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90s nostalgia

Humor

Gen X parents challenge their Gen Z kids to put a cassette in a boombox and the struggle is real

"Have you given him a phone book or a map?"

Canva

Cassette tapes next to a boombox. A Gen Z-er is frustrated.

There seems to be no shortage of generational videos where kids try to grasp the technology their parents grew up with. It's impressive that they even want to learn, and it's always fun to watch.

In one delightful clip, a Gen X dad (@dakydd07) dares his Gen Z son to put a cassette into a boombox. That's it. That's the entire assignment. With the chyron reading "When Gen Z user meets Gen X device, part 1" we see a young man sitting on his bed holding the box like he was an alien discovering a puppy. We hear the voice of his dad say, "I had him plug in the cord, which that took about a minute to find out where it goes."

The young man continues picking at the boombox. The dad leans over and says, "Now the main objective is to take this cassette…" He then shows an old cassette tape that he explains is an "old mixtape" he made years back. "Put it in. Rewind it to the beginning and press play."

One problem though. The Gen Z-er can't get the door of the boombox open. "You're supposed to press down. I know it's supposed to go in there," he complains. The dad tries to help. "You're sure there's not a button? On top?" This is helpful because lo and behold, he finds it.

The father isn't all that impressed. "Yes. The one that says eject." The kid tries a number of ways to put the tape in, with the dad jokingly saying "Nope" on repeat. "Now he's really in a pickle." He keeps trying… and trying… and his efforts can't be dismissed. The dad finally offers this bit of advice: "Listen to the force."

In part two—and, yes, there is a part two though it's mistakenly also labeled part one in the clip—we have liftoff. Well, kind of. He gets the tape in, but unfortunately we don't get to hear the mixtape because it doesn't play. (This may or may not have been user error.)

Same premise: now a mom tries to get her 15-year-old daughter to get a cassette tape (of course, it's the pop singer Tiffany) into a boombox of her own. She, at first, adorably tries to stick the whole tape, while still in the cassette box, into the contraption. She finally gets it open, but gets frustrated that once she puts it in, it won't close. She eventually turns it upside down and after a little back-and-forth with her parents' help—voila!


@momma_t_75

She just doesnt know how cool it was to have your cassette tapes and boombox!! The 80’s Rocked!!!! #80smusic #80sbaby #80saesthetic #80sthrowback #boomboxclassic #cassettetape #throwback #nostalgia #debbiegibson #tiffany #rockstar #millennial #teensbelike #tiktok #fyp

She is unimpressed with the results, and when asked, "So, would you want to live in the 80s?" she gives a resounding "No" and says she prefers Spotify.

The truth is some Gen Z-ers, especially on the younger side, are drawn to what they call "dumb tech." In a piece for Ad Age, via Hello Superheroes, it's described as "simpler devices that lack the 'smart' features we’re used to today. But calling it dumb isn’t quite right—it’s the tech of the past, the foundations of today’s advancements. These are the gadgets we grew up with, and that’s where the nostalgic appeal comes in."

 boombox, cassette tape, gen x, 80s tech, old tech An old boombox sits on a table.  Photo by Dave Weatherall on Unsplash  

 

Quoting one of the Gen Z-ers they spoke with: "We want to go back to simpler times. Flip phones, devices without Instagram or constant notifications. It’s a countertrend. We've been told we’re being brainwashed by social media, that we’re addicted. So, getting a flip phone is a way to prove we’re not. It’s about showing we can live without it, that we’re still functional members of society.”

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Culture

16 nostalgic sounds only people over 30 will recognize

Most of these will never be heard in their natural habitat again.

Canva Photos & Jason Toney/Flickr

The sound of a dot matrix printer, or the pop of a Snapple bottle — that's what the world used to sound like.

Is it just me or has the world become increasingly silent? Don't get me wrong, we're certainly bombarded by things fighting for our attention—ads, content distributed by algorithms, notifications. But it's mostly visual noise. The more time goes on, the more it feels like there are fewer and fewer real, tactile sounds in our life.

Even the relatively iconic "iPhone ringtone" is a thing of the past, as is the text message "ping." A majority of people keep their phones on silent, even going so far as to watch YouTube and social media videos without sound. After all, auto-captions are far less intrusive when out and about.

One social media user, perhaps nostalgic for when real-life objects actually made noise, had a question for people over 30: What’s a sound from your childhood that younger generations will never hear?

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

The answers in the Reddit thread did not disappoint. Collectively, they're a warm and welcoming stroll down memory lane, and a reminder that the world used to sound, well, really nice.

1. A floppy disk being read

Honestly everything about old computers was so manual and tactile. This is what booting up a computer and reading a few files sounded like back in the day. You can practically feel the vibrations running down your spine in the best way!

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

2. The clink of a metal seat belt buckle

Buckling yourself into the car used to sound so much better when the entire buckle was made of metal and not plastic. The satisfying "cachunk" really made you feel safe and protected.

You just had to watch yourself if your car had been sitting in the hot sun for a while, or you could seriously burn your leg. But that's also why the 80s and 90s invented car window shades that looked like a big pair of sunglasses.

3. Cassette tapes and VHS tapes rewinding

It might shock younger people to hear it, but that Netflix button "Play From Beginning" didn't always exist. No, media used to be linear, and when you were done watching, you had to rewind it back to the beginning for next time (or for the next person... "Be Kind, Rewind" was the saying).

The sound was incredibly soothing.

4. The sound on AIM when your friends logged on or off

To me, this is the sound that encapsulates middle school. It was mine and my friends' first taste of freedom; the freedom to communicate with each other outside of school without our parents facilitating it. We'd spend hours on AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) and the sounds of a buddy logging in, logging out, and sending a message are forever etched in my brain.


- YouTubewww.youtube.com

5. The sound of the phone operator

Hey, remember when you picked up the phone and waited too long to dial? Or dialed the wrong number? I bet you can recite the script from memory if you're over 30:

"If you'd like to make a call, please hang up and try again."

6. The sound of hanging up a phone

Just trust me, kids. Pressing the little red "End Call" button on your phone has nothing on physically hanging up a telephone receiver the size of a large hot dog.

If you were pissed at someone you could even slam it down to end the call with incredible emphasis. It was powerful. It was awesome. You really had to be there.

7. The Windows start-up sound

In the 90s and 00s, you were either a PC family or a Mac family. If you were a PC family, you probably walked into your family's "computer room" thousands of times only to hear this:


- YouTubewww.youtube.com

8. A dial tone and the busy signal

On some modern phones and carriers, you may still hear some form of "busy" signal when you call someone who's talking on the other line. Chances are, though, the phone will just ring and eventually you'll be sent to voicemail.

The dial tone, though, is truly special. Any time you picked up a phone, you'd hear this sort of plain, inoffensive, steady tone that indicated your phone line was active and waiting for you to punch in a number.

Anyone who's old enough to have used a landline phones knows these sounds intimately.

9. The dial-up Internet sound

Similarly, you have to be of a certain age to remember "logging on" to the Internet. You'd have a small machine called a modem that, instead of being constantly connected, had to quite literally dial a number to connect to the web.

For some reason, they all made the same hideous screeching noise while trying to connect. It's called a "handshake" and it's basically the sound of your modem exchanging data with a server somewhere. Why our poor ears had to hear it is a mystery, but after all these years, the horrid sound has become nostalgic and quite pleasing.

10. The "KASHUNK!" of turning off an old, chunky TV

Older televisions, too, were not dainty little things. They were filled with tubes, lead, circuit boards, and gasses. They made real noises, both when you pressed in their gigantic Power buttons (or better yet, turned a knob).

But the innards also made very satisfying sounds when they turned on and off. Some models had a very tangible pop that felt so much better than modern TVs which just silently go dark.

11. The sound of a quarter in a juke box

Or an arcade game. Or a vending machine.

Sliding a metal coin into a slot and hearing it fall down and activate the mechanical mechanisms inside a machine was so outrageously satisfying. And you knew right away when it didn't sound right and the machine was broken! Today, most machines are coinless. Some still accept bills, while others take credit cards or "game cards" that are loaded with money. We really lost something when we got rid of quarter pinball machines, I'm telling you.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

12. The popping of paper caps in a cap gun

It might be for the best that toy guns are no longer in vogue, but the sound (and smells...mmm, the smells) of paper caps popping off from a cap gun just take you right back to childhood.

I can still remember exactly what the little cap rolls looked like, the way they felt in my hands, and what they sounded like as those little puffs of white smoke drizzled out of the end of the toy. Pure bliss.

13. AOL: "You've got mail!"

It's not just a rom-com! No, "You've Got Mail" was truly a way of life for early Internet users getting by on free AOL trial CDs.

Can you imagine your computer literally saying "You've got mail!" every single time you get an email nowadays? It would simply be unmanageable. But back in the 90s, getting an email was an exciting event, and AOL helped commemorate it with this iconic sound effect.

14. A dot matrix printer

Laser printers really ruined everything. This is what real work is supposed to sound like:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

15. The "Cha-Ching" of an old cash register

Cash registers are still around, obviously, but they're computer-driven with fancy interfaces, touchscreens, and automatic drawers.

You haven't really lived until you've experienced what a real cash register sounds like. When you hit that drawer button and the mechanical springs pop the drawer open, my goodness does it sound nice. It sounds like commerce is supposed to sound. In fact, "Cha-Ching!" is so iconic that we all associate it with money even though most young people have never heard the sound in its truest form.

16. The popping sound of opening a fresh Snapple

Snapple may still exist in some stores, but there was a time when it was one of the most popular beverages on the planet. And it had to be in no small part because of the satisfying "pop" you'd hear when you twisted open one of their famous glass bottles.

As a little bonus, you were then treated to a Snapple Fact under the lid for your effort. Now that's refreshing.

The good news for millennials and Gen Xers is that tactile, mechanical buttons and interfaces may be making a small comeback.

Engineers and designers have recently realized they've gone too far in some cases—people truly don't want everything to be a touchscreen. In cars, for example, customers find computer interfaces annoying and distracting, much preferring a real knob to change the temperature or a button to turn on their hazard lights.

We like a little physical and audible feedback in our lives. It's why our phone sometimes buzzes or pulses every so slightly when we press a button. But those little vibrations just aren't the same as a ratcheting dial, a thick heavy button that snaps in and out of place, or even the iconic trilling noise of collecting coins in Mario. Call it pure nostalgia if you want, but some things were actually better when they made noise, and this list is the proof.

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Schools

Behold! The authentic recipe for '80s school cafeteria rectangle pizza.

Now you can make the rubbery but nostalgic pizza from the comfort of your own home.

Canva Photos & U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service

Everyone who came of age in the 80s and 90s remembers rectangle pizza.

If you grew up in the '80s or '90s, I'd like you to close your eyes. In your mind, you are now back in your elementary school cafeteria. You're walking past all the tables full of other kids, trying not to trip or pee your pants or do anything else embarrassing that will submarine your reputation for the next decade. You approach the line and grab a tray, and the kindly lunch lady takes it from you and serves you up a heaping portion of today's main course. What is it?

If you're like most millennials and Gen Xers, you're almost certainly thinking of that very specific rectangular, and more than a bit rubbery, pizza. Doesn't matter if you grew up in Los Angeles, Dallas, Tampa Bay, Boston, or anywhere in between. It doesn't even matter if your parents packed your lunch. You remember eating this pizza almost every single day of your youth. And while the local Papa Johns or boutique Neapolitan pizzeria is fine, deep inside, you yearn for the square. It's the one that taught you how to love pizza. Was it good? It doesn't matter. It made you who you are today.

'80s and '90s kids, you're in luck. Clever Internet sleuths have uncovered the original recipe for the school cafeteria pizza of yesteryear.

pizza, school, school lunch, food, recipes, youth, 80s, 90s, nostalgia, 80s nostalgia, 90s nostalgiaThe only thing more influential to the public image of pizza than school lunch were the Ninja Turtles.Giphy

The Internet Archive has been quietly collecting documents for years now from a little government agency called the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service division.

They have pretty boring names, like this one from 1988 called "Quantity recipes for school food service." But inside these hand-scanned handbooks is an absolute treasure trove, and that's where some fine citizen initially discovered the Holy Grail: Pizza with Cheese Topping.

Behold. If you've ever wanted to recapture the whimsy and imagination of being a child in the '80s, you can now do it in your very own kitchen. Here's the exact recipe.

pizza, school, school lunch, food, recipes, youth, '80s, '90s, nostalgia,' 80s nostalgia, '90s nostalgiaI'm convinced it was the marjoram that captured our young hearts all those years ago.U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service

After all these years, we now know that the secret "sauce," figuratively and literally, is: dehydrated onions, garlic powder, black pepper, tomato paste, water, basil, oregano, marjoram, and thyme.

I'm no Gordon Ramsay, but the key ingredient to me seems to be marjoram. That's an herb from the mint family that's not exactly a staple in most people's kitchens at home. It must be what gave school pizza the little extra kick that helped it claw its way deep into our hearts and brains for decades.

Of course, to get the full effect of Pizza With Cheese Topping, you'd have to find a way to source the same ingredients. And obviously, different school districts across the country may have cooked up their own versions of this basic formula.

But this is a pretty spot-on approximation.

pizza, school, school lunch, food, recipes, youth, 80s, 90s, nostalgia, 80s nostalgia, 90s nostalgiaThere are a lot of memes and jokes about how school lunch in the 90s wasn't very healthy, but these stats aren't too bad.U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service

If you're intrigued but don't actually feel like going through this process yourself, don't worry. Someone on Reddit went through all the steps recently and posted their results. A quick reminder for anyone bold enough to try this at home: The recipe above created five full-size sheet pans of pizza, or 100 slices. It uses three pounds of tomato paste and a whopping 12 pounds of mozzarella cheese.

When properly scaled, the final product looks something like this. Cowabunga, dude!



The handbook from 1988 also includes such coveted recipes as Salisbury Steak, Spaghetti with Meat Sauce, Meatloaf, and Mac and Cheese. Put it all together and you've got pretty much the entire school lunch menu of our youth.

Experts say food is one of the most powerful things on the planet when it comes to memory and nostalgia. Why? Bond University writes, "Food.. engages multiple senses: taste, smell, texture, sight and sound."

Smell, in particular, is extremely closely linked to the part of the brain that forms strong, vivid memories. To this day, sometimes I'll smell something that reminds me of middle school, and I don't know why—maybe it was the body spray someone wore or the subtle smell of the school. Food is just like that, but even more potent. It also brings with it other memories of friendship, love, family, or even negative memories of being bullied or feeling left out.

All kidding aside, your memories of school lunch (and rectangular cheese pizza in particular) may not be all sunshine and roses. But I'd be willing to bet they are some of the most vivid and stubborn memories you have. It could be fun to spend an evening recreating the smells, textures, and tastes to see what kind of other memories it stirs up.

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People born before 1990 are sharing their now-useless (but 100% nostalgic) skills

For instance, recording songs on tape from the radio while yelling at the DJ to shut up during the intro.

Canva, Veronica Lorine on Unsplash, Julentto Photography on Unsplash

From holding the phone on your shoulder to folding a map to knowing what "cornflower" and "goldenrod" are, here are pre-Y2K skills at their finest.

Hey there, millennials! Welcome to the "Holy crapoly, I have real-life memories from 20 years ago!" club. It's a strangely disorienting milestone to reach when you find yourself starting sentences with, "When I was young…" or, "Back in my day…" isn't it? Your Gen X elders have been here for a while, but even we have moments of incredulously calculating how the heck we've arrived at this place. Time is a tricky little jokester, isn't it?

To highlight how much has changed for middle-aged folks since we were young, a user on Reddit asked people born before 1990 what useless skills they possess that nobody has a need for anymore. It's both a hilarious trip down memory lane and a time capsule of life pre-Y2K. (Do kids these days even know what Y2K was? Gracious.)

y2k, 90s, millennials, outdated skills, nostalgiaY2Kcore.Image via Canva.

If you're down for some good-old-days nostalgia, check out people's responses:

Making brown paper bag book covers

"I can cover a textbook with a brown paper bag." — sourwaterbug

Oh goodness yes. And there was always that one girl in class who had the art of the brown paper bag book cover perfected. (They're probably Pinterest influencers now.)


- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Folding a map—and knowing where to find a map

"I can re-fold a map correctly." —JungleZac

"Man remember actually using maps…I had an atlas with the road system in my car to navigate other states during road trips. Crazy." – jagua_haku

How did we ever figure out how to get anywhere before GPS and Google Maps? (Two-inch thick road atlases in our car and stopping at gas stations to buy local maps while traveling, that's how. Positively primitive.)

Memorizing phone numbers and answering the house phone

For real, though, kids these days don't even know.

"Remembering phone numbers." — greatmilliondog

"Not only that, having to speak to your friend's parents for a few minutes when you call their house." — Logical_Area_5552

"How to take a message when the person they want to talk to isn't there." — Amoori_A_Splooge

How about dialing on a rotary phone, using a pay phone and making (or taking) a collect call?

nostalgia, 90s, millennials, rotary phone, phone callPhone Call Vintage GIF by US National ArchivesGiphy

The skillful phone shoulder hold

"Using your shoulder to hold a telephone up to your ear while doing multiple other things at once. Now, the phones are so damned small I drop them." – Regular_Sample_5197

"100 ft phone cords 🤣" – mrch1ck3nn

"I got in sooooo much trouble for stretching the phone cord into the bathroom for some privacy. Accidentally clotheslined Grandma 😬 She laughed about it but Mom was pissed!" – AffectionateBite3827

Knowing the exact name of every Crayola color because we only had so many

"I know what the color “goldenrod” is." — ImAmazedBaybee

"That and burnt sienna were the crayolas of choice." — Signiference

"Cornflower would like a word." — cps12345

The art of the mixed tape—especially from the radio

I don't think kids these days fully grasp how revolutionary Spotify and the like are for those of us who spent hours in front of the radio with our cassette tape recorder queued up at just the right spot waiting for the song we wanted to record to come on. And they will never, ever know the frustration of the DJ yapping right up until the lyrics start.

mixtape, 90s, tape, cassette, nostalgiaMade you a mixtape. Image via Canva.

"Record to tape from the radio. Trying to make sure to not get the DJ/presenter talking sh-t or an ad" – Gankstajam

"'Shut up, shut up, shut up!!! I'm trying to record my song!!!'" – tearsonurcheek

"Haha yeah and trying to tell others so they don't make random noise or knock on the door.

How about making cassette-based mix tapes, trying to figure out to the second, how many and which types of songs in which order, that would still fit perfectly on the length of tape per side.

People who make digital recordings do not have to worry about 'running out of tape.'

Having the first side be tempting enough that they'd flip the other side to continue listening. That's before continual playback machines existed. Had to flip the cassette." – CrunchyTeaTime

And there were many more, from rewinding a cassette tape with a pencil to writing in cursive to tearing the sides off of printer paper without tearing the paper itself. (Oh and, of course, the ability to count out change and understand what you're supposed to do if something costs $9.91 and someone hands you $10.01.)

Gotta love it when the things that used to be totally normal now sound like historic artifacts found in a museum. Kind of makes you wonder what normal things from today we'll be laughing about in another 20 or 30 years.

This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.

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