# 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:** 39
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/765 "2021-03-03T10:39:11Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > There was a news story recently about a woman in Alaska who was bitten by a bear while she was using the outhouse. The bear was under her. The joke goes: Because she had a little bear behind. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/766 "2021-03-03T11:13:50Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > ❓ A fully plumbed outside toilet? Like in it’s own little room away from your house? They weren’t unknown here in the US. People who grew up all their lives depositing their bodily waste in an outhouse outside of the main residence often thought that peeing and pooping inside the main house where one lived was disgusting, horrible, and probably unsanitary even with those new-fangled “water closet” things. It was down to cultural conditioning. So they plumbed the new toilets in outhouses. From their viewpoint, they were getting the best benefit of the technology. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2021, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/767 "2021-03-03T12:14:37Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > There was a news story recently about a woman in Alaska who was bitten by a bear while she was using the outhouse. The bear was under her. > [@Bonum\_Legatum](#): > > The joke goes: Because she had a little bear behind. I think she just misunderstood when she heard some one tell her “bear down.” ---
**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:** [March 3, 2021, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/768 "2021-03-03T12:18:01Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > People who grew up all their lives depositing their bodily waste in an outhouse outside of the main residence often thought that peeing and pooping inside the main house where one lived was disgusting, horrible, and probably unsanitary even with those new-fangled “water closet” things. It My father-in-law used to tell a story about one of his neighbors who had installed indoor plumbing and removed his outhouse (this would have been in Kansas City, KS). A few years later the neighbor was grilling something outside and called over to Mike that “we used to crap outside and cook in the house, and now we cook outside and crap in the house”. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2021, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/769 "2021-03-04T08:42:47Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > I’d thought the last outhouse disappeared from the USA in 1900, not 1970+ And how about incinerators in every back yard? We used to have them. You don’t see those in Los Angeles any more! ---
**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:** [March 4, 2021, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/770 "2021-03-04T11:14:59Z")
Oh yeah, we used to be able to burn anything, including leaves. And we had an incinerator in the basement. Since the '70s, all that’s illegal. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2021, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/771 "2021-03-04T14:48:59Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > > [@doreen](#): > > > > I am forever amazed when people talk about showers after gym. > > And I’m equally amazed at the people describing how that practice disappeared over barely 20 years. Or was never in place where they grew up. > > Not that either of us is right or wrong, simply that it shows how many different feels this elephant has. > > For all 7 years I spent at my public junior high and public high school, every Monday included bringing your clean gym uniform to school, every Friday involved taking it home to be laundered, and all 5 days included changing 100% of your street clothes for your uniform, then going out to exercise somehow (team sports, swimming, calisthenics, weight room, track running, distance running). Then afterwards getting naked, taking a communal hot shower, and changing back into your street clothes. All done in unisex but otherwise totally public modesty-free surroundings. > > Much like the “regionalisms you didn’t know were regional as a kid” thread, I’d always believed this was always (at least post WWII-ish) and everywhere (at least USA-ish) how it was done. Color me surprised to learn that’s just not so. And especially not nowadays. I was in school in the 60s and we never took showers after gym. Our coach thought it took time away from when we could be getting exercise. We just switched out of our gym uniforms (shorts and t-shirt) when gym was over. Usually washed them every term. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2021, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/772 "2021-03-04T15:26:53Z")
I last had gym class in 1984. And showering was always optional the entire time I had gym. Very few people in the boys’ locker room showered after gym. We just changed our clothes. And the more shy ones just pulled on their pants on over their gym shorts, avoiding getting undressed altogether. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2021, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/773 "2021-03-04T16:01:02Z")
Different experiences all around. I went to California public schools throughout the 60s and early 70s. In Junior High and High School we were required to dress out for PE and shower every day. Gym clothes were supposed to be washed each week. Communal showers were the norm for both males and females. I didn’t know anybody of either sex who refused to shower or change in front of 60 others in a crowded locker room. I switched from PE to Athletics after my sophomore year, but it didn’t make any difference. Even after swim or water polo practice, we all had to shower before getting dressed and going to 1st Period or home for the day, depending. One of the standard hazing activities was to grab a target fresh from the shower and throw them out the door, then block it so they couldn’t get back in. Coach would make the miscreants swim extra miles as “conditioning” but it still happened several times a season. So long as you didn’t finish last in your race you were usually safe. Today that would be bullying and probably sexual assault of some sort. Back then it was teenaged hijinks. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2021, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/774 "2021-03-12T00:27:21Z")
Yep, we had one. Then **SMOG** set in, so everyone had scheduled burn days, staggered. Then we had to stop using them. Then we had to destroy it. Horrible idea. ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2021, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/775 "2021-03-12T01:11:41Z")
My back neighbor put a refrigerator on his patio the other day. I was reminded of being a kid and hearing horror stories of children getting trapped inside abandoned refrigerators. I remember there being public service ads telling people to remove the door if they got rid of one. I guess that’s not a thing anymore since refrigerators are usually taken away when you get a new one and aren’t getting dumped in the wild. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2021, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/776 "2021-03-12T01:18:16Z")
> [@aurora\_maire](#): > > I remember there being public service ads telling people to remove the door if they got rid of one. I guess that’s not a thing anymore since refrigerators are usually taken away when you get a new one and aren’t getting dumped in the wild. It’s still a thing. They aren’t always taken away with a new one. A child playing in an abandoned refrigerator could tilt it over onto the door while inside trapping themselves inside. At least the doors aren’t latched anymore. Any unused refrigerator should have the door removed or be impossible to open. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2021, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/777 "2021-03-12T01:49:19Z")
> [@aurora\_maire](#): > > … and aren’t getting dumped in the wild. Still plenty of fridges and other trash getting tipped into rural culverts. Or at least that was true when I lived near ruralia a few years ago. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2021, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/778 "2021-03-12T19:12:28Z")
My father sold refrigerators and always had several in the backyard of his store to be taken to the dump. He took off the doors, or put in a wedge to keep them from closing. And, yes, the dump took old appliances back them. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2021, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/779 "2021-03-13T20:34:34Z")
Just listening to some Frank Zappa on shuffle when “Wet T-Shirt Night” from the 1979 album _Joe’s Garage_ came up. Which got me thinking… when I was in junior high in the late 70s, lots of the local nightclub/meet markets advertised wet T-shirt nights, frozen banana eating contests, hot-buns-for-the-ladies contests, that sort of thing. But by the time I was 21 and old enough to get into the clubs in the late 80s, those type of promotions had disappeared. Strip clubs are still around, although they now call themselves gentleman’s clubs. But sexual promotions in a mainstream venue appear to be in the dustbin. ---
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2021, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/780 "2021-03-13T21:10:35Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > …sexual promotions in a mainstream venue appear to be in the dustbin. It’s shocking to recollect just how mainstream this sort of thing was. The only time in my life I ever (briefly) saw a strip show was completely by accident. Back around 1980, when I was a student, in the downstairs bar in a pub. They used to have regular bands on a Sunday lunchtime, so a few of us wandered up there to see who was on. Now, this was an era of pub bands with jokey names - _Free Beer_ was one I remember - so the pub would have to put a poster up advertising … you get the idea. We saw a sign that said _Stripper_, though “Very funny”, walked straight in, followed the loud music and found a topless woman in scraps of Nazi uniform waving a whip around.\* I mean, there’s so much cultural dustbin material there I don’t know where to start. j \* - We left. It wasn’t called Politically Correct in those days, but that’s what we were. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2021, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/781 "2021-03-13T21:57:42Z")
> [@Treppenwitz](#): > > It’s shocking to recollect just how mainstream this sort of thing was. Same with commercial/promotional goods as well, maybe? “Naughty postcards” from resort destinations used to be a very routine thing. It was simply taken for granted that if you were visiting a place with a nice beach or scenery or whatever, you would want to have (or to send to your friends back home) a picture of a scantily clad busty and/or fat lady in a suggestive pose, accompanied by a silly pun. And promotional marketing items used to have risque ladies all over them as well. I presume some manufacturers still distribute pin-up calendars to their customers, of the sort that used to be prominently displayed in any mechanic’s or machine room, but I suspect they’re less common than they used to be. (Apparently [the renowned “Snap-On Girls” pinup calendar from the Snap-On Tools company was discontinued some fifteen years ago.)](https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1994/12/26/snap-on-s-girlie-calendar-runs-out-of-time/) ---
**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:** [March 13, 2021, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/782 "2021-03-13T22:27:24Z")
When I drove trucks around the UK back in the 60s, we did not sleep in the truck, but found overnight accommodation. One night I was staying in Halifax, a town in the North of England and went out for a drink with a group of drivers staying at the same place. One member of the group was a young lad around 17 years old learning the ropes. As it was his first night away from home he had to put up with a bit of teasing. The pub we went to had entertainment which followed a fairly set pattern: A comedian who was either on his way up or on his way down; a music group, and a stripper. The stripper was obviously well known locally and we all soon realised that ‘she’ was a drag act. All except the new boy, whose eyes were out on stalks as ‘she’ mimed, danced and shed clothing. The act spotted the lad and played up to him and he, now on his third unaccustomed pint, was easily convinced that he had scored. Someone gave him directions to the dressing room and the rest of us made our way back to the digs. It wasn’t long before the lad came running after us, surprising me with the extent of his vocabulary and very upset with his erstwhile mates. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2021, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/783 "2021-03-13T22:42:09Z")
Heh, I went to my 20th high school reunion and discovered one of my classmates had been on Playboy After Dark. She’d been an “exotic dancer.” I liked her in hs. She had a nice personality and was one of the “theater kids,” but not overly so. She’s also had huge breast implants that overwhelmed her tiny petite form. I felt is was kinda sad. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2021, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703/784 "2021-03-13T22:46:53Z")
> [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](#): > > Which got me thinking… when I was in junior high in the late 70s, lots of the local nightclub/meet markets advertised wet T-shirt nights, frozen banana eating contests, hot-buns-for-the-ladies contests, that sort of thing. But by the time I was 21 and old enough to get into the clubs in the late 80s, those type of promotions had disappeared. Don’t forget mud wrestling. It was popular for a while, as the movie _Stripes_ indicated. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703.md?page=38) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-dustbin-of-our-cultural-history/927703.md?page=40)