upworthy
Joy

Flying squirrel repeatedly fakes its own death with a broom handle and people are losing it

And the Oscar goes to…

pet flying squirrel playing dead
@BirrelleBee/Twitter

Dramatic flying squirrel makes it look like the broom fell on it. Spoiler: It did not.

Animals can be far cleverer than we give them credit for, especially creatures we don't think of as having distinct personalities. Most of us expect cats and dogs to do show us their unique quirks, but what about a flying squirrel?

A video is making its way around the internet that has people giggling over the dramatic antics of a large pet flying squirrel. It includes no narration explaining what's happening and no context—it just shows a flying squirrel repeatedly faking its own death by broom.

That's right. Death by broom. And from the way it looks, the little bugger came up with the idea on its own and made multiple attempts to create a convincing crime scene.

This is one you just have to see.

Twitter user @Birrellebee wrote that the squirrel "faked his own death, and created a whole crime scene…for attention. I think I'm in love."

Whether the squirrel really did this just for attention or for some other reason isn't clear, but no one seems to offering a more plausible explanation for it.

Watch:

While some people have expressed understandable concern over flying squirrels living indoors as pets, we don't know what the living situation here really is. Maybe the squirrel was injured and rescued. Maybe it can't survive in the wild. We simply don't know.

What we do know is that this adorable rodent deserves an Oscar for its performance. The way it gracefully somersaults right into position. The placing of the broomstick on its neck and splaying itself out flat on its back. The checking to see if anyone is looking. The repositioning of the murder weapon multiple times to figure out which one seems more believable.

Was that really what it was doing? Who knows. But it was a genuinely incredible performance nonetheless.

And of course, the people of the internet didn't disappoint in the comments.

“@GreigBeck @BirrelleBee @MAllanScott It’s an insurance scam.”

This article originally appeared on 6.6.23

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Is safe and stable housing the key to our health and wellbeing? This docuseries says yes (and has the footage to prove it).

A moving docuseries explores housing, equity, and personal health and well-being through the lens of three unforgettable stories.

When you think of a home, what comes to mind? For many, it’s the classic vision of a house—four walls, some doors, a roof. But research has shown that home ownership is so much more than just a physical structure. Instead, it’s an opportunity for families to have stability, a way to build and pass down wealth to future generations, and a foundation for a healthy life.


In a three-part docuseries from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), filmmakers explore the systemic barriers that keep safe and accessible housing out of reach for many Americans, such as racial discrimination, access to credit, and poverty. The docuseries, From Hope to Home, follows the story of three families affected by these barriers and shows how, with the help of community organizations, they are able to break free from these barriers and access safe housing—something RWJF believes is essential for health and wellbeing.

Four Bands Community Fund helped Tammy Granados (pictured here) navigate systemic barriers that are common among Native homebuyers.

Photo by Ryder Haske, People's Television, Inc.

In the first part of the docuseries, entitled “What We Came Here For,” viewers meet Tammy Granados, a young mother of four children, who experienced housing insecurity when the rent was raised on her family’s two-bedroom apartment.

Granados reached out to Four Bands Community Fund, a community development financial institution (CDFI) that helps create a path to homeownership for underserved communities and individuals—something that is particularly complicated for Native Americans.

“Most of the issues our homeowners face have to do with barriers set up around the land that we have no control over, that were set up through treaties with the US Government,” says Lakota Vogel, executive director of Four Bands Community Fund. Native communities, for instance, work through the Bureau of Indian Affairs to buy and sell tribal land rather than a traditional realtor, which can make home ownership seem even more out of reach.

“Who do you call when you want to buy a house?” says Vogel, of the typical home buying process for Native communities. “We don’t have realtor companies.”

These kinds of structural barriers, Vogel explains, put a significant strain on the health of Native communities.

“It’s like a chronic stress that’s overtop all of us, and our populations experience these unprecedented health disparities,” she says. “We adopt this scarcity mindset and our bodies sort of respond by increasing a stress hormone called cortisol. Having a home decreases that stress response.”

Four Bands not only understands these particular barriers and the harm they cause—they’re also able to help Native communities break through them.

“The first thing we do within a Native American reservation is sort of demystify the process,” Vogel says in a panel discussion led by RWJF, in partnership with Upworthy. “We look at the land site with the community member and talk them through every step of the process.” Four Bands then matches them with any available capital that will help them purchase the home.

Through a partnership with Four Bands, Granados was able to move her children into safe, secure, and affordable housing where they’re able to thrive.

“Becoming a homeowner gave me freedom to show my kids that you don’t just have to work to survive,” says Granados in the film. “You can work to thrive, you can work to live, you can work to grow your spirit, you can work doing something you enjoy. This is what your spirit came to Earth for.”

“What We Came Here For” is part one of From Hope to Home, a three-part docuseries from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Emmy®-nominated creative studio People’s Television. It is available to stream here.

Shala Staple and her daughter outside their home in New Jersey. Staple was able to secure an affordable house in a safe neighborhood thanks to a 1975 New Jersey Supreme Court ruling that mandated each municipality set aside housing for lower-income homebuyers.

Photo by Ryder Haske, People's Television, Inc.

“Moving Day,” the second part of the docuseries, shines a light on discriminatory housing practices in New Jersey, one of the most diverse areas in the nation—and also one of the most segregated.

“People want to be able to control where other people, especially people of color, live,” says Adam Gordon in the film, who works as the Executive Director of the Fair Share Housing Center. “The KKK didn’t want black residents to be in the same town, and yet these are still the same [rules] we use to govern our communities today,” he explains.

These discriminatory practices, known as “exclusionary zoning,” kicked off years of activism that eventually led to the New Jersey Supreme Court’s watershed Mount Laurel ruling in 1975. The ruling found that exclusionary zoning practices were unconstitutional, and declared that every town in New Jersey must provide their “fair share” of each region’s affordable housing. Organizations like the Fair Share Housing Center help enforce these housing laws and compel municipalities across New Jersey to set aside housing units for lower-income families.

Because of that ruling, more than 400,000 New Jersey citizens—like Shala Staple, who is featured in the film—can now access secure housing in neighborhoods that would otherwise be out of reach.

“Affordable housing made me feel able to provide for my children,” Staple says. “I’m just really excited for their futures.”

However, “Moving Day” shows that there is still more work to be done, as several New Jersey communities continue to push back against affordable housing mandates. Fair Share Housing Center and other advocacy groups will continue to fight to ensure every community is accessible to New Jerseyans.

“No community should be closed to anyone,” says Gordan in the post-screening panel discussion. “Every community has to do its fair share of [providing] affordable housing, and every town, even the wealthiest ones, have to be part of the solution.”

“Moving Day” is part two of From Hope to Home, a three-part docuseries from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Emmy®-nominated creative studio People’s Television. It will be available to stream here starting April 15.

Ashleigh Bowman (pictured here with her three children) was able to secure her home with help from a community land trust, which allows her to build wealth while keeping her home affordable long-term.

Photo by Ryder Haske, People's Television, Inc.

Finally, in “Roses and Thorns,” director Milena Mikael-Debass shows viewers how community land trusts, or CLTs, can improve access to housing in Lynchburg, VA.

A CLT, the film explains, is a regionally-based nonprofit organization that acquires land, holds it in a trust, and then leases out the land for home-building, farming, and more. CLTs were first created in 1969 as a response to segregation under Jim Crow laws, allowing black farmers to gain equal access to farmland and black families to secure affordable housing. These trusts continue to help people like Ashleigh Bowman, a single mom of three kids, participate in home ownership when they normally would not be able to access it. Home ownership through CLTs also help marginalized communities build generational wealth.

“If something happens to me, I will be able to pass on this home to my children,” says Bowman in the film, who purchased her house through a community land trust after a life-altering event. “[They will] be able to afford it because the community land trust guarantees that this land will not be volatile with the market.”

Organizations like Grounded Solutions Network are looking to scale this type of shared equity home ownership model across the country, says Alex Cabral, Senior Principal of Innovative Finance at Grounded Solutions Network.

To do so, Grounded Solutions Network partners with other organizations and provides support like policy advocacy, education, research, and housing technology solutions to help them implement these models all over the U.S. Their latest goal is to produce one million affordable houses within the next ten years, acquiring corporate-owned rental homes and transitioning them into affordable housing opportunities across the US. This will help ensure a safer, more secure, and healthier country.

“Everyone has the right to a safe and secure home,” Cabral says. “And those who seek to be homeowners deserve that opportunity.”

“Roses and Thorns,” is part three of From Hope to Home, a three-part docuseries from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Emmy®-nominated creative studio People’s Television. It will be available to stream here starting April 22.

Conservation

A juice company dumped orange peels in a national park. This is what it looks like today.

12,000 tons of food waste and 28 years later, this forest looks totally different.

Image via Dan Jansen

A before and after view of the experiment

In 1997, ecologists Daniel Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs approached an orange juice company in Costa Rica with an off-the-wall idea. In exchange for donating a portion of unspoiled, forested land to the Área de Conservación Guanacaste — a nature preserve in the country's northwest — the park would allow the company to dump its discarded orange peels and pulp, free of charge, in a heavily grazed, largely deforested area nearby.

One year later, one thousand trucks poured into the national park, offloading over 12,000 metric tons of sticky, mealy, orange compost onto the worn-out plot. The site was left untouched and largely unexamined for over a decade. A sign was placed to ensure future researchers could locate and study it.

16 years later, Janzen dispatched graduate student Timothy Treuer to look for the site where the food waste was dumped.

Treuer initially set out to locate the large placard that marked the plot — and failed.


natural wonders, nature, recycling, conservation, environment, oranges, orange peels, dumpsThe first deposit of orange peels in 1996.Photo by Dan Janzen.


"It's a huge sign, bright yellow lettering. We should have been able to see it," Treuer says. After wandering around for half an hour with no luck, he consulted Janzen, who gave him more detailed instructions on how to find the plot.

When he returned a week later and confirmed he was in the right place, Treuer was floored. Compared to the adjacent barren former pastureland, the site of the food waste deposit was "like night and day."


Environment, natural wonder, natural miracles, nature, oranges, planet, conservation The site of the orange peel deposit (L) and adjacent pastureland (R).Photo by Leland Werden.


"It was just hard to believe that the only difference between the two areas was a bunch of orange peels. They look like completely different ecosystems," he explains.

The area was so thick with vegetation he still could not find the sign.

Treuer and a team of researchers from Princeton University studied the site over the course of the following three years.

The results, published in the journal "Restoration Ecology," highlight just how completely the discarded fruit parts assisted the area's turnaround.

According to the Princeton School of International Public Affairs, the experiment resulted in a "176 percent increase in aboveground biomass — or the wood in the trees — within the 3-hectare area (7 acres) studied."

The ecologists measured various qualities of the site against an area of former pastureland immediately across the access road used to dump the orange peels two decades prior. Compared to the adjacent plot, which was dominated by a single species of tree, the site of the orange peel deposit featured two dozen species of vegetation, most thriving.


natural wonder, nature, environment, conservation, oranges, orange peelsLab technician Erik Schilling explores the newly overgrown orange peel plot.Photo by Tim Treuer.


In addition to greater biodiversity, richer soil, and a better-developed canopy, researchers discovered a tayra (a dog-sized weasel) and a giant fig tree three feet in diameter, on the plot.

"You could have had 20 people climbing in that tree at once and it would have supported the weight no problem," says Jon Choi, co-author of the paper, who conducted much of the soil analysis. "That thing was massive."

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Recent evidence suggests that secondary tropical forests — those that grow after the original inhabitants are torn down — are essential to helping slow climate change.

In a 2016 study published in Nature, researchers found that such forests absorb and store atmospheric carbon at roughly 11 times the rate of old-growth forests.

Treuer believes better management of discarded produce — like orange peels — could be key to helping these forests regrow.

In many parts of the world, rates of deforestation are increasing dramatically, sapping local soil of much-needed nutrients and, with them, the ability of ecosystems to restore themselves.

Meanwhile, much of the world is awash in nutrient-rich food waste. In the United States, up to half of all produce in the United States is discarded. Most currently ends up in landfills.


natural wonder, nature, conservation, environment, planet, oranges, orange peelsThe site after a deposit of orange peels in 1998.Photo by Dan Janzen.


"We don't want companies to go out there will-nilly just dumping their waste all over the place, but if it's scientifically driven and restorationists are involved in addition to companies, this is something I think has really high potential," Treuer says.

The next step, he believes, is to examine whether other ecosystems — dry forests, cloud forests, tropical savannas — react the same way to similar deposits.

Two years after his initial survey, Treuer returned to once again try to locate the sign marking the site.

Since his first scouting mission in 2013, Treuer had visited the plot more than 15 times. Choi had visited more than 50. Neither had spotted the original sign.

In 2015, when Treuer, with the help of the paper's senior author, David Wilcove, and Princeton Professor Rob Pringle, finally found it under a thicket of vines, the scope of the area's transformation became truly clear.



natural wonder, nature, environment, environmental miracle, planet, oranges, orange peelsThe sign after clearing away the vines.Photo by Tim Treuer.


"It's a big honking sign," Choi emphasizes.

19 years of waiting with crossed fingers had buried it, thanks to two scientists, a flash of inspiration, and the rind of an unassuming fruit.

This article originally appeared eight years ago.

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Education

The fascinating reason people looked much older in the past than they do today

Why did teenagers look like they were in their mid-30s?

via Vsauce/YouTube

Norm was only in his 30s?

Ever look at your parents' high school yearbooks and think people looked so much older back then? All of the teenagers look like they’re in their mid-30s and the teachers who are 50 look like they’re 80. When we watch older movies, even those from the 1980s, the teenagers appear to be a lot older as well. Why is it that they looked so much older? Was life harder? Did people act more mature? Did they spend more time outdoors and less time playing video games? Is it their sense of fashion? Were they all smokers?

Educator Michael Stevens, who runs the super-popular Vsauce YouTube channel, explains the phenomenon in a video called, “Did people used to look older?” In it, he explains that people in the past appear a lot older due to retrospective aging.

This is how it works: when we see people in the past, they are wearing outdated styles that we associate with older people; therefore, we think they have aged rapidly. For example, a teenager in the 1950s may have been in fashion while wearing thick Buddy Holly-style glasses.

anti-aging, youth, why do i look older, how to look younger, treatments for looking younger, anti-aging productsBuddy Holly was 20 years old in this photo. upload.wikimedia.org

But as people age, they tend to cling to the fashion of their youth. So many people of that generation continued to wear the Buddy Holly-style glasses into their 50s. So when younger people see those glasses they see them as old people's glasses and not a hip kid from the '50s.

So in the photo from the '50s, the teen appears to look a lot older because our perspective has been tainted by time.

anti-aging, youth, why do i look older, how to look younger, treatments for looking younger, anti-aging products30 going on 60…media3.giphy.com

But it isn’t all just an illusion. Stevens also points out that people did age faster back in the day due to differences in nutrition, lifestyle and medicine. In addition, he also does a deep dive on how a person's name can affect their appearance, referencing the Dorian Gray effect, which theorizes that cultural stereotypes linked to a name come to be written on the faces of their bearers, as well as the name matching effect, in which people whose faces "match" their names tend to be better perceived.

Basically, this 22-minute video is chalked full of fascinating tidbits. Give it a watch below.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

It might be worth noting that, in addition to healthier lifestyle options, younger generations have more access to anti-aging procedures than ever before. "Tweakments," like fillers and botox, are less expensive and more readily available than ever—not to mention every anti-aging cream, serum, and cleanser known to man. And many millennials and Gen Zers take advantage of that, whether prompted by selfie anxiety, a growing obsession with youth, or some other motivation.

Plus, millennial and Gen Z fashion often honors their inner child. Nostalgic cartoon tees, colorful prints, cutesy accessories, etc. Granted, under the retrospective aging theory, even those styles could one day look dated, but they are so youthful that it's hard to imagine that being the case. That said, can't wait to see bunch of geezers sporting those broccoli haircuts.

This article originally appeared three years ago.

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12 unforgettable side-by-side photos of people over 100-years-old with their younger selves

A truly beautiful reminder of how delightful aging can be.

via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Jan Langer's incredible photos are timeless.

Czech photographer Jan Langer's portrait series "Faces of Century" shows them in a different light: as human beings aged by years of experience, but at their deepest level, unchanged by the passing of time. In the series, Langer juxtaposes his portraits with another portrait of the subject from decades earlier. He recreates the original pose and lighting as closely as he can — he wants us to see them not just as they are now, but how they have and haven't changed over time. That is the key to the series.

These are the rare faces of people who have lived through two world wars, a cavalcade of regimes, and the rush of advancements in modern life. These photos, and the stories of the lives lived by the people in them, show not only the beauty of aging, but how even as we age, we still remain essentially ourselves.


All photos by Jan Langer.


1. Prokop Vejdělek, at age 22 and 101


aging, photos, older people with their younger selves, aging process, 100 years oldProkop Vejdělek, at age 22 and 101via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Vejdělek is a former metallurgical engineer who will never forget the taste of warm fresh goat's milk.


2. Bedřiška Köhlerová, at age 26 and 103



via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Originally born in Merano, Italy, Köhlerová wishes to visit Italy one more time.


3. Ludvík Chybík, at age 20 and 102


via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Chybík is a former postal carrier and says he will never forget the route he worked every day.


4. Vincenc Jetelina, at age 30 and 105


via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Jetelina spent eight years in prison after World War II. Now, he just wants to live the rest of his life in peace.


5. Antonín Kovář, at age 25 and 102


via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Kovář is a former musician whose daughter comes to visit him every day. He wishes to play the clarinet once more.


6. Anna Vašinová, at age 22 and 102


via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Vašinová will always remember the day her husband was taken away by the Nazis. She wishes to be reunited with him after death.

7. Stanislav Spáčil, at age 17 and 102


via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Spáčil was an electrical engineer throughout his life and thinks that it's too early in his life to think about the past.


8. Anna Pochobradská, at age 30 and 100

via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Pochobradská was a farmer. She now lives a quiet life and is thankful that her daughter visits her every weekend.


9. Antonín Baldrman, at age 17 and 101


via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Baldrman was a clerk early in life and keeps up with current events by reading the newspaper.


10. Marie Burešová, at age 23 and 101


via Jan Langer/Aktualne

Burešová loves talking to her family and wishes to have them all together again.


11. Vlasta Čížková, at age 23 and 101


aging, photos, older people with their younger selves, aging process, 100 years oldvia Jan Langer/Aktualne

Čížková cooked in the dining room at the airport in the small village of Vodochody. She'll never forget reciting her own poetry at wedding ceremonies.


12. Ludmila Vysloužilová, at age 23 and 101


aging, photos, older people with their younger selves, aging process, 100 years oldvia Jan Langer/Aktualne

Vysloužilová stays active every day by chopping wood, shoveling snow, and doing work around her house.


The photographer Langer was initially inspired to document the lives of elderly people because of what he saw as the media's lack of coverage of them. He decided to focus on people over the age of 100 — a very rare demographic indeed. The 2020 U.S. Census recorded 80,139 people aged 100 or older, a 50.2% increase from the 53,364 centenarians counted in 2010. As our aging population continues to increase, and technology evolves along with it, it's likely these incredibly photo essays will become far more common. But for now, they are an incredible reminder of how precious and valuable life is, sometimes especially when we reach our golden years.

“One should live every single moment according to their best knowledge and conscience because one day we will see clearly what has a real value," Langer says of what he learned from his subjects while photographing them.

The series was originally part of a story that Langer did for the Czech news outlet aktuálně.cz. You can see more photos from the portrait sessions by following the link.

This article originally appeared seven years ago.

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Women are applauding mom who left her husband for refusing to clean the house for six days

"Ma’am, you are nothing short of amazing! Hang in there!"

via @5kids5catssomedogstoo/TikTok

Lynalice Bandy shares what her home looks like after working six 10-hour days and getting no help from her husband.

A viral TikTok video highlights an extreme version of inequality that many wives and mothers in heterosexual relationships face. However, the mom in this story hit her limit and won’t deal with it anymore. Lynalice Bandy, who goes by @5kids5catssomedogstoo on TikTok, posted a video that showed her home looking like a disaster after she worked six 10-hour days straight while her husband did nothing to help.

Her time-lapse video shows every room in the house completely trashed, with toys, food, and laundry scattered everywhere. "Shampoo on the carpets in the girls' room, nail polish all over nugget covers, hair, and carpet. Scissors were used to cut hair, the down comforter, the mattress cover, and two nugget covers," wrote the mom. “I’ve worked six, ten-hour days in a row with only one day off being a sick day,” she captioned the video. “I’d like to pretend I’m not the only person who cleans here, but as you can see…These rooms don’t get much attention when I’m not here."


@5kids2catsandsomechaos

#divorce #parentingfail #messyhouse #whenwomen #depressionanxiety #clean #satifying

She says her husband’s excuse was that he was focused on doing his schoolwork and couldn’t pay attention to the kids. "Now, that school is out for a break, he doesn't have that excuse anymore," Bandy says, noting that all of his attention has been focused on “the four vehicles in our driveway that he wants to work on continuously.”

In a follow-up video, Bandy announced that she left her husband after the debacle. The original video received over 17,000 comments, many of which were from supportive women. "You deserve much better, and he deserves to be alone. Much love to you from someone that left that life behind almost 20 yrs ago. You'll get here, too," Angela LaRoche wrote.

"Ma’am, you are nothing short of amazing! Hang in there!" Japanese with Jenny wrote. "That home is beautiful because of YOU," Hillary added. "You put in so much work, and it is not unseen by me and so many others. But, you DO deserve better. Proud of you."

@5kids2catsandsomechaos

Sounds about right…

Even though Bandy’s experience with her husband is an extreme case of a couple whose domestic duties are way out of balance, it points to a problem that plagues many households. Even though it’s 2023 and families are becoming more equal, women still do significantly more housework than men.

A study utilizing data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey found that women 15 years and older spend 5.7 hours daily doing housework and looking after kids and elders. Men in the same age group do an average of 3.6 hours of daily domestic work. That’s a 37% difference in time spent on household responsibilities.

domestic duties, marriage inequality, lazy husbands, messy houses, household chores, upset woman, tired womanA woman who is upset that she has to do chores again.via Canva/Photos

Further, women who work an average of 35 hours a week spend 4.9 hours a day on household chores and child care, while men who work the same amount spend an average of 3.8 hours.

The comments show that many women are frustrated with their husbands for not doing their fair share. Hopefully, this video will encourage more people to speak out about domestic inequality and for more men to step up and do their part.

Nearly two years after Lynalice left her husband, she and her five children are living together in a new home. Her recent videos show that she's having difficulty keeping it clean because she's been working 60-plus hours a week and suffers from ADHD. Being the single mother of five has to be tough, so she has developed a new motto: "Progress, not perfection." In November 2024, she shared a video of her and her family getting things together in their new home.

@5kids2catsandsomechaos

Can you spot how many times Winky sits in a box or plops for belly rubs? #cleaning #messyhouse #clean #timelapse #oddlysatisfying #grwm #carpetcleaning #cattok

This article originally appeared two years ago.

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Culture

Gen Xers and boomers share things that used to be normal but would be considered shocking today

Being completely unreachable for days and no one batting an eye.

Photo credit: Canva

Does anyone hitchhike anymore?

If there's one truism we can all agree on, it's that times change, and as you get older, that truth becomes clearer and clearer. Things that were once commonplace have disappeared, norms and expectations have shifted, technology has fundamentally changed how we live and work, and time just keeps ticking on.

That's not a bad thing, necessarily. Progress is progress, change can be good, and we shouldn't expect an ever-evolving humanity in an ever-changing world to stay the same. At the same time, it's easy to have nostalgia for the good old days, and some part of those days are worth thinking of fondly.

90s, nostalgia, the past, growth, timeMusic Video 90S GIFGiphy

When someone asked Gen Xers and Boomers, "What's something that used to be normal, but would shock people today?" the responses were a mixed bag of awesome memories from the past, things that are probably best left behind, and those that fall in between somewhere depending on your perspective. Here are some of the most popular responses.

Unreachability

We are so used to carrying cell phones with us everywhere and being able to call or text anyone at any time that it's hard to imagine not being able to do that. But people used to simply fall off the map for a while, and nobody really worried about it. And if you called someone and they didn't answer, there was no leaving a message until answering machines came about.

gif, messages, voicemail, phones, reachable answering machine cbc GIF by Kim's ConvenienceGiphy

"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."

"I went to Europe for a year after high school, and my family got a letter maybe once a month and an occasional phone call - international calls were too expensive to stay in contact frequently."

"God, I soooooo miss this. Not just for myself, cause 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.'"

"Right Family vacation, camping, fishing. In a week, you might go in to town to the pay phone to call Gramma one time. No one thought twice about it."

"People tend to forget what a jaw-dropper answering machines were. They weren't cheap either. Most people didn't have one for a very long time."

Kids roaming free

Helicopter parenting was not a thing when Gen X and Boomers were kids. In fact, kids were often told to "go out and play," which meant wandering and exploring around—and often beyond—your neighborhood with your friends for most of the day, with your parents not really knowing where you were or what you were doing (a la The Goonies). You knew it was time to come home with the streetlights went on or when your stomach told you it was dinnertime.

kids, goonies, freedom, wandering, free rangethe goonies this is our time GIFGiphy

"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."

"I miss this so much. For all kids nowadays. Being constantly contactable (and more importantly it meaning 'something bad' if they are not) has warped everyone's brain. Everyone IMMEDIATELY goes to 'OMG where is ___ something bad must have happened' in mere minutes!."

"This! My mom kicked us outside when we got rowdy and told us to come back when she whistles! We knew not to pass the stop sign at one end of the road, and the mail box on the other. We had treehouses made from random shit we found in the woods and would battle each other 😂 Man my kids now could never."

"We were on our bikes riding around the whole neighborhood with other kids all day! Miles away, nobody worried about where we were, only vague ideas about who we were with."

Airport access

Those who remember life before 9/11 know how much airport security changed afterward, and it's hard now to imagine the way it used to be. On the one hand, limiting gate access to ticketed passengers only has made airports a little less crowded (believe it or not) but on the other, there was something so sweet about stepping off of a plane to someone greeting you immediately.

airports, airport security, accessibility, travel, greetings Airport Why Am I Here GIF by Girls on HBOGiphy

"if you were picking someone up at the airport especially if it was your kid coming home from college or something big like that you would meet them at the gate."

"People who didn't have tickets could wait with you at the gate until you boarded or meet you when you got off."

"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."

"My parents’ favorite cheap date when they were young and poor was to go to the airport and people watch."

"I used to fly to my grandparents by myself every summer. My mom would walk me to the plane and get me settled in my seat. Once they accidentally closed the door and started pulling away from the gate while she was still on board and they had to pull back in to let her out."

Lax car rules

When some of us were kids, seatbelts weren't even standard in the backseats of cars—you had to pay extra to have them installed. And even then, they were just lap belts, no shoulder straps. Booster seats? Non-existent. Baby car seats? Eh, kind of, maybe, sometimes. (To be fair, the increased safety regulations on cars and seatbelts have saved many lives, so not complaining about these changes.)

car, driving, seatbelt, seatbelts, safety Car Wagon GIF by DiscoveryGiphy

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

"We drove cross country on a family trip. Removed the seats and 7 kids just sat in the back on the floor."

"My sister and I rode in the back of a pickup truck on a six hour ride in Oklahoma when I was about 8 or 9 years old. We were both badly sunburned, and I ended up with ear infections. It was not a good time."

"1972 Towing a race car on the interstate with two moms and 5 kids in the back plus two canisters of gasoline towards the tailgate with the moms leaning against the back of the cab smoking. Oh, one of the moms was pregnant too. On our way to watch the dads participate in a demolition derby and stock car race, which my dad won. It's quite likely that the driver had an open can of beer between his knees."

"Dad had a full sized van with the passenger seats removed. We sat in bean bag chairs in the back from Missouri to South Carolina when moving cross country."

Smoking, smoking, and more smoking

I've tried to explain to my Gen Z kids how ubiquitous smoking used to be, but I don't think they fully believe it. People smoked everywhere. There were smoking sections and areas everywhere. Ashtrays everywhere. Cigarette butts all over the ground. Candy cigarettes. You get the picture.

smoking, cigarettes, smoke, ashtrays, smoking sectionsmothers day smoking GIFGiphy

"Smoking on airplanes."

"The grocery store, hospital, school, movie theater…"

"I was in the hospital when I was 8. My roommate was 16 & she smoked."

"I used to be a cashier and light cigarettes at the register."

"Hell, I worked in a municipal office, and everyone had an ashtray at their desk and smoked all day at work. As someone allergic to smoke, it really sucked. I worked with a bunch of men, and the worst was when one of their wives would have a baby, because the guy would hand out cigars and the whole office would be smoking cigars that day. Brutal."

"Smoking everywhere. I worked at a bank that had the offices in the basement. No windows, one stairway down (fire would have killed everyone). Ashtrays everywhere. Zero ventilation."

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

"Sending your child to the store for a pack of cigarettes. Like not even a teenager. Child."

simpsons, the past, boomers, gen x, changeEpisode 1 GIF by The SimpsonsGiphy

People shared some other things that were common like not wearing sunscreen (in fact, slathering yourself with baby oil to bake yourself in the sun), not being able to get cash whenever you needed it (and you always needed it—credit cards weren't as common and weren't accepted everywhere), layaway, sonic booms, corporal punishment in schools, and more. Times do change, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse, but it's always fun to look back and see how they have. Makes you wonder what a list like this will look like in another 40 or 50 years, doesn't it?



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