What was "normal" when you were a kid that would be considered shocking today?

[Dr. Love]

When I was a kid it was common for kids to bring a toy gun to school. Nowadays the whole school would go on lockdown and they'd send in a SWAT team. When I was 8 years old I started riding my bike to/from school. I don't think many kids do that anymore. When I was a kid, kids still got spankings from the principal. That would never happen now.

Since you fuckers are way older than me, I expect your stories to be much more impressive.

[LoungeMachine]

The covered wagons we used as school rooms until the sod dried....

:gulp:

Kids today have pre-fab schools

[VHscraps]

Anonymous parents hitting children ... in public and no-one batting an eyelid. Would be considered shocking now. Public beatings at school. Teachers throwing weighty objects at my head! It certainly livened up daily life, and I will not say it did me any harm.

Everyone smoking on trains! I grew up in Scotland when men still worked in coal mines and steel plants, etc., so everyone just naturally seemed to smoke. It was nothing compared t the damage industry was doing to people and their habitats (in retrospect - no one really thought of i like that. But, yeah, trains - I mean, only 1/3 (or less) of any given train would typically be designated as smoking-free! So, yeah, growing up in a haze of cig smoke. Of course, the non-smokers are getting their own back now.

[ODShowtime]

I got paddled twice in school in my day. The Board of Education. And I damn sure did not repeat the behaviors that led to those punishments. My girlfriend is a teacher and it blows my mind the shit she has to put up with. There are no punishments. Hell they don't even have a recess to take away.

People listened to rock music back then too.

[hain23x]

finding my mom and dad's 8mm porno stash and inviting all my buddies over to watch when we were 10

[Dr. Love]

mtv played music videos

[Seshmeister]

Everyone smoking on trains! I grew up in Scotland when men still worked in coal mines and steel plants, etc., so everyone just naturally seemed to smoke. It was nothing compared t the damage industry was doing to people and their habitats (in retrospect - no one really thought of i like that. But, yeah, trains - I mean, only 1/3 (or less) of any given train would typically be designated as smoking-free! So, yeah, growing up in a haze of cig smoke. Of course, the non-smokers are getting their own back now.

It seems more shocking that people smoked on planes, in fact I did once.

The thing I remembered recently from the 1970s which would be insanely unthinkable now was the big row of prams outside the supermarket. You would often see older women wandering along looking at all the babies left outside while the mothers did their shopping commenting on which were cutest.

Of course none of them were ever harmed and they almost certainly wouldn't be now if it still happened.

It's hard to know what is better way to live, a total disregard of the 1 in a million thing happening or preventing it by having everyone worrying about it all the time. I guess that depends on if you are the 1 in a million...

[PETE'S BROTHER]

4 channels of tv (including pbs)

[diamondsgirl]

we had a "smoking area" in my high school and we would be out there smoking joints and the teachers who were supposed to be monitoring us just turned their heads. now you can't smoke jack shit within 1,000 feet of a school.

[Little Texan]

Kids being active outdoors...riding bikes, playing football, shooting hoops, playing catch...etc. instead of sitting around like a bump on a log indoors eating junk food and playing video games all the fucking time like kids do nowadays.

[DONNIEP]

we had a "smoking area" in my high school and we would be out there smoking joints and the teachers who were supposed to be monitoring us just turned their heads. now you can't smoke jack shit within 1,000 feet of a school.

First day of highschool - first thing I noticed was the smoking area. We had ashtrays built into the columns in the common area outside of the lunchroom. I didn't smoke then...Senior year, '89, they banned smoking from all school grounds...period. No teachers, no students, nobody was allowed to smoke. Guess what??? We ALL still smoked between classes.

[Hardrock69]

When I was a child, black people were actually discriminated against!

[DONNIEP]

When I was a kid it was common for kids to bring a toy gun to school. Nowadays the whole school would go on lockdown and they'd send in a SWAT team. When I was 8 years old I started riding my bike to/from school. I don't think many kids do that anymore. When I was a kid, kids still got spankings from the principal. That would never happen now.

Since you fuckers are way older than me, I expect your stories to be much more impressive.

And dude, seriously, if you insist on puttng that set of bouncing tits in you signature, you can NOT expect any of us to reply with any sense at all...

[ashstralia]

when i was 17 and my gf was 16, her parents went for a long weekend holiday. they gassed up the car for us, and insisted we sleep in their waterbed. at the time we were 'great!!!'... insanely creepy now. lol

[DONNIEP]

when i was 17 and my gf was 16, her parents went for a long weekend holiday. they gassed up the car for us, and insisted we sleep in their waterbed. at the time we were 'great!!!'... insanely creepy now. lol

Senior year, my girlfriend was in 10th grade...her mom decided I should stay with her whenever I could so that she wasn't alone at night, what with seeing as how her dad was out of town every single week and her mom worked 3rd shift...happy days, oh happy days...

[ashstralia]

happy days indeed, donnie...1985.