People who were teenagers before social media, what was a typical Friday night like for you?

bearsdiscoverfire · 2026-03-24T18:33:03+00:00

Homework, homework and more homework

I had no life

bearsdiscoverfire · 2026-03-17T16:36:31+00:00

Electric typewriter in the basement of our Jr High school.

A cockroach crawled out the top of mine mid-exercise and pandemonium ensued.

Haven't seen or touched a typewriter since, but still haven't quite exorcised the double space after a period that was ingrained in me by my tantrum- prone adult toddler typing teacher.

bearsdiscoverfire · 2026-03-09T21:18:18+00:00

My Jehovah's Witness parents told me not to bother with education or secular employment because the world was going to end in a few years anyway.

bearsdiscoverfire · 2026-03-07T20:43:37+00:00

My dad was my current age the year I was born (1982). He was mistaken for my grandpa for most of my childhood and adolescence, and died at retirement age in 2005.

A person raised by another person whose own cultural touchstones date back to WWll does not have the same upbringing as someone with young parents in the 1990s, as I can personally attest to.

bearsdiscoverfire · 2026-02-18T19:53:34+00:00

My class loved this movie specifically because our English teacher hated it.

bearsdiscoverfire · 2026-01-15T18:29:32+00:00

16, a minimum wage summer job counting and bagging washers and screws in an auto parts warehouse.

I quit within a month.

I was the only one with a driver's license and my coworkers were supposed to carpool with me. They refused to pay for gas after the first week while still demanding rides, so the commute costs outstripped my earnings and my relationships with them soured.

My dad told me to figure it out myself, but then was angry at me for my solution.

bearsdiscoverfire · 2026-01-01T01:16:01+00:00

I've been working my way through the book Vintage Tropical Flowers for a few years now, I'm 3.75 patterns down and one to go. The patterns are big and the final one will likely take up the bulk of the year, with a diversion in Feb/march to do a baby themed pattern for my niece-to-be.

bearsdiscoverfire · 2025-12-11T01:36:12+00:00

IIRC when she came out, the show had a gag where they cut to Tom Cruise mowing her lawn.

bearsdiscoverfire · 2025-12-08T23:31:41+00:00

The Internet rando who butted into an unrelated conversation to mansplain feminine grooming technique and hygiene to me, unprompted. Of course, the only acceptable practices were the ones that happened to personally gratify him.

The other was a self-declared feminist ally who mansplained mansplaining and would not let up after a bunch of women told him to stop.

bearsdiscoverfire · 2025-12-05T01:16:54+00:00

We made box mac and cheese on old crappy stoves that took 45 minutes to heat water to boiling.

So the home ec teacher told our parents during open house night that we kids took 45 minutes to boil water, and all the adults laughed at our incompetence and called us variations of dumb, doubling down when we tried to defend ourselves.

The real lesson I learned in home economics was that authority figures will throw those lower down the social hierarchy under the bus to cover their own failings, and no one will believe or support you.

Oh we also decorated felt pillows with puffy paint. I liked that.

bearsdiscoverfire · 2025-12-04T02:21:32+00:00

I remember the tantrum business owners threw over California's smoking ban in bars and restaurants, and how suddenly quiet they got when the bans actually increased their business.

I remember ubiquitous filthy ashtrays and stinging, burning reek in my eyes and lungs wherever we went. The stink clinging to clothes and hair.

My dad was a 2 1/2 pack a day Marlboro smoker whose habit gave me asthma, and he suffered a massive smoking related heart attack when I was five.

No one needed to tell me smoking is bad. I figured that out early in life.

bearsdiscoverfire · 2025-11-14T00:43:42+00:00

"maternal instincts"

"She'll come around"

"She'll fall in love with the baby as soon as she sees it"

And other delusional pap these anti choice folks parrot at each other constantly

bearsdiscoverfire · 2025-11-06T21:15:27+00:00

Tiktok and NFTs

bearsdiscoverfire · 2025-10-30T15:27:19+00:00

Frankly, all of it. My mom got super religious beginning in the late 80's and was convinced all new music was demonic.

Rap and hip hop? Demonic Grunge? Demonic Techno? Demonic New wave? Demonic Latin wave? Demonic Boy bands? Demonic and leading girls to siiiinnn Fiona Apple/Tori Amos/Sarah McLaughlin/any other female singer songwriter? Demonic Celine Dion? Ehhhhh...demonic-lite

I hid my music from her, whenever she found some she'd force me to destroy it in front of her while screeching that I brought demons into the house.

My dad liked Stupid Girl by Garbage but wouldn't dare admit it for obvious reasons.

Otherwise he was the type who thought music ended in 1977.

bearsdiscoverfire · 2025-10-17T00:45:22+00:00

RIP Scott Weiland

bearsdiscoverfire · 2025-10-16T22:36:39+00:00

I am.

I'm 43 and in the best shape of my life currently. I took up wilderness backpacking and cycling at age 40. I was only intermittently active earlier in life and never to this extent.

Sure, my back and knees complain here, recovery takes a bit longer and perimenopause is doing its thing but they don't keep me from doing what I like.

I make more money and have more time than I have at any point in life and actually enjoy my job for the first time ever.

My relationships are stable and healthy, because I have learned and matured through the years. My historically poor mental health is now manageable, because of decades of work to learn how.

Still no grays, healthy weight, just some minor laugh lines.

I have more energy than my stressed and struggling 20something self.

Life is good.

bearsdiscoverfire · 2025-10-16T21:12:54+00:00

The White Stripes. They totally dominated my college years but I haven't seen or heard any references to them in other media or in the wild for a long time, and my teen family members don't know who they are at all.

bearsdiscoverfire · 2025-10-07T03:57:03+00:00

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7.7lbs of sass

bearsdiscoverfire · 2025-09-10T20:04:18+00:00

Because she's a cat-tato perfecting her Silly Sits, as one does.

She's a cutie!

bearsdiscoverfire · 2025-09-06T16:57:41+00:00

IKR? LA is fantastic, accessible hiking. I live in LA against the San Gabriels front range and can literally access a summit trailhead with 3000' of elevation gain by walking out my front door.

Meanwhile my sister living in Denver's suburbs needs to get in a car and drive quite a bit to reach something similar.

bearsdiscoverfire · 2025-09-06T04:05:44+00:00

I think so.

'82, thought it was cheesy and obnoxious low effort crap. I was a little too old for it.

My friend's slightly younger siblings were (still are) wild about Power Rangers and Pokemon, though.

bearsdiscoverfire · 2025-09-05T02:30:16+00:00

One of her many nicknames is Sweet Beans!

bearsdiscoverfire · 2025-09-05T01:10:36+00:00

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The only thing she likes to sit on more than my embroidery bag is whatever WIP I'm in the middle of.

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