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Millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996, love to reminisce about their childhoods. From long gone phrases heard in the hallways to the sights and smells from grade school, growing up as a kid in 80s and 90s is seriously nostalgic. Without smart phones to look up any and everything, millennials had to get creative (shout-out to mnemonics) to help them remember facts, mathematics and etiquette.

So when Reddit user PickledBih asked millennials, "What random thing did you learn as a kid that you still use as an adult?", they spilled almost 200 replies with some of the most useful and practical tidbits that still stick with them. Even 20+ years later, they are still relevant and useful today.

Here are 22 of the most interesting responses to the question: "What random thing did you learn as a kid that you still use as an adult?"

  1. "I caught myself doing Never Eat Sour Watermelons earlier (mnemonic device for compass directions going clockwise) because it’s freezing tonight in Texas and I was trying to figure out what direction the wind was coming from in relation to my house (and pipes)." – PickledBih

  2. "I have a very specific memory of seeing a peer say to himself 'righty tighty lefty loosey' as he was fixing a bike in elementary school. It was the very first time I ever heard that, and it blew my mind since before then the idea that there might be any kind of a standard for that sort of thing had never crossed my mind." – amsterdam_sniffr

  3. "On my knuckles I count the months:
    - January would be the pointer knuckle.
    - February would be the gap between my middle knuckle and pointer knuckle.
    - March would be the middle finger knuckle.
    - July/August are both the pinkly knuckle.
    - Months that land on the knuckle are 31 days.
    - Months that land between knuckles are 30 days.
    - February is a weird month.
    So October would land on the ring finger knuckle and would have 31 days."     – Ashi4Days

  4. "Tech n9ne lyrics taught me which side of the sink it’s hot- “cause I’m hot like the left sink handle'." – skeletoorr

  5. "Bananas have potassium, burned into my mind because of honey we shrunk ourselves." – Merciless972

    6. Honey We Shrunk OurselvesMagnify Rick Moranis GIFGiphy

  6. "Beautiful. every time I write it out, I have trigger in my head spelling it B-E-A-utiful." – rjwyonch
  7. "BEDMAS and SohCahToh are burned into my brain along with the quadratic formula." –rjwyonch
  8. "Moss grows more on the north side of trees (in the northern hemisphere), helpful for keeping track of direction in the woods." –rjwyonch

  9. "I have to put my Left hand up with an L so I can verify that’s the left when giving directions." – Mission-Degree93

  10. "A pint is a pound the world ‘round. Both are 16oz, yeah, one is to measure volume the other to measure weight but it makes it easy to remember." – f0zzy17

  11. "My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Us Nine [Pizzas] for the planets." – lightning_teacher_11

  12. Kings Play Chess On Flat Grey Squares: Kingdom, Phylum, Order, Family, Genus, Species." – Rascalbean

  13. "Cut towards your buddy not your belly, prevents you from cutting yourself." – Thick_Maximum7808

  14. "We had a woodshop class a few times back in elementary school. In it the shop teacher told us that x is read as 'by' IE a 3 by 4 is written as 3x4. So I took it upon myself to write 'X = by' on my instruction sheet he'd given us. He saw me do this and told the rest of the class to do the same. I was quite proud of myself at the time. Now my brain will revert back to that moment whenever I see a measurement written out." – MorganL420

  15. "I whisper WED NES day every single time I spell it." – ImaginaryFriend123

  16. "The school PrinciPAL is your pal. Principle is the other one." – IH8BART

  17. "🎵Certain as the sun rising in the east🎵 I am lost without these lyrics from Beauty and the Beast." – cameandlurked

    18. Beauty and the Beastbeauty and the beast ballroom GIF by DisneyGiphy

  18. "FACE and All Cows Eat Grass for reading music." – basilobs

  19. "If you make a ring with your thumb and index fingers on both hands, your left hand makes a b and your right a d. B for bread — bread plate at a restaurant is on your left. D for drink - drink at a restaurant is on your right. Sixth grade teacher taught us that — said we’d eventually need it and didn’t want to embarrass ourselves by taking the wrong drink or bread plate. She was right — I STILL use it at important work dinners to make sure I don’t mess it up." – TheGirlInTheApron

  20. "When dealing with car batteries it’s always 'negative is the first off and last on'. I say it every time even though I’ve known it for decades." – SCCRXER

  21. "In one of my early jobs an older lady said '30 days have September - April, June and November' when inquiring about the days in a month and it stuck with me ever since as well." – SCCRXER

  22. "Another from watching the crocodile hunter I think, “if red touches black, friend of jack. If red touches yellow, kill a fellow” talking about a pair of snakes that have alternating color rings." – SCCRXER
80s80s moviescluesdetectivedisneyevidencehoney i shrunk the kidshuntinvestigatelooking for cluesmagnifymagnifyingmagnifying glassmoviemoviesrick moranissearch

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A gay man in Vegas was approached by a 40-year-old stranger asking for advice on raising his son

A gay man in Vegas was approached by a 40-year-old stranger asking for advice on raising his son

Jack Remmington got a surprise he says he’ll never forget. While playing the slots in Las Vegas he and his friend were approached by a middle-aged man they had never met who wanted to know if they were gay. Although it was a relatively safe public space, you never know what might happen in a city fueled by alcohol, sex and gambling.

Source: GIPHY

Instead, the man who approached Remmington wanted to ask some perfectly wholesome advice about communicating with his young son whom he thinks is probably still in the closet. Remmington wrote about the interaction on his Twitter page and the breakdown has quickly gone viral for the best reasons. “Ok I just experienced the nicest exchange with a stranger and think it’ll help to share: I was playing on the Mariah Carey slots in Vegas (naturally) and a friendly circa-mid-40s ish guy sat down to play on the machine next to me,” Remmington wrote.

"I was sitting with @marcoalessifilm, both wearing pink (naturally) and after chatting a little to the guy about Vegas, he nervously asked if he could ask us a question. I knew where this was gonna go as it always does so did a bit of an inner eye roll but indulged him anyway."

"He then asked if we were together so we said no (we’re best friends and he has a fab bf) and he asked if we were gay, so we said yes. He then said he thinks his 13 year old son might be gay and wondered if he could ask us how best for him to navigate that."

"He lit up when talking about his son, and I nearly started crying at how much he clearly loved him. The guy wanted to know how to make his son feel most comfortable about himself whilst not being too overt and glaringly obvious in forcing a conversation about his sexuality."

Source: GIPHY

"This man is SO sweet. From rural Arkansas and said whilst things are so much better now, he still just wants the world to be totally equal for his son. Marco and I said he sounds like he’s doing all the right things and that making his son know he’s loved is the best he can do."

"We both gave a couple of anecdotes from personal experience, largely relating to condoning abstract things when you see them like normalising conversations around gay kisses on TV or calling our family conversations that might shame potential queerness."

"We also mentioned not accidentally policing things so as to shame him - for instance, often out of a sense of protection and love parents can frown on a child’s behaviour or outfit because they’re worried for their safety when on a night out etc."

Source: GIPHY

"But we stressed that if this was their feeling it’s important to vocalise this exactly, rather than leaving the child ruminating over the parent’s intentions and second guessing why they said what they said."

"So in terms of advice to friends or relatives of a potentially queer person, what would fellow queers advise is the best way to make it known they have their love and support without causing an uncomfortable conversation that might force someone to come out before they’re ready?"

You can read the whole thing on Remmington’s Twitter thread, here.

While it’s understandable that he and his friend were apprehensive about being approached, the exchange goes a long way toward showing we should never make too many hard assumptions about people based on their appearances alone.

Even in 2024, not every parent, child or friend has a safe space to educate themselves on LGBTQ issues.

Obviously, it would be ideal if this random guy had a friend, family member, or educator who could give him the advice he was looking for but we have to salute Remmington for being so generous and kind in his response. There’s so much we can learn from each other when we take the time to ask questions -- and listen.

Source: GIPHY

“My first impression was that he seemed nice as he chatted which is more than what tends to happen with people you sit next to in Vegas at the slots. That said, I didn’t expect it to take this turn at all,” Remmington said in an interview with Bored Panda.

“The relationship between him and his son has a 100% future – he was a wonderful and caring man, despite what he said was quite a difficult town to grow up in if you’re at all different. I wish all fathers could be like him.”

This article was originally published five years ago.

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