Older People Are Recalling The “Once Normal” Things They Did When They Were Younger That Would Seem Totally Bizarre To Do Today
Thanks to technology, so many habits, jobs, and behaviors have changed over time. So when we asked the BuzzFeed Community: “What’s one thing normal at your time but is now bizarre to even think about?” so many older folks shared their experiences below:
1.
“Having to use dial-up to connect to the internet. Picking up the phone to make a call, and being deafened by that robotic noise because someone is trying to go online.”
2.
“In elementary school, the teachers would be smoking while writing on the chalkboard. The wooden ledge of the board had blackened burn marks from having lit cigarettes set down on it. So did the teacherâs desk.”
âAnonymous, 61, Canada
3.
“Eggs were a dollar a dozen.”
4.
“We had coal delivered to our basement via coal chute. Dad would go downstairs in the morning to shovel coal into the furnace to heat the house.”
âAnonymous, 72, Florida
5.
“Mail was delivered twice a day.”
6.
“Newspapers had a morning and evening edition.”
âAnonymous
7.
“Going all the way to the airport gate to see a loved one off and watching as the plane taxied away.”
8.
“A quarter was a lot of money in the late 1950s. I got a comic book, a Coke, and a bag of Hostess chips. Good times.”
âAnonymous, 74
9.
“Smoking on planes. Before there was a smoking section on the plane, you could smoke anywhere. When they gave you a meal tray, there was a four-pack on your tray, a small package with four cigarettes in it. Each seat on the plane had an ashtray built into the arm.”
10.
“Department store would take your cash payment and put it in a container to shoot it upstairs to the office for change because there were no cash registers.”
âAnonymous
11.
“Every phone call was made through an operator, no dial tone. A woman would answer the phone, ‘operator’, and youâd give her the number â four digits at that time!”
12.
“Aspirin and vitamin bottles without child-proof caps.”
âAnonymous, 55, Oklahoma
13.
“Typewriters were the only way to get things done in an office environment when I was younger. You always had to put carbon paper between two sheets of paper so that you could have a copy. Whereas now you have the computers, and you can automatically save a copy that you can use if you want one.”
14.
“When I was younger, I remember ‘shopping’ in the Big JCPenneyâs catalog. My sisters and I would browse the book to see what bedroom set we wished we could have and envision one day decorating our room like the perfect bedroom in the catalog. We would also browse the toy section to circle toys that we wanted for Christmas. We also circle toys in the Toys ‘ R ‘ Us catalog.”
âAnonymous, 46, Detroit, MI
15.
“I was always excited to rush and meet my best friend at the photo shop to pick up her photos. Iâd be the first one out of our group of friends to see them, AND I would claim the doubles!”
16.
“The ice man would deliver blocks of ice for our ice box, no refrigerator.”
âAnonymous, 83, South Carolina
17.
“Bread trucks, like ice cream trucks, except bread. They played a horn instead of music. Restaurants with signs saying ‘pay or wash’ and meaning it. If you couldn’t pay your bill, you washed dishes.”
Older people, is there something that was considered normal at your time but is now bizarre to even think about? Tell us what it is either in the comments or in the anonymous Google Form below:
