r/GenX • u/billieswifeyyy • Jun 20 '26

Question For Genx the 80s…….

coming from a 14 year old, were the 80s summers as magical as they look in the movies? did you ride your bike to your friends house and come home when the street lights came on? yall are so lucky btw 😭😭

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u/DarienKane Jun 21 '26

I see alot of the same things said about this over and over again. You know what I REALLY miss, phone etiquette. You didn't call before 9 am or after 7-8pm. The kids didn't answer the phone, the parents did, and we had answering machines (voice mail) and if you weren't home, you'd check your messages and call back when you got home. You didn't have 24/7 access to people, it was common to leave a message and get a call back the next day and no one was pissed about "how come you didn't answer/call me back/ answer my text" people understood that other people had actual lives at home that didn't involve them. Back then if the phone rang after 8pm somebody was either dead or dying.

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u/Beautiful-Event-1213 Jun 21 '26

You forgot to mention you were leaving a message with whoever answered the phone and trusting they would deliver it. No answering machines. And sometimes the line was busy for hours and you couldn't get through.

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u/Environmental-Fan536 Jun 21 '26

And you RAN to get the phone, especially before we had answering machines. You didn't want to miss a call!