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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

#2

Mindblowing-Childhood-Experiences

CourtneyAnnePh Report

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Juan Ghote
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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...

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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.”

#6

Mindblowing-Childhood-Experiences

MiraCeleste2 Report

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Robert T
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

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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.

#7

Mindblowing-Childhood-Experiences

StacyKratochvil Report

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Robert T
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

You think that's bad. When I was a university, I didn't have a phone and used the public call boxes at the end of the street. Doesn't sound too bad until I say that I lived in the red light district and got propositioned whilst on the phone to my mother! LOL

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#8

Mindblowing-Childhood-Experiences

RealGravitas Report

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Holly Freeman
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1 year ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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!!!

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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.

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#10

Mindblowing-Childhood-Experiences

crunchyrugger Report

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Robert T
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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".

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“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.

#13

Mindblowing-Childhood-Experiences

long17_de Report

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Grady'sRaider
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

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.

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#14

Mindblowing-Childhood-Experiences

KevinGi62453362 Report

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Robert T
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That was a student prank. Our chemistry teacher had some mercury in a beaker and we stuck our hands in it. Not sure that touching it is a big deal, but you don't want to ingest it.

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#17

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Seymour_from_GP Report

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Ash
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

AND you could pick up the phone and listen in on their conversations!

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#18

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MelissaV007 Report

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Katy McMouse
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Probably because they were hunting rifles, used for hunting and not assault rifles, used for God knows what.

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#21

Mindblowing-Childhood-Experiences

JulieMcCrossin Report

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Sergio Bicerra Descalzi
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In my conuntry, to go to some cities with no airport (lets say 8 hour drive) you have 4 options: your car, train, interstate bus or what is called a "Comité" which are 70's cars, like Dodges, Chryslers, Buicks, etc that were very confortable due to the leg room and they run soooo smoooth!

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Grady'sRaider
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

As a kid standing up to look over the front seat. When sitting in the front seat, mum sweeping an arm in front of me to stop me from being flung into the steel dash when hard braking. The no seatbelt times were terrible. In an accident people flew out the windshield or were bashed on the dash or steering wheel. Crumple zone design didn't exist; the engine could come back through the firewall.

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Tami
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

The arm thing must be an instinct. When my boyfriend rolled his truck, we had our seatbelts on, but still my arm flew out to hold him against his seat. And I never even had kids!

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Nathaniel
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And now all those freedoms have been lost... what next? And yes guys, I am joking.

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Mrs. Jan Glass
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And the ash trays. We used to be cloistered in closed vehicles with two or three adults, all smoking. You'd get yelled at if you begged to open a window, too. This is why I got pneumonia on an almost quarterly schedule as a kid.

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Alex Boyd
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm just young enough for my Dad to have heard you're not supposed to do that with kids in the car; he always opened a window to smoke if we were along . We used to complain about it in the winter. (Not in the summer, because of course the family car did not have air conditioning.)

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James016
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Used to wedge 5 kids in the back of the car when doing the school run.

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P R
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This article is about the 70s & 80s. If you bought a new or newer car, it would have seat belts. Lap belts first required in new cars in the U.S. (in the front seats - '61; in back seat optional that year). By 1968 lap and shoulder belts installed in new cars.

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bexxms
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

No headrests. But I guess you could not get whiplash anyway, as your neck would outright snap in a crash.

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P R
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This article is about the 70s-80s. Head Restraints (not head "rests") were installed in new cars in U.S. manufactured after Dec 31, 1968.

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Robert T
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I could legally drive my classic without a seatbelt. If a car was built without seatbelts you are not required to fit the under UK law. If it had them, or you retrofit them, then they must both work and be worn. I actually have racing harnesses in mine and do wear them.

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Grady'sRaider
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

After my dad, a travelling salesman, rolled his '57 in a snowstorm, he had an aircraft seatbelt installed.

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Al Padilla
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Check out the vintage ad for rear door locks = Girl keeps falling out of the car.... http://www.joesherlock.com/Car-Musings10.html

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Arenite
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We had a gigantic Buick. My dad worked nights, and when we’d go to visit relatives a few hours away, Dad would stretch out in the back seat and go to sleep, and put me and my sister in the front seat with Mom. I used to call it The Yacht.

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Tina Harnish
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Actually there were limits. They were mostly ticketed according to the police inclination. A classmate was killed by a drunk driver a couple of years after we'd graduated. My mother said that the comments from the cops were along the lines of guess we'll have to charge him this time. MAD was in existence at the time because of all the drinking and driving. (One of the reasons cops didn't want to give him tickets was because he was rich.

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elcee
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

or airbags. or running lights. or any fancy stuff. my first vehicle when I came back to rural nh and needed a vehicle, I made certain I got one w rolly windows, that I could reach (across the seat to do the passenger side!)

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Berlinda Dunbar-Nye
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

They'd pile us all in the back of the station wagon. No wonder kids sometimes got forgotten and left along the way ;-)

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Baali Venomax
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I remember hearing about in Spain no one got pulled over for drinking or drinking over the limit. The only time you got in trouble for drink/driving was if you actually had an accident or something/someone, then you got fined and spent the night in jail to sleep it off.

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Mickie Shea
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When girl liked you, it was evident by where sh sat. Very helpful especially when putting your arm around her.

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Ding
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Yes! And death rates were MUCH lower than they are now.

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Marlin Tatom
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

And if you died in it, they hosed off the dash and sold it to someone else. Cars back then were made from steel. "We die like men!"

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Bruce Mardle
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One of my favourite films is 'Double Indemnity' (1944). I love the line "I stopped at the drive-in for a beer".

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Jimichan
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We had drive through liquor stores in Florida. It was legal to drink while driving, but illegal to drive while drunk.

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censor
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

But in the 35th amendment it says "The right of the people to not wear seatbelts in their cars, to drink and drive, shall not be infringed." Damn liberals taking away aahr rights. /s /jk

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Jaguarundi
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I used to sit on the fender to work on the engine (tune ups) there was so much room in the engine compartment.

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Rosemary Moreland
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

My Dad had a way with words that calmed us down and kept us in our seats. Basically it went like this: Don’t breathe down my neck! Said loudly and forcefully. And we did as he said!😄

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BenMaharaj
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Those giant couch seats. No contours, you could slide around or pack more kids in lol

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Megan O'Neill
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We used to have a big station wagon and one day the back door (the hatch? but I think it opened sideways for some reason) opened while one of my parents was driving and my sister had to hold on for dear life. There had probably been 3 kids in the "way back" section of the car that yelled immediately so the car slowed down and stopped. But man, if my sister hadn't been able to grab the door, she probably would have flown right out the back of the car.

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lisa thomas
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

It used to be fun to cuddle up to your boyfriend when they were driving! You would always sit in the middle next to them.

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Marilyn Holt
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

i used to love it when my parents drove home from somewhere and I could lie down on the back seat and sleep. Dad would pick me up and carry me to my bed when we got homee.

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Linda Lee
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Babies were wrapped in a blanket and set on the floor of the passenger side if mom had to drive somewhere.

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Kipper
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

When I had my first baby they sent us home from hospital in the front seat with the baby on my lap.....no seat belts!

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Kim S
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

One of my earliest memories is standing in the front seat of a moving car.

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Made-Up Name
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

If someone was driving drunk and had an accident that killed another person, it was just 'bad luck' and except for, perhaps, a ticket for speeding or not staying in their lane, there was no penalty.

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Angela Jester
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Cramming 5 in the front,5 in the back and then having kids sit on laps

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Hydro Keychain
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

In the 60's my Aunt had a junker car she would drive me and my cousins around in. We were in the back seat. There were no seatbelts. THERE WERE NO FLOORBOARDS.

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ItsJess
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I used to lay in the "shelf" above the backseat (where the speakers came out) behind the rear windshield. I'd lay my head on the speakers to hear the radio better. For fun, my mom's boyfriend would hit the gas, then stomp on the brake so I'd go flying out of the shelf and bounce down on the backseat. I'd also wave enthusiastically to cars behind us- and people waved back. Nobody freaked out and probably didn't think about calling the cops.

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signore cappelletti
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

.....we could stand up in the back of my mom's 68 plymouth fury III......go 90+ down the pennsylvania turnpike..........

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P R
Community Member
1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

This picture, and the description, are not from the 70s-80s. The style of this picture is more like the 1950s. In the U.S. lap belts were required in the front seats in 1961, but not in the back seats, where they were optional equipment. By 1968 lap & shoulder belts were required in new cars.

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#23

Mindblowing-Childhood-Experiences

DarciaAnne Report

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Nathaniel
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

There is one of these near my sisters, in a park, it is 3 feet wide. Spin on that fast and you will vomit and feel ill for the rest of the day.

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#24

Mindblowing-Childhood-Experiences

HoldenCapt Report

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Pat Head
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Fortunately, the jet injectors do no use a needle, but instead use a high pressure spray that penetrates the top layers of skin to deliver the vaccine. They used to be used for mass vaccinations, but now only a fraction of people in the States use it for insulin.

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#25

Mindblowing-Childhood-Experiences

3rdtimewalter Report

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Emerald Ocean
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

Well at least the nurse tried to calm her down, though a newborn should not be near smoking!

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#28

Mindblowing-Childhood-Experiences

jan_ruscoe Report

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Karin Gibson
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

We had Nitty Nora the head explorer. You were treated then and there. The shame of going back to class was dreadful.

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#29

Mindblowing-Childhood-Experiences

Elisabethmngirl Report

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Marie
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

I'm also from Raleigh. My second grade teacher's wooden paddle was made by her husband and he'd even done fancy burn in lettering to put her name on it. Good times

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#30

Mindblowing-Childhood-Experiences

m00n_child_227 Report

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Ed
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1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

That would have been quite a trick in the 70s and 80s, since Netflix wasn't even founded until mid-1997.

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Note: this post originally had 41 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.