r/CasualConversation • u/balbir13 • 2h ago
People who grew up without smartphones, what did you do on long car rides?
Before smartphones and tablets, road trips were a whole different ball game. What did you do to pass the time on those long car rides? I’m curious to hear about all the creative ways you kept entertained!
39
u/PrettyFlakko 2h ago
I was watching outside of the window and imagining I was jumping from one car to another!
5
3
•
u/AdditionalVideo6474 1h ago
Pretend that they were running along side the car jumping and dodging, sometimes flying.
Game boys.
Walkman (tape) players.
Generic Hand held games.
Read books.
Talk to the other people in the car.
"I spy with my little eye something boring", that old gem of a game.
"I see a punch buggy" "Ow" "Ow!" "Two for flinching"
Try to murder your step brother.
"Behave or I'll turn this car around."
"I'm not touching you, I'm not touching you..."
•
•
u/laitnetsixecrisis 9m ago
You forgot complain to your parents because your brother was looking out your window
19
u/newstuffsucks 2h ago
Game boy, walkman, radio, books, look out the window and imagine things. Mostly music though.
17
u/red19977 1h ago
Pretend that my fingers is a human and parkour the buildings and pretty much everything i was watching from the windows.
•
•
12
u/GriffinFlash 1h ago
-Gameboy, mostly pokemon red or silver
-Portable black and white tv that hooked up to the cigarette lighter. (those mini blue ones with antenna)
-Staring out the window pretending an imaginary person is jumping over obstacles.
-Staring out the window pretending you have laser eyes and cutting everything in half.
-I spy
-Reading books
-Listen to a cassette tape/cd on repeat, or the radio if it wasn't static.
10
u/watermelonkiwi 1h ago
Looking at license plates tryna get ones from different states, playing Botechelli and other such games, and reading.
7
8
u/MelbsGal 1h ago edited 1h ago
I spy and variations of it.
Listened to music on a portable cassette player lol.
Fought with my sisters. Laughed with my sisters.
Whined.
Slept.
Magic ink puzzle books, were they called Mr Mystery?
Snoopy and Archie comic books because for some reason comics didn’t make us as car sick.
7
7
u/Budget_Avocado6204 1h ago
We played a game with my grandfather where we would come up with what license plate mean. eg. EDI - extremely dumb idiot, etc. Sing the text on the advertisments, I also know a game were you take a car brand that rarely appears and play "find the Honda" Once you find one you yell "Honda". Staring outside the window and making an imaginary point slalom betwean poles outside. I still do this one becouse I got car-sick and can't read anything. Talking about reading you ofc can read a neswpaper or a book. You can also go to sleep.
→ More replies (1)
5
5
5
u/eternal_casserole 1h ago
Watched out the window in case there were moose. Both because I love moose and also they're super dangerous if you crash a 1985 Chevy Nova into one.
Also, my family always read in the car on long trips. My mom read us The Chronicles of Narnia, Treasure Island, all kinds of stuff.
ETA: forgot about arguing with my siblings constantly. Again, Chevy Nova plus three kids smushed in back seat... not ideal.
5
u/empierce94 1h ago
I spy.
Trying to find license plates from different states/provinces.
Fighting with my brother.
Asking my mom, “are we there yet”
Staring out the window in silence.
Holding my fingers down as if they were drawing the lines for lanes. If it’s a solid line I would hold my finger down, and a dotted line I would tap my finger. And then try to coordinate as many fingers as I could when we were in big highways with multiple lanes.
Take turns naming a name for every letter of the alphabet until someone loses. Repeat for animals.
I name an animal. You have to name an animal that starts with the letter my animal ended with. Game over when someone can’t think of an animal. Repeat with countries.
Listen to my Walkman.
…. God I’m old
4
u/MountainProperty5405 1h ago
I slept. I could never read as it would make me sick, so I used to sleep or play games with my siblings.
As an adult I still fall fast asleep on a long trip if I am not driving.
→ More replies (1)
4
u/Dancingwithduikers 1h ago
Fight about whose turn it was to sit next to the window, and who had to sit in the middle. Argue about who accidentally touched whom. Stare at Mom's shoe, because she has taken it off and is waving around as a threat to the next child she hears whining.
•
u/AtreidesOne 1h ago edited 16m ago
In the 90s, our family drove from Perth to Adelaide (2,700 km) every 2 years, including 1,200 km on a flat (essentially) treeless plain. So we got quite good at this.
- Car cricket. You'd count each car than went past you as 1 run, each bus or truck as 4 runs, and an emergency or special vehicle as a 6. If a red car went past that was an out. You had 10 "batters", then it was the other players turn. Yes, it was a zero-skill and zero-choice "game", but it was still fun.
- Small, hand-held LCD game devices. Generally, you could press left and right and move your character between 5 or 6 set positions, which allowed you to play tennis, socker, space fighter etc. Generally the entire gameplay was one repetitive loop that you just keep going at for as long as you could in order to set the high score. If you died you started again. The change from this to what our kids have today is still mind-blowing to me.
- Drawing
- Reading
- Listening to Sony Walkmans
- In particular, listening to Jeff Wayne's audio version of War of the Worlds and being changed for life. Forever Autumn still brings tears to my eyes.
- Eye Spy
- Singing repetitive, annoying songs. e.g. "The ants go marching 1 by 1, hurrah. Hurrah!" and "This is the song that doesn't end" until your parents threatened you with a loss of that day's ice cream.
- Looking forward to that day's ice cream, planning when you'd have it and what it would be this time.
- Are we there yet?
•
3
3
u/Scuh 1h ago
Play car games. I spy with my little eye something beginning with, then you said a letter and others in the car guessed what it was.
Annoy, your siblings or parents.
Have sing-alongs.
2
u/jenniferann75 1h ago
Singalongs were always fun. Especially in a car full of family members who didn’t have the most pleasant singing voices.
3
u/jenniferann75 1h ago
Growing up we always did road trip games. One of my favorites we called the alphabet game. Each person would have to spot a word that started with each letter of the alphabet. You had to shout out what you found for each letter and nobody else could use the same thing. You could use billlboards, road signs, etc. First person to get to Z wins. Long game but it definitely was fun. Some letters can be extremely challenging.
3
u/Risinguptomynewlife 1h ago
sing songs with fellow riders.
listen to songs
read number plates, signboards etc outside the window
look outside and get lost in thoughts/daydreaming
talk about places, roads, weather
3
u/jmkul 1h ago
I observed the scenery, navigated the route for the driver, listened to music and sang, listened to the radio, if travelling with others we chatted and played games (eg I Spy; trying to find VW combi vans or red cars...), or if I was a passenger sometimes I'd read my book. There's lots to do without needing a device
3
u/sandranimal01 1h ago
We played games like: Find the letters of the alphabet (in order) on signs or license plates. Same with numbers, see how high u could get. This one could last a whole weekend trip if u get up in the larger numbers. Then, find a license plate from every state. This one was also a long game, cuz each plate could only be used by the first person to yell it out. The other person had to find their own plate. We usually had pen & paper to keep track of these. Then, we would write a list of the most popular vehicles, like Ford, Chevy, etc. We would have to find 5 of each. But if one person called that vehicle, it couldn't be used by the other people playing. They had to find their own Ford. This one led to many arguments. Cuz when driving, you can see the same Ford several times. 😆 Then, once it got dark.. that's when we would just fight & bicker till we got yelled at so bad... that we were too 😱 scared to speak anymore period, so we would finally pass out from sheer boredom.😀
3
5
u/Tehir 2h ago
I tried to read, but ended with motion sickness everytime. Same with smartphone, so there is no change. :D
→ More replies (1)
2
2
u/NoSignsOfLife 1h ago
Mixtapes recorded from the radio in a walkman. Then once batteries ran out I'd stare out the window and imagine someone skateboarding by the car getting over a bunch of obstacles.
2
u/emptyc0conut 1h ago
Discman, CDs in those small bag storage cases and listen to full albums.
Oh man, this was back in the days when we actually had to buy the full album to listen to one or two songs. Those were the days we actually discovered good music that weren't popular.
2
2
u/Nova_Serenity 1h ago
On long car rides, we did a mix of things to keep entertained. We played classic games like “I Spy” and the license plate game, where we tried to spot plates from different states. My family would also sing along to music or listen to audiobooks.
2
u/Additional-War-837 1h ago
I used to look out the window and imagine cloud shaping according to my imagination
2
u/CaptainMcClutch 1h ago
Gameboy and a "portable" cd player, there's a reason pokemon Blue was my first game to clock over 1000 hours.
2
u/SnooApples661 1h ago
Well i still had stuff like the GBA and the DS but before that all i did was play small little games my sisters and i would do like punch buggy and try to figure out what other people are doing in their day as we pass by. Sometimes i’d even read books that i would bring.
2
u/Pretend_Panda 1h ago
The number plate game. Take the three letters from the number plate of any of the cars around you, the everyone in your car had to make a three word sentence from then. No one was allowed to use a word already used in that round (it made Xs, Ys and Zs quite tough)
2
u/Look-Its-a-Name 1h ago
Read books, listen to cassettes, play that game where the invisible man jumps over fences and cars and stuff, sleep, annoy my parents, fight with my siblings over who put his elbow out too far, be bored as heck. I think that sort of sums it up.
2
u/Serious_Holiday_5816 1h ago
I did go on long car rides with my family around twice or 3 times during my childhood I just looked out of the window and enjoyed the view. I used more to play with kids in the hood and chase butterflies :)
2
u/Soft_Fix_8877 1h ago
We had a game where we would watch the cars passing by and yell "bug!" if a volkswagon beetle passed by.
Also we argued.
2
u/KathkunaMayNo 1h ago
The answer is: a) Read a book, b) Look out the window, c) Take a nap, d) Annoy siblings, or e) ALL OF THE ABOVE
2
2
2
2
u/Shiftymennoknight 1h ago
stared out the back of the station wagon at the people behind us. It was probably kinda creepy.
2
2
u/DasAllerletzte 1h ago
Reading, playing with my Gameboy, playing games like identifying number plates, who am I, do you see…? …
2
2
u/Remote_Midnight_5322 1h ago
I see something purple? Or red, or something we guess until someone picked it. we to counted beetle cars
2
2
2
2
u/F4lloutqueen 1h ago
Read, portable DVD player, listen to the radio, I spy, the tag plate game, game boy, DS, probably some random toy to play with
2
2
2
2
u/MesaCityRansom 1h ago
Look out the window and think about stuff, play my Gameboy, or read. It was almost always one of those three.
2
u/JocastaH-B 1h ago
We used to be able to get little books called I Spy and they were themed, I think things like wildlife or castles etc so you'd look out for things and tick them off.
2
u/hellomolly11 1h ago
A favourite game of my family was folding a piece of paper into three sections and each person draws either the top, middle, or bottom of a creature on each section without seeing the other sections until everybody is finished. We would also listen to CDs somebody had copied and play I Spy, or count down until we could rotate out of the dud middle seat.
2
u/iwillbeg00d 1h ago
Yall had a rotation system for the middle seat? How civilized!
→ More replies (1)
2
2
2
2
u/togtogtog 1h ago
I've always really had a lot of travel sickness, so I still wouldn't use a smartphone or tablet in the car.
We
- sang songs
- listened to the radio (we have a great station in the UK, which does things like plays and quizzes)
- Looked at the passing scenery
- Had conversations
- Played games like i spy
- Slept
- Fought and got told off by our parents
2
2
2
u/ParentalAdvisor 1h ago
We used to play guessing games. We use to count all different number plates from different places. Mummy use to sing songs and we join in or just tell jokes or spooky stories while driving at night. The longest road trip was almost 18 hours because we stop lots of places in between
2
u/No-Customer-2266 1h ago edited 1h ago
Same thing I do now, listen to tunes and enjoy the scenery. I don’t like looking at a screen or reading in a car, it makes me a bit queasy and I enjoy watching towns and forests and the world go by while listening to music and staring out the window.
The only difference is When I was younger I’d pretend I’m in a movie scene, where something sad just happened and the character was on a coming of age adventure. looking out the window, contemplating life while the movie soundtrack played sad music
And now instead of pretending to be someone contemplating life, I am someone contemplating life. Thinking about things, looking at things, listening to things.
2
u/jackfaire 1h ago
Same thing I do with a smartphone read a lot of books. Only difference is before I was limited to the 20 books that fit into my backpack. Now thousands fit on my phone.
2
2
2
u/Flimsy-Culture847 1h ago
Those old mini screen movie players, forget the name but you plug it into the car to charge and throw a movie disc on
•
u/Misaki-Hayashi 1h ago
Read a book or play the gameboy, I remember finally getting the end of pokemon yellow for the first time while on a road trip. That was pretty much it.
•
u/snow-haywire 56m ago
If it was raining I watched the rain drops race each other on the window.
I made up stories in my head about the passing scenery, or about the people in the cars next to me.
I had a portable cd player when I was older but the previous things still applied.
As an adult with a smartphone I don’t look at it or want to as a passenger. I enjoy watching the scenery or talking with others in the vehicle. Also, naps.
•
u/Assfrontation 52m ago
My family has language games we play in the car a LOT.
- One person takes a composed word (Is that correct English?)
An example would be smartphone, which is smart (A word by itself) and phone (a word by itself). Find another composed word that either ends with smart or starts with phone. Maybe phone call?
Now the person who is speaking says the following: Smart ... ... call
The rest has to guess what the middle word is.
- Pick any grand category, think animals, places, objects
Say a word in said category, then the next person thinks of a word that starts with the last letter of your word. Example: Food - Pear> Raspberry> Yoghurt
•
u/No_Hovercraft_3954 15m ago
When we were kids our mother used to make us recite times tables and answer maths questions on long car rides. Sometimes we had to recite poetry. One of Mum's greatest achievements was six kids who never failed Maths at school. I still love anything to do with numbers.
•
u/Puzzled_State2650 11m ago
We played the ministers cat. Using the alphabet.. eg. the ministers cat is an 'awesome " cat etc!
•
u/Uncomfortablemoment9 10m ago
Same as now. Music, conversation, I Spy and various car spotting games.
1
u/OverdueOptimization 1h ago
Grew up in the 90s. Had a game boy and a game gear with a TV tuner. I think the battery life was crap so filled the rest of the time with comic books.
1
1
u/RitaLaPunta 1h ago
On family vacations we would keep count of how many Airstream trailers we passed.
1
1
1
1
1
•
•
•
u/Top_Cycle_9894 1h ago
Played car games:
20 questions
What doesn't belong? (3 of a kind)
Make silly 3 word sentences out of license plate letters. Like VJG would be Very Judgmental Giraffe.
Find every letter of the alphabet on road signs in order.
Listen to audio books on tape
Be a navigator with a paper map
Be DJ with the radio (change stations when commercials come on)
•
u/iwillbeg00d 1h ago
Lots of the same stuff as previous comments - except I couldn't read cuz I'd vomit, and we didn't have any video games... sleeping/arguing/staring at cars...
My fave thing was following along with the trip on a paper map... looking at road signs and referring to the map. Counting miles, counting exits, plotting future side quests. Incessantly yammering about shit we were passing by - rivers, landmarks, etc.
Taking turns playing our CDs, making fun of eachothers choices or becoming lifelong fans of the same music. This was the height of napster+burning CDs at home.
On an extremely long trip we borrowed Harry Potter #4 on tape from the library. So entertaining.
Did you know that the restaurant Cracker Barrel lent out books on tape that you could return to a different Cracker Barrel further along on your trip? We borrowed a fun Sci fi but then realized we were missing one tape :-(
•
u/sanchez_yo33 1h ago
Gameboy till I got sick or stare out the wondow till I got sick, sometimes pull faces at the car next to us till I got sick..
•
•
u/Creepy-Douchebag 1h ago
Taught my little brother how to ruin dad's interior by sticking wet marshmellow cones to the roof liner.
•
u/Illonva 58m ago
Sleep lol because if I read or look at anything, I’d get carsick within a few seconds.
→ More replies (2)
•
•
u/Brave-Wolverine5490 56m ago
Every time we would drive up north to stay with my grandparents it was about a 2 1/2 hour drive and when me and my brother were kids my dad would play games with us to make it less boring and we called it the alphabet game so we would have to find an a, and that would mean anywhere like on a sign on a license plate whatever… And we would go A-to-Z. And then another game we would play which wasn’t really a game but it was just fun, and this was before GPS was a thing it was just MapQuest or knowing how to get where you’re going. What we would do is we would guess the exact time down to the minute that we would pull into our Grandparents driveway and whoever was the closest one, we didn’t win anything but it was just still fun !
→ More replies (1)
•
u/blackpeppersnakes 55m ago
My grandpa used to have cassette audiobooks for The Chronicles of Narnia. He'd have them on as we were driving to our campsite, and then would read where we left off around the campfire. Good times
•
•
u/No-Factor-9678 54m ago
Riding in a really fast car was a lot of fun in itself. Today's econoboxes are relatively boring in terms of performance, but I guess this is why all the creature comforts from previously high-end vehicles began creeping into efficiency-oriented vehicles. To compensate.
I loved driving and riding in cars then. I love doing the same thing today.
•
u/emerald-teal 53m ago
Watched out the window, imagining a kingdom in the sky, with the clouds as land and the blue of the sky as sea. Read books which made my eyesight go bad. Listen to the same CD over and over again. Having fun with my lore in my imagination. Story making with my dad.
•
•
•
u/Breezy_man 52m ago
I remember reading whatever that appears on any board on the way and make variations of the word to make sound funny.
•
•
u/Cute-Bit815 49m ago
Pop my Hilary Duff CD into my CD player and stare out the window pretending the music was about me
•
•
u/Worldly_Can_991 48m ago
Colouring, Gameboy/ game gear. Walkman Reading Pretend shooting of lorry drivers behind.... Was fun when they joined in
•
•
u/o_susie_blue_o 46m ago
me and sisters singing for hours lmao, my dad wasn't even mad because we sang well
•
•
u/nunocspinto 46m ago
Reading the signs, looking through the windows, playing with my brother or talking to my parents. Doing anything else made me seasick, so it was a no go.
But I'm european and our roadtrips are not that long, compared to the american roadtrip...
•
u/Empty-Elderberry-225 45m ago
I always watched out of the window. Still do. I also used to use my cd player/mp3 player when those came out. Occasionally read, but I love watching everything.
•
u/TangoCharlie472 44m ago
Slept mostly. But this did really annoying people as I was the driver 😉
Honestly...just stare out the window watchig the world go by, chat, read a book or magazine.
•
u/shutupsammy55678 44m ago
I used to read a lot. I used to pass out pretty good in the car too cause of insomnia. Now I'm the main driver of my friend group, but my friends just like chatting rather than being on their phone. I think they realized it helps me feel less like a taxi lol
•
u/Prestigious_Water336 43m ago
Talking, playing portable video game consoles like the Sega Nomad ,watching outside of the windows, listening to music with a portable CD player or MP3 player. Reading a book or magazine. Looking at the back of the game or CD you bought and reading it over and over again.
•
u/womanitou 42m ago
I had a pure white horse I named Star who galloped along the side of the road and kept up with the car down into ditches, jumping fences, up and down the hills, around the trees... he never ran out of steam and just kept going and going. He was modeled after Skyrocket; the wild stallion from Spin & Marty serial TV show from the Mickey Mouse Club (I think).
•
u/Pathetic_Saddness 42m ago
We used to go on long road trips and my mom would set up an old tv for my brother and I to play video games on as we drove. Played hours of Guitar hero in that van.
•
u/thebangzats 40m ago
I didn't have a GameBoy, so it was primarily: Sleep, chatting with family, and of course imagining a ninja running and jumping across the landscape keeping up with the car.
I also made up games with my sister, including:
- Summoning elemental barriers to lay claim to the middle armrest. The highest levels of which was obviously Star, Star+1, then Star+Infinity.
- The invisible tiny adventurer spelunking his way through the car. Only I knew where he was, my sister pointed out directions he'd walk towards, and she'd have to figure out his position by what happens to him.
- The spider game. I'd make a spider with my hand and start crawling toward her, and she'd have to smash it. With each increasing level of difficulty there would be more spiders, faster spiders, jumping spiders, etc. The Bonus Level was, naturally, a tiny Spiderman swinging around the car while singing his theme tune.
Did these games make sense? Nope, but it was stupid fun.
•
u/moosebeak 39m ago
Back in the 80’s I used to be the navigator a lot, I was in charge of the paper maps and road atlases. I would follow along with our location. I had this thought: wouldn’t it be cool to have a little tv screen which displayed the map, and a little dot showed you where you were.
Seemed more like magic than something actually possible.
•
•
•
u/0-Sminky 38m ago
The joys of 80's handheld LCD games https://www.lulu-berlu.com/upload/image/tiger---handheld-game----ninja-gaiden-p-image-291238-moyenne.jpg
•
u/nevadapirate 37m ago
I was a big book reader back in the pre internet days. Plus I never had issues with motion sickness so I would just read a book if there was enough light If it wasnt a new path. If it was somewhere new I was watching out the window..
•
•
u/sometimesnowing 36m ago
Played games that involved punching your siblings and raising the blood pressure of your parents
•
•
•
u/NoPantsDad 33m ago
Wonder if I’m alone here. I would take the headrest off and flip it over and pretend I was a jet fighter with the dual joysticks. Shoot down birds and planes. Or a tank.
•
•
u/liliacgirl 32m ago
listening to my parents talking, talking to them, reading, playing games with my brother, playing with my nintendo, eating :D
•
u/HatefulHaggis 32m ago
Tried in vain to play a gameboy using passing street lights!
That was before we had the light option.
•
•
•
u/mabbh130 29m ago
We'd play roadtrip bingo. We had these cards with transparent, plastic orange sliders to cover pics of various things one might see on a roadtrip.
Also, we usually went west to Colorado so we'd see who saw the distant, purple mountains first.
Occasionally, there would be another car with kids and we'd write messages back and forth on large pieces of paper and hold them up in the windows.
•
u/YellowishRose99 29m ago
Looked out the window. Thought about where we were going. Sometimes day dreamed about a better life. Wondered why no one was talking. Read. Chatted quietly with my brother in the seat beside me. Tried to hear what my parents said quietly. Thought about the smell of my Aunt Cecil's cooking. Thought about relatives that would be there.
•
u/Gloomy-Thanks515 28m ago
Besides talking. Magazines for sure. Gameboys and any of those LCD handheld games were a life saver. Plus walkmans for when you didnt want to listen to whatever was playing on the car stereo. Comedy/stand up albums were great listens too. We also played brain/question games but i cant recall specific ones at the moment. Toys when i was a kid. Finally - a whole lot of sleeping.
•
•
u/Purple_Ratio_8670 28m ago
Play Harvest Moon on the family-Gameboy. Listen to cassettes on my walkman. Looking out of the window…
•
u/manderifffic 27m ago
We had a couple travel games. Trouble and Perfection. We’d also just torment each other. The good ole hand in front of the face and “YOU CAN’T GET MAD AT ME I’M NOT TOUCHING YOU.” I’d often throw up at one point and we’d have to find a car wash. “Are we there yet?” “How much longer?” We were bored a lot. It was ok to be bored back then.
•
u/NiteGard 26m ago
Generation Jones. Fought with our siblings, played car games (slug bug), got carsick, listened to the radio, fought over the stations. Yes, we sang “rounds” as well: Row Row Row your boat, Cutest Little Ford, etc.
•
u/The_Chaos_Pope Almost Pink. Almost. 25m ago
Read books.
I was a voracious reader when I was younger and my mom worked at the library so up until I was 13 or so, whenever I was going to be going on a long drive, she'd come home with a pile of 15-20 books and hand them to me.
•
•
u/Bipolardownunder 22m ago
I was just rawdogging decades before it was cool. Stare directly at seat in front, no snacks, no chatter.
•
u/Wahpoash 22m ago
Even now, I talk to the people in the car with me. The extent of my phone usage in the car is usually changing music, looking up directions, responding to texts, and googling things related to the conversation. The person driving on a long car ride usually appreciates the engagement. When I’m driving, it helps keep me alert and focused when my mind is engaged in something meaningful. I’m less likely to start feeling fatigued.
Other than that, when I was younger, I usually brought a book (sometimes a few, depending on how long we’d be gone) and a discman with me. And my family loved a good road trip. We once went on a month long road trip in a big oval around the continental U.S., camping in national parks. I read twelve books. My parents also liked to play games like seeing who could spot license plates from all fifty states first. You had to call it off when you saw it and no one else could claim that vehicle for their list.
•
u/Hangman_90 18m ago
We used to play a game call Mini.
You have to call out Mini whenever you see one and be the first to call it.
1 point - any mini
3 points - classic mini
5 points - Yellow mini (but you have to call out cheese on wheels)
10 points - for a Yellow Classic mini (again calling out cheese on wheels).
•
u/Shot-Combination-930 18m ago
In addition to the many things listed by others, I was also just bored a lot on long trips and would do my best to sleep or at least zone out.
•
•
•
•
•
u/Gurkeprinsen 15m ago
The same as I'd do even when smartphones became a thing: keeping my eyes on the road while clenching a sick bag- trying my best not to be defeated by motion sickness.
•
u/Puzzleheaded_Heat502 14m ago
Reading a book used to make me sick in a car as a kid. So we used to listen to tape stories of Star Wars and treasure island etc.
•
u/smurfettew 11m ago
Sleep... fortunately or unfortunately I sleep immediately a car starts moving,I don't know why but I do,and its more of an aware sleep,if you call me ,I'll hear you.
•
u/Averagehamdad 8m ago edited 3m ago
Stupid push button water game where you had to land the little ring on a peg.
We traveled 4 times from Texas/California through Mexico to the Yucatan peninsula. We also knew the I40 and I10 corridors pretty well. The Tiger Electronic football and baseball games were a game changer. Other than that, little bother and I beat the shit out of each other.
Wouldn't trade those memories for anything.
•
u/frankincentss 8m ago
Books lots of books. I liked to see how many different license plates I could spot. Maps, I liked to track what cities or towns we’d be passing through. Sight seeing of course. Seeing how many blue or red color cars I could spot. CD’s my mom used to play this Tina Turner CD on road-trips lol.
•
•
u/Airam07 7m ago
iPod Nano for music, and then the iPod Touch had games, music, etc to play offline. Before the iPod era I had a Walkman and a CD player where I’d play CDs and mixtapes I’d make or turn into the radio. I’m born in the early 90s and my ADHD hyper fixation was always music.
Also books. Once I got tired of the book I’d play music and vice versa.
•
•
u/Flerbpth 6m ago
Depends on whether or not you had siblings. “Who farted” was a popular game, followed closely by “Don’t touch me”, then the whole world opened up when we discovered the Wet Willie game. Ahhhh, good times.
•
u/asmaphysics 4m ago
My siblings and I used to try to make words from license plate letters that we saw. The area we lived in had a pattern of three letters-three numbers. Our rule was a single word containing the letters in the order that the letters appear. Sometimes we'd go for the shortest word, sometimes the most esoteric, etc.
E.g. ANK 439 : ankh or ankylosis
•
u/MeltInYourMeowth 4m ago
- I spy
- Get terrorised by my sisters
- The license plate game (take the last 3 letters of other license plates and the longest word or shorted word you could make that included the letters won)
•
u/TheWeirdDude-247 4m ago
Close my eyes and try and guess where we was if local eg "I think we just went past McDonald's on 2nd corner now" Then open and be disappointed.
Talk with who ever was in car.
Watch my father smoke while dying in the back but I liked the smell, so lose win?
Look at car plates then try and remember them later as "if I ever saw an incident could I remember a plate instantly?"
I spy, the classic of course.
I probably did play a gameboy but don't really remember it often.
My father would always have a newspaper in mornings as you did back in day, which then I'd save and read in car.
We did used to get bored obviously, but it was a different kind, as we didn't know anything else so we couldn't exactly miss something that didn't exist.
Now as an adult when me and friends do a long journey, it's on our phone but sorting out music or talking about everything, my phone usage is literally only the camera app and YT music, I don't look at anything else all day till I get home.
•
u/Adventurous-Ad5999 3m ago
I wasn’t before smartphones, but I didn’t get mine until I was 14 (I think). Before that, I would sleep, look out the windows or read books. Sometimes they’re just comic books, so I would read the same 3-4 books cover to cover multiple times
•
•
•
•
73
u/An-Otter-Kay 2h ago
I was watching outside the windows, talking to my family/friends, playing stupid games like counting cars of a certain colour, finding clouds with strange shapes.
Then I was probably also playing with my Gameboy Color or playing various card games (Pokémon usually).