" I grew up in the ' 80s and ' 90s , so I actually had to practice proper sound etiquette or I was not allowed to talk on the phone . It seems to have gone the way of the fogey bird … "
There are plenty of things that used to be around when you were younger that don’t exist anymore. Whenever you remember one of these things existed, you’re probably like, “Wow, time sure does fly.”
U/Gold860recentlyaskedthe people of Reddit, “What was common when you were young, but is rare now that you’re older?” You know, things really have changed a lot — and maybe these answers will jog your memory, too:
1.“Ringing a landline and asking if your friend is home and to put them on.”
— u / bee - sting
2.“Letting kids and teenagers go outside with no way to contact them.”
— u / ipakookapi
3.“Stories about sinking into quicksand.”
— uranium / Long - Relief9745
4.“Businesses used to answer the phone instead of ‘having higher than normal call volume’ for three years straight.”
— u / Visual_Sport_950
5.“The freedom to make mistakes. The consequences of our actions rise significantly with age.”
— u / frenchhamburger
6.“Getting postcards…I miss that.”
— uracil / Anskin12
7.“Remember rewinding VHS tapes and cassette tapes? ‘Cause I sure do (I’m only 23).”
— u / Revolutionary_Run910
8.“Fireflies.”
— u / i_GoTtA_gOoD_bRaIn
9.“Smoking. It was everywhere, and everywhere stank of it. Things are so much better now.”
— u / MoggyFluffyDevilCat
10.“Colored toilet paper. Back in the day, it was common to see pink, yellow, light blue, light green, besides white toilet paper (at least, here in the US). Now, you don’t see it at all.”
— u / Tsquare43
11.“Running. This is not about the time we live right now, but about being a child. I remember thinking, ‘How do these people not run everywhere? It’s much faster and more fun!’ Now, I run out of breath if I walk fast or talk while walking.”
— uranium / FlimsyLifeguard4311
12.“People introducing themselves on the phone. I was taught to say, ‘Hello, my name is [NAME], may I speak to [NAME]?’ Now, people just launch into a story and get mad when I ask their name. I grew up in the ’80s and ’90s, so I actually had to practice proper phone etiquette or I was not allowed to talk on the phone. It seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird…”
— u / orange728
13.“Spontaneous human combustion.”
— uranium / serial_triathlete
14.“Snow. I remember snowy winters when I was a kid 25 years ago. Now, we have it only for about two weeks.”
— uracil / KulturaOryniacka
15.“Physical discs for video games.”
— uranium / jorie888
16.“Desktop PCs. In my country, back until 2013 I’d say, you would see desktop PCs on every table in every office, household, anything. Some weren’t even turned on once since the day they were bought. Whenever we went to someone’s house, me and the kids in said house would play a game of ‘Guess where the computer is.’ Now, though, it just feels like desktops faded away. I actually ran a survey at my school, and the number of families owning a desktop PC went down from, like, 87% in 2012 to 17% last year.”
— u / Asad_13
17.“Phone books in peoples’ homes.”
— u / Aeve00ze
18.“Typewriters. Everyone had one.”
— u / M3P4me
Note : Some answer have been edited for length and/or clarity .
