# Ubiquitous items from relatively recently youngsters may not recognise **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 19, 2023, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362 "2023-03-19T15:27:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 23
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/441 "2023-06-29T12:43:33Z")
> [@alovem](#): > > I don’t believe you. Many street maps have only one horizontal fold and therefore don’t fold accordion-style both ways. A single fold (or no fold at all) is a trivial special case of accordion-folding. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/442 "2023-06-29T12:56:46Z")
Monochrome PC monitors. Everything was in green letters. The original pc’s came standard with these monitors. Color graphics cards and monitors were a very expensive option. How many young people have seen or used a computer terminal? A device that connected to a mainframe computer. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/443 "2023-06-29T13:02:09Z")
There were amber ones, too. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/444 "2023-06-29T13:12:46Z")
Modems with a cradle for the handset of your telephone. Green-and-white striped printer paper. ASCII artwork (including, but not limited to, the ubiquitous picture of Snoopy). ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/445 "2023-06-29T14:23:25Z")
I don’t think anyone mentioned **Slide Projectors** and **Slides** for that matter. I guess they were already fading when we were still young though. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/446 "2023-06-29T15:09:58Z")
Maybe not recent, but blue line machines. Blueprints. I ran thousands of them. We had two full time people that ran the mylars through the machine. I helped when it was my maps going out. We had paper that was pre accordion folded. The blue line machine was about the size of a car laying on it’s side. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/447 "2023-06-29T15:23:37Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > I don’t think anyone mentioned **Slide Projectors** and **Slides** for that matter. > I guess they were already fading when we were still young though. They weren’t fading for me. My dad loved to show his slides. I couldn’t always escape. Then later slides played a huge factor in my career because their use in business presentations had turned into a billion dollar industry before typewriters suddenly had screens with graphics on them. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/448 "2023-06-29T15:31:36Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > How many young people have seen or used a computer terminal? A device that connected to a mainframe computer. Oh, you mean cloud computing? It won’t be long, I think, before non-terminal computers will be an entry for this thread. > [@enipla](#): > > Maybe not recent, but blue line machines. Blueprints. I ran thousands of them. In A Canticle for Liebowitz, there’s a post-apocalyptic order of monks who have made it their mission to preserve as much technical information as they can. They don’t understand the circuit diagrams and such, so they just copy them as perfectly faithfully as possible, in hopes that they’re getting all of the important parts. They’re very relieved when they discover that the white-on-blue color scheme was just an artifact of the easiest way to produce the diagrams, because painting in all those huge blue areas by hand was a real pain. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/449 "2023-06-29T15:49:54Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > They’re very relieved when they discover that the white-on-blue color scheme was just an artifact of the easiest way to produce the diagrams, because painting in all those huge blue areas by hand was a real pain. Blue prints changed once I got to them. A better description would have been blue lines from myself. Blue lines on a white background. We did make traditional blue prints by using a scribing/etching tool to remove a wax coating on a special sheet. Those scribed lines would remain white, while the rest would turn blue. Ya had to do that on a light table, or you would never see what you where drawing. I’m going to have to read _A Canticle for Liebowitz_ again. I don’t remember that. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2023, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/450 "2023-06-29T22:10:34Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Blue prints changed once I got to them. A better description would have been blue lines from myself. Blue lines on a white background. _Canticle_ was written in the 50s, so adjust your expectations of technology appropriately. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2025, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/451 "2025-09-23T20:23:37Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > If this counts as an “item”, white dog poop. Growing up I took it for granted that dried dog droppings were chalky white. It wasn’t until maybe a couple of years ago (maybe learned here) that the white actually came from bone meal in dog food, whic apparently isn’t used now, and apparently your general dried dog poo is no longer chalky and white. A new article on this: > **[Remember White Dog Poop In The 90s? This Is The Reason Why It Vanished](https://www.iflscience.com/remember-white-dog-poop-in-the-90s-this-is-the-reason-why-it-vanished-80899)** > > White dog poop had several causes, but one disappeared before the new millennium. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/452 "2025-09-25T15:45:53Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > How many young people have seen or used a computer terminal? A device that connected to a mainframe computer. [Terminal computing was big in France](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minitel), so much that over 15% of the population used in in 2009 and it wasn’t discontinued until 2012. Similarly in the US, AOL dial-up service is due to close _next Tuesday_. Younger people haven’t experienced much internet that’s not WWW, whether it’s the closed services of AOL, Prodigy, etc., Usenet, IRC. I experienced Gopher only because my dad was too cheap to do internet for a long time. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/453 "2025-09-25T16:52:04Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Similarly in the US, AOL dial-up service is due to close _next Tuesday_. Younger people haven’t experienced much internet that’s not WWW, whether it’s the closed services of AOL, Prodigy, etc., Usenet, IRC. I experienced Gopher only because my dad was too cheap to do internet for a long time. But connecting to AOL through a computer, the way I suspect 99.9% of the holdouts do, is different from connecting through a smart or dumb terminal. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/454 "2025-09-25T17:47:22Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > So: would kids today recognize pudding with a skin on the top? I don’t think you can make it with homogenized milk. Nevermind. Replied to multiple times above. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/455 "2025-09-25T18:36:57Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > There’s one small dairy here in Washington that sells milk in glass bottles that you pay a $2 deposit on at the grocery store. When you’re done with it, you rinse the bottle, bring it back to the store, and they give you your $2 and it gets sent back to the dairy to be sterilized and refilled. > > It’s quite expensive (close to $8 for a half-gallon), but it’s unhomogenized with a layer of cream on top which I’ve personally never seen in my life aside from this one brand, and they also make amazing chocolate/strawberry milk, and eggnog at Christmastime. There’s a health-food sort of store in a neighbouring town which sells milk like that, complete with the $2 deposit. When I was in Scotland (early '90s) we got a pint delivered every day. (Our cat discovered that if we didn’t get the milk off the porch quickly enough, she could puncture the cardboard stopper, tip the bottle over, and help herself.) And when I was a kid, my sister’s in-laws had three or four cows; they kept a half-gallon bottle of fresh milk in the fridge – from the cow to the milker to the bulk tank to the bottle, unpasteurised and unhomogenised – and kept us supplied as well. It was years before I stopped automatically shaking the carton of store-bought milk before pouring it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/456 "2025-09-25T18:48:47Z")
Ashtrays, everywhere. I think there were a dozen of them scattered around our house. Good riddance. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2025, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/457 "2025-09-25T19:00:01Z")
A seen here, dimes (and nickels, pennies, and quarters) are exotic items for many young’uns these days. [https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-minutes-in-a-quarter-hour-whats-3x3x3-college-students-try-and-fail-to-answer-the-important-questions-of-our-time/1023358](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-minutes-in-a-quarter-hour-whats-3x3x3-college-students-try-and-fail-to-answer-the-important-questions-of-our-time/1023358/1) ---
**Author:** ![Bonnie14](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7ea924/32.png) [@Bonnie14](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonnie14)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/458 "2025-09-26T07:07:24Z")
I know it was mentioned earlier in this thread but… the churchkey. I still have one. It lives in my glovebox. 30 years ago or so, I lived in an apartment that was easily broken into with a churchkey. Pop out the screen then pry open the window( with no damage). A couple of times I had to do this. The same churchkey has been living in my glovebox thru 5 cars, 4 apartments and a house. I remember the juice cans that needed to be opened with it but I never had to use it for that. It was in my glove box for potential beer bottle opening before twist-offs were the thing. I used punch tape in high school computer class then punch cards in college. Early 80’s ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/459 "2025-09-26T11:00:59Z")
Before transistors, electronics had vacuum tube innards. In the ’60s, whenever our black-and-white set went on the fritz, Dad would yank the tubes, toss them in a paper bag, and march us to the local pharmacy. There stood the mighty vacuum-tube tester: a wood-paneled console with more sockets than a power strip and a meter that lit up GOOD or BAD. I’d watch, wide-eyed, as Dad flipped switches like a NASA engineer until the guilty tube confessed. He’d buy a new tube next to the cough drops, we’d head home, and _The Twilight Zone_ flickered back to life. Kids today will never know the thrill of a drugstore countdown to liftoff. [![](https://i.imgur.com/6q6agmp.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/6q6agmp.png) ---
**Author:** ![sunacres](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@sunacres](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunacres)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2025, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/460 "2025-09-26T12:39:59Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > There stood the mighty vacuum-tube tester: a wood-paneled console with more sockets than a power strip and a meter that lit up GOOD or BAD. Excellent example of why electrical engineers should be taken out and shot! They are still generating “new and improved” sockets at a furious pace! I fantasize that USB-C will be around for a while. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362.md?page=22) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362.md?page=24)