# 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:** 41
**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:** [December 21, 2021, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/803 "2021-12-21T22:08:18Z")
Yeah, my Mom had a clicker - it went to a maximum of $20, 'cause of course groceries would be less than that! ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2021, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/804 "2021-12-21T22:14:32Z")
I remember the sarcastic phrase “That, and a dime, will buy me a cup of coffee.” You’ll certainly never hear that at Starbuck’s. ---
**Author:** ![Mortimus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e36b37/32.png) [@Mortimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mortimus)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2021, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/805 "2021-12-21T22:17:28Z")
TV Guide would tell you if a show was a repeat. ---
**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:** [December 21, 2021, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/806 "2021-12-21T22:34:08Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I don’t recognize what you’re describing Here ya go: [![](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/FkMAAOSwq1FhOJ9d/s-l1600.jpg) ](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/FkMAAOSwq1FhOJ9d/s-l1600.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![2\_More\_Bits](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/2_more_bits/32/4148_2.png) [@2\_More\_Bits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/2_More_Bits)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2021, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/807 "2021-12-21T22:57:09Z")
And the grapefruit was so bitter you covered the halves with sugar before eating them the next day! ---
**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:** [December 22, 2021, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/808 "2021-12-22T00:08:19Z")
Oh, yeah. ---
**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:** [December 22, 2021, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/809 "2021-12-22T00:38:06Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > I remember cheap pocket-sized calculating “machines” stamped out of steel which had strips of numbers running up and down, with sawteeth on one edge of each strip. To calculate, you inserted a stylus in between the teeth and moved the strips up and down - it worked something like an abacus. Another item fallen down the memory hole. I had [one of these](https://www.ebay.com/itm/303988356441?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=303988356441&targetid=1263104806006&device=c&mktype=&googleloc=9015317&poi=&campaignid=14859008593&mkgroupid=130497710760&rlsatarget=pla-1263104806006&abcId=9300678&merchantid=8485404&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9cm_v5T29AIVqRNMCh1hogxHEAQYBiABEgKwrvD_BwE), back in the early '70s. Used it all the time. ---
**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:** [December 22, 2021, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/810 "2021-12-22T00:59:58Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > > [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > > > I remember cheap pocket-sized calculating “machines” stamped out of steel which had strips of numbers running up and down, with sawteeth on one edge of each strip. > > I don’t recognize what you’re describing; but I do remember the plastic clicker devices that you could take to the store with you to keep track of how much $ worth of merchandise you were buying. > [http://image.timepassagesnostalgia.com/watermarked/imagesl0/l029adderx3.jpg](http://image.timepassagesnostalgia.com/watermarked/imagesl0/l029adderx3.jpg) He’s talking about one of these. > **[VINTAGE 1960 70S WINDSOR MANUAL POCKET CALCULATOR | Calculator, Mechanical...](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/804385183420611506/)** > > Dec 1, 2012 - Get the best deals on Other Vintage Computers, Parts & Accessories and find everything you'll need to improve your home office setup at eBay.com. Fast & Free shipping on many items! I used to have one. ---
**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:** [December 22, 2021, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/811 "2021-12-22T03:14:35Z")
I’ve got you all beat: I had to do all that addition _in my head._ ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2021, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/812 "2021-12-22T03:26:38Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I had to do all that addition _in my head._ That must give you quite the [feeling of power](https://wiki.c2.com/?TheFeelingOfPower). ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2021, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/813 "2021-12-22T05:06:47Z")
TV Guide being digest-sized with localized listings. (They stopped in 2005.) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2021, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/814 "2021-12-22T06:55:04Z")
_The_ TV Guide was for moneybags who could afford 25 cents a week. What we called TV Guide was about the size and thickness of a comic book and was tucked inside the funny pages of the Sunday paper. ---
**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:** [December 22, 2021, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/815 "2021-12-22T07:19:10Z")
> [@digs](#): > > I’ve got you all beat: I had to do all that addition _in my head._ When I was in Grade 5, I had a teacher who wanted us all to be able to do mental arithmetic. Every morning, when we walked into the classroom, there would be a few arithmetic problems on the board that we were supposed to figure out until/while class got going. Pencils and papers were not allowed; your desk had to be clear of all materials. And once the national anthem and the morning announcements were over, he would ask us what the answers were to the problems on the board. He chose members of the class at random, so you had to be on top of your game. No matter how much we grumbled about the daily exercise in mental arithmetic then, the lessons learned have served me well in the many years since. To this day, I can do arithmetic in my head, including such things as figuring out roughly what today’s grocery tab will be as I collect items in the store, and calculating sales taxes on top of the advertised price of goods. In other ways, it has also helped me calculate probable pays from the odds displayed at the horserace track, and it has come in handy at the crap table. Being able to do mental arithmetic is a good skill to have. ---
**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:** [December 22, 2021, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/816 "2021-12-22T14:01:51Z")
I thought of this when I was creating my yearly Christmas picture card. Download the pictures from your phone, pick out a card and plop the pictures in the spaces. The cards were at my door 3 days later. When my mom did this in the 60s she had to start the process in October. She’d buy film and flash cubes for her Kodak Instamatic. She would use the whole roll of film because she didn’t want to waste it. You could always count on the flash cube flying off the camera at least twice. Then she’d bring the film in to have it processed. Two weeks later she’d pick up the pictures, decide which one was going to be on the card (at this point there had better be one that looked good or the process would have to be started all over again) and then bring it back to have the cards made. Another two weeks and she’d have the cards. AND she had to do all of this while hauling 3 little kids around WHEN she could find a ride, because she didn’t drive at that time! But she did it for quite a few years. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2021, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/817 "2021-12-22T14:10:39Z")
Us too, I was always puzzled that people bought the TV Guide when a perfectly fine version came in the paper. I remember marking the shows I wanted to watch and arguing with my sister who wanted to watch That Girl reruns instead of Star Trek. ---
**Author:** ![Didi44](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47c2d/32.png) [@Didi44](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Didi44)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2021, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/818 "2021-12-23T05:16:43Z")
Sadly, child and domestic abuse was known and talked about, but never reported, even by teachers. I’ve talked about this before. We’d go to school with obvious welts and bruises, and the only thing asked was “What you did???”. Sometimes the answer was “Nothing” and we’d all nod in understanding. Sometimes it was that Dad came home drunk and beat everyone. Again, we’d all just nod and just say Oh. I was told I was lucky because my Dad only used his dress belt on me, while others talked about being whipped with cowboy belts, a razor strop or sometimes fists. One of my friends came to school with a broken arm and gave some story about how he broke it. Rumor was his Dad broke it. Again, silence from everyone. When I asked my Dad why he didn’t drink, he told me, “You want me to come home and give you dirty lickin’s like the other Dads?” My Mom would spend hours on the phone with my Aunties or sit on the steps with our neighbor listening to their stories of their husband’s abuse. She’s tell some of the story to my sisters, and they would in turn talk about how the neighbor children got it even worse when their Dad came home drunk, which was often. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2021, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/819 "2021-12-23T05:56:46Z")
> [@GreenWyvern](#): > > I also have an early memory of leaving empty milk bottles out, and a milk delivery van coming early in the morning to deliver full glass bottles with foil tops. And the cream rose to the top of the milk! We had milk delivery through most of my childhood. We had an insulated box outside our back door (which meant the milkman had to go through the breezeway (between house and garage), down a walkway to the back door, and up to steps to the box. Several houses in our neighborhood actually had a little compartment, about table height, built into the house: the milkman would open the outside door, swap out the bottles, then you could open the inside part to bring the milk inside. That would be useful nowadays for small packages! The houses in question were all built in the 1950s. As far as stuff someone younger wouldn’t recognize: - True dial phones (as recently as 25 years ago, we had to pay MORE per month to have touchtone service, which was considered silly even then as the phone company saved on equipment). - Phone books, directory assistance, and operators - Long-distance calls (not sure if any place charges extra for that any more) - Hell, land lines: we maintain one, but my daughter doesn’t have one at her apartment. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2021, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/820 "2021-12-23T06:02:54Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > “Mom & Pop” stores. (Are IGA stores still a thing?) They are indeed! > **[IGA | Local = Fresh](https://www.iga.com/)** > > The Independent Grocers Alliance (IGA) was founded in 1926 to bring family owned, local grocery stores together under the IGA brand. ---
**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:** [December 23, 2021, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/821 "2021-12-23T15:54:51Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > Long-distance calls (not sure if any place charges extra for that any more) I don’t have a landline anymore, but my cell carrier gives me free long distance in all 50 states. I have to pay for international calls. ---
**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:** [December 23, 2021, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/822 "2021-12-23T18:11:36Z")
> [@cochrane](#): > > > [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > > > Long-distance calls (not sure if any place charges extra for that any more) > > I don’t have a landline anymore, but my cell carrier gives me free long distance in all 50 states. My land line (as well as my cell) has been doing that for years. One of the things I don’t miss is trying to properly allocate charges for the month’s phone bill among multiple housemates; let alone among multiple housemates plus the farm business, including with in some cases both farm and personal calls being made to the same number. [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=40) [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=42)