Older Adults Are Sharing The Common But Unique Experiences From Back In The Day That Younger Generations Will Never Live
“When we got our first TV, most shows were in black and white, and we only had three TV stations.”
Times have certainly changed over the decades, and there are some experiences from the past that younger folks will never get to live — but would be incredibly shocked about. Recently, older adults of the BuzzFeed Community shared the common, everyday experiences from “back in the day” that are now obsolete, and, depending on your age, it’ll have you feeling super nostalgic or increasingly confused:
1. “My barbershop had chairs with ashtrays in the arms. Imagine smoking while getting a haircut. And my mom had a mantra: ‘Go outside and blow the stink off ya!’ So true. We were never outside during the summer. We had hours of adult-free, unsupervised play.”
2. “Girls had to wear dresses or skirts to school (my school changed this rule in 1972). You’d either freeze your legs off during winter, or you wore snow pants under your dress that you’d have to take off once you got to school.”
—superchicken44
3. “In the ’70s, I flew first class for the first time. The flight attendant had a turkey and roast beef on a cart and carved it in the aisle. All for a two-hour flight from New York to Chicago.”
4. “In the ’60s (I was born in 1954), all children had manners. I grew up in a small neighborhood in Texas, and everyone knew who lived in every house. If you were walking anywhere and passed by a house, and an adult was outside, you’d BETTER speak up and greet them, and address them by mister or ma’am. If you didn’t, your parents would know about it by the time you got back home! You’d be in trouble for embarrassing them, and you’d be punished for it! No one wanted to be embarrassed by having a child who didn’t have manners.”
—artistickitten158
5. “If you were a woman and wanted to buy a large appliance, the store would refuse to sell it until they called your husband to verify that you had permission to buy it.”
6. “I remember when you could still smoke on planes. It made for a horrid flight. The lingering cloud of cigarette smoke with nowhere to go resulted in you smelling like an ashtray. Whatever were they thinking, allowing people to smoke in a metal container suspended thousands of feet up in the air?”
—ravenbard
7. “My first apartment came with a TV that had tubes in it, and if it stopped working, you had to take all the tubes out and have them tested at the hardware store. And when you found out which tube was bad, you’d just buy a new one, reinstall all the tubes, and hope that they worked!”
8. “We lived in a small community in Washington state. I remember, at 9 p.m. each night, all TVs and radios were interrupted by a public announcement: ‘Folks, it’s 9 o’clock, do you know where your children are at?’ This was in the ’60s and early ’70s.”
—quirkymule833
9. “It was a rule at my high school in the early 1970s that you could only visit your locker at the beginning of the day, lunchtime, and at the end of the day. Backpacks weren’t a thing yet, so I carried a stack of textbooks with me all morning. I didn’t have lunch until fifth period.”
10. “I’m a Gen X’er. My mother used to send my brother (10) and me (14) down the street to the store, unsupervised, with a few dollars. She’d tell us, ‘Buy me a pack of Marlboros, and you and your brother can get a candy bar with the change.'”
—trisec
11. “There were no seatbelts in cars in the ’60s, and when they first came in, they only went around your waist, not over your shoulder. There were no warning dings if you didn’t buckle up, so many people didn’t bother putting them on. Our first couple of cars had a bench seat in front, and it was considered safest for the youngest kid to sit in front between the two parents (with no seatbelt). Whenever I tell my grandchildren or other young folks this, they either don’t believe me or are shocked.”
12. “On fall weekends, all the men in the neighborhood would rake the leaves into the gutters by the curb, then light them on fire. They would all stand around, minding the fire and talking all afternoon until the leaves were all burned. I miss the smell of burning leaves in the fall.”
—Maggie, 73, Georgia
13. “In the ’70s, students had to use a slide rule for college exams. Calculators were still so new and expensive (maybe $100), so most students couldn’t afford them, and using one on a test gave those who could afford them an unfair advantage.”
14. “Some places wouldn’t let you in if you had exposed tattoos back then.”
—Anonymous
15. “Anyone else remember riding your bikes behind the mosquito truck? All that diesel and insecticide made the best fog.”
16. “I graduated from high school in 1966. The only sports I could play were in school; there were no summer sports activities for girls like there were for boys. Not just that, but high school basketball for girls had ridiculous rules. We could only dribble five or six times, and then we had to pass or shoot. There are other rules that I can’t remember, but our game was much different than the boys.”
—marveloussealion432
17. “There were a lot of prank calls before caller ID was a thing. You could call anyone except the operator and ask them funny things like, ‘Do you have olive oil in a can?’ And when they answered yes, you’d reply with, ‘Then let her out!’ No one would know you were or how to call you back.”
18. “People dressed up for dinner — a suit and tie for men and dresses for women. A really nice restaurant would refuse to seat a man without a tie, to the point where some places would keep a few ties on hand.”
—wittytree13
19. “When I was a nurse in the ’70s, if you were sitting down and charting and a doctor walked in, you had to stand up and give him your seat.”
20. “When we got our first TV, most shows were in black and white, and we only had three TV stations. If we wanted to change the channel, we had to get up, walk to the TV, and turn the dial to another channel.”
—Tom
21. Lastly: “Charles Chips potato chips and pretzels were the best. And don’t forget the cookies, especially around the holidays. We had the same delivery driver for what had to be at least 15 years. My brother still has an ancient, banged-up Charles Chips pretzel tin that he keeps his pretzels in.”
Excuse me, did I just read that y’all would ride behind a mosquito truck and breathe in the insecticide for fun? Wild. If you’re an older adult, what are some common but unique experiences from back in the day that would have younger folks’ minds absolutely boggled? Let us know in the comments, or you can anonymously submit your story using the form below!
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.