Throwback Thursday: Things We Used To Do, That Teens Today Don’t.

Throwback Thursday: Things We Used To Do, That Teens Today Don’t.

Contributing Authors:
David De Lossy

For todays' Throwback Thursday, we are talking about all the things we used to do when we were young, that teens today don't even remotely do, and barely understand. You must have a couple of these up your sleeve....

JStew: When I was a kid, there were a lot of things that were different now. For instance, my generation still had Saturday morning cartoons. Kids these days have cartoons 24/7, which I think makes them less special. It was the kids version of Happy Hour. There was nothing more sacred than panning your whole Saturday morning around your favorite cartoons. Also, I've seen kids have a near allergic reaction to trying to use a rotary phone. We still have one at my camp... the OG one from 60 years ago. Still works fine, but I've seen kids stare right at it, and not even know it was a phone. Always good for an intense laugh at some poor kid's expense...

Cori: There are so many things that I believe trained an entire generation on how to be patient. I mean, we had to wait for things to rewind or fast forward, and in some cases, even for a VHS tape was "tracking" so you could actually watch the thing. Then there was the lessons in courtesy we learned from things like "be kind and rewind." We guessed about a lot of things, and took a lot of chances. Today's teens seem to share every little details about their lives online, for everyone to see. Whether its who they really are or not, there's no mystery, and very little to discover about someone through conversation. Music, obviously, was a big deal in my teen years, as it is for everyone it seems. My step-dad's Walkman, clipped to my hip. That's something my teen will never understand now that everything is available online or "through Alexa."

Every generation thinks the ones after them are insane, and vice versa. These are the things that were unique to us. Let's check them out!

Aisling Doucette Dial up Internet lol. The hours spent downloading music to burn mixed CDs, and texting on flip phones lol.
Jeff Bishop @ Aisling Doucette start the download; go to bed, wake up with a new CD HAHA
Diane Perdue Hartford@ Aisling Doucette what internet? LOL I’m too old , that didn’t happen until my adulthood
Melanie Makin Had a standing agreement with friends not to fix typos when text chatting online because each letter took so long to appear already!
Paul Keezer Slept out in a tree house all summer....
David Davis Listening intently to the radio to hit record to make your own mix tape cassette!
Dennis Bean recording a song from one radio to a tape player...and have a sibling barge in..running their mouth while your in the middle of fine MAXELL cassette sound room recordings. Or a boom box on the shoulder and a case of cassettes in hand of the most amazing tunes...80's rock.
Brad Rice Roamed the neighborhood with no worries
Shari Giffard Keefe Listening to Kasey Kasem and the Top Forty (on transistor radio) while Sunning with your best friend on a Sunny Saturday.
Sandra Lyn @Shari Giffard Keefe I never missed Kasey Kasem! It was the highlight of my weekend. I used to put a cassette in and record my favorite songs. I may still have a few tapes
Kari Jo Davis Absolutely pit parties, keg beer, charging 5 bucks a head to drink all you can. Hitchhiking.
Wendy Clewley Roller-skating at Skate scene, Spraying aqua net on my hair until it was stiff.
Lynn Hatch Sension Stretching the phone cord from the wall in the kitchen to the hall closet, so that you could talk in private. My kids looked at me like I sprouted another head right before their eyes when I told them about this.
Rick Wilson Drive in theatre
Diane Perdue Hartford Bringing a quarter everywhere you went in case you had to find a pay phone to call home
Cindy Fitzgerald Malcolm Walking or riding your bike if you wanted to go anywhere.
Bobbie Lindsey Parties with Live bands in the living room.
Mary Klein Drouin Talking for hours on the phone with your BF ( the one attached to the wall with a cord ) Getting paid and going to the record store to buy a new cassette tape.
Janet Austin Wrote letters to my Mom every week since I was in boarding school 3,000 miles from home and long distance phone calls were way too expensive back then.
Greg Miller Pit parties, trying to find privacy for the phone call while tethered to the wall, heck for that matter talking on the telephone in general.
Judi Miller for me trying to dial on the rotary phone. Finger slipping and having to start all over.
Sam Smith  Use an encyclopedia or card catalog in the library
Dylan Friends would hang on to the rear of the bus on their skateboards. Free ride! Enjoying 2/3 or 3/4 of a song on a radio mix tape because you hadn't been able to record all of it yet. And DJ's voices on your tapes! Guessing how many minutes of tape were left on side A or side B to see if you could squeeze another song on there. The possibility represented by that freshly unwrapped blank tape and how much more exciting 90 or 100 minute tapes were than 60 minute tapes. And every Chuck Norris movie was an instructional video.
Jessica Davis Taking the bus to hang out downtown
David Smith@ Jessica Davis screw the bus I took my sister car without permission to or a drivers license
Marilyn Stoddard 8track tapes in car going down the ride. Kasey Kasey top 40 every Saturday.
Anthony Parks Potato gun
Richard Grabbing the bumper of a car and hitching a ride on my roller skates, buying pants 6 times too long and rolling them up. Used to get a lot of dirt in there.
Kristine Cummings-Jarnich Referring to being a teenager way back and what teenagers don’t know today, going to blockbuster for the new release and it being rented when you got there. the disappointment of it not being in
Caller We used to meet up with friends without cell phones. We'd socialize in real life.
Stephen Dugay I hitchhiked from Fort Kent to Winter Harbor, college to home and back many times and I carried handmade cardboard signs, most effective one read- Hawaii!
Ralph Vines Kimball Using our imagination.
Jim I was a South Brewer kid, grew up in ward 5, just below the tracks, and one of our favorite things in the fall was to get a whole gang of us together and see who has the biggest sweatshirt on, and sneak into Old Man Derby's apple orchard and fill a sweat shirt full of apples. And if we weren't happy there, we'd go up the tracks. And half way up the tracks on Brewer street and sneak in there. One had bright red apples, and one had green apples. The green apple place was fun till Old Man Derby figured out that if he took the lead out of the shotgun and put rock-salt in there, we'd be all set. It would only take an application or two till we figured it out.

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