Older People Are Sharing All The Random Things That Didn’t Exist When They Were Younger, And Oh My God, I Can’t Believe The World Has Changed So Fast

Recently, I wrote an article sharing people’s examples of “something young people don’t realize didn’t exist when you were younger” — and it got such a great response, I felt like I had to share even more. So, here are some of the best:

1.“Cigarette machines.”

—Anonymous, 62, New York

2.“CDs/DVDs and players.”

—Anonymous, 62 New York

3.“Plastic bottles. I remember going to the store and buying Gatorade for my football game in a glass.”

—Anonymous, 50, Lynnfield, Massachusetts

4.School shootings. You used to be able to bring your guns to school, people had gun racks in their pick-ups.”

“Also, girls’ sports. I remember when I moved to Arkansas, girls’ basketball was half-court. That was it. Totally no Title IX happening there.

I had volleyball, basketball, softball, and track in Minnesota when I was in school a hundred years ago. Now, look at where the ladies have taken soccer and added teams to the WNBA. Huge win for the ladies to get sports scholarships.”

—casualking314

5.“I remember when the gas station cleaned your windshield.”

—Anonymous, 80, Illinois

“A service attendant filled your car with gas at a service station, checked your tires and oil, and washed your windows. Service stations had gas and auto mechanics to fix tires and cars. There were no gas stations with convenience stores.”

—Anonymous, 75, Minneapolis

6.“I remember when most stores were closed on Sunday. In my state, it wasn’t until the ’80s that many stores were open on Sunday. I miss that.”

—Anonymous

7.“Microwave ovens and timers for lights.”

—Anonymous, 79, Novato, California

8.“Yogurt.”

—Anonymous

9.“I remember when there weren’t any area codes. Phone numbers had names like Hudson 2468.”

—Anonymous

10.“There were no buses where I lived. Along with all those books we carried home on foot, I lugged a tenor saxophone home to practice every night.”

—Anonymous

11.“Leaf blowers.”

—Anonymous, 62, New York

12.“Microwaves, CDs, digital downloads, the iPhone.”

—Anonymous, 66, Charlotte, North Carolina

13.“Fast food of any kind. We always ate Mom’s (sometimes Dad’s) home cooking. I still make the majority of our meals. It’s healthier and tastes better.”

—Anonymous, Washington State

14.“Liquid soap or detergent.”

—Anonymous, 62, New York

15.“Of course, we did not have cellphones, but we didn’t have push-button phones either. They were rotary dial. No one liked numbers with nine in them because you had to turn the rotor so far over.”

—Anonymous, 61, Minneapolis

16.“TV shows after midnight.”

—Anonymous

17.“Photocopiers. The first commercial ones came out in the ’60s. Goodbye, carbon paper!”

—Anonymous, 67

18.“Fully automatic washing machines. Before that, we had an ‘automatic’ washer that had to be drained after the wash cycle, then refilled with fresh water to rinse. It also had a roller that you fed the clothes through to squeeze the water out. Sometimes your hand got rolled and squeezed as well. Painful experience.”

—Anonymous, 64, Baltimore, Maryland

19.“Birth control pills.”

—Anonymous

20.“Milkmen who delivered milk, soda water, and concentrated Coca-Cola and other syrups to be mixed in it right to your door.”

—Anonymous, 72, Oregon

21.“I never even SAW an avocado, let alone taste one, ’til I was about 20 and went to my first Mexican restaurant with a friend. I was HOOKED on them! I eat avocados daily now! Yumm!”

—Anonymous, Kicking around since 1951 (73 years old), Chicago, Illinois

22.“Fancy baby gear! Strollers with cup holders, electric (not wind-up) baby swings, affordable electric breast pumps, video monitors for the nursery, digital cameras built into phones for instant results, and more…”

—Anonymous, 67, Georgia

23.“Seat belts. Car seats for kids. Helmets, knee pads, etc. for when you ride a bike.”

—Anonymous

24.“Using coal to heat the house.”

—Anonymous

25.“Video calls – talking face-to-face over a screen for the first time felt like sci-fi. Oh, and smart watches; they so remind me of the Star Trek communicators!”

—Anonymous

26.“I was in college when hand calculators became common. They were about the size of a paperback book, cost about $600 (I seem to recall my tuition per semester was $700), and engineering students were required to get them. Now you can get a ‘Hello Kitty’ calculator at Five Below that probably has 10 times the calculating ability.”

—odaydaniel

“So true. The Texas Instruments calculator was required for the computer programming class in the mid-1970s. Expensive. Purchased a new calculator this year for $5 at Walmart.”

—smartwitch66

27.“When my grandmother was a kid, women couldn’t vote. When I was a kid, Mom couldn’t have a bank account or credit card in her own name. All that progress, and now they’re trying to take it away.”

—sportyking436

28.“I’m older than the chicken pox vaccine! I remember going to ‘pox parties’ in kindergarten to get exposed to the virus (I guess so I could get it over with, idk). Yes, I did get infected, and I remember the oatmeal baths well, LOL. My brother and husband are younger than I am and both received the vaccine as kids. So, I guess I’m the lucky one who will eventually deal with Shingles.”

—happytiger557

“You can get the Shingles vaccine which I highly recommend.”

—smartwitch66

29.And finally, a nostalgic moment: “I remember when I was younger, we would go to a store called Holton’s or Larson’s, and we would get penny candy. The candy would not be wrapped, and we would select the candy that we wanted. It would be put in a bag, and then we’d just eat the candy out of the bag. My favorite was Swedish Fish. They had the big, long, red ones that were probably like three inches long, and you would pay a penny for each.”

Peter Keegan / Getty Images, John Greim / Getty Images

—Anonymous, 43, Utah

Anything I missed? Feel free to reminisce or share your own examples in the comments below!

Or, if you want to write in but prefer to stay anonymous, you can check out this anonymous form. Who knows — your answer could be included in a future BuzzFeed article.