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What's something older generations did completely normally that would be considered absolutely insane today?

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They used to walk to school uphill both ways and fight off two lions just to get to class.
Pretzel · 70-79, M
@DareToSayIT you left of "in the snow - in the summer"
@DareToSayIT 2x lions? Luxury
My parents would get dressed to the nines when going on a plane. Actually, they would dress up formally whenever going out, such as a restaurant or some other event.
GoFish · 41-45, F
@BrewCityBarFly but thats nice tho
PatientlyWaiting25 · 46-50, F
@BrewCityBarFly My parents still do this, my dad even wears a pocket watch. I do like to put on a nice dress and heels though, that's nice.
@PatientlyWaiting25 My parents eventually went to a more "business casual" look by the 90's. There's nothing wrong with wanting to look dapper when stepping out, and there's likely a fair number of people who think some look like a bunch of slobs given the occasion.
PatientlyWaiting25 · 46-50, F
My Nan and Grandad never threw anything away. Ripped clothing got a patch sewed onto it and if you grew out of trousers but they still fitted at the waist, Nan would turn them into shorts. I remember she even cut flat sheets across into three sections and resewed them so that the worn middle part was at the foot of the bed instead of throwing them away but she did teach me how to sew. 😊
MrSmooTh · 31-35, M
Spoke their mind
Nevertooold · 56-60, M
sitting down with your family and eat together at a table!!!
Nimbus · M
Say 'please and thank you' without hesitation.
@Nimbus Not true
DrWatson · 70-79, M
Handled asbestos and used lead paint.
@DrWatson Had x-ray parties
Boeing · 36-40
counting livestock before getting married
Boeing · 36-40
@Degbeme yak !
Degbeme · 70-79, M
@Boeing Oh, wealthy.
Boeing · 36-40
@Degbeme just exotic 😏
meggie · F
Fix their own cars
Save for what they needed
Make their kids clothes
Make all their meals from scratch
Save the cooking fat to reuse
More often than not, marry the first oerson they dated
Yulianna · 26-30, F
heterosexual intercourse...
Yulianna · 26-30, F
@Pretzel 🤔🙄
pdockal · 56-60, M
@Yulianna

Guess I'm insane
Yulianna · 26-30, F
@pdockal like the best of us...
GoFish · 41-45, F
sharing a phone line with all your neighbors
Pretzel · 70-79, M
go outside and cut wood so they could cook or take a bath
Elessar · 31-35, M
Buying their home with 5-10 years of salary and no mortgages

Retiring at like 40

Buying a second or even third house also without a mortgage
Ride in the back of trucks
we had face to face conversations with someone we were on a date with, without constantly looking down on our cellphones. i know we didn't have them back then, but i dare a young couple of kids to leave their phones at home on their first date.....absolutely impossible
Brought newborn Wiser home from the hospital sitting on mom’s lap in the front seat of the car. Probably without a seatbelt. 👶🏼 🚘 😳
lissah · 36-40, F
Phone books

Answering the door
PatientlyWaiting25 · 46-50, F
@lissah why is answering the door insane?
lissah · 36-40, F
@PatientlyWaiting25 strangers?
PatientlyWaiting25 · 46-50, F
@lissah I still answer the door in the day time but I think it's safe. I live in the country where it's safe to leave your door unlocked. I also don't have a camera door bell but I guess if you live in a dodgy area, you might think twice.
DeWayfarer · 61-69, M
My parents and grandparents generations actually married mostly underaged. Yet that was in the 1930s and before that in Eastern Europe.
CrazyMusicLover · 31-35
Played with mercury drops with bare hands.
Boeing · 36-40
@CrazyMusicLover it was awe inducing though - like we knew there was something special about it and we wouldn't approach it to our eyes or mouth - you could see and feel it was "different" lol @Iknowyourouttheresomewhere
@Boeing We used it to polish our Pennie’s 😅
ninalanyon · 70-79, T
@Boeing Metallic mercury is only dangerous over long term exposure {1}. The big health problems are usually pollution involving organic mercury compounds dumped in waterways and concentrated by fish [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_poisoning#Elemental_mercury
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minamata_disease
helenoftroy2000 · 22-25, F
riding horse to work
Entwistle · 56-60, M
Used to poop in the outsoor toilet and cook indoors.
Now people poop indoors and cook outside (BBQ).
Gelly · 61-69, M
1.put on a 3 piece suit to go to a bar
2. Have a fist fight at the slightest insult to honour
3. Start the car by popping the lid and drying the spark plugs
4. Spank regularly
5. Approve of school using corporal punishment
6 Drink and drive.

Maybe things have also improved.
AbbeyRhode · F
Work for what they had.
Forget they had kids. Seriously, for many generations kids were seen and not heard, kids were not doted on or made a high priority.
Yes, during the summer we disappeared all day, only came home to eat and when the street lights came on. My parents did not know where I was and did not care. We got thirsty, we used the hose. If we were lucky someones mom made Kool-aid and we'd get a taste in a dixie cup.
MethDozer · M
@dragonfly46 honestly, I am glad I grew up that way. Childhood seems really boring these days with constent attention and supervision. I would have hated childhood as it is today.
@MethDozer Me too. Safer to be on the streets with my friends than at home.
Smoked cigarettes in an enclosed space with children.
AdaXI · T
@MsSwan Yeah I remember when my daughter was born there was a number of smoking rooms dotted around the hospital, including one straight next door to the maternity ward.
乂º ₒ º乂
SumKindaMunster · 56-60, M
@MsSwan We had a smoking court in High School.
Likestoenjoylife · 51-55, M
No seatbelts for kids in cars not to mention the station wagon with the rear seat that faced the road behind them.
HumanEarth · F
Drive stick shift manual transmission as normal thing

Drive cars without computers or cameras

We drank and drive, got pulled by cops and cops would follow you home

We could buy beater cars for 50 or 75 bucks
Pretzel · 70-79, M
@HumanEarth and in the old days - they used to have to hand crack the cars to start them!
HumanEarth · F
We have 4 tractors like that and one steam tractor

WillaKissing · 61-69, M
Talk on the phone!
Talk in person!
Being able to think without having to google their own thoughts!
Knowing manners and how to interact with people in General!
ninalanyon · 70-79, T
@WillaKissing Here in the UK I see, and hear, people talking on phones all the time. Very often it is clear that they are talking to their spouse and I often wonder if they have anything left to say when they are actually together.

But in Norway voice calls have declined dramatically.
WillaKissing · 61-69, M
@ninalanyon Well that is the problem then, Lack of communication, fear of actually communicating with another human being!
Rode in cars as children without car seats —often without seatbelts. And the sole purpose in owning a station wagon was so the children could ride in the cargo area and play games during the journey.

It’s amazing that any of us survived. 😅
exexec · 70-79, C
We children were allowed to roam freely all day. We left after breakfast, checked in for lunch, and got home for dinner.
acpguy · C
Move out of their parents house at 18, work to pay for their own education and pay for their own car and be smart enough to know they getting a degree that will not get them a job so they can earn a living is not smart.
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swirlie · 31-35, F
@jshm2
That's precisely why Canada won't allow American dairy products into Canada under a Canada/US Trade agreement.
SumKindaMunster · 56-60, M
Apparently, going out in the morning, leaving the house, and not returning home until evening without contact with your family blows some of the younger generations minds these days....
MrSmartyPants · 46-50, M
Keeping receipts and doing gas mileage.
swirlie · 31-35, F
Raising turkeys in a turkey pen in the backyard, instead of buying a frozen Butterball turkey at a supermarket for Thanksgiving Day.

That said, I will admit that as much of a cosmopolitan girl that I am, my Dad has always raised a bunch of turkeys on his tobacco farm each year for our large family Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings that we'd hold, so from that perspective, the old fashioned way is still very much classified as totally "sane" in my family!

To my parent, what is "insane" is spending $80 on a frozen Butterball turkey!
gregloa · 61-69, M
Pretzel · 70-79, M
Dry Cleaning!
Bleak · 36-40, F
Older generations let kids disappear outside for hours with no phones, no GPS, no location sharing; just “be home before dark.”

Somehow, we all survived.
treating a NorCal rocky headland / beach as the town landfill

indeed, Make Murica "Great" Again ... 🤦🏻‍♂

swirlie · 31-35, F
@SnickersDOM
Yep, them are Americans up there on that there hill, alright!
MethDozer · M
Tell children to go play outside
until dinner is ready.
Rudboy41 · 41-45, M
Chewing tobacco and spitting in public.
Entwistle · 56-60, M
Fight off a whole tribe of Pygmies with nothing but a toothpick?
SunshineGirl · 36-40, F
Smoking in public places
Driving without a seatbelt
Driving while drunk (although this unfortunately is gaining in popularity again)
Hitting children
@SunshineGirl Driving while drunk is gaining popularity?
SunshineGirl · 36-40, F
@MsSwan Judging by admissions to my wife's hospital
LiLShrimp · 22-25, F
Sending their LGBTQ kids to psych wards 😂
hunkalove · 70-79, M
Take photos at lynchings.
swirlie · 31-35, F
@hunkalove
Funny you should mention this because I have in my possession a 1970's camcorder video my grandmother took with her video camera in 1977 of the last public beheading that took place in France!

Her and her sister flew from Sweden to France for a week of touring and wine tasting when they read about a routine public execution being scheduled on a public notice board in France, which coincidentally was to take place during the same week they were there.

So, with camcorders in hand, they showed up at the advertised time and place and got as close as the police would allowed them to stand, then she video-taped the entire event just as all the other women in the crowd were doing!
TheRealBarbossa · 36-40
Ate expired food
alongalone · M
Wipe their ass with a corncob
brian29715 · 51-55, M
Answering the phone and not knowing who it was.
Bash younger generations for things that aren't true or are their own fault.

 
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