And also I think people are more conscious now of the history of abuse that often targeted such communal-nudity situations. Parents became much more vigilant about situations where kids would be expected to take their clothes off, and consequently people who were more shielded from communal nudity as kids are less likely to be comfortable with communal nudity as adults.
How about: do you remember that thing with the roller and, carbon-like stuff I guess, that the retailer would slide back and forth across your credit card to get an impression of the raised text? I just noticed that the card we have mostly been using on this vacation trip does not have raised numbers and letters on it at all.
The anti-litter campaign actually began in the 1950s with the Keep America Beautiful campaign. There was a popular commercial on TV with the jingle, which went, as I recall:
Please, please, don’t be a litterbug.
Oh, please, don’t be a litterbug.
Please, please, don’t be a litterbug.
Every litter bit hurts.
Cole Porter it wasn’t.
The “Crying Indian” ad first appeared in the early Seventies (Iron Eyes Cody was actually an Italian-American actor named Espera Oscar de Corti who (falsely) claimed to be Native American) and was played so often for so many years, it’s easy to see why people would think anti-littering campaigns began in the Seventies.
On a different subject, before copiers became relatively inexpensive in the 70s and 80s, teachers used mimeograph machines to make copies. Kids passing back fresh copies of tests and handouts almost invariably sniffed the pages. It was a singularly satisfying scent.
I just watched that ad, and had either forgotten, or never realized, that the narrator is William Conrad.
Even more than weird or kinky : I distinctly remember my friends snickering at the thought of anyone shaving their crotches. The only reason why one would do that would be some sort of infestation. So, there was a hint of uncleanness about it.
Some time around the early 2000s, pubes started being considered as dirty. That’s quite a 180° from my youth, though I hear there’s been a (most welcome in my view) pushback against that trend recently.
True, but if you know what your looking for, you can customize the itinerary provided by dragging it so that it includes the places you’re interested in seeing. It then even calculates the distance and time for your personalized trip. That’s pretty neat.
I remember when people lived in the real world. Nowadays, reality is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is what’s on that damn screen. The whole world is supposed to stop because you got to read and respond to the latest text.
Was/is abuse actually more common in communal nudity situations?
Presuming, of course, that the nudity itself isn’t defined as abuse.
I don’t see that as the reason at all. What I do remember is that there was a moral panic of sorts in the early-mid 1980s with the abduction of Adam Walsh and other children, and this meant that parents got paranoid. Not so much the ones of children my age (born 1972) or older- they realized that this was more of a moral panic. But the parents whose first children were born from 1977 more or less onward came into parenthood with this moral panic in the forefront and were much less likely to let their children range freely.
Combine that with those of us who were a little older growing up with that moral panic info as a sort of fact of life, and 20+ years down the line, you have a couple of generations of parents whose conception of the world their children are growing up in is VERY different than that of their parents. I mean, when I was a kid in the suburbs, the expectation was that everyone was on the up-and-up and could be trusted. Not so anymore. I recall my parents just saying “Find us in about 20 minutes” and turning me loose at K-Mart or Target to go play the video game demos or look at the toys and sporting goods. Who would turn their 8 year old loose in a big box store these days? Nobody, that’s who.
What I’ve noticed though, as a father of a couple of boys, is that parental involvement in stuff seems to be WAY down. I don’t know if it’s part of the general downturn in volunteerism, but it’s frustrating to constantly end up doing stuff because nobody else is willing to step up, or when they do, to take it seriously and do a good job. Sports, Cub Scouts, PTA Dad’s Club, you name it… people just sort of magically expect shit to get done without their involvement nowadays. Even lame stuff like getting the Cub Scout uniform stuff sewn or ironed on seems to be beyond the level of most people these days. Same for having their kids show up to sports practice on time or at all.
When I first started working in real estate, contracts for a married couple to buy a huse were traditionally written as “Joe Smith and H/W Mary” H/W meaning “his wife.” Needless to say, I never wrote a contract like that, but always referred to Joe Smith and Mary Jones Smith.
And as for a woman getting a mortgage without a male co-signer, forget about it. There were tales of single working women earning good money having to take senile grandfathers our of nursing homes so they could sign a real estate contract, the only qualification being a Y-chromosome.
When I bought my house 20 years ago the mortgage papers were made out to “Smart Aleq, an unmarried woman” which I thought was kinda hilarious, especially since my son bought a house a few years later and it did NOT specify HIS marital status. I wonder if that’s changed?
When is the last time you looked up something in an encyclopedia, a dictionary or any other reference book? Everything imaginable can be Googled now.
When I was a kid (60s-70s), someone gave us a set of Webster’s Encyclopedias from the 30s or 40s. I used them all the time for school reports or just because I was wondering something. I still use a dictionary once in a while but it’s an app on my iPhone.
Remember the days when you wondered something and never really had a way to find out? Something as simple as the lyrics to a favorite song we’d have to guess at unless we were lucky enough to have the album with the lyrics printed on the record sleeve. It’s all at our fingertips now. We don’t have to wonder about anything anymore.
Someone else mentioned dogs roaming around the neighborhood. That was a regular occurrence when I was a kid too. More things regarding dogs:
You don’t see dogs tied up to dog houses anymore either. We always had big dogs as pets but they were also considered “watchdogs”. So they lived outside in their doghouse. My dad would put a bale of straw inside so they were always cozy and warm. He also rigged up a zip line and cable so the dog always had room to run around. Now, my giant dogs sleep on the couch or the beds and have never been tied up outside unless it’s their leash and we’re going for a walk.
I don’t ever remember people neutering their male dogs. Spaying a female dog was a little more common but not like today. We rarely brought our dogs to the vet. We always had male dogs so we didn’t have to worry about puppies!
I’m not sure when this trend started but, NEVER were my parents referred to as the dog’s parents! That would have been crazy-talk. The dogs weren’t called furbabies, the boys, the girls, etc. They were dogs.
And people did not bring dogs into public places. There were no “therapy dogs.”
OTOH, people did smoke in public places and did not clean up after their dogs.
Just one data point, but the paperwork when I bought my first house definitely referred to me as “an unmarried man.” I remember thinking it seemed like such an odd phrasing. This would have been about 20 years ago as well.
As of a deed I just checked dated August 30, 2019, it is still standard phrasing in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.
FTR, I believe it is designed to simplify things if the owner later marries and sells the property under a different name.
My wife’s house is still listed only in her name and as “unmarried,” simply because we didn’t feel like paying the $50 or whatever it is to add my name to the deed and change her name. My ex-wife’s house is still listed under her married name (I signed a quit-claim deed to have my name removed), probably for the same “not worth the money” reason.
In my school (early 60s) having your period did get you out of showering, and the fact was noted in the teacher’s grade book. If you tried to pretend you were having your period when you weren’t, she’d look to see when you last had a period and she’d ask you why it was only two weeks ago.
Side issue: I think “being on your period” vs “having your period” might be regional. I was in Illinois. FairyChatMom, where were you?
Good point. Pets were pets, not substitute children.
Maybe my parents started it?
I’m pretty sure that by the 60’s they would occasionally call themselves the parents or grandparents of our family cats/dogs.
Young men and women picking their nostrils as they drive. I thought that was an old gram-pa thing.
And the sportscasters were always men. I remember how strange it felt the first time I experienced a female sportscaster.
And the weather was always given by “weather girls”.
Personal ads in the local papers.