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Boomers and Gen Xers recall 17 things they loved in old-school restaurants that are long gone

"Cafeterias in discount stores. K-Mart had a delicious orange drink that I absolutely loved."

via Sandra Foyt/Flickr and Reddit

A Farell's sundae and a Pizza Hut lamp.

Dining out was a different experience in the 1970s and 1980s. Many of the pizza places and family restaurants were elaborate, sit-down joints with ornate decorations, theming, and plenty of video games. The dining experience also catered to smokers, with ashtrays on the table, smoking sections, and machines that distributed cigarettes by the bathrooms.

These days, when you go to a department store or big-box retailer, it’s rare that you’ll find anywhere to sit down and eat besides maybe a Starbucks or, in some Walmarts, a McDonald’s tucked into the corner. But department stores used to have sit-down grills or places to relax and have a hot dog. It was also assumed that going to a K-Mart, GEMCO, or Sears in the ‘70s and ‘80s would smell like freshly popped popcorn.


There was also a time when fast-food restaurants were a lot more elegant. You could get some decent greens at the salad bar in a Carls, Jr., Wendy’s had a great taco buffet, and it wasn’t uncommon to be able to relax in the glow of a solarium while scarfing down fries. Let’s not even get started about how incredible and imaginative the McDonald’s Play Place was.

A group of folks born in 1980 or later shared the things they miss the most about eating establishments that no longer exist on the AskOldPeople Reddit subforum, and it brought back some delightful, if not smoky, memories for many. It also taught young people that an eating establishment doesn’t need to be sterile; a bit of theming and tons of breadsticks can go a long way.

1. Pizza Hut was fantastic

"I miss when Pizza Hut had dining rooms. Dark, plastic Tiffany hanging lamps over each table, and those plastic red cups."
"Pizza Hut is permanently etched into my brain. It was such a treat to go there. The smell of pizza when you walked in the door, the tablecloths, the plastic red cups."

"I always liked the tabletop arcade games that were the start of my gargoyle curve in my posture."

2. Farrell's ice cream was epic

"Farrell's Ice Cream. Every time someone ordered a Zoo -- a bowl with 20 scoops of ice cream, usually for parties -- they'd bring it out on a stretcher-like item, carried by two people. And they'd ring a bell and blow a siren and generally make a racket, and run around the restaurant with it before bringing it to the table. And if one person ate a whole Zoo? An announcement, also accompanied by sirens, bells, etc. And I think for every birthday, also, which included the singing of Happy Birthday by the whole restaurant. Basically, every trip to Farrell's was sure to include multiple loud interruptions to the meal. It was a blast."

"Omg Farrell’s old timey candy store by the register was so fantastic."


3. Cigarette machines in waiting areas

"The closest place to buy cigs was a nice restaurant. If you needed change for the machine, the bartender would help you out. Nobody cared if you were 12."

4. Mini jukeboxes

"Small jukebox at your table to choose songs and insert your quarter (for 3 songs)."

"One of my favorite memories! When I was a kid, we'd go to a diner on Sundays with the little jukebox at the table, and I'd play Heartbreak Hotel every time. Whenever I hear that song I'm right back in that booth."

5. Fewer chain restaurants

"I remember a lot more locally owned restaurants, and fewer chains. When you were on vacation, there would be all these different local restaurants and you would have to ask around to find the good ones. And you would get food that was different than what you would have at home. Now every town seems to have the same chains and the restaurants and the food are all the same."

6. The golden era of salad bars

"Salad bars, lots of restaurants had salad bars in the 1980s. Now, I can't think of one locally. Ruby Tuesday's, but I think they are all closed."

"Remember when Wendy's had this huge salad bar / potato bar thing that everyone loved? Looks like Wendy's closed all of those in 2006 or earlier. I'd say that's about the time that salad bars started to completely fade."



7. Arcade games in pizza joints

"When’s the last time you saw a Street Fighter or other game at any local store?! I’ve been to some laundromats that have old grubby and often broken machines, but outside of deals like that it’s like they just completely disappeared!"

"Oh god, yes. I remember my last great birthday as a kid, 12 maybe 13, my two friends and I went to the local pizza place and after sharing that large with all the gooey cheese carried out on the tray all smoking and greasy, we blew an entire roll of quarters beating some game, I think it was Aliens. We spent that entire roll of quarters and finished the game. That's still my favorite birthday memory from when I was a kid."

8. Discount store cafeterias

"Cafeterias in discount stores. K-Mart had a delicious orange drink that I absolutely loved. And going to Woolworth's for a burger, fries, and a chocolate shake."

"Around the early 1970s, Thrifty had a section with booths and food. Sister and I would go there often. After we ate, we'd go to the front of the store and get an ice cream cone... with the cylindrical scoops. Back then, it was 5 cents a scoop. We always got three :)"

9. Smoking sections

"My first job was as a hostess at a restaurant: 'Smoking or non-smoking?'"

"We went to a restaurant once and asked for non-smoking; the hostess led us to a random table and took the ashtray away. Presto, that was now the non-smoking table."


10. Free matches

"Matches with the restaurant's name embossed on them, by the register, next to the mints."

"Speaking of which, how do they solve crimes today without restaurant matches for clues?"

11. Breadsticks and crackers galore

"A basket with all different varieties of crackers and breadsticks to go with your cup or bowl of soup."

12. McDonald's deep-fried pies

"I had a friend who swears up and down, that before the FDA required ingredients lists, McDonald's Apple Pies were made with potato chunks, apple sauce, cinnamon, sugar, etc."

"'CAUTION: FILLING IS HOT!' We'd repeat it out loud and snicker every time we bought them :)"


13. Parsley

"You used to get a few sprigs of parsley on your plate. You weren't supposed to eat it. It was for decoration."

"Parsley is a good breath freshener after a meal."

14. Better atmosphere

"Whether it's nostalgia or real, I'd say the effort that went into building the atmosphere of a restaurant. It used to be an experience. Restaurants, especially asian ones or buffets would go all out on the ambience and variety. I remember fish tanks, complimentary pots of green tea, fortune cookies, exotic fruits or dishes etc. Now as Elaine from Seinfeld puts it you feel like a hog about to fill up at the trough."

"Nowadays, the problem is that minimalistic and uniform is mistaken for modern. Anything quirky, personable or fun is generally seen as tacky, unprofessional, lacking in class. Unless you're a chain with a theme of some sort. This goes for architecture in general. Restaurants definitely, I think shopping malls have definitely suffered, also."

15. Butter on cardboard

"Little yellow pats of butter on a square of cardboard."

"Whoa. I haven’t had that image in my brain for a loooong time."

16. Ashtrays on tables

"Those little foil ashtrays they had at McDonald’s. I used to fold them up to amuse myself."

"I liked the ones at Burger King better. They were gold LOL."

17. Cocktails on placemats

"When I was a kid in the 70s, many restaurants had paper placemats that were cocktail menus. There’d be photos of each cocktail with fun names like Singapore sunset, grasshopper, pink lady, monkey’s kiss, etc. They looked so good and I couldn’t wait to grow up to order them all one day. But sadly, by the time I was old enough to drink, those menus had long gone."




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17 groovy sights, sounds and feels that can only be appreciated by 70's kids

Kids today will never understand the pure joy of reading a cereal box.

via Seattle Municipal Archives/Flickr

Kids at Seattle Center during Bumbershoot, 1973

A lot has changed since the 1970s. If you plucked a Gen Zer from 2025 and put them in a time machine back to 1974, they’d have a hard time figuring out how to use a telephone, get a good picture on the television set with rabbit ears, or buy tickets for the Pink Floyd or Jackson 5 concert.

They’d also probably be appalled by the number of people who smoke, the massive amount of litter on the streets, and the general lack of concern for the safety of children. In certain cities, they’d also be blown away by the amount of smog in the air.

Perhaps the best way they could get an idea of the time period through movies and television series that focus on the era, since this medium is so immersive. However, not every production is a stickler for accuracy when it comes to making historical shows.

Luckily, that isn't always the case. One filmmaker directing a production that takes place in the '70s truly wanted to learn what life was like in the “Me Decade,” so they asked folks from the time period to share “some behaviors from that time that have disappeared,” and he received over 2,400 responses.

Some were bittersweet remembrances of a carefree and unsupervised childhood. At the same time, others recalled a time when children were often the targets of abuse and subject to many traumatic experiences that they were discouraged from speaking about.

We looked at the thread and chose the 17 best responses to behaviors from the ‘70s that “have disappeared.”

1. Playing with the phone cord

1970s, growing up '70s, life in the '70s, 70s shows, 70s nostalgia, 70s phonesHands playing with a phone cord. Photo credit: Canva

"Fidgeting with the long coiled cord while talking on the phone—like twirling your finger into the coil."

"We had a long cord that you could swing like a jump rope."

"Answering every phone call with some variation of '<last name> residence, <first name> speaking.'"

2. Smelling cigarette smoke


www.youtube.com

"Smoking everywhere all the time."

"I remember the teachers lounge in my grammar school oozing smoke."

"4 hour drives to see Nannie, all windows closed, both mom and dad smoking. Think of it, three 3 small kids getting poisioned from the 2nd hand smoke, pleading to stop or open the window and Dad saying 'get used to it, the world smokes' andMom saying the cracked open wi dow was 'too noisy'. Breathing through our coat sleeves with the arms opening under their car seats, where the fresh air came out. Four hours of constant nausea and illness that lingerd for 30 min after."

3. Soda cans for candy

"Returning soda bottles to the store and getting enough money back to buy a candy bar."

"Yes, having work and save up for the candy bar or pack of gum. Or being lucky enough to find a penny for the gum ball machine outside the grocery store. "

4. Clothes lasted forever

1970s, growing up '70s, life in the '70s, 70s shows, 70s nostalgia, 70s clothesA rack of vintage clothes. Photo credit: Canva

"The lengths everyone went to make things last, all our clothes were patched or sewn up and handed down. New clothes shopping was maybe once a year. Or whenever the Sears catalog came out."

5. Payphones

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

"Checking the change slot in the phone booths in case people forgot their coins. I also remember when phone calls were a dime!"

6. Calling the Time Lady

"367-1234. At the time the time will be 11:22 and 20 seconds — beep”

7. Playing outside all day

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

"When being sent outside to play meant you were given a radius to stay in like 'our neighboorhood,' and a time to be home was 'when the street lights come on.'"

8. TV was appointment viewing

"Reading TV Guide for program times."

"There was no way to record a show until VCRs came came out, so you watched a show when it was scheduled to be broadcast, and missed it if you didn’t turn it on at the time it started. So, families had to negotiate if there was more than one show on that people wanted to watch. Prime time was a big deal because that was when the three networks played their top shows."

9. Rabbit ears


1970s, growing up '70s, life in the '70s, 70s shows, 70s nostalgia, 70s commercials, old school tvAn old school television. Photo credit: Canva

"Wrapping tin foil squares on 'rabbit ear' antennas."

"When the picture got fuzzy, slapping the side of the TV set to correct the picture."

10. The phone book had many uses

"That big phone book was the booster seat for the youngest kid at the table."

11. CB radios


- YouTubewww.youtube.com

"References the cb radio culture during normal conversations. Everyone understood."

"Ten four"

"Breaker, breaker"

"You got that right, good buddy."

12. Long distance was pricey

"Making local calls vs long distance calls. Had to keep calls short to relatives because they were long distance. Making collect calls."

"Right, and you might add the cost of long distance calls was X amount per minute. Also, moving into a new place required a call to the telephone company to have a phone installed in various rooms and you had to preorder the types and colors."

"If you wanted to make an overseas call, you had to call the international operator at least a couple of hours before the call to schedule it."

13. Fake collect calls

"Making fake collect calls to your parents to come pick you up. 'You have received a collect call from … ‘we’re done and out front!’… do you wish to accept the call? Nope. Already got the message."

14. Before scrolling, we read


- YouTubewww.youtube.com

"Reading. Reading the newspaper. Reading the cereal boxes at breakfast. Reading on the toilet. Doing crosswords and word games. Before phones, you had to engage more with what was around."

"If there was no Reader’s Digest in the bathroom, you had to read the shampoo ingredients. Sodium laurel sulfate, etc."

15. The bank line

"When Friday rolled around, and you needed money for the weekend, you went to the bank, stood in line and made a withdrawal."
"We took our checks to the bank on Friday to be cashed, some for the checking account and some for spending cause everything was paid for with cash."

16. Unsafe seating in trucks

"No seatbelts, but drivers could get in trouble if car was overfilled, so a mom would yell 'duck' if she saw a cop. This would be a Volkswagen Bug with 7-8 kids piled up going to the beach or park. Totally normal to pile kids in the bed of a pickup truck - sometimes with folding chairs. Also common to grab the back of a car while you were skateboarding (there was a word for this I don't remember)."

17. Staring at the sky


1970s, growing up '70s, life in the '70s, 70s shows, 70s nostalgia, 70s kidsTwo kids looking up at the sky. Photo credit: Canva

"Laying down in the grass and looking at the sky. Leisure time died when portable entertainment became a thing, particularly nobile phones. The level of disconnection that's required to just stare at clouds or stars (and be happy doing it) is sorely missing nowadays. At least I miss it."

This article originally appeared last year.
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Internet

Video of high schoolers in 1989 triggers is pure Gen X nostalgia

It's worth watching for the hairstyles alone.

@asliceofhistory/Twitter
1989 video brings back strong memories for Gen Xers who came of age in the '80s.

Hey, remember the eighties?! Specifically, 1989, a year that some say was among the best, or at least the most memorable, ever: It was the year we saw violence in Tiananmen Square but also the dismantling of the Berlin Wall. The year we got Meg Ryan in "When Harry Met Sally" and Michael Keaton in Tim Burton's "Batman." The year "Seinfeld" and "The Simpsons" debuted on TV, with no clue as to how successful they would become. The year that gave us New Kids on the Block and Paula Abdul while Madonna and Janet Jackson were enjoying their heyday. It, coincidentally, is also the year the great Taylor Swift was born.

The jeans were pegged, the shoulders were padded and the hair was feathered and huge. It was 1989—the peak of Gen X youth coming of age. A viral video of a group of high school students sitting at their desks in 1989—undoubtedly filmed by some geeky kid in the AV club who probably went on to found an internet startup—has gone viral across social media, tapping straight into Gen X's memory banks. For those of us who were in high school at the time, it's like hopping into a time machine.

It's so wild to think that the kids in this video are in their fifties today.

The show "Stranger Things" has given young folks of today a pretty good glimpse of that era, but if you want to see exactly what the late '80s looked like for real, here it is:

Oh so many mullets. And the Skid Row soundtrack is just the icing on this nostalgia cake. (Hair band power ballads were ubiquitous, kids.)

I swear I went to high school with every person in this video. Like, I couldn't have scripted a more perfect representation of my classmates (which is funny considering that this video came from Paramus High School in New Jersey and I went to high school on the opposite side of the country).

Comments have poured in on Reddit from both Gen Xers who lived through this era and those who have questions.

high school, 1980s, eighties, 1989, gen x, nostalgiaThe hair!Giphy

First, the confirmations:

"Can confirm. I was a freshman that year, and not only did everyone look exactly like this (Metallica shirt included), I also looked like this. 😱😅"

"I graduated in ‘89, and while I didn’t go to this school, I know every person in this room."

"It's like I can virtually smell the AquaNet and WhiteRain hairspray from here...."

"I remember every time you went to the bathroom you were hit with a wall of hairspray and when the wind blew you looked like you had wings."

These were not isolated trends. A video yearbook from Jericho High School in New York confirms it — the eighties were everywhere!


- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Then the observations about how differently we responded to cameras back then.

"Also look how uncomfortable our generation was in front of the camera! I mean I still am! To see kids now immediately pose as soon as a phone is pointed at them is insanity to me 🤣"

"Born in 84 and growing up in the late 80’s and 90’s, it’s hard to explain to younger people that video cameras weren’t everywhere and you didn’t count on seeing yourself in what was being filmed. You just smiled and went on with your life."

Which, of course, led to some inevitable "ah the good old days" laments. When this video was captured, we were still a good decade or so away from mass popularity of cell phones, cable television, and every house having the Internet. Can you believe it? What did these kids do all day?!

"Life was better before the Internet. There, I said it."

"Not a single cell phone to be seen. Oh the freedom."

"It's so nice to be reminded what life was like before cell phones absorbed and isolated social gatherings."

It was a different time, alright. And not everything was 100% for the better:

"My freshman year of high school there was a huge uproar when, on the first day's assembly, admin informed everyone that the smoking lounge for students would indeed be closed permanently."

Probably for the best that we left things like smoking lounges for students or playing real fast and loose with seatbelts in the past.


nintendo, 1980s, eighties, 1983, 1989, kids, nostalgiaThe Nintendo Entertainment System came out in 1983 Photo by Wesley Tingey on Unsplash

But perhaps the most common response was how old those teens looked.

"Why do they all look like they're in their 30's?"

"Everyone in this video is simultaneously 17 and 49 years old."

"Now we know why they always use 30 y/o actors in high school movies."

As some people pointed out, there is an explanation for why they look old to us. It has more to do with how we interpret the fashion than how old they actually look. Outdated styles and aesthetics trick our psychology into dating photos and people, making them appear older than they are.

Ah, what a fun little trip down memory lane for those of us who lived it. Was it a better time, or a time we'd rather forget? It all depends on what your own experience was, but in any case, it's hard not to look back and smile at what was certainly a simpler era. (Let's just all agree to never bring back those hairstyles, though, k?)

This article originally appeared three years ago.

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Guy shares the 'one sound in the entire world' that divides those born before and after 1998

It'll make you cringe or feel absolutely nothing.

via TheGlassSniper/TikTok and 30pin Pictures/Flickr

The Glass Sniper is taking people back to 1998.

A popular TikToker known as The Glass Sniper is going viral with a video that struck a chord with people who remember the early days of the Internet. In the video, he teases a specific sound that was everywhere before it suddenly disappeared into the collective memory of those born before the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal.

“There is only one sound in this entire world that will forever separate the old generation from the new one,” Glass Sniper said in the viral video. “'For when the new generation hears it, they'll have no idea what we're talking about. But when the old generation hears it… We cringe!” The sound, of course, is the squeak of a dial-up modem connecting with an Internet service provider or ISP, as they were known back in the day.


@theglasssniper

New year. New Generation. What year is the line drawn? Lol

New year. New Generation. What year is the line drawn? Lol

One of the biggest problems with dial-up internet was that if you were online, no one in your home could use the phone, which caused some big domestic problems. Also, if you used a long-distance phone number for your dial-up number, you could be in for a hefty phone bill.

phone bill, big bill, unexpected bill, aol bill, america online, shocked man, moneyA man is shocked when he looks at his phone bill. via Canva/Photos

"I can hear my mom yelling 'IM ON THE PHONE!'" — MacksMom1990 wrote in the comments. "Followed by...You've got mail," DawnMichel added. "I can already hear my sister yelling at me to get off the computer so she can call her friend," Uncle B wrote.

"I figured it would be that sound, or the sound that the tv made after there no more tv shows at night ( when they showed the colour palette)," Isabellers Unniers wrote. "That sound reminds me of the time when I didn’t have to worry about anything, no stress (other than that damn noise) or anything," That_silver300 added. "The way my head popped up like a damn meerkat when I heard it..." MagnusDavis345 commented."

aol, america online, aol disc, hard disc, 1990s, '90s nostaligia, you've got mailAn old America Online disc.via Karl Baron/Flickr


For those of you who don't remember the early days of dial-up modems, in the mid-'90s, America Online (or AOL) was the most popular internet service provider, and it offered chat features, web browsing, and email, all in one package. Its chat rooms allowed people to connect anonymously with others in real-time, and, at that time, no one had photos, so you had to trust that the person was who they said they were.

In 1999, AOL grew to over 18 million subscribers and was the largest internet provider in the country. However, after a merger with Time Warner, dubbed "one of the worst mergers in history," in 2001 and the development of broadband internet, AOL's dial-up services quickly became a dinosaur.

Although they’re uncommon, people still use dial-up modems. For some comparison, in 2002, 55 million people in the U.S. used dial-up internet, but that number quickly dropped to 51 million in 2003. As of September 2023, 400,000 people in the U.S. still have dial-up internet.

This article originally appeared last year.

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