People that grew up before the internet age, how was life different? (1 Viewer)

[mr. furley]

sky pagers

did you know the importance?

 

[Sabertooth]

Also, with the advent of the cell phone, NOBODY shows up to someone's house unannounced anymore.  It's insane how phobic we are about it now. 

On a given weekend morning, I may be out with my kids to walk to the farmers market or breakfast or where ever, and I'll say to them, "oh hey, let's pop-in on [another neighborhood family] and my kids will be horrified.  "you can't just go to their house without calling first!"

Screw that.  Now I'm just stubborn about it.  I tell them I'm reviving the pop-in.  Bringing it back, baby.

So that's one big difference.  We used to [gasp] show up at our buddies' houses to see if they wanted to hand -- without calling first!  Or maybe we called and it was busy.  Whatever.

This bit was made for you. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hv0M4mnrE8

 

[Sweet J]

Yes - steady QB games were awesome when only 3 of use could get together or there was an odd number.  Steady QB, 7 Mississippi blitz, and if you got tackled into a car you weren't down until your knee hit the street.  Literally drawing up plays in the grass strip on the sidewalk.  The times we actually had chalk we were like real football players.

5 mississippi blitz (or if someone was feeling their oats, 3-mississippi).  Once ever 4 downs the defense was allowed to blitz, rushing the QB without waiting for the mississippi countdown.  But our rule was you HAD to scream "BLITZ!!" before you ran in (or as you were running in). Even in the old days, defensive coordinators were working the rules - we occasionally added a delayed blitz. ("One Mississippi, two Missi--BLITZ!!!!").

 

[mr. furley]

Also, with the advent of the cell phone, NOBODY shows up to someone's house unannounced anymore.  It's insane how phobic we are about it now. 

On a given weekend morning, I may be out with my kids to walk to the farmers market or breakfast or where ever, and I'll say to them, "oh hey, let's pop-in on [another neighborhood family] and my kids will be horrified.  "you can't just go to their house without calling first!"

Screw that.  Now I'm just stubborn about it.  I tell them I'm reviving the pop-in.  Bringing it back, baby.

So that's one big difference.  We used to [gasp] show up at our buddies' houses to see if they wanted to hand -- without calling first!  Or maybe we called and it was busy.  Whatever.

this is what i miss. friends. now kids have "play dates" and they have to be arranged days or weeks in advance. they're for pre-determined amounts of time and either mom, dad or both shows up to get the kid.... and only to get the kid. 

we used to get up in the morning, eat a bowl of cereal, watch a couple cartoons and be gone for the entire day. in and out of friends houses to grab a glove, or a ball, or lunch, etc. and if our parents needed to find us they yelled outside or called a couple parents to see whose house or park we might be at.

if parents had to come find us, we knew it wasn't to immediately leave... because dad was going to crack a beer or 8 with your buddy's dad and that meant you still had an hour at least.

 

[Yankee23Fan]

5 mississippi blitz (or if someone was feeling their oats, 3-mississippi.  Once ever 4 downs the defense was allowed to blitz, rushing the QB without waiting for the mississippi countdown.  But our rule was you HAD to scream "BLITZ!!" before you ran in (or as you were running in). Even in the old days, defensive coordinators were working the rules - we occasionally added a delayed blitz. ("One Mississippi, two Missi--BLITZ!!!!").

YES!  You had to yell Blitz.  I remember that.

 

[Sweet J]

How about - snow storms in the city were awesome.  The bigger the storm the better.  The snow plows would just stack the stuff sometimes taller than what looked like a mountain.  And we would just take them over for forts and have snowball fights.  Snowballs flying everywhere.

Now that I am the shmuck that has to shovel..... I hate snow with a passion.

Snow-storms in the city were AWESOME.  Full-contact tackle football was a luxury in the city with very few real green areas.  When the snow came down enough, we could play tackle football in the middle of the city streets.  It was like the whole city shut down just so we could play tackle. 

 

[Yankee23Fan]

Also, with the advent of the cell phone, NOBODY shows up to someone's house unannounced anymore.  It's insane how phobic we are about it now. 

On a given weekend morning, I may be out with my kids to walk to the farmers market or breakfast or where ever, and I'll say to them, "oh hey, let's pop-in on [another neighborhood family] and my kids will be horrified.  "you can't just go to their house without calling first!"

Screw that.  Now I'm just stubborn about it.  I tell them I'm reviving the pop-in.  Bringing it back, baby.

So that's one big difference.  We used to [gasp] show up at our buddies' houses to see if they wanted to hand -- without calling first!  Or maybe we called and it was busy.  Whatever.

So true.

I was talking to someone about  this in church the other day.  And not just this, but ending up eating at a friends house.  If we were playing at someone's house or after playing ended up at their house, their parents just made us dinner too.  No planning or asking.  Dinner was made for whoever was in the house.  Lunch was even better.  The mom would just come out with food.  Tons of food if it was my Italian family and friends.  You were just expected to eat where you were.

 

[Wrigley]

No idea, let me ask my 16 brothers and sisters 

 

[Yankee23Fan]

this is what i miss. friends. now kids have "play dates" and they have to be arranged days or weeks in advance. they're for pre-determined amounts of time and either mom, dad or both shows up to get the kid.... and only to get the kid. 

we used to get up in the morning, eat a bowl of cereal, watch a couple cartoons and be gone for the entire day. in and out of friends houses to grab a glove, or a ball, or lunch, etc. and if our parents needed to find us they yelled outside or called a couple parents to see whose house or park we might be at.

if parents had to come find us, we knew it wasn't to immediately leave... because dad was going to crack a beer of 8 with your buddy's dad and that meant you still had an hour at least.

Yup.

 

[tommyboy]

As a young professional pre-internet you would get a lot of faxes. Also catalogues. Most business was done over the phone with a sales or buying rep. There was no online order option.

Also a 1 gig hard drive sold for $2500

 

[mr. furley]

As a young professional pre-internet you would get a lot of faxes. Also catalogues. Most business was done over the phone with a sales or buying rep. There was no online order option.

Also a 1 gig hard drive sold for $2500

can remember pining for a 2400 baud modem but it was way, way, way out of reach.  

having 300 was the standard until we cobbled together enough for 1200. 

this business of instantaneous results from a computer is still mind boggling to me.

 

[Zegras11]

As a young professional pre-internet you would get a lot of faxes. Also catalogues. Most business was done over the phone with a sales or buying rep. There was no online order option.

Also a 1 gig hard drive sold for $2500

I bought an Apple IIc for $1325.    It had no memory and held only one large 56k disk.

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

One of the biggest things I can remember is that you didn't have this giant resource to call back to in regards to television/music/movies etc.  If you didn't get it when it came out or recorded it.....you were SOL.  I remember being at a comic convention in the early 1990s...and this guy had a bunch of bootleg VHS. He was randomly playing them....and he put this  in.  It was like a dog whistle for a half dozen people (myself included) as we hadn't seen/heard that since it came out in the late 70s but still remembered it. 

I played that and Mr R perked right up and said, "I remember that!"

 

[Sweet J]

This bit was made for you. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hv0M4mnrE8

 Holy crap. 

It's called "company."  "Nobody touch the Entenmens. The cake is for company!"

perfect.

 

[fruity pebbles]

When i was in my early-mid teens my best friend wouldnt even knock anymore. He typically show up in the morning, grab some breakfast and bang on my bedroom door to wake me up. 

 

[jb1020]

this is what i miss. friends. now kids have "play dates" and they have to be arranged days or weeks in advance. they're for pre-determined amounts of time and either mom, dad or both shows up to get the kid.... and only to get the kid. 

we used to get up in the morning, eat a bowl of cereal, watch a couple cartoons and be gone for the entire day. in and out of friends houses to grab a glove, or a ball, or lunch, etc. and if our parents needed to find us they yelled outside or called a couple parents to see whose house or park we might be at.

if parents had to come find us, we knew it wasn't to immediately leave... because dad was going to crack a beer of 8 with your buddy's dad and that meant you still had an hour at least.

Growing up there were like 5 or 6 packs of kids I could go hang out with.  I ride my bike and check out what was going on.  

It's so depressing nowadays with my kids.  We're lucky enough that mom gets to stay at home, but it sucks cause no other kids are home!  We live in a neighborhood full of kids, but they all go to afterschool programs.  Then when they finally get home they have to take off and go to some kind of sport practice.  

I thought we were doing the best thing for the kids but they come home and really don't have anything to do and no one to play with.  

 

[tjnc09]

They couldn't spend 18 hours a day in the political sub forum.

 

[BroadwayG]

I got pretty good at knowing how much time I had to waste after typing LOAD"*",8,1 before my game was ready to play.

 

[Tom Servo]

Holy crap - Battle of the Planets - G-FORCE!!! So awesome!   We used to BOLT home from grade school to watch both this and the 60's Spiderman cartoon reruns (WUAB Channel 43.) 

The other thing was arcades.  We had an arcade in our little town, we used to get $5 or $10, change it out to quarters or hopefully 5 tokens for a $1 / 30 for $5 / 65 for $10 or something ride our bikes down to the arcade (if no-one else wanted to play football/basketball/wiffle ball) and play as long as the money would last.

Are you old enough to remember Ghoulardi (does this go to Parma?)

 

[Yankee23Fan]

 Holy crap. 

It's called "company."  "Nobody touch the Entenmens. The cake is for company!"

perfect.

OMG.  So true.

And then there was my grandmother who had potato chips and pretzles delivered to her house in tin cans - Charles Chips!  

 

[Sabertooth]

this is what i miss. friends. now kids have "play dates" and they have to be arranged days or weeks in advance. they're for pre-determined amounts of time and either mom, dad or both shows up to get the kid.... and only to get the kid. 

we used to get up in the morning, eat a bowl of cereal, watch a couple cartoons and be gone for the entire day. in and out of friends houses to grab a glove, or a ball, or lunch, etc. and if our parents needed to find us they yelled outside or called a couple parents to see whose house or park we might be at.

if parents had to come find us, we knew it wasn't to immediately leave... because dad was going to crack a beer of 8 with your buddy's dad and that meant you still had an hour at least.

No kidding.  People are so uptight now.  

 

[Sullie]

Are you old enough to remember Ghoulardi (does this go to Parma?)

Oh yeah I remember Ghoulardi, I'm not old enough to recall him live but my sisters used to tell me about him.  I thought I had seen him in reruns? Anyway, my brother and I were hooked on Big Chuck and Little John when we lived there over on Channel 8 (I think it was a CBS channel and then it became a Fox channel later?) oh and Channel 43 also had Superhost (Marty Sullivan) and The Prize Movie with John Lanigan!

 

[Sabertooth]

They couldn't spend 18 hours a day in the political sub forum.

Just don't, guy.  

 

[tommyboy]

I met my wife because there was no internet or modern cell phones.

I needed to find my buddy in college because we had some function to host and needed his help.  So I drove over to his girlfriend sorority and asked for her. She said she didn't know where he was so I left. I found out later that my wife answered the door. She told this girl she thought I was cute, and so I got set up on a blind date.  We've been together now for 28 years

 

[parasaurolophus]

I can remember my older sister making sure everybody stayed off the phone because she was expecting a call from a boy. I used to like calling the local weather recording thing and just leaving it connected. 

Who didnt have this phone?

 

[Sweet J]

So true.

I was talking to someone about  this in church the other day.  And not just this, but ending up eating at a friends house.  If we were playing at someone's house or after playing ended up at their house, their parents just made us dinner too.  No planning or asking.  Dinner was made for whoever was in the house.  Lunch was even better.  The mom would just come out with food.  Tons of food if it was my Italian family and friends.  You were just expected to eat where you were.

My kids had some friends over, brother and sister about the same age at my son and daughter.  14 and 17.  I didn't feel like cooking, so we went to Chapotle to grab some grub to bring back to the house.  The 14-year old tried to hand me money.  I was perplexed.  My daughter had to clear things up for me -- "anna's mom gave her money in case we went out for dinner." (daughter roling eyes: "Daaaaaaaaaaad")

I was like "WTF is this sht?  Didn't you guys invite your buddies over?  Isn't there a general agreement that hosts feed their company without asking for remuneration?"  It's not like I was offended.  It was a nice gesture, I guess.  But still. 

I mean, maybe the mom gave the kids money in case theY walked to fast food without me.  But isn't the play in this situation to let me buy dinner and the kid pockets the 20 bucks?  What planet are these kids from? WHY ARE YOU SO DAMN POLITE?

 

[HellToupee]

Calling the movie theater on a Friday night to get movie times only to have to hang up and redial like 30 times to get in was the stuff of

That is if you did not take the newspaper and get the movie times in that, of course.

PG movies had naked boobies from time to time so we had that going for us

 

[Mrs. Rannous]

Our FF commish added up weekly scores by hand out of the USA Today and mailed the results to each owner. 

WW was processed on Tue & Th nights only, between 6:00 and 8:00 pm. Call an add/drop in at 8:02? Tough poopies. 

ESPN Primetime for all highlights, or The George Michael Sports Machine if you got home late from the bars on Sunday night. 

Coors Light 12pks were $7.99 on sale

these were good days. 

We did this.  Got the scores out the paper, printed the results on the computer.  We then went to Kinkos at about 1 AM and printed the stuff out and collated it.  Addressed the envelopes, stamped and mailed them.  What a PITA.  

We didn't even have football magazines to use at the draft.

 

[Sweet J]

When i was in my early-mid teens my best friend wouldnt even knock anymore. He typically show up in the morning, grab some breakfast and bang on my bedroom door to wake me up. 

This 1000 times.

My kids have yelled at me for walking into good friends houses without knocking, just saying "helloooooooo!?" as I opened the door. 

 

[Pipes]

How about - snow storms in the city were awesome.  The bigger the storm the better.  The snow plows would just stack the stuff sometimes taller than what looked like a mountain.  And we would just take them over for forts and have snowball fights.  Snowballs flying everywhere.

Now that I am the shmuck that has to shovel..... I hate snow with a passion.

King of the mountain was a childhood favorite

 

[Phil Elliott]

How was life different before the internet? Im a “ millennial “ and am curious how did you guys stay in touch? How did you find out where to meet people? What did you do at night without a TV to watch? How did you get around the city in which you lived? What kinds of clothes did they wear? What kind of food did they eat? Basically, how did you live?

There was TV...then there was color TV...then there was a remote to change the channels without getting out of the chair...then there was TV dinners, since you didn’t have to get up to change the channel.

 

[Fat Nick]

So my experience may be different than most - I was an only child.  I grew up on 4 acres and didn't have any friends walking/biking distance - I made my own fun.

I spent most all summer outside in the yard.  When I was really young, I collected bugs.  I knew the location of every flippable rock in the yard, and what kind(s) of bugs I would find under each of them.  I caught everything that crawled.

When I got older (the whopping age of 6 or 7), my parents got me a 4-wheeler, and I drove it constantly.  I tore the yard all up.  My parents didn't care.  I was also cutting the grass on a Sears riding mower at around the same age - not even heavy enough to keep the seat sensor from cutting the mower off, so I sat on a phone book to add some weight.

Once I got my drivers license on my 16th birthday, I was out - field parties, hanging down by the river, the mall, cruising main street.  I had to be home by midnight - I pretty much pushed that every time I was out.  

My wife is 8 years younger than me, and she grew up in a rather sheltered life in the 'burbs outside of Pittsburgh.  Our son is almost 4 - she can't fathom letting him do some of the things I did as a kid.  Truthfully - I can't either, and that makes me very sad because it just shows how much the world has changed.

 

[HellToupee]

I can remember my older sister making sure everybody stayed off the phone because she was expecting a call from a boy. I used to like calling the local weather recording thing and just leaving it connected. 

Who didnt have this phone?

where is the cord? 

 

[Sabertooth]

Porkies.  The holy grail of movies of my youth. 

 

[JamieMurphy]

When I was ten, the bus would drop me off at the bottom of the driveway and I'd walk up to the house, get the key out of it's hiding spot, and let myself in. DCF was never called. I had free run of the house until a parent got home.

My mom would park illegally in front of the Rite Aid and tell me not to let anyone give her a ticket for parking there. A cop came and wrote a ticket and I was in big trouble for not guarding the car. As an eight year old.

Everyone smoked cigarettes.

We would leave the house after telling our parents where we were "going" and they'd see us whenever and they didn't care as long as the police didn't call or drop us off.

 

[mr. furley]

So true.

I was talking to someone about  this in church the other day.  And not just this, but ending up eating at a friends house.  If we were playing at someone's house or after playing ended up at their house, their parents just made us dinner too.  No planning or asking.  Dinner was made for whoever was in the house.  Lunch was even better.  The mom would just come out with food.  Tons of food if it was my Italian family and friends.  You were just expected to eat where you were.

my oldest daughter's best friend lives 4 houses down

if/when both families are home.. the kids are usually together at one house or the other.

my daughter's friend's mom is super nervy and worried about her daughter being a "burden" on us. as though making another pb&j with some chips is going to be the final straw. she's constantly fretting that her daughter spends too much time at our place & is taking advantage. i barely even notice when she's over. 

 

[shuke]

Also, going to the mall was a thing. Mall, food court, mall arcade. Get picked up by parents.

We'd take the bus!

 

[Sabertooth]

my oldest daughter's best friend lives 4 houses down

if/when both families are home.. the kids are usually together at one house or the other.

my daughter's friend's mom is super nervy and worried about her daughter being a "burden" on us. as though making another pb&j with some chips is going to be the final straw. she's constantly fretting that her daughter spends too much time at our place & is taking advantage. i barely even notice when she's over. 

It's better.  Then my kids aren't standing over my shoulder like Sonny on Goodfellas.  

 

[Sweet J]

My mom would park illegally in front of the Rite Aid and tell me not to let anyone give her a ticket for parking there. A cop came and wrote a ticket and I was in big trouble for not guarding the car. As an eight year old.

 I can remember being given this responsibility. 

Also, my mom would sometimes park and send me in -- as a ten year old! -- to the convenience store to buy her Marlboro Lights.  Most clerks wouldn't bat an eye.  Sometimes someone would ask where my mom was, and I'd point to the car and my mom would wave to the clerk.

Really was a bizarre time. 

 

[Keith R]

As a fantasy football commissioner, I often called the local paper's sports department to get box scores (didn't want to wait until the next day).  Those guys must have hated me

 

[Sabertooth]

What age were you when you first got served in a bar?  I was 17.  

 

[mr. furley]

It's better.  Then my kids aren't standing over my shoulder like Sonny on Goodfellas.  

christ, his name is Sonny Bunz

 

[Zegras11]

As a fantasy football commissioner, I often called the local paper's sports department to get box scores (didn't want to wait until the next day).  Those guys must have hated me

I got paid to hand score games in all sports and fax them over to a national contest.

 

[Tin Cup]

These were a way to get free stuff

 

[mr. furley]

What age were you when you first got served in a bar?  I was 17.  

yeah, 17. summer after my senior year of HS. got a temp job at a local metal works place. when my 2 months were up the guys i worked with (mostly in their middle 20s) took me down the road to get drunk as a send-off

 

[Bull Dozier]

98 degrees here.

75 degrees there, great fishing, a quiet cabin with no TV and internet, and 10 days with my kids, my bros, and beer.

Cabin, OK.  That's accetable.  But, I drove home from Atlanta on Saturday and it was 10 degrees warmer in Minnesota that day than Atlanta.  Coming to MN in July isn't always an escape to better weather.

 

[Yankee23Fan]

my oldest daughter's best friend lives 4 houses down

if/when both families are home.. the kids are usually together at one house or the other.

my daughter's friend's mom is super nervy and worried about her daughter being a "burden" on us. as though making another pb&j with some chips is going to be the final straw. she's constantly fretting that her daughter spends too much time at our place & is taking advantage. i barely even notice when she's over. 

Yeah, it's amazing how different this kind of thing is.  And to @Sweet J point above, if there are kids in my house I pay for/make everything.  They don't put in the till so to speak.  If I decide to get takeout, or decide to just take everyone out for a movie/meal or whatever, I pay.  That's how it works.  We have neighbors with multiple kids and we all get along great and our kids all hang out together and I have a tiny piece of my childhood in my neighborhood now as I come home from work now and I will never know how many kids will be in my house.  And that is how it should be.

 

[Keith R]

What age were you when you first got served in a bar?  I was 17.  

Would you believe 14?  Had to make sure I hadn't shaved the day before and had the chest hair showing.

 

[Koya]

We'd take the bus!

It's the ONLY time I think I'd ever taken a bus with my friend. White kids from the burbs just DONT, ya know? 

We did once ride our bikes the like 10 miles to Roosevelt Field. 

 

[Sweet J]

A little off topic, but . . . 

This weekend my 17 year old son planned to go to a party with some buddies.  Ok, whatever. I think I needed his help in the morning, so I told him to be home by midnight.  I got a text from him at 9:30 saying they decided to go to the movies instead.  Ok, whatever.

When get got home, he told me that he did, in fact, go to the party.  But earlier, when his buddy's mom asked them if any parents at the party, the buddy waited ten minutes and then told the mom, "you know what, I think the party is going to be lame. We're going to see a movie instead." He then had his friends (my son) text their parents that they were going to a movie so the stories would all be straight.

I'm not sure how this story belongs in this thread, other than to say that some things remain the same.