You know how, in this day and age, someone saying “I don’t use a computer” would literally make you stop in your tracks? Well, even though the world has changed and technology has advanced like crazy, it turns out that every generation has had their hold-outs – and below are 15 examples of what the “cool” kids might not have been doing along with everyone else.
#1. The mark of the beast.
I’m not an older generation, but my grandparents are very old-fashioned for their generation, if it counts.
My grandfather worked as a grocery manager for years. He finally quit when his small Mom & Pop store buckled down on bar scans and electronic cash registers.
He was convinced that bar codes were going to be the “mark of the beast” from Revelations, and that if people use computers to access porn, then all computerized items must be banned. So there’s that.
#2. Ice was a luxury.
My grandmother drinks only hot decaf coffee. 95 degrees with 100% humidity? Hot decaf coffee. Feeling parched after a day of hard work? Hot decaf coffee. And what to drink with your hamburger and French fries? Hot decaf coffee. Every meal, every day.
“When I was growing up, we never had ice. That was a luxury. Cold drinks aren’t good for your stomach.”
Edit: Grandma’s from the States. Grew up during the Depression.
#3. I get paid by check.
I am the web designer for a local organisation. Their treasurer refuses to accept card payment via their website. People have to print out forms, fill them out and post them with a cheque. I also get paid by cheque with a handwritten note. They would be a much more popular and successful business if they just modernised a little!
#4. Such an amazing sentence.
When remote control TVs came out, I suggested that my father buy one, and he said said, “It will be a cold day in Hell when I’m too lazy to tell one of you boys to get up and change the channel.” It was such an amazing sentence that I committed it to memory, and I still remember it word for word 50 years later.
#5. People thought they were unnecessary.
When I was a kid (late 50’s early 60’s) seat belts in cars were an option. Lots of people thought they were unnecessary and refused to pay extra for them
Heaters and windshield defoggers were likewise optional (my parents bought a new 1964 Plymouth Valiant and didn’t get the option).
#6. She didn’t want to mess up her hair.
My dad once told me a story about his grandmother refusing to fly in planes because she didn’t want to get her hair all messed up from the wind.
#7. The forward pass.
My dad is 65. He remembers old folks complaining about the forward pass in football.
#8. I was given a typewriter.
My grandparents laughed at the idea of a mobile phone or sending messages through the phone line when fax machines were a thing. My grandparents didn’t like computers they still had a typewriter or wrote by hand. I was given a typewriter as a kid but by then I was using windows 95.
#9. She wouldn’t use it.
Back in the 80s I knew an old lady who used one of those really old toasters that could only toast one side of the bread at a time. As a present, we went out and bought her a modern pop-up toaster, but she wouldn’t use it. She preferred to use her old one.
#10. He called them machines.
My grandmother is 89. When she was a kid, she had an uncle who hated cars. He called them machines and refused to drive one. It could’ve been job security though, her whole family worked for the railroad.
#11. They were laughing.
Some people still had outdoor toilets and were laughing at those who had them installed inside because “they are shitting their own houses”.
#12. A depression-era baby.
My 89 yr old mom pays for cable but insists on watching only PBS and occasionally NBC, CBS or ABC. The other channels are too much technology to find on the remote. She also buys multiple boxes or cans of food, dates them in sharpie marker, records the price (less coupon or sale special) and has a rack of all her finds. She will never eat all the oatmeal or beans in our collective lifetimes. But she was a depression era child so I get why the urge to stock up on food is strong.
#13. A time when literacy wasn’t a given.
My grand-aunt still believes that 15 is the age of adulthood, that schooling isn’t necessary beyond that point. She grew up in a time when literacy wasn’t a given.
#14. The age of answering machines.
My grandparents refused to get an answering machine.
My mother, who has a smartphone and uses email, still refuses to communicate via text messages.
#15. She got promoted.
My mom was just telling me about when answering machines were new, and how people were so fearful of them and refused to leave a message.
She got promoted at a job because she didn’t mind calling clients and leaving messages.
Hipsters, man. I guess they don’t know there’s nothing new under the sun.
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