# Without saying your age, what's something from your childhood that a younger person wouldn't understand? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 25, 2021, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138 "2021-10-25T01:08:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 12
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/222 "2021-10-26T17:01:24Z")
making coffee in a [percolator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee_percolator) ---
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/223 "2021-10-26T17:10:07Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > That is really interesting – because my father was a doctor in the 1950’s and 1960’s (as well as before and briefly after); and if this had been available to him I’m sure he’d have done it. My house was built in 1950 and it had those installed everywhere. They are all original as far as I can tell. My house was, for it’s time, a little on the advanced side. > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > He did try to install a second phone outside the house, so he’d be able to get to it faster if he was out in the yard, but the phone company found out about it and took it away again (I think if he’d paid for a second line and had the phone company do the installation, they’d have been fine with that, but I think that then there would have been two phone numbers and the first one still wouldn’t have rung or been answerable outside.) AT&T used to offer additional extensions on the same phone number but it came at an extra monthly charge. AT&T would have have been happy to install the phone and installation and an additional monthly fee. Maybe AT&T was unhappy both with the quality of your father’s installation and with his failure to pay the fee. > [@XT](#): > > So, perhaps another thing that younger people won’t understand is ‘reverse polish’ logic from an HP calculator. I had one of those calculators and I still don’t understand it. My professor insisted we use it but I would rely on my laptop whenever he was out of sight. ---
**Author:** ![teelabrown](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teelabrown/32/8412_2.png) [@teelabrown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teelabrown)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/224 "2021-10-26T17:10:33Z")
I’ve exclusively used keyboards for either memory typewriters or word processors since the late 80s, but I still miss my old IBM Selectric. The Selectric was my favorite of all electric typewriters, and there was something satisfying about the noisy clicking and clacking. The bosses knew you were really pounding out the work! ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/225 "2021-10-26T17:27:26Z")
> [@XT](#): > > So, perhaps another thing that younger people won’t understand is ‘reverse polish’ logic from an HP calculator. 😛 I got so used to RPN during undergrad and grad school (most of the '90s for me) that I downloaded an HP-48 app for my Android phone (look for “Droid48”). I have a hard time using conventional calculators. ---
**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:** [October 26, 2021, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/226 "2021-10-26T17:47:22Z")
_Woo, I just need a few more pages of S & H Green Stamps from the grocery store to get a baseball glove!_ ---
**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:** [October 26, 2021, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/227 "2021-10-26T17:54:14Z")
_I love the smell of mimeograph ink in the morning!_ ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/228 "2021-10-26T18:07:53Z")
The caked horse shit down the middle of every neighbourhood street. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/229 "2021-10-26T18:25:25Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > But more on topic, a younger person might not understand that the sum of _electronic_ appliances in a typical home might be just a telephone, radio, and TV. We moved into an old house and discovered that the upstairs had ONE outlet. Not a double outlet somewhere that you could plug a lamp into… one measly painted-over outlet up at the ceiling at the top of the stairs. ---
**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:** [October 26, 2021, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/230 "2021-10-26T22:35:59Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > Pets rarely went to the vet. I think our city had 2 vets. Spaying and neutering weren’t done very often. We always got male dogs so we wouldn’t have to worry about puppies! We say this nearly every time we have taken a dog to the vet in the last 20 years or so. Growing up we never took the dog to the vet! ---
**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:** [October 26, 2021, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/231 "2021-10-26T22:37:56Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > When you wanted to change the TV channel to one of the two or three others, you had to _get up and walk across the room_ (you wouldn’t be anywhere close to the set, because that would ruin your eyes). Apropos of my immediately previous post, we found that rattling the dog’s chain on her leash _just right_ would change channels. Sometimes we spent more time rattling that chain than it would have taken to get up and manually change the station. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/232 "2021-10-26T22:40:07Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Apropos of my immediately previous post, we found that rattling the dog’s chain on her leash _just right_ would change channels. A friend of mine, back in the '80s, had a big Newfoundland, and an old TV, with one of those sonic remote controls. The dog would change the channels every time he shook his head, and the tags on his collar jingled. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/233 "2021-10-26T23:13:09Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > And…“calculator” was a job description for a person. > [@Procrustus](#): > > Going back a bit further, so was “computer.” When we were watching the TV series _Manhattan_ – about the atomic bomb project – a couple years back, the first episode had the New Guy being led around Los Alamos when he’d first arrived and when they went past a labeled door the guide said, “That’s where we keep the computers.” I said, “Back then, computers were people.” Sure enough, about ten minutes later the door is opened revealing a half-dozen women at desks within. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Anconia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@D\_Anconia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Anconia)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/234 "2021-10-26T23:15:48Z")
Knife sharpening carts roaming residential neighborhoods. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/235 "2021-10-26T23:17:33Z")
> [@D\_Anconia](#): > > Knife sharpening carts We actually still have one that shows up in our neighborhood once or twice a year. Unfortunately, it seems to be unpredictable as to when he’ll show up, and we haven’t had a chance to employ him for several years. ---
**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:** [October 26, 2021, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/236 "2021-10-26T23:24:13Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Praying mantises were fairly common. I used to raise them. There do appear to be fewer mantises around than there used to. The rumor when I was a kid, was that you could be arrested and fined $500 if you killed a mantis. I lived in fear that I would accidently step on one. Then there was the time my mantis egg case hatched in my first grade classroom. Many mantises emerged. The teacher was not amused. How was I supposed to know to put a lid on the jar? ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/237 "2021-10-26T23:27:23Z")
Instant photos meant waiting for a Polaroid to develop. Going to the movies meant getting a newspaper to check the times. Later, you could call a phone number to hear a recording. Marijuana and gay marriage was illegal everywhere in the country, and you couldn’t discuss either unless you wanted to be stigmatized and shamed. The Japanese are going to own everything! “Thank god the president has the red phone. I just hope he uses it.” ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/238 "2021-10-26T23:30:05Z")
> [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](#): > > AT&T used to offer additional extensions on the same phone number but it came at an extra monthly charge. AT&T would have have been happy to install the phone and installation and an additional monthly fee. Maybe AT&T was unhappy both with the quality of your father’s installation and with his failure to pay the fee. Bell was awfully fussy at the time about other companies’ equipment on their lines, claiming it could degrade the network’s quality to everyone. This applied to even non electric or electronic equipment like [Hush-A-Phone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hush-A-Phone_Corp._v._United_States) and [Carterfone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carterfone) which led to both companies bringing suit. Although they prevailed and a slow erosion of that policy started with the the two losses, it hadn’t gone very far by the 80s which is why the earliest modems were acoustically coupled. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/239 "2021-10-26T23:40:46Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > I swear, no matter how obscure the topic, someone has a page for it: > [https://www.plugsocketmuseum.nl/NorthAm2.html](https://www.plugsocketmuseum.nl/NorthAm2.html) That’s the link I was going to use before I found the picture I actually included (I’d rather link to a picture and explain it than say, “Go here and scroll down to point _x_.” But it’s a very interesting site in its own right, and thanks for providing the link. > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > He did try to install a second phone outside the house, so he’d be able to get to it faster if he was out in the yard, but the phone company found out about it and took it away again (I think if he’d paid for a second line and had the phone company do the installation, they’d have been fine with that, but I think that then there would have been two phone numbers and the first one still wouldn’t have rung or been answerable outside.) If he hadn’t used a second phone, or had disabled its ringer, he might have gotten away with it. Back in the Good Old Days when all (legitimate US) phones came from Western Electric, [TPC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_President's_Analyst) could tell how many phones were ringing by the amount of current on the line; my understanding is that they ran periodic tests to see if anyone was using more instruments than they were paying for. And once busted, the “illegal” wiring had to go as well. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/240 "2021-10-26T23:46:32Z")
If one of we kids were sick, we were permitted to lie on the living room coach, across the room from the TV, take the remote control out of its original box (still cushioned with styrofoam) and use the room to switch among the 6 choices we had (the channel knob clunking audibly as it switched from channel to channel). Once we were well, back in the box the remote went (the little black and white we had in the kid’s bedroom had no remote). ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2021, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/241 "2021-10-26T23:47:14Z")
Portable transistor radios. Spaldeens. Not being able to buy model airplane glue at the corner store because they’d suspect you of being a juvenile glue-sniffing fiend. The corner store. Hubert Horatio Humphrey. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138.md?page=11) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138.md?page=13)