Whelp, it finally happened.
Posted by reddit_fake_account@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 415 comments
Last night a kid who was born in 2015 asked me what year I was born (1970). Then he asked if I had tv. I've officially become my grandparents.
FowlTemptress@reddit
Ha! My 4 year old niece asked my parents which side they fought on in the civil war.
Timmy12er@reddit
I'm impressed that a 4 year old knows of the Civil War.
FowlTemptress@reddit
She had a children’s book about it (and her dad is a history professor at a fancy univ).
Dewellah@reddit
OK. Cuz I'm not sure schools are really teaching history these days...
Traditional_Fan_2655@reddit
I'm uncertain they are teaching history either. I am also uncertain that they are teaching grammar, cursive writing (banned for 10-15 years), proper reading, spelling, or basic math concepts
Dewellah@reddit
Agree!
Old-Chocolate-5830@reddit
The one constant about history......we NEVER learn from it. Think about it for a minute.
FuggaDucker@reddit
Do the rocker and waver wars of '85 count?
FowlTemptress@reddit
Ha! I grew up in a metal heavy area (long island) but I was a new wave kind of gal.
ZephRyder@reddit
Walt a few years, then they can ask you!
Terrible_Bronco@reddit
That’s both hilarious and terrifying at the same time. Especially after watching the new civil war movie.
Dewellah@reddit
Ooh. Good retort. With the way they world's going these days! Wouldn't it be crazy if there was WWIII and ALSO the 2nd US civil war all at once! Holy smokes! Popcorn 🍿
Sea_Ganache620@reddit
Ooof!
FowlTemptress@reddit
ugh you are so right!
dogmatixx@reddit
Considering the Civil War didn’t really end, I think you should confidently reply that you supported and continue to support the Union.
PlantMystic@reddit
Yes. I believe some in the South are still fighting it.
KatSull1@reddit
Oh, they are. Speaking from experience. A Yank grudgingly living in the South.
godleymama@reddit
As someone from the South, I can confirm.
read2live2today@reddit
They absolutely are. There is a great book Confederates in the Attic that explains why.
some_random_guy_u_no@reddit
Bad news - I think they're winning.
Silver_fish1978@reddit
cybercuzco@reddit
Ask them which side they plan on supporting in the civil war.
CluckKent88@reddit
EvenPass5380@reddit
Surprised a 4 yo knew about the Civil War
blaspheminCapn@reddit
Not yet....
imadork1970@reddit
They're married, the war continues.
FowlTemptress@reddit
My parents were madly in love since the age of 15! He was already very ill when my niece asked her question and is no longer with us (he’s up in heaven with all his civil war buddies).
JumpingJackFlashes@reddit
I'm sure he had a good chuckle. Sorry for your loss
FowlTemptress@reddit
Thank you! He had a great sense of humor.
EmpressVixen@reddit
tlonreddit@reddit
When my firstborn son was really little (probably around '08 or '09), he asked me if we had cars growing up, because he thought cars were invented in 2000 because that's the model year of a Honda Civic my wife drove at the time.
bobcatbill986@reddit
My 10-year-old granddaughter just randomly informed 74 year old me, " You know Grandpa , we have cartoons in color now." Ouch.
Willing_Freedom_1067@reddit
My 2015-born daughter roasts me on the daily. She’s horrifically good at it, too. She’s turned into what I was at 17. (1989) 🤦🏻♀️
1InvisibleStranger@reddit
You can tell her that I had the primitive model! I had the cardboard that had the plastic film. You wrote on the plastic film then lifted it up to erase everything! For the life of me, I can't remember what it was called!😹
Weekly_Source6749@reddit
My great-grandma used to get those magic slates and Lifesavers books for all the great grand kids.
sportsbunny33@reddit
I had that too!
_ism_@reddit
i had the wooly willing magnetic filings thing with the magnet stylus
1InvisibleStranger@reddit
It's amazing how entertaining basic toys can be, especially when there wasn't an alternative!
affabledrunk@reddit
I was helping a fellow redditor via chat with my FPGA wisdom, explaining all the things I'd done, then he asked me how old I was? I said guess; he said 25! I'm 49. I told him I was coding verilog before he was perverted gleam in his daddy's eye.
Wise-Okra-2943@reddit
OMG! A couple years back, I think my kid was maybe in elementary? MAYBE 6th grade, so extra appalling - We were driving somewhere, and he looked out the car window and said "when you were younger, did you ever think through world would look like this?" I asked him to clarify and he said "all these CARS! Did you think there would be all these cars driving everywhere?"
.....JFC kid, how old do you think I am?? He added insult to injury by saying, incredulously, "REALLY??" when I screamed that I was born WELL after the advent of the automobile. FFS!!
Today's kids have zero concept of time, I tell you. Apparently the 70s were dinosaur times.
UntitledImage@reddit
I mean, TBF, there was a lot less cars on the road when we were kids 😆
Wise-Okra-2943@reddit
😂😂😂 I GUESS!! But NO CARS? Kid thinks I grew up in the 1700s. LOL!!
Captain-Spectrum@reddit
I had a student confidently state in a paper that we only had black and white tv in the 1980s. A college student.
reddit_fake_account@reddit (OP)
🤦🏻♀️
ToughCareer4293@reddit
😭 did you have tv?! If they only knew. Mine was a box set that was pre-remote control and I think we only got 5 channels depending on the positioning of the rabbit ear antenna🥸
La_Mano_Cornuta@reddit
Should have responded not only did I have a TV, I was the literal remote control.
I could spin the dials so fast, UHF never stood a chance. When they introduced cable, I could hold both the A & B button at the same time, and get scrambled porn to show up!
Civil-Resolution3662@reddit
Don't spin the dial so fast! You'll break it!
zombie_overlord@reddit
You must've had a fancy one with a UHF dial. There was no "turning fast" of the VHF dial. Changing channels was like CHUNK CHUNK CHUNK...
Civil-Resolution3662@reddit
Yeah the UHF dial is what I meant.
zombie_overlord@reddit
It WAS fun to turn that one fast...
2cats2hats@reddit
Useless dial where I grew up. I've never seen a UHF TV signal before. :(
Nervous-Outcome2976@reddit
KICU TV 36. Even Primus sings about it. 😁
sportsbunny33@reddit
Same - we had only 3 (sometimes 4 or 5 depending on weather) on our tv (none on UHF)
zombie_overlord@reddit
Pretty much. You could maybe get a couple of channels but they were fuzzy and who even knew what was on them.
thisisntmyotherone@reddit
Not till much, much later. 😢
KorihorWasRight@reddit
Community access channel was the only thing I've ever seen on UHF
Few-Pineapple-5632@reddit
In West Texas, two main stations were vHF and two were UHF
AMC4x4@reddit
Your rural PBS relay from your nearest big city.
DrBigJT2003@reddit
In the burbs of STL there were quite few UHF channels, and they were all non-network indy channels. Channel 30 was big enough it had a newsroom and everything but eventually it got bought by one of the networks, I forget which.
Pumpnethyl@reddit
I lived 100 miles from Dallas. The UHF channels had the B&W horror movies late weekend nights and the local cable only had 12 crappy network and PBS channels. I bought the best UHF antenna that Radio Shack carried and was able to tune in the channels. I was an electronics nerd at 12-13 and made a career out of it
SouxsieBanshee@reddit
It didn’t take much to amuse kids back then lol. Simpler times
AMC4x4@reddit
You reminded me of the antenna turner that used to go CHUNK CHUNK CHUNK as it turned thr antenna on pur roof.
jakedzz@reddit
Ours had a pleasant hum. And then it'd go too far so you'd turn it the other way and it'd go too far again. After 5-6 minutes you'd finally have a picture Picasso would be proud of.
Sleeplessmi@reddit
I bought an old house in 2000. It still had an old metal antenna on the roof. It stayed there for 3-4 years until I could afford to have the roof replaced.
mina-ann@reddit
I remember this Chunk, CHUNK, CHUNK on the first TV I remember as a little kid. I was the remote ;) happy to get up and manually change the channel.
Few-Pineapple-5632@reddit
We had this weird black and white TV that had a push button “remote” connected by a cable that would turn the channel, but only VHF and only one direction.
RadiantCarpenter1498@reddit
Omg, I still remember that sound!
Think_Seaweed_7314@reddit
A pair of vice grips made it easier to turn.
ApplianceHealer@reddit
Those plastic knobs didn’t need much provoking to fail. Leading to the Ineffective Scotch Tape Repair, and then the Needle-nose Pliers of Sad.
Hammerfix@reddit
I lol'd at Needle-nose Pliers of Sad. Thanks for the chuckle.
Civil-Resolution3662@reddit
Needle nose pliers combined with the aluminum foil over the rabbit ears was a great combination!
SnooRobots116@reddit
How many times was I told that in my time before we got remote control tv sets! And my mom and dad both broke the VHF dial while fighting over channels on the only color tv in the house.
My sister hit the roof when she found out they broke the tv when she got home from school “You two been yelling at me and the baby (me) for not to break the television set and then YOU GUYS DO IT??!!” She was 11 and in other circumstances, talking back to them like that would have made sure she did not see 12 but even they knew she had a definite point and reason to bawl them out for a switch.
No matter what actual channel you had on, the flippers got stuck on 9.
Cranks_No_Start@reddit
GO BACK…I THINK I SAW A NIPPLE…
CajunPlunderer@reddit
The funny thing is that I thought I was so clever when I discovered that.
Cranks_No_Start@reddit
We all did. lol.
WaterwingsDavid@reddit
Us oldsters have skills the young generation know nothing about! Ever watch a young kid try to decipher a rotary dial phone?
Redlar@reddit
I wasn't taught how to use a rotary phone but that didn't stop little five year old me from trying to call my friend!
I understood you made the thing spin so I just put my finger in the correct holes and spun it a little. I politely asked to speak with my friend but was very confused when I was told I had the wrong number
I then had a hot flush of shame because I thought I'd done something wrong but that's for a different therapy session lol
Over-Direction9448@reddit
How about the cursive handwritten book of people’s phone numbers next to it !
“ Dottie and Stan McGillicuddy HI 6-4593….”
WaterwingsDavid@reddit
I have my mom's old phone directory
Ok-Database-2798@reddit
I have my father's little black book from the 50's (although it was dark green) and was SO confused as a kid why the telephone numbers had letters in it (he died when I was young so I couldn't ask him). 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Cranks_No_Start@reddit
Aka “The runes of the ancients” lol
Cranks_No_Start@reddit
I follow some of the teachers subs and the one I learned which I thought was hysterical was… Circle Time..aka an analog clock. The kids lose it.
thisisntmyotherone@reddit
I saw a comment the other day where someone went with their kids on vacation and one of their kids pointed to an object in the hotel room and asked what it was. One of the parents said the kid had never encountered a landline before.
Big ouch.
AaronTheElite007@reddit
Good times
newhappyrainbow@reddit
You had a dial?! Our tv had a pair of channel locks.
titan2270@reddit
Agggh, the days of scrambled porn! Porn was much more fun when it played hard to get.
La_Mano_Cornuta@reddit
It was always getting lost in the woods
titan2270@reddit
Or in alleys after Dad's took out the "trash". Lots of Playboys were "discovered" in/around tash cans
bakerkmpasca@reddit
I feel seen. #X
Ok_Tanasi1796@reddit
TV? We had that in ‘71? Why don’t I remember?
Garuda34@reddit
I used to have to get up on the roof and be the antenna rotor too.
Cool_Dark_Place@reddit
Ahh... never knew that trick! I could sometimes get a picture by fine-tuning the vertical hold knob a bit.
Technical_Entry_9805@reddit
I freaked my kids out by telling them I was older than the internet
OriEri@reddit
Not by much and maybe not at all… The IP protocol we still use was developed for DARPA in the early 70’s. A few version updates have happened since then, but it is still the same. It was not designed to deal with the network attacks that happen today. There is still study on how to fix this.
Technical_Entry_9805@reddit
I was born in 1965 :-) so yeah, I guess I am. It's very interesting though, I guess I didn't realize to what extent the internet has been in place before public use
OriEri@reddit
My mom used Arpanet back in the 70’s some (she was at a university.) she even had one of those 300 baud audio modems where take the the handpiece of an old style rotary phone and drop it into a cradle with a speaker and microphone built-in.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/billwinters/13762363305
DismalResolution1957@reddit
Yoooooooo! That stings!! I sympathize!
Global-Jury8810@reddit
I’m starting to get depressed. Born in 2015 means third or fourth grade in elementary school now, and if they were to try to remake Back to the Future, Emmett would be retired and in a home and Marty has fucking Parkinson’s.
FountainHead-@reddit
Did you have tv then? I didn’t 😢
PhotosByVicky@reddit
My kids once asked me if everything was in black and white when I was a kid.
Cats-n-Chaos@reddit
And I thought it was bad when I told my grandson I was an extra in a movie in 1988 and he asked me if it was in black and white
Alman54@reddit
My 16 year old daughter's boyfriend asked me a week ago if I'd ever seen Spaceballs.
After I harrumphed a couple times, I told him I saw it in the theater when it came out, then spent over five minutes reciting a nonstop stream of quotes at him.
That'll teach those youngsters. Lemme get my cane.
ozSillen@reddit
Did u give paw?
Roguefem-76@reddit
"I'm my own best friend."
Creative_Energy533@reddit
My husband was teaching a class this week and said something about the twentieth century and one of his students (and one of the smarter ones) asked, "When was the twentieth century again? Was that like the 60s?" 😂🤣😭
DraggoVindictus@reddit
Born in 68 here...I forget how old I am until I realize that I grew up without the internet or cel phone. I look around and realize how lucky we had it.
Now, before anyone goes and calls me a "boomer" I did not say that those things were bad. I just ponder life without all the electronics again other than a boombox or a walkman.
Sad_Evidence5318@reddit
I'm tripping off the fact you forget you grew up without internet and cellphones.
illpoet@reddit
A friend of mines kid was wearing a misfits shirt and I was like "oh I love the misfits, what's your favorite album?" And he said "what's an album?"
The_milk_was_spoiled@reddit
Old Navy is one of the many stores that carry rock tshirts. I’ve told many students that I love the band they’re wearing and they’re always quick to tell me that they’ve never heard the music of the band shirt they’re wearing.
illpoet@reddit
I remember having to mail order my first misfits tee shirt from an ad in circus Magazine. And I don't think there was a more uncool thing than to wear a t-shirt of a band you weren't familiar with back when we were kids. Now it's the cool thing to do, and the bands they wear are all the stuff we listened to back then.
Unique_Watch2603@reddit
My 6 year old nephew asked what year I was born and when I responded 1972, his jaw dropped so dramatically and for way too long. 😄 "You were born in the 19's?! 😲 The 1900's!?"
No_Detective_But_304@reddit
Should have asked if it was color tv…
AsunderMango_Pt_Two@reddit
Don't feel too bad about that......when I was a kid, I used to think that older people could only see in black and white because color photography wasn't very common
Educational_Panic78@reddit
I thought the same, until I asked my dad how old he was when color was invented and he started laughing so hard he was crying trying to explain it was just the TVs that didn’t have color.
tossit_4794@reddit
Newspapers, too… or do kids not know what those were anymore?
sportsbunny33@reddit
My son asked me the same thing when he was young! What year did the world turn color (like in Wizard of Oz)
swedething@reddit
I hope the screen shot isn’t too cropped, it’s one of my favorites from Calvin & Hobbes.
anosmia1974@reddit
When I was little, I 100% thought that color was only invented in, like, the '60s because all the old photographs, movies, and TV shows I saw were in black and white. Calvin brought up the "so why were paintings in color" thing but I can sincerely say that this logical point NEVER occurred to me. It could be because my family was not one that took any interest in the arts, so I had no exposure to museums, books about art, etc.
I only found out a few years ago that my BFF had thought the same thing when she was little. She learned the truth when she said to her mom, "Were you sad that you always had to wear gray dresses all the time when you were little?" Her mom was like, "WTF? I didn't wear gray all the time. Why would you think that?" That's when my friend said, "Well, because color didn't exist yet and all the photos of you when you were little show you wearing gray dresses" (because the photos were all B&W). I'm glad to hear that there are plenty of other kids who had the same belief!
swedething@reddit
Thanks for the awards, people! 🙏🏻
muffinpuncher@reddit
I wish I had more to give than this simple upvote. This comic is gold.
swedething@reddit
Your upvote feels like gold to me!
Ok-Database-2798@reddit
Thank you!!! I SO miss Calvin and Hobbes. It's one of my saddest moments in early adulthood when Bill Watterson decided to retire WAY too early!!! 😥😥😥😥😥😥😥
swedething@reddit
That’s a good one! But that means that the old shellack records are from 78 then, amirite?
bikesandlego@reddit
Yes...ovbviously 1878. 😏
lrhg99@reddit
Mine too. I also like the Picasso one about perspective.
sportsbunny33@reddit
My son when he was young asked me what year had everything turned to color
elisun0@reddit
A few years ago I was sitting on a bench in the park by my house and a girl about 7 or 8yo came up and started talking to me (yes I was weirded out. It was threatening to rain and we were the only two people in the whole park).
She asked how old I (was 55) was and when I told her she said, Wow, I've never met anyone that old. Then she took a beat and asked if the world was black and white when I was little.
It felt a little like a fever dream after that question. I answered it and asked her why she was in the park alone and if an adult knew she was there. She said her big sister dropped her off there "to play" (there's no playground stuff, just paths, benches, water and ducks) and I tried to gently tell her not to talk to strange adults so easily.
I think about her from time to time and wonder if she's okay.
DarkIllusionsMasks@reddit
I do use that one on my elderly uncle a lot though. Like. Hey, unc, what was it like when the world switched to color?
Stay_At_Home_Cat_Dad@reddit
Yeah. After looking at my grandma's old photo albums, I asked her when everything got color.
orthros@reddit
Did you tell him video games only worked on channel 4?
FunMtgplayer@reddit
Channel 3 for me
Ok-Sprinklez@reddit
Did your world have color? Or was everything black and white?
ALABAMADIRTYGIRL@reddit
Tell them that scooby-doo has been on TV since the 1960s! That will really blow their minds.
ScrambledNoggin@reddit
We still had only a black and white TV until I was 4 or 5 years old.
BaldDudePeekskill@reddit
Same. I remember the department store delivering our huge 25 inch COLOR television.
reddit_user_me8@reddit
I was born in ‘79. I graduated college in ‘01 and was a working actress in my early 20’s. A few years ago my headshot from ‘01 surfaced at work and a colleague asked, “Is that from the 1980’s?” 😐
Bree7702@reddit
I was born in 1977 and had my son when I was 37, he’s ten years old now and he cannot fathom the fact that I was born so so long ago. He seems genuinely shell shocked every time he hears my birth year at appointments or over the phone.
Amissa@reddit
I’m 47 and my 11 yo asked me, “What was it like growing up in the late 1900’s?” 🤦🏻♀️
CajunPlunderer@reddit
50 and my 14YOs do that to me too.
Bree7702@reddit
They’re ruthless. I feel like he thinks I’m the Crypt-Keeper sometimes. 😭😭
Dc_Pratt@reddit
About 12 or 13 years ago i was working with a kid who I think was about 19 or 20 at the time. I mentioned something about rap music from when I was in high school (89-93) and he responded "rap music was around when you were in high school?".
WonderfulTraffic9502@reddit
Same years in high school. My nephew did not believe that we “had” rap music.
ozSillen@reddit
Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge....
Odd-Pop-7737@reddit
When my son was young, I told him we had a station wagon when I was a kid. Later he asked my sister if she knew I was so old I rode in a wagon when I was his age.
S_Q_M_P@reddit
Couldn’t help but think about this: https://youtu.be/pde8zx87tX0?si=jVfHdyoW4Qfov2ce
LeakingMoonlight@reddit
Not only did we have TV, shows came on only at certain times and and certain days, and we had to be home at that exact moment sitting in front of the warmed up TV to watch, if we weren't overruled st the last minute by the adult who paid for the television.
Stream that, Mason.
OriEri@reddit
What that gave us was a common cultural understanding of certain favorite bits of fiction. That was both good and bad.
I also find myself enjoying shows more when I watch a little and wait a week anticipating and then see another episode, rather than binging.
LeakingMoonlight@reddit
I miss the gathering in front of the television, the finding of customary seats, the missing of or additions to the usual folk, the explanations of the episode, the group reactions, the exclamations, the comments, the race to bathroom and snack breaks during the commericals, the wondering of how it will end, the pronouncements of judgement of good or bad when it was over. And, during the week, asking people if they saw the show, talking about the episode with everyone who watched it, or giving a good summary to someone who missed it. Watching TV like that created community.
OriEri@reddit
Yes! Streaming has diminished that.
Did you notice that one of the most successful streaming shows, GoT, only dropped one episode a week, and people would talk about it online all week?
LeakingMoonlight@reddit
I have not, but that is a good to hear.
beachbumwannabe717@reddit
we bought a new VCR (top loading) in 1981 we thought we had it made in the shade recording tv shows! 😆
LadybugGal95@reddit
Freak them the hell out by telling them you are older than Google.
LivingTheLife53@reddit
A month ago my 23 year-old daughter was gobsmacked when it came up that at her age I paid my bills with paper checks.
_ism_@reddit
i remember paper food stamps
Glittering_Chart_569@reddit
Born in 1980, last year my 13 yr old son asked if we had color tv when I was little.
SignalLock@reddit
My kids thought we had black and white TV in the 80s.
OriEri@reddit
I would have, except when my grandmother died we inherited her color set….
Ok-Database-2798@reddit
My husband in the early 2000's still had a B&W 13 inch TV in his room from his great grandfather when we started dating. He was 28. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Sumokat@reddit
To be fair, B&W TVs were still an option. My grandma got one for me for my birthday. It had built in antennas and a dial on the side that you used to tune in the channels like a radio
SignalLock@reddit
Yeah. I wasn’t very precise with my wording. They thought all TV was black and white, programs and all.
Sumokat@reddit
That's too cute. You missed an opportunity. You should have told them the whole world was black and white, and color wasn't invented until 1980.
ACmy2girls@reddit
Ha ha! I am also a 1970 baby. I always thought I looked young for my age until Tjmaxx asked me if I wanted the senior discount.
Ok-Database-2798@reddit
OMG, my husband and I went to the movies last fall (we were also born early seventies) and the cashier charged us for 2 senior tickets without me even mentioning it!!! I looked at the total and no, I need two tickets. She said yes, that's for two. I was confused about it until I looked at the ticket stubs!!! I liked the savings but damn!!! 😔😔😔😔😔😔
ACmy2girls@reddit
Ba ha ha!!! I love that!!!
beachbumwannabe717@reddit
my 4th grade daughter asked me (born in 1966) what kind of laptop did i have when i was in 4th grade. 😆
OriEri@reddit
Show her the late 1960s vision of an impressive future computer from hundreds of years in the future by watching an original Star Trek series episode where they talk to the computer..
OriEri@reddit
I think back to my year of birth and subtract those years from it and remember how I thought of that nearly turn of the century period as back in olden days….
Recon_Figure@reddit
Did you guys have color? I keep seeing pictures where everything is just black and white.
Dogrel@reddit
Yes, most of the world was black and white. A few people were hand tinted back then-that’s how you knew they were rich.
Then as we got older, the world started gradually getting color. At first it was real faded and blurry, but then things got sharper and sharper. By the time I was 15 it was only the poorest people and the artsy contrarians who were in black and white.
Ok-Database-2798@reddit
My husband just said those kids who think the world was black and white until recently have watched the movie Pleasantville WAY too much!!! Lol 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
porkchopespresso@reddit
My friend's young daughter asked him if there were birds when he was a kid. BIRDS
bigChrysler@reddit
No, they hadn't evolved from dinosaurs yet. 😄
Whydmer@reddit
Not only did you have to walk uphill both to school and home. You had to evade velociraptors and pterodactyls.
Majestic-Will6357@reddit
You win the internet 🛜 today 😅😅😅
in-a-microbus@reddit
When I was 6 I asked my dad if the snakes still had legs when he was a kid.
cheltsie@reddit
I haven't laughed so hard all week. Is your dad's name Adam by any chance?
in-a-microbus@reddit
Lol, no this was because of evolution. Some neighborhood kids killed a snake and when they flipped it over they pointed to some spots in its belly and said "that's where they had legs before evolution"
sportsbunny33@reddit
My sister famously asked our mom if there were trees when she was little
ktappe@reddit
Learning opportunity. Most people are stunned when they find out birds are basically dinosaurs.
accidentallyHelpful@reddit
This is the type of innocent question i might save and ask her as she walks out the door with her prom date
CluckKent88@reddit
Oh good one ☝️
eejm@reddit
When my son was little he asked me what life was like “in the olden days.”
I told him his grandma (my mom) didn’t even have a TV until she was in 4th grade, so he should ask her.
feelingmyage@reddit
Well, were there?
realdevtest@reddit
r/birdsarentreal
BigMomma12345678@reddit
I remember having one BLACK & WHITE TV when I was small
Ok-Database-2798@reddit
We had one color TV in the house in the 70's/80's and I didn't get my own 13 inch color TV for my room until my confirmation at 13 and didn't get my own small stereo system until my sweet sixteen birthday. I thought I was such hot shit then. Now I think they are in a museum somewhere!!! Lol 😆😆😆😆😆😆😢😢😢😢😢😢
Fritzo2162@reddit
I was born the same year. My kids are in their mid 20s ask me all the time if color TV was invented, if you had to start cars by cranking them, if we cooked on wood stoves, if we had to make our own clothes...
beachbumwannabe717@reddit
it was a treat if you got a store-bought dress 👗
KhingKholde@reddit
Ooof. The waiter the other night said he's for sure HEARD of South Park
Ok-Database-2798@reddit
You Bastards!!! Lol 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😭😭😭😭😭😭
PlantMystic@reddit
Omg. I bet we could tell that kid some crazy stories about rotary phones, tinker toys, and lincoln logs.
Ok-Database-2798@reddit
Don't forget the Speak and Spell!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
RadiantCarpenter1498@reddit
To be fair to that kid, I remember only having 3 channels on our tv when I was a kid. That’s basically not having a tv
Ok-Database-2798@reddit
I remember having around 7 in the NYC/Long Island area in the 70's/80's. CBS, NBC, ABC, local channels 9 and 11 (WPIX) PBS 13 and 21 and sometimes UHF. Oh, God I'm old!!!! 😭😭😭😭😭😭
Beret_of_Poodle@reddit
Back then it was just like everybody else's TV
RadiantCarpenter1498@reddit
Yep! And I was the youngest, so I was the “remote”!
OM_Trapper@reddit
Youngest was the remote and middle kid was the antenna
Waughwaughwaugh@reddit
My 9 year old asked me last night if they had color when I was a kid. Not color tv, actual color. I was born in 1980.
Ok-Database-2798@reddit
No, no...You can't be old as I was born in 1973. So what does that make me???? Lol 😭😭😭😭😭😭
Usual_Wonder_1984@reddit
When my 19 year old was about 10 she asked me, completely seriously if we had electricity in the house when I was a kid 🤦♀️😂😭
Gimpasaurous@reddit
I sat a rotary phone in front of my three grands and sat back and watched the chaos.
some_kook@reddit
Old
archedhighbrow@reddit
I had shoulder length hair which I combed over my face. I asked my teen if I looked like Ozzy Osborne and she replied, "I don't know who she is."
TheJokersChild@reddit
She'd probably say the same about Alice Cooper. Needs some educatin'.
archedhighbrow@reddit
I should blare their music on the stereo while she cleans, just like my folks did to me with Iron Butterfly.
Realistic-Currency61@reddit
A buddy of mine teaches 5th graders. They were blown away to learn that he had to get a pocket full of quarters and GO SOMEWHERE to play video games.
Goalieshark@reddit
I wish I had all the quarters I dumped into arcade games.
Realistic-Currency61@reddit
Dude, a friend of mine owns a laundromat and has multiple 5 gallon buckets full of quarters in his office. If only....
LordZantarXXIII@reddit
Did I have TV? Hah! I was raised by TV!
EternalWaltz@reddit
My 16 year old sister in law asked me if refrigerators existed when I was growing up
reddit_fake_account@reddit (OP)
Ice, ice, baby
Insufficient_Mind_@reddit
Child of 1969 here, I hate to admit it but, yes, I guess we're old now. 😔
reddit_fake_account@reddit (OP)
Right?! The kid told me his mom was born in 1992. I'm like, she's a baby! He's wondering why I said that and I told him I graduated college when she was born.😬
Illustrious-Cry1998@reddit
We didn't have a TV. First time saw one when I was 10 years old, 1977. My parents bought one when I was 14.
reddit_fake_account@reddit (OP)
😲 and I thought it was bad my parents didn't have cable until I was in college
AbovetheTrees13@reddit
I'm the youngest so my job was standing there turning the dial. It really sucked. Just changing the channel until approval has been given. I remember the glorious day that we got a remote control, it was amazing!
No_Mathematician7956@reddit
Sometimes, just telling them that I was born in the 1900s blows their minds and makes them speechless...
ConsequenceNational4@reddit
Just wow..not sure what they teach today.
SirSparkyB@reddit
'77 GenXer here:
My 18 yr old asked if "everything was in black and white back in the early 90's?" after showing her some of my high school year books. 🤦🏻♂️
Ugh... I have a vivid memory of asking my parents the same question about the 50s and 60s.
HelenaHanbaskette@reddit
I tried to explain pay phones to my grandbaby .. the response “was it extra to FaceTime and text?”
MortAndBinky@reddit
I was at the airport in Omaha, Nebraska, the other day, and they have a payphone in the terminal! It was the "newer" kind but still such an anachronism.
bwomp99@reddit
At Cleveland Clinic main campus last night!
ArtofJF@reddit
That's hilarious!!
Ok-Database-2798@reddit
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
jjmenace@reddit
I love reminding my daughter who was born in 2002 that early pictures and videos of her were on FILM! The "GASP" is audible.
--frymaster--@reddit
“nah. we didn’t have tv. and there were only three radio stations. for entertainment we rolled out own cigarettes and threw rocks at the neighbours el camino. i went and saw star wars in the original black and white before the colourized it in the nineties.”
or something like that. lean into it.
Invisibella74@reddit
I was talking with a fellow Twenty One Pilots fan before one of their shows last year and we had the most delightful conversation about "the music you've seen" and how the music industry and consuming music has changed since I started going to shows in the 80s. It was simultaneously one of the coolest conversations I've had and one that made me feel my age. 😄
Igrowny@reddit
So he was 10 yrs old, I guess he hasn't watched tv programs and put two and two together. That's more of him problem imo.
rumbletown@reddit
TV??? We didn't even have clothes back then. We wore leaves over our bits and tried to hide from all the mean dinosaurs. It was tough, let me tell you!
writerlady6@reddit
Wait 'til said kid finds out how we had to change the channel.
sometimeswhy@reddit
To be fair our TV was black and white and we had 4 channels. We needed vice grips on the knob to change the channel and had an aerial antenna on the roof
MissVixTrix@reddit
All of the above plus our TV was built into a big, solid wood cabinet together with the 'radiogram' as my parents called it (radio tuner and turntable).
Relevant_Principle80@reddit
I watched the moon landing
sportsbunny33@reddit
I remember my parents making a huge deal about it and telling me to pay attention cuz it was really important and I needed to always remember it (I guess it worked, I do remember!)
Boring_Kiwi_6446@reddit
I asked my mother did she write with ballpoints in school or did you still use a calligraphy pen and have to dip the nib in ink.
sportsbunny33@reddit
My mom did use an ink pen/ ink well in her grade school (in the 1940s). I'm oldest GenX
Boring_Kiwi_6446@reddit
Thanks, so mine probably did too. I guess she didn’t want to admit to herself that she’s that age.
Karate-Schnitzel@reddit
Kids from 2015 can talk already, can someone turn the speed dial off of 11 please?
UnHairyDude@reddit
My niece is an amateur gamer playing COD and CSGO but she always loved playing Battle City with me.
She kicked my ass every time. Guess my reflexes aren't as good as they used to be.
tolerable_fine@reddit
My favorite one I've read was an old guy telling a kid when I was little, everything in the world was in black and white, until color was invented in (insert your year of choice)
Strict_Emu5187@reddit
70 baby here too- was asked what it was like in the 1900s🤦🏼♀️
TRH100@reddit
When I was in my 40s, I asked my nephew how old he thought I was. His matter-of--fact response? 82. WTF, little man?!
Parking_War979@reddit
Two years ago at work, power goes out. While we’re trying to get things straightened out, 24 year old waitress approaches 51 year old bartender (me) and says “Was this how it was when you started in this business before electricity?”
Can’t hate her at all for being funny as hell.
No_Court_2942@reddit
👍😂
t00zday@reddit
“Back in the olden days”
HeretohelpifIcan@reddit
At about 8 yrs old my daughter asked if I had electricity when I was a kid.
ktappe@reddit
Have him open up his favorite AI or Wikipedia (his choice) and find out what decade TV was invented in. It will be a learning experience for him.
AloHaHa2023@reddit
My kids ask me if I had electricity. Let them watch Sheldon and Strangers Things. I told it was kinda like that.
Rich-Suspect-9494@reddit
I always considered myself a late boomer but after reading more it appears I’m an early GenX. By a couple years it appears. All the things I read about people just now realising I experienced years ago. I’ve known I was an old grandpa for a decade now.
Supa_Dupa_C@reddit
My husbands grandsons think he drives an antique truck. The windows are crank not electric.
Just_Me1973@reddit
I was born in ‘73. My youngest child was shocked to learn I had color tv when I was a kid.
SV650rider@reddit
Last year, an 11-year-old girl asked if I (then 49) had remote learning when I was her age.
deagh@reddit
I did. They had satellite learning for remote schools, and that's how I took calculus.
FrauAmarylis@reddit
I did. When we missed preschool, we watched it on tv. Our teacher wore a microphone and our class was filmed every day. It was on the local educational channel.
Ok-Database-2798@reddit
Yeah, tell her they were called books!!!! 😂😂😂😂😂
BlazePortraits@reddit
Yeah, but did you have TV, though?
LeatherBandicoot@reddit
Imagine how you/we might have reacted if, at the age of ten, you/we had met someone born in a different century. Wild thought, right lol My grandma was born in 1902 and it seemed sooo long ago. But I'm pretty sure some of us must have met people born in the late 1800... Maybe not that many though.
deagh@reddit
Close! My dad and his twin were born in 1907. I didn't know my dad as he died when I was a year and a half old, but my uncle lived to his 90s, so him I knew well. Their dad, who died only a few years before I was born, was conceived during the US Civil War, although he wasn't born until it was over.
Ok-Database-2798@reddit
I know. My grandmother was born in 1910 and lived until 2005. I think about all the events and changes she saw, from the Titanic sinking, WWl and WWll, Korea, Vietnam, Persian Gulf War, The War on Terror, Prohibition (I got such a kick out of her telling me she used to drink illegal alcohol as a young adult, my Grandma the criminal!! 😆😆😆😆) the Great Depression, the space race, Men walking on the moon, the Kennedy, MLK Jr and Malcolm X assassinations. The Civil Rights, Women and LGTB rights movements. The Manson murders and the rise of the serial killer. The Challenger disaster, The Oklahoma City bombing. Electric lights/phones/cars becoming more common, radio, movies, TV, antibiotics, X-rays, buses, planes, fridges/freezers. Oh and women finally allowed to vote!!! I get mad when young women tell me they aren't registered/bother voting!! I tell them when my Grandmother was born, women couldn't even vote!!!! 😡😡😡😡😡😡 Plus birth control. That was huge too.
Successful-Throat23@reddit
Are you singing a Billy Joel tune?
Wynnstan@reddit
We didn't start the fire
Ok-Database-2798@reddit
You know that song is now old too, right!!! 😂😂😂😂😂
DarkTree23@reddit
So much easier to remember your age though when you are born on the 0’s. I screw up my age all the time as I just don’t think about it much and when I am asked it can take me a minute for my brain to lock into gear to provide the proper answer.
CatPhysh0U812@reddit
1970 baby here and I concur. We are old now.
Numerous_Teacher_392@reddit
We had TV. It was a piece of shit TV. My parents were cheap. The state of technology wasn't reflected in our living room, that's for sure.
PlantMystic@reddit
Same. My folks did not spend if they didn't have too.
Numerous_Teacher_392@reddit
Mine would spend money on food.
They didn't have much food, when they were kids.
They could be selectively cheap and selectively extravagant. 🙂
cybercuzco@reddit
My kid asked if we had stores when I was young.
ReggaeDawn@reddit
I had a 17-year-old that I supervise at work who was shocked to hear that we had refrigerators when I was a kid in the '70s
Fieryivy@reddit
I went to the drs the other day and the dr I saw was the child of a dr I used to see when I was a kid/teenager….
Now I am old, nothing else made me feel that way. Not my 21 yo baby, not my grandkids. The damn drs kid being a full grown adult dr. Haha
billy310@reddit
I started a new career at 52. I have coworkers that outrank me (but aren’t my boss) that are 2-3 years older than my oldest child. Thankfully, I don’t look my age. They always get blown away when I tell them
Ok_Elephant2777@reddit
When I was a kid, maybe 10, 12 or so, I asked my mother if they had the Pony Express when she was a girl. The Express folded before the Civil War. My mom was born in 1926.
Vodka-and-Valium@reddit
I was born in 1967. My son (1992) asked me if there were steam trains when I was little
Seayarn@reddit
I worked in Healthcare, and when I started, I worked in a long ago established family medicine office. We did have a few patients who were over 100 years old, meaning that they were born in the late 1800s.
I am sure social and technical changes were much more extreme from their perspective!
billy310@reddit
I mean, we didn’t have TV as they understand it. You couldn’t just watch damn near anything in a couple clicks. We got what was playing, out of a total of like 6 options if you were lucky
lantanabush88@reddit
Lol
tc_cad@reddit
My FIL grew up without electricity or running water. He grew up in a remote region in the 1940s and 1950s. Said he remembers the truck putting in power poles and power lines. I think he said it was about 1959 and he was 14.
onions-make-me-cry@reddit
I'm white and my son's dad is Black.
When my son learned about MLK in school, he asked if his dad and I were allowed to play together when we were little (cuz his dad and I grew up together - but in the 1990s).
He's also asked if there was color photography when we were kids.
cl0ckw0rkman@reddit
So I knew this but I put it all together last year. My mother is white. My father is black. They got married the year the state they were in legalized it.
The month it was legalize they did. Have been together over 57 years.
Ricekrispy73@reddit
Around 15 years ago my niece’s 10 and 12 years old were spending the night at our house. I was watching a movie that was in black and white. They watched for a few minutes and turned and asked what was it like to only see in b&w and when did people start seeing in color. Lmao. My first thought was man these kids are dumb. I then explained it to them about how film works. I still shake my head today thinking about it. I’m 52.
Marzipan7405@reddit
Kids born in the 70s thought the same thing.
Ricekrispy73@reddit
I was born in the 70’s and never thought that.
tsumommy@reddit
I was born in ‘71 & when my daughter was about 6, she asked me if my childhood was in color or black & white.
D-Ray1469@reddit
Just quote Mott the Hoople: Well had TV, but we needed TRex.
shit_ass_mcfucknuts@reddit
I tell them that I did have a TV, but they didn't invent color until 1980 so all I had was a black and white.
WBryanB@reddit
I remember when Ted Turner came down from the Mount and brought us color!
OM_Trapper@reddit
Geologically topsoil refreshes itself every 20-5 years or so, so I tell folks I'm three times as old as dirt.
draggar@reddit
https://i.redd.it/3zt6hmpsotwe1.gif
bluewarbler9@reddit
In the theater for his movie, two of my cousins were sitting on either side of me. Each leaned over at this line and whispered, “We have five!” My family in 1985 was still in the dark ages and had merely one. And I was one of only two kids in my high school class whose family was holding out on getting a VCR.
kirannui@reddit
One of my students (I teach pre k) asked me how old I am. I said "110," and they accepted it without question
Amissa@reddit
😂😂😂💀
pullmyfinger222@reddit
I remember the look on my kid's faces when I told them that I was around for the invention of video games. It was the first and last time all three of my kids were simultaneously speechless. 😳
PlantMystic@reddit
Did they bow down and say "we're not worthy...we're not worthy". lol
pullmyfinger222@reddit
🤣👍
1Overnumerousness1@reddit
Tell them ”Yeah, and I use to bang your mom on top of it”
GuitarHeroInMyHead@reddit
You could probably tell them you had a black & white TV....and it had a dial you had to get your ass out of the chair to go and turn if you wanted to switch channels. They may not even know what "changing channels" means!
CrankyThunderstorm@reddit
My now 13 year old son asked me when he was little if we had candy when I was a kid. I said nope, we chewed on rocks while we rode our dinosaurs. 😂
Alloyrocks@reddit
Hahhahaha! That’s actually funny. At least you can take comfort in the fact it’s just a kid. I had an adult ask me last week what my retirement plans are….like, I’m not that close to retirement (I know, it’s all relative) to be making a plan yet!
AlphaTitan420@reddit
I was asked by my 7 year old nephew if I was a slave after I told him I was born in 1977. I feel your pain.
bourbonpens@reddit
OM_Trapper@reddit
🏆
Sergeant_Crunch@reddit
One of my sons at the age of seven (11 years ago) looked at me sweetly one day and asked, "Daddy, did they have water when you were born?"
_TallOldOne_@reddit
Just tell them that you were a kid there were traveling minstrels and court jesters in the town square every night.
Money-Detective-6631@reddit
I hate to admit it but they need to start teaching American history in Schools. The revolutionary war, The civil war, World War 1 and 2 . The Korean war then the Vietnam war......No wonder the kids are confused ...
Silent-Bet-336@reddit
When I was a teen we had a b&w tv.i guess it has a cracked circuit board and when it got too warm the tv would just stop working. Imagine our friends when the tv just stopped and we shut it off and headed to the kitchen to drink coffee and gossip. Ah good times.
jus4fun49@reddit
My daughter has a habit of asking about things that happened in the 19's....lol
Consistent-Bee9738@reddit
You could have schooled him on rabbit ears and really blown his mind😂
deljoyous@reddit
My daughter once asked me if I needed to keep my ankles covered when I was a little girl.
PlantMystic@reddit
Yup with our tube socks!!
cartooncande@reddit
Back then we called it a picture box!
PlantMystic@reddit
And we played discs on the phonograph!!!
mistyblue3@reddit
Eh my son asked me about the 80s in like 2005. He was 6. He said "so you were alive when dinosaurs were here" omg I laughed so hard. I wasn't even 30!
AshDenver@reddit
u/reddit_fake_account - introduce the progeny to this gem. Blow their minds!!
Show-Valuable@reddit
My grandson assumed I had black and white TV as a kid. I schooled him on MTV!
Otherwise_Dream_888@reddit
Yes and we also used to dial 0 on a dial telephone (which would connect us to a live phone operator), whenever we wanted to call someone who was out of state or country. Those were the days…
cme74@reddit
Ridiculous!
bourbonpens@reddit
I remember riding my bicycle from mine down the road to my uncle’s house during commercial breaks on Saturday morning so I could watch the cartoons in color.
Odd_Beginning_8419@reddit
It bugged my kids out when I told them that I didn't have the Internet until after I graduated highschool and that I thought life as a kid was way better without it.
Affectionate-Desk699@reddit
Haha. I had a student at work, in her teens. She asked me if we had Tv and Cartoons when I was younger. I'm 55 .
crookedpath73@reddit
Around 15 years ago my niece’s 10 and 12 years old were spending the night at our house. I was watching a movie that was in black and white. They watched for a few minutes and turned and asked what was it like to only see in b&w and when did people start seeing in color. Lmao. My first thought was man these kids are dumb. I then explained it to them about how film works. I still shake my head today thinking about it.
Octavale@reddit
If he asked me (same age as you) my answer would have been no - no I did not have a tv growing up, but there was a family TV in a wooden cabinet and we got about 4 channels (when the rabbit ears were pointing correctly)
SitamoiaRose@reddit
I am often asked by the year 4/5 (3rd/4th grade) kids I teach if I had certain things in ‘the olden days’ 🤣
I do tell them I am older than Google which they struggle to comprehend. I also tell them that when I was at school, the teachers on duty had to protect us from the pterodactyls that would swoop down and try to carry us off for their dinner 🤣 That’s why we wear hi-viz vests - in honour of those who didn’t make it 😁
DaGoodBoy@reddit
I was born in 1967 and I still remember watching a B&W television.
NoPanda5634@reddit
I was born in 71 and my parents got their first color tv in 1979. I found the original receipt in a box I was going through just before my mother passed away. They originally paid over $1000 for a 19” color tv. They had to get a loan to buy it. That really opened my eyes. My grandparents never had a color tv. Nor did they ever really want one. They didn’t watch much tv. They listened to the radio more. Which is probably why I still like to listen to the radio when at home to this very day.
SenpaiRa@reddit
1975 here, i still remember when my aunt got the 1st colour TV in our area. I remember watching the original A-Team in B&W. 😁
Silvaria928@reddit
Haha, don't take it too badly...when I was 12 my Mom had just turned 30. I wished her a happy birthday and then said, "It's great that you can still walk so easily and even run!"
It's been 45 years and she still gives me a hard time about that.
forestfrend1@reddit
My aunt still reminds me every time I see her the time that I wanted to go out and do something and told my cousin, "soon you'll be 40 and you won't be able to walk".
I'm 47 now... I can still walk.
Doorknob6941@reddit
Time to keep a bowl of Werther's candy by the front door.
45babycakes@reddit
My kids asked if I took a horse to school. Lmao, you little c unts. 🤣
Rough_Purchase1638@reddit
You know what else we didn't have as GenX? The need to preface thoughts with "whelp", "welp", or "I mean".
Thank goodness.
ElectricTurtlez@reddit
Also born in 1970. I had a kid ask me a few years ago if I had to fight Indians when I was younger. I guess I had a few spats with my cousin….
chachi1rg@reddit
Did you tell them that you only got channels 2-13
justmisspellit@reddit
Tell them that in the 90s there was a movement of pretentious hipsters declaring “I don’t even own a tv.”
Remember those guys?
Grimol1@reddit
At least he didn’t ask if everything was black and white back then.
LonelyQuestion7886@reddit
Maleficent_Theory818@reddit
We still had one TV that was black and white. My mom watched the Watergate trials on it.
The color TV was a huge console with doors that covered the TV. When it died, my dad gutted it and we had a nice end table for the basement rec room.
Cyrus_Imperative@reddit
Tell them our TVs operated off a hand crank.
Leicester68@reddit
I just pre-empt comments like that by telling them how we had to spear cave bears to get them out of our homes.
PinkBiko@reddit
1972- A kid asked if we had to ride horses to school.
NoPanda5634@reddit
Well, a 10 year old child who knows little about history asking you that isn’t really no big deal. Now, if a 20 year old asks you that, then I would become a bit self conscious.
jstrassburgnew@reddit
Our kids have stated that we were born in the 1900s!
Kangaruex4Ewe@reddit
I’m a 77 baby and had my daughter when I was 20. She can’t talk too much shit about being born in the 1900’s 🤣
mja2175@reddit
Not only did I have a TV, I had a 5000 pound TV, kid!
MimimalZucchini@reddit
Hahaha. Same year born here. But my favorite was when a younger person asked how old I was.. he said come on. You can tell me the truth. That little mother fucker
Educational_Bid_5315@reddit
My son told my husband that dinosaurs were on the earth in 1971
Think_Seaweed_7314@reddit
How dare your son call me a dinosaur!
Educational_Bid_5315@reddit
😂
ScorpionTrance@reddit
Or when we had to use pliers to change the channels because the dial broke off.
Duude_Hella@reddit
It was black and white and we had to change the channel using a dial and jiggle the rabbit ears
Turbulent-Cake8280@reddit
Nah - the kid's an effin' moron.
Almlady@reddit
These comments are hilarious 😂
Almlady@reddit
I got one for you I was born In 1969 and explained to my kid there was one tv in the house when I was little and each of us family of 5 got a turn to pick what we wanted to watch on channels 2, 4, 5, 7, 38, or 56. I used an antenna to get a clear picture and remotes did not exist. My son sat there and said how old are you. Now he jokingly calls me ancient but his dad is called a dinosaur. I'm only 56.
Spodson@reddit
Worse, I (1974) have to say yes, but only black and white. We didn't get a color TV till the late 70s.
in-a-microbus@reddit
I find this kids interest and understanding of the past to be far better than most kids. I think most kids see the past as going right from knights and dragons to current modern technology.
We were watching a movie from 1980 and one kid asked why they didn't use their cellphone.
Warm_Difficulty_5511@reddit
Omg that is soooo funny! 1970 kid here too. 😁✌️
True_Dimension4344@reddit
Was watching Tombstone with my 8 year old and she asked me what it was like riding in carriages like that. 😭
matchucalligani@reddit
I find it weird to just be referred to as "born in the previous century"
PhiloLibrarian@reddit
My kids confused the 1970s and the 18th c. and told somebody that I was born in the 1700s.
DreamTheaterGuy@reddit
“OH IM LIKE THE CRYPT KEEPER!”
CluckKent88@reddit
I’m soo sorry lol my kid who is was born in 2010 I was born in 78 was shocked that we had years books in high school just last night at the dinner table 😂😂😂😂
PacRat48@reddit
HELL NO TV IS FOR ASSHOLES
LessIsMore74@reddit
But... But... But what if he meant it as an acknowledgment that you watched movies and shows on a living room television rather than streaming on a mobile device? 🤷🏻♂️
DarkStarF2@reddit
That's OK. Tell him he doesn't know how to use a fax machine or play an 8 track, but you still love em'!
😂🤣
Snoo-20050@reddit
Ha!! Should have told him that you didn't even have electricity.
BabyFaceFinster1266@reddit
We had 13 channels of shit on the tv to choose from.
3,6,8,10, and 12 notwithstanding.
Las_Vegan@reddit
Frankly I’m surprised the kid even thought to think of you as a human person with a past.
lunamoth25@reddit
My partner’s 12 year old was convinced that we didn’t have color TV…
Serling45@reddit
I did not have a color TV till I was 15.
lunamoth25@reddit
My family’s first TV was b&w, from my grandparent’s house…… but he thought color tv hadn’t been invented yet. In 1977. 🤦♀️
Serling45@reddit
He was off by about 12 years.
SouxsieBanshee@reddit
When my kids were little they asked me if we had electricity when I was young. Another time, they asked me if everything was in black and white when I was growing up. They thought because old movies were in black and white, that’s how the world was lol
Life_Satisfaction836@reddit
That was back when Hot Wheels still had square wheels. And Shortly after color was invented. Don’t believe me? Take a look at old movies and photographs. 🤣
🤘carry on fellow gen Xers!
BlaZenDuderino@reddit
You are older than the internet
happymomRN@reddit
Welcome to the old fart’s club.
QueenBBs@reddit
We watched Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang and my kids asked if I wore swim suits like that (1920) and they’ve also asked if we had color tv as kids. My favorite…But you were born in the 1900’s, like I was born at the turn of the century.
mnguy12000@reddit
Kids ask me "did you have video games and tv." I just look at them and say "whats wrong with you"
Kttail@reddit
Bwahaha! Atari 2600 ftw!
glampringthefoehamme@reddit
My family had one of the very first SONIC remotes, which is still have in my possession! I used to be able to hear the tones, but decades of rock have toasted the high frequencies sounds from my hearing.
Kttail@reddit
Play Second Hand Lions for him.
grunkage@reddit
Yes, it was gas powered and we had to turn a crank - that's where the expression "turn it on" came from. Also, we only had black and white - they hadn't invented grayscale yet
Id_Rather_Beach@reddit
Grumpy Old Man.
Hans_Delbruk@reddit
Yeah, but think about all the things you've seen: World War 1. World War 2. The automobile.
sonarman0614@reddit
Meanwhile my college kid has lived with three roommates for the last 3 years. None of them brought or ever used a TV in their apartment.
the-queen-of-bling@reddit
My daughter was amazed to hear that her father and I were born “way back in the 1900’s” (1979) 😂
Leprrkan@reddit
😄😄😄
edzn-1@reddit
Two tvs?! You must be rich!
No_Sand_9290@reddit
Showed a couple of the grandkids an old percolator coffee pot. Told them how to make coffee in it. The response was “How stupid do you think we are. You can’t make coffee with that thing. It doesn’t even have an electrical cord”
LeafyCandy@reddit
I spent most of my kids' years 4 through 8 trying to convince them that, yes, we had cars and did not use horses and buggies. Another kid I worked with (10 at the time) asked me if the reason I'm not a fan of using highlighters when studying was because I didn't have them when I was his age. *sigh*
Wisco1856@reddit
When my daughter (now 25) was writing a paper about Laura Ingalls for her jr. high English class so we showed her Little House on the Prairie. As we watched the opening sequence she turned to my wife and asked if she remembered what life was like back then. I don't think I've ever laughed so hard.
Northman_76@reddit
Did you immediately punch him in the throat? If not, why?
yeahipostedthat@reddit
My son burnt me so bad the other night. We were talking about school field trips and I said how we went to the zoo when I was a kid. And he asked if we saw the dinosaurs there.
Ok-Database-2798@reddit
OMG, that's priceless!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
When my husband and I took my young cousins to see the remake of Clash of the Titans in 2010 (I saw the original in the movie theater as a little kid) and my young cousin whispered to my husband she wanted a Pegasus. My husband told her "you can't, they've gone extinct." 😂😂😂
beaushaw@reddit
One of my wife's students asked her what it was like when life was in black and white.
ubermartimus@reddit
From my daughter when she was maybe between 5 and 9:
Astonished: “You were alive when the iPhone came out?!”
Me, listening to Nirvana “Oh you’re listening to that Old Man Music again.”
There’s more, I know…
Ok-Database-2798@reddit
I feel your pain. 😔😔😔😔
bougnvioletrosemallo@reddit
To a 10 year old born in 2015, you (all of us) were born in the unfathomable 1900s.
The analog for us would have been meeting someone born in the 1800s. Like, say, meeting a 100 year-old survivor of the Titanic back in the 90s, when we were still in high school or college.
We are all Old Rose from Titanic, in the eyes of Gen Alpha, and also a good chunk of Gen Z.
They gawk at us in wonder, and in stupified amazement, and just can't fucking believe our old asses.
Remarkable_Monk_2136@reddit
TheClearcoatKid@reddit
“Did we have TV? Hell, my dude, it was even IN COLOR!”
Similar-Click-8152@reddit
isha62@reddit
Last week our 16 year old niece asked my husband and I if we had refrigerators when we were little. We were both born in the 1960s.
moffitar@reddit
I had to explain to my kids what a black and white tv looked like.
momstera@reddit
If I wrapped the antenna with foil and touched it to the suspended ceiling I could get fuzzy HBO!
ArsenicWallpaper99@reddit
I remember when season three of Stranger Things came out, and younger people couldn't figure out why Jonathan was going into the weird room with the red lights. Jonathan was a photographer for the local paper, and that was his darkroom.
Additional_Use8363@reddit
Oh, my grandson(10m) asked me (51f) and his papa(54m) if we had bread back in the 70s.! I was like boy, really? Do i look that old? I guess to kids we do.
Also bread has been around for a long time. Now slice bread sold in stores is still older than me but come on. Later he asked me what did food taste like in the 80s. Honestly, better.
minnesotawristwatch@reddit
Hahahahaha I can’t WAIT for these moments. I’m gonna bust out 19th century BS.
jeffnorris@reddit
This is why I don't have kids🤣😂
JayeNBTF@reddit
Yes, but the display was black and white and smaller than my Windows tablet, there were only 4 channels (all of which went off the air at midnight), no way to record programs, and it was the only TV in the house
Expontoridesagain@reddit
My very own kid asked me if we had indoor plumbing or if we fetched water from a well with buckets. What's funny about this is that I was born and raised in a smack center of a larger city.
Automatic-Unit-8307@reddit
Damn, they are going to ask us if we had internet, when we were the first to be on the internet.
ASL!
JenninMiami@reddit
In 2021 I worked with a 21 year old who asked me if I had color TV as a kid…I was only 43 at the time! 😆
rahbahboston@reddit
Well. Did you?
Amazing-Butterfly-65@reddit
Tell them you rode dinosaurs to school 😂
KrasnyRed5@reddit
I was that dumb kid at one point and asked my step dad if he was on wooden ships when he was in the navy. He served well after WWII.
RaeLaw@reddit
I have a 2nd job working in retail with a bunch of kids born in the 2000s. (45F, btw) I said something about people smoking, referring to cigarettes, and a kid born in 2005 thought I was referring to weed. Another kid said, “When her generation says ‘smoking’, they’re always referring to cigarettes” and the 2005 kid said, “But her generation was the first generation to start smoking weed!” WHAT???
Aldisra@reddit
Omfg!! Just.. no...