# 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:** 26
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/503 "2021-11-03T21:04:10Z")
And men. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/504 "2021-11-03T21:06:41Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Usually with the page you need torn out. You’ll never find Sarah Connor now, will ya? ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/505 "2021-11-03T21:12:58Z")
What a ripoff, man! (Which also dates me. 🙂) At the High’s Ice Cream in our shopping center, it was 5 cents a scoop. ---
**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:** [November 3, 2021, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/506 "2021-11-03T21:15:40Z")
> [@DMC](#): > > This. > [Indian\_Head\_Test\_Pattern] Cheech: “C’mon in, man. I’m watching a movie about Indians but it’s reeeeally boring.” Chong: "Aw,man, that’s the _test pattern…"_ ---
**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:** [November 3, 2021, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/507 "2021-11-03T21:17:37Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > Usually with the page you need torn out Back in the the day I remember being tempted to tear a page out of a phone book in a booth or motel room, but I just couldn’t. I’ve bought weed from a stranger at a concert, flat out lied to TSA, owned black market “things”, but I wimped out at defacing Ma Bell. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/508 "2021-11-03T21:33:15Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > Sleeping in the back of the station wagon with the siblings while Dad drives overnight to our vacation, Yeah, being one of several kids in the back of a station wagon. I remember that. I also remember my sister and me being in the back of the family station wagon when we were moving east from Los Angeles. We were towing our smaller second car, and somewhere crossing the desert, Dad lost control. I don’t remember the accident itself (I was four years old) but I remember being in a hotel room that evening with gauze patches on my chest and back where I must’ve gotten scraped when the car tipped over. Amazingly, neither my sister nor I were badly hurt. (Of course, my sister got hit by a train once and only got badly bruised. Folks in my family are made of tough stuff.) ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/509 "2021-11-03T22:10:56Z")
All of this talk of sleeping and playing in the back cargo space of station wagons reminded me of this little beast and its not terribly safe rear seating, which everyone of a certain age (and geography as this was only installed in the US and Canada) remembers and a fortunate few of us have had the privilege of enjoying and living to tell about it. The one, the only, the “Bi-drive Recreational All-terrain Transporter” or BRAT, by Subaru. For you young 'uns, those seats were welded in as standard equipment. It allowed them to be treated as a passenger car for tariff purposes. [![](https://static.cargurus.com/images/site/2009/08/31/13/26/1986_subaru_brat-pic-9209949507203417377-1600x1200.jpeg) ](https://static.cargurus.com/images/site/2009/08/31/13/26/1986_subaru_brat-pic-9209949507203417377-1600x1200.jpeg) Edit: typo ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/510 "2021-11-03T23:12:55Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > At the High’s Ice Cream in our shopping center, it was 5 cents a scoop. Same here, at the High’s on King Street in Alexandria, Va. Always got a one-scooper after the monster movie at the Reed Theater. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/511 "2021-11-03T23:13:23Z")
> [@DMC](#): > > All of this talk of sleeping and playing in the back cargo space of station wagons reminded me of this little beast Hey, you had actual seats, and even seat belts! We just rode in the open backs of pickups; no belts, no seats. Sometimes we’d sit up on the fenders. The cautious among us would hold on with our hands. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2021, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/512 "2021-11-03T23:46:38Z")
“Don’t flick your Bic while putting on hairspray.” ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/513 "2021-11-04T00:00:55Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > Same here, at the High’s on King Street in Alexandria, Va. Always got a one-scooper after the monster movie at the Reed Theater. The Reed, that was the one on King Street most of the way to the railroad station and the Masonic Temple if you were coming from Washington Street, right? I remember there were three or four movie theaters in Alexandria then. There was another one on King, nearer to Washington Street, and another at the north end of Old Town between Washington Street and the river. I remember when adult admission was fifty cents, under 12 was 35 cents. The High’s I used to go to was the one in Belle View Shopping Center south of Alexandria. There was also a Ben Franklin five-and-dime there, among other stores. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/514 "2021-11-04T00:18:02Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > The Japanese are going to own everything! When I was a kid, “made in Japan” meant it was cheap shit. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/515 "2021-11-04T00:27:46Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > 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. I picked up one of those ‘home entertainment centers’ at a yard sale ca. 1980. It had a B&W VHF-only TV, an AM radio, and a monaural phonograph, all in a wood cabinet. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/516 "2021-11-04T01:02:06Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > When I was a kid, “made in Japan” meant it was cheap shit. My limited observations: I was a 50’s kid. “Made In Japan” meant cheap junk. In the late 60’s it seemed to me that Japanese products were getting better. In the early 70’s I realized that their cars, electronics, acoustic pianos had gotten to be very, very good. ---
**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:** [November 4, 2021, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/517 "2021-11-04T01:30:29Z")
> [@ratatoskK](#): > > UHF and VHF choices on the TV dial. It’s enough just to say “TV dial.” Anyone born in the late 80s or later has likely never seen a TV with a dial on it. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/518 "2021-11-04T02:13:58Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > The Reed, that was the one on King Street most of the way to the railroad station and the Masonic Temple if you were coming from Washington Street, right? That’s right. The only other theater on King St at that time was the Richmond, I believe. That’s probably the one you refer to as north of Washington St. This was late 50s, early 60s. There was also a GC Murphy’s dept. store next to the Reed. They had a big bin full of ‘men from Mars’ and ‘purple people eaters.’ Nearby was the barbershop where my dad would take me. The barbers were Filipino and spoke very little English. They had one of [these charts](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/38/9c/02/389c028904bb3d4689977fd52f394460.jpg) on the wall. I would point to the cool-looking flattop haircuts, but to little avail, as evidently my dad had previously instructed them to just buzz all my hair off. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/519 "2021-11-04T02:41:17Z")
Air Mail as a premium US Post Office mailing rate. Complete with special onionskin paper and envelopes for minimum weight. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/520 "2021-11-04T03:20:40Z")
When I was a kid, we had to get haircuts every two weeks. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/521 "2021-11-04T03:23:17Z")
Write protect rings for computer magnetic tape reels were also used to decorate Xmas trees. (scroll down to “write protect rings” for picture of a tree) [The 12 Trees of Xmas (and then some)](http://wunderland.com/WTS/Andy/XmasTrees/Index.html) Although these were called “write protect rings”, one had to be used to _allow_ writing the tape. (scroll down for use) [Control Data 3170](http://www.funke.no/itkonsulent.lnk/main02achievements/cdc/default.htm) ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2021, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/522 "2021-11-04T03:31:56Z")
I didn’t know about that, either, and I programmed COBOL on punch cards! However, when we sent our coding sheets to the data entry department, we always had them sequence our cards. But data cards usually didn’t have sequence numbers, so the diagonal line was important! [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=25) [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=27)