Normal Things We No Longer Do! 

I remember how much it used to piss me off when a song came on the radio that I wanted to record, but the DJ wouldn't shut up until about 20 seconds into the song.

Being born in 1963 I would gladly relive those days.

I remember staying up with dad watching the late late movies on Friday nights and still being the first one up bright and early on Saturday mornings to watch cartoons! Younger generations just seem to sleep in all the time!

As a kid, we either went roller skating, or went to the drive-in almost every weekend.

I would rather it be like that today than it is now

I remember my mother buying us colorform sets in the 70s to keep us kids entertained in long drives for summer vacations, we'd also watch for different states license plates to see how many states we came across, I remember you could smoke anywhere, airports, on planes, hospitals, movie theaters, restaurants, grocery stores, bowling etc 😂 We had fun with the Polaroid cameras, and was easier to see the photos right away instead of bringing film to get developed that took a week

i'm quite nostalgic for video rental stores, they may have been a bit expensive, but before having to subscribe to multiple streaming services to be able to watch the things you want, it was much more convenient

Born in 1964. At 5 years old, my mother used to put me on the plane, alone to fly to TN for the summer! Today, CPS would be called on any mother doing that. I was looked after by all the "stewardesses" and always got a set of wings from the captain! I loved it!

Remember listening to mixtapes? Whatever the DJ said during your favorite songs became so ingrained in your mind that later when you heard the song without talk, you would repeat the DJ’s words to yourself. How about waiting lists? At the library you would get on a list so that when whoever had your book returned it, the librarian would call you. The same thing happened at the video store if your movie was checked out.

I grew up in NW Arkansas during the late 70’s and 80’s. Does anyone else remember being able to get into second-run movie matinees during the summer for an empty can of soda? The theatre would recycle them for the price of a ticket hoping you’d buy snacks with them. I saw The Empire Strikes back about a dozen times doing this.

Rhett, I really enjoyed your feature about things we used to do that's obsolete now. It brought back a lot of fond memories. Technology is supposed to make our lives simpler, but sometimes I think it makes our lives more complicated, period! Have a fantastic weekend. Take care 🐎

I remember in the 70's when there was something big coming on TV,it was a "treat" to use those old TV trays, and eat dinner while we watched the program. Those TV trays always had a fake wood grain, with flimsy brass lookalike legs,that ALWAYS broke.😂

I swear, every time I watch one of your videos it's like you spied on me as a child. I used to sit and tape songs off the radio all the time. I even still have like 57 tapes in a box from back in the day. My only regret was not taping the commercials but my 10 year old brain just wanted my favorite songs. Stopping and starting just right was crucial!!😆

Funny story about rewinding movies here. I knew the owner of a local video store in the early 90's, and he rented VHS tapes, but eventually started renting DVD's as they became more popular. I rented a DVD once and when I brought it back, I said to him "Hey Dave, I apologize, but I didn't rewind it". He quickly replied "Oh that's OK, I have a machine to do that, no worries". Then I reminded him "Hey Dave... It's a DVD..." He gave me a blank look for a couple of seconds before giving himself a facepalm. Good times, lol.

One thing I don't miss at all was America's NTSC color TV broadcasting system. The color balance would shift so many times in the course of just one hour that you were constantly fiddling with the TV's color and tint controls. And the picture flickered badly too. Digital HDTV is great. Even over-the-air broadcasting looks great now.

Yes! I was born in 1963. My generation( or just me) still remembers the milk man with glass bottles And the milkman whould ask would you like ice cream or butter today. It was so a treat that on friday when my dad would say lets get a pint of ice cream. Presantly kiddies get it anywhere any time. Just as McDonald's , it was a treat to go there. But today, parents depend on a quick dinner. So thats why at about 4:00pm - 9:00 the fast food chains are backed up in the drive thru.😂

I love being born in the mid 70s. The 80s were the best time to grow up.

Oh, yeah, I miss when commercial breaks meant like one commercial, halfway through say "All in the Family"! I also really miss having a conversation with someone who isn't looking down, at their phone. I still prefer reading an actual book, as opposed to trying to read from a tech device.

My mix cassette tapes were usually recorded off of vinyl records or another cassette tape if I had a stereo with two tape decks. My problems usually was in trying to figure out how many minutes I had left on a tape and whether that last song I want to put on would fit.

I remember that complaining about waking up crack of dawn during the school week but I was more eager to get up at crack of dawn on Saturday to watch the newest morning cartoon so that I could talk to my friends and have bragging rights about being the first one seeing it. Kids of today don't know about the thrill of beating your friends to something like that. Now they have the season given to them and can watch them at anytime.

It's like a whole different world. I hope to be able to put a book together showing how different things are now. We were what they would now call 'free range children '...we played in trees, creeks and alongside train tracks. He cut up bamboo poles and got a piece of bacon and a lead sinker (sometimes a metal washer) and would spend the day crawfad hunting. We'd go around and find glass bottles and take them to the store for our finders fee and exchange it for a full one to drink...those where the days indeed!

We still have a rotary dial phone in an office, hardly gets used but fun when answering telemarketer call & slamming the phone down so they hear it. Back in the day you would know how hard the phone call was disconnected. Great Vlog! Encyclopedia research was brutal.

I remember on longer road trips my parents would have all of us pick a type of vehicle. Station wagon, beetles, vans, mack trucks, etc, and we would count them on the way to where we were going. The vehicle had to be on the other side of the road. We'd rotate who picked 1st. Most of the time it was our trip to grandmas and the winner got the 1st kiss. Oh the good ol days. I miss them drastically.

I used to love getting dropped off at the mall for hours, going to the arcades, food courts, Spencer Gifts etc.😁Another great video👍🏻ROCK ON!!!!!!!🤘🏻🤙🏻✌🏻

I remember getting paper 3D glasses in a cereal box. I used them to watch "The Creature from the Black Lagoon."

It's absolutely fascinating how times have changed

Ha!! Good times! I experienced all these. I remember on long road trips my dad forced us kids to playing the license plate game so we would just quit asking, “Are we were there yet?” PS Hi Jodie! 👋😁

I miss those "waiting times" we had. I'll take that any day over the instant gratification we have now due to the internet. Thank you for sharing this, it's pretty cool to remember simpler times. I'm old school so I like paper and not a big fan of technology.

How things have changed in a short 40 years! Thanks for the memories Rhetty!

Those were the days. Catch a bus to the movies. No problem. Now no busses. Thanks Rhett. Love to you all ♥️ From Africa.

I was born in 1974..I was the rabbit ear antenna fixer, the channel changer, and only ate at the kitchen table. But sometimes grandma would let me use a tv tray if mom wasn't around 😂

When life was much simpler. I sure miss those days. Love your channel! 😃

I still remember phone numbers from the mid-1960s. Today, I actively worked to memorize TWO phone numbers, on top of my own, in case of a really big emergency.

I can tell you a couple of things that, if they are not dead they are certainly dying. Like going to the department stores to buy records. Mind you, records have made a resurgence in recent years but most people seem to opt for streaming services these days. I started buying records in the mid-1970s after getting a stereo for Christmas in 1976. And thanks to that, when I got a tape recorder for Christmas in 1978 I began making my own mixtapes in precisely they way you described...having the recorder at the ready to record songs from local station QFM96 Columbus. I might still have one of those around here :) Or how about as a kid, going to the drug store or grocery store to look for the latest comic books? You'll almost never see comics at those places these days; comics are sold at either bookstores (sometimes), or specialty comic book stores. And many just buy them digitally for their tablets or PCs. Guess that's "progress", and I can appreciate the convenience of having it right there instead of looking for them at stores. But sometimes, you just want to be able to hold them in your hand and read them.

A lot of things changed for the better, many for the worst as well. It’s easy to say life was better then because it was for the most part but the thing about time is you don’t know you’re living in the good times until they’re behind you.

Most of the things that have changed today and ways of doing things I do use. However, I try to also still do things the old way about ¼ to ½ the time too. I think it’s good not only to remember, but because most the ways things used to be done used your brain a lot more I think. Cursive handwriting, remembering phone numbers, driving a manual transmission car, wearing an analog wristwatch that you have to actually read, pulling out a physical map, or even using film when taking pictures, because there was more consequence to it and you had to actually know a few things about photography, and then be patient waiting for it to be developed. Generally speaking it feels like everything is done for us today, you don’t have to have as much knowledge, you don’t get as much exercise, and you don’t have to learn how to be patient. So yes, I sometimes use the GPS in my car, take pictures on my cell phone, write emails or texts, drive my automatic transmission car, etc. But I like yo keep my skills fresh also doing things the old ways too. It’s much more satisfying to me, and I like feeling like I actually know how to do things myself.

We were never bored during long car trips in the 1970's. There were a ton of travel games you could play in the backseat with your siblings, and if you were an only child, there were other games you could play with your folks, like spotting horses and hoping they didn't spot a VW Beetle to bury them lol. The library was an interesting place. If you just happened to not be able to find the book you were looking for because it had been checked out, the library often kept a waiting list you could put your name on. Then they would call you when it came back in.

You forgot finding jobs in the newspaper and filling out the applications. Now it's online.

I remember waiting for the film to be developed from summer camp only to be disappointed in the over exposed prints

I remember going to the index cards in the library to try to find the right book. I remember when I was 8 years old which would have been 1999, my sisters fiance got my parents a caller ID and an answering machine for Christmas and that was the first time I had ever seen a caller ID system. My grandparents had one of those big TV's with the round knob to change the channel, no remote control. I remember turning the dial to find cartoons to watch.

Rewinding the VHS tape also got people conditioned to need a DVD rewinder too!

It's crazy how the smart phone has EVERYTHING right at the palm of your hand. Even the famous picture of a smart phone and all the devices it replaced.

I still have my 90s mixed tapes. I was listening to them recently. Having to wait for the song to come on and hoping the DJ wouldn't talk over the beginning or the end of the song was stressful! I still plan bathroom breaks during commercials when I watch shows live, but at least now I can rewind if the show comes back before I do. Commercial breaks seem SO much longer than they used to, but we're only getting about 40 minutes of show compared to the 45-50 that we used to have.

Hello Rhett, here in the Philippines almost all that you've mentioned were also obsolete today, one thing that's not done here during the past decades were the parents leaving their children on the malls.😊

I remember getting up early on Saturday mornings, pouring myself a bowl of sugar-coated cereal, and sitting in front of the TV for at least 2 hours watching the cartoon lineups they had then. It was a truly magical time to be a kid, why did it go away?

Per usual, the photos chosen add a beautiful wrinkle to the narration and the creativity and playfulness of Rhett are forever feeding!

I was born in 64 and I miss those days terribly. Especially the 70s. I was never bored, if I wasn’t watching TV or out playing with friends, I usually could be found at the bookmobile, or I loved drawing and making my own comic books, The internet and social media have ruined todays kids .

You definitely brought back memories for me of one of my friends and me being dropped off at the mall when I was around 12-13 years old (mid 80's) and spending the day there.

I remember always spending the coins I was supposed to save to call my parents to pick me up and I would reverse call the charge 😂 And ofc we had stuff to do in a long car ride.......we played, I spy with my little eye 😄

I can really relate with using the thick yellow directory books (and white directory books) that was always changed every year until 2010; the introduction of caller I.D's and family escorting you inside the airport. I miss the latter esp. since I still remember my aunt, her then 9 year old daughter, my grandma and my mom waiting with me and my uncle (my aunt's husband) in the gate at LAX bur after an hour, they had to go back home since my aunt was driving 😭🥲

Thanks Rhett! Always fascinating and very nostalgic😊

I was born in 1965. This brings back memories that make me smile. It was a time when you didn't have cable companies to rob you every month. We didn't have a collection of encyclopedias, so I lived in the library. It was nice not having a cell phone. Your parents couldn't track you down. They had to take your word for whatever you said. We had one television. It was a 19" color television. I was glad it wasn't b/w. I didn't get my own bedroom television until I was 16 years old and had a job to pay for it. Today's kids will never appreciate these things. Parents douse their kids with state of the art everything. I've seen countless RU-vid videos of Gen-Z whining that they shouldn't have to work. They talk like the world owes them everything. We were grateful for whatever we had.

Born in 68 and this channel is absolutely fantastic

Rhetty, So what about your war stories when you were the remote control as a child? LOL You're wrong about having nothing to do on a long car ride. There were several things to keep us kids occupied: 1.) Taking turns asking " Are we there yet?" 2.) Taking turns telling dad " I have to pee." 3.) Fighting with your brothers and sisters.

Thank you Rhett, enjoyed this great video from the past.♥️

Ahhh! Making mix tapes and MTV (Real music TV back then). I was born in 91, and where I lived and grew up, all of these are accurate for what we used to do. I'm grateful I got to experience the last greatest bit of real childhood growing up and adventure. Great video, Rhetty!

I was born in 1988 and I still remember fond memories of the nineties before we had cell phones and all that

My hubby and I were both born in 1964 and we just came across your channel. We love it! The only good thing about today is we can use technology to look back at those wonderful times!

Love journeying down memory lane with you, Rhetty!

I was born in the late 1950s, and during the 90s I had pen pals from around the world. We hand wrote our letters, and it took time and patience for a reply. In middle and highschool I wrote with a fountain pen with ink cartridges. A few people still do that, but it was an everyday writing tool for much of my school life!!

Yelling "It's on!!" to someone in the other room when the commercial break was over.

It’s funny how many things that the smart phone has replaced.

Blow dryers and curling irons weren't common until the late 70s. Back then you had to set your hair in curlers and dry it with a blower that fit over your head. Hair brushes back then didn't have nurdles on the bristles either. The nurdles help pull the tangles out. We never had hair conditioner when I was a kid. These are all simple technologies, but they were uncommon until the 1980s.

I experienced most of these. Doing research papers was excruciating back in the day. I don’t miss it a bit. I am nostalgic about taping songs from the radio & film cameras. It makes me happy that there’s so many film aficionados today. In fact, the Cinestill film in the image is a modern film.

The phone number thing is funny to me, i still remember my bestfriends parents phone number, its still the same 40years later! I also remember my phone number from the house i grew up in!

There were things to do on long car rides such as reading, playing small versions of board games, mad libs, and games such as I Spy, or license plate games.

Who remembers pen pals and television stations not running around the clock,

Sometimes I wonder if we all had more of an attention span then. On long car trips we played games like the license plate game, brought things to read, and travel sized games. We did get bored and tired eventually, but it kept us occupied for a good portion of the trip.

I'm 77 and most of this makes me miss it! The GPS is never right, the map always was. It was interactive and it made you use your brain. As a matter-of-fact, most things mentioned made you use your brain! As for that boring trip...well, yea, to heck with talking to your parents, siblings and playing road games. I wanna go back!

I love this channel you cover everything I was born in 61 so I can relate all of it. Keep up the good work love your videos

Car trips were stare out the window and do Ad Libs! I've noticed a lot of 'hacks' posted by young people are just things your grandparents used to do - e.g. I saw someone posting a hack where you mix Worcestershire sauce into a burger mix...would love to see a video on these 'hacks'

I worked at my university library. My job was to kept the card catalog updated, inserting and removing cards of incoming books and books taken out of circulation. I wouldn’t have that job today! I’m sure today it’s all done with barcodes.

This was fun! Love coming here. Thanks for such great videos

One of my perks in the 80's and 90's certain public radio stations would have programs that you could record and listen to later like audiobooks today.

I love this channel. I was born in 1978 so this channel helps me remember a lot of things I saw or experienced in the 80s and 90s, including atuff from the 70s that were still lingering into the early 80s. Thanks for capturing our past so well.

I had so many mix tapes with the DJ talking at the beginning or end of the song that even now if I hear a random song my brain hears it that way 😂😂 thanks as always for the memories 👍💙🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I love antiques and anything under 1990.

On long road trips we had those cardboard travel bingo with the little sliding doors when you spotted something on the board. Also doing Mad Libs while on trips were fun. My Mom or brother would ask the questions and we would fill in the blanks while Dad drove the Jeep Wagoner

What i miss Watching Saturday morning cartoons with a bowl of your favorite cereal, comic books that cost 10 to 25 cents, CBs late movie and Saturday Night Shocker, browsing through old book racks for you favorite magazine, paperback or comic book, listening to your favorite song on the jukebox, penny candy, movie advertisements in the paper, etc so much i miss! Im 60 and ill always treasure the good ol days!!! Thanks, Rhetty❤❤❤❤❤❤

While I don't miss film cameras, I do miss the surprise of getting the photos in the small envelope from the developer and finally getting to see the pictures you took months ago.

Ha! I remember dialing up the movie theater for pre-recorded movie times!

I remember having to send a signed 3x5 index card to enter contests and if you wanted to send more than one the had to be mailed separately!

Heck , I remember when there were no MALLS. Every kid learned to alway carry an emergency dime so they could call their parents from a pay phone.

As to phones: I was born in 1957. Grew up in Brooklyn. Our home phone number was so drummed into me I still remember it, even though I haven't dialed it in more than 40 years....As to shopping malls, after Kings Plaza opened up in 1970 I would go there with my parents and they'd let me explore on my own- and meet them at the big tropical fishtank near the Flatbush Ave entrance....

I just subscribed to this channel. I was sold when he brought up calling for the time and weather. OMG, I remember that vividly.

Rhetty, Speaking of airport security after 911. Did you know they tried to take away Joe Foss's Medal of Honor when he tried to fly once? Security said it could be used as a weapon, a throwing star. After he set them right, they let him keep his MoH but took his finger nail clippers claiming they were a weapon. LOL

Besides having our own paper map or atlas, we could go down to AAA; They would print out turn-by-turn directions to and from for our vacation destination and give you a paper map with the routes highlighted. It was a big AAA member benefit at the time. 😊

I've been into photography since I was a kid in the early 2000s. Wow has it really changed in the last 20 years. Today's smartphone cameras have gotten really good to the point that basic point and shoot cameras like the Canon elph and PowerShot series are obsolete. I don't think they are even making new models of the basic cameras anymore. Smartphone cameras have gotten so good that most people don't even bring their high-end cameras on vacations anymore.

i know most ppl,hated the radio commercials, but when i was in the military in europe and asia, i asked friends to make whole tapes of unedited radio music and mail them to me. it was like being home for a short time. didnt feel so alone.

Another great video Rhetty, thanks for the memories

Had to memorize your address, friends' phone numbers etc... and I still remember them. Read the newspaper for movie times and checked daily to see the tv schedule. I am glad though tv's today don't weigh a metric ton anymore.

Awesome video. I'm one of those people who use to wear a watch at one point, but now don't see any reason to anymore

When I was a kid, we used to have take photos to the store to get developed

I still do "appointment television", sort of. Even in the age of digital streaming, one of the oldest action cartoon blocks for a cable network still uses a format where viewers would have to tune in Saturday nights for programs that aren't widely available elsewhere.

I know i sound like a grumpy old man, but life was in many ways better back then. More personal interaction, people had a few hobbies. Technology has taken over or life to much. I still use film btw as it is easier on my pocket than 11,000 dollars for my view camera and i carry my old picket watch still and wind it twice a day

Stare out the window and fight with each other until we heard, “I will turn this car around!”

Ahhh the good old days 😊

In my life… TV on a stand TV with legs TV on the floor TV in a magnetic door cabinet TV as a big black box TV on the wall…. All in 57 yrs….

When something special came on TV, EVERYBODY watched it that night. Like "A Charlie Brown Christmas", or the once-a-year showing of "The Wizard of Oz".

I so remember taking photos on a Polariod as a Kid, Address books, Card Catalogs at the library, tape recorders, MTV, going to get a VCR Tape as well as rewind it before returning, yes timing those very necessary bathroom breaks between the shows!!! Boy, I feel old!!!