10 Things I've Explained to My Kids About The "Good Old Days"
marinka
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I’m very much a “back in my day” type of mom in that I always tell kids what things were like during that time, so very long ago, before they were born. I tell them about life without the Internet, cellphones, and how I walked to school up a hill in a snowstorm backwards without shoes.
They take it in stride, but sometimes I wonder if they’ll ever truly understand pre-techie civilization, or B.I. (Before Internet). Click through to see what I’ve taught my kids about the Good Old Days. And tell me: What do you have to explain to YOUR kids?
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Used the Phone Book to Look up Phone Numbers
Whenever my kids Google a phone number, I sigh heavily and say "oh, sure, Google is easy! When I was your age, I had to look up phone numbers in the phone book!" And we wrote frequently used phone numbers in our personal phone books.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia -
Dialed the Number on a Rotary Phone
"And we didn't have cell phones!" And if the party we were calling was already on the phone, I'd get a busy signal. No fancy call-waiting for us!
Photo Credit: MorgueFile -
Watched TV
"So how did you change the channel if there were no remote controls?" my son asked me one day. Yes, TV watching was different back then. No cable, six channels and getting up to change the channel.
Photo Credit: Morguefile -
Typed a Letter
One day my kids came to my office and saw a typewriter. My youngest had no idea what it was. But that's how we wrote letters back then. No fancy cut and paste. No spellcheck. Plenty of correction fluid.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia -
Went to the Bathroom
I am one of those people who rails against self-flushing toilets as a sign of the apocalypse. Because how hard is it to flush the toilet? Why when I was a little girl, we flushed by hand. Who knew that the self-flushing toilet would come along and make all out lives so much easier?
Photo Credit: Wikipedia -
Cried
Sometimes I suspect that my kids think I must have been very unhappy in my youth. Because the internet wasn't invented yet and I didn't know that cats were doing silly yet adorable things and could be captioned with illiterate sayingz.
Photo Credit: Morguefile -
Read the Newspaper
None of this "news at your fingertips" nonsense for me in the good old days! To find out about yesterday's news. And also to get movie times.
Photo Credit: Morguefile -
Played with My Pet Dinosaur
Hey, how did that get in there? I'm not that old.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia -
Complained About People Smoking
My kids think it's funny to see movies where people smoke in restaurants and offices. I told them that I lived through that era. Smoking in restaurants. And in the movies. And on the airplane, OMG.
Photo Credit: Wikipedia -
Thought Pluto Was a Planet
What do you mean it isn't anymore? Kids today!
Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Also on Babble: 10 tech relics I’ll have to explain to my kids
Love your blog. I may not be your age but I do remember a lot of the good old days you speak of. Here’s one: back in my day we said the pledge of alligance every morning at school. Or back in my day you didn’t have autocorrect. We had to learn our grammar and spelling and actually used a dictionary.
Back in my day..you could go out after lunch and play outside all day untill dinnertime or till a thunderstorm drove you home(as in my case) : )