"This Was Considered Normal": 17 Things That Older Adults Did When They Were Younger That Seem Totally Bizarre Today

Everyday life has changed a lot in my lifetime, and I often wonder what things from my daily routine now will surprise younger people in the future. So, when I came across this Reddit thread of older adults sharing once-normal things that now seem kinda bizarre, my interest was piqued. Here's what people had to say:

1. "Anytime you answered a phone, you had no idea who was calling you."

2. "Paper maps. You had to figure out your own route to where you wanted to go, and road trips seemed more of an adventure back then."

3. "Rampant sexism. I couldn't even open a bank account when I got married."

4. "Dogs pooping everywhere. NOBODY picked up dog poop. And there were free-roaming pets, especially dogs , which are far rare now except in rural areas. It was common to have one or two neighborhood dogs that everybody knew by name, just wandering around."

5. "How utterly unsupervised we were as tiny children. I remember taking care of my brother by myself for the full summer while my parents worked starting at 8; he was 4."

6. "The Yellow Pages."

7. "Smoking in hospitals and on airplanes."

8. "When talking on the phone, you had to stay within a 6' circle."

9. "Always carrying dimes, later quarters, when on a date, in case things went sideways."

10. "Arriving at the airport shortly before takeoff, checking your luggage with minimal to no hassle, and boarding your flight."

11. "Job listings by gender."

12. "As soon as I turned 13, it was assumed by the entire neighborhood that I would babysit. It was common for me to have three kids under the age of seven for hours at a time. This was considered normal for all my friends, too."

13. "The milkman. Milk, eggs, cheese, and other dairy-adjacent items were delivered to the house weekly. And the milk and OJ were in glass, returnable bottles."

14. "Girls couldn't wear pants in elementary school. Lots of pictures of snow days, and we're wearing knee socks!"

15. "Elevator attendants. You told them what floor you wanted."

16. "Photos were expensive, more rare, and took time to even see how they turned out. You took pictures, dropped your film off (e.g., at a photo booth/stand with a person in a grocery store parking lot or at a film processing shop), then waited for the film to be developed and printed (roughly a week). It cost extra to expedite."

17. And finally, "Putting my oldest child on the floorboards in the car. This was before car seats. She was a newborn, so it was clean; I couldn’t just put her on the seat; otherwise, when I stopped at lights, she’d roll off."