# Small/subtle human trends & behaviors that have slowly subsided since the 70s/80s. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 31, 2019, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516 "2019-08-31T13:06:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 20
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/382 "2019-09-24T04:51:43Z")
> [@Seanette](#): > > I’m 50, lifelong US West Coast resident. I’ve found it a bit odd in my call center jobs to have callers who are definitely a generation senior to me address me as “ma’am”. Feels kind of wrong to have someone that senior to me addressing me in a way I find deferential. Any time I’m called “Sir” or “Mr. \_\_\_\_” it’s a young retail slave who’s so afraid of offending someone that they’re erring on the overly formal, impersonal side. My reaction is always sadness: “You poor kid. You’re afraid you’ll get fired if you don’t say everything right, aren’t you?” ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/383 "2019-09-24T10:07:24Z")
I still use (the French versions of) “ma’am and sir” in public but I increasingly feel like _I’m_ the weirdo for doing so :(. Even people barely younger than me don’t really use these forms of address. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/384 "2019-09-24T10:40:08Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > A college friend of mine is a Universalist minister. His ordination twenty years ago took place in a historic church in the tiny town of Canon, Georgia, population 725. The church - a classic white clapboard one-room building that would not look out of place on the set of _Little House on the Prairie_ - did not have air conditioning (and the ceremony took place on a sweltering July day), so alongside the hymnals in the pews, the church provided paper fans. Apparently donated by the local funeral home, which listed its phone number…of four digits. > > I felt like I had stepped back into the 1910s. I was at an interment in Illinois 2 years ago, and undertakers are still providing paper fans. Felt like I’d stepped back into the 1950’s… ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/385 "2019-09-24T14:14:41Z")
> [@Mangosteen](#): > > Buying things they don’t need, with money they don’t have, to impress people they don’t like? Heh, big change from the days when everyone had an entire spare set of crockery and cutlery that anyone they actually knew and liked wasn’t allowed to use except at Christmas, right? ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/386 "2019-09-24T17:15:40Z")
> [@Marlonius](#): > > When I was a kid, all adults were called Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms. > > I’m now 47 and have only ever been called “Mr.” twice that I can recall. In each case, it was the child of immigrant friends. All other children call me by my first name. One thing I noticed in 2016 that I don’t recall from any previous election; calling candidates by their first names. Maybe not in the media, but most ordinary people didn’t refer to the two Democratic candidates as “Secretary Clinton” and “Senator Sanders”. They were Hillary and Bernie. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/387 "2019-09-24T18:00:14Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > One thing I noticed in 2016 that I don’t recall from any previous election; calling candidates by their first names. Maybe not in the media, but most ordinary people didn’t refer to the two Democratic candidates as “Secretary Clinton” and “Senator Sanders”. They were Hillary and Bernie. I think for Clinton this was because there was another “Clinton” tied in with the presidency and people were attempting to distinguish Hillary from Bill, while for Bernie it was a deliberate branding decision (he didn’t want to be the more formal looking candidate). But I don’t think that’s really unique; Bush Jr. was called “W” or “Dubya” by a lot of people instead of his last name, “Bob Dole” and “John Kerry” were much better known than “Senator Dole” or “Senator Kerry,” even as far back as Eisenhower “I like Ike” was a campaign slogan. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/388 "2019-09-24T18:55:45Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > I think for Clinton this was because there was another “Clinton” tied in with the presidency and people were attempting to distinguish Hillary from Bill, while for Bernie it was a deliberate branding decision (he didn’t want to be the more formal looking candidate). But I don’t think that’s really unique; Bush Jr. was called “W” or “Dubya” by a lot of people instead of his last name, “Bob Dole” and “John Kerry” were much better known than “Senator Dole” or “Senator Kerry,” even as far back as Eisenhower “I like Ike” was a campaign slogan. Lest we forget how pervasive “Tricky Dick” was. But I never recall anyone calling President King “Leslie”, as mercilessly mocked for just about everything else as he was. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/389 "2019-09-24T18:59:48Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Around me they mostly scream about the great snacks and other stuff to be had inside the convenience store, and occasionally play music or general interest news magazine stuff… That’s horrible. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/390 "2019-09-24T19:28:07Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > … thing that I do remember is leg warmers. I liked (and still like) some things about 80s fashion, but I never understood how leg warmers were ever considered sensible or desirable in any way. They just looked goofy. I used to wear them unfolded, if that’s the right term. They tended to be worn with the bottom bit doubled up and the top bit doubled up, but I took to wearing them full length, keeping them in place with a large elastic band. My version probably looked even goofier than most, but going to and fro on a low-powered moped in the winter, they did actually serve a reasonable leg-warming purpose, just not their original one\*. 🙂 - to help dancers avoid muscle cramps or something. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2019, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/391 "2019-09-24T20:43:02Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I remember that store downtown, the place with the name that started with “W”, that had a cafe on the south wall, a lunch counter on the east wall and a soda counter on the north wall. They might have had something on the west wall but that was where the pet store section was. Woolworth’s? ---
**Author:** ![Mr\_Downtown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mr\_Downtown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr_Downtown)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2019, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/392 "2019-09-25T04:25:21Z")
One I noticed riding the L last Saturday on Chicago’s North Side: 30 years ago, it seemed like professional baseball teams had a limited number of players who wore the team uniform. In fact, I was thinking there was a limit of something like 25 players on the roster. But there were entire trainloads of people in uniform riding to Wrigley Field. Some were surprisingly young, and some were surprisingly out of shape. Many seemed to have the same surname and number. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/393 "2019-09-27T03:05:51Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > I was at the Sprawl Mart yesterday and noticed a couple racks of them past the checkouts. The Sprawltons doesn’t waste resources on something that doesn’t sell. Road atlases of a region or state which list attractions all around the area are especially useful when you haven’t decided where you’re going yet. Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/394 "2019-09-27T13:53:54Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Road atlases of a region or state which list attractions all around the area are especially useful when you haven’t decided where you’re going yet. This rack had the usual Rand-McNally national atlases. Like [thus](https://www.amazon.com/Rand-McNally-2020-Road-Atlas/dp/0528020994) but with a 2019 date. (I was wondering if they were trying to dump their soon-to-be-outdated stock.) ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/395 "2019-09-27T22:47:44Z")
> [@Katriona](#): > > Woolworth’s? That would be the one. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/396 "2019-09-27T23:30:40Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > Nothing was open. No replenishment beer runs on Memorial Day or Fourth of July, unless you went to an expensive liquor store. Recently, all the food places except Costco are open every holiday. Instead of making something, you can just drop by the bakery counter on your way to the relatives and pick up something. While the grocery store thing is pretty recent and AFAIK nationwide, the ‘beer run’ one varied a lot from state to state. For example, in NC beer isn’t sold at liquor stores, only liquor is sold there, and getting beer on holidays like the Fourth wasn’t that bad because convenience stores would still be open and sold beer. ---
**Author:** ![fedman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/278dde/32.png) [@fedman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2019, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/397 "2019-09-28T23:19:47Z")
> [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](#): > > I’ve been using ivory most of my life and couldn’t find it the last time I was at Walmart. I ended up buying some Dove “for men” scented stuff. I really prefer non-scented plain stuff. I thought Ivory was pretty standard, when did that become “random”? > > That’s certainly a change - that men need more variety of soaps and scents. They sell all kinds of varieties of “for men” bar and body/face/all-in-one liquid washes. “Dudes” even need their own special wet wipes these days apparently. Have you tried dollar stores? ---
**Author:** ![fedman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/278dde/32.png) [@fedman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2019, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/398 "2019-09-28T23:23:51Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > I remember that store downtown, the place with the name that started with “W”, that had a cafe on the south wall, a lunch counter on the east wall and a soda counter on the north wall. They might have had something on the west wall but that was where the pet store section was. Woolworth’s? and candy counter ---
**Author:** ![mjmlabs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mjmlabs/32/69_2.png) [@mjmlabs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mjmlabs)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2019, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/399 "2019-09-29T05:09:36Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > This rack had the usual Rand-McNally national atlases. Like [thus](https://www.amazon.com/Rand-McNally-2020-Road-Atlas/dp/0528020994) but with a 2019 date. (I was wondering if they were trying to dump their soon-to-be-outdated stock.) The last time I bought a Rand-McNally USA/Canada atlas–and this would have been sometime in the mid-to-late '90s–Sprawlmart had special “Sprawlmart Editions” of same available next to the standard edition, for a buck or two less. The difference was two leaves added to the outside of the standard edition (so four extra pages in front and four more in the back–with the cover still on the outside, but “Sprawlmart edition” printed in the corner), containing lots of Sprawlmart info–like a listing of all the Sprawlmarts & Spam’s Clubs in the country, with street addresses, phone numbers, a chart of which services were available at each (auto shop, gas/diesel, etc.), and IIRC, even the page number and grid info for each location. Big with the RVing crowd, surely. I have no idea if a similar cross-promotion exists, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it does. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/400 "2019-09-30T06:17:01Z")
> [@fedman](#): > > Have you tried dollar stores? I will try that next time (for soap), but since I bought a 6 pack of Dove special manly smells green/blue whatever, I won’t need it for awhile. I mostly use dollar stores for parchment paper ($1 instead of $5.49 or whatever), foil sheets, and stuff like that and don’t go often. Also, I remember it was Lever I was looking for and not Ivory (I switched awhile back) , but Walmart had neither. ---
**Author:** ![motu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/motu/32/259_2.png) [@motu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/motu)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2019, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516/401 "2019-10-02T19:00:29Z")
Postal Workers wearing a uniform. It’s really weird to me to see a guy wearing casual clothes driving around in a Mail Jeep. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516.md?page=19) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/small-subtle-human-trends-behaviors-that-have-slowly-subsided-since-the-70s-80s/839516.md?page=21)