# 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:** 15
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/282 "2021-10-27T12:13:02Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > stopping at a gas station (or when you see a local out in their yard) to ask for directions At work if someone calls and “asks for directions”, my 28 year old receptionist says the address, slowly. If the person on the phone says they don’t have a cellphone, she’ll put them on hold and ask me if I can talk to the person. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/283 "2021-10-27T14:07:16Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > I love the smell of mimeograph ink in the morning! Actually, it was the Ditto fluid. (Properly, a _Spirit Duplicator,_ which sounds like something the Ghostbusters would use.) Real mimeographs didn’t smell like anything. Dittos gave you a blue image (or green or red, if your school paid for the others. But almost invariably blue-purple) > **[Spirit duplicator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator)** > > A spirit duplicator (also referred to as a Rexograph or Ditto machine in North America, Banda machine or Fordigraph machine in the U.K. and Australia) is a printing method invented in 1923 by Wilhelm Ritzerfeld that was commonly used for much of the rest of the 20th century. The term "spirit duplicator" refers to the alcohols that were a major component of the solvents used in these machines. > Spirit duplicators were used mainly by schools, churches, clubs, and other small organizations, such as... ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/284 "2021-10-27T14:24:26Z")
How about the “portable” TV’s? They had to weigh at least 50 lbs, BUT they had a handle on top so they were portable! Other than the console TV we had in the front room any of the other TVs we had when I was a kid had a carrying handle on top. Console TVs were popular. My grandma’s had a stereo and a place for albums on one side. It had a sliding door on top to get to the stereo. Then there were the console stereos. Huge pieces of heavy furniture. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/285 "2021-10-27T14:29:46Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Dittos gave you a blue image (or green or red, if your school paid for the others. But almost invariably blue-purple) I remember times when the printed pages would be multicolored. I remember expecting that each page would be run through the printer several times, once for each color, but that’s not at all how it worked. The “printer” had no ink, only solvent. The “ink” (if that’s the right term) was on the back of the master copy, and it got there by picking it up for another page behind. (Imagine carbon paper facing the wrong way, but mega thick.) So making a multicolor page was easy, by just switching what color was in back. Positioning was automatic, because whatever you drew on the front determined everything. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/286 "2021-10-27T14:30:33Z")
Did anyone mention **carbon paper** yet? ---
**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 27, 2021, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/287 "2021-10-27T14:43:22Z")
Hey, remember having the TV repairman over to the house? (or housecalls from doctors?) ---
**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 27, 2021, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/288 "2021-10-27T14:57:35Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Hey, remember having the TV repairman over to the house? Mom always told him the TV was in the bedroom, but I never saw one up there. We had a Muntz TV, just like [this](https://www.retroden.net/uploads/1/2/6/5/12651140/__7194442_orig.jpg) one. Vacuum tubes needed replacing a lot, but man, those three channels in living black & white were stunning. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/289 "2021-10-27T14:57:50Z")
Actually, I heard of a couple of cases last year, at the height of COVID, when some doctors preferred to go out for a house call, rather than have the patient come and infect the office. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/290 "2021-10-27T15:26:27Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > And at least on a paper map all the road names don’t disappear when you try to see more than a square mile or so at a time. I’ve been making maps for 30 years. It’s my job. I am a GIS professional and we publish everything online. My Wife and I of course have GPS in our phones and in our cars. As comfortable as I am using the GPS in the car, I still like having an atlas along on long road trips. So does my Wife. A paper map really helps me orientate to my surroundings. It helps to quickly be able to page to another state that may be a day away and get the basics in my head. Blindly following a GPS does not give a sense of where I am. I have to have that. But I’m talking about long road trips. The last long one my Wife and it did was a big circle in the US. We covered 17 states. ---
**Author:** ![Author\_Balk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Author\_Balk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Author_Balk)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/291 "2021-10-27T15:56:51Z")
I had a cassette recorder. I would buy blank tapes and record songs off the radio, I tried to time starting and stopping to get as little as possible talking by the DJ. Even now I can hear what the DJ said at the end of Joy to the World. (and I still anticipate the 8 track click when I hear Best of My Love by the Eagles) Later, I got my first computer (TI99/4a). I would connect a cassette recorder to the computer to save programs and files. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/292 "2021-10-27T16:48:05Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > I was able to pick up KMOX in St. Louis Yes, absolutely! That’s how Dad listened to the Cards when they played the Dodgers or Giants. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/293 "2021-10-27T16:52:59Z")
That’s a [stereoplotter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereoplotter) - I see you found that out, but the Wiki does give a good explanation of how they work. I’ve driven an old-style pre-fancy computer one before, they’re _hard_. ---
**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 27, 2021, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/294 "2021-10-27T17:09:40Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Actually, it was the Ditto fluid. [Post 123.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/123) ---
**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 27, 2021, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/295 "2021-10-27T17:13:48Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > As comfortable as I am using the GPS in the car, I still like having an atlas along on long road trips. So does my Wife. A paper map really helps me orientate to my surroundings. It helps to quickly be able to page to another state that may be a day away and get the basics in my head. > > Blindly following a GPS does not give a sense of where I am. I have to have that. But I’m talking about long road trips. The last long one my Wife and it did was a big circle in the US. We covered 17 states. For long road trips, I use Google Maps on my phone for guidance…and I use my car’s built-in nav system for a zoomed-out view of the whole route, similar to how you use your atlas. ---
**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:** [October 27, 2021, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/296 "2021-10-27T17:28:39Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > Did anyone mention **carbon paper** yet? This at least has survived as acronyms in emails. The “cc” and “bcc” address fields stand for “carbon copy” and “blind carbon copy”. I bet almost no one under 40 knows this or if they do, knows what it means. ---
**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:** [October 27, 2021, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/297 "2021-10-27T17:38:26Z")
> [@digs](#): > > BUT, just tonight, looking this up, I found out it never was toluene, it’s heptane. And we weren’t flirting with cancer, we were just [depressing our central nervous systems when we were getting light-headed, dizzy and nauseous.](https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/chemical-engineering/heptane) > > We were getting paid to get loopy at work… I vividly remember seeing the label on the side of the can that said “WARNING: Causes central and peripheral nervous system damage by contact with skin” and then dousing my light tables (and by extension my bare hands) with that stuff. The only prepress chemical I ever treated with any respect was the ‘deletion fluid’ that was used to etch mistakes off of printing plates. One of the crusty old pressmen I worked with told me to think of it as ‘fingertip deletion fluid’. I never handled it after that. The l[abel listed all kinds of nasty sounding stuff](https://www.graphicartssupply.com/shop2/images/DELFL2%20NEG%20DEL%20FLUID%202%20OZ.jpg). ---
**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 27, 2021, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/298 "2021-10-27T17:39:17Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > However, it was impossible to survive in Los Angeles without a fat, spiral-bound Thomas Guide. Some people kept one in the house for planning and another in the car for traveling. Yeah, I always had two copies of the Thomas Guide. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/299 "2021-10-27T17:44:14Z")
“The vertical hold is screwing up again! Jam the toothpick back into the channel changer.” “You really screwed uo this time. The principal is going to give you the strap!” “It must be really cold out, I can feel a draft from the milk door.” ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/300 "2021-10-27T17:45:52Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Yeah, I always had two copies of the Thomas Guide. It was a rite of passage for us in Southern California. When you got your first car, your parents gave you a Thomas Guide. Los Angeles & Orange Counties combined of course. ---
**Author:** ![gnarator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gnarator/32/8266_2.png) [@gnarator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnarator)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2021, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/301 "2021-10-27T17:50:41Z")
We had a console stereo. Big piece of furniture, with fabric-covered speakers on the ends. One lifted the top in the middle to get to the controls. Something like this: [![](https://storage.bhs.cloud.ovh.net/v1/AUTH_e7d15450bedd40b9b599e075527df3cb/danville/fVintage_Mid_Century_Zenith_Console_Stere_5acfdefa36527.jpg) ](https://storage.bhs.cloud.ovh.net/v1/AUTH_e7d15450bedd40b9b599e075527df3cb/danville/fVintage_Mid_Century_Zenith_Console_Stere_5acfdefa36527.jpg) It had AM/FM radio and a turntable. I remember It took a while to warm up, and the smell of the tubes…My brother liked _[Jesus Christ Superstar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christ_Superstar_(album))_ and would play it over and over, penny on the tone arm. [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=14) [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=16)