Material Things of Which the Younger Generation Has No Idea

Post Reply New Topic

How about paper straws, mom says those were a pain to use.

Did anybody have / drive, or know someone who had one of THESE?



My grandfather had one----I thought it was the COOLEST car, on the PLANET!!

Dig those whitewalls----THAT was CLASSY, man!!

Cars without air conditioning

Cars equipped with ashtrays and cigarette lighters

Cars that had one large seat all the way across the front, without a big console in the middle, where you could slide all the way across

Playing a portable CD player through a cassette player in the car, using a cassette with a cord attached to it

Making duplicate copies of cassette tapes to give to friends, or mix tapes

Having to turn over the cassette tape because it didn't auto reverse

Stereos in huge wood cabinets, at least 5 feet wide

Video game consoles and computers that used the same game cartridges (Atari and Commodore 64)

Computers with no operating system, just a command prompt

TV antennas that you could aim with a rotary motor controller

Watching TV channels with "snow" or two different TV stations coming in on the same channel

Watching a TV program or a movie with rapt attention, because it might be the one chance in your life you would ever get to see it

Watching a concert or other live event without seeing lots of tiny screens glowing around you in the audience

The anticipation and dread of not knowing how photos would come out until you got the film developed

Telephones with a party line you shared with neighbors, so they could listen in on your conversations

Corded phones that were heavy enough so the base didn't flop over when you pick up the receiver

Using a card catalog to find a book in a library

Checking out a library book by writing your name on a little card in the back of the book

Saving up UPCs on products to send in for cash rebates or merchandise

Having to dig in the trash behind the laundromat to get product UPCs for your granny (er, well, maybe that was just me, lol)

Drawing water by hand from a well (I didn't grow up with that, but my dad did)

@CampinCat - I actually had a car similar to that. It was a light blue 1962 Mercury Comet. I called it Christine and bought it for $1 fr0om this guy named Jimmy Carter. It had no seatbelts or reverse lights but it was my first car so I can't complain.

@SocOfAutism - I grew up in Trinidad & Tobago. I know, it may as well had been in the Appalachian Mountains, right?

My wife is from T&T.

Does anyone remember listening to music on a stand-alone MP3 player?

Does any remember getting a date without using a website or app?

To a certain degree, CD players.

In conversation with a 20-something (and very wealthy, I should add) co-worker a few months ago, I apparently mentioned my CD player and she interjected, "Why do you still have a CD player?!"

I responded simply, "because my husband and I have a collection of several hundred CDs that we've purchased since they first came out and we need something to play them on."

FTR, she's an arrogant, unkind, elitist snot and I'm not at all ashamed to say that I'm very, very glad she doesn't work with us anymore.

Good thing I wasn't there because I still listen to cassette tapes in my car.

I'm curious. Did anyone see 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' In that film the Soggy Bottom Boys sang into a microphone called a "can." Do they still have any of those sitting around in use somewhere?

Elevators that played music inside.

Libraries that just have books. No other media.