40 Completely Normal Things Gen X'ers And Millennials Did When They Were Young That Would Seem Weird To Today's Kids
1.Having to plan your schedule around a TV show you wanted to watch — because if you weren't home, you'd have to wait until summertime for it be shown as a rerun:
2.Also, while watching TV, timing bathroom breaks to commercials because there was no way to pause what you were watching:
3.Being dropped off at the mall (pre-cellphone days) by your parents and them literally having no way to reach you:
4.Using a pay phone any time you were out and needed to reach someone (who you hoped was home):
5.Having to wait for your local radio station to premiere a new song by a band or artist you liked:
6.Having to wait — sometimes for hours — for MTV to play a music video that you loved:
7.Having absolutely nothing to do on a car trip but stare out the window if you forgot to bring your portable CD player or books to read:
8.Only (usually) being able to learn/see the correct lyrics to a song by reading them from the album's liner notes:
9.And only being able to listen to special remixes or exclusive B-side songs if you bought pricey import CD singles:
10.Joining a fan club for an artist or fandom THROUGH THE MAIL and getting things like pins and newsletters mailed to you periodically:
11.Leaving the phone number for any friend's house you were going to so your parents could call you if they needed to:
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12.Being able to drop off or greet friends and family members (without any type of plane ticket) at their gate inside the airport:
13.Having to watch whatever movie was playing on your flight ('cause there were no on-demand movies or TV channels):
14.Having to look up a direction in an atlas (that was always in the car) if you were helping one of your parents navigate while they drove:
15.Or just going to the nearest gas station and hoping you remember everything (if your parents made you go inside and ask):
#IRememberWhenYouHadTo run into a gas station to ask for directions when you got lost.
16.Having to get to the video store early if you wanted to rent a newly released movie, or else risk not being able to because all the copies were rented out:
17.Having to rewind a movie before you watched it because the last person to watch didn't rewind it:
18.Having to adjust the tracking on your VCR (sometimes even when you had auto-tracking) to make sure you had a clear picture:
19.Knowing the phone numbers of family members and friends that you called often:
20.And having an address book (or your parents having one) that listed the home addresses and phone numbers of family members and friends that you didn't call often:
21.Having to bring out the phonebook to look up a phone number or address of a business:
22.Having to go in person to buy concert or show tickets at the venue or at Ticketmaster (if you and your parents didn't want to take the gamble of doing it over the phone):
23.Calling MovieFone or your local theater to get movie time listings:
24.Having the movie theater be the only place you could watch new trailers:
25.And having to get to the theater extra early and wait in long lines in order to get a good seat whenever a blockbuster movie was released:
26.Using a card catalog to find a book in the library:
27.Having to research school assignments in encyclopedias and praying that there was enough of an explainer on the subject matter you were writing about:
28."Screening phone calls" by waiting to see who was leaving a message on the answering machine and then deciding whether to answer or not:
29.Having to leave a voicemail on your friend's family's answering machine if they weren't home and you wanted them to call you back:
30.Paging someone and having to sit around next to the phone until they called you back:
31.Ordering clothes, toys, books, or other things from a catalog and waiting WEEKS for them to come:
32.Or ordering something from a TV commercial and waiting WEEKS for it to come:
33.Going to the store and having them not have what you needed and having them "special order" it for you (which also took forever to come):
34.Talking to live operators any time you called anywhere:
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35.Looking through the Sunday circulars so you could find out what albums, movies, and video games were being released:
36.Getting up early to look at the paper to find out what the weather was going to be like...
37....or turning on The Weather Channel and hoping the local forecast was on.
38.Using a watch out of necessity just to know what time it was:
39.Squinting and then "aiming" in order to take your pictures:
Remember when you had to put a camera right up to your eye to see what you were going to take a picture of? #weird
