# 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:** 2
**Author:** ![Stormcrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/0ea827/32.png) [@Stormcrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stormcrow)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/21 "2009-04-09T21:49:21Z")
When I was 6 or 7 or so, I flew from New York to Toronto by myself to meet my parents who for some reason where already there. That would be around 1972-3. I wandered around an awful lot by myself at age 8-10, riding my bike through the nearby towns. The heck with riding in the back seat of cars without using the seat belt - most of the cars didn’t HAVE seat belts in the back seat. ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/22 "2009-04-09T21:55:57Z")
> [@gommsn](#): > > Speaking of Stranger Danger: > > As soon as the last bite of supper was down my gullet, I was headed for the door to get into whatever shit my friends and I could find. > > The last thing I’d hear as I went out the door was, “make sure you’re home when the streetlights come on”. > > Not “where are you going, who are you going with”. No worries back then, just good times. > > Mind you, I’m talkin’ the Fifties here.:eek: Us, too. In the early 80’s. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/23 "2009-04-09T21:56:21Z")
Not only did we not use seat belts (since there were only three of them and I was the oldest of four kids, someone would have been “deprived” anyway), but I often didn’t even bother with the **seat**. It’s still family legend that when I was about five, I “stood all the way to Canada” on a trip from suburban Cleveland to Chatham, Ontario. Hey, I wanted to see the country (countries), dammit! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/24 "2009-04-09T22:23:59Z")
My parents had a little convertible at the time I was born so to go to the hospital they got my brother (age 1) out of bed and laid him in the rumble seat. And I guess that was about it as far as securing him. It was October, so I assume at least the top was up. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/25 "2009-04-09T22:44:25Z")
Getting a haircut and the barber would be smoking cigarettes the whole time. If someone were to do this now, his shop windows would be smashed, there would be 15 letters to the editor in the local newspaper condemning him, he’d eventually go out of business, not to mention be fined 500,000 dollars by the city, be convicted of attempted murder, and be shipped off to live out the rest of his days working in an Alaskan gulag. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/26 "2009-04-09T22:48:42Z")
> [@niblet\_head](#): > > Us, too. In the early 80’s. I three, in the mid-late '90s. Wandered around the neighborhood and WENT INTO THE FREAKING WOODS IN THE EVENING without any supervision. I think I turned out fine, except I have an odd tendency to forget everything that happens on nights with full moons and wake up covered in blood, but I figure that’s nothing to worry about. [sub]…right?[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/27 "2009-04-09T22:55:22Z")
A girlfriend and I would take her parents’ boat out to the middle of the lake so we could swim, because it was too weedy close to the shore. We were 12 or 13. No life jackets. No adults. I remember when it was okay to hug a teacher of the opposite sex. On the news last week was a story about a school that has decreed absolutely no physical contact between students. No hugs, no high fives, no arms around shoulders. Gah. What a world. ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/28 "2009-04-09T23:00:21Z")
Sixties and seventies: Asphalt and slippery sharp pebbles made up the base of our playgrounds. There were always kids with broken arms, usually from falling off the monkey bars. It was common for kids to wait in the car while parents shopped or did whatever, even if it took hours. My kids love to watch “Leave it to Beaver,” but I have to warn them they can’t do pretty much anything that was the norm on that show. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/29 "2009-04-09T23:01:52Z")
Yeah - it’s just all part of the ongoing pussification of society that insists that everyone live in a hermetically-sealed bubble and expose themselves to NO risk whatsoever…at the cost of all enjoyment of life whatsoever, and no feeling beyond the dull hum of apathy. ---
**Author:** ![belladonna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@belladonna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/belladonna)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/30 "2009-04-09T23:05:52Z")
Being left in the car in the supermarket parking lot with my sister when my mom “just ran in to grab a few things”. Forty-five minutes later, she’d come out with thirty bags and we’d often sit on the floorboards on the ride home if she needed the backseat to hold the groceries that wouldn’t fit in the trunk. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/31 "2009-04-09T23:16:06Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > I thimk I turned out OK. That’s either brilliant comic timing or the best typo ever. ---
**Author:** ![Linty\_Fresh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Linty\_Fresh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linty_Fresh)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/32 "2009-04-09T23:27:06Z")
Mainstream comedians doing derogatory routines chiefly about homosexuals. I’m not talking about a side reference during a different topic or innuendo (Don’t start). I’m talking about entire routines that were titled “Faggots” on the album cover. Remember Eddie Murphy’s standup albums from the early 80’s? He totally _ripped_ on gay people, and I believe that he started off his routine with them on the first two albums. Meh, I’m not outraged. It was a different time, and I’d be lying if I told you that my friends and I didn’t crack up at it when we were stupid 15 year olds, but I doubt a comedian trying to make it in mainstream show business could get away with that now–rightfully so, of course. BTW, if I’m wrong, could someone please correct me? I don’t listen to much new comedy anymore, so I could easily be putting my foot in my mouth on this one. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/33 "2009-04-09T23:33:26Z")
**Linty Fresh** , meet [Lisa Lampenelli](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Lampanelli). ---
**Author:** ![SylverOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SylverOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SylverOne)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/34 "2009-04-09T23:33:59Z")
When I was 7 (1983), and my brothers were 5 and 3-ish, we took a trip from Montana to Minnesota. It’s a 24 hour trip if you drive straight through. My parents tossed a single mattress into the back of our truck, (which had a camper shell on it) along with many of our toys, and some blankets and pillows and that’s where us kids spent the entire trip. Every once in a while, one of us was allowed in to the cab with Mom and Dad, but not often. ---
**Author:** ![bathsheba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9e8a1a/32.png) [@bathsheba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bathsheba)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/35 "2009-04-09T23:36:21Z")
Teachers giving kids the beach bat then joking about how far they had made the kid fly. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/36 "2009-04-09T23:39:12Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > The Grease Bucket: this may be a southern thing but I’m sure somebody outside the south had it- when my mother fried bacon or chicken or pretty much anything else, the grease was poured into a bucket kept on the stove. Next time something was fried, the congealed grease was taken out and heated. This was pretty much a standard practice in every country house when I was growing up (though my aunt, more of a social climber and in the city, didn’t do it). Both my mom (originally from Brooklyn) and my stepmom (still living in the same house in Tennessee she was born in) have those on their stoves. ---
**Author:** ![Kickback\_Joe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/cdc98d/32.png) [@Kickback\_Joe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kickback_Joe)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/37 "2009-04-09T23:44:08Z")
I remember laying (lying??) down on the rear deck of my fathers '72 Ford Maverick and waving to the cars behind us out the rear window. I remember that one trip from Florida to New Mexico I got a policeman from every state to wave to me. Now a parent would be given a citation for not restraining a 5 year old in a car seat and possibly charged with child endangerment. I also remember getting slammed by my fathers right arm across my chest when he had to slam on the brakes because someone ran a red light. I remember it not just because it hurt but because it was the first time I heard him swear. ---
**Author:** ![Moirai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/96bed5/32.png) [@Moirai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moirai)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/38 "2009-04-09T23:51:53Z")
I identify with every damned thing in this thread. My mom was told by her OB/GYN to smoke during her pregnancy so she wouldn’t get so fat- she was only allowed 15 pounds or so (1967). Wasn’t the advertising slogan “Have a Lucky instead of a sweet?” Riding in the back of my dad’s pickup truck. Going out shooting with my dad… and wandering off armed. My parents had a Dodge Challenger convertible when I was born, so they would jam the car bed down between the seats. My first car (a 1957 Nash Metropolitan) had no seat belts. I got it in 1984. No one cared. I didn’t wear seat belts regularly until 1991 or so, when I was hit and narrowly escaped injury. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/39 "2009-04-09T23:54:00Z")
When I was 12, I and my friend of the same age took a 6-day canoe trip by ourselves (we had a great time). I doubt that happens much anymore. > [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > children would trick-or-treat alone, even after dark. Right - anyone over the age of 5 would have died of shame if their parents had come along to supervise. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2009, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561/40 "2009-04-09T23:55:32Z")
When I was a kid I always carried a pocket knife at school and thought nothing of it. This was in the 60s and 70s. I think I carried it in college too in the 80s. The smoking. Almost half of adults smoked. Ashtrays everywhere. Coffee tables with ashtrays, cigarettes for guests, matches. You could always find somebody with a light. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-you-remember-from-your-childhood-that-would-be-absolutely-unthinkable-today/492561.md?page=3)