WE HAVE A BOOMER!!! 🤣

I grew up in small town New England and at thirteen moved to small town Texas. If we'd brought guns to school (other than just being in pick ups in the parking lot), there'd have been hell.

Even to me, the sixties sound like the wild west lol

[-]

EgbertSouse2@reddit

Thank you! Yes, I am a Boomer. You say that like it's a bad thing.

[-]

Ordinaryfemale@reddit

Actually, I said it like you're in a gen X group. It was intended as a joke. Hence the laughing guy.

Baby boomer or just big baby. Hard to tell sometimes.

[-]

In high school, for my birthday every year I'd have my friends over for a campout. We'd but a thousand rounds of22 ammo and have a blast shooting. They would bring their rifles to school and home with me on the school bus. To be fair, we had to give the rifles to the principal during the school day. But geez, can you imagine?

I put dad’s gigantic black Cadillac convertible into neutral or reverse once when he was in the store buying smokes. It wasn’t running. I was standing on the big bench seat, probably so two year old me could get both hands on the wheel and see what was going on, and it had the PRNDL shifter on the steering column. “Hey your car’s backing out!” Dad came bolting out as the car was slowly backing up towards the street the store was on.

Dad was a 30yr old Greyhound driver in the ‘70’s. Sometimes he’d get cut off in our town and bring the bus he was driving home for a bit, and I’d usually want to play in the drivers seat while it was turned off. Dad chatted with the neighbourhood dad crew and showed the kids the engine etc.

One time, he was talking to mom outside of the bus he was driving. We were joining him for the last couple hours back into the division point city that he drove out of.

This time it’s at the local depot and running, and full of passengers. He had his briefcase and things holding the suicide seats for the two of us (the two window seats up front above the stairs). I was on the bus already sitting with his stuff.

So, I eventually hop over into his driver’s seat and kick the fast idle off by moving the shifter. The bus was in gear, but it wasn’t going anywhere with the maxi brake still on. It’s still a pretty noticeable thing to feel and hear, especially for anyone who just watched a 3 year old hop into the drivers seat. Dad came bolting up onto the bus to scoop me out of the seat. Supervision around dad’s toys was improved quickly thereafter.

[-]

Ustob@reddit

hahaha omg! we were soo cooked in 1990'ish...

[-]

Claque-2@reddit

Yes, people coming back from Vietnam did not appreciate being told they couldn't by a drink legally after shooting and being shot at for a year.

Hand signals in a Model-T are probably legal everywhere.

Hand signals in a newer car that should have turn signals may not be.

[-]

RBI-Man@reddit

Kansas and Iowa require all motor vehicles regardless of age to have turn signals installed. The signals are aftermarket. My dad was stopped in a 1948 Chevy in Kansas, and they gave him a warning ticket, and told him that he had to have signals installed. Dad's brother (my uncle) had a 1951 Chevy, and he received the same treatment as Dad did. They had him install turn signals.

Of course each state is different. That would be hell for people who restore vehicles to keep up on those laws unless they are a member of some antique vehicle organization that does that for them.

[-]

SnooChipmunks2079@reddit

I looked it up and I'm surprised to see that turn signals weren't required until 1968. I had no idea.

I'm in Illinois, and in Illinois, the law reads

Every motor vehicle other than an antique vehicle displaying an antique plate or an expanded-use antique vehicle displaying expanded-use antique vehicle plates...

and applies that rule to both brake lights visible at over 500 ft in normal sunlight and to electric turn signals.

[-]

RBI-Man@reddit

States certainly went their own directions in implementing these laws.

My fourth-grade teacher was older than dirt. She had taught many of my classmates' parents.

She wore massive rings on both hands - several fingers - and had a reputation for rapping misbehaving children on the head with them.

SandraMort@reddit

When my kids were younger, a friend in Alabama had to opt out.

[-]

IHadTacosYesterday@reddit

I'm in my cell

Reporting from San Quentin, lol

[-]

SandraMort@reddit

Lol!!! I meant ON my cell

[-]

SandraMort@reddit

ilrosewood@reddit

I slept half way to Colorado in the back window of a riviera.

[-]

SheShouldGo@reddit

Letting your kids play in the backyard by themselves. Now people call CPS for child endangerment.

[-]

smitbret@reddit

Drinking before the age of 21

Buying cigarettes at the store with a permission note written by one of your parents.

Parents driving home after having a few cocktails while their little kids slept stretched out across the backseat of the car.

Little kids home alone, or waiting in the car when parents are at the bar.

Domestic violence was pretty much considered a family issue unless someone was seriously injured.

Discrimination, wage differences, and firing based on gender, pregnancy, marital status, cultural background, etc.

Laws against homosexuality - it was a criminal offense.

Banks and businesses refusing to issue a credit card or line of credit to women.

18 for me (Okie). I was old enough to buy alcohol for a while, then they raised the age to 21, and I was no longer legal to buy/consume.

[-]

badtux99@reddit

I'm baffled who would do the reporting. But then I live in a working class neighborhood, not some bougie suburb, so (shrug).

[-]

Ok_Still_3571@reddit

Neighbors, mainly. And it is a suburb, so the culture of carting your kids around in a car is pretty strong. But I also have a friend who lives in a dense city not far from me who had the DSS (dept of social services) visit, citing that they were called because their sons were seen playing on the sidewalk in front of a neighbor’s house (they live on a one-way side street). It then escalated into a home visit and inspection. Pretty invasive, too. They opened the fridge, the cabinets, etc., looking for signs of neglect. There were none. But the whole thing left the family feeling tense, including the kids, who were now scared about getting everyone in trouble. The kids were 7 and 9 at the time.

[-]

badtux99@reddit

Ah. Working class neighbors don't call The Man because nothing good happens after that. Actually all their kids are out in the street playing together right now. That's why I asked who would call, because it's all their kids.

Some time during the 70's/80's IME, but it didn't really fully spread to be the norm until after 2000

[-]

istara@reddit

I’m always amazed the way people could just buy vast amounts of poison from the local pharmacy in old detective novels.

[-]

56KandFalling@reddit

At the store: I'll take three bottles of arsenic, thank you! lol
That was before my time though.

[-]

anaisaknits@reddit

Kids being allowed to walk home from school and be alone until parents got home from work while in elementary school.

Today CPS and cops will show up. If you're found walking home alone from school in elementary, people scream horrible parents and demand to arrest them.

[-]

Hungry-Treacle8493@reddit

Yet, in larger dense cities in the U.S. (e.g. NYC, Chicago) you see free range kids on public transit all the time and no one blinks an eye. But in some leafy suburb? Call the cops & news channel!!!

[-]

Aggravating_Mix8959@reddit

As an adult: I was staying with a friend in a rural areas in Louisiana for a few weeks. I took a walk every day around the neighborhood for fitness and personal enjoyment.

Someone called the cops on me. They drove up behind me and stopped and asked what I was doing. I asked if no one ever walked around there? The officer laughed and said, "No, not really."

But people are still apparently watching you from inside with their AC and bothered enough to call enforcement.

[-]

Hungry-Treacle8493@reddit

😂😂😂 that’s classic rural South stuff right there.

[-]

What_Scripture_Saith@reddit

Absolutely. You're right.

bigghc@reddit

I found some years ago for $2 in the original box with rings and instructions! Still have them and wife keeps hoping I'll get rid of lol.

Riding in the back of a pick up truck.

[-]

EnjoyingTheRide-0606@reddit

Riding in a pick-up bed, Walking a dog off leash, Smoking in public, No seatbelt or helmet laws, Leaving kids and pets in the car without an adult present, no carseats

I grew up in a rural area of Pennsylvania. Most of my neighbors were relatives. My road was 3/4 of a mile, and mostly dirt. At the end of the road was my grandfather's house, and that was the bus stop.

I remember at 4 walking to the bus stop and back alone before school started as a dry run.

Underage smoking and drinking.

Live animals in circus. Illegal now.

Buying cigarettes!

I used to be a smoker, and I could "buy cigarettes for my parents" with a "note", sometimes no note needed.

In the 1980s, it wasn't that unusual for pickup trucks to have loaded gun racks in our school parking lots. To the point where people left their windows open and you could just reach inside and grab a gun, but it didn't seem to happen much.

I remember packing a few pistols in my car because I was meeting my grandfather at the gun range after school.

Queue a school shooting at my high school and suddenly, guns weren't allowed on campus to the point that Security started checking vehicles.

[-]

AccidentalSwede@reddit

My dad's outstretched arm was the seatbelt when I was in the passenger seat.

WatchPerfect6066@reddit

yes. just typed out my first instant thought then scrolled down...

didn't take long to see you there.

[-]

beththebookgirl@reddit

Smoking. Every where. Even hospitals.

[-]

unloosedcoin@reddit

I remember being 5 on a bus with mum smoking and she passed it to me to throw out the window.

[-]

Character_Raisin574@reddit

Throwing everything out the car window!

[-]

Kids buying cigs and lottery tickets lol. Dont know if it was ever truly legal but wed all be shopping for our parents or grandparents lol.

[-]

azrolator@reddit

I live in a state that didn't have any legal minimum age to leave your kids home. So it all ends up at discretion of CPS.

We were the generation left at home. Left to wander.

I had a coworker who had CPS take her kids away because she let them be at home alone when working. One of them was even an older teen that was left in charge.

Being 8 and left home alone for 2 days while parents went on an overnight trip... With money for pizza and soda, and using a gas stove to cook meals.

Seatbelts optional

Drinking and driving

[-]

Astronomer-Secure@reddit

Drinking and driving

We had a German Shepard who lived a couple blocks away. He was super agro but I don't know that he ever actually bit anyone.

We also had a black lab who would wander freely about the neighborhood biting children. I hated that dog.

1980s... City suburb in a fairly rural state.

I used to ride my bike to buy my Dad beer at the local store. I did this from age 8 to 12, when we lived in W. Germany.

Mobile-Piel@reddit

Shotgun rack inside the back window of your pickup. With shotguns. No requirement for seatbelts. Riding around in the bed of a pickup. Auto insurance optional.

[-]

Perfect-Librarian895@reddit

Lawn darts.

[-]

the_dark_viper@reddit

When I would visit my grandparents in their small town for the summer, I would go to the store for them or my great-uncle. I would go to the grocery store, and the lady would ask, "You here for grandma or uncle (Grandma's brother)?" If I said uncle, by the time I finished picking up things on his list, she had two cartons of Chesterfield cigarettes, bottles of Michelob beer, and two Mr. Goodbars already bagged up and waiting for me. I'd pass by the Sheriff or one of the deputies, they would wave and chat with me, and the Sheriff would always say, "Save some of those Michelob's for your uncle." I was like 7 or 8.

[-]

Practicality_Issue@reddit

When we were at my great grandparents house in WV, my grandfather would send me next door to the little store with a fiver and I’d buy a 6 pack of Budweiser in the bottles and one of those Mickey Mouse ice cream things with gum for the eyes.

Smoking in coffee shops. The vibe and smell of having a spliff in Amsterdam back in the late 90's. Or smoking in late night diners, I remember solving all the world's problems chain smoking, drinking bottomless black coffee late into the night with friends. Forgetting everything the next day. Or the buzz of a smokey morning at a Waffle House, smoking while eating a plate of eggs. That Tabasco heat on your lips as you take a draw on a grit as you eat your grits. The way the smoke would drift in the incandescent light and hang there, very cinematic. Or seeing someone across the restaurant blow a smoke rings.

*while middle school-aged

Also grew up in rural Arizona. BB gun wars were real, and a blast. We used to go up into the mountains when we were 15/16 and have paintball battles in the woods.

🤣🤣🤣

[-]

ZedArkadia@reddit

One of my earliest memories is riding in the front on my dad's motorcycle, I must have been 2 or 3. It was decades later before I really thought about how insane that was.

[-]

Ebluez@reddit

My brother would sleep in the back window area of the car on long trips.

[-]

knitmama77@reddit

Baby walkers with wheels, and pokey lawn darts.

Retard & our whole slang Vocabulary.

Rode a rental three wheeler at some sand dunes once. I can still feel the burn in my calf where I learned what happens if you put your foot down, as if riding a bike.

I had chronic headaches, sinus infections, and allergies growing up.

Riding a bike without a helmet.

Buying cigarettes for adults as a minor.

Because the answer is long and nuanced and nobody else in the thread cares enough to read a 5 paragraph essay on it.

Going down Main Street of my small town, sitting on the open tailgate of my dad’s Datsun pickup, dangling my legs and watching the gravel go by is one of my favorite memories.

Talking_Head@reddit

I miss phenylpropanolamine.

[-]

Cysteine_Chapel64@reddit

Supposedly later generations tend towards teetotaling so between that and other factors we might not even be able to get the scotch either.

[-]

ED-DOG92@reddit

Driving while on your phone.

Driving with open alcohol containers in the front part of your vehicle and not just in your trunk.

Beating your kids due to bad behavior.

Churches having the right to beat kids for whatever reason they seem fit.

Riding in the back of a pickup truck.

Being a married female and having to ask permission from your husband to do certain things that he can do openly.

Spitting your gum out anywhere in public and not being considered as littering.

Smoking cigarettes anywhere without consequence.

I'm glad these things are gone as we've gotten smarter (in some ways) and are better off now.

[-]

Infuryous@reddit

I was thinking I used to ride in the bed of my dad’s pickup truck all the time. I don’t think we could get away with that now.

Surprisingly it's legal without restriction in 21 states, legal with restrictions in 27 states (usually age, sometimes speed or no highway), and only banned outright in 2 states.

Riding in the back of a station wagon with no seat belts.

Smoking inside the house exposing your kids to second hand smoke.

[-]

HighSeasArchivist@reddit

Just being a kid would 100% be illegal now. You have to be watched every second of every day, or someone is getting arrested for child abuse.

[-]

Whos_that_Gorilla2@reddit

Driving with an open container of alcohol, at least in TX. I just remember everyone driving around swilling beer. I guess it was fine as long as you were under a certain BAC.

Kids riding around with no seatbelts, and definitely no booster seats.

Not really illegal, but now strongly discouraged. I remember walking home from kindergarten. I mapped it out later in life and it was 1/2 a mile from home. To my mom’s credit, she did show me two ways to get home and how to use the crosswalk the day before. 😂

My brother and I use to play with the cigarette machine. One time, a pack of cigarettes came out. My mom turned them in to the hostess.

No seatbelts. I remember my brother opened the door because he wanted to see how it looked when the car turned. He was about 4 or 5, I think.

My dad used to to pick me up on his motorcycle from a friend’s house. Sometimes he made me wear his helmet. Most of the time I didn’t wear a helmet.

Ah, the good ol’ days….

[-]

Patient-01@reddit

Riding on the bed of truck when I was 5 on freeway alone

[-]

JunkyardReverb@reddit

Grew up on a farm in Mississippi. As a kid this was our primary method of travel. Freeway, dirt road, didn’t matter we were always in the back. Grown folks rode up front. But the cool ones joined us for the open air ride.

[-]

Quick_Parking_6464@reddit

Lawn darts.

Everything_Breaks@reddit

I thought that space behind the backseat in a Volkswagen Beetle was intended for kids specifically.

[-]

ArgusMcJohnsten@reddit

I covered so many miles in that space when I was like 5-8 years old

[-]

DietNarrow8275@reddit

We had a big station wagon and my sisters and I would fling ourselves back and forth over the back seat into the way back and back again while going sixty MPH on the freeway until my mom would start back handing any of us who got within her arm span while she threatened to pull over and beat us all.

Years later as an adult, this accident was wild to reminisce about and discuss with my Mom. I think she was pretty traumatized too, obviously didn't know any better. Seat belt laws and the public info campaigns hit about 2 or 3 years later as I recall.

I also vaguely remember falling out of truck passenger seat when the door sprung open from my elbow or something when I was 7. We were only going ~15mph or so from I remember. I had to get a butterfly bandage on my forehead but other than that my dad basically dusted me off and said to remember to lock the door next time, LOL. No thoughts or mention about the seat belt literally just laying right there.

Nacho_Tools@reddit

Riding in the bed of pickup trucks as a kid before it was made illegal.

[-]

AllenKll@reddit

Riding in the bed of a pickup truck was always illegal. And sure you can still do it.

[-]

ddurk1@reddit

I started smoking when I was 12 (1982), I bought my smokes at the grocery store cigarette machine. Also, my dad used to drink beers while driving and throw the empty cans out the window on the highway Also, every summer we took a cross country trip. There were 5 kids and my parents in the station wagon. We'd stop at McDonald's for food. My Mom would collect everyone's wrappers when we finished our burgers, put them all back in the bag and just chuck the bag out on the highway. Also, we would hillbomb the interstate (I-70 in Colorado) during the summer in the afternoon. All middle fingers and "fuck you" to cars that would honk at us.

[-]

ShelleyMonique@reddit

gif

[-]

IHadTacosYesterday@reddit

I always thought this guy looked too white, lol

I’ll never forget when I was in 1st grade around the first week of school the vice principal pulled a kid out of the lunch line for acting out and whipped him without one of those 1970s suede cat-o-none tail keychains. I was shook lol.

iamntropi@reddit

And getting a pill out of the package is really difficult now. You used to be able to buy a small bottle of loose pills. I want to say you could buy loose pills 5 years ago, but I could be wrong. Last year was the first time I had to face the difficult peeling in strong plastic. Claritin does not work for me- one tiny Sudafed pill will help me breathe for hours.

Letting your child ride or walk home from school.

In some states (mine included), parents have been reported for having their kids play unattended in the front yard. No was attended to in the front yard when we played.

I used to love riding in the back of Dad's pickup. But one time....he took my siblings and me to a state park with a really nice pond and brought along an inflatable raft. Nice day all of us in this big raft, until storm clouds rolled in. Got out of there REAL fast.

But then....as we're flying down I-95, three of us in the back of the truck covered with the (now deflated) raft, it started to HAIL. Boy did that HURT. But at the same time we're in pain, we couldn't help but think how funny it actually was. Alternating "OUCH!" with "HAHAHA".

We just had a local teenage get thrown out of the bed of a pickup when it went over a bump. She died.

As a kid, riding in the back of a pickup was such a normal thing. After that was outlawed in my state, I started to pay attention to news of deaths and injuries due to being in the back of a pickup. It has been awful to realize how frequently kids are injured or killed due to that.

[-]

HermioneMarch@reddit

Beating your kid

[-]

punkwalrus@reddit

That's true, although in the 1970s, society was turning around. But for the longest time, you could even beat someone else's kid, and they parent would then beat the same kid going, "What did you do? You're making the family look bad, you little shit!" The school administration could pull your pants down, and spank your naked butt in the privacy of their classroom or office, or in front of others. Some had "wiffle holes" so the paddle would be lighter and more aerodynamic. Catholic school kids also had rulers across their knuckles.

Kids were definitely the receiving end of other's trauma. One, they were small and helpless, and two, it was part of the cycle. That's why so many Gen-X'ers say "I was beat as a kid, and it didn't do ME any harm! I grew up straight and tall!" or whatever. They think it will "fix" a bad kid, because they don't know the difference between punishment and revenge.

[-]

HermioneMarch@reddit

I’d like to know how many “bad” kids it actually fixed.

[-]

Effective-Usual4152@reddit

Smoking section right outside the doors of my high school.

[-]

W0gg0@reddit

Mine was in the courtyard off of the cafeteria.

[-]

PlantWide3166@reddit

Drinking and driving.

I remember when it became illegal illegal and man, you would have thought the world was ending.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2xcQIoh3FQQ&ra=m

[-]

Necessary-Peace9672@reddit

Ephedrine

[-]

Beneficial-Bag-2874@reddit

Smoking in restaurants

I vividly remember visiting a friend in Texas as a kid and her father proudly noted that it was legal to drink beer while driving.

I also remember several occasions when my father drove home while drunk, sometimes vomiting on the side of the road. I don’t know if it was legal, but why the hell wasn’t my mom driving?

[-]

Heavymetal73@reddit

I remember it being legal to have an open container while driving (in the 90’s), but being intoxicated was a no no.

[-]

therocketn00b@reddit

I remember sitting in the car while my dad ran into Cap 'N Cork and grabbed a bottle of cheap wine in a bag to drink on the road. We didn't have cup holders, but the bottle could sit snugly between the parking brake and the passenger seat.

[-]

SandraMort@reddit

I remember lying in the car under the back window -- not even laying on the seat!! I don't think i was more than 3 or 4.

The only way you get by with that now is on a farm. Or land that has several acres you own.

We could go to store for parents and buy their cigarettes and alcohol. Take it back home.

At 16 I could walk in any convenience store and buy beer and wine coolers and not be asked for Id.

[-]

lexi_prop@reddit

Riding in the bed of a pickup was so fun

[-]

sickiesusan@reddit

When I was a kid you seemed to be able to put as many people as could fit into a car …

[-]

Basically having your kid do whatever you decided you wanted them to.

to many people in a car, put your child up in the back window area ( yep that was me at 8)
ran out of Jack and cigs, send kid to go pick them up, did that for years
codeine in the cough syrup, we called that shit purple medicine, hell my mom got straight up opium syrup for my baby brother to stop crying, paregoric
leaving kids so unsupervised they're not even sure that an adult is even available anywhere after work at some point

Most of the things most teachers did (being nice, absolutely NOTHING malicious) would get them fired today. The number of times I'd get into a teachers car or go to their house (summer vacation) to see them would make most parents run to the police today.

That and play with silver fulminate “throwdowns” , air pistols and spud guns.

[-]

ImDoneForToday2019@reddit

Okay, that first one made me chuckle. Well done!

[-]

merrysunshine2@reddit

Not wearing a seatbelt

Drinking age was 18

Riding in the back of the pickup truck bed. Phew, even I knew that wasn't smart and I was a kid.

My auntie would let me ride sitting in the driving wheel as she drove to the store. Lol, crazy.

[-]

BMisterGenX@reddit

when I was kid almost any time of fireworks were legal at any age. The store could refuse to sell to you if you were too young but I don't think it was a legal requirement. And fireworks were available at the gas station and drug store.

[-]

dirthawg@reddit

Drinking a beer driving down the highway.

[-]

BMisterGenX@reddit

when I was a kid it was legal to drink beer while driving as long as you weren't drunk. There were no laws or limits regading open containers for passangers. I remember when seat belts were not required by law. Then initially they changed the law that only the driver needed a seat belt.

Designated smoking area in high school.

Riding bikes without a helmet.

Funny story. I was with some friends (mind you, we were all about 20, but all over 18) hanging out. I went into the store to get a soda and a friend asked me to get them some cigarettes, so I did - and wasn't carded.

5 minutes later I decided to go back in to buy a lottery ticket - was carded.

Dad was drinking and we kit a curb and crashed. My legs and stomach had burns from the exhaust. That's me with the helmet on, safety first!

[-]

Back in the 80's I used to ride in the back of my uncle's bitchin van. On a milk crate. I was a child.

Everyone thought that was ok back then.

[-]

mvscribe@reddit

Driving (or being a passenger in a car) without a seatbelt on.

[-]

WhatTheHellPod@reddit

There was a story a few years back about a woman who almost lost her kid (who was like 8 or 10 years old) because she was working and couldn't afford childcare. So the kid spent a lot of time alone at a park near where the Mom worked. The kid didn't DO anything, just hung out at the park for hours. Someone called the cops, family services got involved and the mom had to go to court to keep her kid out of foster care. She kept the kid but it was a whole big news story.

Our parent's would've been screwed.

[-]