As a '90s baby, I feel like I lived through a pretty iconic era of now-outdated household items — dial-up internet and computer monitors the size of small children, anyone? But when u/motivetodayy asked people born before 1980 to share the "obsolete" household items from their childhood that younger generations might not recognize today, I realized that I, in fact, know nothing. These are the pre-'80s artifacts that were apparently popular staples back in the day...and every last one set my millennial brain on fire.
1. "The house I grew up in had an intercom system."
2. "The mechanical address book."
3. "The VCR recording clicker to pause the recording during commercials."
4. "Phone lines that you share with a few neighbors. It was called a party line. Don't confuse this with the party line of the '90s where people could talk with several strangers at one time."
5. "Those GIANT projection TVs the size of a closet that only looked good if you sat in the EXACT right spot in front of it. That one kid whose parents let him hook up his Nintendo to it was king."
6. "An actual carbon sheet that was placed between two sheets of paper to carbon copy the bottom paper from the top paper."
7. "The switch on the back of the TV that would let you play a video game."
8. "VHS rewind machines."
9. "Film canisters. To young people, they look like tiny Tupperware containers."
10. "Magazine holders and magazines next to the toilet. While younger generations recognize magazines, they may not realize that before smartphones, it was those or the shampoo bottle to entertain you while you poop."
11. "The car phone. Like, an entire corded telephone that plugged into the cigarette lighter."
12. "Library card catalogs and microfiche to look at archived magazines and documents. Electronic catalogs, e-books, web articles, and Wikipedia are absolutely wonderful compared to those dinosaurs. I saw the change by my college years, and most of my classmates were still using the print versions."
13. "Rotary phones. I had to explain them to a younger colleague and I'm convinced that conversation was why my body hair started going gray."
14. "Ashtrays being EVERYWHERE. On the tables of every restaurant and in your car; if it was a fancy car, it had multiple in the front and back. Little metal ones, big ceramic ones...shoot, kids made them in scouts and at school to give as gifts to parents and grandparents!"
15. "TV Guide magazines."
16. "Phone cord extension reels. They gave you 50 or 100 feet of phone line so you could go throughout the house. They had a handle and you would wind the wire back into it once you were done."
17. "Reader's Digest Condensed books."
18. "A church key with a can piercer was a very common tool in the kitchen."
19. "A neck phone holder."
20. "A caller ID box."
21. "Manual credit card machines, or imprinters."
22. "Central vacuum."
23. "Flashcubes for cameras. First they blinded you, then they fell out, sizzling and ready to burn the flesh from your fingers if you picked them up too soon."
24. And last but very much not least: "Viewmaster."
People of all generations: What's the household item you grew up with that's become totally obsolete in 2023? Tell us in the comments below.
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.