# 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:** 64
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1263 "2022-07-22T12:51:54Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > a customer outside who needed their tank filled, windshield washed and oil and tires checked. I’m in NJ and the last time I got gas, the attendant actually washed my back window! I guess my car was filthier than I thought after a week at camp. ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1264 "2022-07-22T14:53:28Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Nobody will ever realize the intense concentration it took to carry a filled ice cube tray from the sink to the freezer. Why not? Lots of people don’t have ice makers in their freezers. My kids just had to do this last night, because we don’t have an icemaker. ---
**Author:** ![batsto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b2d939/32.png) [@batsto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/batsto)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1265 "2022-07-22T14:54:10Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Filling stations used to have free air for your tires too. Now we have those anemic feed me quarters machines that hardly put out any volume. Wawa gas stations here in Jersey usually still have free air. ---
**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:** [July 22, 2022, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1266 "2022-07-22T14:58:49Z")
> [@batsto](#): > > Lots of people don’t have ice makers in their freezers. We got a new refrigerator when we remodeled our kitchen ~3 years ago, then when our refrigerator in the basement died, my gf bought a new one for to replace it. We specifically did not want an ice maker and she told me she had to argue a bit each time to purchase one without. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1267 "2022-07-22T15:57:31Z")
> [@batsto](#): > > Wawa gas stations here in Jersey usually still have free air. Kind of a long drive for me. 😉 I bought a compressor. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1268 "2022-07-22T16:24:30Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > I don’t think self-serve has anything to do with it. The type of gas station where I saw those hoses (and still sometimes do ) were the type that > > 1. didn’t have a convenience store > 2. mostly did repairs > 3. had only two pumps mostly as a convenience to repair customers and had higher prices that stations that didn’t do repairs. > > and the hose was needed to alert someone working in the repair shop that someone wanted gas. Self-service stations don’t need the hose and neither do gas stations that are busy enough to have someone dedicated to pumping gas. That is certainly the reason why they used to exist. I suppose it’s possible that some mini-mart type gas station has that kind of hose just to wake up the cashier at night but I would think maintaining a compressor and the hoses just for that purpose is a waste of money. Even a place that supplies air for tires, free or not, probably has one of those little on demand compressors on a post outside. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1269 "2022-07-22T16:38:06Z")
I read an interview with one of those white jumpsuit full service attendants: “Fill ‘er up? Check under the hood? Wash your windshield? Oh my! Look at the cracks in your fan belt and wiper blades! Good thing I looked, let’s take care of you right now!” They wore wedding rings with sharpened extensions hidden in the palm side. ---
**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:** [July 22, 2022, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1270 "2022-07-22T19:25:46Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > But yes, I do remember those hoses. (There must be another term for them, but I can’t imagine what.) I wonder why they aren’t around any more. The simple answer is that they are useless at a self-serve pump, but self-serve is still illegal in NJ and yet those hoses have gone away anyway. My first thought was “annunciator system”, like the system used in Downton Abbey to signal the servants. But would you believe “Driveway Signal Bell”? [https://www.amazon.com/Milton-805-Self-Contained-Driveway-Signal/dp/B000NNECX0](https://www.amazon.com/Milton-805-Self-Contained-Driveway-Signal/dp/B000NNECX0) ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2022, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1271 "2022-07-22T21:50:21Z")
All these decades, I had always presumed that the tube was electrical, and the pressure of the cars wheels would make two wires contact. It never dawned on me that a pneumatic device would be so much simpler, and now that this thread has brought it to my attention, I can see how it would work so much better than an electrical switch. Ignorance fought! ---
**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:** [July 23, 2022, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1272 "2022-07-23T05:26:32Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > Normal people call/called it a gas station, and a minority say/said service station. When I was a kid one of the neighbors across the street owned a service station – i.e. it had a couple repair and oil change bays. His competitor catty-corner from him, he sniffed, had a _gas_ station – no bays. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2022, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1273 "2022-07-24T08:15:40Z")
I’ve had an afternoon cleaning out boxes of old paraphernalia in anticipation of a semi-permanent move overseas. And I found a letter I’d sent to my then young kids whilst on a holiday to England…in 1994. It was written on the old air-mail paper, lightweight to make sure sending it was cheap, if slow. In fact I arrived home before the letter arrived, despite it’s light weight! ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2022, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1274 "2022-07-24T15:35:21Z")
“Okey-dokey, pokey.” I think I miss home-delivered milk. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2022, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1275 "2022-07-25T10:44:43Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > I’ve had an afternoon cleaning out boxes of old paraphernalia in anticipation of a semi-permanent move overseas. And I found a letter I’d sent to my then young kids whilst on a holiday to England…in 1994. It was written on the old air-mail paper, lightweight to make sure sending it was cheap, if slow. In fact I arrived home before the letter arrived, despite it’s light weight! My mom, an immigrant from England, often exchanged these with her parents back in England when I was a kid. Also from when I was a kid, ISTR international phone calls being very expensive. They were a rare treat for my mom, and they were kept relatively short. According to replies on **[this page](https://ask.metafilter.com/211826/Long-Distance-Rates-For-the-Late-Seventies-and-Early-Eighties)**, calls from the US to the UK in the early '60s (only slightly before my time) were $3 per minute, or about $30 per minute in 2022 dollars. Quite a contrast with present day: my wife has a Skype call with her mom in Japan every couple of weeks - great audio and video quality, and completely free, so their conversations often last for over an hour. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2022, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1276 "2022-07-25T12:45:26Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > ISTR international phone calls being very expensive. Yes, indeed. For me, in the mid-to-late 1970s, calls from the US to Israel were about $1 per minute. Re: “old air-mail paper”. I remember onionskin paper, which was indeed thin and light, and was probably used for airmail letters. But what I personally used was an [aerogramme](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogram), whose paper was slightly thicker and sturdier than onion paper, but it had gummed tabs, and could be folded to form its own envelope, thus saving a lotof weight. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2022, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1277 "2022-07-25T13:57:37Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > Re: “old air-mail paper”. I remember onionskin paper, which was indeed thin and light, and was probably used for airmail letters. But what I personally used was an [aerogramme](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogram), whose paper was slightly thicker and sturdier than onion paper, but it had gummed tabs, and could be folded to form its own envelope, thus saving a lotof weight. Sorry, yes, the “aerogram” is what I was thinking of. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2022, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1278 "2022-07-25T14:49:24Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > Nobody will ever realize the intense concentration it took to carry a filled ice cube tray from the sink to the freezer. I don’t have an ice maker in my fridge so I still have to do that, but remember those awful aluminum ice cube trays that had a lever that you would pull to crack the ice free? You would have to run the tray under hot water to be able to budge it. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2022, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1279 "2022-07-25T15:13:46Z")
And I’d have to move those dang ice trays in order to get to my beloved ice cream! 😡 ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1280 "2022-07-26T11:31:06Z")
And they had usually just been filled with water, so you had to careful not to spill them. ---
**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:** [July 26, 2022, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1281 "2022-07-26T13:56:15Z")
On the same theme, bagged ice wasn’t a thing you could buy at the grocery store. In our little town, there was an ‘ice house’ that sold blocks of ice. I don’t remember how much those blocks weighed, but there were about 1’ x 1’ x 1’, and they were heavy (at least to 8-year-old me.) There was a machine there that would ‘crush’ the ice for you after you bought it. Plus, most of the time there was no attendant; the ice was sold on the honor system. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2022, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1282 "2022-07-26T23:54:23Z")
Temps in the mid-90s (F) here in the Armpit of Puget Sound reminded me of the lever under the dash which opened a scoop in front of the windshield. At any kind of speed this forced (relatively) cool air into the footwells — unless the screen over the scoop was clogged with bugs, requiring a many-bad-words cleaning. “Bugs” in turn calls to mind the first car I remember that had a windshield washer (a 1955 Dodge). It was a mechanical pump operated by a pedal just above the [high-beam switch](https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.kL7sdVqm6TDUNxX6J6uStgHaEK%26pid%3DApi&f=1) — yet another artifact — and ISTR it had a tendency to leak, requiring replacing the switch more than once. [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=63) [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=65)