42 Things That Were Totally Normal In The ’80s And ’90s That Seem Totally Alien To New Generations

Sitting by the radio waiting for your favorite new song to come on so you could record it onto a cassette tape. And hoping the jack**s DJ didn’t talk over the first 45 seconds. (Spoiler alert: He always did!)

Parents kicked you out of the house and telling you to be home when the lamp posts came on. They had no clue where we were or what we were doing. My brother and I would play on the train tracks and under a bridge. I think about my kids doing the same and it stresses me tf out.

Edit to add, Saturday morning cartoons. I'm sad for my kiddos to not have the experience of getting up early to not miss cartoons before getting kicked out of the house for the day.

Calling someone’s house and having to speak with their parent before talking with them.

That TV just stopped broadcasting late at night.

My kids still can’t comprehend this one

Going with your parents to Blockbuster to rent a movie and hoping a copy (VHS tape) was still available and not completely rented out.

Going to a restaurant and being asked “would you like to sit in Smoking or Non-smoking”?

There were smoking sections *on airplanes*.

Getting a new "TV Guide" each sunday with the newspaper and obsessing over it for hours highlighting what shows/movies you wanted to watch Calling the movie theater to get showtimes Shopping at Sears 

Watching the news to see if your school scrolled across the bottom was cancelled because of inclement weather.

Having to stop at a gas station and ask for directions and pay attention to what the clerk is saying.

Bonus: waiting to call long distance after 9pm because it was free. Then getting very excited when they dropped it to 7pm.

Being on a phone call with someone using the home phone when all of sudden someone in the house picks up another phone and tells you to get off

Writing and receiving letters by post.

Not having a camera all the time.

PRIVACY

Going out as a kid from dawn til dusk without your parents being able to contact you or know where you are. Then knowing you have to go home when the street lights come on.

Dedicating songs on your local radio station.

Someone calling the landline and disconnecting the internet

Riding your bike around town with no destination, looking for a pile of your friends bikes so you can hang out.

Having your friends’ phone numbers memorized

Having to wait or be somewhere you don't want to be like visiting your mom's friend's house or at the bank with NOTHING to distract you but your own mind. My parents never bought me a handheld game nor did she have room in her handbag for my books. So I just had to BE in the moment.

Going out into the world with no cell, a map in hand, hoping to find the new address you’ve never been to, and then in addition to that, hoping the people you were going to meet up would get there.

If you got there and your friends weren’t there, the most you could do was ask the business to lend you their phone or walk to a pay phone and call your friends house phones to see if they picked up. If they didn’t, you had no way of knowing if they were late, selling you out, or dead.

This is more 90’s-early 00’s but the ability to just... not be reached sometimes? And that was okay?

It stresses me out that there’s this social pressure to be available at all times, and people get upset with you if you don’t respond to a text fast enough etc. but as a kid we’d call each other on the home phone sometimes and if you didn’t pick up it was just assumed you were busy and nobody was actually UPSET with you over it. Obviously I love being able to keep in contact with friends on a more regular basis, but the constant pressure to be accessible to people 24/7 or you’re some kind of bad friend is too much and it really does a number on my anxiety. I miss being able to call/text/message someone back at my leisure and not have to have a “good enough” explanation ready as to why I was “ignoring” that person.

I was thinking the other day about how I applied for out-of-state college (1989.) How did I even do that? Did I write to them and ask for an application, the fill it out and mail it back? When I applied to graduate school (1993) how did I even know which schools had my program? Did I go to the library or something?

Sitting here in 2020 imagining doing those things with no Internet, it seems impossible. But since I don’t even remember how I accomplished it, it must have been pretty mundane at the time. Sounds like a f*****g hassle if you ask me!