# Things we used to be allowed to do (in the last 60 years) that we aren't anymore. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 28, 2005, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285 "2005-10-28T05:57:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/61 "2005-10-30T00:09:32Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Play Jarts. I loved Jarts when I was a kid. Now they’re banned. ☹ I opened this thread just to say that exact thing. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![MoodIndigo1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e8c25b/32.png) [@MoodIndigo1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MoodIndigo1)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/62 "2005-10-30T00:20:16Z")
I’m not nostalgic for this, but I remember the days when you were sober enough to drive if you could find your keys, and remember where you had parked your car. We were really clueless. ---
**Author:** ![Foaming\_Cleanser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Foaming\_Cleanser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foaming_Cleanser)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/63 "2005-10-30T02:15:37Z")
Sixty years ago you could buy a new Buick the size of a . . . well . . . a Buick. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/64 "2005-10-30T02:33:09Z")
Some already mentioned but I will second them: You didn’t have to hide that beer you were drinking when the cops pulled you over. All was good as long as you weren’t drunk and the definition of drunk was ummm, a lot more forgiving than it is now. A gun at school wasn’t cause to evacuate every child in the state. Everthing was fine as long as it was hunting season and you left the gun in the car. Building bombs was considered a wholesome activity for a boy especially if he did with his father (and we had some fun too). These days you can only do that if you have always wan’t to visit Cuba. Kids could roam freely around familiar areas. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/65 "2005-10-30T03:58:08Z")
> [@Caricci](#): > > I remember the teacher (and some boisterous boys) playing with mercury in science class. My mom told me that it was fun to play with it if you broke a thermometer too. Now, if someone releases a thermometer’s worth of mercury somewhere, they close the place down, have a HazMat team come in and then arrest the person responsible. When I was in 8th grade 11 years ago I broke a thermometer and the teacher had me clean it up with my bare hands and would have had me just throw it in the trash, except I stole it and kept it in a clear film canister on my bedroom desk. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Corrvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@Corrvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corrvin)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/66 "2005-10-30T04:28:31Z")
> [@CBCD](#): > > Do needlepoint on an airplane. > > Now you can’t have a needle, and you can’t have scissors on a plane. Why bother to fly anymore? I flew Southwest from Chicago to Oklahoma City just last Tuesday and had no trouble taking my blunt-pointed scissors, yarn, and crochet hooks. Blunt-pointed scissors and both crochet and knitting needles are [specifically allowed](http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:YeUI96RtOpoJ:www.tsa.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/Prohibited_English_4-1-2005_v2.pdf+airline+security+crochet&hl=en). Corrvin ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/67 "2005-10-30T05:11:10Z")
My roomate and I were discussing this thread at the store a few hours ago when he mentioned the fact that he couldn’t seem to find or buy double edged razor blades anymore. That the only place he could find them was online. You know, those retractable blades that you then disposed of in this little rectangular box and then withdrew another one from the other end? So yeah, can you get those anymore in common retail/general stores? ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/68 "2005-10-30T05:19:34Z")
Probably not on any security list, prohibited or allowed, but the security folks on my last trip were quite puzzled when they saw my [tatting shuttle](http://www.wrights.com/products/catalog/boyeline/7413_lg.htm) on the xray image. ---
**Author:** ![PinkShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/76d3ee/32.png) [@PinkShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PinkShoes)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/69 "2005-10-30T06:27:46Z")
It’s kind of fuzzy, but I remember when people could smoke in Jack in the Box and Burger King because I used to see the ashtrays with the restaurant logo on them…and I was born in 1983. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/70 "2005-10-30T07:09:00Z")
> [@Scott Plaid](#): > > GO to the torch of the Satue of Liberty? No, not in the last 60 years. The last time the torch was open to the public was in [1917](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_439.html). ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/71 "2005-10-30T08:53:54Z")
Anybody remember asbestos in the classroom? I have a clear memory of at least two occasions in the 1960s when they passed around hunks of asbestos in my grade school. They said, “Look! You can pull fibers off of this rock!” We all played with asbestos fibers then went to the lunchroom and snarfed our PB&J probably without washing hands first. When the news came out about carcinogenic asbestos and the expense of removing it from old buildings, it took a long time for my brain to readjust to that fact, after they’d handed it to me in the classroom. ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bb73d2/32.png) [@Dark\_Side\_of\_the\_Floyd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Side_of_the_Floyd)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/72 "2005-10-30T09:57:19Z")
> [@Caricci](#): > > …and then arrest the person responsible. Cite for this, please? > [@Idle Thoughts](#): > > My roomate and I were discussing this thread at the store a few hours ago when he mentioned the fact that he couldn’t seem to find or buy double edged razor blades anymore. That the only place he could find them was online. You know, those retractable blades that you then disposed of in this little rectangular box and then withdrew another one from the other end? > > So yeah, can you get those anymore in common retail/general stores? Yes. They sell them all the time in 99 cent stores and drugstores. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/73 "2005-10-30T10:39:14Z")
Spending a night as an 8 year old driving across Saskatchewan, lying on the ‘hat shelf’ in back of Grandpa’s old '67 Impala. Looking at the milky way through the back window in the utter blackness of the deep Canadian prairie, enraptured by the wonder of it all, while the chill from the glass and the minus thirty degree crisp winter night on the other side cools your face. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 11:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/74 "2005-10-30T11:10:39Z")
Bad things you could do: Call that Negro “boy” and point him to the “other” water fountain and make sure he got on the back of the bus on his way home. Put that homosexual in a mental hospital. Send those bad girls your son knocked up to homes for unwed mothers, Pay a woman 1/3 what you paid a man for the same work, and cop a feel when you paid her her wage. Beat your wife and whip your kids and have your drinkin’ buddies be proud of you, and the police would never interfere. Sort of makes the good things irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/75 "2005-10-30T16:23:53Z")
Enter any Smithsonian museum without passing through a metal detector or having your bags rifled through. ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/76 "2005-10-30T21:54:40Z")
> [@Dark Side of the Floyd](#): > > Yes. They sell them all the time in 99 cent stores and drugstores. I asked him about it right now and I was wrong. He meant the double edged Razor. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Foaming\_Cleanser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f05b48/32.png) [@Foaming\_Cleanser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foaming_Cleanser)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2005, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/77 "2005-10-30T23:39:11Z")
I saw double-edged “safety-razor” blades (talk about misnomers) at Shoppers Drug Mart a couple of weeks ago. House brand, though, not Gillette. ---
**Author:** ![movingfinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@movingfinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/movingfinger)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/78 "2005-10-31T00:33:38Z")
You could walk into your local supermarket on a Saturday, stroll up to the guy in the liquor department and write a check for cash for twenty dollars, show him your store-issued check cashing card (if you were a regular you didn’t even need that) and walk out with $20, which would generally get you through the weekend. Yes, there was a time when ATMs did not roam this land, believe it or not. ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2005, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285/79 "2005-10-31T01:11:34Z")
Go to a hockey game and hang a banner off the balcony… now it blocks the advertising. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-we-used-to-be-allowed-to-do-in-the-last-60-years-that-we-arent-anymore/328285.md?page=3)