16 sounds that send Gen Xers and boomers down memory lane and young people don't recognize
From the purr of a rotary phone to the "ka-chunk" of manual credit card machines, so many sounds have disappeared.
Who remembers these sounds?
When we conjure up memories from our past, we usually see them as images or pictures, perhaps even as reels in our minds. But visual memories are only part of our recall. Anyone who's tasted a long-forgotten meal or smelled a loved one's perfume or heard a specific song and been sent straight back to another time knows how all of our senses play a role in memory.
Other than music, may not think of sounds as particularly memory triggering, but when someone asked Gen Xers and boomers what sounds were commonplace when they were younger that we don't hear anymore, it became clear that they are. Most of probably don't think of these things often, but seeing a whole list of outdated sounds quickly sends those of a certain age straight down memory lane.
from AskOldPeople
For instance:
VHS tapes rewinding
You physically went to Blockbuster. You rented a movie on VHS. You watched it. Then you had to "Be Kind, Rewind" before returning the movie, and that sound of the tape rewinding is a totally distinctive sound. Some people even had machines that were just for rewinding tapes at a faster speed than the VHS player.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Dial tones and busy signals
The first time one of my Gen Z kids picked up a landline phone and heard the dial tone, they jumped and said, "Ah, why is the phone yelling at me?!" And playing the sound of a busy signal totally creeps them out—"That so eerie!" But back in the day, these sounds were just a normal part of making phone calls. In fact, it took us older folks a while to get used to not having a dial tone on our cell phones.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
The purr of a rotary phone dialing
There was something so soothing about the sound of dialing a phone number on a rotary phone. Everyone hated when a phone number had a lot of zeroes in it, simply because it took so long to dial, but oh was it satisfying to hear the purr of the wheel as it wound back.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Sonic booms and cars backfiring
It wasn't unusual to hear what sounded like a big explosion or what sounded like gunfire back in the day. When the goal in aviation was to get faster and faster, it became common for supersonic flights to break the sound barrier, creating what's known as a sonic boom. However, supersonic flight has been banned over land in many countries for decades, so it's not a common occurrence anymore.
@cleoabram Sonic booms dont work like many people think... As any plane flies, it pushes air out of its path, creating pressure waves. When a plane flies FASTER than sound, the air molecules get compressed into bigger shock waves which our brain processes as a loud BOOM. But a common misconception is: That boom doesn’t just happen once when the plane hits that speed. It boooooooooms the whole time, along the entire path of the plane. That booooooooom is the reason supersonic flight is banned over many countries today. But now, NASA is trying to build a quieter plane and bring back supersonic flight. We got to go see it, and you can watch our longer episode about what we saw... This video is part of our show Huge If True. If you like optimistic science and tech stories, follow for more. #tech #supersonic #plane #airplane #animation #NASA #fast #stem
Cars rarely backfire anymore, either, due to advances in car manufacturing.
Dial-up internet modem squawks
Nothing was more futuristic sounding than dialing into the internet in the early 90s, but it quickly became antiquated with the advent of broadband internet. But that little slice of time when dial-up internet was all we had left a distinct sound memory in all of our psyches.
It's an almost impossible sound to imitate accurately, but we all recognize it when we hear it. (And yes, kids, it was always this annoying.)
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Manual credit card machines
"Cha-CHUNK." Ah, the days before electronic credit card swiping, when cashiers had to pull out the manual credit card processor, set the credit card in it, put the carbon paper on top, and then "Cha-CHUNK."
Everyone who has memories from the 90s and before can attest to remembering that sound.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Coins falling into a payphone or a toll booth
A payphone, children, was a telephone that was out in public where you could insert some coins and to make a phone call. Or, if you didn't have any coins, you could call "collect," meaning that the person who received the phone call had to agree to pay the charges on their phone bill. (Calling collect was a desperate move, by the way, totally uncool.) But the sound of the coins falling down into the telephone is still clear in many of our minds.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Same thing with a toll booth if you happened to live in an area of the country where tollways were or are a thing. Today tolls are almost all processed with digital passes, but it used to be that you had to drive through an actual tollbooth and toss your coins into a machine, with the clinking sound of the coins as they hit the metal bowl.
Emergency Broadcast System tests
These may still happen some places, but with streaming services, not many of us watch regular television or listen to the actual radio anymore. When those were our only choices, we were regularly interrupted by such tests.
"This station is conducting a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. This is only a test." BEEEEEEEP. And if you happen to turn on the TV during the beep, you questioned whether or not you were actually in the middle of an emergency until it was over and they repeated the announcement that "This was only a test."
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Typewriter carriages returning
Even when typewriters were the norm, there was something uniquely satisfying in the sound of someone typing. Modern keyboards still offer some semblance of that soothing clickity-clickity-click, but one thing that's missing from the typewriter era is the sound of reaching the end of a line, hearing the "ding," and then returning to the typewriter carriage to the left side of the page.
This video will bring back some memories:
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Dot matrix printers
Apparently, many young people don't even have printers these days, but modern printers are so much quieter than the printers we used back in the 80s. It was a pretty big deal to be able to print anything at home, so we didn't complain too much (having nothing else to compare it to) but looking back, those dot matrix printers were extraordinarily loud and annoying. And slow. If you had a long paper to print, you were going to wait a while.
Still a fun little nostalgia trip to hear one, though.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Manual pencil sharpeners
In the age of electric pencil sharpeners, most kids don't know the satisfaction of using a heavy duty, mounted metal pencil sharpener that felt like it was made to last for generations. Those things could probably survive a nuclear blast, for real.
Remember the sound of the grinding as you turned the crank? They just don't make them like they used to.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Film projectors
Few things will send a Gen Xer or boomer back to their school days like the sound of a film projector. When that machine came out, we knew we were going to be subjected to some kind of 1960s learnin' and the sound of the projector is almost enough to lull us to sleep even today.
When the film was finished and the tail of the film flipped around and around in the machine until the teacher turned it off? Classic sound none of us can forget.
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Television "static"
Much like the dial tone, kids these days don't know what it's like to turn on the TV or change the channel and be met with "static" or "fuzz." It's the worst sound ever, really. And it was made worse with the film "Poltergeist" of course.
In fact, there's now a whole genre young people are into called "analog horror" that draws from sounds like those in this list to create a sense of creepiness. Who knew our normal life sounds would someday be considered scary?
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
What other sounds would you add to this list?
A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via 
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
At least it wasn't Bubbles. 
You just know there's a person named Whiskey out there getting a kick out of this. 
An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.