Drive over the Roosevelt Dam in Arizona. (Closed for safety puposes)
Climb to the top of the Washington Monument via the stairs. (??? Elevator run now ???)
Go to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. (???)
Calling someone a troll on the SDMB. (To avoid causing uneeded trouble/feeding real trolls)
General things:
Wait for people to come off the airplane right outside the airplane gate. (Pre-9/11)
Have free love with most people. (Pre-AIDS)
I realize that there were more STDs before AIDS that were still a problem back then, but things still seemed to be more lax then they are today.
And regarding the 2nd and 3rd things, I only heard about those two, so I’m not sure if they’re all together true. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong.
Anyway, I’m sure there’s a million other things. What else were we, as people, allowed to do before (within the last 60 years) that we aren’t allowed to do anymore in various places, areas, rights, privleges, moments of life?
Oh, and before anyone says it, both students AND teachers can pray as much as they like, in school. They can pray their littles hearts out, for all I, or the law cares.
I remember a time, back in the mid 80’s during my first try at college in Louisiana, when you could smoke in class. They had ashtrays built into the desks.
Heh. My son had some friends over one afternoon this summer.
One of the boys begged me to “tell the story!” time after time… about how, once upon a time, anyone could go to the cigarette machine with a buncha quarters and get a pack of cigarrettes.
Then my ancient father has to chime in about, when he was a kid, he could take a quarter and ride his bike to the corner store and buy his dad a beer.
A kinda-big thing I miss, post 9/11: anyone used to be able to climb to the observation deck on the Barnett Reservoir. Nice days. those :).
Used to be a young kid could have fun sitting in the back of a station wagon (the waaaay back, ever play tailgunner?) and not have to worry about annoying things like seat belts.
I climbed to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa in 1981. I mean up to the tippy top, the top of the wall that surrounds the roof. The chamber at the top is open to the sky but is surrounded by a round wall. I was wearing soft leather moccasins at the time, which were slippery to begin with on that smooth marble surface. When I got up there it began to rain, making it dangerously slippery, so I went barefoot to get a firmer footing.
[ul]
[li]Carry a pocket knife on a commercial airplane.[/li][li]Tour the White House by getting in line. Now you need to make arrangements through your congressional rep.[/li][li]Go see two ballgames in one day in a double-header without leaving the park. Now you have to leave the park after the first game, and re-enter for game 2.[/li][/ul]
Well, at most airports in the US (at least in the US, but possibly other places too) now, you have to wait before the security gate. You can’t go to the separate gates at all. Basically, you have to wait near the entrance of the airport, right before that scanner/securty thing you go through to get to all the airport gates.
In my country:
Blatantly discriminate someone based on gender (probably race, sexual orientation and religion, too).
Beat your children.
In the aftermath of WWII: Sentence someone to death.
No, I’m seldom nostalgic for the good old days, I like the present fine!
I hate the day/night doubleheader as much as anyone. Still, at least for some later season makeup games, they will still play an old fashioned double header. The White Sox played the Rangers in a twinight doubleheader this year. The Rangers were so far out of it, I guess the didn’t think they’d sell too many tickets in the blistering TX heat for a day game during the week.
You can’t drive across the Hoover Dam anymore. The road that runs across the top of the dam was permanently closed after 9/11. They’re building a bridge nearby to serve the traffic that used to drive over the dam.
