Things from your childhood that would baffle young people of today

[StarSong]

We found out a few years ago from our now twenty-somethings, that when they were very little, they both thought color didn't come into the world until their Dad and I were kids. It was because all old photos, movies & tv programs were all black and white!!

We used to tell our kids we older than dirt... sure we HAD dirt when we were children, but nobody had named it yet.

 

[hollydolly]

@jujube

A year without TV?! Child abuse!

@hollydolly

Well into the 50s...1955 is still a senior.
Baby boomer = born 1946 - 1964.

Yes i know I'm a senior, but I don't ever remember not having a TV at home, so we must have had one pretty much around the time I was born...

 

[Rosemarie]

ken with regard the skates... when I was a kid in the 60's we had plastic or leather straps at the front...not clamps...

Mine were like that. They were adjustable so , as you grew, so did the skates.

 

[fuzzybuddy]

People did not just "plug in", and watch a TV back in the dark ages. One of the important jobs a dad did way back, when was to fine tune a TV, especially something called, the "verticle hold". Your dad would spend hours adjusting contrast, and other things; because the picture just didn't look right. Many guys used to prop mirrors up in front of TVs, as kids and wives just were poor judges on picture quality. Saturday afternoon was usually reserved for this right. Of course the "correct" picture was never tuned in.

 

[Ken N Tx]

We found out a few years ago from our now twenty-somethings, that when they were very little, they both thought color didn't come into the world until their Dad and I were kids. It was because all old photos, movies & tv programs were all black and white!!

I have been asked many times why our wedding pictures are black and white!!! 1963...

 

[Liberty]

I have been asked many times why our wedding pictures are black and white!!! 1963...

Ask grandkid what he thought it was like when his grandpa and I were kids and he said "black & white?"

 

[DaveA]

Boston memory: it was the Cities Service sign you could see from the 1st base seats; it was a green trefoil, and it was mesmerizing.

I remember that Cities Service sign that was in place outside of Fenway Park for many years.

 

[fuzzybuddy]

At 8:30, you all pile into a car. And drive to this one huge TV screen and watch only one channel for 2-3 hours. Instead of raiding the kitchen, you have to stand in line while a huge clock ticked of 15 minutes.

 

[win231]

Ice boxes, wood cook stoves, and outhouses, I don't miss any of them, except the smell of the wood burning stove. Messing with firewood, no.

I didn't know what an outhouse was until I was 30. And a friend explained what a "Chamber Pot" was when I was 62.

 

[hollydolly]

I knew what an outhouse was by the time I was a toddler ( altho we personally as a family didn't have one) ... !!!....

I doubt any youngsters would know what one was...

 

[fmdog44]

A toolbox and fixing cars and reading a book.

 

[Gary O']

View Master

Kaledioscope

I'm still amazed at those
Then again, I get rapt by those air driven wavy armed floppy promo guys

 

[Gary O']

Things from your childhood that would baffle young people of today

The zip gun made from a clothespin
Took about 5 minutes to make



Terrorize gurls and frustrate teachers

 

[Aunt Bea]

I know they still make them but I don't know anyone that has used them in this century.

 

[Lara]

Memorizing phone numbers and using a phonebook with yellow pages...

 

[Lara]

Walkie Talkies
Viewfinders
Cap Guns

 

[StarSong]

I know they still make them but I don't know anyone that has used them in this century.

That would be true of both the Traveler's Checks and women wearing hats like that.

 

[Gary O']

I know they still make them but I don't know anyone that has used them in this century.

That would be true of both the Traveler's Checks and women wearing hats like that.

I used travelers cheques in China during Y2K, but not the hat

 

[Lara]

Encyclopedias w/higher standards (now we have to filter Wikipedia & Search Engines with their lies, bias, and companies controlling what we see)

Library Card Files (replaced by ILS software and iCloud's organization and storage)

 

[Gary O']

Encyclopedias w/higher standards (now we have to filter Wikipedia & Search Engines w their lies, bias, and companies controlling what we see)

As opposed to the pure truths of Funk and Wagnall's?

 

[fmdog44]

Do you all realize when people born in say, 1980 will look back when they are seniors and recall childhood technologies and laugh at them? I am an anti-techie mostly because I never needed it back then and same holds true for today.

 

[Kimwhiz]

When we live out in the country in forested area.
Going outside early in the morning, eating berries / wild apples / rhubarb / drinking from the creek. Playing in the forest all day and going home in the afternoon - at 9 yrs old.

Sounds like heaven.

 

[Sunday.abovethe.grass.meh]

I love that bit just above there ^ /\ /\ ^ ^ /\ about the rhubarb and drinking from the creeks, same here. Lots of forest, some dale meadow or long stretches of horse and cow pasture, all mountains, berries here and there and sour apples and reg apples, running from horses, or ram sheep or maybe a mean goat here and there at the time. You know I don't know how far we walked to the schoolhouse but it was a long ways when you were little, some older kids had horses and I didn't get to but kids would hold their tails as the pony pulled them across the pond, oh yeah some giant pond right by the schoolhouse.

YEah I guess-- one could say it was heaven.

 

[Lc jones]

"Ditto" machines! We used to sniff that purple ink.

I loved the smell of that stuff!

 

[Lc jones]

View attachment 75602

Is this a slide rule?