I am not that old, but one time, I was telling my younger cousins about how Netflix used to be a mailing service, and they were absolutely gobsmacked. I myself was kinda shocked, too, because I'd just assumed that was common knowledge. (Wait 'til I tell them about the mythical world of Blockbuster.) So, when redditor u/MrDNL asked the people of r/AskOldPeople to share the "common knowledge" things from their time that younger generations might have a hard time believing, I was all in. Here are some of the responses that will either make you feel totally nostalgic or completely puzzled:
1."When the internet first came out, you couldn't talk on the phone and be online at the same time."
2."Going to get gas was more of an experience. When you went, the gas station attendants would put gas in your car, clean your windshield, and check your oil. After that, you just paid them through your car window; you never had to get out of the car."
3."I'm just old enough to remember smoking on planes. It still blows my mind that that was a thing!"
4."We used to make our Christmas or birthday wishlists from looking in store catalogs, like Sears. You could actually order and pay for things via 'snail mail,' and it was safe to do so."
5."This wasn't that long ago, but there used to be no security screenings at airports. You could literally walk the person to the boarding area and watch them board the plane."
6."Whenever you wanted to download something online, you'd have to basically threaten everyone in the house with their lives if they picked up the phone during the amount of download time it took. It would take hours to download a game or an image, and if someone used the phone, the download would START OVER from the beginning. Plus, in the mid-'90s, you'd have to pay by the hour."
7."My 20-year-old son liked hearing this one: When driving in unfamiliar territory, you had to get directions by either stopping at the gas station and asking an attendant, or buying a map/atlas."
