What was common when you were a kid, that since mysteriously disappeared?

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Junior_Fee2640@reddit

Oh my gosh I thought only my family did this!

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twineandtwig@reddit

We still do them! Although we might do it on Saturday or even a weekday, as Sunday is a quieter day in our neighborhood. Perfect for staying in.

I was a shift manager at a Pizza Hut when corporate forced us into being a non-smoking restaurant, something my manager fought against for years. Even after we officially converted, she continued to smoke in the back and allowed the employees to as well.

It did feel weird when we were seating customers and could no longer ask “smoking or non?” It was strangely awkward so we started asking “table or booth?” instead.

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bizoticallyyours83@reddit

I like hearing other people's anecdotes.

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360inMotion@reddit

Same! This was back around 2000-2001, and I think there were only two employees at the entire restaurant that didn’t chain smoke; we referred to that fact as “the Pizza Hut Corruption” since most employees weren’t smokers when they were first hired, lol.

I can remember walking through the mall with my mom as a kid, and how she’d browse from store to store through the indoor walkway by going from ashtray to ashtray so she wouldn’t drop any ashes or butts on the floor. Seems like such an appalling concept to smoke in any indoor public place now, but of course nobody thought twice about it back then.

I can clearly remember the one my mom had that was straight out of the 60s. It was a heavy, black metal bust of a horse’s head, topped with a glass amber ash tray that could be removed and a metal handle so you could move the whole piece easily. We got rid of it sometime in the 80s after she’d quit smoking.

Monkeynutz_Johnson@reddit

That's great. Still got it? Pics of mine are under my profile if you want to see.

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thisisntmyotherone@reddit

Unfortunately, no.

Driving up I-95N back from Baltimore in 1991 I think (I know I was still underage and coming from a friend’s friend’s bachelorette party at a bar) I glanced in the rear window, as one does when driving and saw a bunch of smoke coming from the engine.

Luckily I was only a couple of miles from either Chesapeake House or Maryland House, whichever is further south, I can’t remember.

I was going toward the actual garage they had past the parking and the inside rest area there, but someone alerted me to the fact that they also had the GAS PUMPS there, too. By this point there were flames coming from the engine.

A fire truck rolled up and the guys were getting started on the engine as I grabbed my purse and overnight bag and jumped out of the car. I don’t know why but I never got really flustered. Sure, I was upset, but my life was never in danger. The coworker I went down to Baltimore with saw me pull off the interstate (because obviously this was pre-cellphones) and thankfully she was able to get me home to Delaware, where my parents had a scotch waiting for me.

In that magical way that dads did back then, my dad found out where they had towed the car after the fire was put out since that was Maryland and we lived in DE. I don’t think we ever found out what started the fire but it was so hot it melted both the carburetors.

There was no way so save the car. It was so ruined by the water and the foam from the firefighters it would’ve been prohibitively expensive to have it rebuilt. My dad had already spent 10 years and I have no idea how much money rebuilding it the first time around, between the time after I was in kindergarten when it ended up in a storage space. My dad surprised my mom with it sometime in 1989 or 1990 because I definitely had it senior year in high school, when my dad had had it repainted its original metallic gold flake.

My high school friends said the color reminded them of beer and promptly nicknamed it ‘Bud.’ My mother was unimpressed: ‘couldn’t they name it after a good beer? They don’t even drink “Bud,” do they?’ Not even on a dare or for a bet, that’s true, but it is easy to say and pretty catchy. A future roommate who named her dog ‘Molsen’ had a good laugh at that. (I should say was since this was about 30 years ago and I don’t know how the game has changed since then) one of about three in the country which has Corvair parts.

I don’t know where you are geographically. I’m guessing you’re in the U.S. If you’re in the Eastern U.S., you probably know about the Corvair place just west of Gettysburg. I should couch this by saying this was about 30 years ago and I don’t know how the game has changed since then. This place is/was one of about three in the country which has Corvair parts, but it was more than just parts. It was also a Corvair hospital/graveyard which serves the Eastern Seaboard if not the East Coast. That’s where we ended up having AAA tow my car. There were Corvair shells and doors and quarter panels there for at least a quarter-mile up a this particular hill, as far as my eye could see. More Corvair was a He took my car and with it traded me a ‘64 4-door manual for which I (unfortunately) overpaid $1400.

This thing was a lemon. I hated it. I couldn’t downshift from second to first without coming to a complete stop. It was maddening. I would’ve liked to have known that there was an issue with the transmission prior to buying the vehicle! I loved that it was a Corvair and I could afford it but my heart hurt so much over the loss of my other one, I think just got suckered in by the offer of another Corvair. Oh well, live and learn, I suppose.

I’d love to own another one. You know how when you own a certain type of car you seem to see them everywhere? That certainly occurred with my Corvairs. I look whenever I’m out (and I’m not out very often which is a different story) but I don’t seem to see them anymore.

My dad also had a ‘51 Studebaker complete with missing nosecone, just like in The Muppet Movie, he was proud to say. I have no idea if he still has it or not.

Vent windows? You mean the window that if you opened just right and held the cigarette at the right place it sucked the smoke out of the car without blowing ashes all over you.

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d_rob_70@reddit

sucked the smoke out of the car

My mom had a Corvair in the early 70s that had a floor vent!

Spiritual-Island4521@reddit

One of the coolest ones I used to drive was a diesel. I know a guy who bought a Monster truck based on a Square body Chevy. We had stalls in the garage for the show tires. It's actually pretty sweet. It's painted like USA1 without the graphics.

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silkrover@reddit

My father owned/built at least five. One 4x4, and almost all 350 small block/350 automatics. One had a six in it, but he sold that one on.

whatsherface2024@reddit

I seriously miss the vent windows. I also miss the lever down near your floor to open the vent.

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Impressive-Shame-525@reddit

I daily drive a 1988 Ford LTD Country Squire.

The ballsack chiller vent under the steering wheel to minimize swamp ass was an engineering marvel.

Alas!!

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OldBanjoFrog@reddit

I wish these were still a thing

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bt65@reddit

My first thought! But be careful not to open them too much, the draft could kill you...

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kwecl2@reddit

gif

Waiting for that sweet sweet free after 6

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onekinkyusername@reddit (OP)

I can still hear the click of those split flap clocks in my head.

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Rebel4503@reddit

Pocket money. 🙂

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CobraPeaches94@reddit

White dog poop. I read an article on it 🤔

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SassyCatKaydee@reddit

Holy crap!! No pun intended lol. I had COMPLETELY forgotten about that!!! Seeing white dog poop was such a normal thing back in the day.... hmmm 🤨

When I was a kid all the grocery stores sold ripe fruit. You didn’t buy produce and then have to wait until it ripened at home.

It used to be really foggy every winter. I’ve only seen the type of soupy, thick fog I frequently had to walk to school in a few times as an adult.

Who was that?

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Electronic_Device788@reddit

Rotary dials/Phone Booths - Relics of the modern era.

We don't have cable, just streaming, so we miss whatever the New Must-See Show is. When we do find a show we want to see, we can binge all 6 seasons in a week.

You're so right, it really is sad. I've tried to kind of tweak things to recreate the family time of my childhood.

With a kid coming, I'm actually building a media server with custom channels. Part of that will be Saturday morning cartoons.

It'll only give the kid access to stuff I put on. There's a lot of naivete coming from me here, but the kids stuff on YouTube is horrifying. I figure this will give the kid stuff I know, stuff kind of boring that isn't just dopamine stimulation, force the kid to learn scheduling and that life isn't on demand, and make the kid deal with nothing good being on - a good early problem to learn solutions for

I figure this works fine from like age 3 to kindergarten.

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BigFatBlackCat@reddit

That’s really sweet :)

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Ektojinx@reddit

Another downside is reminiscing with friends. Most kids from my gen watched the same thing every morning.

Often I'll quote something or ask if something remembers show X from childhood and we laugh/talk about it.

This is such a good comment.

Yep. Me too. I still like both, but haven’t seen the original Land of the Lost in years. Those came before the Warner Bros on CBS and the Hannah Barbera on NBC!

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Known_Funny_5297@reddit

Sleestaks!

Yes! I remember waking up extra early and we’d have to stare at the test pattern until 6am and the cartoons started.

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bunnyhop2005@reddit

That is some dedication, lol

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veronicaAc@reddit

We would sit on the floor right in front of the kerosene heater when it was super cold in the morning and crane our necks up at those cartoons for 3-4 hours😂

Yes. Cartoons were only on at specific times and it was special. Saturday mornings ruled when you got to pick out between the big 3 networks every half hour while munching on cereal. Soul Train signaled the end of the toon parade so that’s when you’d go run outside to play.

Boogra555@reddit

Common courtesy.

Multiple choices for interiors too... vibrant reds, emerald green, deep blues, etc....

It’s…tangy.

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Quirky_Commission_56@reddit

gif

You notice that since GPS few people go missing in the Bermuda Triangle anymore.

Because there is nothing. I’ve sailed through it. I spent nights anchored on it. The only thing “mysterious” is that there IS a slight compass deviation you have to correct your navigation for, but GPS eliminates this.

The area is also very shallow, only 30ft deep in places. As you can imagine, if the tropical weather kicks up, a boat can easily bottom out or run aground. Hardly mysterious.

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Masters_domme@reddit

Because there is nothing. I’ve sailed through it.

Sounds like something a hungry, mysterious, sea creature would say to lure in new victims! 😒

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sparrow_42@reddit

He DM’ed me and told me he was gonna need about $3.50

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MissDisplaced@reddit

There are sharks. And flying fish. But it’s all normal sea life.

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ReapingKing@reddit

I wasn’t suspicious before, but now…

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wakattawakaranai@reddit

TBH as a skeptic the most interesting thing to me since the 80s Bermuda Triangle shit was the confirmation of rogue waves. One of the biggest counter-arguments to aliens/Atlantis/ghosts was "well giant waves can't just come up out of nowhere and sink ships!" Turns out yes, they can, they do, and more frequently than we could have predicted before GPS, camera security, and other advances. Color me impressed and amazed!

By shallow waters do you mean the immediate area around Bermuda or the offshore Bahamas? I would imagine the central area of the Atlantic in the "middle" of the triangle isn't that shallow.

It’s evidence that something about these stories is true.

From all corners, people who are reasonably put together in all other aspects of their lives have stories about things they have seen they can’t explain, sometimes fantastically so. Oftentimes these are people we give a lot of trust to - military, pilots, firemen.

The truth may be something banal, and probably is. But all those people being either crazy or stupid is an even more ridiculous explanation than ancient aliens with tractor beams.

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stuck_behind_a_truck@reddit

Is this an Aquaman plot? Comic book or movie

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SheToldMe@reddit

I googled UAP factories and all I get is urban art projects. I assume this is not what you're talking about.

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TaDow-420@reddit

Nahhh..it was probably on r/ufo or the like.

Possibly a video about a 4chan post. But the poster had some “credibility” for knowing certain things only military personnel would know.

I always think of the moment (in A Goofy Movie I assume) where Goofy heats a can of soup using the cigarette lighter.

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HurtsCauseItMatters@reddit

If there was one thing that bettered society, it was Caller ID. Completely eliminated mystery sales callers and, when combined with the answering machine, invented the wonderful principal of screening calls.

It's a shame today that so many people don't practice phone screening in public. I fully believe in not being available whenever I decide and in the peace that comes from not having to listen to Karen take the call from Janet and spend the next 45 minutes deep in conversation in the middle of Walmart.

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There’s an unknown number of people out there who are still waiting for their first delivery from “The Cheese of the Month Club”. Also many people still wonder why they got a scratchy, seemingly distant radio message that stated authoritatively “The Eagle has landed.” Oh, and there’s that asshole property manager who will never get the address of his property where the water heater burst and flooded the first floor.

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LadyChatterteeth@reddit

Aside from ruining the fine art of prank calling, as someone else pointed out, I would have lost out on a hundred bucks if I’d had Caller ID and ignored the random call I got from a jury consultant who offered me money to participate in a mock jury trial one Saturday afternoon.

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Tri-colored_Pasta@reddit

And you don't have a ringtone. It is a literal bell in there ringing. It was the most basic "sound to alert a person there is a call". Not some relaxing tone or favorite song that counters the "oh fuck, what now?" sense of dread i get.

Or those awful electronic ringing tones that appeared on 80s store models and cordless phones. A few in movies seemed modern and pleasant. Like a rich movie character may have had a high end phone with a calming electronic pulse. All of mine were terrifying. Like the same tone as one of those alarm clocks with electronic sound instead of a buzzer. Every time the thing rang my brain thought 'Fuck, it's 5 AM, it's cold outside and I need to make the bus, to go to school for 8 hours". If just for a 10th of a second it happened.

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originalbL1X@reddit

This trust was abused by telemarketers, which led to the advent of caller ID.

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nooniewhite@reddit

Or a knock at the door used to cause excitement, now it’s like,”who the hell is that!?” My d tended family used to just drop by and Vice Versa all the time in the 80’s!

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BlurryBigfoot74@reddit

You would literally answer the phone like... "Hello?".

The same way you'd talk into a dark room when you thought you heard someone.

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Pastor-Jerry@reddit

We used to get obscene phone calls late at night. They always knew my name. That is one thing I do not miss about our old phones.

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Strong-Piccolo-5546@reddit

now tell them you had to write down phone numbers. also tell them there was a white pages with everyones address and phone number in it. You were auto-doxxed by the phone company.

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ChildhoodOk5526@reddit

You were auto-doxxed by the phone company.

(unless you paid to have a private listing.)

But yeah -- I guess the concept of stalking just hadn't occurred to us then (?)

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Strong-Piccolo-5546@reddit

your address is a matter of public record. its easy to get. in fairfax county you can look up addresses and get the names of who owns them. you can also spend a bit of money and go to a bunch of background check websites to get peoples address. its a myth that your address is private.

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Uztta@reddit

__ residence, ______ speaking.

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rich8n@reddit

I don't know who is calling 100% of the time now. I only get spam/scam calls now.

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I_Dont_Like_Rice@reddit

https://i.redd.it/yt6eegos5jud1.gif

Every car had a shield on the front window to stop water coming in when the window was open

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OtakuTacos@reddit

Ashtrays at McDonalds

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360inMotion@reddit

Those and the little crack spoons.

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kaliglot44@reddit

those are for powder cocaine, not crack

About 10 years ago I got on a Spirit flight and there was a flip up ashtray in the armrest.

Kind of scared the shit out of me. How old was that plane lmao.

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purpleReRe@reddit

It’s a discount airline. Of course the plane has obsolete parts and is more dangerous than the newer planes. That’s why it’s cheaper. ValueJet crashing into the Florida Everglades comes to mind. I think I gotta stop listening to the Swindled podcast. I’m running out of safe products to buy.

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dehavillandtigermoth@reddit

That's not how it works. Spirit is a US-flagged airline and is just as safe as a legacy carrier due to FAA regs.

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purpleReRe@reddit

Fantastic. I love to hear that.

Yeah, it’s so weird how we were all so used to it that we didn’t notice it, and now that it’s rare to come across we’re reminded of how gross it is.

There was a store in Boston called “Sears Surplus”. I think it was full of returned items and extra stock that didn’t sell. It was my mom’s favorite escape. She would pack 4 of us in the car and then let us loose in the store while she shopped for bargains.

It’s long gone.

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360inMotion@reddit

I remember visiting the little Sears Catalog Store with my mom whenever she needed parts for the washing machine or whatever, and they had one of those arcade booth machine thingies that played cartoons. I’d never get the quarters to actually play the cartoons, but I’d sit in them and pretend I was getting to watch cartoons while waiting for her to get her order.

THEY OWNED EARLY INTERNET SHOPPING! They owned some of the earliest websites like Prodigy which had ecom.

And, they had the catalog infrastructure. They were the best set up to take over the world.

Such a miss. Just insane they actively dug in their heels instead of testing.

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CarlatheDestructor@reddit

And they had done made a good comeback in the 90s with the "come see the softer side of Sears" ad campaign.

Competition and tech made long distance calling almost nothing.

Cigarette lighters in cars became less of a feature when people started to realize they should lock kids in a car with smoke.

LaLionneEcossaise@reddit

Cassette tapes. Dollar movies. Tab soda. Station wagons. Cigarette machines. Wood paneling. White knee-high athletic socks with stripes. Flash bulbs/film. TV antennas. Phone books. 45s. Water beds.

And snow days meant no school, now they’re “online learning.”

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wakattawakaranai@reddit

Honestly miss the dollar movies, I'm still of the mindset that $5 is too much to pay for a movie I may only kinda-sorta want to see in a theatre. Back in my yout when I had just graduated college, I lived near a dollar theatre, saw Phantom Menace like 20 times just because I could. Took a touring synthpop band there to see "She's All That" because they wanted to support their friends in Sixpence Non the Richer for getting that boring song into the movie.

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360inMotion@reddit

We had a dollar theater at the local mall back when I worked there, also during the Phantom Menace era. Loved that the snacks kept the dollar theme as well! If I was off for the afternoon I’d check out what was playing and maybe get a hot dog, drink, and popcorn along with the movie ticket for less than $5.

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TransmogriFi@reddit

Mmmm, Tab, Mr.Pib, and Nehi.. man, I miss Nehi grape soda.

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360inMotion@reddit

Canfield’s Diet Chocolate Fudge Soda.

I barely remember what it tastes like, but my aunt went nuts over it.

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Low_Key_4201@reddit

Available on amazon.

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saugoof@reddit

Just two days ago I stumbled over some old RCA cables and decided to hook up the tape player I've had sitting unused on the shelf for what must be decades, just to see if it's still working. That's when I discovered that I don't even have any cassette tapes anymore! That's wild, those tapes where so important to me for a substantial part of my life! I used to have at least a thousand of them, and now they're all gone.

I still have hundreds of LPs and CDs that I also haven't touched in a very long time. I still can't face up to tossing them out, even though they're just collecting dust.

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LaLionneEcossaise@reddit

I have just two cassettes after all these years.

Do you remember making cassette recordings of your favorite song at a little booth? Macy’s had them back in the day, and I think some nightclubs did as well. You picked a song, and it was basically karaoke that was recorded on a cassette tape. My friends and I did it once, and I have the original. Of course, my friends had copies—not sure if they still have them, though!

I also have a Duran Duran concert that aired on the old King Biscuit Flower Hour that I recorded off the radio. It was the Sing Blue Silver tour in 1984. I think there are bootleg CDs of the same show.

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EastYouth1410@reddit

Snow days suck now. I feel bad for my kids because we have an excellent sledding hill nearby and they can't use it because they have to sit around on a laptop on snow days. Huge bummer.

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Bcruz75@reddit

Interesting....neither of my kid's schools do remote learning on snow days (Colorado). They typically don't announce a snow day until the morning of, usually at 5am.

Lol, I bought Pure Moods II for my brother solely so he could have the song “Life in a Northern Town” on CD; at the time you could only find The Dream Academy on vinyl and cassette.

There was a story of a married couple that had spontaneously combusted one early Christmas morning in my sleepy little hometown back in the late 1880s or so, which was a good 80 years before my own family settled there. My parents occasionally mentioned the story and I’d find myself wondering how true it was.

One of the first things I tried looking up when the internet became a thing was the story about the couple. Was it just a crazy legend or did it really happen?

So I found out woman had indeed burned to death in their kitchen, burning a hole in the floor and leaving behind ashes and char, some bones, and two burned but clearly recognizable feet still wearing shoes! The house itself did not burn, but the inside was covered with grease and soot. The man had apparently died of asphyxiation from his burning wife as he was sleeping in their bedroom on the same floor. A visiting farmhand that had spent the night upstairs died two weeks later with the same residue in his lungs that was found in the husband’s.

It’s generally believed that humans don’t “spontaneously” combust, but that certain conditions can burn a body like a candle if there’s an outside flame to spark it.

More details on the story.

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madlyhattering@reddit

Do any of you remember the movie about Killer Bees where the guy lured the bees not his Beetle and drove into the Astrodome, where they had turned down the thermostat unrealistically far to kill the bees? Not sure it was more than a TV movie.

LOL. Memories.

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360inMotion@reddit

Afraid not, but I do remember a terrifying movie where the spiders took over, and at the end they look outside and every single thing was coated with thick layers of spiderwebs.

I tried to explain the Bicentennial to a millennial and he just could not understand what a big deal it was or why I suggested it was a major event of the 70s.

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360inMotion@reddit

I can’t remember the bicentennial since it was the same year I was born. However, I do remember seeing remnants of the bicentennial decor of the era with colonial stylized imagery of red, white, and blue sprinkled in with farmhouse design and bald eagles. I found a reminder of this with a chair I saw in a thrift store several months back:

Wish I’d had the space for it, looked like it had never been used!

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an_unexpected_error@reddit

... and then the poltergeists.

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mmsiv@reddit

I watched this with my 24 year old son this afternoon! He was definitely not impressed. 😂

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stavingoffdeath@reddit

😹

gif

Heat lightning and sweat bees all summer. Where did those go?

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Lawlers_Law@reddit

Credit card imprint machines. I worked when the crossover to electronic scanning was taking place. When ever the the electronic POS went down, we'd have to pull out these babies.

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PrickleAndGoo@reddit

Knuckle buster

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TheRealMrJoshua56@reddit

Only 3 pictures from that kodak disposable camera were keepers

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Wheelie_1978@reddit

Yes maximum.

Remember the flash cubes you attached to the camera as well.

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daisybeast1966@reddit

Not exactly mysterious, but I can't believe that when I was a kid the treatment for intestinal distress was kaolin and morphine.

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desertblaster72@reddit

Non air conditioned classrooms, the ones with a big ole stand fan on oscillate. When it passes you by, you were the most comfortable ever. Then, there was the 45 seconds of blistering heat. Ha.

No road rage. Like, zero that I experienced.

A swerving driver was a drunk driving asshole, not some mush brain on their phone.

Being able to afford school lunches with $5 a week. Those square pizzas......man

A $600 car that would last you 40k more miles before you dropped it off at the junkyard for $40 worth of scrap. That and $0.89 a gallon gas for said POS.

Nickle beer night on beach side (A1A, Daytona) way back at whatever garbage night club scored a few half empty kegs from some scammy beer vendor selling new kegs to restaurants around town prematurely.

There is a substantial, and noticeableceable, decrease in insect populations.

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LunaPolaris@reddit

Cheap dog food contained a lot of bone meal as a way of adding bulk on the cheap. That made the food proportionally lower in protein as well. Now cheap dog food is bulked up with soy protein because that technically complies with the minimum requirement.

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afrobeatsnation@reddit

Phone booths

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JB22ATL@reddit

Phone books

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MNGirlinKY@reddit

Monarch butterflies.

I moved to New York from Illinois. 28 years there, 26 years here. So yeah, that has bothered me for my entire life. And I voted Libertarian the last 2 elections for exactly the same reason you do, too. My wife is getting my write-in vote this time as I fully believe she could run things better.

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guano-crazy@reddit

Yeah, I well remember 2000 and hanging chads. And you’re right, it’s only gone down hill since then.

I just remember that politics weren’t as toxic as it is now. There’s always been dissent against the ruling party, but people accepted election outcomes, and tried again next time.

When it was announced that W. had won Florida to become the next POTUS, Gore conceded and moved on with his life. Now, the only outcome that will be accepted by a specific candidate in this year’s election will be if he wins. Democracy can’t work like that, which is why I fear for our country. People are too irrational about this stuff now.

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Reatomico@reddit

I’m a young Gen Xer. I feel like it got bad in 2016.

I miss the days where you actually COULD talk about politics and share ideas with people you didn’t agree with. You can’t with most people now.

When I was younger I always had the feeling that even if we disagreed we were all Americans and we were all in it together. We were all on the same team. It doesn’t feel that way any more and I miss it.

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Snarkapotomus@reddit

Just because as kids we weren't affected by Falwell's moral majority or the satanic panic of the 80s doesn't mean they weren't there. There's nothing new about today, the crazies just have better communication tools.

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guano-crazy@reddit

I agree the crazies have always been there, but let’s be real— we haven’t seen this level of shit going on in our lifetimes.

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Snarkapotomus@reddit

Nope. We had a nice, quiet few years where vague sanity was ascendant.

Turns out that was the anomaly.

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CosmicTurtle504@reddit

The massive influence of online conspiracy theories has ensured that every family has at least one member that’s gone full General Ripper.

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harleydog1524@reddit

Damn right! I remember when it was impolite to talk about politics and religion. I miss that.

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TopKitchen4270@reddit

Common sense

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dacutty@reddit

Carnation Instant Breakfast

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littlerosa22@reddit

I almost bought some yesterday until I saw how much sugar is in it, and it doesn't really have anything too good for you. It IS delicious, though.

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foilrat@reddit

The lack of bugs should be scaring the shit out of everyone.

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Uberchelle@reddit

Phone booths
Rain in September (SF Bay Area)
Diverse neighborhoods of social classes
Roller skating rinks
Men doing yard work or jogging shirtless
Parents/grandparents smoking everywhere
People sunbathing when not at the beach
Drinking out of rubber hoses
Seeing people traveling in the beds of trucks

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head, lol!

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dmetzcher@reddit

Is there a decrease in insect populations, or are the modern cars’ aerodynamics causing the bugs to ride the air over your car more often than not? I’d never thought about this before, so I googled it and…

Nope, you’re probably right; since 2000, the drop in dead bugs has been noticeable and is being attributed fewer bugs due to increased use of pesticides. Further, my theory about a cars’ aerodynamics is wrong, according to at least one study out of the UK, which found that modern cars—with a more aerodynamic body shape—killed more insects than boxier, vintage cars.

TheMatt561@reddit

That still a city, I live in a swamp.

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mmoonbelly@reddit

Huh?

Ponderosa and bonanza

I need to know where you live. I can’t drive to work and back in the morning without a ton of bugs spitting on my freshly washed windshield.

I agree with whoever said Saturday morning cartoons. All day cartoons made the magic disappear. Also, TGIF was awesome.

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ArtisticPollution448@reddit

In regards to the bugs on the windshield, it's maybe not as bad as you might think.

Yes, but populations are down. It's worth being concerned about.

But also, cars are far more aerodynamic. Bugs are just less likely to hit the windshield when the air isn't slamming into it. Also, windshield glass has anti dirt coatings that cause bugs to be less likely to stick.

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PalatialCheddar@reddit

Ahh, those were the days.

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PrettyGirlofSoS@reddit

White dog poop.

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Local871@reddit

My mom told me when it fully dried it turned into chalk. I carefully tended a little log for like a month until it was nice and stiff. Brought it to school and tried to write with it on the blackboard.

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FarbissinaPunim@reddit

What happened?

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I’m sure this story works great on the campaign trail

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Eastern-Ad-5253@reddit

He is alive and well with kids and a dog in Florida 😂

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SilentSniper062@reddit

And because of this comment,this is what i remember most!

I was just saying that to my wife yesterday as we were just down the street from our friends, and I mentioned we should swing by and say hello. She said no way, we didn't make plans, and it would be rude to pop over unannounced.

Growing up, the door was unlocked during the day, and everyone's friends just walked in unannounced. I was in a house of 7, so it happened all the time. Heck, in college, we all left our dorm room doors open so people could just pop in and it is one of my fondest memories of those days.

Now we don't answer the door without checking the Ring first.

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AlpineVW@reddit

My mom was complaining to me last week about stopping at my sister's and my sister being upset that she didn't call ahead. I had to side with my sister on this.

When we were young, if a fork fell on the floor at breakfast, my mom would always say someone would be stopping by later that day (and it always came true). People just popped over in the 80s & 90s and it was fine. Now I want a week's notice and I'll be counting the minutes to when they're leaving.

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pagit@reddit

We lived in a semi rural area and had many friends that lived in a rural area with phone service and some even had no electricity.

The door was always unlocked in case someone did come by and we weren’t there.

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MetalJesusBlues@reddit

That what we did always lol

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aunt_cranky@reddit

Having to go to the library to "look something up".

The entire field of Library Science has completely changed in the last 30-40 years (I have friends who pursued that field of study).

"Back in the old days" if you wanted to research "a thing" and you didn't have a book (or encyclopedia set) that included the subject matter you wanted to research, you had to go to a library that had a large reference selection and/or access to old newspapers on microfilm.

The "good" side of this was that there was so much LESS bullshit floating around related to pseudoscience. You could go the library and find a book about "homeopathy" (which has long since been debunked) but I can say with certainty that you didn't have hundreds of "websites" speculating that vaccines caused people to grow an extra limb, make them infertile, cause their kids to grow up "stupid", etc.

ttkciar@reddit

I was going to mention bugs on the windshield, too.

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writtenwordyes@reddit

Ashtrays in the smoking section of planes

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LushOrchestrations@reddit

A piano in the living room. Not that mysterious I guess but really depressing.

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tkdjoe1966@reddit

Common sense

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MundaneWiley@reddit

Internet plan being for 20 hours a month. Had to schedule time to use it with the rest of my family lol

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turbulencefun@reddit

this:

People disappearing in the Bermuda Triangle.

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atomic_chippie@reddit

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Antonin1957@reddit

A thin veneer of courtesy and decency when outside your own home. These days you see people with the f-word on bumper stickers, even on giant signs on their house.

Big yellow telephone books delivered to your home every year.

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GhostFour@reddit

Pesticides or speed and car shapes? We've still got plenty of bugs around the house.

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StarBabyDreamChild@reddit

Products made in the USA, or at least somewhere other than China.

Quality items built to last - clothing that lasts decades, solid wood furniture.

I keep hearing, “That’s what consumers want! No one buys the quality, more expensive stuff! It’s just responding to consumer demand!”

No. It is not what I want. No one asked me whether this is what I want. And now, there’s no other option at all anyway, because everything is cheap junk (or sometimes not so cheap - I look at furniture (not IKEA - places that have high prices) and it’s thousands and thousands of dollars, even though it’s made of junky MDF/veneers and not solid wood, and often you still have to assemble some part of it). People are buying it because they have to - it’s not like right next to it is a high-quality, Made in USA version that costs more. No - it’s the only option.

It‘s so fake. Companies, at least be honest about this and own your decisions. You did all this so you can make more money providing less (to your customers and to your workers). Nothing was about consumer preferences and choice, because you took away our ability to have a choice.

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Previous_Wish3013@reddit

Insects.

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nobodyhome92@reddit

Passing notes in class.

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libationsnation@reddit

quicksand stories

porkchopexpress-1373@reddit

Just talking to my kids about my summers in Delaware county Pa. A suburb of Philly. Had a creek behind my house. With a swath of forestry around it. My brother and our friends spent every summer back there. Wooded, dark and cool. Played in the streams, made Dams. Caught tadpoles, minnows and crayfish. Brought our toys in there. Water gun fights, rode our bikes through the water and forest. Not one tick, or mosquito. Never used bug spray. Never got infected with rashes or poison ivy. Maybe it’s just we were kids and didn’t notice. Maybe the chemicals they used in the 70’s/80’s were stronger I dunno. But we have a marsh near our house now in South Jersey. And it’s forbidden for any of our kids to go near it. It’s dirty, buggy, ticks and mosquitoes are rampant. I don’t even walk my dog over there. I wonder if every generation has this. Where they think they’re childhood was amazing and feels sad for the current kids. I know I do.

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BigDigger324@reddit

Invasive species over the last few decades have taken over. Tiger mosquitoes that bite during the day in full sunlight…..new species of ticks, natural predators being forced out, human development into areas we used to stay away from like wetlands…

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Kalistes@reddit

Dog shit turning chalky white after it dries. Apparently they changed the ingredients in dog food

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4reddityo@reddit

Fear of Communism

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faderjockey@reddit

That one is DEFINITELY still here. Except now they have expanded the rhetoric to include socialism (and they equate the two.)

Our cars broke down more often back in the day.

Jazziey_Girl@reddit

I might get downvoted into oblivion for this, but a true work ethic and pride in your workmanship. I see far too many people who think doing the bare minimum, or simply showing up, or doing subpar work, is okay.

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faderjockey@reddit

You are right, but I think you can lay that at the feet of how workers are treated rather than some inherent flaw in a younger generation.

Treat your employees well, expect them to behave like craftspeople, PAY THEM ACCORDINGLY, keep the old timers around to teach them, and you get a craftsman.

Treat your employees like an irritation, pay them the absolute minimum, don’t invest in their success, and fire the older more skilled folks because they “cost too much” and you get what you get.

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Invasive-farmer@reddit

Common sense.

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TinnitusWaves@reddit

White dog shit.

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500SL@reddit

Birds. Billions of birds.

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Weird-Response-1722@reddit

There was a case where a child in Florida went missing and was found a day or so later alive and well but trapped in quicksand.

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titikerry@reddit

Cracker jacks having actual toys and puzzles - way better than kinder eggs

Actual letters - not birthday or holiday cards but proper letters.

Fireflies.

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Accurate-Tax4363@reddit

Sense

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Wise_Donkey_@reddit

Checkbooks

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kingarthursdance@reddit

the decrease in insect populations is alarming and should be a concern. On a lighter note, perhaps, clowns were once common, there were clowns at kids parties, clowns at the circus, clowns on TV.

I am no scientist, but if we increase the amount of clowns maybe the insects will rebound?

shaun_of_the_south@reddit

Idk where you live but down here we have just as many bugs as ever.

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Princess_Magdelina@reddit

You don't, though. 80% of the bug population disappeared in the last 20 years. Insect apocalypse. They are the canary in the coal mine.

Snow days

Listening to the radio early in the morning to see if school was canceled. Being elated if you heard the DJ say your school/town and rolling over to go back to sleep. Or being in denial convinced you missed them saying your school/town and then eventually getting up to go to school wondering why all the towns nearby are canceled but your school still has to go.

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uganda_numba_1@reddit

Banana seats

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adlittle@reddit

I saw a monarch butterfly over the summer, I'd guess it's the first one I've seen in at least ten years. They used to be around so much that I didn't think about them really. The fireflies this summer were a little more prevalent than in the last few years.

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xRVAx@reddit

Cigarette butts all over the ground

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GenXer-Bitch@reddit

I still see the odd one here & there, but not like when I was younger 😔

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Smoking sections, especially on airplanes. ..and vending machines that sell cigarettes ..the one where you pull out the knob and the cigarettes came sliding across the bottom of the trough from the right.

Pay phones, fist fights, 3 speed bicycles with ape hangers and sissy bars and glitter paint, pogo sticks, clackers, Bubble Yum, Radio Shack with the battery of the week program where you get one battery for free every week. Speaking of weak.. those batteries sucked. Penny gumball machines in 10 cent treasure machines those other weird hard candy covered nut cluster nougat what the fuck that you get a handful of for a nickel or a penny or something and all these machines were connected to each other. 10 cent candy bars wax Dracula teeth wax covered juice. Sears

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WillaLane@reddit

Not really disappeared but more casual, when we’d fly when I was a child and teenage even, people dressed up to fly

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Lower-Bluebird-5322@reddit

Cigarette vending machines

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Azerafael@reddit

My hair.

But seriously though, matches. A couple years ago, i thought it would be best to get some candles and matches cos my area was having random blackouts. Had to spend a few hours running around town trying to find them.

Seems as though those plastic lighters are so cheap now that there's no point to matches anymore.

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eight78@reddit

Kindness among strangers

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Extreme-Customer9238@reddit

Playing slugbug! Every time you see a Volkswagen Beetle you yell slugbug and lightly punch who was next to you in the car.

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BleachedAndSalty@reddit

For me, it was called "Punch Buggie", and you had to call out the color, like "Punch Buggie Yellow!". Also, it was not a light punch.

I have made this trip at least once a year for the past 20+ years and it's the first time in a very long time I've seen this happen. It was so notable that I actually mentioned it to my kids.

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Short_Tailor@reddit

Jackrabbits.

Drive home at night and those rabbits were crazy. It's just empty now.

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