25 Things That No Longer Exist But Were Everywhere When We Were Growing Up
There are some things which we used to take for granted in our lives that just don’t exist anymore. They slowly disappeared from our cognisance without our full awareness until nowadays, these things are just distant memories of a bygone era.
However, folks had one last nostalgic pow-wow online when one Redditor’s question “What existed when you were a child that doesn’t exist now?” sparked some interesting memories. From the Yellow Pages to typewriters to the blockbuster franchises, these answers are sure to bring back all the nostalgia of days gone by.
More info: Reddit
#1 Freedom.
Starting around age 10 to around age 14, when I got back from school, nobody knew where I was until dinner, and nobody cared. The only rule was be home before dinner which was about 7:00 PM.
I would just hit my bike, join up with the knot hole gang in the neighborhood, and we would just ride all over the place and go where we wanted and do what we wanted.
Basically, we were the kids from Stranger Things, albeit with a lot less paranormal activity.
No cell phones, not even any pagers.
I’m 46 so this was some 35 years ago.
Seems like it could be 350 years ago now.
Now you almost never see a kid riding anywhere on his bike, and nobody knows their neighbors.
#2 Taking pictures with film cameras and waiting for them to get developed until you could see how bad you looked lol
#3 Playing outdoors without supervision and just returning home once the sun sets
#4 A phone number you could call that just told you the time and weather.
#5 White Dog S**t
#6 The freedom to be a kid without being influenced by the internet and having your worst moments immortalised on it.
#7 Phone books. Every once in a while one would just show up at our front door.
#8 An expectation of being unreachable sometimes. I went to school, and my mom couldn’t reach me all the time. She lived. I didn’t feel like picking up the phone, no one cared.
No ‘Read’ messages unanswered causing drama.
Being able to be ‘Unplugged’ and not getting s**t for it.
Being able to read a physical map and navigate that way.
#9 Getting off the phone so someone can use the internet. Haha
#10 The high beam switch in your car was on the floor by your left foot.
#11 Actual toy prizes in cereal boxes
#12 Card catalogs at the library.
#13 A sense of optimism for the future.
#14 Yugoslavia
#15 Kmart Blue light specials. JC Pennies was upscale for us, and don’t even talk about Macy’s where the 1%ers shop.
For you youngin’s, a blue light special was they’d roll a cart with a blue police light on a pole, then announce some that an item was on sale over the speakers. It was like a IRL pop up ad.
Those are some fond memories. And also all the racist joke books they’d happily sell an 8 year old. I was an adult before I realized the horrible stuff I read.
#16 A paper TV Guide that you used to find out when TV shows were going to be aired. Usually it came in the Sunday newspaper. Also newspapers.
#17 Affordable housing
#18 Phone booths
#19 Blockbuster
#20 Restaurant smoking sections
#21 9 planets
The solar system used to have 9 planets, but now only has 8. <…> Pluto was just reclassified as a dwarf planet, and we always had dozens of dwarf planets like Ceres and Make-Make.
Iampepeu said:
I know it’s silly, but we all sort of collectively love and care for Pluto.
#22 Saturday morning cartoons or weekly morning cartoons.
#23 Privacy. Back in the day, the only way someone could know what I was up to was if they physically followed me. Now, my smartphone does that for them
#24 Typewriters
#25 McDonald’s ashtrays
Shanilou Perera
Shanilou has always loved reading and learning about the world we live in. While she enjoys fictional books and stories just as much, since childhood she was especially fascinated by encyclopaedias and strangely enough, self-help books. As a kid, she spent most of her time consuming as much knowledge as she could get her hands on and could always be found at the library. Now, she still enjoys finding out about all the amazing things that surround us in our day-to-day lives and is blessed to be able to write about them to share with the whole world as a profession.
