I dated a guy who drank coffee as a kid as did his family- because it was the only drink you could order at a resturant that gave free refills.
Yeah, I agree with this completely. I grew up in the 70s and early 80s–my first video game console was the Atari 2600, which wasn’t exactly riveting enough to hold my attention for more than an hour or two max. And I was in high school then. For grade school and junior high, I had to go outside–or I holed up in my room writing stories and reading books. As much as I love World of Warcraft now (I’m a total addict), I am eternally grateful that there wasn’t such a thing around when I was school age. Now I can play guilt-free, but then I doubt I would have been a straight-A student if WoW existed.
Yeah, when I was a kid we lived way out in the boonies (we never had a street address - we “got our mail” in Eastover, and if anybody in this thread knows where Eastover is then God help you) and I was so envious of the kids I knew who lived in town and had cable or had that enormous satellite dish in their yard. We had three channels plus PBS, and on a clear night sometimes you’d pick up more from hundreds of miles away. I was a bookish child, naturally inclined to the indoors, so I don’t think I’d have ever set foot outside if I’d had all the things I thought I wanted! Instead my mom shoved me out the door in the morning and I made up games to play with myself all day. (Not a whole lot of kids that far out in the country, and those that there were required a driving parent because the roads were legitimately dangerous, so you’d end up going over to a friend’s house in the summer and end up spending five days there unplanned because why not?)
:raises hand:
Heh. In college, Eastover wasn’t a “where,” it was a “what.” That’s what we called our combination Easter and Passover. 
It is the truth and you can think of it as you wish. There was even a lot more that people did in the thirties and early forties, I was no exception. My one sister worked at age 10 for a family and her wages were to pay for our house to be plastered. (Our niece took care of her younger brother (he was age 5) she was 10 and this was in the 50’s; Both of her parents worked).
The depression era was one where you got by the best you could. Most of the kids in my high school had jobs, they did live with their parents, I had a job working as a mother’s helper so I lived with them, but didn’t get a wage, just room and board and their children now in their late 60’s and early 70’s could verify this.
Walking home from school since kindergarten with my own key in case no one was home. Going outdoors with other kids and playing in the woods or wherever until supper time. Shooting a bb gun. Rockets. Chemistry sets. Being supervised by strange adults. Openly racist/homophobic talk. Smoking everywhere, including college classes, but not lower classes, and in hospitals and on planes!. Adults with an open beer while driving. Adults openly smoking weed at parties in front of kids. Spanking at school - but only in Texas, not New York.
I have to say though, even at the time as a kid, I thought smoking indoors, drinking wile driving, and spanking were the bizarre practices of an insane society and I was very very glad when smoking indoors became less common. And I always thought seat belts were a good idea without any adults telling me to put them on.
On the other hand, I really don’t miss all the nuclear war drills…
In jr high (80s), a buddy and me decided it would be funny to don balaclavas (AKA ninja ski masks), grab a couple of those electronic water pistols that looked like realistic Uzi’s and Mac-10s and ambush my brother and his friends as they got off the elementary school bus. We may have even used some bottle-rocket RPGs. We had been doing a lot of good work in that area at the time.
The next day we got called down to the principals office and he basically just told us never to do it again.
Clearly, such a stunt in this day and age would probably get us oastracized from society and placed on some sort of Dept of Homeland Security watch list.
In junior high / high school 87-92 showering was optional, and pretty much no one did it. But generally we didn’t work up an enormous sweat and since class periods were 45 minutes there wasn’t a lot of time to shower before the bell rang. In elementary school we had a pool, and would shower after swimming, but with our bathing suits on.
I was fairly shy and didn’t like changing in front of other people, but I took showers with my mom til I started school, and took baths with my stepdad til the end of elementary school.
I lived in Texas in 1984. All the kids had to work in the lunch room a certain number of days a week, washing dishes, serving or cooking food. There were also monitor / street crosser duties. If you didn’t turn in your homework you had to stay after school and finish it.
Middle aged Brit here.
As a kid growing up on a very rough estate.
If you were cheeky to an adult stranger they would give you a swift hard thump around the ear in front of other adults who might know you or not and every one would say serves you right.
You would NOT tell your parents when you got home or you would get another one for being in trouble.
As a four year old I could walk up to an adult stranger and tell them I was lost and they would get me home.
We never locked our back door whether we were in or out.
My Mum used to put money owed to tradespeople in an envelope and pin it to the front door when they were due but she had to go out.
You never chained up your bike where ever you were and people who owned cars down our street left their cars unlocked,often with the keys in the ignition.
Everyone smoked,those who didn’t were considered a bit odd.
People going into a strangers house would smoke without asking permission.
People would throw rubbish down where ever they happened to be standing,virtually never look for a rubbish bin.
Dogs wandered free and crapped whereever they liked,no one picked up and disposed of the crap.
Wife beating was considered a private thing,the police would not get involved,nor would the neighbours.
Being a football supporter involved a lot more effort,you stood up to watch the game,you went to EVERY game,home or away(Though it was a hell of a lot cheaper then)and it was a tacit fact that whatever your age or class,quite often very intense violence would be the norm between opposing supporters,likewise when interacting with the police presence.(The police ALWAYS won and were incredibly viscious bastards,but if you play with fire then you dont moan when you get burnt.)
Quite honestly I prefer nowdays for all its faults,we’ve got so much more choice for food,TV, or whatever,we have the net and video games,better gyms,holidays and cable T.V.
Plus its nowhere as difficult now as it was to get your hand down a girls Bra when you had to threaten to marry them just to get that far.
when I was kid, I remember a TV Show where a guy (an astronaut) had a live-in girlf-friend who was kept in a bottle and call the the astronaut “MASTER.”
I also remember seeing a Hollywood Squares question to George Gobel asking if it was possible to cross a watermelon and a pumpkin. Gobel’s answer:
Yes, but you get a JACK-O-LANTERN with an AFRO.
Paddlings in school. Oh, notes went home to parents, saying misbehaved children would be taken out into the hall and with another teacher as a witness, given two smacks on the behind with a wooden paddle. I think most of the notes came back with “Hell, yeah, light him/her up if you need to.” Only one of my friend’s mother denied permission. (This was late 70s-early 80s)
We also used to get flouride rinses in school. My mother opted me out of that one because of some damn fool nonsense her mother had told her.
I don’t think* All in the Family* would be as successful today. I think many people would be outraged and the show would be quickly cancelled, with apologies from the network.
Oh, and apparently when I was a baby, I got paragoric for teething. :eek:
Does anyone find it interesting that in this day and age of cell phones, parents are more afraid to let their children out of their sight? Back when I was young, my parents had NO idea where I was and no way to get in touch with me when I was out playing with friends in the neighborhood. I was just told to come home by a certain time. But now, you can give your kid a cell phone (maybe even with a GPS device so you can track hi/her) and we won’t let them go play in the park across the street unsupervised.
How did that happen?
My favorite place to ride in the car: the back dashboard. I called it “the soft place.”
We never locked the house or car unless we went out of town.
A certain firework called a “nigger chaser.” Today, I think they’re known as Texas whistlers or somesuch.
Walking down the railroad tracks pulling spikes. Oops, that was bad, wasn’t it?
Open campus at school. Do they still allow this? Only one school had a cafeteria, and it was the elementary school, so Jr. High and High School students could leave campus for lunch.
Sitting on my Dad’s lap steering the car when I was about 5 or 6. Britney Spears did this a couple of years ago and the country rose up in outrage. Incidentally, I was so bad at it they wouldn’t let me even try to drive until I was of age for driver’s ed. My siblings made fun of me mercilessly.
I could tell you some stories of things that happened to me at Girl Scout camp that if they happened nowadays, the organization would have been sued into bankruptcy.
I’m sure there are more, but these are the ones that I recall now.
A Piccolo Pete with the base removed. Oh, yeah, THAT was a good idea…
:smack:
Not only that, but my grandmother had an empty concrete stock tank where we’d set them off. It was about 20 feet in diameter with four foot walls. Not only was it insanely loud, 8 kids dodging a screaming jet of a firework made it even more fun.
When I was about 11 or 12, and my brother was 8 or 9, my mom let the two of us go to Honolulu (Waikiki) by ourselves for 3 days (we lived in California). Both our parents worked for an airline and we’d been out to the Islands many times. The hotel we stayed at was leased by the airline and had no non-airline guests… both crew and vacationers could stay there.
We had a great time, saw a few movies, played tennis, went to the beach and didn’t do anything crazy.
Today I think my mom would be arrested.
When I was 16, my parents let me go off to Asia by myself during school breaks… that doesn’t seem so bad but the first one does!
When I was 11, we went to Expo 67 in Montreal, Canada. My parents let me go off by myself for the entire day (in a city where English isn’t even the main language, in a foreign country). Even they were amazed that they did this.
Similarly, my family went to Walt Disney World when I was 12. After we spent two days together in the park, my parents let me take the shuttle bus from our hotel (outside the park) and spend a third day there by myself, coming home after dark. I felt so mature.