Lets face it, times are changing and have changed! There is a whole lot that kids will never know about in the next decade! Here are 12 nostalgic things that kids will definitely never know about in the next decade!
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- Library Stamp Cards.. ?? Exactly..
- Opening a Car Door..You Guessed it, Using a Car Key
- Floppy Discs, So Many Floppy Discs
- Dial Up Internet..Connected..Disconnected..
- Making Your Own Phone Ring Tones
- Phones had Cords..Short Cords
- Pay Phones..Insert $2
- Teen Magazines Kids Will Never Know Were #Life
- Where’s the Map?
- Look in a Phone Book or Memorise Your Friends Numbers
- New ‘So Fresh’ CD is Out! WOO! I Can Listen To That One Song I Like!
- Self Made Video Game Cheat Books
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Library Stamp Cards.. ?? Exactly..
There was a time when library books were not scanned electronically. They used the stamping system, where inside the cover of the book, a little sleeve with a lined piece of card paper was placed inside. On it there were the names of people who had borrowed the book previously and the date they needed to return it.
I have to say, there were many times that little card interested me and I would look at the names and dates (some which were over 10 years old) that would fascinate me! Sometimes seeing the name of someone you knew made it feel slightly reassuring that someone you knew also read the book. These little feelings that kids will never know about when taking out a library book (if they even take out library books anymore!)
Opening a Car Door..You Guessed it, Using a Car Key
So we all have probably been through those times where we were restlessly waiting outside the car, wanting to go home after a long day only to have your parents freaking out because they couldn’t find the car keys. Something kids will never know or have to endure. Especially now with ‘keyless’ entry, you can even open your car door using your mobile phone! How times have changed!
Floppy Discs, So Many Floppy Discs
Long before the Cloud ever existed (something I still have confusion as to what exactly this cloud is), Floppy Discs were the only form of saving you could have. Kids will never know the tower of floppy discs you accumulated over the years, the fact that the storage space was minimal was an issue, only being able to save a few word documents and maybe one photograph.
Dial Up Internet..Connected..Disconnected..
The fun we use to have with dial up internet. The constant disconnections, the high pitched dial up tone, losing connection when the home phone rang, all great memories associated with Dial up that we came to love. Things have definitely come a long way since then with NBN and Fibre Optic, kids will never know the frustrations of being in the middle of a very important MSN chat about boys to only be cut off when the internet would randomly poo itself.
Something kids will never know is also the best excuse to stop talking with someone over the internet when you weren’t bothered to talk anymore was to use the excuse ‘My internet disconnected’. An excuse that wouldn’t be as believable today.
Making Your Own Phone Ring Tones
The old Nokia phones we grew up with didn’t really have many amazing features. I mean, besides the game ‘Snake’ of course, which was in part pretty revolutionary at the time. But one feature that became available was being able to create your own ringtones. This was done by using the numbers and symbols on the mobile phone as ‘keys’ or ‘notes’ to create your ringtone in the ‘ringtone generator’.
It was fun putting random notes onto the screen and coming up with quirky and sometimes quite annoying tones. The tones themselves extremely high pitch and not really pleasing to the ear. Later on when you could use the internet to search up popular songs from films, movies or the classics like Mozart. They would look a little something like this,
8e2 8#d2 8e2 8#d2 8e2 8b1 8d2 8c2 4a1 8- 8c1
For anyone interested, that is the first part of ‘Fur Elise’. Kids will never know the dedication that went through typing each individual number and symbol to get the song you wanted. It was well respected at the time whoever had the best tone and we all knew the work that went into making it.
Phones had Cords..Short Cords
Home phones were the only access to contact anyone, before you were even old enough to be allowed a mobile phone. If there was a very important conversation that had to be had, you basically had to use the home phone which was connected to the wall (often near the kitchen) which seemed to be the hub or where EVERYBODY liked to hang out.
The phone cords had very short cords, so you had no way to have any private conversations at all! That is why Pay Phones were often utilised for that reason of privacy.
Pay Phones..Insert $2
Now I truely believe the reason that people from our generation can sometimes find it difficult to put together a deposit for a house is because of pay phones. At the time, the cost for the phone call was $2 every few minutes or so, so imagine trying to call someone and having to keep forking out gold coins.
Walking up the street to your closest payphone with your pockets full of coins now come to think of it was probably pretty risky. Kids will never know about the struggles of having to save up coins to have a private conversation. Home phones at the time were not cordless and hardly anyone our age had a mobile phone, so you would have to sacrifice a house just to have a one minute conversation.
Teen Magazines Kids Will Never Know Were #Life
Before most people had the internet, the only way for teens to get any source of information was to purchase teen magazines, specifically ‘Dolly’ and ‘Girlfriend’ magazine. Now looking back the magazines were packed with inspirational articles of girls, sports people, celebrities and bands, but who ever read the articles right?
The only reason these magazines were purchased was for two things. The massive posters of popular boy bands and male topless celebrities with oil infused abs and … ‘The Sealed Section’.
Now for those who didn’t know what the infamous ‘Sealed Section’ was, it was a part in the magazine that made two pages fused together on the side and the only way to access it is to peal the dotted line to access the all important information inside. That information being all questions and answers to all teenagers questions…
Dr Dolly was the name of the Dolly sealed section. Teenagers would bring the magazine to school and there was one question on everyones lips ‘Have you opened the Sealed Section?’. Often it was only opened within a group of girls who eagerly awaited to hear all the wonders inside.
Kids will never know about the anticipation at this point, questions relating to sexual health and had anonymous questions by other teens who would mail their questions in to get the Dr to answer those questions.
Where’s the Map?
GPS or phone map apps weren’t a big thing at a certain time in the world, but owning a map book was. Trying to navigate a new area was near impossible on your own if you didn’t have someone helping you navigate the coordinates to find the exact street you needed to get too.
It was a process definitely! First trying to look at the back of the book to find the street name, then turn to the page number, then look at the back of the book again to find the coordinates (often at this point spending another 5 minutes trying to find the street name at the back of the book and checking multiple times that the coordinates were correct).
After finally finding the street or zone you needed to be at, you realise that the adjacent street to get into that street may not exist anymore…Yeah the only way to update your map book was to wait a whole year for the new edition to come out. Yeah good luck with that..
Look in a Phone Book or Memorise Your Friends Numbers
Phone books had multiple purposes..being used to find numbers to prank, find people who had the same name as you, find people with hilarious names like ‘Donald Duck’ (apologies if that is your name), being used as a makeshift booster seat at the dining table or for what it actually was meant to used for, finding a persons phone number.
Obviously the size of these giant phone books meant they were stacked at home with some of the older editions (no idea why) and without mobile phones once upon a time you had to literally memorise phone numbers all the time.
Some people did keep a smaller phone book with some personal favourite friends and families numbers written down. Kids will never know the first thing about having to remember anyones phone number off by heart. I mean honestly, how long did it take you to remember your own partners phone number off by heart? Honestly?
New ‘So Fresh’ CD is Out! WOO! I Can Listen To That One Song I Like!
Before being able to download songs, Spotify or IHeart Radio, you either had to wait for the radio to play your favourite song or try and attempt to record it using a cassette. Watching the ‘Rage’ countdown on TV was another way to hear the songs you wanted, but you literally had to wait for the song to come on (or be very disappointed when you realise that one song was no longer in the top 20 anymore..)
‘So Fresh’ was a CD available at the time that was immensely popular (I just also discovered at this very moment that it still exists) and compiled of a range of greatest hits at the time. Often it was purchased because of one popular song at the time. Kids will never know or have to worry about having to wait for a favourite song to pop up.
Self Made Video Game Cheat Books
For any hardcore gamer in the 90s and 00s, cheat books were something all gamers would create. There were no websites that had lists of game cheats you could use, so often in order not to forget you had to write all these codes down, one at a time!
Kids will never know the hard work that went into making sure you had all the codes needed to add to your game when they were achieved. It is not like games now where they save your progress no matter what section your up to, games in the 90s and 00s were hard! Game books were usually an old exercise book that you kept next to you with a pen or texta to quickly write down any codes given in the game.
And if you pressed ‘A’ before you wrote it down, you could say bye bye to that code. The book was the be all and end all of any game cheat codes in history!
What do you think about this list? Are there any other things you would add to this list that you remember or think kids will never know about in the future? Comment and let us know!
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