Growing up in the 1960s meant experiencing childhood without smartphones, streaming services, GPS, or an internet connection waiting in your pocket. Entertainment happened on a schedule, getting somewhere sometimes required an actual paper map, and if your parents told you to come home before dark, there wasn’t a text message reminding you.
Some of these things were inconvenient by today’s standards, but that’s also part of what makes remembering them so much fun. If you grew up during the ’60s, a few of these childhood moments might bring back memories you haven’t thought about in years.
Sharing the Telephone With Everyone
Calling a friend meant using the family’s telephone, usually in a room where everyone could hear at least half of your conversation. Some households also had party lines shared with other homes, making the idea of a completely private phone conversation even more complicated.
Playing Your Favorite Records Over and Over
Listening to music required a little more involvement than tapping a song on a screen. You chose a record, carefully placed it on the turntable, lowered the needle, and eventually learned exactly where every scratch and skip appeared in your favorite songs.
Getting Milk at School
For many kids, school lunch came with those memorable little containers of milk, sometimes delivered to classrooms or handed out in the cafeteria. Whether you loved it or hated it, drinking your school milk was simply another ordinary part of the day.
Taking Pictures Without Knowing How They Turned Out
You could take an entire roll of vacation or birthday pictures without knowing whether you’d captured a single good one. Only after the film was developed did you discover the blurry faces, closed eyes, accidental thumbs and occasional perfect photograph that made the wait worthwhile.
Waiting for the TV to Warm Up
Turning on the television didn’t necessarily mean getting an instant picture, especially with older tube TVs that needed a moment to warm up. Once the picture finally appeared, you still might have to adjust the antenna to get one of the few available channels to come in clearly.
Related: These ’60s Foods Were Once Everywhere — Do You Remember Them?
Planning Your Week Around Saturday Morning Cartoons
There was no pulling up your favorite cartoon whenever you felt like watching it, so Saturday morning was something kids genuinely looked forward to. You grabbed a bowl of cereal, found a spot in front of the television, and watched until the cartoons ended or your parents told you it was time to go outside.
Cranking the Car Window Down by Hand
Want some fresh air in the back seat? You grabbed the little handle on the door and cranked until the window was exactly where you wanted it, which kids accustomed to one-touch power windows may find hard to imagine.
Related: 19 Things Kids Did in the 1960s That Would Shock Parents Today
Riding Bikes Until the Streetlights Came On
A bicycle could take you around the neighborhood, to a friend’s house, or on an afternoon adventure without anyone tracking your location from a phone. The instruction was often simply to be home by dinner or when the streetlights came on, and somehow everyone knew exactly what that meant.
Walking to the Store With a Pocketful of Change
A few coins could actually buy something, which made a trip to the neighborhood store feel like a big deal when you were a kid. Penny candy let you stand at the counter carefully deciding how to stretch your change into the biggest possible bag of sweets.
Watching Television Actually Go Off the Air
Late-night television wasn’t an endless stream of shows waiting to keep you entertained until morning. Stations could sign off for the night, sometimes following a final announcement or the national anthem, leaving anyone still awake staring at a test pattern or static.
Doing School Research at the Library
If you had a report due, you couldn’t type a question into Google and get an answer seconds later. You searched card catalogs, tracked down encyclopedia volumes, and carried stacks of books home because the information you needed might be scattered across several different sources.
Eating a TV Dinner From an Aluminum Tray
Frozen TV dinners felt incredibly modern at the time because an entire meal came divided into its own little compartments. Eating one from a tray while watching television made an ordinary weeknight dinner feel surprisingly special.
Knowing Commercial Jingles by Heart
Commercials weren’t something you could simply skip after five seconds, so catchy advertising jingles became permanently lodged in people’s memories. Hear the beginning of one decades later, and there’s a good chance someone who grew up during that era can still finish it.
Spending Summer With Almost Nothing Scheduled
Summer vacation could mean waking up with no organized activity, camp or carefully planned itinerary waiting for you. Kids found their friends, rode bikes, played outside, got dirty, came home for food, and somehow filled entire days without anyone needing to schedule the fun.
