not start with those things. Whenever someone complains about smartphones killing our attention spans, I think back to this P. J. O’Rourke quote from 1996: > Usually, writers will do anything to avoid writing. For instance, the previous sentence was written at one o’clock this afternoon. It is now a quarter to four. I have spent the past two hours and forty-five minutes sorting my neckties by width, looking up the word “paisley” in three dictionaries, attempting to find the town of that name on The New York Times Atlas of the World map of Scotland, sorting my reference books by width, trying to get the bookcase to stop wobbling by stuffing a matchbook cover under its corner, dialing the telephone number on the matchbook cover to see if I should take computer courses at night, looking at the computer ads in the newspaper and deciding to buy a computer because writing seems to be so difficult on my old Remington, reading an interesting article on sorghum farming in Uruguay that was in the newspaper next to the computer ads, cutting that and other interesting articles out of the newspaper, sorting—by width—all the interesting articles I’ve cut out of newspapers recently, fastening them neatly together with paper clips and making a very attractive paper clip necklace and bracelet set, which I will present to my girlfriend as soon as she comes home from the three-hour low-impact aerobic workout that I made her go to so I could have some time alone to write. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/34 "2026-04-05T23:38:22Z")
Although certainly treated differently, there were gay and trans people. There was also pernicious abuse within certain families. That never changes. There was joy and happiness, too. One thing I find endearing is that, in all times and all eras, people make time to laugh and fall in love. > [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > Train conductors still wear those old-style pillbox caps (at least on my local commuter railroad). Lawyers are still required to wear suits to court. Judges still wear robes while on the bench. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/35 "2026-04-05T23:41:29Z")
Racism is still alive and flourishing today in the good old of US of A. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2026, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/36 "2026-04-05T23:52:43Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Lawyers are still required to wear suits to court. And that suit better be made out of some kind of cloth. ---
**Author:** ![Moonrise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moonrise/32/14764_2.png) [@Moonrise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonrise)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2026, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/37 "2026-04-06T10:34:58Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > led me to wonder about the question in the title. Is there anything you can think of that is exactly the same as when you were a kid? Probably not what you have in mind but I’d say… life. Just over a year ago, I was waiting for a woman I had a date with. It was raining and I was looking at the cars passing by. And all of a sudden, I had this flashback to a similar scene when I was a kid. Waiting for my parents on a rainy evening and watching cars to pass the time. I remember thinking that so much had changed in the intervening 40 years, but only on the surface. Life, the experience of it, is still the same. Lazy mornings in bed. Slow Sunday afternoons. Walks in the park. The smell of flowers. Light shining through the trees. Sunsets. Still all exactly the same. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2026, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/38 "2026-04-06T11:10:26Z")
Escapism, just taking a moment for oneself to breath or appreciating some nuance of nature. joyfully walking in the rain, figuring out some sort of puzzle. Emotions are still the same. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2026, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/39 "2026-04-06T11:23:51Z")
Skippy Chunky Peanut Butter. It’s been exactly the same my entire life. ---
**Author:** ![VanillaHazelnut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/5daacb/32.png) [@VanillaHazelnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VanillaHazelnut)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2026, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/40 "2026-04-06T11:36:11Z")
Haha! ---
**Author:** ![hideousidiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/858c86/32.png) [@hideousidiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hideousidiot)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2026, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041/41 "2026-04-06T14:43:49Z")
They still haven’t idiot-proofed most things. I’m a certified idiot who can’t perform many simple tasks, but it has long seemed to me that many, many tasks could have been made much simpler by making instructions much easier to read. For example I was just taking apart my CPAP machine for cleaning (admittedly we didn’t have CPAP machines when I was a kid, but this is just an example) and every friggin time I need to do this, for cleaning, I always have to take considerable time out to figure out how to get it apart, where to pick interlocking parts to release them, how to press on other parts to unstick them, etc. THE manufacturer could easily have written instructions right on the machine with little arrows (better yet, BIG arrows) in RED INK saying “PUSH HERE” but no. Every time I have to figure out how to do it. Color-coding would help me too. There are about four separate devices installed that make my TV work, and all of them are black. When I have to call my cable company to get my TV service going again (a whole other issue—I need to call about four times every year, at a minimum) they ask me things like “Is there a green light on the combonitatrator?” or tell me “Unplug your detumbling medom” when I can’t tell which part is which. But if one of them were green and orange, I think I could take a stab at it. And the serial numbers! They are printed in gray on the black devices in tiny print, and the cable people want me to read them off to them. Like they couldn’t possibly have printed them in white letters, and big ones too? We did have DVDs when I was younger—has anyone figured out a better way to design DVD boxes so that it’s possible to get a DVD out of or into the case without getting your greasy fingers all over the playing surface? Or boxes in general? Why are all boxes made so difficult to open? I’d imagine that the first few poorly designed boxes that required a pair of scissors, an exacto blade, a chisel, a completed course in body-building and an engineering degree to open up would have alerted them to make easier the process of extracting your purchase from the box? It’s like the people who design these things read the angry letters from highly dissatisfied customers and conclude “Hmmm, seems like we aren’t pissing off as many people as we could these days.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-things-the-same-as-when-you-were-a-kid/1029041.md?page=3)