Generation Skipping

[Joe K]

Each new generation creates their own perspective of the world in which we live, while those of us, from the prior generation, just look on with awe and wonder. I was born in 1954 and the world has sure changed. With that in mind, I'd like to hear what you think are the simple things, that this new generation will never know. I'll start with some of mine.

Ice Cream parlors and penny candy stores.

Phones with cords.

When "contact lists", quaintly known as phone numbers, were stored either in your head, or on a piece of paper.

Public pay phones.

A world with few computers and no Internet.

Black and white television.

The prize in a box of "Cracker Jacks" and the messages from Joe in Bazooka bubble gum.

Kids being able to wander their neighborhood, with the only real fears, being moving cars and mad dogs.

Purely mechanical vehicles with the highest intelligence, belonging to the driver.

Gas at 25 CENTS per gallon.

A MikeyDee's burger for 20 cents.

Boy, do I feel old. So what else might this generation be missing, in terms of experiences?

[thunter34]

I remember when both the milk man and the insurance man came door to door.

[Miss Philicia]

I remember when I had to drive for an hour to buy a porn magazine... forget about much of a VHS selection.

[denb45]

Yes, and don't forget that most younger generations have no idea what a 45RPM record or 12" Disco Single is 

[Joe K]

I remember when both the milk man and the insurance man came door to door.

Good one. Reminds me of milk boxes and coal bins/doors and skimming the cream off a glass bottle of milk.

Also thought of Betamax and 8-track tapes. 5 1/4" floppy disks and computers that had 64kb (you read that right) of memory and a 20mb hard drive was consider as impossible to fill. Along with an amber monitor, that was one of the first IBM PC-XTs from the early 80's and it could be yours for $11,500 and yes you read that right.

[GSOgymrat]

Remember life before answering machines and voicemail? The phone would ring, no one would answer and you just called back later. You might not reach someone for a couple of days and it was perfectly normal. Now people freak out if they can't reach someone in a couple of hours.

Remember when people smoked cigarettes everywhere?

I was wondering if gas prices keep increasing whether there will be a return to people stealing gas out of your car.

[Joe K]

When elevators were run by humans.

[Miss Philicia]

*cough* no remote controls for TV (much less cable)

[CaptCarl]

Fixing things. Used to be that things were made to be repaired if they broke. Now it just gets thrown away and replaced.

Driving cars big enough to need their own Zip Code

The Pucker-Factor that accompanies trying to stop above mentioned car when it has only manual drum brakes at all four wheels.

CaptCarl

[Miss Philicia]

Not ATMs.

[Jeff G]

June bugs on a string .

[Joe K]

A Ford Pinto for $1,995 or a Chevy Vega, that were nothing more than adulterated go-carts.

[RAB]

When going to the Saturday matinee cost .35 cents. Popcorn and Mean Green Soda was only .50 cents more.  A weekly allowance of $1.00. (assuming I did my chores.  )
Hershey bars .10 cents each or 3 for a .25.

RAB

[Dachshund]

Not having to lock your doors.

[Miss Philicia]

shouldn't someone have said "a world without teh AIDS" by now? 

[GSOgymrat]

*cough* no remote controls for TV (much less cable)

Those of us with younger siblings always had remote control.

[GSOgymrat]

Do kids still have to learn the Dewey Decimal System?

[denb45]

Hamms Beer , Pabst Blue-Ribbon or Black- label    and don't forget Ripple or Thunderbird wine 

[Joe K]

Do kids still have to learn the Dewey Decimal System?

Can't really see why, since Google will eventually copy every book ever written.

[Joe K]

Hamms Beer , Pabst Blue-Ribbon or Black- label    and don't forget Ripple or Thunderbird wine 

Annie Green Springs rot gut wine and Taylor port that made for one ugly drunk.

[denb45]

Annie Green Springs rot gut wine and Taylor port that made for one ugly drunk.

And a very mean drunk to boot   don't forget AM-radio where you could hear all your favs Top40 hits

[thunter34]

I remember when I had to drive for an hour to buy a porn magazine... forget about much of a VHS selection.

I remember when most teens tried to act as if they didn't masturbate.

[hope_for_a_cure]

Black and white television.

Those TVs had to warm up when you turned them on before the picture was available.... AND when you turned them off the picture would quickly shrink down to a little dot in the center of the screen before going off with a click.  

[GSOgymrat]

Riding in a car with no airbag and just a lap seatbelt, if that. Kids riding in the car with no seatbelt, much less a car seat, or riding down the highway in the back of a pickup.

[denb45]

I remember when most teens tried to act as if they didn't masturbate.

Or drink and smoke weed 

[Hellraiser]

I remember having both a cassette and then a cd playing walkman and thinking it was the coolest thing ever.  Goodbye non digital formats

[leese43]

Furnitures stores selling a tin of peas for £250 and throwing a chair in for free to get around the Sunday trading laws.  

[denb45]

shouldn't someone have said "a world without teh AIDS" by now?  

I memba when we didn't have AIDS   at least all of younger ones will always know what it is...

[bocker3]

A handful of TV channels.

Watching Creature Double Feature on UHF.

[Hellraiser]

Oh I also remember when MTV played music and the Discovery channel was just back to back documentaries instead of both of them being havens for reality television.

[Joe K]

I memba when we didn't have AIDS   at least all of younger ones will always know what it is...

How sad is that, to have never known a world without HIV.

[CaptCarl]

Thai Stick

Sinsemilla

Panama Red

Real LSD, not the crap they have now

CaptCarl

[Assurbanipal]

Those little (glass!) bottles of milk you got in grade school -- with the paper caps that you could use to make a shooter to shoot the inner cap...

[Joe K]

Thai Stick

Sinsemilla

Panama Red

Real LSD, not the crap they have now

CaptCarl

Microdot, blotter and Window pane... yum.

[Jeff G]

$10 concert tickets , I really miss those .

[denb45]

Microdot, blotter and Window pane... yum.

  Oh Yeah 

[rondrond]

The highlight of our Summer Vacation was going to the Lake...on family picnics....


We DROVE in our cars to those vacation spots....no motels for us..you could pull over in any wooded area off the road and go camping with a blanket spread between two cars...without five State Troopers stopping to make you move on...

And...popping Jiffy pop popcorn , a pitcher of ice tea, and the whole family sitting in front of the TV and watching...(Alanbama)...The Wizard of OZ...every summer....

Same for Capt Kirk and Spock on Star Trek....O.O   ooooohhhhh.....

[denb45]

The wild wild west TV show on CBS 

[hope_for_a_cure]

popping Jiffy pop popcorn

That popcorn was sooooooo good.  Remember the original TV dinners?  If you got one with salisbury steak, peas, and applesauce, one or two of the peas ALWAYS ended up in the applesauce.  Of course you had to cook them in a conventional oven and peal back the foil. 

[RAB]

Matchbox cars (the really good ones, not the crap they make now).

Barrell of Monkeys, Pixie Stix, red Schwin bike.

Grade School teachers who actually popped misbehaving kids on the butt (always boys).

Adams Family, Lost in Space, Batman (whop, smack), Bonanza, The Wonderful World of Disney, Saturday Morning Cartoons (oh how I loved Saturday mornings).

RAB

[Jeff G]

Microdot, blotter and Window pane... yum.

My best buddy and I confiscated a couple of hits of blotter from his 14 year old nephew also two hits of X .

It was the proper adult thing for us to confiscate and test the substances in a human trial involving my buddy and I . We determined there was no need to pursue the matter further by involving parents or the authority's .  

[Hellraiser]

Saturday Morning Cartoons (oh how I loved Saturday mornings).

RAB

I was going to say this but, they still have Saturday morning cartoons.  Unfortunately they're not anywhere near as good as they once were.

[Joe K]

My best buddy and I confiscated a couple of hits of blotter from his 14 year old nephew also two hits of X .

It was the proper adult thing for us to confiscate and test the substances in a human trial involving my buddy and I . We determined there was no need to pursue the matter further by involving parents or the authority's .

[denb45]

My best buddy and I confiscated a couple of hits of blotter from his 14 year old nephew also two hits of X .

It was the proper adult thing for us to confiscate and test the substances in a human trial involving my buddy and I . We determined there was no need to pursue the matter further by involving parents or the authority's .  

Good for you, he probably would have ended up on 72 hrs mental health hold.....not fun, I've been there before when I was a teen, and I almost died

[Joe K]

I was going to say this but, they still have Saturday morning cartoons.  Unfortunately they're not anywhere near as good as they once were.

Especially Johnny Quest, which had still cartoon pictures, with human moving mouths. Very creepy.

[GSOgymrat]

That popcorn was sooooooo good.  Remember the original TV dinners?  If you got one with salisbury steak, peas, and applesauce, one or two of the peas ALWAYS ended up in the applesauce.  Of course you had to cook them in a conventional oven and peal back the foil. 

I always chose the one that had a little brownie in the center top, rather than the cobbler.

[rondrond]

If you didn't go to the Saturday Matinee...you went Roller Skating....though...I was NEver any good with those dang keys and getting them on right....

[Joe K]

I always chose the one that had a little brownie in the center top, rather than the cobbler.

Sometimes you really scare me. 

[denb45]

If you didn't go to the Saturday Matinee...you went Roller Skating....though...I was NEver any good with those dang keys and getting them on right....

I can still Roller Skate, Roller Blade and Ice Skate too, and got the legs to prove this   problem now is too much PN 

[rondrond]

I liked the brownie too, though mine always came out under or over cooked....