# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/62 "2021-10-25T07:16:49Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > 8-track tapes. Jebus Gawd they were awful. Oh yeah. Remember such things as this: _I can see paradise by–KA-CHUNK–the dashboard light_ Glad that 8-tracks have gone. ---
**Author:** ![Beelzebubbly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Beelzebubbly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beelzebubbly)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/63 "2021-10-25T07:39:29Z")
Also, they couldn’t be turned off. You couldn’t own them, you had to rent them from Bell Telephone. ---
**Author:** ![Beelzebubbly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Beelzebubbly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beelzebubbly)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/64 "2021-10-25T07:49:30Z")
> … with commercials that you must sit through. And which were often edited for time and content. If you really wanted to watch an old movie properly, you would have to wait until it came to a movie theater specializing in old films near you. Since such theaters were almost always in big cities, most folks were simply out of luck. ---
**Author:** ![Beelzebubbly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Beelzebubbly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beelzebubbly)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/65 "2021-10-25T07:52:33Z")
And there were attendants to fill up your tank for you, wash your windshield, and check your oil. ---
**Author:** ![Beelzebubbly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Beelzebubbly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beelzebubbly)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/66 "2021-10-25T07:54:13Z")
And then you had to fuss with the antenna for twenty or thirty minutes trying to get a half-way decent picture. Sometimes you just had to give up. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/67 "2021-10-25T08:04:18Z")
Polio, S&H Green Stamps, milk bottes at school with collectable pogs, 12 cent comic books, 1/2 penny candy, one type each of Cheerios, Lucky Charms, Wheaties and Captain Crunch, leaded gasoline, and PF Flyers. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/68 "2021-10-25T08:37:21Z")
They didn’t work too well when not plugged in though ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 9:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/69 "2021-10-25T09:42:25Z")
I remember playing with the gaslights in my father’s buggy whip factory. That, and wearing an onion on my belt. ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/70 "2021-10-25T10:18:27Z")
Also see the thread “In the dustbin of our cultural history.” Another reference is Bill Bryson’s “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid.” Cars where items such as back-up lights were optional. And you had to be crazy to buy a foreign car - they were always breaking down and parts were SO expensive. Coins made out of silver. Dropping a coin on the counter to hear it ring. Subsidized milk in the school cafeteria, but you still had to pay 2 cents for a carton. “Mom & Pop” stores. (Are IGA stores still a thing?) Comic books that had advertisements for mail-order pets such as - MONKEYS! . Peugeot bicycles that had special FRENCH METRIC fasteners. Lawyers and Doctors weren’t allowed to advertise on TV, but cigarette and liquor companies were. And, appropriate for the season: Forgoing collecting candy on Halloween because you were “collecting for UNICEF”. ---
**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 25, 2021, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/71 "2021-10-25T10:25:17Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > Any TV channel higher than 13 required setting the top dial to “U”, then rotating the bottom dial to the approximate channel you want. Our family TV had detents for the UHF channels, but the tuner was still analog, so yup, you still had to manually fine-tune the reception on whatever channel you were watching to get the best picture quality (this is a separate issue from adjusting the antenna orientation to get the strongest signal). Kids these days also don’t know about vertical and horizontal hold. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/72 "2021-10-25T10:40:16Z")
Sitting in the balcony at the movie theater. ---
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/73 "2021-10-25T10:51:17Z")
Reel-to-reel mix tapes. ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/74 "2021-10-25T10:52:51Z")
duck and cover drills. ---
**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:** [October 25, 2021, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/75 "2021-10-25T11:11:09Z")
Saddle shoes. Roller skate keys. “This is where we came in” at the movies. ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/76 "2021-10-25T11:40:38Z")
Icebox with real ice Xray machine at the shoe store Silver dollars Air raid sirens Nickle Coke machines Loge theater seats Radio drama Car wind wings Clamp on roller skates Circus tents Soda fountains Cod liver oil ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/77 "2021-10-25T11:40:42Z")
When I was little, my parents had a stand alone device called a “Word Processor”. When I asked what it was, my dad said it was a “very smart typewriter”. I didn’t know what that was, either. LOL ---
**Author:** ![Crane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crane/32/3495_2.png) [@Crane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crane)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/78 "2021-10-25T11:42:43Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > I remember playing with the gaslights in my father’s buggy whip factory. Lancaster? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/79 "2021-10-25T11:52:41Z")
> [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](#): > > That, and wearing an onion on my belt. As was the style at the time. > [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > (Are IGA stores still a thing?) Yep. There’s a handful of them in my area, mainly in smaller towns off the beaten track. When the employee-owned grocery store I work at first opened its doors, the UFCW had people picketing us for months because we weren’t part of the union (which we couldn’t be in the first place since we were employee-owned). It was a big sigh of relief six months later when an IGA opened not too far away and they sent their people to picket them instead. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/80 "2021-10-25T11:52:55Z")
I think that depends on what size jug you are using - my parents had something similar to [this](https://www.amazon.com/Igloo-Beverage-Cooler-Majestic-2-Gallon/dp/B0088AYPOG/ref=asc_df_B0088AYPOG/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167119746601&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14499147176853754899&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9004344&hvtargid=pla-306560138551&psc=1) but without the spigot. They brought paper cups whether it was a trip to the beach or a picnic or a baseball game - because no matter where that jug went, it was kind of difficult to drink directly from a two gallon jug and typically more than one person would drink from it. ( and even in the 60s , there was only so much “drinking from the same jug” that was acceptable) ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/81 "2021-10-25T12:44:15Z")
Listening to multiple new classic rock songs every week in moms kitchen or in Dads car on the new FM radio. Then waiting for shows like Ed Sullivan, the Midnight Special or American Bandstand in order to actually see your favorite groups. [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=3) [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=5)