# 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:** 8
**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, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/141 "2010-07-27T23:36:42Z")
> [@Nunavut\_Boy](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > and that there was a time when nobody died from not having a mobile phone. > > Well, to be fair, there’s probably lots of people that died because they didn’t have access to a phone. You don’t hear too much from them because they’re…well, they’re dea Hm. We’re talkin’ _mobile_ phones here, sonny… And to the list, I’d like to add Tippex. ---
**Author:** ![Jet\_Jaguar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jet_jaguar/32/3562_2.png) [@Jet\_Jaguar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jet_Jaguar)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/142 "2010-07-28T00:09:32Z")
Wait, what? They don’t teach cursive anymore? That’s news to me. How are you supposed to sign your name? ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_From\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Girl\_From\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_From_Mars)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/143 "2010-07-28T00:19:05Z")
Intermissions in movies, so you could go get snacks or go to the bathroom. I remember they had them up to the early 90s (or at least they did in New Zealand, which at the time was described as the rest of the world in the 50s). ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/144 "2010-07-28T00:26:05Z")
How about **white out**? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/145 "2010-07-28T00:29:57Z")
> [@Girl\_From\_Mars](#): > > Intermissions in movies, so you could go get snacks or go to the bathroom. I remember they had them up to the early 90s (or at least they did in New Zealand, which at the time was described as the rest of the world in the 50s). 37, and while I’ve always _known_ what an intermission is, the only time I’ve actually experienced one in a movie is the 4+ hour 1993 epic _Gettysburg_. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/146 "2010-07-28T00:40:08Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > …I don’t think I talked to my parents more than once a month while in college. During fall finals freshman year I once went _3 days_ without checking my voicemail. This led to my mother calling the police (as in the real police) and trying to file a missing persons report. They didn’t, but I ended getting a visit from the residence hall director pleading with to please call my mother and let her know that I’m still alive so she’ll stop calling them. Cue mommy dearest trying to lay a massive guilt trip on me because she was having nightmares of me “cut open on an autopsy table”. Dad was also mad, but that mostly because he had to deal her insane panicking in person. She also tried to dissuade me from going to college in _the city_ because one of her “coworkers’ son” had gone to the same school, gotten kidnapped, and _castrated_. :rolleyes: I wish I was exaggerating, but I’m not. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/147 "2010-07-28T01:02:11Z")
Do schools still have overhead projectors? It seems like it has been over 10 years since I’ve seen one. ---
**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 28, 2010, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/148 "2010-07-28T01:30:40Z")
> [@Spoke](#): > > How about **white out**? That’s RACIST! 🙂 How about Life Before Cell Phones? I was tell my wet behind the ears coworkers about the time my car broke down when I was their age ( and they weren’t even born yet) and I had to _walk_ a couple miles in the dark on the side of the highway to the nearest phone to call Triple A for abuse…errr…help. “Why didn’t you use your cell phone?” “Because the only people that had phones in their cars at that time period were rich white dudes in movies.” Then I trotted over to the sweater section of our store and brought out a [one of these just because I’m perverse like that.](http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.retrocycle.com/images/customchrome/34221_01PRH.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.retrocycle.com/CustomChromeSku/34221/Tall_and_Short_Neck_Dickies.html&h=389&w=300&sz=26&tbnid=g5509QkEuIJH7M:&tbnh=123&tbnw=95&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dneck%2Bdickies&hl=en&usg=__SJ-ufFiDGkoCz04yOywtU_IrkQg=&sa=X&ei=4YdPTMiIEtSknQeIo8X8BQ&ved=0CE4Q9QEwCQ) It’s a black dickie. Yeah, I said Black Dickie. Black Dickie. Black Dickie. Black Dickie. Big one too! ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/149 "2010-07-28T02:05:04Z")
> [@Girl\_From\_Mars](#): > > Intermissions in movies, so you could go get snacks or go to the bathroom. I remember they had them up to the early 90s (or at least they did in New Zealand, which at the time was described as the rest of the world in the 50s). How about CARTOON REELS that they would show as freebies BEFORE the main feature that you’d paid for? And drive-ins! With those low-fidelity 40 pound speakers you had to hook onto the top of your window glass after rolling your window down midway. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/150 "2010-07-28T02:18:19Z")
My daughter is 28 and has something few of her friends do. A vaccination scar. Before smallpox was officially eradicated in the late 1970’s, people would get a small scratch on their arm with a needle that had been coated with a weakened version of the smallpox virus. On most people, this would cause a puss-filled blister to rise at the site, which would result in a permanent scar. We were old-school, and insisted she be vaccinated, even though there hadn’t been a case of smallpox in the U.S. in more than 30 years. Of course, in those days, responsible parents thought loading up their kids with all types of vaccines was a _good_ thing. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/151 "2010-07-28T02:55:21Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Of course, in those days, responsible parents thought loading up their kids with all types of vaccines was a _good_ thing. :dubious: When did this go out of fashion? ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/152 "2010-07-28T03:00:27Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > > [@kunilou](#): > > > > Of course, in those days, responsible parents thought loading up their kids with all types of vaccines was a _good_ thing. > > :dubious: When did this go out of fashion? When Jenny McCarthy’s kid was diagnosed with autism. I don’t have the smallpox scar either (born in 1966), but my two older sisters do. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/153 "2010-07-28T03:05:13Z")
The year I started college was I think the first year they had online registration…but the system didn’t work very well. After two or three semesters where the online system invariably crashed at some point during the registration period, forcing students to go wait in line outside the Registrar’s office to get their schedules approved, we went back to doing things the REALLY old-fashioned way. On registration day all the departments set out tables in the auditorium and when it was your group’s turn to go you went around and literally signed up for the classes you wanted. I went to a small school so this wasn’t too much of a mob scene. In some ways it was more convenient than online registration because if you needed to get a pre-requisite waived then the professor was usually right there to sign the form for you. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/154 "2010-07-28T03:32:53Z")
One day kids are going to ask why they’re called “podcasts” and a grizzly adult will have to explain what iPods were. ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/155 "2010-07-28T06:40:19Z")
Maybe off topic: why don’t men have smallpox scars? I’ve seen women from all over the world with it, but no men. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/156 "2010-07-28T06:56:48Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > A while back I saw an article about a small company that still manufactures washboards. Apparently they were getting a bunch of orders from American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. My guess is that most washboards today in the U.S. are used by musicians. They are common in Cajun, zydeco and jug band music. ---
**Author:** ![Jeff\_Lichtman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jeff_lichtman/32/1531_2.png) [@Jeff\_Lichtman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jeff_Lichtman)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/157 "2010-07-28T07:25:00Z")
This thread seems to have drifted from the original topic to things we don’t expect under-30s to recognize. Other things that I wouldn’t expect the under-30 crowd to know about: [ul] [li]TV test patterns[/li][li]Door-to-door milk delivery[/li][li]PCs without hard drives[/li][li]Mimeographs[/li][li]Mechanical adding machines[/li][li]Reel-to-reel audio tape[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Sxyzzx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sxyzzx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sxyzzx)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/158 "2010-07-28T07:54:35Z")
> [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > [li]PCs without hard drives[/li] Why wouldn’t we recognize that? Solid-state drives are cool, so fast! ---
**Author:** ![Superhal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/159 "2010-07-28T07:56:26Z")
Pillsbury Doughboy Nipper (the dog from the RCA logo) Full-service gas stations National Geographic magazine A black Michael Jackson When Michael Jordan had hair (actually, I remember when he was balding, which is why many people thought he went with the bald look.) Combovers, or balding men who keep the tuft of hair over their ears and around the back of their head coke-bottle glasses When the 49’ers, Royals, Pirates, 76’ers or Mets were the best teams in their leagues. Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom (TV) The Wonderful World of Disney (TV) ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101/160 "2010-07-28T08:13:40Z")
> [@Sxyzzx](#): > > > [@Jeff\_Lichtman](#): > > > > PCs without hard drives > > Why wouldn’t we recognize that? Solid-state drives are cool, so fast! Computers [used to have](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_II_series) CPUs and floppy drives. And that was all. The operating system was loaded each time from a floppy disk. And in those days, floppy disks were actually floppy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-youre-suprised-under-30s-dont-recognize/548101.md?page=9)