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30 Facts From The ’70s And ’80s That Seem Unbelievable Now, Shared In This Online Thread
Kids in the '70s and '80s had a different experience when growing up. No wonder your auntie Betsie never misses a chance to tell the same old story of her 10-year-old self walking 5 km to school in freezing winter. “These days kids, they don’t know!” she mumbles.
But she must be right. This illuminating thread shared by Dan Wuori, the senior director of early learning at The Hunt Institute, shed light on what kids in the past experienced in their daily lives and most of it is simply hard to imagine.
“My high school had a smoking area. For the kids,” Wuori tweeted before asking everyone to share “What’s something you experienced as a kid that would blow your children’s minds?” Below we selected some of the most interesting posts that reveal just how much times have changed.
Image credits: DanWuori
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Trawling through the library index first to find the right encyclopedia / reference publication then building your footnotes / bibliography to support your submission. Roughly 30 minutes for per reference...
Childhood memories are something most of us cherish throughout our lives. Prof. Krystine Batcho, a scholar in science of nostalgia and licensed psychologist, has developed a tool to measure our emotions towards the past using the Nostalgia Inventory Test. The tool shows how strongly and how often people feel nostalgic.
In a previous in-depth interview with Prof. Batcho, Bored Panda asked the professor about the role our childhood memories play in our lives. According to the professor, childhood memories can influence our adult lives in a number of ways. “They can contribute to our overall sense of happiness in life.”
This was "normal" in the UK in the 80s and 90s. Uniform was a skirt for the girls. In winter they simply wore woolly tights, which was also part of the uniform and had to be a certain colour. Boys wore trousers and it was only if it was really hot we could wear shorts and very occasionally it would be declared a "no tie" day.
Moreover, Batcho argues that social experiences we had when little are crucial to our development and adult lives. “Positive childhood social events, such as family get-togethers during the holidays or parties to celebrate birthdays or achievements, help establish good self-esteem and healthy social skills in adulthood,” she told us.
Prof. Batcho’s life-long research suggested that “positive childhood memories are associated with more adaptive coping skills in adulthood.” For example, people with happier memories of childhood were less likely to turn to counterproductive ways of dealing with stressful situations, such as substance abuse or escapist behavior.
The amount of times I would burn my hands on the monkey bars from the hot Aussie sun 😤 the blisters! But my god was it fun!!!
One of ours threw a board "rubber" hit a kid, who had to have stitches. For those too young, a rubber was a lump of wood with some felt attached to rub out chalk on the blackboard.
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My 3rd grade teacher took off her shoe and threw it at a kid for talking in class. He ducked, and it hit the girl behind him in the face. She happened to be the Principal's daughter.
Some of the classrooms had a long wooden pointer for the blackboard, and a couple of my teachers were in the habit of smacking it across the table of whoever was distracted. Instant pre-adolescent heart attack.
My science teacher used to thwomp our desks often with a yardstick. It always made us jump!
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First offence: board-wiping cloth Second offence: chalk Third offence: the felt & wood board eraser, accompanied by "If you don't behave I'll bounce you." We never found out what bouncing entailed, but we were 3 floors up. Our 10-year old heads were capable of doing the sums. Full disclosure: the board eraser never actually hit anyone, but it made a hell of a bang when it hit the wall behind the miscreant.
Ooh, so did Sister Kay, my first grade teacher.
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Jr. High, 1974 (USA grades 7-8). Biology teacher. A very eccentric man nicknamed Uncle Al the Kiddies Pal. He could throw a very well used chalkboard eraser so that it landed chalked side down for a small infraction, or chalk side up for a medium infraction. Chalk side up resulted in a choking cloud of chalk dust rising to face. Long after I had graduated he lost it and threw a stapler. Didn't hit anyone but he got suspended.
My brother had a teacher (can't spell his last name so I'll just call him Mr M.) who would do sonething funny. During class, Mr M. would ask one of the students a math question and if they got it right, all was well but, if the student was wrong, Mr. M would grab a chalkboard eraser and throw it at the student while yelling "Wrong!". The students all found it funny.
This! Multiple teachers who would throw a chalkboard eraser at the head of any sleeping student, with excellent aim!
Had a teacher once that would regularly throw the chalk board eraser when she would get pissed off. Not saying she was an angry woman but I don't remember a single school day that she didn't throw one.
Saw a lot of the more old school (pun intended) teachers throw blackboard erasers at kids many time. This was in the sixties, and they were old old old, and may have been teaching since WWI or the twenties. Oh yes, schools still paddled kids as punishment in those days. I remember a teacher sending me to the office—-not to be punished but to pick something up for her—-and seeing the paddle. It was one of the ones with holes drilled into it to make it hurt more. I think it also made it make noise as it was swung, for a much fuller effect, but I might be wrong about that, as I never had the dubious pleasure of receiving a paddling.
My history teacher had a softball he would throw at the radiator to wake us up
What do you mean "threw"? I had teachers literally hit you on the head with whatever they had in their hands.
Oh yes! When I first became a teacher and threw a pencil at a 16-year-old kid who just would not shut up, I was quietly pulled aside and told that we don't do that in Australia. They still did in Germany though.
My grandfather parked a semitrailer on the parade grounds after my uncle's hair was cut because he punched a kid.
And some of us students threw them back. The blackboard eraser was usually the missile of choice when I was at school.
My Jr high band teacher had a deadly aim with an eraser. She always kept them heavily chalked so you always knew who had got beaned with one of her erasers.
Teacher threw a desk at my brother once. Parochial school. They were a bit harsher than public school
I had a teacher break the spine of a textbook by slamming it on a kids head.
I had that happen in 5th grade. I was turned around talking, the teacher threw an eraser at me, and the kid who sat in front of me caught it. lol Great days.
Or twisted unruly boys ears, or sent them to the headmaster for the cane.
Ninth grade math teacher would throw the eraser (true chalk boards) at the person he wanted to answer the question. He had deadly accuracy.
My reading teacher was known for her great aim with a chalkboard eraser.
I had a teacher that stood outside the principal's door while a 7th grader in her class got paddled by the principal.
My sociology teacher would use the binding of a book to crack on someone’s head. Only the males.
my teacher would throw my heavy backpack to us if we late. it was in the 90s
Teachers were violent aggressive thugs in the 70s. It was ok to use violence on a kid back then. A holes..
A nun broke my mom's nose with a wooden backed eraser when the kid she was aiming at ducked.
Ms. Kellog was a damn sniper with chalk board erasers. She almost always managed to hit kids in the chest with the eraser part so there was a dusty blast and they were covered in chalk. It was the best.
Grade 7 teacher threw a meter stick and speared through the plaster in the wall.
A girl in my second grade class got thrown against the chalkboard by a nun!
My science teacher would throw a tennis ball to bounce on the desktop next to your head... his aim wasn't always for the desktop. (This was only for sleeping students)
I had a racist 6th grade school teacher (white) that threw dirty chalk board erasers at the (black) students' heads and faces and then told them not to wipe off the mess until class was over. The teachers and schools would be sued if the same incident was to happen today.
I had an older substitute teacher slap me across the top of my hands with a wooden ruler for asking my neighbor for a pencil
Oh yes lol! My primary 7 teacher was a master at it. Vivid memory of him throwing a bunch of keys (BIG bunch of keys) at a group of desks (in primary school our desks were normally always set up in groups, 4 or so) where the pupils just kept talking. He never even looked up from what he was reading, he just grabbed the keys and threw them and hit his target! The whole class just about shat ourselves! But one thing I will say, despite our teachers doing that kind of thing back then, or maybe because of it, we always, ALWAYS, respected them. Different times, BETTER times!
In the final year of school, we had a teacher who loved to throw the wooden board cleaner at the boys who just irritated her. One day she threw the cleaner at a particular boy, he ducked and it hit the guy behind him. Nothing to him, he threw the board cleaner back at the teacher. Mayhem ensued and ultimately the youngster came out and told everybody why he threw the cleaner back at the teacher: he said she assaulted him, so he assaulted him back. He faced no further charges and the teacher was sent to anger management therapy. The young man all through high school he was the South African Diving Champion. His parents stood shoulder to shoulder with their son - what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Equality is important.
My Religious Education teacher threw a bible at a pupil's head whilst shouting he was a gobs@#£e... That was in 2000. Tbf, he WAS a gobs@#£e
Yep. My music teacher would throw those heavy metal music stands at us.
A teacher once threw a stapler at the wall, flew right past my head only inches away. This was the 90s though.
My dad told me about a time when his teacher threw an eraser at him. His teacher then asked him to return the eraser. My dad asked how he wanted it back, and his teacher said anyway you want. So my dad threw it at him and hit him in the head.
I remember being in the Philly school system coming to the USA, was put in esl (English as a second language) class, the teacher I had would hit our back hand with rulers, I thought this was normal, I guess not
A maths teacher in grade would throw bits of chalk at kids. He caught a student in the eye once and it near blinded him. Teacher was ‘asked’ to leave.
Wooden chalkboard erasers were a geography teacher favourite; and a 12" wooden rule to slap the palm of your hand.
Good!! Kids are asses to teachers! They should be allowed to throw everything ficking thing they want at them!
Today, kids think nothing of throwing s**t at teachers because they know there's no consequences.
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The nuns beat us with rulers and yardsticks (1955-1963). My mother gave permission. grrr One made a really big mistake of slapping my face that left a large handprint. Mother was pissed and pulled us out of that hellhole after 8 years. It also saved her thousands of dollars.
Some still do. Im 25 now and i knew a teacher that would throw with chalk or even her shoe
Our maths tutor would yell "you boy" (irrespective of gender) and launch the old wooden blackboard eraser across the classroom and straight at your head. They would also kick your chair legs from under you if you where rocking on the back 2 legs lol that was the 90's
My elementary school French teacher used to swing a rubber chicken above her head. She’d chant “Où est le poulet?” and let go. The bird would fly and hit a wall, a window, and frequently a student.
We had a relieving teacher, Major Kirk - an elderly ex-army guy. He could hit a class clown at the back of the room with a well aimed piece of chalk, hard enough to make him go "ouch!".
Got caught skipping by a teacher once. He chased us with his car, but we still got away. The next day, he called me out in the hall and kicked me in the shin.
My wife had a teacher. They called him Booger. He used to flick boogers at the kids when they misbehaved. Very believable when other people confirmed this. I didn't have him, another school for me. But at that school, I'm just surprised we weren't suspended or expelled for the shenanigans we've pulled!
I remember chalk and erasers being half heartedly thrown quite a bit. Maybe one or two times when the teacher really whipped it.
My sisters had a teacher that threw one of their phones out the window.
My 10th grade English teacher threw a desk across the room. Half the class had to jump out of the way or be seriously injured. He was having an argument with a student (who was 16yo) that escalated to the desk throw. Since I was sitting next to the kid, I stuck with a front row seat to their fight. Kid was being a clown and the teacher had a meltdown. As far as I know, the teacher faced no consequences for that and he never apologized. The desk was dented but still usable. I don't remember what happened to the kid.
I had a teacher who would do this for fun sometimes when I was in high school 3 years ago lol
One nun in high school .... man she could ping a blackboard duster! I mentioned how accurate she was. Long story short, we started softball for sport next term and I got her to play 3rd base - accurate as, I never had to move an inch off 1st to take her throws!
That means that healthy coping is not something we’re born with, but rather “it is learned during childhood by role modeling trusted adults, and memories of how respected adults coped with adversity,” the professor explained.
If you deeply cherish your childhood memories and carry them throughout your life, you’re not the only one, Batcho argues. The professor explained that this phenomenon is called “rosy retrospection,” and it refers to a tendency to remember the past as better than it really was.
Ha. There was one bus stop in the entire village. Apart from the one and only school bus, the remainder of the bus service flipped between one an hour to two busses a week! I walked to primary school, including on my own from about aged 7 or 8, and cycled to secondary school which was 3 miles away in the nearest town. This is probably why I have such little patience with the Chelsea tractors (SUVs) doing the "school run".
“There might be an evolutionary reason for it, because a favorable focus on the past helps most people remain healthy and happy despite the practical and emotional challenges of adult life,” prof. Batcho explained. Having said that, it’s also important to note that memory retrieval and the way we feel about them is directly influenced by a person’s current mood and state of mind. It turns out that when we are sad or depressed, we are more likely to remember negative events in our past and remember past experiences less favorably.
The one I remember was mostly a toy: molded plastic seat, one inch plastic strap with a buckle, and a plastic steering wheel with a squeeky horn button.
Probably because they were hunting rifles, used for hunting and not assault rifles, used for God knows what.
Well at least the nurse tried to calm her down, though a newborn should not be near smoking!
We had Nitty Nora the head explorer. You were treated then and there. The shame of going back to class was dreadful.
Note: this post originally had 41 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
Bigotry, racism, homophobia, and bullying were acceptable then. Really glad things changed.
Things are much better but i am afraid that we are going backwards.
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My seventh grade school field trip was to a state prison. When we entered the prison, the prisoners on the upper floors threw lit toilet paper at us. We ate lunch in the cafeteria with the prisoners with very little supervision, and we got a tour of death row. John Wayne Gacy was there.
I would love that tour as an adult! Probably a bit frightening for younger folk, though
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Our school bus driver kept a leather belt hanging on a hook beside his seat as a warning not to misbehave. We knew he would gladly use it on a student.
Ours was always tipsy or stoned. Made for some interesting bus rides...
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I sat in a smoking seat once on a flight to Mexico. With all the 2nd hand smoke haze hanging there in the section it was like you were smoking, you didn’t need to actually light up.
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I don't know why people are downvoting peoples' experiences. Telling an experience does not entail endorsing it. If you keep downvoting people they get banned from BP. Please think before you downvote. You should downvote if someone ADVOCATES something horrible like child assault, racism, etc. Not if they say they were a victim of it. Sheesh.
Milk being delivered to houses via a delivery van with teen boys hanging off the back, driving down our street to bring you fresh milk in glass bottles. I’d stand outside and listen for the cow horn and grab the milk from one of the lads and bring it up to the house :)
did you have those weird tokens to pay for the bottles?
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My only weird memory from the 80's is addressing the kindergarten staff as "comrade" - that's because the communist regime had not collapsed yet (that was in 1990).
That's cool, you'll be interested to know in South Africa our politicians (except the whites) still call each other comrade.
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In the 80's I could take a note to the liquor store and buy cigarettes for my mom.
Some things are much better. Some things are much much worse.
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The gym teacher was on cafeteria supervision duty & didn't like one kid tipping back on his chair. He warned him once. Next time he kicked the chair right out from under him. This would be mid seventies.
When my mom was 16 she had to take a permission slip to Girl Scout camp from her mom saying it was ok for her to smoke.
When I was little, everyone sent to the nurse at school for a big plastic spoonful of Pepto Bismal. Bug bite? Pesto. Headache? Pesto. Broken arm? Yep, you guessed it,Pepto!!
We always joked that our school nurse asked everyone if they were pregnant.
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A couple of these were still happening in the 90's... or even early 2000's if you lived in the middle of nowhere
That was a different time. In today's reactions, the teacher wasn't fired. Shockingly. In the mid-80s, she was probably written up. I should ask the girl - we occasionally see each other.
My mum had one of the early ATM cards, although they weren't called that at the time. It was plastic, with punched holes in it, £10 printed on it and that was what you got out of the machine. The machine ate your card and the bank sent it back to you in the post. True story
In grade 4 we had a great teacher (for once). He had a small farm and all kinds of animals and pets. End of year he was actually allowed to have us for an overnight stay at his house. Now, there was (as far as I knew or knowto this day) nothing nefarious in his invitation, just a treat. EXCEPT, it was only the BOYS allowed, because having us girls there too would have been unseemly. I mean, wt heck?
I was born in 1980. One thing I know from my mom was that in the 70's, a lot of school bus drivers were high school kids! We didn't have smoking in my high school, but our church camp still allowed it up until my senior year ('99). I don't know if smoking age is a state law issue, but it used to be 16 (though you had to be 18 to buy them). Parents would have to sign a permission slip and campers would get a bracelet. Half the kids either forged the permission slip or they'd trade the bracelets around. When they moved the age to 18, my camp cut it out because less than 1/4 of the kids would qualify.
We had a smoking area at my high school too. It was called "the hole" and the school security guard (before there were resource officers in schools) would hang out out there with us to make sure there was peace. There always was. We were just smoking cigarettes, talking, and playing hacky sack.
Ha. Ours was called "the pit" and it was exactly the same.
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I was born in '93 and some of these still aply to me! Like we had smoking area for my countrys version of high school (ages 16-18 so technically the older ones were adults) and when I was a child we only had 4 channels in TV too. Did the 70's and 80's come to Finland in the '90s? :D
Parental living like they didn't have children. Adults doing whatever they want. No wonder people want a return to those days. Nothing weird about hitting a kid on thei a*s with a wooden paddle.
My science teacher smoked 19 cigarettes inside the classroom during a 100 minutes class.
My science teacher would leave the room whenever my class frustrated her. Always returned reeking of cigarettes.
Load More Replies... Several of us had wednesday afternoons off in HS. We would all being our rifles to on the bus and leave them in our lockers. One of us had a car and we would take off at noon to a gravel pit for an afternoon of target shooting. Only comment I ever got was one teacher asked to see what type of rifle I had.
Bigotry, racism, homophobia, and bullying were acceptable then. Really glad things changed.
Things are much better but i am afraid that we are going backwards.
Load More Replies... My seventh grade school field trip was to a state prison. When we entered the prison, the prisoners on the upper floors threw lit toilet paper at us. We ate lunch in the cafeteria with the prisoners with very little supervision, and we got a tour of death row. John Wayne Gacy was there.
I would love that tour as an adult! Probably a bit frightening for younger folk, though
Load More Replies... Our school bus driver kept a leather belt hanging on a hook beside his seat as a warning not to misbehave. We knew he would gladly use it on a student.
Ours was always tipsy or stoned. Made for some interesting bus rides...
Load More Replies... I sat in a smoking seat once on a flight to Mexico. With all the 2nd hand smoke haze hanging there in the section it was like you were smoking, you didn’t need to actually light up.
Load More Replies... I don't know why people are downvoting peoples' experiences. Telling an experience does not entail endorsing it. If you keep downvoting people they get banned from BP. Please think before you downvote. You should downvote if someone ADVOCATES something horrible like child assault, racism, etc. Not if they say they were a victim of it. Sheesh.
Milk being delivered to houses via a delivery van with teen boys hanging off the back, driving down our street to bring you fresh milk in glass bottles. I’d stand outside and listen for the cow horn and grab the milk from one of the lads and bring it up to the house :)
did you have those weird tokens to pay for the bottles?
Load More Replies... My only weird memory from the 80's is addressing the kindergarten staff as "comrade" - that's because the communist regime had not collapsed yet (that was in 1990).
That's cool, you'll be interested to know in South Africa our politicians (except the whites) still call each other comrade.
Load More Replies... In the 80's I could take a note to the liquor store and buy cigarettes for my mom.
Some things are much better. Some things are much much worse.
Load More Replies... The gym teacher was on cafeteria supervision duty & didn't like one kid tipping back on his chair. He warned him once. Next time he kicked the chair right out from under him. This would be mid seventies.
When my mom was 16 she had to take a permission slip to Girl Scout camp from her mom saying it was ok for her to smoke.
When I was little, everyone sent to the nurse at school for a big plastic spoonful of Pepto Bismal. Bug bite? Pesto. Headache? Pesto. Broken arm? Yep, you guessed it,Pepto!!
We always joked that our school nurse asked everyone if they were pregnant.
Load More Replies... A couple of these were still happening in the 90's... or even early 2000's if you lived in the middle of nowhere
That was a different time. In today's reactions, the teacher wasn't fired. Shockingly. In the mid-80s, she was probably written up. I should ask the girl - we occasionally see each other.
My mum had one of the early ATM cards, although they weren't called that at the time. It was plastic, with punched holes in it, £10 printed on it and that was what you got out of the machine. The machine ate your card and the bank sent it back to you in the post. True story
In grade 4 we had a great teacher (for once). He had a small farm and all kinds of animals and pets. End of year he was actually allowed to have us for an overnight stay at his house. Now, there was (as far as I knew or knowto this day) nothing nefarious in his invitation, just a treat. EXCEPT, it was only the BOYS allowed, because having us girls there too would have been unseemly. I mean, wt heck?
I was born in 1980. One thing I know from my mom was that in the 70's, a lot of school bus drivers were high school kids! We didn't have smoking in my high school, but our church camp still allowed it up until my senior year ('99). I don't know if smoking age is a state law issue, but it used to be 16 (though you had to be 18 to buy them). Parents would have to sign a permission slip and campers would get a bracelet. Half the kids either forged the permission slip or they'd trade the bracelets around. When they moved the age to 18, my camp cut it out because less than 1/4 of the kids would qualify.
We had a smoking area at my high school too. It was called "the hole" and the school security guard (before there were resource officers in schools) would hang out out there with us to make sure there was peace. There always was. We were just smoking cigarettes, talking, and playing hacky sack.
Ha. Ours was called "the pit" and it was exactly the same.
Load More Replies... I was born in '93 and some of these still aply to me! Like we had smoking area for my countrys version of high school (ages 16-18 so technically the older ones were adults) and when I was a child we only had 4 channels in TV too. Did the 70's and 80's come to Finland in the '90s? :D
Parental living like they didn't have children. Adults doing whatever they want. No wonder people want a return to those days. Nothing weird about hitting a kid on thei a*s with a wooden paddle.
My science teacher smoked 19 cigarettes inside the classroom during a 100 minutes class.
My science teacher would leave the room whenever my class frustrated her. Always returned reeking of cigarettes.
Load More Replies... Several of us had wednesday afternoons off in HS. We would all being our rifles to on the bus and leave them in our lockers. One of us had a car and we would take off at noon to a gravel pit for an afternoon of target shooting. Only comment I ever got was one teacher asked to see what type of rifle I had.
