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Those who knew life before the internet and today’s technology lived an entirely different existence. It was so starkly different that many practices during those years may confuse, shock, or even horrify people today.
This was a discussion in a recent Reddit thread. Older folks looked back on a time when it was acceptable to smoke cigarettes on airplanes, walk through airline gates without a ticket, and have a phonebook containing personal information for everyone to see.
Many consider this a “golden era” filled with glorious moments. If you’re one of them, feel free to share your insights in the comment boxes below!
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#1
Free range kids with no tracking. I left home on Saturdays after the last good cartoon, and my family didn't see me again until dinner. I was in the woods fighting imaginary Russians or having bottle rocket wars with kids on the block.
sheburns17 replied:
This! My mom kicked us outside when we got rowdy and told us to come back when she whistled! We knew not to pass the stop sign at one end of the road and the mailbox on the other. We had treehouses made from random s**t we found in the woods and would battle each other. Man, my kids now could never.
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#2
The amount of kids who could fit in the back of a station wagon.
HatFickle4904 replied:
My parents would drive all night from L.A to Sacramento, CA. We'd get in our pajamas, and my Dad would fold down the back seat of the 1984 Chevy station wagon so that we had a giant bed. He played out a huge sleeping bag unzipped, and my two brothers and I would curl up in that and drive all night. It used to feel like we were in a spaceship as the lights from big rigs would fan across that rear windshield. Some of my best memories as a kid.
#3
The average blue collar worker could raise a happy and content family on a single income….can you imagine?
#4
My father left me at home alone for 2 weeks when he went on a trip. I was in high school and got myself up every morning and got to school on time and made my own meals. I think he called one time. This didn’t seem weird or wrong to me at all.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 month ago
Happened to a lot of us in Gen-X. The pantry was stocked and I knew how to cook. I had an afterschool job at Pizza Hut. I knew how to do laundry and anything else. NBD.
#5
Visiting. Folks used to drop in on one another to chat.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 month ago
I was still doing that into the 2000s. Just pop in with a six pack and a joint.
#6
You had to wait for a week to 10 days to see the pictures you took-after you dropped them off to be developed.
Alex Schneider 1 month ago
and you seldom took selfies and no one ever thought about making dxxxkpics,cause you didn't want this kind of pic developed by a dude that knows you or worse your mom
#7
Television stations going off the air around midnight along with a patriotic song, followed by a test pattern that remained until morning.
StrangeOne 1 month ago
I remember some stations just went all staticky or had the coloured bars. No song or anything else. Then infomercials started filling in the overnight slots.
#8
The rampant sexual harassment that occurred on a daily basis for most women in the workforce. Women were expected to accept it and not complain.
Comment Deleted 1 month ago
When I think of all the stuff said to me in the 70s when I was a young teen that we just brushed off. We learned to not complain and just accept it. If we did complain we were considered trouble makers who were over reacting. My neighbor regularly beat his wife and no one said or did anything. I am so glad women now are fighting to change that.
#9
Or high school had a student smoking area. There wasn't an age requirement. Also restaurants did not have no smoking areas.
#10
I was babysitting an infant and a four-year-old when I was 11. These days, a lot of 11-year-olds have sitters or nannies.
#11
That you pulled into a gas station, and a guy in uniform came out, filled your tank, checked the oil, and washed your windshield. And you didn't tip him.
Upstaged75 1 month ago
My mom had never pumped her own gas. So when my state got rid of all full-service gas stations I was the one who had to teach her how to do it. I was 17 at the time. :)
#12
Homosexuality was illegal here in Ireland till 1993. In schools in the 70s & 80s we were taught it was wrong, a mortal sin and that it was perverted. To be gay was a horrendous existence and people were openly hostile to it. To be trans was off the chart completely. Hard to believe the amount of progress we have made since then.
#13
People being completely unreachable, even children, for multiple days. Not in a they aren't answering work emails on purpose, but are posting on Instagram kind of way-- but truly, no one knows where the hell this person is or how to get in touch with them... oh well, ok. Carry on.
nysflyboy replied:
God, I soooooo miss this. Not just for myself, because it's possible to still drop off the planet for a while, but what I miss is this being NORMAL for all people. Like in the before cell phone, before answering machine days. Call and leave a message with someone who answered. Or not. 'Where is Jake?' 'Oh, he went down South for a few days. Check back next week.'
#14
Rotary Dialing a phone number; the idea of long distance toll charges on phone calls; dialing 0 for an operator (always a lady); 411 for information; white pages yellow pages even blue pages in a phone book sent out yearly by ATT, GTE ….
grejam replied:
Long-distance phone calls were a big thing. Rarely ever done. If you've got a long-distance call, it was something important. Probably bad news about family members.
Ann Kapoxeet 1 month ago
Remember how long-distance was cheaper later in the evening? I don't miss this!
#15
Walking to airline gates without a ticket or TSA. When I was a kid mom would take me to BWI airport and we would watch the planes from the pier.
ontrack replied:
Also, traveling by yourself at a young age. I flew from DC to south Texas and changed planes in Houston, entirely by myself, at 13. My parents just dropped me off in front of the terminal, and I did the rest. I was not escorted or monitored by any airport personnel.
Leanne Hailes 1 month ago (edited)
I remember when I visited the pilot(s) in the cockpit and they showed us sh¡t
#16
Candy cigarettes.
#17
The only people you saw who had tattoos were bikers or sailors.
#18
Stores were closed on Sundays.
KimVG73 replied:
Closed for the holidays, too. Actually, fully closed for Thanksgiving through the week. Christmas is often the whole week. Lots of folks talk about 'great again,' but they gotta shop, shop, shop, or work, work, work through every holiday. And forget federal holidays. Slowing down, being closed, allowing for reset time. This is why people are difficult now. Everyone is exhausted.
#20
Being responsible for your girl scout cookie sales all by yourself, by door to door knocking.
Ann Kapoxeet 1 month ago
My parents refused to sell my cookies at work. I was expected to sell them on my own. My daughter's still annoyed that I made her do the same thing.
#21
When you sat in the front seat, the only thing that kept you from flying into the dash, was your Mom's arm flying over when she hit the brakes.
#22
No sunscreen when on the beach or out in the sun. Or worse -- using baby oil and laying out in the sun.
Habibti143 replied:
Baby oil, a reflector, and iodine.
Tucker Cahooter 1 month ago
The only concession they used to make in the city I grew up in Australia (before all the Slip, Slop, Slap stuff) was that the radio station used to play a "Time to turn so you won't burn" jingle at periodic intervals during the summer months
#23
Human conversation, playing outside until the streetlights came on, drinking out of the hose.
PeepPeep the duck 1 month ago
Drinking out of a hose is not a fun memory 😂 I just pulled it off and used the tap part. Hot Aussie hose flavour is yuk
#24
Riding in the back of the pick up truck, sometimes sitting on the wheel well.
Dorothy Reiser 1 month ago
We hitched a ride to the state fair, all 7 of us college girls, in 1974, in the back of a pickup truck.
#25
My mother smoked and drank during 3 pregnancies. Women thought this helped delivery by making the baby smaller. I’m not kidding.
#27
When i was a teenager I used to cycle around, and if i had to telephone someone, i would just knock on some (random) person's door, asking politely if i could make a call. Or even go to the toilet sometimes. Most people would be ok with it.
Ray Ceeya (RayCeeYa) 1 month ago
I remember doing that in the 80s. My hometown was only 1100 people.
#28
All adults were allowed to hit kids… parents, teachers, coaches, principal, even friends and or neighbors.
Simeon Nevel 1 month ago
Well, my mother never tolerated that. She once came to my school and smacked a teacher who smacked me.
#29
Smoking on airplanes.
emarkd replied:
I used to ride my bike to the corner market and 'buy' my mom cigarettes by the carton. I say 'buy' in quotes because she had a tab there, literally just a list in a little flip notebook by the register. I'd take home her cigarettes as needed, and she'd stop in on the weekends and settle up the tab. I was 9 or 10 when this started.
Smoking was not only everywhere, at least where I lived; nobody cared about age laws and s**t.
Ann Kapoxeet 1 month ago
Yeah, and there were ashtrays everywhere--cars had built in ashtrays, McDonald's, doctors' offices, and even outside there were these weird bowls of sand on top of garbage cans for cigarette butts. It seems so bizarre now.
#30
Casual violence, sexism, racism, bigotry and bullying at a level that young people today would lose their minds.
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Sandra Angulo 1 month ago
Lol someone needs to tell these kids running up and down my block that playing outside isn’t “normal” anymore. Look, I get it. People are worried kids spend too much time in front of screens, and that’s valid. But some of these people are making blanket statements when I can look out my front door and see kids playing.
Little Bit 1 month ago
Kids having paper rounds, weekend jobs and holiday jobs. When I asked my mum for more pocket money she told me that if I wanted more money then I had to go and earn it myself. I did dog walking, housework, grocery shopping, car washing and gardening for neighbours and relatives and had a holiday job in the office where my mum worked. It gave us a good work ethic and gave us experience in the workplace. These days there are so many rules and regulations in the workplace that it is often too much hassle for companies to employ teenagers. And then they wonder why when youngsters do eventually start working after leaving school/college they are absolutely clueless in the workplace.
Poppy 1 month ago
I remember if mum and dad wanted to go out to the pub for a drink and they couldn't get a babysitter, they used to leave us in the car outside the pub with a bottle of coke and a packet of crisps. Children weren't allowed in pubs in the 1980's and we had to stay outside on our own. We couldn't even go in to use the toilets.
Sandra Angulo 1 month ago
Lol someone needs to tell these kids running up and down my block that playing outside isn’t “normal” anymore. Look, I get it. People are worried kids spend too much time in front of screens, and that’s valid. But some of these people are making blanket statements when I can look out my front door and see kids playing.
Little Bit 1 month ago
Kids having paper rounds, weekend jobs and holiday jobs. When I asked my mum for more pocket money she told me that if I wanted more money then I had to go and earn it myself. I did dog walking, housework, grocery shopping, car washing and gardening for neighbours and relatives and had a holiday job in the office where my mum worked. It gave us a good work ethic and gave us experience in the workplace. These days there are so many rules and regulations in the workplace that it is often too much hassle for companies to employ teenagers. And then they wonder why when youngsters do eventually start working after leaving school/college they are absolutely clueless in the workplace.
Poppy 1 month ago
I remember if mum and dad wanted to go out to the pub for a drink and they couldn't get a babysitter, they used to leave us in the car outside the pub with a bottle of coke and a packet of crisps. Children weren't allowed in pubs in the 1980's and we had to stay outside on our own. We couldn't even go in to use the toilets.
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