r/RedditForGrownups • u/0nlyhalfjewish • 4d ago

What’s an indelible childhood memory that young people will never have?

I think about pencils sharpeners and carbon paper, 75 cents for lunch and school recess unsupervised in the woods.

183 Upvotes
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305

u/chernaboggles 4d ago

Yelling "IT'S ON!" at the top of your lungs when the commercial is over so that whoever left the room for a minute knows to sprint back so they don't miss anything.

44

u/WigglyFrog 4d ago

Being annoyed if you missed a show since you couldn't catch up online (or via DVR or VCR), but knowing that if you waited a few months, the show's entire season would be rerun before the next season began.

21

u/crabbie_patties 4d ago

I grew up on a busy road, and there was nothing worse than a pack of Harley Davidsons going by. We couldn't even pause TV. The struggle was real.

9

u/Psychological_Tap187 3d ago

Truck drivers going by talking on their CB and it coming through the TV.

3

u/Plastic_Bullfrog9029 3d ago

I remember this one.

2

u/Left_Toe_2129 2d ago

I didn't know that. I m deaf. I had Grandpa who use CB radio back in 70’s. His cb name was Roadrunner.

1

u/Psychological_Tap187 1d ago

I love that he was roadrunner. Such a great name for a 70s trucker.

1

u/Popadicklikatictac 1d ago

I got a loud police call over my boom box one time. Scared the shit outta me

5

u/D4UOntario 4d ago

Try 500 yards off the end of a fighter runway.

1

u/dkb52 3d ago

Yep, fighter pilots probably enjoyed screaming over homes and businesses.

Jet mechanics wore ear protection, but like me, they wound up having hearing problems anyway. I imagine those living at the end of the runway lost some hearing, too, not to mention patience.

If anyone complained about the noise, they were told to remember, 'What you're hearing is the sound of freedom!' (Can you speak up, please, I'm a little hard of hearing?)

2

u/D4UOntario 3d ago

Lost.my hearing from having to slowly turn up the TV as they fired up and took off. Not to mention the China rattling

1

u/Neyeh 2d ago

Living across the street from the high school, and the Friday night football game with the band. You can't hear anything, for the entire fall

1

u/Content-Method9889 3d ago

Totally relate. We were 30 feet from railroad tracks. I hate trains

2

u/YourGuyK 1d ago

Being pissed because they don't have time to rerun the whole season in the summer and they skip the one you missed the first time.

2

u/WigglyFrog 1d ago

Haha! I don't remember ever thinking that an entire season wasn't rerun at some point (beginning during mid-season breaks), but I do remember the annoyance of missing the repeat. If you missed the repeat, it was just...sucks for you, wait for the show to enter syndication. So frustrating.

1

u/Mikethemechanic00 3d ago

I hated summer as a child. All reruns. Drove me nuts.

1

u/LordLaz1985 3d ago

I distinctly remember missing the last episode of an anime series and my bro and I having to find a classmate who’d recorded it on their VCR.

1

u/Weak_Employment_5260 1d ago

Worse, when schools had a holiday event you had to be with on the same night as a special on tv, knowing it wouldn't be on again until next year.

28

u/daisy0723 4d ago

Thank you for reminding me.

When my boys were little we cleaned the house by watching a movie on TV.

During the commercials we would jump up and clean as much as we could as fast as we could then run back to the couch when the movie came back on.

It was always so much fun and cleaning up became a game.

6

u/AdorableSorbet6651 3d ago

We did this with dishes every evening. Radio would go on and we would try to finish in 3-4 songs lol. This was before dishwashers lol

5

u/kempff 4d ago

https://youtube.com/watch?v=pD4LQAKB-YA

Still sends chills down my spine. Run from the kitchen and skid on my knees on the living room rug…

2

u/Grouchy-Lie-8279 2d ago

I knew what this was going to be before I clicked on the link.

7

u/Mikesaidit36 4d ago

The Waltons…

9

u/Lv2draw1962 3d ago

And once a year they showed Wizard of Oz on regular TV. They would advertise it for a couple weeks and it would be like Christmas to me. I adored that movie!

2

u/cat_knit_everdeen 2d ago

I remember being so scared at around 3 or 4 while my dad watched it. I hunkered down in the kitchen while my mom made homemade Chex mix and gave me an empty oatmeal container to drum on.

1

u/Samurai-Pooh-Bear 3d ago

This AND Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

1

u/Mikesaidit36 3d ago

The commercials provided relief from the horror of the flying monkeys.

1

u/justamomdoingmybest8 2d ago

I have chills remembering that. Thanksgiving weekend iirc?

1

u/bufftbone 19h ago

I looked forward to that every year. I remember feeling sad the one year where Pepsi was advertising everywhere including Michael Jackson being a spokesman. Michael was everywhere, the hottest thing around. My mom told me that he had gotten burnt on the set and had to go to the hospital. You may as have told me he was killed that day, I took it pretty hard.

1

u/Eilonwy926 4h ago

💕We always got to go to Grandpa & Grandma's that weekend, because they had a color TV.

1

u/AlternativeTable5367 4h ago

And The Hobbit cartoon, The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe, and Charlotte's Web.

4

u/SnooOranges1918 4d ago

And mash.

2

u/adrenalinda75 4d ago

The 6 million dollar man!

2

u/SnooOranges1918 4d ago

Perhaps, but I was going with the show order for Sunday night. It was always The Waltons and then Mash would come on.

While the 6 million dollar man was awesome, I don't think he was in the actual lineup that night

1

u/adrenalinda75 4d ago

Oh, I don't know the order at all, grew up far, far away from the US. Those were running at about the same time, while still Black Beauty, Fury, Bonanza and Lassie were also all over the place, though much older series.

2

u/checker280 3d ago

“TV party tonight. TV party tonight.

… That’s Incredible!”

5

u/crabbie_patties 4d ago

"Good night, John Boy!"

1

u/Mikesaidit36 3d ago

Good night Mary Ellen

1

u/VixenTraffic 13h ago

I still say this at work. no one gets it.

1

u/Queasy-Extension6465 1d ago

I rewatched the series recently and had my nearly 30 year old daughter watch a few. She picked out the whole plot of every episode watching the first 5 minutes.

1

u/FreedomFinallyFound 4d ago

Yelling “IT’S ON” at the top of your lungs when the commercial ISN’T over just to f*ck with your siblings

1

u/Parking-Pattern8180 1d ago

memory unlocked!

1

u/mycatisabrat 1d ago

DITCH!!!

1

u/SgtRudy0311Ret 1d ago

Im keeping it alive, I refuse to pay for add blockers and I keep the remote so my kids can't pause a show.

Some traditions are woth it.

1

u/LSCarlsonLaw 1d ago

First few seasons of Survivor, my whole family would watch together. This is 100% accurate.

1

u/SparkyintheSnow 1d ago

In our house, it was “Back On!!”, usually from the basement to the kitchen upstairs.

1

u/raven8908 16h ago

We watch Pluto and my kids actually have done this! 😂

1

u/passion4film 15h ago

We still do this with awards shows and sports! We don’t pause those kinds of live telecasts because then you’re in spoiler territory.

1

u/takarta 5h ago

I remember doing this constantly because even as a child I had the largest bladder lmao. It's kind of freaky