# Things you're suprised under-30s don't recognize **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 26, 2010, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101 "2010-07-26T21:06:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/61 "2010-07-27T05:19:11Z")
> [@CanvasShoes](#): > > **snake-hips** has explained it a couple of times but people here seem to still getting confused about what he’s talking about. The dial he’s talking about isn’t on the TV, it’s on the antenna control itself. Ours sat on top of the TV. Yep, ours sat on top of the TV as well. It was brown, with two wired loop antennas that turned. There were two dials below the antennas on the base that turned the antennas and tuned the television. This was in addition to, and not in place of, the VHF, UHF, and discrete tuning dials on the actual television. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/62 "2010-07-27T06:27:25Z")
[QUOTE=Whisperer] I’ve heard rumours that young’uns can’t write cursive or tell time on an analogue watch face. [/QUOTE] I can definitely read an analogue clock but I’m ashamed to admit that I can’t read nor write cursive. Well, I can sort of read cursive. It’s more… _interpreting_ it or _translating_ it. :o ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/63 "2010-07-27T06:38:54Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > > [@Superhal](#): > > > > Busy signals: back in the day, only rich people had call waiting or answering machines. > > And do you remember party lines? You and several neighbors had the same phone number. So if you picked up the phone to make a call, it might already be in use by someone else. The polite thing to do was to hang up and try again later, though it seemed that everyone had a nosy neighbor who eavesdropped. When we moved to the country in Idaho, about 1962, we had party lines. We shared a line with 5 or 6 neighbors. Each house had a different phone number, though. We could tell what house an incoming call was for by the number and duration of the rings. Our house might be 2 short rings. The Reed’s house would be one short and one long ring, etc. You only picked up the phone if the rings were for your house. If you wanted to make a call and picked up the phone and someone was on the line, you had to wait until they were finished, or if it was a dire emergency you could butt in and ask if you could have the line. And yes, there was always some nosy biddie who had nothing better to do than eavesdrop on your calls. I’m talking about you, Mrs. Wilkes! Even today this strikes me as an anachronism, and I haven’t met anyone my age (mid-50’s) who grew up with party lines. We only had them for a year or two before we all got private lines. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/64 "2010-07-27T06:47:39Z")
> [@jasonh300](#): > > > [@NinjaChick](#): > > > > …I still have no idea what all this talk of TV dials is about - the dial was somehow physically connected to an antenna outside? > > If the picture was bad or had static, there was a ring around the dial that you could rotate for fine tuning. I grew up in the 70s and didn’t have cable at the time, but I don’t remember this at all. I _do_ remember that the dial every TV set we had would eventually have this problem where the plastic peg or stem that dial sat on – it looked like a half moon shape – would get sort of stripped so that the dial would no longer turn it. At that point, we had to have a pair of pliers next to the TV to turn the little peg without the dial. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/65 "2010-07-27T06:52:54Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > > [@Superhal](#): > > > > Corduroy: it felt like felt but had stripes. > > Come on, corduroy? Most people under 30 probably don’t know the Pearl Jam song by that name, but they should know what the fabric is – and if they don’t it’s not due to their youth. Corduroy pants and jackets are still widely available from big name clothing companies. Indeed, there’s been some big news lately about corduroy pillows. Have you heard? They’re making _head_lines. Bah dum-dum! ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/66 "2010-07-27T07:27:18Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > Back on topic. Here’s one the under-30 crowd can’t comprehend when I’ve talked about it - the pre-Web Internet. Email, IRC, FTP, Usenet news, MUDs, and Gopher, but not the Web. They see the Web as _the_ Internet. I suppose the Internet and the WWW are conflated, hence terms like Interweb. But when I went online first in 1995 or 1996. The web was in full flow but IRC, email, FTP, Usenet etc were still popular and the web just wasn’t quite as useful as it was to become. I’m 28. I do recall around that time being startled when reading an old Amstrad magazine of my brother’s from around 1986 where they described going online and playing MUDS. Addressing the broader topic, there are plenty of technologies that didn’t have day-to-day use in my lifetime that I still recognise but it depends on your interest as much as your age imho. Unless a technology is truly ubiquitous it seems a bit strange to me to scoff that someone doesn’t know x, y, or z (unless they literally don’t know the alphabet 🙂 ). Much of the ignorance you encounter relates to the subjects lack of interest in a field. Whenever I feel like getting on my high horse about things I think how little I know about pretty much any sports. There are plenty of men my age with encyclopaedic knowledge of various sports who would think me a dunce for being so ignorant. I just have no interest in that field. My friend in his 40s encounted a 22 year old who had never heard of _Fame_ and was slightly startled but I’m not really sure if this is the norm, \*Fame \*(especially the musical) still enjoys some popularity in that age group. An interesting experiment is to talk to someone your own age about a particular event or technology that has fallen by the wayside. It can be amazing how much one’s own experience diverges from another of the same age and similar background. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/67 "2010-07-27T07:31:34Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > Also, I know I asked about this in GQ years ago, but nobody had an answer. Maybe it’s something youngsters never caught. CRT-based televisions in the US usually had the CRT recessed somewhat in the cabinet, [like this](http://www.flickr.com/photos/kirkanos2882/3197520821/). However, when I watched a British show on PBS, and a television was depicted, the CRT bulged out from the cabinet, [like this](http://www.flickr.com/photos/26530179@N02/4349519411/). I still don’t know why the was a difference in cabinet design, and the difference in analog television standards (NTSC vs PAL) doesn’t seem to explain it. I don’t know what sort of explanation you’re looking for, really. Different manufacturers in different countries came up with different design solutions for their products. There certainly were TVs in the UK in the 70s that had the CRT recessed into the cabinet, they were simply less common. I’ve been interested by the posts in this thread that confirmed my observations of American TV sets as seen on TV in the UK – sets with dials were common in the US long after they disappeared here, sometime in the early 70s. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/68 "2010-07-27T07:47:06Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > I’ve heard rumours that young’uns can’t write cursive or tell time on an analogue watch face. And those of us over a certain age: When we read a digital clock, we don’t really know what time it is until our brains picture an analog clock. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/69 "2010-07-27T08:27:09Z")
> [@CanvasShoes](#): > > I’m 51 and I can’t even see what the license plate in the second link is supposed to say (and YES, I’m wearing my reading glasses :D). It’s just a blurry blue and white. And I didn’t get the Wayne’s world reference either. Christ, thank you. I’m 36 and only 1/10th blind, and can’t even read it either. I also did not get the Wayne’s World ref, but count me among the minority of people my age who HATED the movie and the SNL sketch. ETA : I saw the title of the second plate - goes211.jpg. I guess it’s a Spinal Tap reference. Still can’t read the plate, though… Joe ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/70 "2010-07-27T13:08:23Z")
Oo! I got one! Nobody under 30 remembers when the only toll-free area code was 800. Area code 900 may be a thing of the past, too… at least I haven’t seen 900 numbers advertised for years. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/71 "2010-07-27T13:10:52Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > Back on topic. Here’s one the under-30 crowd can’t comprehend when I’ve talked about it - the pre-Web Internet. Email, IRC, FTP, Usenet news, MUDs, and Gopher, but not the Web. They see the Web as _the_ Internet. I’d say 95+% of the POST-30 crowd wouldn’t comprehend what you were talking about, either. The pre-www internet days were for decently hardcore nerds. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/72 "2010-07-27T13:14:50Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > > [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > > > I’ve heard rumours that young’uns can’t write cursive or tell time on an analogue watch face. > > And those of us over a certain age: When we read a digital clock, we don’t really know what time it is until our brains picture an analog clock. I think part of this is also based on which way you process information. I’m 28 and I’m _far_ better at glancing at an analog clock for the time. My husband, though, is much better with reading digital clocks. I’m far more visually and spatially oriented\* and he’s more numbers oriented. - Back in grade school, let’s say a class was from 9:00 - 9:50. All I had to do was glance and see where the big hand was in relation to “straight up” versus “two numbers away from straight up”. If it was pointing straight to the right… aw, man. There’s a LOT more space to go. ☹ If it was pointing straight to the left… WOOHOO! ALMOST DONE! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/73 "2010-07-27T13:24:47Z")
20-something looking through posters in the thrift store. Her: Who is that? Me: It’s Jim Morrison Her: Oh. (Pause) Who’s Jim Morrison? Me: :eek: ---
**Author:** ![The\_Real\_Regency\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@The\_Real\_Regency\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Real_Regency_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/74 "2010-07-27T13:31:11Z")
I went to Staples last weekend to get a set of bookends. The teenage clerk had no idea what a bookend was, even after hearing them described in great detail. I was tempted to ask him if he knew what a book was, but he really didn’t deserve that kind of pithiness, so I held my tongue. I’ve been there too, when I was his age. He asked a slightly older coworker but she didn’t know what they were either, and directed us to the bookshelf section. Finally my husband found bookends on the aisle that had other random desk accessories. ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/75 "2010-07-27T13:58:24Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Oooh, this is the perfect thread for this. A few days ago I spotted [this license plate](http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f44/JoeyJoeyPP/audi2.jpg) in my parking lot. No one got it. :mad: > > I’m 29, I was surprised no one else there (about 16-25) knew what it was from. Hm. Methinks **Joey P** that this is _your_ car… who the hell parks like that in a parking lot? And for the OP - I’m dumbfounded that there are people under 30 in this world who don’t know what an aerogramme is, what air mail paper is, what a telex machine was, and how telegrams were delivered, and that there was a time when nobody died from not having a mobile phone. I spoke to a 20-year-old two weeks ago who was shocked I tells ya to find out that before Google, you actually had to go to the library… ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/76 "2010-07-27T14:15:57Z")
> [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](#): > > > [@Joey\_P](#): > > > > Oooh, this is the perfect thread for this. A few days ago I spotted [this license plate](http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f44/JoeyJoeyPP/audi2.jpg) in my parking lot. No one got it. :mad: > > > > I’m 29, I was surprised no one else there (about 16-25) knew what it was from. > > Hm. Methinks **Joey P** that this is _your_ car… who the hell parks like that in a parking lot? You’d be amazed, _amazed_ at the way people park in a lot with no lines. You’ll have 10 people angle park in one direction and someone else do it the other way. Even better is when 10 people angle park in one direction and someone will park behind them and block three cars in. People will park so close to the forklift that we can’t move it. People will park so close to the entrance to the lot that sometimes other people can’t get in. And the list goes on and on… BTW, that’s my gray Honda Insight in the upper left. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/77 "2010-07-27T14:16:15Z")
I had to explain to the whippersnappers at work exactly what Slips & Cami’s are for. We get buttloads of Tank tops in and handfuls of cami’s in, so I have to do a 101 class on a regular basis. So we don’t have Cross Contamination Issues. “It’s to opaque the dress you are wearing so no one gets a glimmer.” “What?” “Look, back in the day, showing off the goodies what a Bad Thing.” “You’re kidding, right?” “Now you girls just parade your hoo-hoo’s out like dime store floozies.” “What’s a dime-store?” I decided it was better to beat them to death right there in the underwear aisle with a record album and a rotary phone and metal ice cube tray. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/78 "2010-07-27T14:16:59Z")
I was explaining to my preschooler what a telephone booth is, and she said, “oh, you mean that’s for when your mobile phone isn’t working?” She’s only four, but it’s shades of what’s to come. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/79 "2010-07-27T14:20:20Z")
never mind ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/80 "2010-07-27T14:22:28Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > I was explaining to my preschooler what a telephone booth is, and she said, “oh, you mean that’s for when your mobile phone isn’t working?” She’s only four, but it’s shades of what’s to come. I remember thinking it was pretty funny when my (at the time) three year old was pretending to take pictures. She would pick up a block or a toy or something and say “Click…click”. The funny thing was she was holding the object as if it were a cell phone and then she would ‘show’ you the picture on the other side. Weirder still, she has a toy rotary phone and she appears to understand the concept of it. She’ll spin the dial around a bunch of times and hold the receiver up to her ear and start chatting away. To the best of my knowledge she’s never seen (or used) a real one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101.md?page=5)