“Metal slides that felt like molten steel in the summer.” —EarlyBirdTheNightOwl
“So I remember being a kid (born in early ’80s) and hanging out at the park by where my sisters played soccer games. Middle of the playground structure was a hollow metal tube about two stories tall with a ladder in it. Idea being, you popped in at the ground, climbed up, and there were two or three points where you could pop out at different areas of the structure. Well, that tube was just a sheet of metal rolled into a tube and riveted together. Put that in direct sunlight and it got hot. Made climbing up it a game of ’the sides are lava.’ On really hot days, kids would cram into the tube, then someone would say ‘1, 2, 3, go!’ and everyone would press their backs against the metal. Last one to stay in contact won the eternal respect of the playground, some first-degree burns, and an honorary mention in that year’s Darwin Awards.” —Toren8002
“I remember it was never easy to go in and just find one movie. You were literally walking through memory lane and came out with four or five films. Also remember the day the Blockbuster where I live closed. Every DVD went on sale for $1. I easily blew $130-plus that day… worth it.” —JQuest7575
“And phonebooks.” —whitemugforcoffee
“No kidding. I still get one dropped off at my home once a year that I didn’t ask for — what am I supposed to do with it other than throw it away?"—Vampiric2010 “And memorizing a lot of them."—BadMacaroniArt “This. It was such a good brain training tool. I used to be able to remember so many numbers. Now I am down to two, my partner’s and my childhood home phone number."—cofftea_run
“Yup, no need to hurry back now. Television with ads give you more than enough time so that you can come back without rushing.” —kapitaalH “Puzzles? I don’t remember any puzzles. I just went straight to the ‘Goofus and Gallant.’ The lessons I learned from those two made me into the man I am today.” —JuzoItami “Carried change in my pocket for most of my childhood and for a significant portion of my adult years just in case I needed to make an emergency call. I remember walking up to the phone booth with my Mum to make phone calls because we didn’t have a house phone back then (early 1980s). It reeked of tobacco and urine."—zerbey “OMG, so true. My mom left me so unsupervised. I used to roam around from 4pm to 7:30 pm all over the place, sometimes with friends, sometimes alone.” —LazySleepyPanda “Kids playing outside unsupervised. If you were bored back in the day you could just wander around the neighbor hood for a little while, and you would most likely find somebody to play with. We never see that anymore where I live. The playgrounds are empty, and so are all the other places that were used in the same way.” —Ashtar-the-Squid “I had a coworker in 2001 get in trouble for making long distance (Baltimore to Philly!) calls on her work extension.” —nameisinusetryagain
“Shit! I totally remember 10-10-220 and the commercials, but I don’t think I even remember using it."—igottathinkofaname “It was ‘The Better Way to Call!’ If you dialed 10-10-220 before making a long distance call, it would route you through a different long distance provider, possibly giving you lower rates. The closest analogy to today’s phone environment would be using one of the millions of MVNOs instead of AT&T/T-Mo/Verizon. You’ll still be using one of the big three’s equipment to call/text/use data but you’re paying someone else who pays them."—Toy_Guy_in_MO —EntrepreneurHuman297
“Automatically heard the voice when I read this."—whatever13576569
“I got 200 of ’em still sealed in the original packaging. Some day some very important machinery somewhere will break and no one will have a floppy disk to save it. And that’s when I release my evil villain-type video holding the world hostage unless I get 1 million dollars for one of my disks.” —diiejso
“Handwritten letters…cannot remember the last time I wrote one or received one in the mail.” —FreshStartLiving “Mailed paper invitations & handwritten thank you notes.” —visitjacklake
“Only read the first line and went straight to the next comment, so yeah…” —BetHealthy572
