30 Things That Might Shock People In 2025 But People Remember How Normal They Once Were

Free range kids with no tracking. I left home on Saturdays after the last good cartoon, and my family didn't see me again until dinner. I was in the woods fighting imaginary Russians or having bottle rocket wars with kids on the block.

sheburns17 replied:
This! My mom kicked us outside when we got rowdy and told us to come back when she whistled! We knew not to pass the stop sign at one end of the road and the mailbox on the other. We had treehouses made from random s**t we found in the woods and would battle each other. Man, my kids now could never.

The amount of kids who could fit in the back of a station wagon.

HatFickle4904 replied:
My parents would drive all night from L.A to Sacramento, CA. We'd get in our pajamas, and my Dad would fold down the back seat of the 1984 Chevy station wagon so that we had a giant bed. He played out a huge sleeping bag unzipped, and my two brothers and I would curl up in that and drive all night. It used to feel like we were in a spaceship as the lights from big rigs would fan across that rear windshield. Some of my best memories as a kid.

The average blue collar worker could raise a happy and content family on a single income….can you imagine?

My father left me at home alone for 2 weeks when he went on a trip. I was in high school and got myself up every morning and got to school on time and made my own meals. I think he called one time. This didn’t seem weird or wrong to me at all.

Visiting. Folks used to drop in on one another to chat.

You had to wait for a week to 10 days to see the pictures you took-after you dropped them off to be developed.

Television stations going off the air around midnight along with a patriotic song, followed by a test pattern that remained until morning.

The rampant sexual harassment that occurred on a daily basis for most women in the workforce. Women were expected to accept it and not complain.

Or high school had a student smoking area. There wasn't an age requirement. Also restaurants did not have no smoking areas.

I was babysitting an infant and a four-year-old when I was 11. These days, a lot of 11-year-olds have sitters or nannies.

That you pulled into a gas station, and a guy in uniform came out, filled your tank, checked the oil, and washed your windshield. And you didn't tip him.

Homosexuality was illegal here in Ireland till 1993. In schools in the 70s & 80s we were taught it was wrong, a mortal sin and that it was perverted. To be gay was a horrendous existence and people were openly hostile to it. To be trans was off the chart completely. Hard to believe the amount of progress we have made since then.

People being completely unreachable, even children, for multiple days. Not in a they aren't answering work emails on purpose, but are posting on Instagram kind of way-- but truly, no one knows where the hell this person is or how to get in touch with them... oh well, ok. Carry on.

nysflyboy replied:
God, I soooooo miss this. Not just for myself, because it's possible to still drop off the planet for a while, but what I miss is this being NORMAL for all people. Like in the before cell phone, before answering machine days. Call and leave a message with someone who answered. Or not. 'Where is Jake?' 'Oh, he went down South for a few days. Check back next week.'

Rotary Dialing a phone number; the idea of long distance toll charges on phone calls; dialing 0 for an operator (always a lady); 411 for information; white pages yellow pages even blue pages in a phone book sent out yearly by ATT, GTE ….

grejam replied:
Long-distance phone calls were a big thing. Rarely ever done. If you've got a long-distance call, it was something important. Probably bad news about family members.

Walking to airline gates without a ticket or TSA. When I was a kid mom would take me to BWI airport and we would watch the planes from the pier.

ontrack replied:
Also, traveling by yourself at a young age. I flew from DC to south Texas and changed planes in Houston, entirely by myself, at 13. My parents just dropped me off in front of the terminal, and I did the rest. I was not escorted or monitored by any airport personnel.

Candy cigarettes.

The only people you saw who had tattoos were bikers or sailors.

Stores were closed on Sundays.

KimVG73 replied:
Closed for the holidays, too. Actually, fully closed for Thanksgiving through the week. Christmas is often the whole week. Lots of folks talk about 'great again,' but they gotta shop, shop, shop, or work, work, work through every holiday. And forget federal holidays. Slowing down, being closed, allowing for reset time. This is why people are difficult now. Everyone is exhausted.

Seeing people who had polio.

Being responsible for your girl scout cookie sales all by yourself, by door to door knocking.