-Free range parenting. When I was growing up, we'd play all around the neighborhood and get into all kinds of unsupervised mischief. There was even a drainage tunnel we could crawl into that went under the street and came out in the back yard of the house on the other side. We'd often dare each other to crawl all the way through it. I never could get up the nerve to do it because I was deathly afraid of the dark. Still am to some degree.

Now parents watch their kids like a hawk for fear of the big bad world around them. Apparently, child predators lurk around every dark shadowy corner these days. Letting a child walk around a neighborhood unsupervised in today's world often gets the attention of the police and CPS who come a knocking at your door under the pretense of neglectful parenting.

-Children using whatever they had on hand and their imaginations to play games like "Cops and Robbers" and that sort of thing. Now nearly every child I see has a screen firmly held in front of their face most of the time.

-Cap guns. Remember those old metal toy guns with realistic platic grips and metal bodies and barrels that had a pin you pulled back like a real pistol, and when you pulled the trigger that pin would snap forward and activate a tiny cap with a small amount of real gun powder and a realistic "POP" would happen with smoke and a flash and everything? My grandmother had some leftover from when my dad and his siblings were kids and I'd play with it, even got to use caps with it every once in a while. I don't think they make them much anymore, if at all.

-Growing up and living in the same area all your life. My grandfather was born on a farm, met his wife, my grandmother on that same farm, got married in the nearby town, and they lived as Share Croppers on another person's land for a while. Then, when their family got bigger (they were expecting triplets by then), they moved back onto the same farm Grandpa grew up on, to share with his parents, and eventually bought when his dad died and his mom moved into the nearby town. He and Grandma then raised their kids on it, and one of them, my uncle, stayed on the farm and eventually bought the land great grandpa owned, and now owns most of the land the farm sits on. Grandpa and Grandma still own some land, but most of it was sold to my Uncle and Aunt. Now my grandparents live in the same town my great grandma moved to. In fact, they live in the same apartment building great grandma lived in up until her death at 94 years of age.

Now you rarely see anyone staying where they grew up to live out the remainder of their lives.

-Big families. Back when my dad was growing up, it was customary to have a big family and the kids were all expected to chip in with the farm work. When my grandparents were growing up, it was still a gamble to know if a baby would live to see it's first birthday and beyond. I think Grandma had a brother who died in infancy from some illness or another that in today's world, would have likely been survivable either with vaccines or medical treatment.

-Doctors making house calls. In the past, doctors were called up when someone was sick, and they went to that person's home and treated them there in their bedroom. A lot of illness and things were often taken care of right in your house. Even having a baby was done at home, usually attended to by a midwife or some sort.

-When my dad was growing up, his family didn't exactly have much money to spare, but on the occasion that he and his siblings went to town, Grandma would hand them each 25 cents and tell them to not spend it all in one place. It was more so a suggestion than a demand, not spending it all in one place, but Dad usually would abide by it, spending a little on some candy or something, and saving the rest in his piggy bank. Well, one day, he spent the whole 25 cents on a toy balsa wood airplane that he just had to have, broke the airplane soon after, and felt so guilty for having spent all that money on something on that wound up broken and useless, especially after his mother said to not spend it all in one place.

Now kids constantly demand that their parents give them whatever fancy high tech toy they want, or assume that because they have a driver's licence, that they can drive their parents' car whenever they please, complete with money provided for gas.

-Scrounging around the car for change to buy a tankful of gas at the gas station. My dad has told me he remembers a time when gas was around 10 cents a gallon and you could fill up a tank with the change you found laying in your car. I remember my parents being able to fill up the GMC van we had for around $20-$30 dollars as a kid. Now a days, the price of gas is absurdly expensive. Alternative fuels and electric cars are the way to go now, I suppose.