# 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:** 71
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1403 "2022-09-26T15:57:18Z")
This thread has been going on awhile, so someone might have mentioned this, but getting paid in cash. Actual bills and coins in an envelope at the end of the pay period. With a handwritten pay stub showing what was withheld. ---
**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:** [September 26, 2022, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1404 "2022-09-26T16:58:13Z")
Don’t know if the means of opening beverage bottles and cans has been mentioned. Most bottles have twist off tops now. The pop tops went through an evolution of their own that continues still. The first big change I recall was the pull off tab that you dropped into your soda can instead of simply littering. Of course everyone had heard you could accidentally swallow that pop top and cut your throat open and drown in your own blood, but that’s better than littering, right? ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1405 "2022-09-26T17:22:59Z")
Also, I remember stopping at gas stations as a little kid on vacation trips. Around the vending machines there would be tons of bottle caps pressed into the asphalt. With plastic lids that can be put back on, you just don’t have that anymore. ---
**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:** [September 26, 2022, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1406 "2022-09-26T17:23:59Z")
Ah,the throwaway ring-pulls. Apparently, one day, years after ring-pulls (and tights, for that matter) had come in, my father came home from the shops and said to my mother “I can’t understand it - there must be all these women losing the clips off their suspender belts”. Oh, there’s another one to fox the younger generation. ---
**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:** [September 26, 2022, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1407 "2022-09-26T17:29:24Z")
Garter belts in USAian English. ---
**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:** [September 26, 2022, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1408 "2022-09-26T17:39:47Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Don’t know if the means of opening beverage bottles and cans has been mentioned. Most bottles have twist off tops now. The pop tops went through an evolution of their own that continues still. The first big change I recall was the pull off tab that you dropped into your soda can instead of simply littering. Of course everyone had heard you could accidentally swallow that pop top and cut your throat open and drown in your own blood, but that’s better than littering, right? What, and deny Jimmy Buffett a career? Pop-tops were just a phase. The first attempt to bypass the sharp little suckers was by Coors, I believe. They introduced cans with a little pressure-release button you pressed, which supposedly made it easier for you to press in the main opening with a finger. [https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images3/1/0318/27/vintage-1970s-coors-press-button-top\_1\_b7735259def688bb68eb006036025194.jpg](https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images3/1/0318/27/vintage-1970s-coors-press-button-top_1_b7735259def688bb68eb006036025194.jpg) This was a disaster, of course, since the slightest bit of inebriation made you slice the crap out of your thumb trying to open Beer #3. The industry eventually developed the levered tab we use now, but we paid for that convenience in blood. ---
**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:** [September 26, 2022, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1409 "2022-09-26T18:50:11Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Garter belts There’s one I’d forgotten about! And am happy to forget; along with belts with clips that held menstrual pads more or less in place. ---
**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:** [September 26, 2022, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1410 "2022-09-26T18:59:15Z")
I just cringed reading that. ---
**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:** [September 26, 2022, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1411 "2022-09-26T19:38:32Z")
In my youth we collected pop tops to use jamming parking meters. (Statute of limitations has passed) ---
**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:** [September 26, 2022, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1412 "2022-09-26T20:04:43Z")
And of course if you collected pop tops they will be used to buy kidney dialysis machines for the poor. And of course they aren’t really. Kidney dialysis is free of charge in the US but this myth persists. [Old thread on the subject](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/kidney-dialysis-and-pop-tops-myth/6068/12) ---
**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:** [September 26, 2022, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1413 "2022-09-26T22:45:33Z")
Pop tops are old news in this thread: > [@Without saying your age, what's something from your childhood that a younger person wouldn't understand?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1004): > > Dorm rooms festooned with chains made from pop tops that came off of aluminum beer cans in those days. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1414 "2022-09-27T00:28:59Z")
Ah, there were also the aftermarket bottle caps! The ones you’d pull out of the kitchen drawer to put on the bottle to keep in the fizz in half-drunk bottles. They came in several different styles, some working better than others. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2022, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1415 "2022-09-27T00:37:17Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > The ones you’d pull out of the kitchen drawer to put on the bottle to keep in the fizz in half-drunk bottles. Wow, I had completely forgotten about those. As I recall, none of them worked really well. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1416 "2022-09-27T03:47:31Z")
We had these cool new remote controls for the television sets. I don’t think today’s youngsters would understand why we called them remotes when they were connected by a wire to the televisions. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2022, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1417 "2022-09-27T11:07:57Z")
> [@Tibby](#): > > It wasn’t so much the _look_ of the cooker that scared me, it was the infernal rattling and sound of escaping steam coming from the regulator on top. To me it sounded like a compression bomb that was ready to explode. I refused to venture into the kitchen when Mom’s pressure cooker was up to steam and rattling away. I envisioned mass carnage with blood, gore, and body parts flying everywhere. Way back in the '50s when my dad was a college student, he and his roommates took turns cooking for the whole house. One night he put together a stew in the pressure cooker and turned on the heat. The problem was that he had filled it so full that a chunk of carrot or something blocked the main steam vent. Pressure built up until the emergency relief valve (basically a calibrated rubber plug) blew out, at which point a jet of boiling stew was directed at the ceiling through the resulting hole. Lots of heat and pressure in the cooker, so quite a bit of it was ejected before things settled down enough to even approach the stove and turn off the heat. Quite the mess, I was told. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2022, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1418 "2022-09-27T13:50:15Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > We had these cool new remote controls for the television sets. I don’t think today’s youngsters would understand why we called them remotes when they were connected by a wire to the televisions. Not completely true. There were the ones that clicked, striking an ultrasonic bar to trigger on/off or change the channel. Volume? 'Tis to laugh. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2022, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1419 "2022-09-27T14:27:15Z")
> [@Railer13](#): > > > [@california\_jobcase](#): > > > > The ones you’d pull out of the kitchen drawer to put on the bottle to keep in the fizz in half-drunk bottles. > > Wow, I had completely forgotten about those. As I recall, none of them worked really well. I had numerous versions of those, none of them worked. Even a bottle with a screw top doesn’t hold the fizz for very long. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2022, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1420 "2022-09-27T14:43:54Z")
Those tops to close up soda bottles were the type of thing you couldn’t find when you needed one and were clogging up the gadget drawer when you didn’t. Not working was just the icing on a cake you didn’t want or couldn’t eat. But that’s what most of those gadgets in the drawer were anyway. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2022, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1421 "2022-09-27T15:48:25Z")
> [@TRC4941](#): > > I had numerous versions of those, none of them worked. Even a bottle with a screw top doesn’t hold the fizz for very long. The screw top works just fine for keeping CO2 in the bottle; the problem is that when you have a large airspace inside the bottle, CO2 will come out of the soda and fill that airspace until the pressure is enough to keep the rest of the CO2 in the soda. After one or two cycles of closing the cap, waiting for equilibrium, then opening the cap to relieve the pressure, you’re pretty much guaranteed to have flat soda. ---
**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:** [September 27, 2022, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-saying-your-age-whats-something-from-your-childhood-that-a-younger-person-wouldnt-understand/953138/1422 "2022-09-27T16:45:48Z")
And if you keep it cold it goes flat faster since less CO2 is dissolved in the soda. [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=70) [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=72)