How was life different when you were a child?

Question

Socially, technologically... the norms of everyday life. What were the differences then?

This question is open to all age groups.

Answer 1

When I was a child, we did not have VCRs. If we missed a movie in the theater or wanted to see it again later, we had to wait for it to come on TV. Often, when it did, it was edited to fit a time slot. I remember waiting once a year to see "The Wizard of Oz." At Easter we waited for "The Ten Commandments" and "Ben Hur."

We didn't have video cameras, so if you wanted to record moments like piano recitals and swim lessons, you had to have a movie camera. I was the only one I knew in my age group who had one. My grandpa had one and would do these elaborately staged family gatherings to catch us all on film. He had to set up bright lights, and we all looked artificial and like deer in headlights.

We didn't have video games. The first one I remember was "Pong." My cousin had the Atari game system. We spent hours watching those little white lines move across a grey screen. Hard to believe now.

We didn't have cell phones and computers. I was a little bit of a hold out, but I didn't get my first computer until I was in graduate school. I couldn't face typing my thesis over and over on my typewriter. I had a dot matrix printer, which used paper that was perforated and had to be pulled apart. Our phone was a plain black, rotary dial phone. We had one. I got a blue phone of my own when I was in high school.

I loved records and would buy 45's of the top hits often. I also bought albums of Barbara Streisand, Jim Croce, and Broadway musicals. I listened to them all so often that I hardly had an album that wouldn't hiss or skip.

We hardly ever ate out when I was growing up but we did get "fast food" from time to time. We'd have MacDonald's on Friday night while my parents went out and we watched "The Brady Bunch." Sometimes we'd have Kentucky Fried Chicken (it wasn't called KFC) on Sundays after church.

We go out quite often compared to when I was growing up. Sometimes with the price of groceries it even works out cheaper to go out. I don't remember it ever being that way when I was a kid.

We had one family car when I was growing up. There weren't any seatbelt laws, and we would all pile into that car. When I was pretty small that was a VW Bug, and one of us always had to lie down in the little space behind the back seat. It sat over the engine and was hot. I remember that we went camping and put a mattress in the back seat and we all rode piled on top of it.

We didn't have to wear helmets when we went bike riding or roller skating, which we did every day in the summer. We would stay outside playing in the neighborhood until the street lights came on, and my parents never worried that someone would snatch us or that we wouldn't come home that night.

We would walk to the movie theater by ourselves and stay all day since they would show the double feature over and over again and you could watch as many times as you like. No one worried then about when the movie started. You just showed up whenever, and if you missed the beginning, then you stayed to watch the movie over again. "Star Wars" is the first movie I remember that showed only that one movie and you were told to arrive at the beginning and had to leave after that one showing. It cost $3.50, which was a lot of money for one movie and one showing, but some of my friends saw it 14 times.

We were in church every time the doors were open, which were for us, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night and various other rehearsals and events. Now most people I know who go to church go on Sunday morning and then maybe to a small group during the week and an occasional event here and there. There are many people I know today who have never been to church.

Answer 2

Until the horrible inflation of the late 70's, early 80's life was simple and things were more affordable. My Dad worked a blue collar job yet it was enough for Mom to stay home and they could buy a new vehicle every 3-4 years (plus have one older vehicle as a second car). After that, it was two working parents and no new vehicles. Yet we didn't learn our lesson on foreign oil dependence and have seen skyrocketing gas prices the last couple years.

People tended to actually interact with each other in the real world. No typing away text answering random questions on the internet. And once you left the house, nobody could contact you. No cell phones, only M.D.'s had pagers, no blackberry, no wifi...true freedom.

Oh, and video games had one joystick and one or two buttons...jump and action/fire. Nothing like today with two joysticks, a d pad, and a dozen buttons.

Oh, and performance cars in the 60's (not my era) were cheap. It was maybe a 10-15% price premium to check off the high performance option over the standard vehicle. But today it is higher...take the mustang for the best comparison. The standard V6 model is about $20k yet the GT is close to $28k (without extra options). That is a 40% premium for performance.

Answer 3

Well in terms of technology CDs were just coming out and only the really preppy kids had them. This is the mid 80s to early 90s of course. And of course socially the clothes were in much better style then. Also people were chanting the release of Nelson Mandela and the final stages of Apartheid in South Africa. The last years of the 80s was probably for me the best time in terms of people really working together to make a difference in the world and we weren't then being so bogged down with computers, e-mails and the Internet. My oldest brother got an 1984 apple computer, we still have the old dinosaur, to be in with all the preppy kids and it was a lot simpler to use let me tell you! I must confess I long for the days of innocent t.v. Where there wasn't so much violence and sex in those days. Car chases in those big old tanks sure was fun, yeah it was the same background all the time but those cars could with stand anything! I think we had the best of comedy, the best of music(well for certain countries anyway) and as I say dress style was hip and funky! People didn't care much for appearances, strange looks were in and conformity out. That all changed by the mid 90s mind you. Oh well you can't ever go back. But the good memories remain.

Answer 4

When I was very young, we had a milk man and an egg lady deliver to the house. We had one rotary phone in the kitchen. We played outdoors. The T.V. was black and white, and we only had NBC, CBS, and ABC. We were not allowed to date until we were sixteen. We left the doors unlocked, always took a family vacation once a year, and you're getting the picture. We watched Ed Sullivan, and there was no MTV, so we had to watch it when it was on, or we just missed out. We went to the drive in movies. I miss some of these things, but I do like the progress we've made, and it's been fun to be a part of it. Good question, and I'll be interested in what everyone else has to say!

Answer 5

I guess you could say my life was ideal. People were trusting, responsible and hard working. We didn't have a lot of money, but we had our huge garden, cows, chickens, hogs, horses...so, therefore, I guess you could say I was never deprived. We also had a lot of friends who visited and whom we visited. People today do not visit. We would go and maybe spend the whole day, just visiting friends or kinfolk.
Things went at a slower pace. We could trust the adults in our lives. I have grandchildren now and it breaks my heart to have to teach them not to trust anyone, even policemen.

And of course, things were cheaper. But then salaries were not what they are today either. But people didn't seem to need as much "stuff" and they do today. We work today, so we can buy the next upgrade!

Again, I did have the ideal childhood. I had parents who loved me and cared enough to correct me. I was made to face the consequences of a wrong choice. But never made to feel that they did not love me. They cared enough to teach me about God and right from wrong.
Technologically, I guess I would have to say the cell phone is probably my number one choice of best advances in technology. The air conditioner is next, then the dishwasher. Haha. My daughter has had a cell phone since she was in the 6th grade. She is now in college. I cannot imagine not being able to reach her or vice versa.
Mybe this is not too long.

Answer 6

I'm 17 now, but when I was a kid, I have 8 brothers and sisters, and 5 of us were home-schooled.

We didn't have any friends since we never went to school.

I didn't have a friend until I was 12, cause then my mom put 3 of us in school.

Oh and we lived on a ranch in the middle of nowhere basically.

So I don't know much about life.

Answer 7

I used to stay outside and play with friends in the neighborhood until WAY past dark. Kids don't do that anymore. I still live in the same neighborhood I grew up in and I never see kids outside playing. Even in the summer, there are no kids out after dark. I think that's sad. Nighttime was the fun time for all of us. We'd play until the neighbor's dad whistled and then we all went home to sleep so we could do it all again the next day. It was great!

Answer 8

Interesting question.

When I was a child, there were no cell phones or personal computers. There was only HBO, not 7 channels of HBO, plus 5 of Cinemax, and 5 of Showtime, and 3 of STARZ, etc...

I played outside every day. There were no video games.

My Dad worked, my Mom stayed home with me. It was that way in 85% of the families.

I never heard about gay, lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders, child molesters, or rapists.

HIV/AIDS didn't exist.

We all smoked cigarettes. We all tried pot. We all drank.

Concert tickets were 9 bucks.

I saw black people only on TV. I was raised in White Bread suburbia.

Answer 9

In 1977 I had a pink and purple plaid pantsuit, polyester, bellbottoms, wide lapels; I wore it all the time.

Answer 10

I was born in 1965,so we survived with no cell phones,computers(till 10th grade),and we had actual records--no CDs,growing up.My kids think I was so deprived...lol.