# In the dustbin of our cultural history **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 10, 2020, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703 "2020-12-10T00:57:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 28
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/542 "2021-01-26T21:34:36Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > A common issue to miss in historical fiction (I just read a terrible novel, which among other things had a girl of 13 who had completed puberty - in about 500AD Juliet’s 13, isn’t she? That I believe was early for the time, but not unheard of. That’s written a lot later than 500CE, of course; but it’s not going to be a nice even line heading steadily downwards since prehistory. I don’t think there was much change until the 1900’s. – actually, from what I can tell in a very brief bit of research and maybe somebody will correct me, puberty was arriving late in early industrial age Europe, probably due to malnutrition, and was then to some extent returning to normal in the 1900’s; though extremely early puberty (say, 7 and 8 year olds) is probably hormonal exposure. > **[Children aren’t starting puberty younger, medieval skeletons reveal](https://theconversation.com/children-arent-starting-puberty-younger-medieval-skeletons-reveal-91095)** > > The panic about British children reaching puberty younger is unwarranted. Medieval skeletons provide a different answer. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2021, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/543 "2021-01-26T22:09:14Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > > [@Andy\_L](#): > > > > A common issue to miss in historical fiction (I just read a terrible novel, which among other things had a girl of 13 who had completed puberty - in about 500AD > > Juliet’s 13, isn’t she? That I believe was early for the time, but not unheard of. > > That’s written a lot later than 500CE, of course; but it’s not going to be a nice even line heading steadily downwards since prehistory. I don’t think there was much change until the 1900’s. – actually, from what I can tell in a very brief bit of research and maybe somebody will correct me, puberty was arriving late in early industrial age Europe, probably due to malnutrition, and was then to some extent returning to normal in the 1900’s; though extremely early puberty (say, 7 and 8 year olds) is probably hormonal exposure. > > [Children aren’t starting puberty younger, medieval skeletons reveal](https://theconversation.com/children-arent-starting-puberty-younger-medieval-skeletons-reveal-91095) Interesting. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/544 "2021-01-29T00:31:16Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > I’m 34 years old and currently in the process of studying to attain a ham radio license. Is that kosher? 🤪 ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/545 "2021-01-29T00:32:30Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > My mother was “restricted to campus” one weekend at college because she hadn’t shut one of her dresser drawers in her dorm room. Okay, I have to know more about the…mindset, I guess, that led to that punishment. She didn’t close a drawer? Was there contraband in it? Or was it just a matter of white-glove-testing the dorm rooms? Still, one open drawer and she got campused? * * * Came in here to mention party lines in the sense of 1-900 numbers. No, not the ones where you paid ten dollars a minute to talk to a supposed babe; those came later, although they’ve also been phased out, AFAIK. I mean the ones for people just wanting to talk back and forth and keep it G-rated, as we later did in chat rooms\*. What brought those to an end was a specific incident in late '87 or early '88, maybe a year after the fad got started. A teen guy’s parents were going away for the weekend, so he got on one of the lines and said “Party at my house! Come one, come all!” A **lot** of people showed up, not all of them teenagers, not all of them from his town, or county, or state. By the time the parents came home, well, the house was still _standing_… I’m not sure if the guy’s parents sued the party-line company, but it was terrible publicity, so that was the end of that. \*And those have also disappeared. Remember SD AOL Chat? ----------[} c(\_) @@@ ( / ) ( I ) ( \ ) ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/546 "2021-01-29T06:00:23Z")
It was very sad, about 3 years ago, when Mr. Salinqmind asked me to try to find a Mad Magazine. I went to Barnes & Noble magazine section and found one, all right, bought it. But we leafed through it and didn’t recognize or understand 3/4s of it. Like, who WERE these people?? yeah, old and clueless ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/547 "2021-01-29T08:14:47Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Apparently, ham radio is still out there, but like a lot of the other hobbies noted in this thread, it’s become even more niche than it used to be. My ancestor was a ham radio operator. He was a bit technical to start with, and had an illegal radio reciever that he used to listen to news and music on, and radios were made of pieces that you could see, that you just wired together. And long-distance telephone was incredibly expensive, only available at the post & telegraph office, and didn’t work much better than radio anyway. And international travel was difficult and expensive too. So the whole hobby of making a radio\* and contacting people from far away came from a different time. \*later, just buying a radio, but for a long time, making and modifying equipment was part of the hobby. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/548 "2021-01-29T08:18:54Z")
Anyone have a “crystal set” radio? My brother had one, back in the 50s. He used to listen to Alan Freed on it. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/549 "2021-01-29T11:39:39Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Anyone have a “crystal set” radio? My brother had one, back in the 50s. He used to listen to Alan Freed on it Yep, I made it myself and used it to listen to Radio Luxembourge. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/550 "2021-01-29T11:57:28Z")
When Harvey Milk was elected to San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors, he introduced a pooper scooper law not long after. It got him a lot of press early in his career. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/551 "2021-01-29T14:52:13Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > > [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > > > My mother was “restricted to campus” one weekend at college because she hadn’t shut one of her dresser drawers in her dorm room. > > Okay, I have to know more about the…mindset, I guess, that led to that punishment. She didn’t close a drawer? Was there contraband in it? Or was it just a matter of white-glove-testing the dorm rooms? Still, one open drawer and she got campused? As I understand the story (Denarii\_Dame’s husband here), it was a weekly white-glove-type inspection. The dorm mother has to uphold the standards after all. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/552 "2021-01-29T15:44:20Z")
When I worked in a hospital, back in the 90s, I was in the Senior Nurse Manager’s office one day, when she had to field a phone call from an irate parent. The caller’s daughter had just started her nurse training and was a resident in the hospital accommodation. Her father was incensed that his 18yo daughter would not be supervised in her free time. There was no curfew and no checks on who she invited back to her room. The fact that at eighteen, she was a fully-fledged adult seemed to have escaped him. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/553 "2021-01-29T18:43:32Z")
Yes, it was a “white-glove-testing” type of thing. There was no contraband. (One wonders if the male students were similarly checked and punished.) Mom never left dresser drawers (or cupboard doors) open when I was growing up. She was annoyed when anyone else did, but didn’t punish us (other than a reprimand) for doing so. As I grow older, I find that I am more annoyed when I see an open drawer or door, and close it. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/554 "2021-01-29T18:57:22Z")
A few years ago somebody (probably me) left the microwave door open at my work lunchroom and we had a 5 minute standup the next day because somebody else complained about it. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/555 "2021-01-29T19:22:07Z")
My microwave pet peeve is people who interrupt the cooking cycle and leave some amount of remaining cooking time on the display. I’m in the habit of resetting it when I see this. But I don’t complain and I certainly don’t expect a staff meeting about it. ---
**Author:** ![Cumberdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@Cumberdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cumberdale)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/556 "2021-01-29T19:25:15Z")
Don’t recall seeing it mentioned but ashtrays. They were everywhere, inside and outside stores in restaurants. Even people who didn’t smoke would often have them in their house. It was also a common craft kids would make and take home. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/557 "2021-01-29T19:30:54Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > back in the 90s…The fact that at eighteen, she was a fully-fledged adult seemed to have escaped him. In the 1990’s that’s a weird story. But in the 1960’s–at age 18, you were NOT an adult. Adulthood was legally defined as age 21. (not just for alcohol, like today.) You had to be over 21 to vote, or to sign a contract, such as a lease for an apartment. The law required universities to supervise the students as if the students were children in their care. The legal term is “in loco parentis”–meaning that the university must act “in place of the parents.” > [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > One wonders if the male students were similarly checked and punished. Yes–boys got punished, too. A fascinating way to compare university life from previous generations is to read the instruction handbooks that were printed and given to all students living in the university dormitories.These books listed the rules and regulations that all students had to obey. Most universities had rules like these: There was a Curfew time, when the doors to the dorm were locked and all students must be in their rooms. It was 10 pm for girls, 10:15 pm for boys…(this gave the boy time to walk his date home to her dorm, bid her goodnight at the steps, and then get home to his own dorm before 10:15.) On Saturday nights, curfew was extended till 11:00 and 11:15 pm. And once a year, on the annual campus celebration weekend , with its big football game and special parties…curfew was extended, and both boys and girls were allowed to stay out till midnight!!! The penalty for violating curfew was being grounded. You had to spend the next weekend nights sitting in the study room of the dorm from 7 till 10 pm, located next to the front desk where the dorm mother could keep an eye on you. If you violated curfew a second time, you were grounded for the next two weeks, and a letter was sent home to your parents. Violating curfew a third time was cause for expulsion from the university. These rules were common at all american universities in 1963 and 1964. By 1967–the famous “summer of love” in San Francisco,- a few radical universities had relaxed the rules a bit. By 1969 or 1970, the rules no longer existed. The hippies had won . 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/558 "2021-01-29T19:35:50Z")
Are they still English speaking? When I was stationed in Germany in the 70s, Radio Luxembourg was the best station to listen to, they played all of the latest popular music, and it was in English. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/559 "2021-01-29T19:37:23Z")
They don’t exist in even new cars any more. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/560 "2021-01-29T19:39:35Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > These rules were common at all american universities in 1963 and 1964. By 1967–the famous “summer of love” in San Francisco,- a few radical universities had relaxed the rules a bit. > By 1969 or 1970, the rules no longer existed. Even in 1968, when I was visiting Berkeley prior to my admission there, boys were not allowed in the girls’ dorm, except on the ground floor waiting for their dates. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/561 "2021-01-29T20:36:44Z")
We have a couple-year old Kia, and it has an ashtray and a cigarette lighter (along with lighter-socket power outlet). Apparently the Koreans still smoke enough to make it a standard feature. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703.md?page=27) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703.md?page=29)