# 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:** 69
**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:** [August 10, 2022, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1363 "2022-08-10T20:12:17Z")
My first Honda Civic had a choke of some sort, but neither the descriptions here nor my memory are reminding how it was used. Guess I really am old. 😢 ---
**Author:** ![Oxido](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9adbd/32.png) [@Oxido](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oxido)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2022, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1364 "2022-08-10T20:17:21Z")
Ok, I read a lot of these, some can be gleaned from watching old movies (rotary phone, tv dials, etc). I don’t know if this has been mentioned. “GI Joe with Kung Fu grip” ™ ---
**Author:** ![BrickBat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac91a4/32.png) [@BrickBat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrickBat)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2022, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1365 "2022-08-10T20:46:47Z")
There’s a creeping ambiguity here. When a poster first remarked about cars having chokes, they were referring to manual chokes. Cars having automatic chokes aren’t really noteworthy in that regard since in other than full race applications, _all_ carburetted cars had chokes\*\*. \*\* Some of those chokes, like on SU carburetors, weren’t chokes in the sense of restricting air, but more of a fuel enrichment system. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2022, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1366 "2022-08-10T21:04:08Z")
> [@Oxido](#): > > I don’t know if this has been mentioned. > > “GI Joe with Kung Fu grip” ™ Clean-shaven military Joe with slick painted hair, versus Adventure Team Joe with fuzzy hair and beard. Jay J. Armes action figure. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2022, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1367 "2022-08-10T21:17:55Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > rereading this, bowden cables and mopeds are other things that younger people wouldn’t understand…) I think they’re becoming a thing again, just electric this time. I’ve been seeing them a lot this summer around these parts. Um, moped style of transport that is, not bowden cables. ---
**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:** [August 11, 2022, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1368 "2022-08-11T00:13:49Z")
The Micro Machine Man. Featuring John Moschitta, the world’s fastest talker. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/zLP6oT3uqV8/maxresdefault.jpg "1987 Micro Machines Car & Playset Commercial (Featuring John Moschitta the Micro Machine Man)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLP6oT3uqV8) ---
**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:** [August 11, 2022, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1369 "2022-08-11T00:49:33Z")
> [@BrickBat](#): > > There’s a creeping ambiguity here. When a poster first remarked about cars having chokes, they were referring to manual chokes Yeah, I said I hadn’t seen a car with a choke in years, meaning a manual choke with a knob on the dashboard. Some people still remember chokes, or did about 20 years ago. I had to get an extra headlight switch installed in a car to avoid rebuilding the steering column. Several people asked me if that extra pull knob was a choke. ---
**Author:** ![sunstone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunstone/32/3372_2.png) [@sunstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sunstone)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1370 "2022-08-11T00:56:19Z")
Had a car with a crank for starting - in case the starter motor didn’t work…which happened a few times. Gasoline pumps sometimes had a large glass cylinder on top, and the fuel was pumped up into the cylinder until the amount you wanted was reached…then it flowed by gravity down the hose into your tank Played marbles in the dirt for “Keepers”. Roller skates clamped onto my shoes (not very well actually) I am soooo ooooolllllldddd! ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2022, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1371 "2022-08-11T01:28:55Z")
“World’s Fastest Talker” my ass. Listen to a good high school or college Policy debater sometime. _That’s_ fast. ---
**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:** [August 15, 2022, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1372 "2022-08-15T02:59:11Z")
My first car was a Subaru, which had a manual choke. I bought it in 1972, and I kept it till 1978. ---
**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:** [August 15, 2022, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1373 "2022-08-15T13:00:21Z")
Breaking in new shoes. They’d be made of stiff leather, and not comfortable to wear for very long until the leather had adjusted to conform to your particular feet. Wearing a new pair all day long would be very likely to result in blisters; so you’d wear a new pair for an hour or a two at a time, at first. Most shoes these days seem to have a lot less of this problem – I’m not entirely sure how much of it’s due to different materials, and how much due to different cut of the shoes (that indentation at the back of the ankle, for instance, which is where I remember new shoes most frequently blistering.) ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1374 "2022-08-15T16:35:49Z")
I don’t know if this has been mentioned yet, but when’s the last time you picked up a hitchhiker? Or even saw one? Or hitched a ride? In the 70s I routinely hitched from Boston to D.C. and back. ---
**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:** [August 15, 2022, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1375 "2022-08-15T17:10:38Z")
I wanted to know what time it was so I picked up the phone and dialed the number to hear the lady tell me the time. Then I went to the gas station to get the car filled up. The attendant came out and pumped 10 gallons of gasoline and then I gave him the small amount on the pump plus $1 a gallon. ---
**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:** [August 15, 2022, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1376 "2022-08-15T17:46:36Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I wanted to know what time it was so I picked up the phone and dialed the number to hear the lady tell me the time. I still remember the number I called (747-1212) to get the time and temperature. ---
**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:** [August 15, 2022, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1377 "2022-08-15T20:58:28Z")
I was texting my daughter about something we’d discussed several times before, and I started off with “At the risk of sounding like a stuck record …” Then it occurred to me that stuck/skipping records probably fit this category. ---
**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:** [August 16, 2022, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1378 "2022-08-16T10:09:15Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > They’d be made of stiff leather, and not comfortable to wear for very long until the leather had adjusted to conform to your particular feet. Wearing a new pair all day long would be very likely to result in blisters; so you’d wear a new pair for an hour or a two at a time, at first. Hiking boots were pretty much like this when I was a little kid: heavy, stiff-sole, stiff-leather construction for which you had best wear two pairs of socks, lest you destroy your feet in short order. By the mid 1980s, you could get hiking boots made with a large percentage of textile and much less leather, like slightly heavy basketball shoes. They hardly needed breaking in (if at all), and they were much more lightweight than their predecessors. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2022, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1379 "2022-08-17T19:33:58Z")
I haven’t read the whole thread, so maybe this is a duplicate. My father traded gas ration coupons for cigarette ration coupons during the war. (He really did.) Here’s another, same vintage. For some reason butter was rationed but heavy cream wasn’t so when my uncle came home on leave and craved a baked potato with real butter and we didn’t have any coupons for that, she whipped some heavy cream into butter. ---
**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:** [August 17, 2022, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1380 "2022-08-17T19:41:40Z")
> [@OttoDaFe](#): > > Then it occurred to me that stuck/skipping records probably fit this category. Digital and video recordings can stick as well, it’s just a lot more rapid than 33-1/3 or even 78 records. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/cYdpOjletnc/hqdefault.jpg "Max Headroom, The Best Bits Ever!") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYdpOjletnc) ---
**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:** [August 18, 2022, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1381 "2022-08-18T01:55:38Z")
When I was a kid, it was all about **[overhead projectors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overhead_projector)** and transparencies for giving presentations. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2022, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1382 "2022-08-18T11:42:13Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > My father traded gas ration coupons for cigarette ration coupons during the war. (He really did.) Wartime/rationing makeshifts cast a long shadow. Long after it was over, my mother could hardly bear to throw away wrapping paper, string, and old newspapers; she kept the paper wrapping from butter and margarine to grease baking tins; she unravelled old woollens to re-knit the wool into something else; she turned shirt collars and cuffs, and so on. [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=68) [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=70)