# 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:** 7
**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, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/122 "2021-10-25T17:59:55Z")
> [@phs3](#): > > He paused a videotape on an ep last night and I managed not to irritate my wife by pointing out that the frozen picture–while a bit messed up–was still clearer than anything taped off of TV would have been back then! Tom Scott has a video on YouTube that was recorded in HD but then had analog videotape effects added in post-processing - including washed-out color keying, occasional tracking glitches, and slight blurring. ---
**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:** [October 25, 2021, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/123 "2021-10-25T18:10:39Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > The smell of mimeograph paper. > > There was a movie ( _Fast Times at Ridgemont High_ maybe?) where a teacher handed out mimeographs to the class, and everyone held it up to their face to smell it. Probably a majority of people wouldn’t understand that gag today. [pedant][Spirit duplicator](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator) – aka Ditto.[/p] > The faintly sweet aroma of pages fresh off the duplicator was a feature of school life in the spirit-duplicator era.[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_duplicator#cite_note-4) [Mimeographs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimeograph), instead of using solvent to transfer the colored wax onto the copy uses a stencil through which honest-to-goodness (if a little weird) ink is forced onto the copy. A 30-copy classroom assignment is going to be Ditto. The several hundred-copy school newspaper is Mimeographed. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/124 "2021-10-25T18:12:43Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Oh yeah. Remember such things as this: > > _I can see paradise by–KA-CHUNK–the dashboard light_ > > Glad that 8-tracks have gone. Or when the timing and spacing of the tracks forced something like this: _I can see paradise by-KA-CHUNK- ( seconds or even minutes of dead silence ) the dashboard light_. ---
**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:** [October 25, 2021, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/125 "2021-10-25T18:14:47Z")
Changing camera film in the closet by feel, to prevent it from being exposed to light while loading. Flash cubes, which let you take four pictures in a row before you had to reload the flash. Which IIRC appeared right along with film cartridges that could be loaded in the light! ---
**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:** [October 25, 2021, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/126 "2021-10-25T18:15:41Z")
My brother’s first car had a built-in 8-track player; since this was well after the 8-track era, he installed an adaptor that allowed the 8-track player to play cassettes instead. I’ll bet kids don’t scrounge through the neighborhood any more looking for glass bottles to turn in for a nickel. ---
**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:** [October 25, 2021, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/127 "2021-10-25T18:22:01Z")
> [@Crane](#): > > Circus tents One of the little highlights of my life is when a tent show came to Carson City and set up on my day off. This was not a big show by any account but they had a tent so I, and a couple dozen other folk, got to watch them raise it including using elephants (!) to raise the tent poles. Except for using a hydraulic hammer mounted on a pickup truck to drive the stakes it was right out of _Dumbo_, ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/128 "2021-10-25T18:28:10Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Changing camera film in the closet by feel, to prevent it from being exposed to light while loading. 35mm film cartridges could always be loaded in room light, and removed in light provided they were fully rewound. My memory of darkrooms is it having to be totally dark (or at most, a dim red light for black-and-white film) in order to unload the cartridge and wind it into a developing tank. Once the film was in and the top secured, you could turn the lights on. The developer and fixer solutions could then be poured in and emptied out of the tank in normal light. You could then dry the fixed film in normal light. Of course, darkness prevailed all over again when it came time to print the negatives. Kids these days, with their digital cameras right in their damn cell phones, walking all over my lawn … 🧐 ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/129 "2021-10-25T18:33:17Z")
Well, they might understand it intellectually, but I doubt they will understand it emotionally. When I was a kid I remember the nightly news and the tally of deaths in Vietnam. It really stuck in my head that nightly tally of deaths and the names scrolling by. ☹ ---
**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:** [October 25, 2021, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/130 "2021-10-25T18:37:18Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Whiteout. Not so. You can still buy it at Amazon. A colleague called me last week, all upset because he couldn’t find any. He felt he couldn’t write the paper he was writing without it (he doesn’t own a computer). I was going to offer to buy some for him on Amazon (he doesn’t own a computer) but he finally found it at a dollar store. What I was going to offer is a record changer. Before LP records came out, a record could play only about 3-4 minutes. If you had a changer, you could pile a half dozen records on it and it would drop one automatically and the arm would come out and played the record. When it ended, the arm would move away and the next record in the stack would drop and so on. When all had played, you would turn the stack over and play the flip sides. Show music like Oklahoma would come in a dozen record album to be played that way. Even entire symphonies. ---
**Author:** ![Dogginit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogginit/32/16920_2.png) [@Dogginit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogginit)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/131 "2021-10-25T18:37:50Z")
Sepias, blueprints, and the blueline machine. Spent many an hour making print sets to be sent out, and the ammonia headache that inevitably came along with doing so, because the filters weren’t all that good. ---
**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:** [October 25, 2021, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/132 "2021-10-25T18:39:50Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > > Changing camera film in the closet by feel, to prevent it from being exposed to light while loading. > > 35mm film cartridges could always be loaded in room light, and removed in light provided they were fully rewound. Yup. I’m remembering from before them; or possibly from before they were common enough for us to have gotten one. Probably mid-50’s or so (any earlier, and I doubt I’d remember it.) We weren’t dealing with a darkroom; we mailed the film out, or took it in somewhere, to get it developed. We were just putting film in the camera. > [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Before LP records came out, a record could play only about 3-4 minutes. If you had a changer, you could pile a half dozen records on it and it would drop one automatically and the arm would come out and played the record. Changers continued for quite a while after LP’s; I remember putting stacks of LP’s on a changer. Oh, yes, and those setups would have an adapter for 45’s, which had a bigger hole. Most of them could still be set for 78’s, which had become quite rare by the time I can remember. [ETA: for anybody wondering: LP’s were 33’s (or was it technically 33 1/3?) and the numbers are revolutions per minute.) ---
**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:** [October 25, 2021, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/133 "2021-10-25T18:42:58Z")
Hey, remember “Close and Play” - a record player (45s) for kids too clumsy to handle the delicate dropping the needle in the right spot process [Close ‘n Play Phonograph from Kenner (1973) | Toy Tales](https://toytales.ca/close-n-play-phonograph-from-kenner-1973/) ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/134 "2021-10-25T18:55:39Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > LP’s were 33’s (or was it technically 33 1/3?) Yes, it was actually 33 1/3. And I remember a setting for 16 2/3 !!! ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/135 "2021-10-25T19:08:21Z")
Mercurochrome Needing cash meant going to the bank between 9 AM and 3 PM. A bit longer on Friday. Booster seats for little kids (a/k/a phone books) Sleeping in the back of the station wagon with the siblings while Dad drives overnight to our vacation, ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/136 "2021-10-25T19:30:18Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Not so. You can still buy it at Amazon. A colleague called me last week, all upset because he couldn’t find any. He felt he couldn’t write the paper he was writing without it (he doesn’t own a computer). I was going to offer to buy some for him on Amazon (he doesn’t own a computer) but he finally found it at a dollar store. And that’s another thing: - Friends who don’t have internet connected computers or smart phone devices. What young person (who isn’t Amish) could possibly relate to that now-a-day? ---
**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, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/137 "2021-10-25T19:37:30Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > I’ll bet kids don’t scrounge through the neighborhood any more looking for glass bottles to turn in for a nickel. Maybe not neighborhoods, but at least mumble-mumble years ago kids to go to the university stadium after a football game and collect returnable cans left by the ticketholders. They would usually fill a big garbage bag or two. And not only kids: The book “Firehouse Antics” by Robert Kahle mentions the firefighters in Detroit picking up littered beverage cans around the firehouse - and using the returnable money to buy desserts for their meals. ---
**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:** [October 25, 2021, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/138 "2021-10-25T19:41:36Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > Changers continued for quite a while after LP’s; I remember putting stacks of LP’s on a changer. My parents had a 3-LP set of something (perhaps a long classical concert?) that were numbered in such a way so you could stack the 3 records on the changer, then listen to sides 1, 2, and 3, then pick up all 3 records at the same time, flip them over, and listen to sides 4, 5, and 6. So Side 1 would have Side 6 on its flip side, Side 2 would have Side 5 on its flip side, and Side 3 would have Side 4 on its flip side. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/139 "2021-10-25T19:43:31Z")
> [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](#): > > Toys made out of this substance called **wood**. Also toys made out of tin plate bent together with tabs. Lots of nice sharp edges to snag things on and produce cuts. [https://www.realorrepro.com/article/Reissues-of-classic-tin-toys-by-Paya](https://www.realorrepro.com/article/Reissues-of-classic-tin-toys-by-Paya) For that matter, do they understand why an early Pixar short was entitled “Tin Toy”? ---
**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:** [October 25, 2021, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/140 "2021-10-25T19:43:41Z")
Yep. My parents had a five LP set of something that worked just that way. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2021, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/141 "2021-10-25T19:49:43Z")
In this vein, kids these days will never experience the giggling fun of putting on an LP and switching the turntable to 45rpm (or even better, 78, though ours was too new and inexpensive to have a 78 setting). Selecting the 2x speed setting on Youtube just isn’t the same. [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=6) [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=8)