It did, it just only got noticed in people who are intellectually disabled. That’s the only kid I knew with autism growing up in the 80s who got diagnosed.

The son of a family friend obviously has Asperger’s, he’s a few years older than me, and his parents did have him tested back then and were told nothing was wrong, but I don’t think they had that knowledge back then. He will ask me for a Coke Zero every ten minutes like clockwork when he comes over, polish it off and ask for another.