I joke about this stuff with my significant other, but there's quite a list to be made. I'll start it off:

- Life without a cell phone. If you got stuck somewhere, you got stuck somewhere.

- Party lines. In general, that's enough, but more specifically, unscrewing the part where you speak into the handset so the other parties couldn't hear you ... but that little "click" when you connected or disconnected always seemed to lead to someone saying "Did you hear that?"

- Only having to dial the last 4 digits of a phone number.

- A rotary dial phone, with the unbearable click-click-click while waiting for larger numbers to come back around.

- The baby blue Ma-bell phone with a 30 foot twisted cord that always seemed to get a kink in it that could never be solved.

- Sending my under 10 age cousin into a convenience store to purchase cigarettes for me.

- Cigarette vending machines.

- Smoking on an airplane, or at the back of the bus for that matter.

- Smoking in a grocery store, in the aisles, and even at the checkout and it being okay.

There's a million more ...

Being six and being allowed to walk downtown alone on a Saturday.

Going to the store with fifty cents, buying milk, bread and having a nickel left for a HUGE candy bar.

Not having videos of my grandparents. I would love to see a video of them and hear their voices again.

When I was twelve I could gas up my dirt bike for fifty cents.

Teachers smoking in school.

How to use a hard set of encyclopedias.


$1.65 an hour for waitressing.

No cable TV. The only thing on TV after school when I was in junior high was the watergate hearings. You learned to make your own entertainment then.

The only TV is cable, fed not from a network but by films mailed to the station. And so the serials on Mickey Mouse Club are shown out of order because that's how they are received. And the 'cable' is two bare copper wires with plastic spacers strung along the utility poles. Does anyone else remember Dave Rivines' first Miles City cable system??
KenZ

KenZ that's before my time. Somewhere I have an ad from the Star that features an historic photo of Mayor Herb Crone on top of Signal Butte (or Carbon Hill, I don't recall which) activating Miles City's new cable TV system. That was from around 1962 and probably after Dave Rivenes' cable system.

My kid is a DVR fanatic and watches his shows on his schedule, pauses and rewinds at his pleasure and skips the commercials almost instantly. The ability to record a show and watch it later (i.e. VCR) wasn't widely available when I was a kid. I think the schools had a VCR or two when I was in grade school but they were too expensive for the average family to have at home.

what about having to use a butter knife or rolled up match book to keep your 8-track playing that was mounted on the floorboard hump of your 1974 PLYMOTH FURYIII

How about actually having to get up and turn the channels on the tv which were few to chose from.

Trick or Treating that included at least some portion of home-made goodies from trusted folks in the neighborhood.

Writing checks.

Stamps being so common that a desk often had a little decorative stamp-dispenser on it.

$1.00 buying a gigantic bag of Bazooka bubblegum to practice blowing bubbles with.

Answering machines... including ones with cassettes. Recordings of your Gramma saying "Helllooo? I can hear you talking... can you hear me? Can you hear me?"

Radar O'Reilly-sized headphones for listening to quality recordings of music on LP.

Fisher Price toys that replicated adult appliances that are no more (eg. Record Player).

The gesture for "Call me" (lifting your hand to your head as if miming putting the handset to your ear) is lost.

Five bucks bought a pack of cigarettes, beer, and enough gas to cruise all night long.

Smoking while timing your contractions before you had the baby in the hospital.

Students smoking at school in the offically designated area known as (in my school) "the smoke hole."

Having to type up your report for school on a manual typewriter and correcting your typos using whiteout, or a typewriter eraser, or a flimsy piece of correction tape.

Going to the drive-in movie and playing on the playground equipment in your jammies.

Going to the drive-in movie and playing on the playground equipment in your jammies.

Is this supposed to be one or two thoughts?

In the Summertime-being kicked out the door after lunch and being told-"I don't want you sitting around watching TV all day. Don't come back until dinner". Every other parent in our neighborhood did the same thing. Nobody came looking for us to see what we were up to (unless we were late for dinner).

Riding all over town on our bikes alone (even a couple of miles to the river or downtown or to Carbon Hill to play) without having to tell anyone where you were going.

Riding in the backseat of the car with 6 or 7 of your friends and siblings and NO ONE in the car had a seatbelt on (some of us were even standing up so we could see out of the front window better). Infant car seats did not even exist.

Waiting in the car in the Store Parking Lot (unsupervised) with your young siblings and friends while your parents were in the store shopping together(and daring each other to honk the horn).

Picking up aluminum beer cans under the stands at the Bucking Horse Sale and selling them to a recyling guy for 10 cents for a "case" of 24 cans (when we were 6 or 7). We would make 2 or 3 dollars this way-hard work-I'm sure our Parents appreciated the fact that we weren't bugging them all day though!

Playing frisbee across Main Street during BHS, and being annoyed when my 14 year old sister could go into the old Log Cabin during BHS and get served (I can't remember what she bought or if she even drank it) while I (the 16 year old) was carded and kicked out!

Soda or beer cans with pull tabs.

Life before juice boxes.

Styrofoam fast food boxes.

Large drinks WERE the biggest size they had. No such thing as the large they have now nor super sized.

carbon paper, that little eraser wheel thingy with a brush attached, space food sticks

Smoking in a grocery store, in the aisles, and even at the checkout and it being okay.

Actually back in the beginning of 07 I was in Oklahoma and there were people smoking in a gas station. I thought it was the coolest and stupidest thing in the world.

Space food sticks! I remember those. They were probably vile tasting but as a kid I thought they were cool.

When the first 'Can-a-Pop' canned soda came out and it was considered a dangerous pre-cursor to drinking beer. And the cans, both beer and soda were opened with a 'church key'.
KenZ

The downtown Christmas window shopping event, when the merchants decorated their windows and a list of winning numbers was in each window. The Star delivered a list of numbers to every subscriber and matching numbers won some merchant's discount.
Ken Z

"Shake-a-puddin', shake-shake a puddin..."
I wonder what ever happened to that stuff? I loved it.

I'm a bit confused...is this thread called "what kids today will never know" or is it called "you know you're from Miles City when..." because it's already sounding a lot like that one...not that I have a problem with it, of course.

That said, I do have a couple "what kids today will never know" things:

- coke classic or orange crush in a GLASS bottle on a hot summer day...the kind where you had to use a church key or the opener on the vending machine, and then you brought the bottle back for recycling when you finished it.

- those little wax bottles that you bit the top off of and had kool-aid-like stuff to drink out of them.

- COMIC BOOKS: I mean the kind you had to go out and buy as opposed to reading them on the 'net.

- phone books: which are becoming obsolete with the internet being more handy.

- pinball machines

- video arcade games (the kind you had to put a quarter in)

- maybe kids today remember movie rental places, such as Blockbuster, but those are becoming obsolete, too, with the arrival of Netflix, Tivo and such...so kids born within this decade likely won't remember those.

There's a few, anyway.

How about the new car showing (open house) at your local car dealership. This was the unvailing of the new models, no one was allowed to see them until the big day! Of course this wouldn't be much of an event now because this years model looks like the last.

* Penny candy!
* "Smoking" candy cigs that seemed to blow smoke
* Wearing juice cans to bed in your hair to look nice the next day
* The morning after prom, going through holy hell trying to get the zillion bobby pins out and making your hair somehow resemble what is used too....owie!!!

[This message has been edited by C.Kee (7/24/2010)]

Lilt Home Perms, Mystery Date, Quake Cereal, 45s, a portable stereo with a stacking arm, the TV tube tester at Osco, Tiki Hut in Tempo, Red Dye #2

[This message has been edited by poisonspaghetti (7/24/2010)]

Cramming 5 or 6 of your closest friends into your trunk on "Buck-Night" at the Drive-Inn.

Deciphering Lucky Beer Caps whilst intoxicated.

Cutting your foot on a flip-top at Spotted Eagle.

The Hamm's Brewmaster.

Sea Monkeys and X-ray glasses.

Gas pumped by a friendly gas station attendant.

The Curfew Siren.

"Doot dooo dooo tooot dooot dooot doot... Attention! Your Attention Please!" when something "Big" is happening.

"Is this the Party Line, this is the Party Line, everyone is meetin' on the Party Line, what's goin' on tell me who when and how, let's get together on the party line now."

Risking buying a naughty magazine from somebody in your Mom's bridge club.

Did someone mention trading stamps?

Having to wear dresses everyday in elementary school...they changed that rule by the time I got to middle school and highschool.

Ushers at the movie theater and people clapping when the movie was over and the credits were rolling.

Sissy bars.

A new lunch box when the school year started. My faves...Bobby Sherman and David Cassidy.

Contemplating Mr. Jens's toupee.

-Using an outhouse

-No telephone

-Hauling your drinking water from the well outside

-Heating your water on the stove to take a bath in the foldable rubber tub in the kitchen

-The slop bucket

"Is this the Party Line, this is the Party Line, everyone is meetin' on the Party Line, what's goin' on tell me who when and how, let's get together on the party line now."

The Fred Hunnes "Leaota Timer"

[This message has been edited by Richard Bonine, Jr (7/24/2010)]

OMG. Leota. I pray she is well. And happy. I almost forgot about her.

I've noticed a couple times lately how awkward it is to handwrite anything of any length anymore.

You always need to write little bits of info down here or there. But if I ever have to write anything longer than a sentence or two, it seems like I almost don't know how anymore.

Ushers in satin capes at the basketball games

Jeff. Leota passed away some time ago. She was something else.

I've noticed a couple times lately how awkward it is to handwrite anything of any length anymore.

You always need to write little bits of info down here or there. But if I ever have to write anything longer than a sentence or two, it seems like I almost don't know how anymore.

I ABSOLUTELY AGREE with Rick on this one; with computers, laptops, blackberries and the like, hand-writing anything is not often done anymore and I wonder how much longer anyone will need to. Kinda makes me sad, though...handwritten things (such as on birthday cards) mean a lot to me.

Oh, I was afraid of that. I guess she would be quite elderly if still alive. Yeah, she was something, but it was explained to me in the seventies that she really did mean well, and did good things for Miles City. The memories of her going on and on over the telephone on the air about this or that, always something, make me laugh to this day.

how about the old cartoons which are considered so politically incorrect now. HR puff n stuff

Other than completely sucking, what wasn't PC about H R Puff n stuff?

Let's not forget the Ernie Kucera polka hour on KFLN and listening to the sunday comic being read on CKCK.

I didnt mean that cartoon in particular. It is just very old and many peepole have never seen it.

I've noticed a couple times lately how awkward it is to handwrite anything of any length anymore.

You always need to write little bits of info down here or there. But if I ever have to write anything longer than a sentence or two, it seems like I almost don't know how anymore.

You're not kidding. When I took my GRE for some reason they made me copy this statement by hand that was about 3 paragraphs long and I thought my hand was going to fall off before I was done. Now that I do all my note-taking and list making on my phone, about the only time I ever write with a pen is to sign my name on things.

Leota was very good to me. I really enjoyed her company and was very sad when she passed. She really did mean well, and was a tough old cuss who just thought that common sense should prevail. Something that government has always seemed to lack. But her community pride was unmatched.

For the North siders playing in Bert Clarks Park. Slide, monkey bars, and merry go round. Slab and hoop. All gone now. Neighborhood kids dont have a clue what they missed.

Riding in your parents' sedan, on that ledge behind the backseat and under the rear window. Or, lying on the floor behind the front seat, trying to get comfortable sleeping on that hump.

We didn't need no stinking car seats. And, guess what? We didn't die!

Applying for your first social security card and feeling like you're grown up! It used to be that you'd apply for one when you needed to get a job. Now parents have to apply for one when child is born.

When the speed limit was 55. Watching the first moon landing on black & white tv. Selling jack rabbits for money to go to the movie theater. Riding the train to Anaconda to visit grandparents every summer.

[This message has been edited by cyndie (7/26/2010)]

Richard, I remember the Sunday funnies on CKCK too. Remember Chester Drawers from Smuts, Sask? I don't remember the polka show you mentioned on KFLN. When I worked there the first time in '82 we did play about 15 minutes of polkas every morning at 7:45.

Was the Leota you were speaking of the one that pushed the dance hall for the kids in the early seventies? I think it was over by where the ice skating rink was in the winter, right?

I remember selling the GRIT newspaper around town and spending 15 minutes while an older lady brought me to show me how clear her new cable tv was... I think this was around '68 or '69.

Kids won't ever get to see the old bottle caps...my brother used to collect them until I annoyed him so much my mother threw them away.

A friend of mine and I used to mow lawns for the money to go to the bakery and buy alligator jaws... the most awesome pastry ever made.

Speaking of candy cigarettes, remember the bubble gum cigars?

...and turning in coupons to Lincoln Grocery for cash so we could buy candy.

Hopefully my children will have the death panels euthanize me before I start telling them about "the good old days".

Although, I must say, kids today will never understand the special joy of Saturday morning cartoons.

Lincoln Grocery! Walking across the street at recess to buy penny candy, or pomegranates.
Also LaBree's, LaGrandeur's, etc.

Cartoons before the movie. (Really funny ones with famous characters like Bugs Bunny. The Pixar pre-show toons don't count.)

The Pixar pre-show toons don't count.

Why not? I think they carry on the tradition pretty well.

Cursive handwriting

Requirement to wear skirt or dress to the library or student union at MSU

Dorm curfew in college

Requirement that you pass a swimming test to graduate from a state university in Montana

Hope not -- gasoline lines and rationing -- filling your tank every other day

Most: Debt-free living

The two NY World Trade Buildings, which I came through every morning from the train stations below them in the summer of 1978 when I was spending two months training at Merrill Lynch (right across from them). The images of the first responders on the same escalators on 9-11 will remain with me to my dying day.

More to the point of the subject, what kids TODAI will never know. It's great to relive so of the goldy oldies but these are kids TODAY we're talking about. Wrap your head around these...

1. Cassette tapes. LP's? 45's? 8 tracks?? Today it's cassette tapes. Even cd's are becoming the past now.
2. VHS. Dvd's are today's kids. Netflix and movies on their ipod's or internet is what they know.
3. TALKING!!! "Let your brother know we're on the way" "Ok I'll text him"
4. Dating. Kids today don't date first, they're either "going out" or they're not. Oh and don't ask them where they're "going out" to, because you'll just get the teenage OMG look!
5. Life without internet
6. A school year that doesn't include 20 to 30 days of vacation and "teacher work days" during the year.
7. "Professional Athletes" who don't earn millions of dollars even in their rookie season having never played a game yet.

And this one probably goes a couple of generations back now but the one that bugs me the most...
8. A two parent family that has a Mom and Dad who have been together for more then 20 years and are still happy about it!!

Weddings with just two sets of parents.

Creepy Crawlers, those hot metal plates we used to make bugs in.
Erector sets,real chemistry sets, Easy Bake ovens you could grill a steak in, and riding bikes and skateboards without protective gear from head to toe. OMG it's a miracle we are all here to reproduce in the first place!

Get your Creepy Crawlers here:

http://www.amazon.com/Jak...B000ETRF3W

A dozen kids on smokers corner across from the High School standing next to a farm kid's truck with a rifle on the rack in the window.

Cloth diapers.

Good manners in public.

A sense of community and national pride that weren't at odds with one another.

Ads that actually sold a product on quality, instead of convincing you to buy the number one selling something rather.

Conversations about what someone actually did that day, rather than what they watched on television.

Companies who care about their employees and employees who care about the company they work for.

The ability to be articulate and actually say what we mean. It's like, ya know what I mean, no one like, can talk anymore.

Telephone etiquette. It's dead, dead, dead.

how to dial a phone without hitting send ~ what extended family is like ~ the freedom to actually make a mistake and learn from it ~ that when Mom said she was going to slap you into next week she was capable of doing it ~ what it was like to literally be locked out of the house until dinner after coming in too often, but not minding because the kids next door were locked out too. Playing hide and seek after dark with your friends and your cousins until Mom turned on the front porch light and yelled for you to come in at midnight....and what it was like to get to hang out with your friends all summer. So many kids today have friends who's parents are divorced and the kids HAVE to leave for the summer and most of their vacations...

I'm with Bridgier. Death panels don't sound so bad. Perhaps this thread should be retitled "How to generalize today's youth".

If you want your children to take part in conversations that revolve around something other than television, start that conversation yourself (and from a young age; waiting until the kid is a teenager and then trying to change their behavior is futile).

If you want your children to have good manners, teach them good manners and require that they be used.

If you want your children to be articulate, then demand that they be articulate.

If you want your children to hold onto the written language, raise them to write thank-you notes and letters.

If today's kids are obnoxious, illiterate creatures it is because their parents made them so.

Every generation thinks that the next is worthless, even your own.

I agree with Denise. Unfortunately, sometimes it feels like I'm swimming against the tide. I can count on one hand the number of times I've received thank you notes from teen-aged relatives. I knew one child who repeatedly called on the phone if s/he didn't get an answer right away. Maddening! But at the same time, I know adults who behave in the same manner. Oh, well.

Easier said then done in today's society of "don't punish your children, talk to them and make them understand." B.S. Bullbunk, Horsefeathers, and any other saying that might mean "it's full of crap!!"

A swat on the behind, a slap of the mouth, or better yet having to go outside and pick which one of the switches <sp?> you were going to get your butt whipped with, went a long way in proving the point of "BECAUSE I TOLD YOU TO THAT'S WHY!!"

One more thing to add to the list of what today's teens will never know,
the benefit of a good spanking!!!

Having watched four nieces grow into adulthood as exceptionally bright, talented, articulate, uplifting, motivated, caring and well-mannered young women, without

A swat on the behind, a slap of the mouth, or better yet having to go outside and pick which one of the switches <sp?> you were going to get your butt whipped with

I must respectfully disagree.

"Talking to them and making them understand" really can be an effective method of child rearing. It just takes a little more effort by the parents.

Kids today will never know what it is like to rush home after school to listen to "The Lone Ranger" on the radio.

They will not know the fun in playing Kick the Can after dinner until it gets dark in the summer with all the neighborhood kids.

They would probably never take a hike to Camel's Back on a hot summers day.

Oh the joy of childhood,long gone.

I don't know about that. My kid played Kick the Can all the time a few years ago.

I think Chris as issues.

Wait, grammar and/or spelling error Wendy!

Dillpickle is correct.

I think Chris as issues.

This makes no sense at all.

Has issues, has issues.

I think you guys have issues too.

[This message has been edited by Wendy Wilson (7/27/2010)]

Hopefully, our kids will never know.

Thanks for proving my point... as soon as someone says "Give them a swat on the behind" and almost instantly someone is there saying "He must have issues!"

How sad it is. Call it an "issue" if you so choose, but it still falls into the subject of this thread.

Why not? I think they (Pixar cartoons) carry on the tradition pretty well.

Some of them do. But some of them are "touching" or have some kind of "message" which, while well done, sorta takes them out of the fun-toon league inhabited by Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies.

Well I'm not as old as some of you but in my day. Does Anyone remember turkey television? You cant say that on television shortly after?! That was what I was raised on. That and old cartoons where violence was restricted. I remember when Ren and Stimpy was forbidon and taboo. Now it plays freely on nick at night early in the day about 6:00pm. WOW!! How times have changed, makes me fear full of when my kids become adults.How about D.A.R.E? Is it still around? Life has taken 50 steps forward in my day and zero steps back! It worries me allot!

Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner cartoons are some of the most violent I've ever seen. The cartoon has been around since 1948 and I think children have made it through life just fine without resorting to TNT, anvils, cliff diving or vehicular homicide, despite the cartoon's message that you can use all of the above without consequence.

come on Denise, don't discount the falling anvil as a means of eliminating your opponent. Classic~!

Well I'm not as old as some of you but in my day.

Umm... I think you still are in your "day".

Does anyone remember when they used to play the organ at the movie theatre before the movie. I can't remember the guy's name, but it seems like he did it forever. I didn't appreciate it as much as a kid as I would now...wish they still did it.

"Talking to them and making them understand" really can be an effective method of child rearing. It just takes a little more effort by the parents."
I agree-on some kids it can be an effective method of child rearing.However,on some kids it can also be totally ineffective."A little more effort by the parents"-What if a "little more effort"turns into a"whole lot more effort" and the child still refuses to understand.Does the parent simply give in? Some kids need to know that there's a little bit of bite at the end of the bark.

I don't disagree at all Ken. There should, however, be some significant bark before the bite, or (since we are using canine terminology) we are dealing with a vicious dog citation.

Parenting should be a "whole lot of effort". Giving in is part of the problem. I've found a wicked stern voice and a look that could kill is just as effective, if not more so, than any physical display of force.

Hi Fish, long time...
Yeah, and when I say I agree with you, I have to add that I feel very, very lucky to be the kind of parent who has kids that have responded so well to the kind of upbringing I give them. I am extremely proud of them and guess what, they are proud of me. I simply analyzed what was wrong with how I was raised and what I admired about how some others were. It's all about "togetherness".

An organ before the movies? Tracy. You are ooooolllllldddddd!

Cold as in dead because I'm so old?

Books. how many people today can honestly say they have read any books outside of school? nowadays, if a book comes out, most people will say "ill just wait for the movie." thing is, if nobody reads the book, nobody is gonna make the movie...

Books. how many people today can honestly say they have read any books outside of school?

Really? My husband, kids and I read books every single day. Much more interesting than television. Probably just a matter of getting into the habit of reading.

Something that really struck me the other day...

My step-daughter and I were talking and she mentioned how she was glad no one had a phone when she did something goofy at the park. I blinked a few times, in confustion. She finally added on that she didn't want something like that posted on the internet.

Mind you, she's 7.

Just kind of blew me away that she already thought like that at such a young age.

I was watching Andy Griffth the other day. They were all sitting around Andy's desk looking at brochures for the hotels and sites in Los Angeles. They were trying to decide where to stay. Kids today haven't seen brochures. They don't know the suspense of ordering information and waiting to get it in the mail. They just go online. But then again, that's what I do now too.

The monitors that measure about 30 inches from the screen to the back. The cumbersome monitors are basically replaced by flat screens (same thing with TVs). I think it will soon be that kids never use a desktop -- it will all be laptops, notebooks, etc.

High school and college textbooks.

This seemed appropriately timed:

Beloit College Mindset List for the Class of 2014 wrote:

Beloit, Wis. - Born when Ross Perot was warning about a giant sucking sound and Bill Clinton was apologizing for pain in his marriage, members of this fall's entering college class of 2014 have emerged as a post-email generation for whom the digital world is routine and technology is just too slow.

...

The class of 2014 has never found Korean-made cars unusual on the Interstate and five hundred cable channels, of which they will watch a handful, have always been the norm. Since "digital" has always been in the cultural DNA, they've never written in cursive and with cell phones to tell them the time, there is no need for a wrist watch. Dirty Harry (who's that?) is to them a great Hollywood director. The America they have inherited is one of soaring American trade and budget deficits; Russia has presumably never aimed nukes at the United States and China has always posed an economic threat.

...

Continued/full version here:

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2014.php

From a movie I watched today..."Put in 25 cents of Ethel"

How nostalgic!