# 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:** 9
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/161 "2023-03-20T17:45:41Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Is everyone just streaming everything through their phones? Doesn’t that just eat up data? Or are they storing all of their MP3s on their phones? I’m mostly streaming these days. Yeah, it eats up data, but what do I care? I’ve been on an unlimited data plan for several years. I do store a fair amount of music on my phone for times like when I’m on an airplane or in an area of poor cell service. But I think my phone has 256gb of storage so I can jam a lot on there. I’m not very discriminating about it. I make sure any subscribed playlists are downloaded plus any recent stuff I’ve added. Before I go on a trip I make sure I load up a bunch of stuff I think I might want but it’s just a quick pass. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/162 "2023-03-20T17:52:48Z")
I can’t remember the last time I saw a car with vent windows — those little triangle windows you could crack open to get a breeze. I suppose ubiquitous car air conditioning did them in. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2023, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/163 "2023-03-20T17:54:10Z")
Good one, only my first car had them. A 14 year old Cuda. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2023, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/164 "2023-03-20T18:14:43Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > I used an HP-48 all through undergrad and grad school, and continued after that. I’ve had an emulator on my PC for years because I’m so used to using RPN that I struggle with a conventional (non-RPN) calculator. When I got my first smartphone in the mid-2010s, one of the first apps I searched for (and found) was **[an HP-48 emulator](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.ab.x48&hl=en_US&gl=US)**, which appears (visually and functionally) to be a high quality replica of the real thing. This > > > Scientific calculator for Android - looks and operates like the real thing... is my go-to calculator. I’m an actuary. I sometimes want to use the built-in amortization functions. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/165 "2023-03-20T18:16:28Z")
> [@gnarator](#): > > Me too, but I’m in Minnesota. I’m in the UK and were I only ever to drive here I probably wouldn’t bother but we drive to Austria every winter and in Germany and Austria it is a requirement to have snow tyres, your insurance is void if you have an accident without them fitted. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/166 "2023-03-20T18:16:29Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > So you just made a little hole in the top of the can you could drink/pour the liquid from? I remember tools for making holes in cans of condensed milk, but they looked like this: Around here, the condensed milk cans didn’t have the lip edge that the other kind of opener hooked onto, to give leverage for punching the hole. This kind of opener, which we used for things like large cans of apple juice, were much safer, and easier to control. It let you adjust the size of the opening. You’d have one large one for pouring, and smaller one on the opposite side of the can to let air in as you poured. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2023, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/167 "2023-03-20T18:26:20Z")
> [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](#): > > I’m 62. There sure are a lot of things that I barely recognize in this thread, and a few that I don’t recognize at all! I’m almost 43, and a lot of the things people posted in this thread as items that were ubiquitous “relatively recently” are things that were obsolete before I was born. Punch cards? The only place I’ve ever seen 'em used was at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. My mom had an old percolator in the back of the cabinet, but I don’t recall my parents ever using it (I have used one on camping trips as it’s the easiest way to make coffee on a camp stove, though). > [@Lancia](#): > > > [@beowulff](#): > > > > Hand boilers > > Have no idea what this is. I’m just a year older than you and I had one as a kid. I think they just weren’t as common as the person who posted them thinks they were. > [@Pork\_Rind](#): > > I’m mostly streaming these days. Yeah, it eats up data, but what do I care? I’ve been on an unlimited data plan for several years. Given that most younger people listen to podcasts and get their music through streaming sites these days, I wonder how many high school kids have ever actually used an FM radio. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/168 "2023-03-20T18:27:36Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > I’m just a year older than you and I had one as a kid. I think they just weren’t as common as the person who posted them thinks they were. They were in every gift shop, novelty store, and Spencer’s Gifts when I was a kid. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2023, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/169 "2023-03-20T18:59:16Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > I’m almost 43, and a lot of the things people posted in this thread as items that were ubiquitous “relatively recently” are things that were obsolete before I was born. Punch cards? The only place I’ve ever seen 'em used was at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA Heh. This was the key to making me feel ancient: > [@Stark reminders that you are getting old](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stark-reminders-that-you-are-getting-old/257632/6): > > I’ve told this tale on Straight Dope before, but it really stands out as the the exemplary “Damn I got old” moment for me so I’ll tell it again. Bunch of us were sitting around talking about harmless practical jokes we’d played on people, and at some point I chimed in and told about the time we stuffed Mr. Gibbons’ car with balloons filled with computer punchies and taped a birthday card to the window with a needle to pop balloons with (which of course he did and ended up with a car full of co… ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/170 "2023-03-20T20:07:10Z")
My first radio was a crystal radio set I ordered as a kit. Not only wouldn’t younger people know what that was, but they’d probably go “Crystals: cool!” with a totally different mental image. (Or whatever the current fad word for “cool” is.) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/171 "2023-03-20T20:58:57Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > ’m almost 43, and a lot of the things people posted in this thread as items that were ubiquitous “relatively recently” are things that were obsolete before I was born. Punch cards? The only place I’ve ever seen 'em used was at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA. You don’t remember the punch card/hanging chad issue during the 2000 Presidential election? It was all over the news. You may not have voted with punch cards in that election, but lots of people did, including here. In fact, we used them for vote-by-mail. Voting at home with punch cards was a trifle complicated and prone to error. It’s a good thing that that election spurred election authorities here in Oregon to change to simpler voting procedures. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2023, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/172 "2023-03-20T21:03:31Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > You don’t remember the punch card/hanging chad issue during the 2000 Presidential election? It was all over the news. I certainly remember hearing about it on the news, but I never personally used one nor saw one. I remember my reaction at the time upon hearing about it was along the lines of “What the hell? Why is Florida still using such an outdated technology for their elections?” ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/173 "2023-03-20T21:06:59Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > Why is Florida still using such an outdated technology for their elections?” It’s faster to run a bunch of cards through a card reader than to scan a bunch of paper ballots. ---
**Author:** ![Dogginit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogginit/32/16920_2.png) [@Dogginit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogginit)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/174 "2023-03-20T21:42:33Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > Broadcast audio carts were similar to 8-tracks, in that they used a continuous loop of tape, but they were not the same, and were not compatible or interchangeable with them. I can’t begin to recall how many of those I rebuilt with new pads and new magnetic tape during my stint as a radio station engineer. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2023, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/175 "2023-03-20T21:49:20Z")
Anyone remember these? Your barber used them. Does anyone remember a real, old-school barber? [![](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/MiIAAOSwfdheUnrl/s-l500.jpg) ](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/MiIAAOSwfdheUnrl/s-l500.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Dogginit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogginit/32/16920_2.png) [@Dogginit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogginit)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/176 "2023-03-20T21:52:58Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Or are they storing all of their MP3s on their phones? That’s what I do. My old Galaxy S10+ has 128GB on board, and I have a tiny 8GB SD card in it, plenty of room. I use mine as an iPod all the time. I think I have just about 30GB of music, plus all my photos & downloads, & I’m still only up to 38.1GB used in storage ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/177 "2023-03-20T21:53:23Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Anyone remember these? Your barber used them. Does anyone remember a real, old-school barber? > [https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/MiIAAOSwfdheUnrl/s-l500.jpg](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/MiIAAOSwfdheUnrl/s-l500.jpg) Never seen such a device, and it looks like I wouldn’t want it anywhere near my scalp or face. Does it get hot, is it some kind of press? ---
**Author:** ![SoToasty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sotoasty/32/2803_2.png) [@SoToasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoToasty)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/178 "2023-03-20T21:57:17Z")
Is that a Neck Massager? It’s the 6 spring coils on the underneath that makes me think that. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2023, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/179 "2023-03-20T21:57:58Z")
My guess is that it’s a sharpener, for razor blades or scissors. But even just the concept of “your barber”, I think, might put this beyond the range of “relatively recently”. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2023, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362/180 "2023-03-20T22:02:14Z")
According to my husband it’s a hot lather machine - but I suspect that doesn’t really qualify as “relatively recently”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ubiquitous-items-from-relatively-recently-youngsters-may-not-recognise/981362.md?page=10)