# The Things For Which Kids Today Have No Context (another list of how things have changed) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 7, 2014, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035 "2014-08-07T14:43:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/161 "2014-08-08T03:00:50Z")
[TV test patterns](http://blogs.mcall.com/.a/6a00d8341c4fe353ef0133f370767a970b-pi) - Broadcast stations shut down after midnight. The test pattern followed the end of the last program. If your TV was wonky you’d see it easier with the test pattern because geometric shapes would be askew. [bottle inserts](http://www.pinterest.com/pin/402861129137332679/) for sprinkling water on clothes because clothes irons didn’t have reservoirs. grocery stores with bottle returns. Pop and beer was sold in reusable bottles and you dragged them back to the store and put them on a roller system. road tar. When it got hot it would bubble up and kids would run barefoot on them popping the bubbles. [Smudge pots](http://thumbs3.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/miOVR67r5IgZkMM5zd-d6aw.jpg) - they were placed near road hazards as a warning at night. railroad crossings that used loose lumber between the rails to fill the gap. You came to an almost complete stop when crossing or risk tearing the suspension of the car out. Roads with no side markings, reflectors, rub strips or anything that gave you a warning except the marks down the center. Mosquito foggers that would drive through the neighborhood spraying God knows what. Teachers asking to borrow your boy scout knife to open a box. Dressing up to fly on a commercial flight. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/162 "2014-08-08T03:04:11Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > My niece is going of to college next week and I (jokingly) asked her if she had a message board for her dorm room door. “So when your friends come looking for you and you’re not there, they can leave a message that you’ll see when you get home.” I think she thought I made up that idea myself. You still need one, so that when you get back to your room and you see a certain mark drawn on it, you know that your roommate is having sex, so go away. A bit more subtle than a tie on the doorknob. (My girlfriend and her roommate would draw a star.) ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/163 "2014-08-08T03:07:23Z")
Movies disappearing after a short period may not be such a bad thing. Friends back in Texas informed me that _Look Who’s Talking_ played for a _full year_ there, moving to one dollar house or another after leaving the first-run theater. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/164 "2014-08-08T03:17:18Z")
I remember when the Lifestyle section of my local paper was called Women’s News. ---
**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:** [August 8, 2014, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/165 "2014-08-08T03:22:27Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > I recently saw the results of an online poll, in which most of the respondents were under about 25. One question was, did they fear physical pain more, or emotional pain. A great majority said they are more in fear of emotional pain. I thought this was very much a sign of the times, having grown up in the pre-novocaine era of dentistry – a time when there was no such thing as political correctness and if somebody said something hurtful, it was just one of the things you shook off. > > In those days, your teeth could be hurt, but not your feelings. Just the opposite today. Nowadays, one’s feelings are constantly on the brink of a precipice, but medical painkillers are there for everything. Novocaine, seriously? Synthetic local anesthetics have been around for well over a century, although it is true that some people do have a serious allergic reaction to some of them. ---
**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:** [August 8, 2014, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/166 "2014-08-08T03:25:25Z")
Oh, and more about phones: in our area, no one actually owned their phones, they rented them from the phone company. My brother discovered a neat trick: dial 1191, hang up, and your own phone would ring. That only worked as a prank a couple times, because the ring was protracted. Then a repairman came to fix one of the phones, and my brother learned to dial 118, wait for a tone, then dial, like 3 or 4 and hang up and it would sound like a normal ring. We had at least a phone upstairs and one downstairs, so it could be a pretty good prank. ---
**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:** [August 8, 2014, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/167 "2014-08-08T03:58:03Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Movies being in a theater for more than two weeks. A really successful movie might be in the theater for months! OTOH, we do now have relatively recent second rate movies cluttering up the HBO and Showtime schedules for as much as ten or fifteen _years._ If a movie is only just old enough that the characters have lousy, primitive mobiles but everything else looks much the same as today, it’s not old enough to have camp or nostalgic value. ---
**Author:** ![svd678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@svd678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/svd678)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/168 "2014-08-08T04:04:34Z")
Beloit College publishes an annual list of things that the incoming students have no experience with. Since this is dated, those just out of college a few years can see how much things have changed in the time between when they were frosh and currently. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/169 "2014-08-08T04:08:51Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Getting up and walking across the room to change the channel on the TV… Getting your little sister to get up and change the channel so you don’t have to. Hell, it’s how she learned how to count. 🙂 Standing by the tv and adjusting the rabbit ears while somebody said, “A little to the left.” ---
**Author:** ![Crustacea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/edb3f5/32.png) [@Crustacea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crustacea)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/170 "2014-08-08T04:20:37Z")
Subway stamps Ringtones Texting with T-9 Burned CDs Napster/Limewire Frosted tips SARS ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/171 "2014-08-08T04:42:39Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > Charge cards and credit cards existed but few of the adults I knew had American Express, Visa, or MasterCard, or Diner’s Club. I can remember when MasterCard and Visa were called Master Charge and BankAmericard. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/172 "2014-08-08T04:46:36Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Novocaine, seriously? Synthetic local anesthetics have been around for well over a century, although it is true that some people do have a serious allergic reaction to some of them. It’s not that easy to get painkillers nowadays. My wife had a tooth infection that gave her a nasty toothache, the dentist couldnt see her right away, and all he would prescribe for her was a Tylenol 3 (basically, Tylenol with a very small amount of codiene). Even after the tooth extraction surgery all he would prescribe was a tylenol 3. I used to get lortabs after a tooth extraction. I had a severely pulled back muscle a few weeks ago, and all the doctor would offer me was a muscle relaxant and over the counter tylenol. I’m pretty sure it’s the DEA crackdown on prescription drugs that are of interest to addicts that causes this: to put it in perspective, I had not asked for painkillers for YEARS prior to being told all I could use for my pulled back was over the counter Tylenol. I think for my wife it was at least a year since she had gotten any prescription painkillers. So, the days of being able to get treated for pain with powerful drugs may be history… ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/173 "2014-08-08T04:50:44Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > And no one much younger than me would get this cartoon I once had in a book: all black except for two opposing triangles, captioned “View of the world from someone living in a beer can”. I had a book full of cartoons like that! They are called Droodles. Here’s one page I found with a bunch of examples: [http://www.folklore.ee/Droodles/preface.html](http://www.folklore.ee/Droodles/preface.html) ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/174 "2014-08-08T04:52:59Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Unleaded? When were you born? It was Regular and Premium. > > Anybody remember when they gave away dishes at the movie theater? (Even I’m not that old) And Ethel. And the sign on the theater said “It’s KOOL inside”, because nobody had air conditioning at home, and the sign doubled as an ad for KOOL commercials. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/175 "2014-08-08T04:55:12Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Changing channels without remote. I had a neighbor, where I was sometimes sent to be baby-sat, who had an early version of a TV with a remote. It was wired, not wireless. So you could change channels from a little boxy console on your lap, but it had a wire stretched out across the floor to the TV. ---
**Author:** ![Flywheel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Flywheel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flywheel)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/176 "2014-08-08T05:06:13Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > And Ethel. If Ethel runs out, get Mabel. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/177 "2014-08-08T05:08:27Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > I had a book full of cartoons like that! They are called Droodles. Ah yes. Frank Zappa had an [album](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_Arriving_Too_Late_to_Save_a_Drowning_Witch) named after a Droodle. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/178 "2014-08-08T05:19:56Z")
The Fine Bros on YouTube run Kids React/Teens React/Seniors React and YouTubers React. And lately they’ve been running kids’ and teens’ reactions to things that are before their time. For example: [Kids React to Typewriters](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfxRfkZdiAQ&list=UU0v-tlzsn0QZwJnkiaUSJVQ) [Kids React to GameBoy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pCp8g-VjOs&list=UU0v-tlzsn0QZwJnkiaUSJVQ) [Teens React to 90s Internet](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0mg9DxvfZE&list=UU0v-tlzsn0QZwJnkiaUSJVQ) [Kids React to Rotary Phones](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkuirEweZvM) [Kids React to Walkmans](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk_vV-JRZ6E) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/179 "2014-08-08T05:20:23Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > To my great regret, I missed the era of Burma Shave signs. [Compendium of poetry from Burma Shave signs!](http://www.fiftiesweb.com/burma.htm) (ETA: This, from a web site devoted to [1950’s and 1960’s nostalgia](http://www.fiftiesweb.com/) of all sorts.) Modern-day fun signs: Clover brand milk, a regional brand in and around Sonoma County, Ca., has a cartoon cow mascot named Clo, and a long-running on-going series of silly cartoon billboards with Cow and Moo and Clo puns. [http://cloverstornetta.com/category/billboard-gallery/1990-1999/](http://cloverstornetta.com/category/billboard-gallery/1990-1999/) ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2014, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035/180 "2014-08-08T05:34:00Z")
The Sunday paper used to have a “TV book” with listings for the next week. I was about ten when we got a guide on the screen you could control (as opposed to the channel that scrolls slowly through the listings for the next couple of hours), so I don’t know when these went away. > [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Television stations signing off for the night and gas being promoted as “Unleaded” actually continued into the 1990s. I get two NBC stations. One is from a small town and until a few years ago it signed off on, IIRC, Sunday mornings. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-things-for-which-kids-today-have-no-context-another-list-of-how-things-have-changed/695035.md?page=10)