What do you remember from your childhood that no longer exists?

[The Blackangel]

If you've got the years, what are some things you remember from when you were a kid that we left in the past? I'm a child of the 80's, and there's a lot I remember that no longer exists. Here's a short list of the things I can think of off the top of my head:


Aerobics competitions
Party lines
Smoking anyplace and anytime
Grainy black and white cartoons
Console TV's
Buying flash cubes
Phone numbers beginning with a word
Rotary phones
Potato sack dresses
Half day kindergarten
8-track tapes
Renting a VCR
Regular or unleaded
Gas for less than a dollar
Encyclopedias
Fountain pens
Outhouse
Carbon paper
Pagers
Floppy disks
Getting a person when making a call

Buying comics to read and sports cards to trade rather than as investments

 

[WhiteRabbit]

 

[beyond.space]

those tiny little red bugs

 

[Forever Sleep]

I think the youngsters would laugh if they heard that now, connecting to the internet...

I'm the same-ish generation to you most likely. There are definitely certain (junk) foods that disappeared. Some that disappeared and came back. I remember Nerds going- crunchy candy sweets. I think there was some scandal someone had found glass in a pack! They have returned. Trio biscuits went then came back, then went again. The weird thing is when you try an old favourite again and, it's not as nice as you remember.

Also games. In many of the early games, when you died, you were sent all the way back to the beginning! I doubt people would have the patience for that now. I'm not sure I would to be honest. I still remember how excited I was to start to see 'checkpoints' in games.

Prices have become crazy too. I remember a child's bus fare into town (around 3-4 miles) cost 30p at one point. I'm not sure you could buy anything much for 30p now.

We didn't have mobile phones either. I had to use a phone box once to call my friend's Mum to say I'd missed the bus and would be late meeting her. Which, she wouldn't have found out unless she'd gone home. She waited for me though- bless.

But yeah- no widespread internet. We had to use things like Tourist Information or the library.

I imagine school is pretty different too. Not that I went to a religious school but, we still had to sing hymns and say prayers. I imagine most of that's gone now.

Milk floats used to be more common. Milk from glass bottles left on your doorstep at the crack of dawn.

 

[Chemi]

There used to be so much snow...

 

[asaṅkhata]

those tiny little red bugs

Do you mean fire colored beetles? We used to smoulder them with magnifying glasaes when I was a kid. Or do you mean the really tiny ones, like little red dots?

 

[beyond.space]

Do you mean fire colored beetles? We used to smoulder them with magnifying glasaes when I was a kid. Or do you mean the really tiny ones, like little red dots?

the ones like red dots

 

[NormallyNeurotic]

I went to what is essentially a theme park attraction not to long ago and came home with black boogers. Tar black. And instead of being disgusted, I was sort of nostalgic of my childhood going to Disney and straying too close to the smoking area...

 

[NearlyIrrelevantCake]

RIP the McPizza, gone too soon.

I had my 7th? birthday party at a McDonald's and we all got the personal-sized McPizzas.

 

[Forveleth]

Floppy drives and dot-matrix printers
Snow on Christmas
Having to duck under the phone cord when someone else was on it
No TSA
Tots R Us
McDs fries made in full-fat oil
Typewriters
Cursive
Actual bubblegum for blowing massive bubbles
Trapper keepers and CD wallets
Payphones
Taxis (not Uber)

 

[FoxSauce]

Ik its a bit dumb but the DSi. I love flipnote.
Also Purble place game I used to play with my dad.

Before he moved away...


Tbh I dont wanna remember makes me kinda sad

 

[martyrdom]

My country

 

[cme-dme]

I also had a DSi growing up :) I remember using Flipnote and Pictochat a lot and being heartbroken when I got my 3DS and discovered it had neither of tbose!
Umm I remember I used to have a friend who every morning before school we would play Peggle online on our Xbox 360s. It's mostly just games I miss growing up to be honest. I didn't do much else with my free time growing up.

 

[littlecutecorpse]

our family dog. we've had her since i was 5 and she just recently passed away in september from cancer. lived up to ~14 years. i miss her now

 

[Spite]

Blockbuster/DVD rental stores. Growing up it used to be a treat for me where almost every Friday evening my mother would take me to the local DVD store to pick some movies and games to watch/play over the weekend. I always used to enjoy walking down the aisles examining as many DVDs as I could. Sadly, these kinds of stores no longer exist.

 

[woofwag]

How loud the crickets were in the summer. I hardly hear them now...

 

[Black_Knight]

Nothing. I didn't even have a bad childhood, but I hated being a child.

 

[noname223]

My hopes and dreams...

 

[Grog]

Lively frutiger aero aesthetics and skeuomorphism. Now we just have dull, uninspired minimalism.

 

[WhatCouldHaveBeen32]

my innocence, ignorance and bliss? Older games that I have forgotten the names of? Watching creepypastas and actually being terrified and getting giddy under my blanket thinking the monsters were out to get me?

Basically being unaware:)

 

[powerplant]

-The online services on the 3ds
-the app "we heart it" (still exists but doesn't do nearly the same thing that it used to do)
-Friendly's rockin poppin cotton candy ice cream flavor

 

[NormallyNeurotic]

Ik its a bit dumb but the DSi. I love flipnote.
Also Purble place game I used to play with my dad.

Before he moved away...


Tbh I dont wanna remember makes me kinda sad

PURBLE PLACE! I used to play it on long car rides, thought it was a feverdream for years.

my innocence, ignorance and bliss? Older games that I have forgotten the names of? Watching creepypastas and actually being terrified and getting giddy under my blanket thinking the monsters were out to get me?

Basically being unaware:)

Creepypastas were a massive chunk of my childhood. Now they're boring, overdone, and with AI thumbnails. RIP old CreepsMcPasta

 

[X-sanguinate86]

Making what I thought was a friend.

 

[FoxSauce]

PURBLE PLACE! I used to play it on long car rides, thought it was a feverdream for years.

Creepypastas were a massive chunk of my childhood. Now they're boring, overdone, and with AI thumbnails. RIP old CreepsMcPasta

Wasn't totally a dream I love the game. Especially the cake one.