1 week Ago By BuzzFeed
Since it feels like time is moving at the speed of light, it's natural to forget what used to happen way back when. So when Reddit user lewisSharon7x8 asked : "What's something that used to be normal but would shock people today?" in the r/AskOldPeople subbreddit, over two thousand people delivered some nostalgic answers. Here's what they said below.
1. "The amount of kids who could fit in the back of a station wagon." — Inevitable_Phase_276 "My parents would drive all night from L.
A to Sacramento, CA. We'd get in our pajamas, and my Dad would fold down the back see of the 1984 Chevy station wagon so that we had a giant bed. He played out a huge sleeping bag unzipped, and my two brothers and I would curl up in that and drive all night.
It used to feel like we were in a spaceship as the lights from big rigs would fan across that rear windshield. Some of my best memories as a kid." — HatFickle4904 2.
"Free-range kids with no tracking. I left home on Saturdays after the last good cartoon, and my family didn't see me again until dinner. I was in the woods fighting imaginary Russians or having bottle rocket wars with kids on the block.
" — BrooklynDoug "This! My mom kicked us outside when we got rowdy and told us to come back when she whistled! We knew not to pass the stop sign at one end of the road and the mailbox on the other. We had treehouses made from random shit we found in the woods and would battle each other. Man, my kids now could never.
" — sheburns17 3. "Smoking on airplanes." — johnnyg08 "I used to ride my bike to the corner market and 'buy' my mom cigarettes by the carton.
I say 'buy' in quotes because she had a tab there, literally just a list in a little flip notebook by the register. I'd take home her cigarettes as needed, and she'd stop in on the weekends and settle up the tab. I was 9 or 10 when this started.
Smoking was not only everywhere, at least where I lived; nobody cared about age laws and shit." — emarkd 4. "I was babysitting an infant and a four-year-old when I was 11.
These days, a lot of 11-year-olds have sitters or nannies." — hissyfit64 5. "Latchkey kids.
Kids finished school at 2:30 p.m., and parents didn't get home until 5:30.
Kids were home alone and had to entertain themselves. No internet, no cell phones, only landlines, their friends, and their homework. If they were lucky, they'd have bicycles or a nearby playground to shoot hoops at.
" — Ms_Fu 6. "People being completely unreachable, even children, for multiple days. Not in a 'they aren't answering work emails on purpose, but are posting on Instagram' kind of way — but truly, no one knows where the hell this person is or how to get in touch with them.
.. oh well, ok.
Carry on." — Potential_Grape_5837 "God, I soooooo miss this. Not just for myself, because it's possible to still drop off the planet for a while, but what I miss is this being NORMAL for all people.
Like in the before cell phone, before answering machine days. Call and leave a message with someone who answered. Or not.
'Where is Jake?' 'Oh, he went down South for a few days. Check back next week.'" — nysflyboy 7.
"Walking to airline gates without a ticket or TSA. When I was a kid, my mom would take me to BWI airport, and we would watch the planes from the pier." — Scourmont "Also, traveling by yourself at a young age.
I flew from DC to south Texas and changed planes in Houston, entirely by myself, at 13. My parents just dropped me off in front of the terminal, and I did the rest. I was not escorted or monitored by any airport personnel.
" — ontrack 8. "If I was fussy in the grocery store, my mom would make me go out and sit in the car by myself. (Age 5-8.
)" — Superb-Charge6779 9. "Resistance to seat belts. Some people kept their seat belts connected and sat on them, so they could bypass the alarm system.
It took a long time for people to get adjusted to using them." "And the indifference to drunk driving. We regularly passed around a bottle of cheap wine while driving aimlessly for fun.
One time, a police officer pulled us over, saw the empty containers, and gave us a very stern talking-to." — Gorf_the_Magnificent 10. "Stores were closed on Sundays.
" — stevensoncrazy "Closed for the holidays, too. Actually, fully closed for Thanksgiving through the week. Christmas is often the whole week.
Lots of folks talk about 'great again,' but they gotta shop, shop, shop, or work, work, work through every holiday. And forget federal holidays. Slowing down, being closed, allowing for reset time.
This is why people are difficult now. Everyone is exhausted." — KimVG73 11.
"Not being able to access an ATM any time you need money." — Wolfman1961 "Banks on Fridays were a madhouse because everyone showed up to deposit their paychecks." — Upper_Bodybuilder124 12.
"Corporal punishment. It was very much fading out by my time, but strapping/paddling kids at school did happen." — zxcvbn113 "This absolutely still went on in my public elementary school through the '70s.
By the time I was in 3rd grade, it was reserved for the principal, but it still happened occasionally. And it happened at home for virtually every kid I knew (including me) until at least the early '80s or after." — nysflyboy 13.
"Walking to and from school, alone, for over a half-mile. I was about four blocks from my middle school bus distance (the school was about a mile and a half away, and bus routes started two miles from school), so while my mom would drive me to school, I would either take the public transit bus or walk home. It was about a 30-minute walk home.
" — AproposOfDiddly 14. "Rotary dialing a phone number. The idea of long-distance toll charges on phone calls; dialing 0 for an operator (always a lady); 411 for information; white pages, yellow pages, even blue pages in a phone book sent out yearly by ATT, GTE.
" — MarkClark4 "Long-distance phone calls were a big thing. Rarely ever done. If you've got a long-distance call, it was something important.
Probably bad news about family members." — grejam 15. "No sunscreen when on the beach or out in the sun.
Or worse: using baby oil and laying out in the sun." — mauiprana "Baby oil, a reflector, and iodine." — Habibti143 16.
"Layaway...
this was a big thing!" — hikeitaway123 "K-Mart had an active layaway program! Our neighbor worked at the layaway desk for years." — No_Gold3131 17. "When I was a teenager, I used to cycle around, and if I had to telephone someone, I would just knock on some (random) person's door, asking politely if I could make a call — or even go to the toilet sometimes.
Most people would be ok with it." — TenaStelin 18. "My sister wasn’t allowed to get credit in her own name.
She had to apply for a credit card as 'Mrs (husband’s first name, last name).'" "This was early ’70s. They were both teachers with the same qualifications.
I was a teen, and I remember my sister was spitting jellybeans. She was sooooo mad!" — Scorpion_Rooster 19. "Television stations going off the air around midnight along with a patriotic song, followed by a test pattern that remained until morning.
" — aav_meganuke 20. "Phone calls with your friends..
. from the house phone." — Surfer_Joe_875 "Eavesdropping on the party line.
" — SKULLDIVERGURL Is there something that was considered normal back in the day that would shock people today? Tell us.
