"It Was Normal In The '80s": 21 Common But Unique Routines And Practices From "Way Back When" That Younger Generations Will Never Get To Experience

Recently, members of the BuzzFeed Community shared the common experiences from "back in the day" that have started to become obsolete over time, and as a Gen Z'er, I'm incredibly fascinated. Here are some of the unique, everyday experiences from the past that, depending on how old you are, will have you feeling extremely nostalgic or utterly confused:

1. "When we were young, we didn't have cellphones, so we'd play outside all day. The only way we'd know it was time for dinner was to look and see if our front porch light was on. Some friends' parents would come outside and ring a bell for dinnertime.

2. "The biggest difference I can remember is how, in the '50s and '60s, the neighbors knew everyone and watched out for all the kids. You didn't dare misbehave, or the neighbors would walk over to your house and tell your folks. It wasn't unheard of for the neighbor to deliver a swat on the butt to someone else's kid if they felt it warranted. And I didn't dare tell my parents about anything like that, or I would get another from them. It taught us kids to respect others."

—Jack, 71, Ohio

3. "Mailing letters and having to read the handwriting from letters you received. Also, if you sent a letter, you never knew if the person you sent it to received it."

4. "I went to high school in the early '70s. We had areas where we could smoke during lunch, breaks, and in between classes."

— uniquegazelle1381

5. "In the 1950s, whenever my family took a flight, the stewardess (they were all women back then) would come to our seats and ask my brother and me if we wanted to visit the cockpit and meet the captain. It was always a 'yes,' and into the cockpit we would go."

6. "Telephone booths! They were at hotels, restaurants, many businesses, and government buildings. If you had to use a telephone, it was located in private booths with a folding door to keep your privacy."

— deadpansquirrel535

7. "The television. The first one we got was black and white and maybe only 13 inches. It wasn't flat, but it was heavy. There was no remote control, so you had to get up and turn the dial if you wanted a new station! We had five stations: CBS, NBC, ABC, Channel 5 (which did reruns), and PBS. At midnight, the TV went 'off.' The network would play 'The Star-Spangled Banner' with a flag waving on the screen, and that was it. Then, at 6 a.m. the next morning, the waving flag and the national anthem reappeared, followed by TV shows. We also didn't have cable; we used an antenna to get a better signal, and there were times when the antenna had to be one way for one channel and another for another. And, yes, we put aluminum foil on the ends to 'help with reception.' There also weren't any movies on TV! You simply didn't spend hours watching TV since it was just talk shows and game shows during the day."

8. "During elementary school, we all wore bracelets with the names of missing POWs from the Vietnam War. We were to wear them until the 'boys' came home."

— joyfulmagazine45

9. "Doing your hair. I grew up in the '60s and, of course, had long hair. I had no flat iron, so to get it straight, I bent over the ironing board, and my mom ironed it straight. If I wanted curls, I washed it, rolled it on huge brush rollers or orange juice cans, and sat under a bonnet hair dryer for a couple of hours."

10. "When you ordered an item to be mailed to you, it was standard for it to take anywhere from six to 12 weeks — no matter how big or small."

— awfuljaguar57

11. "Schools were not the 'prisons' we have now. Back then, students could come and go. Kids — even first-graders — could leave for lunch. And in high school, a teacher could ask if anyone had a pocket knife, and every male student would offer one up. Everyone walked to school, and school was never closed for weather, save for the occasional blizzard."

12. "'Smog alerts' in the '70s. I remember the air being so brown and hazy that breathing hurt my chest. On smog alert days, we weren't allowed to go outside for recess. Then, in the late '80s, we had helicopters spraying pesticides over neighborhoods. I don't think that would be acceptable now."

—Bill, 58, California

13. "Growing up in the '60s, one of my favorite memories was the 'bookmobile.' Once a week during summer break, a bus full of library books would stop at a designated corner, and I would get on, browse through the library books, and check some out. It was a highlight of the week and a fabulous way to keep up on my reading skills."

14. "We lived in a rural subdivision that was constantly growing. There were always shells of houses being built in the neighborhood, so on weekends, those were our personal jungle gyms and exploratoriums. There were no guards, fences, signs, or rules."

— kjrothsf

15. "Penny loafer shoes always had 'just-in-case' money to use for the public telephone (five cents) or public bus (five cents)."

—Liz, 66, Louisiana

16. "Not worrying about seat belts. In the '80s in Michigan, it was normal not to use seat belts, which meant we could hang out wherever we wanted. We climbed over seats to get to the back of the station wagon, whether you wanted to stretch your legs or get Mom something from her bag. We climbed through the back window of trucks going 50 mph and sat in the beds. And on back roads, we sat on the truck's edges. In the early '90s in California, if we had more people than seat belts, the kids would lie down somewhere in the car so the cops didn't see."

17. "I went to high school in the mid-1960s in suburban Ohio. My high school had a shooting range in the basement where students could shoot .22 rifles. After school, you could hear the sound of the shots echoing throughout the school basement. It was considered completely normal."

—Anonymous

18. "Back around 1970, the building where I had my first apartment had a cigarette vending machine and a milk vending machine in the basement. Very convenient."

19. "Our trash cans were in our garage, and the 'trash men' would open our garage door, take our cans to the truck, and empty them. They'd then return our cans to the garage and close the door for us. Just pure trust."

—George, Kansas

20. "If you weren't wealthy, you had to carry cash whenever you went out with friends or your partner. Debit cards didn't exist at the time, pay phones required actual coins, and restaurants and other places only took cash. There were no 'virtual' cards or tap-to-pay."

21. Lastly: "When I was about 7, I contracted polio and was in a hospital ward being treated. My legs were paralyzed from the illness, and the only treatment available was hot packs. The children whose polio affected their lungs lay in machines nicknamed 'iron lungs' that breathed for them. Children died daily, and we knew when someone was dying when their curtains surrounded the bed. We heard the screaming and crying of parents. I received physical therapy for my legs, which included swimming or moving in a heated pool. I also had surgery on my leg muscles and was in traction to stretch them. I have foot-long scars on my legs from the surgery; I was one of the lucky ones, as I eventually was able to walk again. It's hard to believe that one single hospital in a city was filled with ill children. This was happening in cities and towns all over the US."

—Sue, 87, North Carolina

BRB, coming to terms with the fact that I will probably never see a plane cockpit. If you're an older adult, what are some "normal" experiences from the past that would have younger folks genuinely shocked or confused? Let me know in the comments, or you can anonymously submit your response using this form!

Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.