Those who knew life before the internet and today’s technology lived an entirely different existence. It was so starkly different that many practices during those years may confuse, shock, or even horrify people today. 

This was a discussion in a recent Reddit thread. Older folks looked back on a time when it was acceptable to smoke cigarettes on airplanes, walk through airline gates without a ticket, and have a phonebook containing personal information for everyone to see. 

Many consider this a “golden era” filled with glorious moments. If you’re one of them, feel free to share your insights in the comment boxes below!

#1

Free range kids with no tracking. I left home on Saturdays after the last good cartoon, and my family didn’t see me again until dinner. I was in the woods fighting imaginary Russians or having bottle rocket wars with kids on the block.

sheburns17 replied:
This! My mom kicked us outside when we got rowdy and told us to come back when she whistled! We knew not to pass the stop sign at one end of the road and the mailbox on the other. We had treehouses made from random shit we found in the woods and would battle each other. Man, my kids now could never.

Image credits: BrooklynDoug

#2

Visiting. Folks used to drop in on one another to chat.

Image credits: MinervaJane70

#3

My father left me at home alone for 2 weeks when he went on a trip. I was in high school and got myself up every morning and got to school on time and made my own meals. I think he called one time. This didn’t seem weird or wrong to me at all.

Image credits: MsLidaRose

#4

The amount of kids who could fit in the back of a station wagon.

HatFickle4904 replied:
My parents would drive all night from L.A to Sacramento, CA. We’d get in our pajamas, and my Dad would fold down the back seat of the 1984 Chevy station wagon so that we had a giant bed. He played out a huge sleeping bag unzipped, and my two brothers and I would curl up in that and drive all night. It used to feel like we were in a spaceship as the lights from big rigs would fan across that rear windshield. Some of my best memories as a kid.

Image credits: Inevitable_Phase_276

#5

Walking to airline gates without a ticket or TSA. When I was a kid mom would take me to BWI airport and we would watch the planes from the pier.

ontrack replied:
Also, traveling by yourself at a young age. I flew from DC to south Texas and changed planes in Houston, entirely by myself, at 13. My parents just dropped me off in front of the terminal, and I did the rest. I was not escorted or monitored by any airport personnel.

Image credits: Scourmont

#6

Or high school had a student smoking area. There wasn’t an age requirement. Also restaurants did not have no smoking areas.

Image credits: Weary_Divide8631

#7

My mother smoked and drank during 3 pregnancies. Women thought this helped delivery by making the baby smaller. I’m not kidding.

Image credits: Goodygumdops

#8

When i was a teenager I used to cycle around, and if i had to telephone someone, i would just knock on some (random) person’s door, asking politely if i could make a call. Or even go to the toilet sometimes. Most people would be ok with it.

Image credits: TenaStelin

#9

Smoking on airplanes.

emarkd replied:
I used to ride my bike to the corner market and ‘buy’ my mom cigarettes by the carton. I say ‘buy’ in quotes because she had a tab there, literally just a list in a little flip notebook by the register. I’d take home her cigarettes as needed, and she’d stop in on the weekends and settle up the tab. I was 9 or 10 when this started.
Smoking was not only everywhere, at least where I lived; nobody cared about age laws and shit.

Image credits: johnnyg08

#10

If I was fussy in the grocery store, Mom would make me go out and sit in the car by myself. (Age 5-8).

Image credits: Superb-Charge6779

#11

Rotary Dialing a phone number; the idea of long distance toll charges on phone calls; dialing 0 for an operator (always a lady); 411 for information; white pages yellow pages even blue pages in a phone book sent out yearly by ATT, GTE ….

grejam replied:
Long-distance phone calls were a big thing. Rarely ever done. If you’ve got a long-distance call, it was something important. Probably bad news about family members.

Image credits: MarkClark4

#12

No sunscreen when on the beach or out in the sun. Or worse — using baby oil and laying out in the sun.

Habibti143 replied:
Baby oil, a reflector, and iodine.

Image credits: mauiprana

#13

My mom had to get signed permission from my dad to get a hysterectomy after 9 live births and 7 miscarriages.
She was hemorrhaging 24/ 7 for 2 yrs.

Image credits: Scorpion_Rooster

#14

Phone calls with your friends…from the house phone.

Image credits: Surfer_Joe_875

#15

Not having a side hustle ; not trying to mix/max every aspect of your life.

#16

That you pulled into a gas station, and a guy in uniform came out, filled your tank, checked the oil, and washed your windshield. And you didn’t tip him.

#17

The only people you saw who had tattoos were bikers or sailors.

#18

Having to dress up for work every single day. Blazer, matching skirt or pants, pantyhose and pumps. Oh how I don’t miss those days.

#19

Not being able to access an ATM any time you need money.

Upper_Bodybuilder124 replied:
Banks on Fridays were a madhouse because everyone showed up to deposit their paychecks.

Image credits: Wolfman1961

#20

Stores were closed on Sundays.

KimVG73 replied:
Closed for the holidays, too. Actually, fully closed for Thanksgiving through the week. Christmas is often the whole week. Lots of folks talk about ‘great again,’ but they gotta shop, shop, shop, or work, work, work through every holiday. And forget federal holidays. Slowing down, being closed, allowing for reset time. This is why people are difficult now. Everyone is exhausted.

Image credits: stevensoncrazy

#21

Walking to and from school, alone, for over a half-mile. I was about four blocks from my middle school bus distance (the school was about a mile and a half away & bus routes started two miles from school), so while my mom would drive me to school, I would either take the public transit bus or walk home. It was about a 30 minute walk home.

Image credits: AproposOfDiddly

#22

Sonic booms. I lived south of Dallas in the late 60s and early 70s, and I probably heard two or three sonic booms a day.

Image credits: DNathanHilliard

#23

Television stations going off the air around midnight along with a patriotic song, followed by a test pattern that remained until morning.

#24

Privacy and people minding their own business. The adults acted as adults.

#25

All adults were allowed to hit kids… parents, teachers, coaches, principal, even friends and or neighbors.

Image credits: Raised_by_Mr_Rogers

#26

Human conversation, playing outside until the streetlights came on, drinking out of the hose.

#27

When my grandfather was a patient on the stroke ward in 1985 (England), the nurses used to facilitate the patients to smoke, by putting a fireproof bib on them so they could smoke in the hospital bed.

Image credits: Medical_Frame3697

#28

Plotting your trip with pencil, paper and a map.

#29

Homosexuality was illegal here in Ireland till 1993. In schools in the 70s & 80s we were taught it was wrong, a mortal sin and that it was perverted. To be gay was a horrendous existence and people were openly hostile to it. To be trans was off the chart completely. Hard to believe the amount of progress we have made since then.

#30

The average blue collar worker could raise a happy and content family on a single income….can you imagine?

#31

When you sat in the front seat, the only thing that kept you from flying into the dash, was your Mom’s arm flying over when she hit the brakes.

#32

You had to wait for a week to 10 days to see the pictures you took-after you dropped them off to be developed.

#33

In the 50s having milk and bread delivery men. A man who was a tailor picked up clothes at house to sew. Getting your shoes fixed rather than getting a new pair. Wearing hats to church until late 60s…then having to wear a little lace doily on your head till early 70s. No ac or color tv till mid 60s and only having 1 tv and 1 room air conditioner.

Image credits: SouthNo8415

#34

I was babysitting an infant and a four-year-old when I was 11. These days, a lot of 11-year-olds have sitters or nannies.

Image credits: hissyfit64

#35

People being completely unreachable, even children, for multiple days. Not in a they aren’t answering work emails on purpose, but are posting on Instagram kind of way– but truly, no one knows where the hell this person is or how to get in touch with them… oh well, ok. Carry on.

nysflyboy replied:
God, I soooooo miss this. Not just for myself, because it’s possible to still drop off the planet for a while, but what I miss is this being NORMAL for all people. Like in the before cell phone, before answering machine days. Call and leave a message with someone who answered. Or not. ‘Where is Jake?’ ‘Oh, he went down South for a few days. Check back next week.’

Image credits: Potential_Grape_5837

#36

Being responsible for your girl scout cookie sales all by yourself, by door to door knocking.

#37

The **deference given to smokers.** Even nonsmokers kept ashtrays and lighters around to accommodate them. Anyone who complained about cigarette smoke was just considered a jerk. In the late 1960’s, two friends and I smoked cigars on a flight to visit a college, and none of us had yet reached the age of 18. The passengers seemed to think we were cute.

Also **resistance to seat belts.** Some people kept their seat belts connected and sat on them, so they could bypass the alarm system. It took a long time for people to get adjusted to using them.

And the **indifference to drunk driving.** We regularly passed around a bottle of cheap wine while driving aimlessly for fun. One time a police officer pulled us over, saw the empty containers, and gave us a very stern talking-to.

Image credits: Gorf_the_Magnificent

#38

Seeing people who had polio.

Image credits: DickSleeve53

#39

Casual violence, sexism, racism, bigotry and bullying at a level that young people today would lose their minds.

#40

Layaway ….this was a big thing!

No_Gold3131 replied:
K-Mart had an active layaway program! Our neighbor worked at the layaway desk for years.

#41

My sister wasn’t allowed to get credit in her own name. She had to apply for a credit card as “Mrs (husband’s first name, last name)”.

Image credits: Scorpion_Rooster

#42

Candy cigarettes.

#43

Smoking at the nurses station.

Image credits: Superb-Charge6779

#44

Travel in the old days. First of all, people dressed nicely to fly. There was really no security at all, at least not that I can remember. You could walk right to the gate with your relatives to see them off. All flights included food and drinks. There seemed to be more room between the rows of airlines seats. Flying was something to look forward to. Then again, Imagine being in the non-smoking section of the plane, one row in front of the smoking section. That sucked.

#45

No car seats for babies or small kids.

#46

Pre-internet and computer, essays and such were hand-written or typed on a typewriter, probably with some noticeable corrections. Liquid paper (typing correction fluid) was a game changer.

Research was done at the public library. Maybe we took out a couple books, if they were on the shelf, and used those. The card catalog (index of books, etc) was a long line of stacked, tiny drawers.

SKULLDIVERGURL replied:
Eavesdropping on the party line.

#47

Riding in the back of the pick up truck, sometimes sitting on the wheel well.

#48

I would get spanked with a wooden spoon. My dad would use the belt. My sister and I would break all of the wooden utensils and the yard sticks, so that we couldn’t be spanked with them. My mom would tape them with masking tape, every spoon was taped.

That sounds horrible, but every kid was spanked back then.

#49

Hitchhiking. My girlfriend and I( F) used to hitchhike all over the city for something to do on a Friday night!

#50

Only three channels on the TV, no remote and you had to sit through commercials. If you missed the game, you missed the game.

#51

Latchkey kids. Kids finish school at 2:30, parents don’t get home until 5:30, kids are home alone and have to entertain themselves. No internet, no cell phones, only landlines, their friends, and their homework. If they’re lucky they have bicycles or a nearby playground to shoot hoops at.

#52

Corporal punishment. It was very much fading out by my time, but strapping/paddling kids at school did happen.

nysflyboy replied:
This absolutely still went on in my public elementary school through the ’70s. By the time I was in 3rd grade, it was reserved for the principal, but it still happened occasionally. And it happened at home for virtually every kid I knew (including me) until at least the early ’80s or after.

#53

Two parents smoking in the car with windows closed and baby and little kids in the back seat.

#54

‘King of the Mountain’
I told a gen-z’er about this and she was horrified. ‘You just push each other off boulders?!’
‘Oh, yeah. Push, kick, claw, grab, fling, whatever. And it could be a boulder, or low roof, hill…’.

Image credits: DumpsterDoggie

#55

Smoking everywhere..
Kids worked in family businesses
Kid especially boys kick out at 16
No seatbelts used ever.

#56

The rampant sexual harassment that occurred on a daily basis for most women in the workforce. Women were expected to accept it and not complain.

#57

No credit, no debit, no electronic cash. If you didn’t have enough cash, and you didn’t have checks, then you could not buy it. End of story.

#58

Girls were required to wear dresses to school and then sent out on the playground with bare legs in freezing weather. I’ll never forget the pain of that cold. It wasn’t until I was in 7th grade that girls could wear pants.

#59

The phone book listing your name, phone number, address, who you’re married to, your job title, and where you work.

Image credits: Salt-Elephant8531

#60

Women walking around with smashed up faces and bruises all over and no one saying a word to help them. Most ppl actually victim blaming.

#61

Fireplaces in living rooms with just a huge open flame, with embers rolling out into the carpet. Sticking wood logs into the fire to keep it going and poking it with a poker pushing more embers out into the carpet. Going to bed with the fire still blazing and letting it die out overnight.

#62

College undergrads dating their professors while they were enrolled (sometimes even when they were taking their class!).

Image credits: bassbeatsbanging

#63

After gym class, we all had to strip down naked and shower together.

#64

We had a shoeshine guy who walked around buildings on campus (big-a*s company), ducking into people’s offices to shine their shoes. $5 IIRC. Nobody had badges, all the receptionists knew him. Hell, everybody knew him. He wasn’t an employee though. Swell guy 😉

Harold, I hope you made a bundle!

#65

Running behind the mosquito control guy.

#66

Drinking on lunch breaks at work.

#67

Seeing pickup trucks with gun racks in them. people would lose their minds over that today.

#68

The “phone” room in college to call home. Since we all had to wait our turn, great way to meet new friends and girls. Be a good experience for today’s cell phone non social kids.

#69

Midwest (SoDak) it was normal to hunt before or after school. Most pickups had rifles and/or shotguns on a gun rack in the back window. Kids and adults parked their vehicles wherever. Streets, school parking lots, wherever. When George HW Bush was campaigning for the ’88 election it drove the secret service advance teams nuts with the general populace coming and going with weapons in full view.

#70

Give the milkman a key to your home.

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