Boarding a plane is always awkward, especially if you’re in the later boarding zones. It’s inevitable someone is going to sit in the wrong seat, usually by accident, causing a silly scooching and standing routine. But what happens when someone is in your seat on purpose? Not just any someone, a child whose mother informed them that they were allowed to sit there.
This is what happened to Osaac Summers when he flew with American Airlines recently. Upon boarding his flight he noticed a child sitting in his seat so he continued walking, possibly assuming that was not his seat. Summers is fairly tall, standing at 6′ 2″ which makes sitting in enclosed seats uncomfortable which is why he paid extra for an aisle seat. But since a child was occupying his seat he was prepared to allow the child to stay there while he found a vacant seat.
Summers tells the child’s mother that next time she should ask the person the seat belongs to if they would mind swapping seats.
“I’m like ma’am, I really don’t want to take the seat from you and your child but next time it’ll be the best thing to ask before taking a seat. You know like just ask because I don’t have no problem giving the seat to you if you want to sit by your family but right now you got me standing up, you know in the middle of the plane. Everybody looking at me and I’m just sitting here waiting on a seat or for you to get up and nobody’s doing anything about it,” Summers recalls in his video.
Instead of getting upset, the man says he went to find another seat on the aisle but was told by a flight attendant that he couldn’t sit there. Summers explains to the flight attendant that he’s long and needs to be an aisle seat which is why he picked his original seat. But was then met with the flight attendant telling him that the woman and child boarded the plane first, implying that their boarding order gave them permission to occupy the chair he paid for. When he reminded the attendant that the seats were assigned she then told him he could take his seat back.
Respectfully they should’ve asked him if it was coo first cause he did pay for that seat. ♬ original sound – lalawright2
This is where things go a little off the track. After explaining that he would feel bad for taking the seat the flight attendant allegedly told him that he would be the “bad guy” for sitting in the seat he paid to sit in. It was then that Summers told the attendant that he wanted his seat that he paid for to which the flight attendant responded poorly saying that the now seatless man could be removed from the flight.
The mother who witnessed the interaction did not move her child to the correct seat, instead she allowed her child to stay in Summers’ rightful chair. Eventually another passenger offered the mother their seat so she could sit with her child but not before the woman’s sister told Summers to shut up. Another flight attendant did come to the frustrated man’s aid to attempt to calm the situation prior to him getting his seat back.
Someone uploaded a video of the incident on social media showing Summers responding angrily to someone who was upset he retrieved his seat. Another passenger told the story from her point of view which matched what Summers had already recounted. While passengers on the plane seemed upset that Summers wanted his seat back, people online were solidly on his side.
“So… you paid for the seat They tried to steal it then the flight attendant came and consoled them for NOT being successful in their crime? ok…” one person writes.
“So by the flight attendant logic, if I get on the flight and there’s an open seat in first class, I get it because I was there first,” another says.
“You should report the flight attendants to the airline and demand an apology. You paid for the seat, they can’t just claim it,” someone else chimes in.
One commenter confirms “You weren’t remotely the bad guy here. They were incredibly entitled. They don’t get to use their kid to be rude.”
Another person writes, “Let’s normalize when booking your flight you pick seats for you and your children to sit together. If not do not expect someone to give you their seat. I would’ve told her to rise up like the sun and get out my seat.”
Kids today don’t use words like “lame” to let you know when something’s uncool. No, no, no. Instead, they’ll say, “That’s so cringe.” Or more likely, they’ll type it as a comment on TikTok, because let’s face it, that’s where most conversations happen nowadays.
But you know what? One of the most incredible things about getting older is that you care less and less about what younger folks consider cringey.
Just take it from millennials, who have notoriously been on the receiving end of condemnation from every generation—be it the Gen Xers and baby boomers calling them entitled weaklings, or Gen Zers making fun of their side parts. Now Gen Y is all grown up, baby, and that means we don’t really care what anyone thinks! It also means that in our old age, certain beliefs are bound to just stick, even if they do become the next wave of “get off my lawn!”
Recently, millennials on Reddit were encouraged to “unite globally on these petty issues” by listing the silliest “cringe but correct” practices of their generation that were worth maintaining, no matter how often they’re ridiculed:
“I will forever maintain that using ‘LOL’ for anything that is not actually funny is an essential form of emotional regulation. The LOL isn’t a laugh; it’s a silent scream. It means, ‘I acknowledge this, I’m slightly annoyed, but I am responding with a pleasant, non-threatening digital sigh.’ It is the most valuable punctuation mark we have, perfectly capturing nuanced, passive-aggressive resignation.”
Other millennials were inclined to agree…
“lol is the most dynamic word/acronym that we have added to humanity. Way underrated lol”
“Millennials use ‘lol’ the way they used to use ‘stop’ in telegrams lol”
So is the “Millennial Pause.”
“The Millennial Pause is functionally useful, since it allows the viewer to orient to the video before you start talking. Seriously, how many videos have you had pop up that start talking before your brain says ‘oh, this guy is saying something,’ and you miss the first sentence?”
Millennials are going to wholeheartedly like things, and you can’t stop them.
This might not be a millennial-specific thing, but rather a phenomenon that occurs as you get older and realize that the world is a vast and complex place, where you can almost always find a tribe of similarly impassioned people. Still, we’re claiming it.
“Unabashedly enjoying things and not being paralyzed by fear of being cringe.”
“My Z nieces try to bully me for enjoying things/being earnest, and it doesn’t work. I enjoy doing things I enjoy, and also say/emote what I am thinking/feeling without worrying about if I’m being cool or detached or ironic enough. I survived millennial middle school. You can pry my hard-won, unabashed sense of self from my cold, dead hands.”
“IT’S NICE TO LIKE THINGS! Seriously, surround yourself with people who won’t judge you for authentically liking the things you like. Anyone else doesn’t matter. They’ll at some point. We all did.”
Keep your coquette looks and insert literally any word-core. We don’t need or want it.
“My side part stays.”
(Apparently, side parts are cool again anyway. Further reason to just stick to what feels right—it will become in vogue again eventually.)
“I’ve spent a lifetime cultivating a wardrobe of flannels, jeans, and boots, I ain’t changing now.”
“You can pry my ankle and no-show socks off my cold, dead feet; there’s no way in hell I’m going to go rocking a crew-sock farmer’s tan just because you dumbass kids insist on dressing like my grandpa going golfing.”
“Once Gen Z guys start discovering their leg hair awkwardly disappears at the exact height they pull their tube socks up to they’ll have realized their mistake.”
“Flared leggings aren’t a thing. If they have a flare they aren’t leggings. Yoga pants they are yoga pants and will always be yoga pants.”
“I will never give up comfort camisoles. If I ever have only one layer on, I have been replaced by a pod person.”
Not everything has to be high tech…
Unless we can get teleportation, we can maybe slow things down a bit. media3.giphy.com
“Stating your number when leaving a voicemail. Double points if you do it at the beginning and again at the end.”
“Big decisions and purchases are on big screens. Not my phone. How else am I going to open 50 different tabs for reviews and price comparisons?”
“Until one streaming service has every movie or show made and is readily available at all times, I will continue to collect and keep DVDs/Blu Rays of movies and shows I want to watch.”
“Not everything needs to be smart. I don’t need a smart windshield, smart glasses, a smart watch…I have a phone and a tv. That covers my needs.”
“The most useful tools ever created do not require an internet connection or a battery.”
“Paper menus are the correct way to order food when dining in. I am not scanning a QR code.”
…including cars
Cars don't need to be computers. They can just be cars. media4.giphy.com
“Screens in cars are ugly give me knobs and buttons.”
“They also seem more dangerous! Like, I should be able to feel around. If I have to look then My eyes aren’t on the road!”
“Better yet, give me the same exact layout across all makes/models for things like headlights and wipers. Nothing gets me frazzled like not knowing how to turn on basic safety functions because I had to use our fleet vehicle at work, or borrow someone’s car.”
“Cars peaked in the mid 90s to mid 00s. Now they’re all ginormous, look the same, everything is an SUV with too many screens and sensors and computers to cost a fortune when they break. Power windows were the most technology needed. We used to have fun colors, makers experimented with new and weird body styles. I miss seeing station wagons everywhere.”
“I refuse to buy everything online. Sometimes, you need the in-person store experience, so you can see how stuff actually looks and feels. I don’t want a nice looking but scratchy af blanket or the painting that looked a different color online. I definitely don’t want to wait weeks while I return it and get a refund to order another elsewhere and potentially have the same thing happen again. I just want to go to the store, buy it, and be done with it already.”
“Video rental stores are cool and good. Sure Netflix, Hulu, whatever HBO’s service has been renamed to this week are more convenient but the simple joy of convincing my parents I needed to rent Richie Rich again is peak childhood.”
We WILL be using what we learned in grammar school. Unironically. Thanks so much.
Oxfordu00a0commas areu00a0accurate, true, and correct. media2.giphy.com
“I will murder anyone who comes for my Oxford comma.”
“Idc what the cool kids are doing these days I am using capital letters.”
We still believe in dancing like nobody’s watching
If you don't wave your hands in the air, how will they know you don't care? media4.giphy.com
“I’m not doing that corny, lackadaisical, give them nothing dance that Gen Z does on TikTok to make themselves look like they are cool because they don’t care enough, I’m shaking my ass despite me never really learning how to. I don’t know why Gen Z is so scared of humiliation, but I’m glad that was never us.”
“I’m gonna put my hands in the air when I dance. Especially at a concert. Going to concerts where people’s hands are only in the air when they are holding their phones is crazy to me!!”
Finally, certain nostalgic bits of pop culture will have a forever home in our hearts
Sailor Moon was THE icon of our generation. Period. media4.giphy.com
“The OG Sailor Moon intro had no business being that catchy. It hits different.”
“‘Appointment’ television was more fun. Getting a good cliffhanger and having a week to talk about it with your friends before the next episode and you didn’t have to deal with some jackass who has no life and binged the whole thing on 2x speed the second it was released. Waiting until September, when all the new shows and seasons would premiere. Fewer weird multi-year delays between seasons.”
There you have it. Go forth, millennials, and be your cringiest, most unabashed selves. Because no matter what generation you hail from, you only live once. Or YOLO, as we like to say.
Childhood is such a special, amazing time. Those of us who grew up in the age before the internet have memories that today’s young people will likely never have. Boomer and Gen X childhoods were simpler in many ways, not having access to endless entertainment or the pitfalls of the online world to contend with on a daily basis.
The internet has arguably made human life better in many ways, but it has also fundamentally changed what growing up looks like. Where the older generations had a handful of TV shows at set times on limited channels, younger folks can binge watch streaming shows and YouTube channels 24/7. Boomers used manual typewriters while millennials had laptops. Gen X carried Walkmans while Gen Z carries smartphones.
And that’s just technology. The world has changed in other ways, too, including greater safety awareness that’s changed the way people parent and kids having less access to untouched nature. Change isn’t inherently good or bad, but there are definitely some nostalgic elements of boomer and Gen X upbringings that those older generations wish today’s young people could enjoy.
Here are some top answers to the question, “What is something you grew up with that you wish younger generations to experience?” from people born before 1980 on Reddit.
“The freedom to be unreachable and unaware of what everyone on earth is doing at any given time, meaning … life pre-iphone and pre-social media.”
“Pre CELL phone. Pre pager. (I mean, I know early cell phones were around but virtually no one had them pre-1993 and certainly no one expected or even considered them except high paid business folk).”
“Yes, I came here to say anonymity but being unreachable was so nice.”
“I remember leaving my phone home and not thinking anything of it. Now it’s not even ‘optional’. Phone is firmly a part of the ‘keys, wallet’ checklist before leaving the house.”
“Yes, having people be able to reach out to you 24/7 is not a good thing.”
“Running wild outside in the country for entire day without even considering anything that could go wrong.”
“We used to just run around the woods by my friends house, and had tree forts and rode bikes around to the neighborhood kids houses. No concept of time outside of sunset. I think that might get lost in the shuffle more today.”
“This would be mine as well. Hop on your bike with a friend or two and head out. Maybe to the creek or the woods or the dime store downtown. Just an amazing aimless wandering with no fear of being accosted by anyone. A quick ten cent phone call home to let mom know where you were. Just be home for dinner. Our era had the best childhood ever.”
“This is true. I would wander for miles. But the thing is, looking back I can now see more than a handful of incidents that I was very lucky to escape by the skin of my teeth. I’m talking about hitchhiking or telling my parents I was sleeping over someone’s house, them telling their parents they were sleeping at mine and then staying out all night. Stuff like that. It was fun- good times but when I think of MY kid or grandkids doing the same thing I want to throw up.”
“Wonder. Sometimes we would just wonder about something. Watching a movie with friends. Someone says ‘I wonder if William Holden is still alive?’ Everybody would shrug and say ‘I don’t know’ and you go on with your lives.”
“Something humbling and wonderful about not knowing. Now with so much knowledge literally in our hands, we have this anxious ‘need to know’ everything. And everyone has become a Tik Tok expert.”
“Or allowing mysterious, wondrous stuff exist without explanations that are instantly available to remove the sense of awe about how odd, crazy, wonderful, talented, insane, or whatever our world can be.”
“The world was more of a mystery back then. That has both its upsides and downsides, but I can’t help but feel that some of the wonder has dissipated.”
“Boredom. Boredom breeds creativity. Boredom has been removed from their lives.”
“The skills you gain from the experience of being bored, every now and then. Principally, how you can develop that inner voice, which has been my friend on many occasions and saved my bacon many more. If you always rely on external sources for information or support
you’ll surely get stuck when things go wrong or you have to make a decision quickly.”
“Boredom leads to reading plus learning to play instruments.”
“While I’m happy my kids made friends online the desperation of boredom and creating your own things was really important for me.”
“Boredom. The number of times I whined to my parents I was bored and their answer was just ‘then go find something to do’ led to all kinds of fun.”
“The satisfaction that comes with slamming down a landline phone receiver.”
“Encyclopedias.”
“Paper maps. I’d love to see someone in this day and age successfully use (and fold back to its original form) a paper map.”
“Reading a book instead of playing video games (most useless invention possible). I’m actually old enough to remember no TV in the house and no radio either (my parents read newspapers and magazines instead for their news but it’s a much slower feed and more local).”
“The thrill of buying a vinyl album. I know you can still do that, but it just doesn’t seem the same. Back in the ’60s and ’70s they were absolute TREASURES.”
“Sleeping on sheets that had been dried out on a clothesline in spring. The scent on those sheets was intoxicating.”
“Going on a road trip with your friends to somewhere you’ve never been, navigating your way there with a road atlas, and then exploring it without consulting any online reviews or suggestions from Google Maps.”
“Experience world travel the way it used to be. There was a time when traveling to another country was a big deal and it was adventurous.
Now, we can buy a last minute ticket on a flash sale, read about the destination on the way to the airport, watch Hollywood movies on the plane, rent a car from a familiar brand, stay at a known hotel chain, eat familiar food and use your GPS to guide you around while you chat in real time with your friends.
Travel is still fun but the magic and romance are mostly gone. That feeling of being far away and completely submerged in a strange culture almost doesn’t exist anymore. It’s too easy and homogenized now.”
“So true. Even back in the early 2000s I remember being on a bus in South America with an American 19 year old who was really captivated by the idea that I travelled in the 1970s “before email.” You had to wait two weeks to receive any kind of letter at the General Delivery post office of whatever country you were in. There was so much freedom in that, and a real submersion into the local culture, an ability to let go of your cultural touchstones and become someone new.”
“The old way of traveling meant there was a lot of serendipity happening. You’d head to some town you knew nothing about and get chatting with someone on the bus who would then invite you to stay at their house. They would feed you and show you around, help you navigate whatever you needed to head on your way. A lovely way to meet people and learn about nearby treasures to see that you knew nothing about. Now , everything can be researched and plotted out beforehand. I still travel in an unplanned way, with no agenda, no lodgings figured out, but when I mention it, other people shudder and say their anxiety wouldn’t allow it. Did we not have anxiety in the old days? Yes, we did, but it was all part of taking risks in life.”
There’s a lot that’s better, easier, faster and more convenient about life in the 21st century, but there really was something special about growing up in the pre-internet days, wasn’t there?
Movies and other bits of pop culture can feel like little time machines that whiz us right back to periods we never actually lived in. Of course, these worlds, however well-constructed, offer only a glimpse into what life was like for the people who really lived through them. Even films or songs made in the actual decade only offer a limited snapshot of the time. Certain details are bound to get missed.
It’s probably one of the reasons why past decades are so easily categorized into instantly identifiable aesthetics. Take the 1970s, for instance. We instantly think of disco, bellbottoms, hippies, the “free love” movement in full force, etc. But if you ask people who were actually around in the ‘70s, you’d probably find a lot more than just that.
But never fear, we did that research for you! Thanks to a few educational videos, as well as good old-fashioned Reddit mining, here are some interesting quotes from Redditors and historical tidbits from the “Me Decade” (named for the uptick in individualism and self-help books…see, we’re learning already!)
Things were dirtier
“More litter, more air and water pollution. There were commercials and such to discourage littering, and the EPA got involved with corporate polluters.”
“The cars were stinkier, the ports were in shambles.”
“Ashtrays, ashtrays everywhere.”
“There was a big environmental push to clean up the country. ‘Acid Rain’ was not a drug but a serious environmental problem.”
As much as the ’70s are known for disco, there are other music genres that had a huge impact on culture
“Glam rock, blues rock, funk, disco, new wave and punk rock were all new and competing for our attention.”
“There was Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, and so on. All the classic rock you hear now came from the late 60’s and the 70’s.”
This perhaps especially goes for punk rock. Which, contrary to popular opinion, did not start in the U.K.
It’s easy to forget it was a time of great political turbulence
“I was 18 in 1974 and living in England. I remember it as a time of strikes, demonstrations, and shortages. The rise of Thatcherism saw the steel industry in my hometown decimated and violent demonstrations with miners clashing with police happened just down the road from me. The music was great and punk really caught the feeling of the times.”
“It kind of sucked to be a teenager then. It was post-Vietnam and Watergate, and we were very cynical as a result. The energy crisis loomed large, stagflation gripped a sliding economy, and crime and cities were turning to sh**. The Cold War was a pervasive threat and popular music was at its nadir; post-60’s and pre-1977 and punk.”
“College had anti-war demonstrations. People were getting drafted and sent to Vietnam to die for no reason. I watched them pull my draft lottery number and fortunately, got one in the 300’s.”
“I recall the feeling of ‘everything sucks, especially us.’ The USA was starting to come to grips with its history not as a patriotic parade, but the horror show it was. In the 1977 inaugural of Carter, Paul Simon sang a beautiful song containing the lyric ‘Still, when I think of the road we’re traveling on, I wonder what’s gone wrong – I can’t help it, I wonder . . . what’s gone wrong.’ AT AN INAUGURATION.”
“Hostages in the Iranian embassy.”
Living frugally was a necessity
“Everyone in my middle-class neighborhood lived frugally. My parents had one car and my mom worked nights so they could both commute. I had five pairs of shoes – dress, running, casual, work in the yard and boots. Most kids wore hand me downs – not because it was cool but because there was no money in the budget. We never went out to eat even for special days. Summer was playing in the various back yards and once in a while you got a popsicle from the neighbor. Vacations were camping or trips to relatives. When people scream about inflation today I think you haven’t seen anything. But we were happier…life was simpler and everyone seemed to pull together.”
“Got my driver’s license about the time gas shortages started. Imagine pulling into the station and asking for a dollar’s worth of regular today.”
Things weren’t all low-tech
Sure, there were no iPad kids or Waymos, but the ‘70s saw a ton of technological advancements, including the personal computer. It’s wild to think that Apple technically came out of this time period.
You also had the rise of video game consoles, arcades, VCRs, and VHS tapes.
We know cigarettes were mainstream, but it’s crazy to think about how it affected younger people
“Your mom gave you 2 bucks and a note and sent you to the store for cigarettes.”
“Smoking was allowed on high school campus in smoking areas. Smoking areas were the teachers lounge in the school for teachers only. Also, just outside of two exits for the students. Hold your breath!”
“Most adults and many teens smoked. I was allowed to smoke at home at 15. I was sooooo lucky! A small pack cost 50 cents.”
And just imagine witnessing the cultural juggernaut of Star Wars for the first time
“Younger people have no idea what an impact it had. We had grown up on Star Trek reruns and lots of old, bad science fiction. But Star Wars inspired us like nothing else. It had special effects that had never been seen, and a story that was hopeful and uplifting in a time when everything seemed to be getting worse.”
The bicentennial—you either loved it or hated it. There was no in-between.
For context, the United States Bicentennial was a series of celebrations and observances during the mid-1970s that paid tribute to historical events leading up to the creation of the U.S. as an independent republic. Some events included reenactments of the Boston Tea Party and Paul Revere’s ride, as well the red, white, and blue American Freedom Train, which carried historical artifacts and stopped at 48 contiguous states.
“The bicentennial was the bomb.”
“My siblings and I didn’t love the bicentennial! We were so sick of the ‘bicentennial mattress sale’ etc ads blaring on the tv. My sister and I wrote a song called ‘We Hate the Bicentennial’ that we still sing occasionally.”
“The bicentennial years seemed party-less as far as GOP or DEM – we all were just Americans. Everything was red, white, and blue. There were continuous celebrations, picnics, parties over a two year period. I think it would have made our fore father’s proud, when you think back to that two year period two hundred years prior.”
The sexual revolution was fun…for men and women alike
Imagine it: Birth control and premarital sex are finally normal. Roe v. Wade offered protection for a woman’s right to choose whether or not to become a mother. Even the queer community, while obviously still facing discrimination, began to develop safe havens in places like San Francisco.
“It was still during the sexual revolution where women were not ashamed of openly exploring their sexuality.”
“This was pre-AIDS. The idea of ‘catching herpes’, and this being a serious problem came in around 1980. So there was a short period, more or less from 1950 – 1980, when people thought you could just get rid of STDs with a shot.”
But not everyone was on board
There were plenty of cautionary tales (particularly for women) about the dark side of the sexual revolution. Take, for instance, Looking for Mr. Goodbar, a book and subsequent movie based on the real-life murder of a woman named Roseann Quinn, who was murdered by a man she had a one-night stand with. The killer’s violence was partially stirred by his feelings about his own sexual identity.
Similarly, Cruising is a ‘70s novel that follows an undercover cop looking for a homosexual serial killer in New York City.
You also had conservative activists like Phyllis Schlafly, who vehemently rallied against feminism, abortion, queer rights, and most notably, the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
History is a fascinating thing. The more we learn about it, the more we realize that every era is full of contradictions. Because while life continues to march forward, there will always be a tug-of-war between the past and future.
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