I was in HS in the late sixties and we never took showers after gym. The coach thought the time was better used getting exercise.
I agree. Littering was much worse in the 60’s and 70’s. People would pull out of the A&W drive in and just dump every piece of shit out the window. And soda can tabs. Those mother fuggers were everywhere. And there were much more cigarette butts everywhere.
Littering is still a problem but it’s not as acceptable as it must have been back then, keeping to the OP.
Back when blowing out your flip flop, stepping on a pop top, cutting your heel and having to cruise back home was still a thing. Man I hated those things - beaches and playgrounds were covered with those little lurking caltrops.
Not only that, they sucked for opening the can. If the ring broke off half way through you were screwed. A sharp piece of metal sticking up. And those rings broke a lot. The tabs they use today rarely break and if they do one can easily still open the can using anything from a pen to a spoon handle.
When I was real young many beer and soda cans had to be opened with a church key opener. If you popped two holes on opposite sides of the lid you got a much smoother pour or drink out of the can.
Where I live, people STILL do that.
" Be back in time for dinner ! "
Summertime? Day off from school? Saturdays ( after chores ) ? Please. If I HAD a destination, my parents knew. Otherwise, I was riding my bike wherever I wanted to. I just had to be back by dinnertime.
Helicopters weren’t parents. They were the monsters dropping napalm in Vietnam.
Up to a $1000 fine in Colorado now. A cigarette or fast food bag out the window can get you in big trouble. Best hope the cops get you before the locals do.We REALLY frown on littering.
It’s just not done.
Colorado is pretty clean now.
My wife carries a small fingernail. She also always, always has a Swiss Army knife with her. She’s a Gaffer in theater/dance/television. She’s always had one with her. Lost a few to TSA, which truly puts her nose out of joint.
I carried a Gerber, and before that a Leatherman, for many years on a nylon belt. Along with a Mini-Maglight. Useful when working on a film set. When I was shooting exclusively, I stopped with that crap. I left the wearing of the BatBelt to others !
Man…all of those empty Doritos bags, they never get tossed out of the car? Please.
It’s very very very hard to be a good conscientious citizen when you’re baked out of your gourd.
I cherished this about my childhood and I worry I won’t be able to provide a similar experience for my son. People are so overprotective these days they’d probably report me for child neglect.
I will add I see a lot of young kids in my neighborhood doing their own thing, riding bikes and playing without parents present. So maybe not every community buys into the helicopter parent thing.
Nope, it’s actually very easy. If you’re a decent human being, then you’re still a decent human being when stoned.
Same with assholes - they simply become stoned assholes.
Getting baked doesn’t change your morals or ethics.
I remember when people first became concerned about littering, and there were PSAs everywhere about it. I also remember where there was paper trash collecting in all the gutters, and against all the buildings, and fluttering in the wind everywhere.
Along with public awareness, were municipal statutes instituting fines for littering, but the problem was that there was nothing to do with your trash. You ended up sticking it in your pockets.
Stores had signs up that their trashcans were for customers only, because it became a problem that people went in just to throw things away, and left.
Then, cities figured out that they should put trashcans on every corner.
It was amazing! suddenly all the trash in the streets disappeared! it was like magic!
I don’t know how well putting out public trashcans would have worked without the anti-littering statutes and fines, but personally, I was happy to throw my trash away, and not litter, and I was too young really to grasp that littering was illegal anymore.
I remember littering on occasion as a very small child, when I’d take a nickel in my fist to a store, buy candy, and not have a pocket to put the empty wrapper in, so I’d just drop it on the ground. Had there been public trash cans, I’d like to think I would have taken time to walk the wrapper over to one, and since I was conscientious about doing so indoors, I probably would have. But I didn’t relish carrying an empty wrapper for hours until I got home-- not that this would have occurred to me.
But really, those public trash cans were key to the littering problem.
I think you make a good point. But old habits are hard to break for some.
My Wife was on a road trip with her folks at a National Park, and stopped at a restroom. Her Father just dumped some trash on the ground when there where trash cans, right there at the restroom not 20 feet away.
I don’t mean to bash my FIL, he was very sweet if a bit clueless at times.
On a road trip about 18 years ago, my Wife and I were really surprised at the crap along the roadside in New Mexico. Sure Colorado has crap alongside the road, but it really surprised us.
Bottle and can deposit laws helped, because either people wouldn’t throw out a deposit bottle or someone else would walk around collecting them.
I used to think Canada was pretty clean before we got a dog. Now when I take the dog for a walk, I have to keep steering her away from all kinds of food wrappers that I never noticed before.
Of course, before cities could put up those trash cans, the public had to approve budgets to buy, install and maintain them. The Keep America Beautiful campaign raised awareness, their most famous ad was probably the “crying Indian” (who was not an American Indian).
People not alive then don’t have a concept of how common littering was, people Just threw junk everywhere.
Yup. Remember the pull tabs on pop and beer cans?
People still toss cigarette butts everywhere.
Of course there are fewer, because most people don’t smoke now. And field stripping and pocketing the remains became common (used to do it myself).
Now I don’t live in or spend much time in cities, so really can’t counter your observations. But in my experience, folks in Colorado at least are really trying not to litter.
We are getting off track here from the OP. So I’ll leave it at that.
TBH, I think that’s related to the trashcan issue. When I’ve been places that have outdoor cigarette receptacles ( some boardwalks, outdoor malls ) I don’t see nearly as many butts on the ground. Sure, there are some ( just like there is still litter on the ground even with trashcans on thestreet)- but I don’t think smokers are opposed to using receptacles as much as they are opposed to carrying the butt until they find a place to dispose of it.