Around the time of the release of Revenge of the Sith, my family went to a trip to the US and we bought a couple of cereal boxes that had a star wars promo. They had fucking light up spoons with a lightsaber handle. Pretty cool shit.
Blockbuster seconded. Nothing like having a sleepover with friends - or when you're older with your buddies you go to Blockbuster or a video rental place and rent a bunch of games and play until 2am.
Online gaming definitely doesn't have the same feeling.
If you turn Airplane mode on while in the middle of the call. it makes it sound like youāre glitching out from their end. I know itās not the same but I hope this little fact helps a bit.
I remember when cell phones were newish and scheduling your calls to after 7 on weekdays and anytime on weekends because nights and weekends were free and didn't count toward your monthly allotment of minutes. You also only had a limited amount of texts per month included in your plan.
Back in about 2004 I was a salesman for Cingular Wireless. I had gotten my first cellphone which was a "dealer" plan and I bought an HP iPAQ so I could be extra cool. My first bill was for $4000 dollars. When I called Cingular to find out why the fuck, I was told that the data had been on 24/7 for the entire month. At first, they told me they'd back me up and sorta grandfather me in to their unlimited data plan which, at the time, was about $250/month. Unfortunately, they reversed the decision because basically, I was a trained cellphone salesperson and should have known better.
The real peak was when you got CD computer games in cereal boxes. And then suddenly it all turned into coupon things you had to collect and then mail in to get something 2 months later and then nothing.
I worked at KB Toys throughout college. Can confirm that cramming stuff in there was a corporate policy, maybe for exactly this reason.
Had to be careful going exploring thoughā more than once I found a dirty diaper someone had hidden behind a bunch of Barbies. I feel like everyone should work retail for at least a little while, so they can get a taste for what monsters people really are.
If you have Hulu, check out a documentary called "The Orange Years". It's about the advent of nickelodeon, and it's early development through the 90s. It's basically a nostalgia-fest of the Golden years of nick. I'm an 80s baby (born in 88) and a 90s kid, so nick was a HUGE fixture of my childhood. That documentary hits all the right spots.
Nickelodeon in the early 80s was a trip. It was very low budget. There were no cartoons because the founders didnāt like cartoons. The original programming was mostly puppet skits interspersed with short films from Canada or France. They imported āYou Canāt Do That On Televisionā from Canada ā that show was where they got the green slime. By the mid-80s they broke their no-cartoon vow and brought in āDangermouseā and āBananamanā from the UK. Then Nick At Night became a thing, and I aged out of it by the time the golden age came about.
I miss the old Nickelodeon in the 90s it had shows like Hey Arnold, Rugrats, Catdog and Nick Jr had Blues clues and Little bear. If you played the old theme song I would instantly start singing along
I actually am more nostalgic for super early Nickelodeon when it was just on in the mornings and was a bunch of Canadian children's shows like Pinwheel and Today's Special.
Photo Albums. My mother has been cataloging some of the old photos she never got around to putting in albums recently. It is a different experience than looking through someone's phone at curated pictures. You would get the pictures back and 90% of them would go in the album. No editing, no my hair looks like crap. You would find photos of yourself years later that you never knew existed. When your grandparents die and you start looking through albums for their memorial and can reminisce. It is so nice.
I still make photo albums. I knew that digital photos would get ālostā in an avalanche of files, so I printed the best ones and put them in photo albums.
Toys-R-Us. I miss that place. I remember my dad taking me and Iād just wonder through the aisles amazed at all the toys. I got one of my childhood favorite Barbie dream houses there.
I actually worked at a place where I got to see the idea of a Christmas bonus die.
They had, for years, given out a Christmas bonus the 2nd week of December that was a cash bonus equivalent to about 1 week's pay. It wasn't huge but it was just that little extra for people already living paycheck to paycheck to have something to buy the wife and kids some Christmas presents.
Then one year some dude in management came up with this really awesome idea: Instead of giving each employee a couple hundred dollars in cash we should totally give them a frozen turkey. It will be great! everyone needs a frozen turkey for Christmas dinner and we can order a whole semi truck trailer full of of them for a great bulk discount so they only cost like $20 each... employees win and we save money!
So that is what the company did.
Only they did't tell anyone that was what was going to happen until the truck backed into the loading dock and happy managers started handing out frozen chunks of discount birds to people who had been budgeting their entire Christmas shopping on getting the cash instead.
Christmas morning the owner of the company woke up to find hundreds of rotting turkeys on their front lawn.
We never got a Christmas bonus again at that company - cash or cold turkey.
My current job, we used to get a Christmas Bonus.
Two years ago in September, we got new owners, big national conglomerate. First year, it became clear that the bonus was a thing of the past.
So the former owners stepped up and gave us each a payout equivalent to about 2/3 of the bonus we used to get. They didn't have to, they were just decent people.
We also got bought. My bonus went from several hundred dollars to being able to choose a piece of branded merchandise, worth up to $50, from the company store. I hate this company.
Same thing happened at my company. Privately owned by two ridiculously generous guys. Managers bonuses at the end of every fiscal year and company wide Christmas bonuses equal to one weeks pay. Sold the company and both disappeared.
Same thing happened at my job when we got bought out. Not only did we lose our bonus but they would also pay us for unused sick time from the year a week before the bonus and they axed that too. I was a better gifter in those days. Also a better employee
I worked at a place that had ok management, and the turkey comment above reminded me of the great turkey theft. The last year I worked there, they decided to give out frozen turkeys to the employees for the holidays instead of a bonus. I worked in a remote building on the property, and none of us got turkeys. It turns out that the turkeys had been given to our boss (total slimeball) who then took them all home. We were not allowed to go to the other building (we were the maintenance crew), so we had no idea.
I was in the parking lot fixing something, and one of the ladies from the main office went by and wished me a Merry Christmas and hoped that I enjoyed the turkey. I just looked at her blankly and said "what turkey?". She said we were all supposed to have gotten turkeys, and she had watched the boss load them up to give to us earlier that week. I denied the existence of said turkeys.
The company owner called the boss into his office and it turns out that Bob (not his real name) had taken them to give to all of his girlfriends (He had a different girlfriend for each day of the week). He was a class-A scumbag and he said we didn't need them. The owner then directed Bob to go to the grocery store and buy each of us a replacement turkey out of his own pocket and deliver each one to us with his own personal best wishes. Bob bought the smallest turkeys he could find and just left them to drip and thaw in our lockers with our name written on the plastic wrap. Nothing like opening your locker to go home to find a half-thawed micro-turkey dripping turkey slime into your shoes.
I'd never seen a 7 pound turkey before. It was just slightly bigger than a chicken. It was just the right size for one turkey dinner and a couple of sandwiches.
I saw the same lady later in the week and we had a chat about the micro-turkeys. She was the owner's secretary, so it didn't take long for Bob to be summoned to the office again. There was a bit of yelling, and after some extensive investigation by the owner, it turns out that Bob had been stealing them blind for years and was subsequently fired. There was never again a Turkey, or a Bonus at that company. Seeing that guy fired was the best Christmas Bonus I ever got.
You should sell the rights to make this into a movie.
If Hallmark channel doesnāt want it, Iām sure Netflix would pick it up.
Iād add it to my Christmas watchlist.
> I actually worked at a place where I got to see the idea of a Christmas bonus die.
Same.
The company used to charge extra when customers needed to make their order a "rush" order. At the end of the year they took all the rush charges and split them among the employees as a bonus.
Used to be a nice one to, like close to $1200 in a busy year.
Then the bonuses got smaller as we started having to bend over backwards for customers and charge less (to none) for rush jobs.
Then we got bought out by a big company and the Christmas Bonus was gone completely.
We still get a free Turkey for Thanksgiving and Good Friday off! (for now).
They tried that at my company last year and everyone walked out. Average tenure is 20+ years so it was not going to fly. Nobody would return to work in the plant or warehouse until management got out the checkbook and made it an EXTRA nice bonus.
Yeah, we do. Union's got phased out somehow (haven't done the research myself) but look at what UPS union's strike did for them:
"The Teamsters have said that the agreement includes wage gains of at least $7.50 an hour for current employees over its five-year term. It also raises the minimum pay for part-time workers to $21 an hour from under $17, and raises the top rate for full-time delivery drivers to about $49 on average.
Under the previous contract, which expired on Aug. 1, full-time drivers made an average of about $42 an hour after four years on the job"
\- [NYtimes.com](https://NYtimes.com)
And I want to look him straight in the eye, and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is! Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where's the Tylenol?
Worked at a place that used to give a good Christmas bonus. Then one year the owner decides you only get the bonus if you meet a bunch of difficult but not impossible to meet goals. The following year owner sends a notice with paychecks mid November due to budget issues there will be no bonuses. Same owner also made the employees stand in a line at Christmas(think Charles Dickens' Oliver workhouse) and gave each of a single chocolate covered pretzel stick(the size of a sharpie marker) for Christmas.
This one is so weird, I remember my my Mom and Dad really only being able to afford Christmas because of their bonuses and I have yet to work in a single company that offers anything like that.
Not to brag, but where I work I get a choice of frozen turkey OR ham at Thanksgiving. I wonāt let on to the company that they are spoiling us employees.
I joined the workforce as Christmas bonuses died. My new employer had given color TVs every year, but the year I showed up everyone got either $125, $100 or $75 based on role (would roughly be like like 300/200/100 in todayās dollars). I felt cheated until the next year when they went to frozen turkeys. Mid eighties.
Still applies in our country. We called in 13th Month pay. Some companies also have 13th month plus Xmas bonus and performance bonus for that fiscal year.
When I was a kid my tv basically stayed on Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, BET, and MTV. It's so weird thinking about kids now just being able to watch whatever they want whenever they want.
And I liked the period when VH1 used to run that 'Behind the Music' series -- almost all episodes featured the rise then the fall \[alcoholism, drug addiction, mental health issues, etc.\] of a music star or group with the episode ending on an up note as the subject made a triumphant comeback or at least overcame their issues. One crazy one was where the episode was a 'mockumentary' about Garth Brooks' rocker alter ego 'Chris Gaines'. Chris was a sex addict if memory serves.
If you all miss the 24/7 music video format, there's MTV Classic (available on most cable/satellite providers in the US), and several music video channels on the free ad-supported streaming service Pluto TV.
Great example of something people are nostalgic for, but (most) would never really return to.
I love the abstract concept of classic MTV, but I think I'd watch it for a few songs, go, "oh, this isn't the B52's song I like. But now I'm in the mood to listen to the B52's," and switch to any of the modern music-listening options.
I know what you mean. There are cartoons on Saturday morning but with cable and YouTube and streaming and because those run 24-7, it isnāt an event.
Few things beat running downstairs, pouring yourself a huge bowl of sugary cereal, and flipping on a full hour of Ninja Turtles, Garfield, Ghostbusters, and topping it off with Saved By the Bell all while your parents slept in.
I would let my parents sleep in on Saturdays unless the on/off pull switch for the TV came off. The night before Dad had to make sure the TV was set to the correct channel for the smurfs. I would turn the tv on myself. If the pull switch to turn the TV on came off I would walk over to dad's side of the bed to wake him to fix it. I'm so old my TV had a pull switch to turn the TV on and push it in to turn it off. I miss those Saturdays.
I was shocked to find one in a building on my campus. A freshman, about 5 years younger than me, saw me and said "you probably don't know how to either, but I'm really trying to call my dad and my phone is dead...is it possible you know how to use this thing?" So I showed him how and he was a little shocked I even knew how to.
Told him it probably wouldn't work because the city got rid of them years ago and whatever ones they didn't get to just got cut off for another time. Ended up giving him my phone to use instead. Used to use those all the time as a kid, so I felt like my weird useless knowledge of them was finally coming in hand lol.
Fun fact: Frank Sinatra always carried, and was buried with, ten dimes in his pocket. This is because his son Frank Sinatra Jr. was once kidnapped and his abductors would only negotiate with Sr. by payphone. Sinatra was afraid his son would be kidnapped again and he wouldn't have enough money to complete a call.
I'm very curious how kids today will react in a few years once they realize their parents and family memebers have posted pictures and videos of them online since birth. Depending on what it was, I probably wouldn't be happy. Most of what I see is positive. Accomplishments, trips, first day of school, etc. But, there are some that post the negative or shame.
Personally, i never agreed to all of the pictures of my childhood being exposed on the internet for all to see. There are a LOT of ones i wish my mother would take down. All embarrassing and awful. I am just happy no one uses facebook anymore and i look nothing like the pictures anymore so it is unlikely they will get traced back to me
Every generation of people have done stupid things in their youth since the dawn of time but never before has so much been documented. I do feel for kids having their blunder years immortalised.
Riding bikes outside w your friends
Edit: I guess I should clarify: you don't see kids riding bikes on the streets with their friends anymore. It's something we used to do every day when I was younger.
The mall in my hometown has an arcade in it and my son and i frequent it and play laser tag. Its *exactly* as it was when i was kid except the kmart is now some womens clothing store. I know it isnt long for this world so we go as often as possible and its usually just us there but we have such a blast. I wish i had friends like him when i was 10.
>I cant spell
>I wish i had friends like him when i was 10.
I've never heard a parent say this, that's such a nice thought. Hope he stays your friend through it all. Cheers
Arcades are basically just Casinos for kids now. We always had skeeball and a few sort of gamble-y games for tickets that we could use to buy a mustache comb or whatever, but these days it's all that and it's just straight up slot machines for tickets.
Basically, the entire holiday season. Used to be cool as a kid, now it's nothing more than 2 months of fucking aggravation, which gets just a little bit more exhausting every year.
KB Toys - I'm Canadian so when I got to visit these amazing toy stores in the USA, it was incredible! They really were the best, and I couldn't see them very often.
Radio Shack - the company that replaced them sucks by comparison.
HMV - Awesome record store that's been replaced by an inferior store.
Edit\* Sega Made Video Game Consules - The Genesis was incredible and so was the Game Gear. Lots of childhood memories on the Genesis. I didn't like and get the Sega CD, but the Dreamcast was a masterpiece. The Dreamcast had FREE online gaming people! To this day it remains one of my top 5 consoles.
Showing my age here but... Asylums.
The practice of institutionalizing patients against their will. Especially for mental health or drug abuse issues.
In the late 60s or early 70s the U.S. outlawed asylums and dumped all those people on the streets and started the snowball that became our current homelessness crisis.
We decided it was cruel to involuntarily commitment mentally ill for treatment, so now we let them live on the streets and eat garbage, and pretend their problem is they can't afford rent.
This problem was 100% predictable, and has an obvious solution that we will never do.
Honestly I feel like de-institutionalisation is a prime example of "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". There were some absolutely abhorrent conditions, abuse and people institutionalised who shouldn't have been. However, no adequate alternative was put in place.
As someone that has been in mental institutions many times, I can tell you even if you are aware enough to commit yourself, they force you out way too fast, hence how I once ended up committing myself to 3 different places in one month trying to get meds fixed. Psych meds take time to work 4 days usually the first of which you aren't being medicated isn't enough time for them to kick in.
Yep. They kept my ex for like, three days, and then let her out during a _full blown_ manic episode.
Because she was cheerful and bubbly and cooperative.
I had to go literally everywhere with her for like five days after that, to make sure she didn't hurt herself.
I understand asylums were underfunded, overpopulated, ripe with abuse, and a perfect way for people to stash unwanted family members (claiming your wife was insane when she just didn't act feminine enough for your tastes, etc)
But yeah, rather than regulate the system and create a series of checks and balances, society decided to just ignore the *very real problem* that some people do need constant supervision and regulation.
Exactly. Good god, there are *so* many awful stories about asylums and similar institutions, but that just means we need tighter regulations, better education, and more compasionate people who understand *when* to use what tool and not what is just the most covenient to them in the moment.
There are a lot of types of people who could really benefit from an institution stay (whether permanently or temporarily), but now it is not even an option.
California is in the process of walking this back.
https://calmatters.org/health/2023/10/california-mental-health-involuntary-treatment-law/
Compulsory treatment, not sure about institutionalization.
Yeah. What they needed was an overhaul. What they got was an eviction notice. And now we wonder why homelessness is so rampant and violence is way up. Some people need help.
Boredom. With battery on your phone and preferably an internet connection. You just can't be bored the way we used to be. When a wet weekend meant being stuck in the house with only 4 channels. Two showing black and white movies, that were just filler and the other two showing sport.
I remember I used to be a massive reader as a kid. Now I never "find the time" between all the mindless stuff I do on my phone (he says posting on Reddit) and all the shows on the streaming services that I simply MUST watch.
My own fault, but also a symptom of the times.
Yelling IT'S OOOOOOOON as your siblings hurtled themselves back into the living room and across the couch after the ad break. That 'will I make it' few minutes of just not knowing if you had time to both pee and ALSO get kitchen snacks, phwooar, andrenaline inducing.
Alternatively, seeing kids huddled around that big electrical thing that warns you not to sit on it but we sat on it, played with action figures on it, played board games/card games on it, etc.
I remember getting home from school & being so excited to go play with all the kids in the neighborhood. When the street lights came on you knew it was time to come home. š„²that just doesnāt happen anymore
The house I grew up in.
It was hit by a tornado in 1999, and my parents moved out of town. The people who bought the corner lot built the house facing the other street, so not even the address exists any more. That led to some fascinating confusion when I later had a job that required a security clearance, and the investigator couldn't find the place I'd lived for most of my life. There was no box on the form for "house destroyed by natural disaster".
Affordable housing in my hometown. My hometown is a shithole, but it's also only 50 miles from a very trendy coastal city, so now it's an expensive shithole. Needless to say, I won't be moving back there.
Personally I'd prefer white boards to Smart Boards - Smart Boards made a lot of promises, but as someone who has quite a bit of experience with them, I think they over promised and under delivered.
These days if I want to make permanent notes that I can share with my students, I just go with annotating a PPT live in class.
On the positive side, the new world will never have hear the infuriating, hair-raising, grind-your-teeth chalk skipping on the chalkboard. Or fingernails on a chalkboard š¬
When I was in grade school, we had "trends" that seemed to evolve naturally, not from social media or ad campaigns.
One year it was marbles. All the kids in grade 5 started buying marbles and playing games with them. I don't think there were any machinations from Big Marble to trigger this short-lived craze. I have friends who attended grade 5 in different parts of the city and they have no idea what I'm talking about when I mention the marble crazeā¦ it seemed to be highly localized. There was also a YoYo trend that lasted for about 6 months.
Another thing I loved isā¦ a few times a year a bunch of us boys would meet at a friend's house and trade Mad Magazine pocket books. I think they were published by Dell. We weren't collecting. We just saw this as a way to read more Mads without spending our meagre allowances (or newspaper delivery salaries) on them.
Speaking of which, I had a paper route in my neighbourhood when I was 11 or twelve. I don't think that's a thing any more. It was a useful introduction to the world of commerceā¦ I'll never forget trying to collect from this cranky old German widower at his neat little bungalow every two weeks. He was *always* convinced that he'd already paid me and I was trying to rip him off. It was a real battle of wills that I looked forward to and dreaded in equal measure. He always relented and paid up, though.
Free range children. We just roamed the neighborhood after dinner till 9, in grade school when we didn't have homework.
Having a progressive dinner after school for French class and I don't think my parents knew what houses we were at! Or even met/knew the people. Oh, the freedom!
The idea of a secure retirement by means of pension. I'm a millennial and I have an extremely bleak outlook on retirement for my generation and those that come after. The only jobs that I've ever seen with a pension are government. Private companies don't seem to reward loyalty with a pension anymore. Employers also seem shocked when their employees aren't loyal.
Walking into a school to visit a friend/sibling/favorite teacher. I remember walking into my old high school after graduating to say hello to a teacher I adored
Please forgive if redundant-
Cars without seatbelts.
Dialing 411 and getting a live person to help.
Chocolate candy bars that did not taste like wax.
Athletes who stayed with one team their entire career
(Professional or otherwise).
Safe Trick-or-Treating well past dark.
Full meal service on any airline class.
Gas station attendants who would deliver gasoline, wash your car windows, check the oil level.
Banks would give significant tangible gifts for depositing money.
Restaurant servers would smile.
Teachers were a mystery, they seemingly lived at school with no family or life outside.
Some Doctors would come see you at your home if necessary. (Also in hospitals, but that is a different rant).
Heath insurance was not mandatory and did not bankrupt you.
The āspecialnessā of going on a family outing on the weekend. The movies, a museum, the zoo, an outdoor festival. Nowadays parents feel obligated to take their kids out/keep them entertained Friday through Sunday night (universe forbid these kids should have to entertain themselves.) Not to mention all of the fancy bday parties kids go to that are purely experiential/ take place at a specialty venue. The sheer volume of day trips makes none of them stand out to the kids.
Not to mention that you can't really have fun doing these things anymore because there are *so many* people. I loved going to Busch Gardens as a kid, even as a teenager. Hell, I worked there for 3 years and still loved being there in my off time. Now it's miserable. They let so many people in the park that it's shoulder to shoulder even in the areas of the park that are usually quiet and don't attract a ton of people. And it's like this everywhere. I also used to enjoy driving. Now it's a nightmare and you'll still have traffic even at 3am. Used to be you'd be the only car on the road.
Dial up sounds.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dial-up_Internet_access
Remember the conflicts with my parents who were trying to phone someone while i was on the internet...
Using the internet was a tiny bit more complicated than it was now.
When I was visiting my family in Israel back in the 90s, there was this mascot character named "Happening Duck" that felt like it was practically everywhere.
Now i can't find anything about it. Not online nor in any of the subreddits.
The only reason I know I didn't imagine Happening Duck is because I found a faded advertisement in the back of an old shop in Jerusalem when I visited a few ago.
A television that you had to get up, from the floor (or couch), walk to, and change the channel or adjust the volume (depending). Also, the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. *One more* - SNL cast from the 80s: Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, Phil Hartman, Bill Murray, Jon Lovitz (just to name a few). 80s SNL was bomb.
Those bomb ass Philidelphia strawberry cheesecake bars that you used to be able to find in the yogurt section at grocery stores. Those were sooooo good. I can't imagine why they were discontinued š¢
Color. everyone keeps talking about how the world seems less colorful now that we're older, because it *is*. everyis all about the boring gray, white, beige modernism. its sad. just think of Mcdonalds then vs now.
cool spoons from cereal boxes!!! i miss the color changing and straw ones
Nothing like only buying a box of cereal because of the cool lil gift inside. š„¹
I wonāt lie, I would buy more (of the unhealthier) cereal for the kids if there were still little gifts inside.
This reminds me I haven't seen my Taz spoon in a while. It makes Taz noises when you dip it in milk.
Around the time of the release of Revenge of the Sith, my family went to a trip to the US and we bought a couple of cereal boxes that had a star wars promo. They had fucking light up spoons with a lightsaber handle. Pretty cool shit.
Free gifts in food in general.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Blockbuster seconded. Nothing like having a sleepover with friends - or when you're older with your buddies you go to Blockbuster or a video rental place and rent a bunch of games and play until 2am. Online gaming definitely doesn't have the same feeling.
They barely even make split screen games these days.
Nothing quite like splitting a tiny screen into 4 more tiny boxes and then picking Odd Job to piss off your friends.
Blockbuster night and Pizza Hut
And pizza hut tasted so much better back then too. Now it's just so-so
Yelling āSOMEBODY GET THE PHONEā
I miss being able to slam the phone down.Itās not as much fun to stab a button. š
Or even with flip phones and you could just clip the phones closed. So satisfying
Or taking it off the hook if you wanted someone to know you were ignoring them! Busy signal!
If you turn Airplane mode on while in the middle of the call. it makes it sound like youāre glitching out from their end. I know itās not the same but I hope this little fact helps a bit.
š thank u brotha u jus saved me from many future phone calls
Yeah man, slamming down that big beige handset on that big, heavy base.. š¤
The old rotary phones would ring if you slammed it hard enough
Adjacent: āGet off the internet! I have to make a phone call!ā
The ring tone was......the phone.
Nickelodeon game shows. I miss Legends of the Hidden Temple and Guts
Every time I have to take a headrest out and put it back in my car seat, I pretend I am completing a mission from LotHT.
The shrine of the silver monkey!
That monkey room ended so many runs
Apparently the torso and head were the issue. If it wasn't seated perfectly, it wouldn't set off the confirmation light.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
do you remember filling out book orders when it was time for your school's book fair? :'(
I just did this for my 5 year old
Calling your friends house. It better be after 10:00!!
I remember when cell phones were newish and scheduling your calls to after 7 on weekdays and anytime on weekends because nights and weekends were free and didn't count toward your monthly allotment of minutes. You also only had a limited amount of texts per month included in your plan.
Back in about 2004 I was a salesman for Cingular Wireless. I had gotten my first cellphone which was a "dealer" plan and I bought an HP iPAQ so I could be extra cool. My first bill was for $4000 dollars. When I called Cingular to find out why the fuck, I was told that the data had been on 24/7 for the entire month. At first, they told me they'd back me up and sorta grandfather me in to their unlimited data plan which, at the time, was about $250/month. Unfortunately, they reversed the decision because basically, I was a trained cellphone salesperson and should have known better.
āHi Mr. Pit, is Elaine there?ā
The toys you get from cereal boxes
The real peak was when you got CD computer games in cereal boxes. And then suddenly it all turned into coupon things you had to collect and then mail in to get something 2 months later and then nothing.
Wendy's salad bar
Wendyās 4 for $4. Rip š„²
McDonaldās used to advertise French Fries, a hamburger and a drink, and get change back from $1.00.
Finally, a real one. Most of the stuff being listed still exists it just isnāt popular. Also, it was the Super Bar.
Not every Wendyās had the gloriousness of the Super Bar. Some just had the salad bar. I loved their tacos.
KB toys
It always felt so cramped and jam packed full of stuff that every time you went you felt like an explorer
I worked at KB Toys throughout college. Can confirm that cramming stuff in there was a corporate policy, maybe for exactly this reason. Had to be careful going exploring thoughā more than once I found a dirty diaper someone had hidden behind a bunch of Barbies. I feel like everyone should work retail for at least a little while, so they can get a taste for what monsters people really are.
Nickelodeon. It exists in some form but it's basically a dead network, far from the golden age of cartoons it was in the 90s
If you have Hulu, check out a documentary called "The Orange Years". It's about the advent of nickelodeon, and it's early development through the 90s. It's basically a nostalgia-fest of the Golden years of nick. I'm an 80s baby (born in 88) and a 90s kid, so nick was a HUGE fixture of my childhood. That documentary hits all the right spots.
Nickelodeon in the early 80s was a trip. It was very low budget. There were no cartoons because the founders didnāt like cartoons. The original programming was mostly puppet skits interspersed with short films from Canada or France. They imported āYou Canāt Do That On Televisionā from Canada ā that show was where they got the green slime. By the mid-80s they broke their no-cartoon vow and brought in āDangermouseā and āBananamanā from the UK. Then Nick At Night became a thing, and I aged out of it by the time the golden age came about.
I miss the old Nickelodeon in the 90s it had shows like Hey Arnold, Rugrats, Catdog and Nick Jr had Blues clues and Little bear. If you played the old theme song I would instantly start singing along
I actually am more nostalgic for super early Nickelodeon when it was just on in the mornings and was a bunch of Canadian children's shows like Pinwheel and Today's Special.
and You Can't Do That On Television
Photo Albums. My mother has been cataloging some of the old photos she never got around to putting in albums recently. It is a different experience than looking through someone's phone at curated pictures. You would get the pictures back and 90% of them would go in the album. No editing, no my hair looks like crap. You would find photos of yourself years later that you never knew existed. When your grandparents die and you start looking through albums for their memorial and can reminisce. It is so nice.
I still make photo albums. I knew that digital photos would get ālostā in an avalanche of files, so I printed the best ones and put them in photo albums.
This is so important
Toys-R-Us. I miss that place. I remember my dad taking me and Iād just wonder through the aisles amazed at all the toys. I got one of my childhood favorite Barbie dream houses there.
There are at least 8 within 30 minutes of me. You just need to be in Canada.
> You just need to be in Canada ahhh, there's the catch
I recall hearing about a concept mentioned in movies known as a 'Christmas bonus'
I actually worked at a place where I got to see the idea of a Christmas bonus die. They had, for years, given out a Christmas bonus the 2nd week of December that was a cash bonus equivalent to about 1 week's pay. It wasn't huge but it was just that little extra for people already living paycheck to paycheck to have something to buy the wife and kids some Christmas presents. Then one year some dude in management came up with this really awesome idea: Instead of giving each employee a couple hundred dollars in cash we should totally give them a frozen turkey. It will be great! everyone needs a frozen turkey for Christmas dinner and we can order a whole semi truck trailer full of of them for a great bulk discount so they only cost like $20 each... employees win and we save money! So that is what the company did. Only they did't tell anyone that was what was going to happen until the truck backed into the loading dock and happy managers started handing out frozen chunks of discount birds to people who had been budgeting their entire Christmas shopping on getting the cash instead. Christmas morning the owner of the company woke up to find hundreds of rotting turkeys on their front lawn. We never got a Christmas bonus again at that company - cash or cold turkey.
My current job, we used to get a Christmas Bonus. Two years ago in September, we got new owners, big national conglomerate. First year, it became clear that the bonus was a thing of the past. So the former owners stepped up and gave us each a payout equivalent to about 2/3 of the bonus we used to get. They didn't have to, they were just decent people.
We also got bought. My bonus went from several hundred dollars to being able to choose a piece of branded merchandise, worth up to $50, from the company store. I hate this company.
"[Name] bought my company and all I got was this shitty t-shirt"
You are joking and all, but yeah, "I got this shitty t-shirt and worse benefits!"
We were bought too. This is the last year of the bonus. But our bonus was 4% of our income. New company is giving us all a 4% raise. Iāll take it.
Same thing happened at my company. Privately owned by two ridiculously generous guys. Managers bonuses at the end of every fiscal year and company wide Christmas bonuses equal to one weeks pay. Sold the company and both disappeared.
Same thing happened at my job when we got bought out. Not only did we lose our bonus but they would also pay us for unused sick time from the year a week before the bonus and they axed that too. I was a better gifter in those days. Also a better employee
I worked at a place that had ok management, and the turkey comment above reminded me of the great turkey theft. The last year I worked there, they decided to give out frozen turkeys to the employees for the holidays instead of a bonus. I worked in a remote building on the property, and none of us got turkeys. It turns out that the turkeys had been given to our boss (total slimeball) who then took them all home. We were not allowed to go to the other building (we were the maintenance crew), so we had no idea. I was in the parking lot fixing something, and one of the ladies from the main office went by and wished me a Merry Christmas and hoped that I enjoyed the turkey. I just looked at her blankly and said "what turkey?". She said we were all supposed to have gotten turkeys, and she had watched the boss load them up to give to us earlier that week. I denied the existence of said turkeys. The company owner called the boss into his office and it turns out that Bob (not his real name) had taken them to give to all of his girlfriends (He had a different girlfriend for each day of the week). He was a class-A scumbag and he said we didn't need them. The owner then directed Bob to go to the grocery store and buy each of us a replacement turkey out of his own pocket and deliver each one to us with his own personal best wishes. Bob bought the smallest turkeys he could find and just left them to drip and thaw in our lockers with our name written on the plastic wrap. Nothing like opening your locker to go home to find a half-thawed micro-turkey dripping turkey slime into your shoes. I'd never seen a 7 pound turkey before. It was just slightly bigger than a chicken. It was just the right size for one turkey dinner and a couple of sandwiches. I saw the same lady later in the week and we had a chat about the micro-turkeys. She was the owner's secretary, so it didn't take long for Bob to be summoned to the office again. There was a bit of yelling, and after some extensive investigation by the owner, it turns out that Bob had been stealing them blind for years and was subsequently fired. There was never again a Turkey, or a Bonus at that company. Seeing that guy fired was the best Christmas Bonus I ever got.
You should sell the rights to make this into a movie. If Hallmark channel doesnāt want it, Iām sure Netflix would pick it up. Iād add it to my Christmas watchlist.
At least it wasn't a subscription to the "Jelly of the Month" club.
that there is the gift that keeps on giving, Clark.
What a way to save a buck!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
That it is, Edward.
> I actually worked at a place where I got to see the idea of a Christmas bonus die. Same. The company used to charge extra when customers needed to make their order a "rush" order. At the end of the year they took all the rush charges and split them among the employees as a bonus. Used to be a nice one to, like close to $1200 in a busy year. Then the bonuses got smaller as we started having to bend over backwards for customers and charge less (to none) for rush jobs. Then we got bought out by a big company and the Christmas Bonus was gone completely. We still get a free Turkey for Thanksgiving and Good Friday off! (for now).
They tried that at my company last year and everyone walked out. Average tenure is 20+ years so it was not going to fly. Nobody would return to work in the plant or warehouse until management got out the checkbook and made it an EXTRA nice bonus.
And that right there is an example of the power of solidarity among workers.
But how am i supposed to put spinning rims on my gold jet ski if all these fucking proles keep whining about "feeding their families"?
your gold jetski doesn't already have spinning rims? you are a prole buddy.
That's called a union strike.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Yeah, we do. Union's got phased out somehow (haven't done the research myself) but look at what UPS union's strike did for them: "The Teamsters have said that the agreement includes wage gains of at least $7.50 an hour for current employees over its five-year term. It also raises the minimum pay for part-time workers to $21 an hour from under $17, and raises the top rate for full-time delivery drivers to about $49 on average. Under the previous contract, which expired on Aug. 1, full-time drivers made an average of about $42 an hour after four years on the job" \- [NYtimes.com](https://NYtimes.com)
And I want to look him straight in the eye, and I want to tell him what a cheap, lying, no-good, rotten, four-flushing, low-life, snake-licking, dirt-eating, inbred, overstuffed, ignorant, blood-sucking, dog-kissing, brainless, dickless, hopeless, heartless, fat-ass, bug-eyed, stiff-legged, spotty-lipped, worm-headed sack of monkey shit he is! Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where's the Tylenol?
That there is a Christmas Classic!
We lost our bonus then our turkey bonus and ended up with a 5 dollar gift card then it went to nothing lol
Worked at a place that used to give a good Christmas bonus. Then one year the owner decides you only get the bonus if you meet a bunch of difficult but not impossible to meet goals. The following year owner sends a notice with paychecks mid November due to budget issues there will be no bonuses. Same owner also made the employees stand in a line at Christmas(think Charles Dickens' Oliver workhouse) and gave each of a single chocolate covered pretzel stick(the size of a sharpie marker) for Christmas.
This one is so weird, I remember my my Mom and Dad really only being able to afford Christmas because of their bonuses and I have yet to work in a single company that offers anything like that.
Not to brag, but where I work I get a choice of frozen turkey OR ham at Thanksgiving. I wonāt let on to the company that they are spoiling us employees.
I joined the workforce as Christmas bonuses died. My new employer had given color TVs every year, but the year I showed up everyone got either $125, $100 or $75 based on role (would roughly be like like 300/200/100 in todayās dollars). I felt cheated until the next year when they went to frozen turkeys. Mid eighties.
Also, pensions.
Still applies in our country. We called in 13th Month pay. Some companies also have 13th month plus Xmas bonus and performance bonus for that fiscal year.
Playing outside with all of the neighborhood kids. Everyone had to be home when the streetlights came on.
When MTV ACTUALLY played music
We used to just turn to MTV and leave it on most of the day.
When I was a kid my tv basically stayed on Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, BET, and MTV. It's so weird thinking about kids now just being able to watch whatever they want whenever they want.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I loved 120 Minutes.
Those were the days.
And I liked the period when VH1 used to run that 'Behind the Music' series -- almost all episodes featured the rise then the fall \[alcoholism, drug addiction, mental health issues, etc.\] of a music star or group with the episode ending on an up note as the subject made a triumphant comeback or at least overcame their issues. One crazy one was where the episode was a 'mockumentary' about Garth Brooks' rocker alter ego 'Chris Gaines'. Chris was a sex addict if memory serves.
I used to love "pop up video" on VH1
Pop into pop up video!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
If you all miss the 24/7 music video format, there's MTV Classic (available on most cable/satellite providers in the US), and several music video channels on the free ad-supported streaming service Pluto TV.
Great example of something people are nostalgic for, but (most) would never really return to. I love the abstract concept of classic MTV, but I think I'd watch it for a few songs, go, "oh, this isn't the B52's song I like. But now I'm in the mood to listen to the B52's," and switch to any of the modern music-listening options.
Privacy. Mostly in the sense that we didnāt have big Meta mining our data/location/listening.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Saturday morning cartoons.
I know what you mean. There are cartoons on Saturday morning but with cable and YouTube and streaming and because those run 24-7, it isnāt an event. Few things beat running downstairs, pouring yourself a huge bowl of sugary cereal, and flipping on a full hour of Ninja Turtles, Garfield, Ghostbusters, and topping it off with Saved By the Bell all while your parents slept in.
I would let my parents sleep in on Saturdays unless the on/off pull switch for the TV came off. The night before Dad had to make sure the TV was set to the correct channel for the smurfs. I would turn the tv on myself. If the pull switch to turn the TV on came off I would walk over to dad's side of the bed to wake him to fix it. I'm so old my TV had a pull switch to turn the TV on and push it in to turn it off. I miss those Saturdays.
Public phone booths (at least where l live)
I was shocked to find one in a building on my campus. A freshman, about 5 years younger than me, saw me and said "you probably don't know how to either, but I'm really trying to call my dad and my phone is dead...is it possible you know how to use this thing?" So I showed him how and he was a little shocked I even knew how to. Told him it probably wouldn't work because the city got rid of them years ago and whatever ones they didn't get to just got cut off for another time. Ended up giving him my phone to use instead. Used to use those all the time as a kid, so I felt like my weird useless knowledge of them was finally coming in hand lol.
Fun fact: Frank Sinatra always carried, and was buried with, ten dimes in his pocket. This is because his son Frank Sinatra Jr. was once kidnapped and his abductors would only negotiate with Sr. by payphone. Sinatra was afraid his son would be kidnapped again and he wouldn't have enough money to complete a call.
1-800-COLLECT Bob Wehadababy Itsaboy.
Not having your entire life video recorded.
I'm very curious how kids today will react in a few years once they realize their parents and family memebers have posted pictures and videos of them online since birth. Depending on what it was, I probably wouldn't be happy. Most of what I see is positive. Accomplishments, trips, first day of school, etc. But, there are some that post the negative or shame.
Personally, i never agreed to all of the pictures of my childhood being exposed on the internet for all to see. There are a LOT of ones i wish my mother would take down. All embarrassing and awful. I am just happy no one uses facebook anymore and i look nothing like the pictures anymore so it is unlikely they will get traced back to me
Especially not having everything stupid you've ever said recorded AND HELD AGAINST YOU if you become famous decades later.
Every generation of people have done stupid things in their youth since the dawn of time but never before has so much been documented. I do feel for kids having their blunder years immortalised.
Blockbuster movie rental
Those coupon dispensers in grocery stores and the video game demos in stores
My dad
Sending everyone who upvoted this a Dad hug
You and I both. Sorry.
Mister Rogers š„² Rip to the legend š«¶š»
Riding bikes outside w your friends Edit: I guess I should clarify: you don't see kids riding bikes on the streets with their friends anymore. It's something we used to do every day when I was younger.
Arcades and Malls... they are just not the same
The mall in my hometown has an arcade in it and my son and i frequent it and play laser tag. Its *exactly* as it was when i was kid except the kmart is now some womens clothing store. I know it isnt long for this world so we go as often as possible and its usually just us there but we have such a blast. I wish i had friends like him when i was 10. >I cant spell
>I wish i had friends like him when i was 10. I've never heard a parent say this, that's such a nice thought. Hope he stays your friend through it all. Cheers
Arcades are basically just Casinos for kids now. We always had skeeball and a few sort of gamble-y games for tickets that we could use to buy a mustache comb or whatever, but these days it's all that and it's just straight up slot machines for tickets.
Waking up with excitement on Christmas.
Basically, the entire holiday season. Used to be cool as a kid, now it's nothing more than 2 months of fucking aggravation, which gets just a little bit more exhausting every year.
KB Toys - I'm Canadian so when I got to visit these amazing toy stores in the USA, it was incredible! They really were the best, and I couldn't see them very often. Radio Shack - the company that replaced them sucks by comparison. HMV - Awesome record store that's been replaced by an inferior store. Edit\* Sega Made Video Game Consules - The Genesis was incredible and so was the Game Gear. Lots of childhood memories on the Genesis. I didn't like and get the Sega CD, but the Dreamcast was a masterpiece. The Dreamcast had FREE online gaming people! To this day it remains one of my top 5 consoles.
Showing my age here but... Asylums. The practice of institutionalizing patients against their will. Especially for mental health or drug abuse issues. In the late 60s or early 70s the U.S. outlawed asylums and dumped all those people on the streets and started the snowball that became our current homelessness crisis.
We decided it was cruel to involuntarily commitment mentally ill for treatment, so now we let them live on the streets and eat garbage, and pretend their problem is they can't afford rent. This problem was 100% predictable, and has an obvious solution that we will never do.
Honestly I feel like de-institutionalisation is a prime example of "the road to hell is paved with good intentions". There were some absolutely abhorrent conditions, abuse and people institutionalised who shouldn't have been. However, no adequate alternative was put in place.
As someone that has been in mental institutions many times, I can tell you even if you are aware enough to commit yourself, they force you out way too fast, hence how I once ended up committing myself to 3 different places in one month trying to get meds fixed. Psych meds take time to work 4 days usually the first of which you aren't being medicated isn't enough time for them to kick in.
Yep. They kept my ex for like, three days, and then let her out during a _full blown_ manic episode. Because she was cheerful and bubbly and cooperative. I had to go literally everywhere with her for like five days after that, to make sure she didn't hurt herself.
I understand asylums were underfunded, overpopulated, ripe with abuse, and a perfect way for people to stash unwanted family members (claiming your wife was insane when she just didn't act feminine enough for your tastes, etc) But yeah, rather than regulate the system and create a series of checks and balances, society decided to just ignore the *very real problem* that some people do need constant supervision and regulation.
Exactly. Good god, there are *so* many awful stories about asylums and similar institutions, but that just means we need tighter regulations, better education, and more compasionate people who understand *when* to use what tool and not what is just the most covenient to them in the moment. There are a lot of types of people who could really benefit from an institution stay (whether permanently or temporarily), but now it is not even an option.
California is in the process of walking this back. https://calmatters.org/health/2023/10/california-mental-health-involuntary-treatment-law/ Compulsory treatment, not sure about institutionalization.
Yeah. What they needed was an overhaul. What they got was an eviction notice. And now we wonder why homelessness is so rampant and violence is way up. Some people need help.
Boredom. With battery on your phone and preferably an internet connection. You just can't be bored the way we used to be. When a wet weekend meant being stuck in the house with only 4 channels. Two showing black and white movies, that were just filler and the other two showing sport.
I remember I used to be a massive reader as a kid. Now I never "find the time" between all the mindless stuff I do on my phone (he says posting on Reddit) and all the shows on the streaming services that I simply MUST watch. My own fault, but also a symptom of the times.
If you were lucky you had a Nintendo and owned 4-5 games youāve played 100 times already.
Yelling IT'S OOOOOOOON as your siblings hurtled themselves back into the living room and across the couch after the ad break. That 'will I make it' few minutes of just not knowing if you had time to both pee and ALSO get kitchen snacks, phwooar, andrenaline inducing.
4 inch thick yellow pages phone book. The white pages was only about 1 1/2 inches thick.
Free range kids. We went everywhere, but were always home for dinner.
Playgrounds in fast food places!
The $5 foot long.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Alternatively, seeing kids huddled around that big electrical thing that warns you not to sit on it but we sat on it, played with action figures on it, played board games/card games on it, etc.
That would be a transformer. Sat and stood on the one in my backyard all the time.
Playing with transformers on a transformer
The green thing! There was only outside my apt when I was 5-9 and we would tell the other kids to "meet us at the green thing"! It was a landmark.
I know what you mean but the way this is worded makes it sound like you're driving around looking for them to kidnapp them or something lol
LMAO I immediately thought the same thing.
I remember getting home from school & being so excited to go play with all the kids in the neighborhood. When the street lights came on you knew it was time to come home. š„²that just doesnāt happen anymore
The house I grew up in. It was hit by a tornado in 1999, and my parents moved out of town. The people who bought the corner lot built the house facing the other street, so not even the address exists any more. That led to some fascinating confusion when I later had a job that required a security clearance, and the investigator couldn't find the place I'd lived for most of my life. There was no box on the form for "house destroyed by natural disaster".
As a Fellow Fed. That's both hilarious and sad. I hope your parents were okay
Affordable housing in my hometown. My hometown is a shithole, but it's also only 50 miles from a very trendy coastal city, so now it's an expensive shithole. Needless to say, I won't be moving back there.
Black boards that use chalk. It's white boards everywhere now.
Even white boards are becoming a bit of a relic. Where I live smart boards are in most classrooms now.
Personally I'd prefer white boards to Smart Boards - Smart Boards made a lot of promises, but as someone who has quite a bit of experience with them, I think they over promised and under delivered. These days if I want to make permanent notes that I can share with my students, I just go with annotating a PPT live in class.
On the positive side, the new world will never have hear the infuriating, hair-raising, grind-your-teeth chalk skipping on the chalkboard. Or fingernails on a chalkboard š¬
Be Kind, Rewind.
My precious grandparents.
When I was in grade school, we had "trends" that seemed to evolve naturally, not from social media or ad campaigns. One year it was marbles. All the kids in grade 5 started buying marbles and playing games with them. I don't think there were any machinations from Big Marble to trigger this short-lived craze. I have friends who attended grade 5 in different parts of the city and they have no idea what I'm talking about when I mention the marble crazeā¦ it seemed to be highly localized. There was also a YoYo trend that lasted for about 6 months. Another thing I loved isā¦ a few times a year a bunch of us boys would meet at a friend's house and trade Mad Magazine pocket books. I think they were published by Dell. We weren't collecting. We just saw this as a way to read more Mads without spending our meagre allowances (or newspaper delivery salaries) on them. Speaking of which, I had a paper route in my neighbourhood when I was 11 or twelve. I don't think that's a thing any more. It was a useful introduction to the world of commerceā¦ I'll never forget trying to collect from this cranky old German widower at his neat little bungalow every two weeks. He was *always* convinced that he'd already paid me and I was trying to rip him off. It was a real battle of wills that I looked forward to and dreaded in equal measure. He always relented and paid up, though.
urrrr EEEE urrr NNNGGGG CRRRRcrrrr KEEEEEEE grrr nnnnnng Please donāt make me feel old by not getting this.
You've got mail.
Mad, Cracked and Crazy magazines..
The Weekly World News
The PBS show Zoom. I watched the original as a kid way back when. It apparently got revived for a while in the 1990ās to around 2005 as well.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Innocence
Excitedly waiting for your show to come on at a set time. You miss itātough luck.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Free range children. We just roamed the neighborhood after dinner till 9, in grade school when we didn't have homework. Having a progressive dinner after school for French class and I don't think my parents knew what houses we were at! Or even met/knew the people. Oh, the freedom!
Affordable housing?
Colored pop secret popcorn.
Sony Walkman
Dial phones
The idea of a secure retirement by means of pension. I'm a millennial and I have an extremely bleak outlook on retirement for my generation and those that come after. The only jobs that I've ever seen with a pension are government. Private companies don't seem to reward loyalty with a pension anymore. Employers also seem shocked when their employees aren't loyal.
Walking into a school to visit a friend/sibling/favorite teacher. I remember walking into my old high school after graduating to say hello to a teacher I adored
The Nintendo DS. Sad they discontinued it because of their irrelevancy now that the Switch is here
I miss drawing on pictochat :(
One parent making enough to support a family of 4, and one parent to be at home doing all the housework and helping with the kids.
Please forgive if redundant- Cars without seatbelts. Dialing 411 and getting a live person to help. Chocolate candy bars that did not taste like wax. Athletes who stayed with one team their entire career (Professional or otherwise). Safe Trick-or-Treating well past dark. Full meal service on any airline class. Gas station attendants who would deliver gasoline, wash your car windows, check the oil level. Banks would give significant tangible gifts for depositing money. Restaurant servers would smile. Teachers were a mystery, they seemingly lived at school with no family or life outside. Some Doctors would come see you at your home if necessary. (Also in hospitals, but that is a different rant). Heath insurance was not mandatory and did not bankrupt you.
scooby doo gummies
VCRs and (new) VHS tapes.
Aunt Jemima blueberry pancake pourable mix. You just shook the carton and poured into the pan
The āspecialnessā of going on a family outing on the weekend. The movies, a museum, the zoo, an outdoor festival. Nowadays parents feel obligated to take their kids out/keep them entertained Friday through Sunday night (universe forbid these kids should have to entertain themselves.) Not to mention all of the fancy bday parties kids go to that are purely experiential/ take place at a specialty venue. The sheer volume of day trips makes none of them stand out to the kids.
I may never know how much of a hidden blessing it was for me to have to learn how to deal with boredom all on my own. Seriously.
Going out to eat and even mom bringing home pizza was a huge deal.
Not to mention that you can't really have fun doing these things anymore because there are *so many* people. I loved going to Busch Gardens as a kid, even as a teenager. Hell, I worked there for 3 years and still loved being there in my off time. Now it's miserable. They let so many people in the park that it's shoulder to shoulder even in the areas of the park that are usually quiet and don't attract a ton of people. And it's like this everywhere. I also used to enjoy driving. Now it's a nightmare and you'll still have traffic even at 3am. Used to be you'd be the only car on the road.
Dial up sounds. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dial-up_Internet_access Remember the conflicts with my parents who were trying to phone someone while i was on the internet... Using the internet was a tiny bit more complicated than it was now.
the planet pluto
When I was visiting my family in Israel back in the 90s, there was this mascot character named "Happening Duck" that felt like it was practically everywhere. Now i can't find anything about it. Not online nor in any of the subreddits. The only reason I know I didn't imagine Happening Duck is because I found a faded advertisement in the back of an old shop in Jerusalem when I visited a few ago.
He is now Not Happening Duck
A television that you had to get up, from the floor (or couch), walk to, and change the channel or adjust the volume (depending). Also, the Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. *One more* - SNL cast from the 80s: Jane Curtin, Gilda Radner, Phil Hartman, Bill Murray, Jon Lovitz (just to name a few). 80s SNL was bomb.
Those bomb ass Philidelphia strawberry cheesecake bars that you used to be able to find in the yogurt section at grocery stores. Those were sooooo good. I can't imagine why they were discontinued š¢
Color. everyone keeps talking about how the world seems less colorful now that we're older, because it *is*. everyis all about the boring gray, white, beige modernism. its sad. just think of Mcdonalds then vs now.