re: What was it like growing up without a smartphone?

born in early 80s.

unless you had it memorized, you had to look up every number.

you had to look in the paper every day to see what movies were out and what time. same for sports scores.

you left and told your mom where you were going and then when streetlights came on, you went back home.

if you went on vacation, you were most likely rolling into town, finding a la quinta and then staying the night. i don't think that my kids have ever stayed in a hotel where we had to go to the front desk and actually check out. they just know leaving the keycards in the room.

one of the most amazing things to me was our parents navigation. my kids probably don't have a memory of anything but bluetooth telling me where to go. i'm always amazed my dad could drive into DFW (we're from West Texas) and know exactly how to get to wherever we were going.