Things About Your Childhood That Would Baffle Younger People Of Today

kittyluv387

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Outhouses. We only had a single but the next door neighbors had a two seater. This allowed us kids to go in and hold hands while we did our business to protect each other from a kids biggest outhouse fear - falling in.

And burning our trash in barrels in the back yard - no such thing as waste pickup. And lighting the fire seemed to be a kids job.
I literally don't know what you're saying here lol. Was this because you were in the country?
 

foxxycat

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I literally don't know what you're saying here lol. Was this because you were in the country?
Yes. It's an outhouse-latrine. Most only had one seat hole cut out. Larger out houses had 2 holes cut out for the kiddos who can't hold it. The kids held hands so they wont fall in the pit that was underneath the holes.

It was basically a deep hole people dug then built a shack around then build a wooden chair with a hole cut out to do your business. Glad we don't have to use these anymore! Can't imagine the stink in the heat of summer. ugg.
 

NY cat man

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Yes. It's an outhouse-latrine. Most only had one seat hole cut out. Larger out houses had 2 holes cut out for the kiddos who can't hold it. The kids held hands so they wont fall in the pit that was underneath the holes.

It was basically a deep hole people dug then built a shack around then build a wooden chair with a hole cut out to do your business. Glad we don't have to use these anymore! Can't imagine the stink in the heat of summer. ugg.
We threw lime in the holes to kill the stink.
 

Kieka

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  • Walking to school, the mall, stores and for ice cream. My brother or my friend and I would walk or ride bikes to places within two miles when we needed/wanted to go places. Without parents starting at around age 7 for school and age 10 for anything else (as long as not alone, alone was 13/14).
  • No cell phone or constant contact with other people. Having to arrange meeting spots/times in advance and waiting to talk to people until home.
  • Researching with books instead of the internet.
 

Graceful-Lily

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Having to use the housephone to call friends - a parent would pick up and you'd have to ask for so and so.

Not having phone games - we'd have to plan to meet up ahead of time and there were no excuses back then. If I said I'd be at your place for 4pm, I'll be there by 3:55pm. Fun activities consisted of sitting in the grass with the sun burning your face and playing at the park.

P.S I was born in 1998.
 

DreamerRose

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The thing that would baffle most kids today is a slide rule. N NY cat man mentioned them, and they were so hard to use classes were given about them. I never did get the hang of the dang thing, and there was no other way to do large calculations.

We lived in a major city, so no chamber pots or party lines. However, my grandmother in Arkansas still cooked on a wood stove and had an ice box, a real one, where the ice man came a couple times a week and put a big block of ice in it. My grandparents had indoor plumbing, but exploring in the old stable out back, I discovered a little room with what looked like toilet seats on it. I had no idea what that was. I asked Dad, and he just shook his head and smiled.
 

Tobermory

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When I was in high school and college, my summer job was at my father's workplace. I was allowed to do data entry into something they called RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control), a massive computer--IBM, I think--that filled an entire room. These days, that amount of data would probably fit on a flash drive. :)

I remember milk in glass bottles being delivered to the house by the milkman. The guy would put the bottles into an insulated box on the front porch.

And an appalling memory: I was born in the U.S. South at a time when segregation was still in place. I hope that baffles and horrifies younger people today.
 

Tobermory

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And card catelogues!

I came of age where we still mostly used them my freshman year of high school, and had mostly transferred to computers for locating books by senior year.
Card catalogues!! Yes! I went back to get my master's degree in my 30s, and I remember walking into the library at Ohio State and trying to find the card catalogue. The young(er) person behind the desk said, "Oh, you use that terminal. This is the last day for the card catalogue. It's around the corner waiting to be hauled away." What? What? I went around the corner and there it was in its beautiful wooden glory. Those things were usually gorgeous pieces.
 
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denice

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Any other college students who had to take a coding class where you used punch cards?
My first job in a computer room was keypunch operator. All data entry was done by way of keypunch cards. We would get stacks and stacks of paper with the 80 little squares across and people would write their data on the paper and we would put it on keypunch cards to be entered in the machine.

Being deliberately exposed to measles, mumps, and chicken pox.
I remember people doing that with their little boys when mumps was around. They wanted them to get it before puberty. I knew a couple who adopted their children, he had mumps after puberty and was sterile.
 

LTS3

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Yes. It's an outhouse-latrine. Most only had one seat hole cut out. Larger out houses had 2 holes cut out for the kiddos who can't hold it. The kids held hands so they wont fall in the pit that was underneath the holes..

Think of it as what today's Port-A-Pottys are based on. Little structure with a seat inside that covers a large container (a hand dug hole in the ground) that holds waste.

No kid these days would know a thing about roof top tv antennas and having to turn a knob on a controller box in the living room to turn the antenna so it can find a decent signal. In my case, the antenna was (and still is, though not in use for years) located in the attic of my parents' house.

Ancient 1970s / 1980s computers that were huge monstrosities using 5 1/4 inch floppy disks and monitors that only showed green or white text. Both PC and Apple / Macintosh.
 
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NY cat man

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Think of it as what today's Port-A-Pottys are based on. Little structure with a seat inside that covers a large container (a hand dug hole in the ground) that holds waste.

No kid these days would know a thing about roof top tv antennas and having to turn a knob on a controller box in the living room to turn the antenna so it can find a decent signal. In my case, the antenna was (and still is, though not in use for years) located in the attic of my parents' house.

Ancient 1970s / 1980s computers that were huge monstrosities using 5 1/4 inch floppy disks and monitors that only showed green or white text. Both PC and Apple / Macintosh.
Our antenna still is in the attic- we don't have cable or a dish or streaming.
 
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