Just sitting around, thinking. Nobody just sits around and thinks anymore. I got bored as a kid, but I also figured out a lot about life by just thinking about it.
I had a really cool rock. But I accidentally dropped it from a boat. The water was pretty deep, so I doubt any kids will find it today. It’s already 9pm.
Life before social media, or the internet period. Nothing I did in my stupid ass youth was immortalized forever online and I’m eternally grateful for that fact.
Life before social media and cellphones, tablets, tech toys, etc., took over. None of our antics were documented and our parents didn’t know where we were or what we were doing until we got home/someone snitched on us, lol.
Crank calling Texas Roadhouse 37 times in a row because caller ID’s didn’t exist. On time 37 this guy got on the phone and said “YOU LITTLE SHITS ARE IN THE PARKING LOT LAUGHING AT US AREN’T YOU?”
And my friend and I lost it and cracked up and hung up. Didn’t. Call back….that night anyway.
Dial up internet, having to get up to change the tv Channel, going to blockbuster to hire a movie, a corded home phone, slamming the phone down while hanging up on someone
I may have the wrong name for it but a skip rope… something that goes around one ankle with a spherical yet bulging around the mid diameter that you use your momentum to “skip” it and lift the other leg to avoid it striking your other ankle.
Independence. Being off grid and doing your own thing. No audience or texts or likes or bs. Learning from personal experiences and not from YouTube or whatever. Trial and error.
We would buy cherry bombs and flush them lit down the toilet at school and blow up the plumbing. They banned real cherry bombs years ago. Edit left this part out if I remember correctly by the time I was old enough to be doing that they were already banned and we would get them from a dude who made them in his chicken houses they look just the same
cable TV i guess? i had foxtel growing up. but foxtel isnt worth it anymore and was dogshit in the final years we had it. the channels we watched are either non existent now (111, boomerang are 2. do they still have LifeStyle?) or have less variety than yesteryear now. (lookin at u fox8)
i barely even remember anything about the darn thing, got glued onto the 3ds n sims on the computer at 10 and that was my entertainment. the ads were ear grating though 🙂
When your favorite movie/game disc gets a scratch on it and now you have to go through the ten step “maybe this will fix it!” process (that usually has something to do with toothpaste) with only about a 10% chance of working before finally accepting that it is dead and you must buy it for the third time this year
Someone else already said this, but I’m saying it again to reiterate…NOT feeling the NEED to look at any type of screen. It’s sad, really, that all the kids today want is a damn screen. TV, phone, tablet, computer or game. Very, very sad. Being outside riding a bike with the wind in your hair, trying to balance it so you could be cool and take your hands off the handle bars lol, climbing a tree, just because. I feel as though GenX literally had it made. I mean, life wasn’t perfect, but damn, it was fun growing up then. We knew exactly when to come home (street lights). I’m happy I raised my son & daughter pretty much the same way I was. I knew what they were doing, I taught them the rules, I taught them to show respect & to be appreciative. I taught them to be kind, but not take shit, and it was good, and ok, to defend someone smaller or less fortunate, from bullies.
My daughter is 29, and my son would be 33 now.
I’m was/am so proud of them both. My daughter knows this, and my son knew this.
Riding bikes, playing with other kids in the neighborhood, and not coming home until dinner time, while mom and dad don’t worry about where you’ve been all day. I drive a truck through different neighborhoods all day, all year long, and never see this.
Recording the top 40 on the tape deck, but you didn’t wanna catch the DJ’s talking so you hovered over the record/stop buttons to make sure you cut them out!
Going to a video rental store and trying to agree on a movie as a family. A movie that you would then sit down and watch with your family. With no-one scrolling on a device.
1.Playing outside until the street lights come on.
Super Nintendo having to blow in the cartridge when the game gets hot.
Station wagons with the back row seat that faces the back window and not having to wear a seat belt.
Fighting with family members to get your turn to use the house phone.
Penny Candy and Pepsi in the glass bottle that cost .25
Knowing not to get smart , roll your eyes, ignore, curse, smack your lips, or be disrespectful in any sort of way with your elders unless you want a shoe, belt, hand, or tree switch (you get to pick the switch) across your butt.
Going to the drive Inn
Using a payphone
Playing Tag
That music channel “The Box” on regular tv . Where you would change the top knob to 30 and change the bottom knob to the music channel.
Talking to friends on the phone in the kitchen ’cause it had the longest cord.
Dial phones in general but even more so party line where you have to know your own ring vs your neighbours rings… and having to share a single phone line with other houses… Not only not your own family but also up to 4 other families!
My sister in law and I were just telling her kids how we would have to call our friend’s house and talk to their parents to ask if they could come to the phone and maybe negotiate a time to call back when they would be done with chores or homework and allowed to talk.
“Hello, Mrs. Smith. This is Alison. Is Chrissy available to speak?”
Going to the internet. When the internet was dial-up, you would go to a designated place to be online. Kids today are always online – they have the internet in every pocket…
I was just telling my 10 year old the other day how we used to have to dial up to the internet and it took a really long time. She was really shocked LOL.
All the playground games, 4 square, red rover, the whole class playing jump rope and all the different rhymes (Cinderella dressed in yella), kickball, dodgeball when it’s raining and everyone has to stay indoors, and on and on.
Having to rush to pee or find a snack before the commercials ended: having to wait til the channel came up on the tv guide channel to see what’s on next
Winning a free soda from a bottle cap. One of the ladies who lived in our apt complexes worked for Dr. Pepper and she would pick up handfuls of winner caps and give them to me and my sister for taking out her trash. She was awesome.
Going to ma and pa movie rentals to get movies to watch dor the weekend, after riding your bike around the neigjbor hood stopping to throw rocks and play in the creek, and finding swimming holes
being 8 yrs old and walking a mile each way to school, no supervision, across a large city street, in over a foot of snow. Mom was home. Not her problem. And this wasnt abuse or neglect. Every parent in the neighborhood did this. Every parent in every city did this. By 12 we were adults who could hop a bus to meet friends at the mall and could handle money well enough to make sure after having fun at the mall, we still had bus fare to get home. Today we have an entire generation who live in moms house at 45 and dont work because of “anxiety”. Anxiety is real. This bullshit of calling not wanting to work “anxiety” when its just laziness is real too!
Comments
Smelling a brand new Super Nintendo game.
Music videos on mtv
Road trips with maps
Blowing into a game cartridge like it was CPR for fun, kids today will never know that sacred ritual of revival.
Finding a movie for the weekend at blockbuster
Recording your favorite song on the radio.
Manual roll up windows
Just sitting around, thinking. Nobody just sits around and thinks anymore. I got bored as a kid, but I also figured out a lot about life by just thinking about it.
Calling a friend’s house and hoping their parents didn’t answer the phone.
Renting a VHS tape movie from a store like Blockbuster.
I had a really cool rock. But I accidentally dropped it from a boat. The water was pretty deep, so I doubt any kids will find it today. It’s already 9pm.
Using the pay phone
Party line telephones. And Jarts.
Real lawn darts!
Saturday morning cartoons
Climbing a tree
Life before social media, or the internet period. Nothing I did in my stupid ass youth was immortalized forever online and I’m eternally grateful for that fact.
Watching black and white TV.
Playing outside.
Adjusting the TV antenna
Writing letters with pen and paper to parents and friends to give them news or updates about you.
Waiting for a call on a landline
Almost all of it.
Playing army outside after watching “combat”
Fight with their siblings over the remote control or ever worry about missing an episode.
Freedom from cell phones
Waiting for the PS 1,2 Home Screen to load/boot after cleaning the disk thoroughly. That shit was more suspense than any horror movie.
a world with no internet and having to get all info form library books and encyclopedias haha
Freedom and independence
Life before social media and cellphones, tablets, tech toys, etc., took over. None of our antics were documented and our parents didn’t know where we were or what we were doing until we got home/someone snitched on us, lol.
eating rabbit soup, deer meat, squirrel meat
Kaug kogmo hahahahaah
Being the tv remote control.
Ballpits at fast food chains
Crank calling Texas Roadhouse 37 times in a row because caller ID’s didn’t exist. On time 37 this guy got on the phone and said “YOU LITTLE SHITS ARE IN THE PARKING LOT LAUGHING AT US AREN’T YOU?”
And my friend and I lost it and cracked up and hung up. Didn’t. Call back….that night anyway.
going to movie the rental store!!
The sound of dial up
sit down meals every night with the family, engaging in real conversation without anyone at the table mindlessly staring at a cell phone.
Watching the same cartoons as every one else in morning before school
Dial up internet, having to get up to change the tv Channel, going to blockbuster to hire a movie, a corded home phone, slamming the phone down while hanging up on someone
Going to a video store and renting a video or DVD
I may have the wrong name for it but a skip rope… something that goes around one ankle with a spherical yet bulging around the mid diameter that you use your momentum to “skip” it and lift the other leg to avoid it striking your other ankle.
Edit: found it!! it’s called a SkipIt!
Independence. Being off grid and doing your own thing. No audience or texts or likes or bs. Learning from personal experiences and not from YouTube or whatever. Trial and error.
Dial-up internet
Waiting for your favourite music to appear in the TV and record it using your tape recorder.
Going down to capital hill to “score a lid”
Having to walk til you find a phone
Using s phone book
Having to rush during commercials to go to the bathroom/get snacks/what have you
Dying of AIDS
Hiking and finding a cache of porno magazines. Those were desperate times.
Lighting and m80 on your open palm.
So stupid
Touching grass
Also probably the joy of playing on the Wii
Redbox
How cigarette smoke was inescapable, especially indoors. I’m so glad more people have quit, it’s so disgusting.
We would buy cherry bombs and flush them lit down the toilet at school and blow up the plumbing. They banned real cherry bombs years ago. Edit left this part out if I remember correctly by the time I was old enough to be doing that they were already banned and we would get them from a dude who made them in his chicken houses they look just the same
Organising when you and your friends would be online so you could chat on MSN
The directions booklet from video games. I always excitedly read those to see screenshots of the game before playing it
Going thru the airport without my privacy or civil rights being violated
cable TV i guess? i had foxtel growing up. but foxtel isnt worth it anymore and was dogshit in the final years we had it. the channels we watched are either non existent now (111, boomerang are 2. do they still have LifeStyle?) or have less variety than yesteryear now. (lookin at u fox8)
i barely even remember anything about the darn thing, got glued onto the 3ds n sims on the computer at 10 and that was my entertainment. the ads were ear grating though 🙂
Amy
You know about your friend’s dad’s porn stash.
Going out without adult supervision and it was 100% normal.
tripping over the phone cord and tearing the phone out of your mom’s hand and getting yelled at.
When your favorite movie/game disc gets a scratch on it and now you have to go through the ten step “maybe this will fix it!” process (that usually has something to do with toothpaste) with only about a 10% chance of working before finally accepting that it is dead and you must buy it for the third time this year
Checking payphones for coins
Having to stop to ask for directions
I once met several Holocaust survivors, and had a conversation with one who had been an adult at the time, about his experiences.
Riding in the back of a truck with a bunch of other kids while dad flew down the highway.
MTV actually playing music videos 24/7
Ordering something and having to wait weeks for it to arrive, not knowing when it will finally show up
Using a pencil to roll the tape back into a cassette
Childhood.
Someone else already said this, but I’m saying it again to reiterate…NOT feeling the NEED to look at any type of screen. It’s sad, really, that all the kids today want is a damn screen. TV, phone, tablet, computer or game. Very, very sad. Being outside riding a bike with the wind in your hair, trying to balance it so you could be cool and take your hands off the handle bars lol, climbing a tree, just because. I feel as though GenX literally had it made. I mean, life wasn’t perfect, but damn, it was fun growing up then. We knew exactly when to come home (street lights). I’m happy I raised my son & daughter pretty much the same way I was. I knew what they were doing, I taught them the rules, I taught them to show respect & to be appreciative. I taught them to be kind, but not take shit, and it was good, and ok, to defend someone smaller or less fortunate, from bullies.
My daughter is 29, and my son would be 33 now.
I’m was/am so proud of them both. My daughter knows this, and my son knew this.
Riding bikes, playing with other kids in the neighborhood, and not coming home until dinner time, while mom and dad don’t worry about where you’ve been all day. I drive a truck through different neighborhoods all day, all year long, and never see this.
Not taking too many pictures with your camera since you don’t want to waste film and that shits expensive
Calling a girl on a land line and talking to their parents 9 out 10 times as they pick up.
found it! it’s a SKIP-IT!
Not having social media.
Flipping through the entire TV line up in 5 or 6 clicks.
No seatbelts. The station wagon.
Manual crank lever to open and close windows.
Fire hydrants sprinkler on hot days.
Card catalog in school library. Claris Works on school computers.
Recording the top 40 on the tape deck, but you didn’t wanna catch the DJ’s talking so you hovered over the record/stop buttons to make sure you cut them out!
All the channels on the TV went off the air late at night.
The thrill of getting lost with no map and no phone.
Adjusting the vertical and horizontal hold on the tv.
Racing your siblings to the single house phone when it rings because you’re certain the call is going to be for you.
Looking thru a phone book at a pay phone. So you can call someone to get directions.
A rotary phone.
My Dad.
Not being constantly monitored.
We use to drive the full sized tractor at 9 or 10 yrs old.
Renting a VHS movie
Going outside to spin the TV Antenna to get a better reception.
Going to a video rental store and trying to agree on a movie as a family. A movie that you would then sit down and watch with your family. With no-one scrolling on a device.
Grass.
1.Playing outside until the street lights come on.
Super Nintendo having to blow in the cartridge when the game gets hot.
Station wagons with the back row seat that faces the back window and not having to wear a seat belt.
Fighting with family members to get your turn to use the house phone.
Penny Candy and Pepsi in the glass bottle that cost .25
Knowing not to get smart , roll your eyes, ignore, curse, smack your lips, or be disrespectful in any sort of way with your elders unless you want a shoe, belt, hand, or tree switch (you get to pick the switch) across your butt.
Going to the drive Inn
Using a payphone
Playing Tag
That music channel “The Box” on regular tv . Where you would change the top knob to 30 and change the bottom knob to the music channel.
The modem connection sound before it was a meme
Waiting for simple images to download like they were full blown apps
The transition of analog to digital media
Having the shit literally beat out of them while they’re in bed on their 10th birthday. At least I sure hope not!
When Mom said it was time to get off the Internet and go to bed but I didn’t listen… so she picked up the phone and booted me off.
decent size hershey bar for 5c. One pound hershey bar for christmas.
Ding dong ditching
Having to call a premium cost phone number to receive an orange rubber man through the post. Bless you tango, your catchphrase still lives on
Breaking up with a girl or boy face to face … coward assholes just text each other .. such pussies
Putting random things in the ashtrays in the car
Roller skates with metal wheels that attached to your shoes. You could feel the concrete long after you took them off.
Talking to friends on the phone in the kitchen ’cause it had the longest cord.
Dial phones in general but even more so party line where you have to know your own ring vs your neighbours rings… and having to share a single phone line with other houses… Not only not your own family but also up to 4 other families!
Choosing between the internet OR the phone. And that sick dubstep drop every time you went online.
Republicans who were interested in saving the environment instead of trashing it
Getting on my bike in the morning and being gone for an entire day. No phone, no money, no plan, just pure freedom.
Being bored.
How can you possibly be bored nowadays?
Kick the can
No Internet
Having a loud argument in school without someone recording it with their damn phone.
Rewinding tapes for Blockbuster.
My sister in law and I were just telling her kids how we would have to call our friend’s house and talk to their parents to ask if they could come to the phone and maybe negotiate a time to call back when they would be done with chores or homework and allowed to talk.
“Hello, Mrs. Smith. This is Alison. Is Chrissy available to speak?”
So many bugs on the windshield… is this just different where I live now or are there actually less bugs on the windshield?!
actual physical buttons on electronics. its all screens or sensors now
Playing marbles.
Having to learn cursive.
Cool toys in cereal boxes.
Rotary phones
World without gadgets
Glancing at a bank sign for one second and knowing the time and temperature.
Now they cram a half dozen bank ads between this info – I only have a second to glance at it when I drive by!
Recording mix tapes off the radio on a cassette for when you drive around. Hitting record as soon as you hear the song begin.
Roll up car windows
Friends in the neighborhood running around together aimless
Going to the internet. When the internet was dial-up, you would go to a designated place to be online. Kids today are always online – they have the internet in every pocket…
The internet not existing, cell phones not existing.
I was just telling my 10 year old the other day how we used to have to dial up to the internet and it took a really long time. She was really shocked LOL.
All the playground games, 4 square, red rover, the whole class playing jump rope and all the different rhymes (Cinderella dressed in yella), kickball, dodgeball when it’s raining and everyone has to stay indoors, and on and on.
Being MIA all day until dinner time/dusk. No cell phones, location sharing, or Life360 for us 🤌
Having to wait for a movie to come out on video after being in the theatres for months.
Having to rush to pee or find a snack before the commercials ended: having to wait til the channel came up on the tv guide channel to see what’s on next
Trying to fit your Walkman (CD or tape) into a pocket.
Going to the motel, putting a quarter in thr vibrating machine, and laying in the bed
Lining up your precious quarters on the lip of the video game screen.
Winning a free soda from a bottle cap. One of the ladies who lived in our apt complexes worked for Dr. Pepper and she would pick up handfuls of winner caps and give them to me and my sister for taking out her trash. She was awesome.
The freedom we had as kids, we knew to get home when the street lights came on.
Going to ma and pa movie rentals to get movies to watch dor the weekend, after riding your bike around the neigjbor hood stopping to throw rocks and play in the creek, and finding swimming holes
Borrowing movies and dvds from each other
Hanging out with sketchy people that were probably too old for me to be hanging around and doing sketchy shit.
Mental Rolodex
Putting tape over the tab of a VHS cassette from the video store and dubbing your own short films over the previews at the start….Just me?
The outdoors
Delivering a daily newspaper and collecting payments monthly.
Being unsupervised for hours at a time. No one knowing where you were.
having real friends and relationships our technology ruined our humanity and love.
being 8 yrs old and walking a mile each way to school, no supervision, across a large city street, in over a foot of snow. Mom was home. Not her problem. And this wasnt abuse or neglect. Every parent in the neighborhood did this. Every parent in every city did this. By 12 we were adults who could hop a bus to meet friends at the mall and could handle money well enough to make sure after having fun at the mall, we still had bus fare to get home. Today we have an entire generation who live in moms house at 45 and dont work because of “anxiety”. Anxiety is real. This bullshit of calling not wanting to work “anxiety” when its just laziness is real too!
A dial tone or busy signal
Struggling and solving problems on my own.
In comparison to my siblings.
Theres nothing wrong with a little struggle. Not everything in life will be handed to you.
I dealt with stuff on my own. I didn’t have any adults who would bother to help me. I taught myself to do everything.
That makes me much more of an adult than my siblings will ever be.
Unfortunately.
Phones with long twisted curly lines- one phone in the house that I had to drag into the closet for privacy.
Having a structured settlement but needing cash now.
Trick or treating without an adult accompanying you.
being bored
Leaving the house in the morning with my bicycle, no food or water, and not coming back until the porch lights came on.
Being content with being alive.
Old-school McDonalds Play Place.
Missing your favorite show or the end of a movie on TV because it was on past your bedtime.
Waiting for the radio to play my favorite songs then recording it on a blank tape
The smell of burning leaves drifting through the neighbourhood in the fall
Me, in my childhood.
Playing in the woods with zero supervision all day when we were like 9 years old.