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Nostalgic Responses to "When I Was Your Age..."

When I was your age, it was basically impossible to lose a phone. If all else failed, you started at the wall jack and followed the line. There were cellphones, or, as we called them at the time, "carphones." Nobody we knew actually had one, though.
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Answer by Phil Darnowsky

  • When I was your age, it was basically impossible to lose a phone. If all else failed, you started at the wall jack and followed the line. There were cellphones, or, as we called them at the time, "carphones." Nobody we knew actually had one, though.

  • WIWYA, I had friends in other states who I wrote to all the time--on paper.

  • WIWYA, there were only three (later four, later five) TV channels, unless your family was rich and had cable.

  • WIWYA, commercial fusion power was just thirty years away. Today, it's just thirty years away.

  • WIWYA, you could smoke in airplanes, restaurants and bars...really, pretty much anywhere except some people's houses and certain parts of hospitals.

  • WIWYA, AIDS was a death sentence, and people (mainly stupid people) thought you could catch it from toilet seats.

  • WIWYA, students couldn't copy papers from Wikipedia articles. They had to sit there and re-type the whole thing from the encyclopedia, using a typewriter.

  • WIWYA, I carried around a Walkman and a bunch of tapes.

  • WIWYA, we got free drink coasters in the mail a few times a month. If you wanted to, you could also stick them in the computer and install AOL.

  • WIWYA, people were sure that Public Enemy was going to be the end of Western civilization.

    • ...

    Answer by Rick Bruno

    When I was your age (10):

    • We didn't have cops in schools.

  • We didn't get searched before getting on an airplane or going to a ballgame.

  • If the lady down the block saw us doing something bad, she took us by the arm and brought us home to tell our parents. And we got punished. And we didn't slash her tires.

  • We could play baseball at the schoolyard all day without adult supervision.

  • We had to be home when the streetlights came on.

  • The nuns had no inhibition to give us a whack if we got out of line, and our parents would be the last people we would tell about it.

  • We would walk home from school for lunch, then walk back to school for the afternoon session.

  • Christmas was magical. (BTW, it still is to me!)

  • Only rich kids had braces on their teeth.

  • I did not know anyone who owned a color TV.

  • I wanted to be an astronaut.

  • I never went to a professional barber. My Uncle Tony, who live down the block, cut my hair.

  • My biggest worry was making sure my homework was done.

  • I had a very hard time staying focused in school.

  • My grandparents lived next door.

  • I went to Church with my extended family every Sunday.

  • I had a hard time staying focused in Church.

  • I chose "Paul" as my confirmation name, because he was my favorite Beatle.

  • "Twilight Zone" scared the s*** out of me.

  • There were good guys, and bad guys on TV. The good guys were always good, the bad guys were always bad.

  • I had a record player. And records.

  • The state of the art in entertainment was The Wonderful World of Disney on Sunday evenings.

  • I thought my parents were always right, and whoever might disagree with them must be crazy.

  • I thought America was always right.

  • I thought by [2015] thousands of us would be living in space and would have flying cars.

  • I thought the Cubs would win the World Series within my lifetime.

    • ...

    Answer by Dan Knight

    • When I was your age, a man could be fond of children and not be considered a sexual predator.

  • When I was your age, I would go to the pub to find a girlfriend, now I open an app.

  • When I was your age, my phone battery would last over a day.

  • When I was your age, I would go to a shop, hunt up and down the aisles, queue for ages, wait for assistance when the barcode cannot be found, use bits of metal and paper to pay for my goods and carry them home. Now I go to a website, click a button and wait for someone to deliver.

  • When I was your age, cigarettes didn't need batteries."

  • When I was your age, I'd carry around one book at a time.

  • When I was your age, Santa didn't need a background check.

  • When I was your age, AIDS was one of the biggest viral killers in the world. 3 decades and 35 million infections later, it looks like HIV may be evolving into being less deadly and less infectious" - HIV evolving 'into milder form.'

  • When I was your age, I'd have to wait to hear my favorite song on the radio. Now I click a button.

  • When I was your age, I'd need to take my turntables, vinyl, needles, cables, adapters, cleaning cloths and spares of everything. Now I need a tablet and a pair of headphones.

  • When I was your age, I had to close my eyes and use my imagination to fantasise about a beautiful woman. Now I click a button.

  • When I was your age, everyone thought we'd be living in space by now.

  • When I was your age, the technology in films was a fantasy, now it's reality.

  • When I was your age, I'd discuss quandaries with my mates down the pub. Now I just use Google.

  • When I was your age, I'd never make groaning noises every time I stand up or sit down.

  • When I was your age, there were 4 television channels (in the UK).

  • When I was your age, my watch only told me the time and date.

  • When I was your age, I'd write a letter to my favorite celebrity, now I tweet them.

  • When I was your age, teenagers weren't half as annoying as I find them now.

  • And the absolute classic example: When I was your age, this was all fields...
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