Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Fun pub discussion last night - things your kids will never know or experience [View all]snagglepuss
(12,704 posts)401. Life before backpacks. Lugging textbooks home under one arm and carrying a lunch pail in the other.
Edit history
Please sign in to view edit histories.
512 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
RecommendedHighlight replies with 5 or more recommendations
Fun pub discussion last night - things your kids will never know or experience [View all]
titaniumsalute
Nov 2012
OP
It was my girlfriend's mother's piercing whistle that we listened for 3 blocks away.
beveeheart
Nov 2012
#74
Amen. We rode our bikes *everywhere*, then threw them down in the front yard overnight...
Romulox
Nov 2012
#138
YES....and we had to come in at night when the street light came on
Laura PourMeADrink
Nov 2012
#185
+1 10-mile bike rides, on our own, to a local lake. day-long wanderings through the local woods.
HiPointDem
Nov 2012
#192
thanks ! Had forgotten about the homemade skate boards ! And so true about walking everywhere
Laura PourMeADrink
Nov 2012
#311
"the mass culture experience, where everyone gets the same news, watches the same tv shows, "
dixiegrrrrl
Nov 2012
#354
So funny..."some kind of ceramic figure" with a doily. haha. It also reminded me that everyone
Laura PourMeADrink
Nov 2012
#475
We had our adventures, didn't we? And if a kid did that today, not only
ChisolmTrailDem
Nov 2012
#466
so different. i think the historical perspective is important to have, to keep people
HiPointDem
Nov 2012
#406
I've made it to seventy and sixty years ago I pulled off some hair raising stunts n/t
sarge43
Nov 2012
#359
Yep. I used to go ice skating in my youth (NJ) and one hasn't been able to skate on a lake ....
MichaelSoE
Nov 2012
#328
OMG I hated those little bastards. You had to stand there and hold them just right.
nolabear
Nov 2012
#97
i would if i could find one for a decent price. i'd use a wind-up alarm clock, too.
HiPointDem
Nov 2012
#199
interesting. i wonder if he has a website, i'm not that keen on ebay. i see a watch
HiPointDem
Nov 2012
#259
+1. also, people smoking in the grocery store, at work, and in many public buildings.
HiPointDem
Nov 2012
#200
Only the bigger corporate stores forbid smoking by checkers. At any small store the person running
brewens
Nov 2012
#308
listening to lots of different kinds of things on radio, not just top 10 playlists. with
HiPointDem
Nov 2012
#201
OMG, yes, remember that too. WBZ Chicago - you could pick it up everywhere.
Laura PourMeADrink
Nov 2012
#312
Adjusting your car's carburetor with a screw driver until the fuel mixture "sounds right."
FSogol
Nov 2012
#6
I had a archeology course once and we were excavating a supposedly unmolested area of
FSogol
Nov 2012
#512
in my childhood i remember 10, then 12, then 15-cent funnybooks, & then i got
HiPointDem
Nov 2012
#212
I want some....did you try and order?....they need some work on the
Laura PourMeADrink
Nov 2012
#318
Car vent windows, tape recorders, correction fluid, carbon paper, fountain pens.
rzemanfl
Nov 2012
#9
I was thinking crank handles in a car and...oh my gosh...physically locking a car door. NT
titaniumsalute
Nov 2012
#13
I have a Jeep which has both. When I drive other people's kids around, they often do not
FSogol
Nov 2012
#23
Ha--I still do both! Hand crank windows, two keys for the car; door/trunk and ignition!
MADem
Nov 2012
#506
God, carbon paper. I would never have been a writer in the age of carbon paper.
nolabear
Nov 2012
#99
the point, as i'm sure you know, is that your son's experience is no longer the
HiPointDem
Nov 2012
#203
Hmmm. Of course globally flush toilets are not 'the norm' so most kids today do
Bluenorthwest
Nov 2012
#357
not sure what your point is. the op is about what american kids today will not
HiPointDem
Nov 2012
#408
My students thought that was the best thing about taking a test - the fumes from the paper.
beveeheart
Nov 2012
#78
I'd give my hat & front seat in hell just to smell those purple-printed sheets again!
japple
Nov 2012
#169
If you got an opportunity to operate the "Gestetner Stenciller" you could get a noseful
MADem
Nov 2012
#469
Manually typing in programs in BASIC out of a magazine, then saving them onto a cassette tape.
backscatter712
Nov 2012
#62
you just reminded me of when we asked someone in another office to send us a copy of
Laura PourMeADrink
Nov 2012
#187
I thought those were a miracle! And when they came out with the 3 and a half inchers, I
MADem
Nov 2012
#507
Those instructions were widely ignored when they were "stuff in the back of the storage room"
JHB
Nov 2012
#238
We called those "IBM cards", because they were the only computer company.
eppur_se_muova
Nov 2012
#494
Freedom from government intrusion into their personal communications.
woo me with science
Nov 2012
#17
I put together a nice collection of slide rules, when hand calculators first became available.
meti57b
Nov 2012
#87
Yes. And if you were hospiltilized, you could smoke in your room in some sitiations.
Kaleva
Nov 2012
#35
I never smoked buy my parents and relatives did. I remember the wide variety of ashtrays.
snagglepuss
Nov 2012
#399
Having to have someone paged in a crowded store, airport, event center etc.
yankeepants
Nov 2012
#34
I was paged for a phone call once at the Flamingo Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas
TeamPooka
Nov 2012
#119
halloween thanksgiving and christmas being separate holiday seasons. ;-)
JustFiveMoreMinutes
Nov 2012
#36
+1000. It used to be special to ride the bus downtown to see all the decorations.
gkhouston
Nov 2012
#302
Your car doesn't burn through a set of distributor points every 20,000 miles anymore, either...
Thegonagle
Nov 2012
#98
Getting slapped around by a teacher, then being sent to the principal to be beaten by him.
Kaleva
Nov 2012
#41
Upper Michigan. That's the way things were done back then. At least where I lived.
Kaleva
Nov 2012
#248
I can't help but be reminded of how many blacks were often treated under slavery.
AverageJoe90
Nov 2012
#250
Cars with no seat belts. Escorted air travel for children. Ditto copying machines.
ancianita
Nov 2012
#44
i bought a record player this summer.. it has a cassette deck, cd, and radio in it too.
dionysus
Nov 2012
#47
Eaton's "Corrasable bond" paper--a modern miracle! Beat the hell out of white out! nt
MADem
Nov 2012
#509
Smoking weed that was so mild - you had to use your imagination to get stoned !!
RagAss
Nov 2012
#65
And don't forget Blue chip stamps. Both my Grandmothers saved them for me and when I visited them
kimbutgar
Nov 2012
#405
for homeless people, and not much of one. stipping wires for copper, stealing bricks
HiPointDem
Nov 2012
#205
On a positive note: Pretty soon all kids under 8 won't have experienced a white President
mucifer
Nov 2012
#71
I still have my pair. I used to go down hills in them and to this can't i did it.
snagglepuss
Nov 2012
#395
Yeah. I remember when the IBM Selectrics came out & you could actually change the font, lol
catbyte
Nov 2012
#96
I also remember when the first ones with a memory came out. You could save 5 whole letters
catbyte
Nov 2012
#179
In 1971 I paid $750 for a used mechancial printing calculator that would multiply and divide. n/t
rzemanfl
Nov 2012
#472
LOL, remembering overadjusting the vertical and getting a screen that rolled up
gkhouston
Nov 2012
#299
Pre-teens being allowed to walk alone to a neighborhood store to buy milk and bread
slackmaster
Nov 2012
#95
When I was about 9 or so my mom would give me a quarter and send me to the bakery
The Velveteen Ocelot
Nov 2012
#107
And TV stations that went off the air and you woke up with the buzzing
Laura PourMeADrink
Nov 2012
#323
We're in suburban Chicago- and our forest preserves have hole-in-the-ground 'outhouses'...
BlueMan Votes
Nov 2012
#110
Sex before AIDS came into play. and admiring someone without being hit with a sex harrasment charge
graham4anything
Nov 2012
#113
any of the 3 Kennedy sons being alive and in the world. The football NY Jets winning Super Bowl
graham4anything
Nov 2012
#127
The first time we apent $20 at the grocery store. My mother cried all the way home.
DollarBillHines
Nov 2012
#134
The State Recreation areas here in Michigan still feature hole-in-the-ground style
Romulox
Nov 2012
#136
Those Bell Telephone movies with the guy in the labcoat, so we'd know he was smart.
gkhouston
Nov 2012
#237
"filmstrip" I haven't heard that term in ages, also forgot about those gendered
snagglepuss
Nov 2012
#396
Just think...anyone under 4 years old will never see a Republican as president in America again
graham4anything
Nov 2012
#176
My mom once said that we wouldn't have a Republican President again for a whole generation
slackmaster
Nov 2012
#177
Jimmy Carter would have won reelection had the Dems come together in the general
graham4anything
Nov 2012
#182
Yes. The GOP leveraged the patriotic fervor of the nation's bicentennial, and sold its soul to...
slackmaster
Nov 2012
#364
Being hit on the hand by a nun and having the phone ring and not knowing who it is
Laura PourMeADrink
Nov 2012
#193
9 on 9 pick up Baseball games in the summer that last until the sun goes down.
sarcasmo
Nov 2012
#207
Mimeograph papers from the schoolteachers w/blue ink. I'd huff those papers...
Honeycombe8
Nov 2012
#218
Walking over a mile to school. Bare foot, in the winter, in the snow, up hill, both ways.
notadmblnd
Nov 2012
#245
Riding in the rear-facing seat of a wood-paneled station wagon with no seat belt
Neurotica
Nov 2012
#270
Bookmobiles. These days, tough shit, take a bus or car to the nearest branch or do without.
gkhouston
Nov 2012
#301
I was at our local Bookmobile just last month....Books To The People....
Bluenorthwest
Nov 2012
#366
Drive ins still exist--many still have the old speakers, but they don't repair them when they break.
MADem
Nov 2012
#462
I haven't read every thread so this may be a dupe...pick up the phone reciever and have the operator
MichaelSoE
Nov 2012
#332
I so remember this game being played at birthday parties. I completely forgot until I saw your
kimbutgar
Nov 2012
#407
$.95 Saturday matinees, no Internet, MTV actually played nothing but music videos
justiceischeap
Nov 2012
#344
I usd to tell my nieces and nephews that we had to walk uphill to school and uphill home from
libinnyandia
Nov 2012
#346
Holiday Cartoon Specials after dinner, back before 24 hour cartoons/vcrs/cable. nt
Romulox
Nov 2012
#349
Life before backpacks. Lugging textbooks home under one arm and carrying a lunch pail in the other.
snagglepuss
Nov 2012
#401
Drive in Theaters, reel to reel tape players, Super 8 Projectors that made the ticking sound
kimbutgar
Nov 2012
#402
Ahhhh...lightning bugs. If you are looking to see those again....there's a beautiful B&B in VA
Laura PourMeADrink
Nov 2012
#477
Most young people will not experience formal dress being the norm in their lives rather than the
Midwestern Democrat
Nov 2012
#446
Polio, Child Labor, the Civil War. The Black Plague, the Spanish Inquisition, trepanning, rickets
Warren DeMontague
Nov 2012
#452
Three television stations...if you were lucky. No DVDs or videotapes or "On Demand" -- you had to
MADem
Nov 2012
#456
My family moved from Kansas to California in 1962. Our Philco TV got three stations in Kansas City.
slackmaster
Nov 2012
#465
I had this exact discussion with my daughter at Halloween when the Great Pumpkin was on.
hughee99
Nov 2012
#468
so true ! I remember very well "suffering" through Lawrence Welk..haha
Laura PourMeADrink
Nov 2012
#474
Did anyone else have local record shops? Ours even had a "sound booth"...we would
Laura PourMeADrink
Nov 2012
#476
Riding in a car with no seat belt or any restraint. Riding with a parent who is drunk as a skunk.
raccoon
Nov 2012
#479
Yup...my dad still won't go fishing because he has bad memories of going to the CT shore with his
Laura PourMeADrink
Nov 2012
#480
Part of the reason might have been less people, less cars, less traffic. Remember when
raccoon
Nov 2012
#488
true...and I guess depending on where you lived mattered a lot too. Like a lot of
Laura PourMeADrink
Nov 2012
#489
I actually do think it was better to have the phone ring and not know who it is or to get
Laura PourMeADrink
Nov 2012
#493