# Things you remember from your childhood that would be ABSOLUTELY UNTHINKABLE today **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 9, 2009, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561 "2009-04-09T21:05:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 17
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/321 "2009-06-29T08:35:27Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > Remember **GENERICS**? For those too young to know them only as a medication option, grocery stores used to sell big white bags or containers of products with just the item’s name on it: > > **POTATO CHIPS** > > **COOKIES** > > **DOG FOOD** > > etc. > > Some were indistinguishable from (probably identical to) the name brands, but others weren’t. The worst was > > **COLA** > > which made the store brand taste good by comparison. The main item we always bought generic was cat food and dog food for the army of welfare animals we took in. > > Today we’re so marketing obsessed that I wonder if anybody would go near these items. Seriously? I realize most people don’t go to Wal-Mart any more, but surely you know that they have their own generic products? And then there’s Great Value, Always Save, Great Value, Clear Value, Shasta, CloverValley: and that’s just some of those that have those items you mention above. All that happened to generics is that they adopted a brand name as they started competing against each other. Just like generic medicines still have brand names. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/322 "2009-06-29T08:44:03Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > For millennia, men and boys swam naked. Bathing suits were a 19th century invention, and were used for recreational swimming in mixed company. They were not otherwise considered necessary in all-male situations, like YMCAs, men’s clubs, and high school gym glasses. So, it was a gradual change of the “default” when swimming. > > I still see relics of this in locker rooms today. Men over 40 are comfortable to walk around naked, while those 25 and under are nervously struggling to pull up their underwear while keeping a towel wrapped around their waists. It’s a role reversal: the younger ones are uptight, while their elders aren’t. I’ve always assumed it’s because of reasons already articulated by **Sampiro**. At that time, nobody gave any thought to the idea that there might have been guys who were attracted to those other guys. Or even coaches attracted to the children. The modern modesty is the same reason men and women wore bathing suits in mixed company. People don’t like the idea of their private parts being fawned over by people they aren’t interested in. ETA: Oops, two posts and I didn’t answer the OP. Um, I’m fairly young. Perhaps mixed-sex sleepovers? As long as they were supervised, no one cared. And I’m not sure if letting opposite sex little kids bathe together or sleep together is kosher now, either. Oh, and that thing about playgrounds. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/323 "2009-06-29T15:54:27Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Seriously? I realize most people don’t go to Wal-Mart any more, but surely you know that they have their own generic products? And then there’s Great Value, Always Save, Great Value, Clear Value, Shasta, CloverValley: and that’s just some of those that have those items you mention above. All that happened to generics is that they adopted a brand name as they started competing against each other. Just like generic medicines still have brand names. Yeah but these were just GENERIC. White pack with black bold letters. PEAS. GARBAGE BAGS. CHEESE. I remember those. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/324 "2009-06-29T15:56:23Z")
Here’s a wikipedia image, BigT: [![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Generic_Cola_Cans_1980s.jpg) ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Generic_Cola_Cans_1980s.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/325 "2009-06-29T16:18:46Z")
Getting pick-up baseball games going in the summer. You’d start out with one guy on a bike, ride to a buddy’s house, the two of you rode to a third, etc. till you had enough guys. Then go to an empty field and play on bases that we laid out. If there wasn’t enough guys to cover enough positions, we’d adjust the rules. We had “pitcher’s hands”, avoiding the need for a first baseman. We had “ghost runners” to take your place on the base if you were due up to bat. We might declare everything to the right of second base to be foul for a righthanded batter. No umpires, no coaches, just having fun. In early elementary school, we took one of those tests to see how you compared to other students in knowledge. When the results came back, the teacher had us line up in order of the test scores. Great for me at the front, a real ego-buster for the poor soul at the end of the line. Then there are candy cigarettes, which actually I really liked. And cap guns. Mostly just hanging out with your buddies in the summer cause VCRs, cable TV, video games, and the internet were all off in the future. ---
**Author:** ![Zeriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/58956e/32.png) [@Zeriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeriel)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/326 "2009-06-29T19:19:55Z")
Honestly the worst part about this thread is, having been born in 1979, I remember all this changing for the worst. [ul] [li]Helmet laws in my state for kids on bikes were always a few years younger than me. (dodged that bullet)[/li][li]Worked for my parents for years, starting with the manual pricing guns when I was 6-7. Oddly, due to my dad being a stickler for law, I only worked the deli slicer from 12-13ish (when they changed the law) and then 18+.[/li][li]I have a set of Lawn Darts, I remember when they were banned. Still break ‘em out when my college buddies get together.[/li][li]My mom saw nothing at all cognitively dissonant about only allowing an hour of video games a day, but unlimited TV.[/li][li]Likewise, I was allowed to bike to work, down a 8% grade hill (and back, which sucked) that was frequented by coal trucks and had no shoulder, but god forbid I drive with a buddy for five minutes to get lunch while at band camp.[/li][li]Likewise, I could play on the metal jungle gym, 20’ slides, and “maypoles” (which were all-steel monstrosities that you’d grab onto, and then run in circles and get some crazy air time)–those were banned and dismantled when some kid broke her arm falling off at high speed–we all thought she was a wuss and her mom was a jerk. But at the same time, god help me if I so much as THOUGHT about climbing a tree.[/li][li]My dad’s idea of stray animal control was to set out dishes of ammonia with sugar in it for them to drink and die, hopefully someplace else.[/li][/ul] Believe me, it has me thinking long and hard about how I’m going to let my (future) kids do stuff. On the other hand I have the fortune to live in a neighborhood where kids bike and people walk dogs etc, in the safest neighborhood in the second-safest city in the country. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/327 "2009-06-29T19:25:56Z")
I don’t know about “absolutely unthinkable”, but a diving boards in almost any kind of neighborhood pool are extremely rare nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![straggler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3d9bf3/32.png) [@straggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/straggler)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/328 "2009-06-29T19:32:48Z")
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this… but there’s an episode of Webster from the 1980s that deals with a pedophile. In a scene where the pedophile is trying to entice Webster and his friend to be unwitting victims of child abuse, the laughing track plays constantly in the background as each “joke” gets made. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/329 "2009-06-29T19:59:05Z")
> [@SmashTheState](#): > > - Stores used to sell little black licorice candies in the shape of infants. These were called “nigger babies.” No kidding. Everyone, including the few black folks (there were two in the whole neighbourhood; I didn’t see my first black person until I was 6, and I thought he had burned himself) called them that. No one thought anything of it. Racism was completely casual and normal. Seriously, if you doubt me, Google “nigger babies.” It’s apparently a Canadian phenomenon. Thanks so much for posting this because it was something I was beginning to think I’d imagined those! My babysitter used to give me those when I was little and that’s what she called them, and I used it in a story once and someone who read it said “No way!” I did see these in a faux “general store” (an old timey style place with candy in jars and the general store feel but designed for the tourist trade) a few years back in the North Georgia mountains, but now they come in many different colors and were just called “candy babies” or something like. They still were made in the same molds though as even though they were red, white, blue, and other colors (and a few black mixed in) they unmistakably looked like the old charicatures of “pickaninnies” with great big exaggerated lips and smiles and all. I’m surprised to learn these were sold in Canada that recently under their “original name”. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/330 "2009-06-29T20:26:36Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I’m surprised to learn these were sold in Canada that recently under their “original name”. I’m in Canada and we always called them ‘licorice babies’. Never heard of ‘nigger babies’ until I read this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/331 "2009-06-29T20:31:31Z")
> [@Rushgeekgirl](#): > > Yeah but these were just GENERIC. White pack with black bold letters. > > PEAS. > GARBAGE BAGS. > CHEESE. > > I remember those. Me too—I first saw those at the base commissary at Hamilton. This was in the (early) 90s, too. I think, as the saying goes, my reaction to seeing 'em for the first time was “😕 :dubious: :D” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/332 "2009-06-29T20:53:09Z")
I remember getting a bag of generic **COOKIES** once. They were a total hodgepodge- chocolate chip, raisin, Oreo-like, etc., most of them crumbled. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/333 "2009-06-29T21:12:06Z")
> [@SmashTheState](#): > > - From Popeye candy cigarettes to licorice pipes to Big League Chew, candy tobacco was marketed directly at children – and no one cared. Now now. To be fair Big League Chew was developed by professional ball player Jim Bouton to prevent kids from chewing acutal tobacco. Oh and to make him buttloads of money. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/334 "2009-06-29T21:22:05Z")
> [@Rushgeekgirl](#): > > Yeah but these were just GENERIC. White pack with black bold letters. > > PEAS. > GARBAGE BAGS. > CHEESE. > > I remember those. I remember them as well. In fact, what I remember more than the products themselves were the parody products that followed them, two in particular: [ul] [li]I saw a T-shirt for sale in a store window that said, “Generic T-Shirt” in stenciled letters, and a large UPC code on the front.[/li][li]And my all-time favorite, which I actually bought for my brother: a greeting card. The card was white with a small blue border. On the front, in black, stenciled letters, it said, **ALL-PURPOSE GENERIC GREETING CARD**. Inside, also in block stenciled letters, was the message, **“WHATEVER”** (quotes and all). That cracked me up something fierce.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/335 "2009-06-29T22:09:39Z")
[quote=“Zeriel, post:326, topic:492561”] [li]Likewise, I could play on the metal jungle gym, 20’ slides, and “maypoles” (which were all-steel monstrosities that you’d grab onto, and then run in circles and get some crazy air time)–[/li][/QUOTE] This reminded me of another one - tetherball. Do they have those on school or public playgrounds anymore? It was a tall steel pole with a ball attached by a rope or cord, and you played by batting the ball around to other players, sort of a free-form volleyball. Part of the game was smacking the hell out of it, trying to hit your buddies. > [@blondebear](#): > > I don’t know about “absolutely unthinkable”, but a diving boards in almost any kind of neighborhood pool are extremely rare nowadays. They still have the low diving boards around here, but the high dives have all been taken down. ---
**Author:** ![Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/4da419/32.png) [@Gala\_Matrix\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gala_Matrix_Fire)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/336 "2009-06-29T22:23:09Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > I remember them as well. In fact, what I remember more than the products themselves were the parody products that followed them… My favorite was the scene in Repo Man where Otto is eating dinner from a can of FOOD. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/337 "2009-06-29T22:48:09Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > This reminded me of another one - tetherball. Do they have those on school or public playgrounds anymore? It was a tall steel pole with a ball attached by a rope or cord, and you played by batting the ball around to other players, sort of a free-form volleyball. Part of the game was smacking the hell out of it, trying to hit your buddies. They still have them in the school across the street. When my daughter was there, 10 years ago, kids were still playing with them. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/338 "2009-06-29T22:59:32Z")
One pleasure of getting old is seeing what some of you consider the good old days. My oldest was born in 1981, and I assure you that by 25 years ago people were freaking out about stranger danger. The kid getting abducted in the mall ul is at least that old. Maybe some of you were living in neighborhoods that were safe, maybe your parents weren’t of the freaking out variety, but the concern was there. The 1973 Pinto I owned had seatbelts everywhere, and padded dashboards, and a big concern about safety. (Except for the gas tank.) Hell, I’ve seen people say that they wish that kids today were as well behaved as those who were teenagers in the late '60s. 😃 Even in the late ‘50s I got the impression that adults thought most teenagers were juvenile delinquents, and my grandparents’ generation thought people like my mother were wasting their time going to the Paramount theater and listening to Benny Goodman. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/339 "2009-06-29T23:08:54Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > In elementary school, 3rd and 4th grade, my friends and I used to draw pictures of guns, violence, gore, Nazis (there were books in the classroom about World War II and Nazi Germany), etc, non-stop. At recess we would play “war” every day (one side was usually either Nazis.) Sometimes we even wore camo fatigues we bought at the Army surplus store to school. We never got into any kind of trouble, and this was a Quaker school (!) we’re talking about. > > I’m sure the teachers (a husband-and-wife team, Quakers and former Peace Corps volunteers) would have preferred that our interests were less militaristic, but they were very wise and reasonable people and I think they just accepted the fact that young boys generally go through a phase of being fascinated with violence and war at a certain age and that it was just nature running its course or whatever. I think they also probably realized that if they were to try to put a stop to our war-games, it would just make us want to do them more. Sometimes we got warnings if we were getting too rough at recess, but nothing more than that. > > Nowadays kids doing that stuff at that age would be immediately suspended, sent to psychiatrists, given a million tests, labeled “at-risk” or whatever, and be stigmatized as future killers. Back then I think it was just considered normal behavior for boys. Funny you should mention that, but my kids go to Meeting and First Day School, and whenever it’s playtime, the little Quaker boys invariably play war. And yeah, the teachers don’t make a big deal about it since it wouldn’t help. It’s actually kind of funny. ---
**Author:** ![SanibelMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e4f/32.png) [@SanibelMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanibelMan)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2009, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/340 "2009-06-29T23:13:44Z")
> [@BiblioCat](#): > > This reminded me of another one - tetherball. Do they have those on school or public playgrounds anymore? It was a tall steel pole with a ball attached by a rope or cord, and you played by batting the ball around to other players, sort of a free-form volleyball. Part of the game was smacking the hell out of it, trying to hit your buddies. I remember my school having one in the mid-90s, and a park built in 1999 near our house here has one. I spent an afternoon last weekend nervously watching my 6-year-old son and 2 1/2-year-old daughter play with it. Thankfully, the ball was too high to hit her head. When I was a kid (early 90s), I used to go off in the afternoons and ride my bike around the cul-de-sac streets of our development with no one bothering me. I remember falling down once and skinning my knee, and some adult walked me three blocks or so back to my house. I would trick-or-treat (for UNICEF!) by myself. My school even organized a raffle ticket sale, which meant I had to go around my neighborhood and knock on everyone’s door and try to get them to buy raffle tickets. I think I was in the second or third grade at the time. The main reason we bought a minivan in 1996 was so that when we went on long car trips, my mom and I wouldn’t have to fight over who got to lay down in the back seat. Hell, when I was a month old in December 1983, my parents drove from St. Louis to Detroit in a K-car convertible, in a snowstorm, with me sitting in a playpen set up in the backseat. And I’m sure they were smoking, too. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561.md?page=16) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561.md?page=18)