# 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:** 50
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2022, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/983 "2022-03-27T21:21:10Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > Trivia: The notes are G, E, C because the > network was once owned, long, long ago by the General Electric Company. Interesting about the notes. I recognized the intervals but hesitated to assume the key of C. I also didn’t know that there was an early period of ownership by General Electric. At some point GE divested itself of NBC, only to re-acquire its parent company in 1985. David Letterman used to joke about that on his show, mentioning the “fine GE light bulbs” in the studio. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2022, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/984 "2022-03-27T21:25:34Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I had forgotten about about those mats. Our grocery store had them. Mid 1960s. Those continued in use well into the '70s. I remember a short film on SNL that showed someone cutting two pieces of the mat and gluing them to his shoe soles. Then when he walked up to any door, it opened! ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2022, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/985 "2022-03-27T21:48:35Z")
That’s a very funny idea, and I’d love to see it. Not doubting you, but it sounds more like Ernie Kovacs, Spike Milligan, or Steven Wright (who only did stand-up, of course, not sketch comedy) than SNL. ---
**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:** [March 28, 2022, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/986 "2022-03-28T00:24:11Z")
That sounds very familiar- could it have been a Mad magazine gag too? ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2022, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/987 "2022-03-28T00:49:28Z")
These mats that opened doors were common well into the 80s in Canada. I had forgotten about those too - I bet every kid ever used to play around on them and get in peoples’ way. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2022, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/988 "2022-03-28T02:02:50Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Also arm bent downwards at elbow, palm towards the back of the car: which meant the same as brake lights, stopping or significantly slowing down. I was never taught this one when learning to drive in 1974, but managed to figure it out one day years later, when I was driving near UCLA, a bicyclist ahead of me used it. Still, I assumed it was a bikes-only thing, possibly because it’s usually illegal to drive a car without working break lights. ---
**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:** [March 28, 2022, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/989 "2022-03-28T02:54:14Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > Still, I assumed it was a bikes-only thing, possibly because it’s usually illegal to drive a car without working break lights. Not when they first worked out the hand signals, it wasn’t. – we were also taught them so we could use them if our brake or turn signals weren’t working; as well as so we could recognize them from bicyclists, farm equipment, and other people whose lights weren’t working. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2022, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/990 "2022-03-28T15:40:44Z")
I haven’t been there in many, many years, but the Fine Arts Building here in Chicago still had elevator operators into the 90s and I think at least early 00s. ETA: Looks like as of 2018, they were still there: > **[Chicago's Last Manual Elevator](https://www.chicagomag.com/city-life/January-2018/The-Last-Manual-Elevator/)** > > Automation be damned. There's something beautiful about seeing the inner workings of a people mover. ---
**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:** [March 28, 2022, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/991 "2022-03-28T20:04:50Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/O4SbX0cE24U/maxresdefault.jpg "Go Carts") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4SbX0cE24U) “We (neighborhood kids) used to steal the wheels off of baby coaches to make our go carts. We eventually stole **287** baby buggy wheels. . . (wait for it) . The odd wheel was because Old Weird Harold had a Continental on the back.” Kids today wouldn’t know that the comedian was referring to the exposed spare tire on the back of the original Continental - and the spare tire impression on the trunk lid of the later Mark Continentals. (For purists - that’s ignoring the 1957-1959 Mark Continental.) ---
**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:** [March 28, 2022, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/992 "2022-03-28T21:17:00Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Elevator operators in department stores. There were elevator operators in the building I worked in when I got my first “real” job after graduating from college. The Petroleum Building south of DTLA. Cool old building, and I still miss the lobby coffee shop. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2022, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/993 "2022-03-28T21:25:07Z")
> [@dorvann](#): > > > [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > > > Elevator operators in department stores. > > I am in my mid 40s and the ONLY reason I know these existed was because the opening of Aerosmith’s “Love in an Elevator” music video. Chicago’s Museum of Science & Industry still had one elevator operator in the '70s – the other three public elevators were self-service. I had never seen one before. ---
**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:** [March 28, 2022, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/994 "2022-03-28T22:05:26Z")
> [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > We (neighborhood kids) used to steal the wheels off of baby coaches to make our go carts. We eventually stole **287** baby buggy wheels. I stole the wheels from my sister’s metal roller skates and my dad made me a skateboard with them. Dad was a fine woodworker, but he built everything too big. My skateboard was about as long as a surfboard, my toy-box took up half my bedroom… ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2022, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/995 "2022-03-28T22:37:07Z")
The first one i remember had an outer accordion iron gate and a window in the inner door so you could see the floors going by. There was a little round stool mounted to the wall for the operator to sit on. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2022, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/996 "2022-03-28T22:50:10Z")
Where’s Merlin now? Daddy, come clean. In the kitchen with Mom Playing Music Machine. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/997 "2022-03-29T03:13:29Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > Chicago’s Museum of Science & Industry still had one elevator operator in the '70 The L.A. County Museum of Natural History still had elevator operators in the old building around 1970, when I was around twelve. I may have mentioned elsewhere that this was where the older lady operator refused to let me in the elevator without an “AY-dult”. IIRC the elevators are still there in the old building, but not the operators. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/998 "2022-03-29T03:28:33Z")
Speaking of museums, here’s another one: \*\*_I just wandered into a museum and found myself in a room full of Greek and Roman statues…_ \*\*\* Museums used to be free, but today one does not simply wander into a museum; you have to pay, and sometimes it’s quite a lot. \*This actually happened to me when I was about thirteen or so. My dad had dropped off my brother and me along with a couple of other friends, at Hancock Park, and if memory serves we decided to split up and meet later. So I just wandered into LACMA and somehow found myself amongst the marbles. I had just started reaf8ng about Greek and Roman art, so it was a memorable occasion. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2022, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/999 "2022-03-29T03:29:15Z")
I can still remember the want ads in the paper that were allowed to differentiate between jobs offered to women and to men. Go back to about ten years before my birth, and in wasn’t just gender but race. The lowest jobs advertised for black women. ---
**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:** [March 29, 2022, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1000 "2022-03-29T14:19:52Z")
Back in the day, birth announcements were the “Announcements” section of the want ads. The hospitals would submit the info. The announcements, at the time of my birth, only showed the father’s name. Mr. John Doe, baby girl, 1/1/61. Apparently, the mothers had nothing to do with births back then 🙄 ---
**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:** [March 29, 2022, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1001 "2022-03-29T14:54:49Z")
When looking for a job, you’d get the Sunday paper and look through the classifieds. Your job was sending out resumes, calling for interviews, etc. Monday through Wednesday. And of course every Friday was looking in Section D for the schedule of the movies. You could look up the movie and it would tell you what theaters they were in OR the theater and see the movies playing there. ---
**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:** [March 29, 2022, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1002 "2022-03-29T16:46:04Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > The announcements, at the time of my birth, only showed the father’s name. Mr. John Doe, baby girl, 1/1/61. Apparently, the mothers had nothing to do with births back then 🙄 The mother would have been Mrs. John Doe, obviously! [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=49) [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=51)