If you grew up in 70s/80s what things did you do which would be unimaginable these days.

[newlabelwriter]

Just thinking about this. When I was about 9 my friend and I used to go around knocking on our neighbours doors to see if we could pick dandelions (or something similar) for her pet rabbits. Seems such a random thing to do and obviously v v young to knocking on doors to go into their gardens!

Recording songs from the charts on a blank tape

Playing in building sites, sitting five or six in the back of the car, in the boot of my aunt's Volvo estate with the dog or in the front footwell in between my Grandma's feet!

Going off with my friends to who knew where until it got dark from about age 9. Sitting in the beer garden of the local pub (with full access to the road/car park) unsupervised with other kids.

Getting left in the car outside Tesco while Mum did her weekly shop. Getting left in the car outside the pub while my Dad watched the rugby or outside his factory from 10-2 while he did overtime (visitation Saturdays...dreaded it)

There are loads.

Sitting on my dads lap doing the indicators for him.

Going on holiday, with us three kids in sleeping bags in the back of a transit van.

Being assigned either foreign language A or B first year of high school, randomly depending on which house group you were put in.

Coming home when it got dark.

Berry picking with friends during the summer holidays (primary school)

Camping overnight as groups of teenagers in public parks

Very rarely seeing dog shit in public

Getting given 10p as a treat for going to the shop for parents (my parents didn't smoke, so I didn't get them cigarettes, but remember fairly often being sent with a note to buy a bottle of paracetamol)

Girls doing cookery and needlework
Boys doing woodwork and metalwork

Getting the bus across town with a friend to go to the swimming centre, late primary school age

Green shield stamps

Going to M&S and not being able to pay by credit card BUT they would print your cheque for you to sign, and then you had to have a cheque guarantee card, and they would carefully write that number on the back of the cheque.

So many. Walked to school on our own from c. 6- would never dream of doing that now. Sit in car whilst parents went to the pub- and left us on our own aged 8 and 10- thought it was really cool when mum and dad brought us a lemonade and a packet of crisps. Slightly older, some pubs used to let us in to drink. This included one pub that used to open the back room for us especially at the end of term- we got completely smashed in school uniforms and no-one thought this out of order. Our school music teacher tried to touch a number of us having called us in for "private tuition" We did not dare tell anyone. One of our teachers over heard us talking and he left soon afterwards- but went on to another school. reputations were worth more than us as schoolgirls.

Walking to a friends house to knock their door to ask if they were coming out to play - no prearranged meetups or playdates!

@Pistou

Girls doing cookery and needlework Boys doing woodwork and metalwork

I have to say that our school at least tried. Girls did a term of woodwork/metalwork and boys a term of needlework. But everyone did Home Economics aka 'cookery'.

Going to the pub regularly from when I was 14! I remember being picked up from the pub by my dad once - my parents were divorced and I rarely saw him - and he commented that he thought it was a bit odd that me and my sister (15) were drinking g and t in the pub. I was outraged!!

Travelling around in the boot of estate cars. Massive treat and so much space!!

car related!
Sitting on my dads knee while he drove the car
No seatbelts in the back, I remember the door swinging open and grabbing my brother before he fell out 😮
Parents smoking in the car
Going in the boot when I was a teen to gigs

Also,
Having a Saturday job at 12
Going out to play until it got dark, parents had no idea where I was
Getting served alcohol in the pubs at 14

How did we survive?!

No one wore cycle helmets.

Also sticks in my mind, doing PE in a vest and gym knickers throughout secondary school!

No end of these!

Out all day without any adult having the faintest idea where we were or what we were doing. From about age 8 I would say.

Hitchhiking to festivals, etc from about 16 - deliberately wearing clothes that would make blokes stop and pick you up!

Drinking in pubs from 15 or so - no one was bothered.

Loads of you in a car. We had a big family and an estate car and two of us regularly squeezed into the boot for quite long journeys. No seatbelts.

Dad chain smoked with the window cracked open in the car to knock his fag ash out. Everyone smoked indoors and around children.

Not being allowed to take O level woodwork (which I was good at) because I was a girl and only boys could take it. Being told to do cookery or needlework instead.

Sticking head right out the window of the car, like a dog.

This made me laugh!

@justthecat

Getting your mate to write a consent letter from your mum to get your ears pierced around 12 yrs + 😂

No, no!

Getting your mate to pierce your ears with a compass in a boring Maths lesson! I didn't know anyone who'd had their ears pierced properly or by someone qualified.

Teachers beat up kids (or at least they did at our secondary school, only twice that I saw, but still beat them up).

we moved to a quaint villiage-two streets into newbuilds...the continuing development /building site was our playground. playing -oppoprtunity knocks in windowless houses, jump top of scaffold into the heap(soil dug for next door foundations start)..stealing putty out windows??duno why but we did. no security,no fenced off,no hardhats.was superb.me n sis did gymnastics.scaffold was a great stand in beam..or bar work..best of times

Going to the shop with a note and money for 10 Benson & Hedges for my mum.
Going around my neighbour's doors asking for empty ginger bottles.

Out playing all day miles from my house only going home when the street lights came on.

Sitting with my 5 siblings in the back of the car while my dad popped into the pub for 5mins ( he would bring us out crisps and a glass bottle of coke) then drive us home🤨
Letting us sit on his knee and drive the car up our road.
The spare key was always under the doormat.

Walked dog miles everyday without a lead, not once did we have any issues concerning other dogs or people.
Took our cat to the vet in an old shopping bag, he just sat there very calmly looking out.
Always walked to and fro school alone, Mum walked with me the first day, that was it, and always went home for lunch, used to sit and watch Rainbow on the tv.
Went lots of places on my own from age 6 onwards, shops, parks, friends houses etc. l did have one awful instance where a man stopped me in his car, he was naked from waist down.
Going to corner shop for my Dads tobacco age 6 onwards.
We never had a car so walked everywhere, when Mum and Dad did weekly shop, my sisters and myself all had to help carry it back.
I always shared a bedroom with both of my sisters until late teens, when one sister, then the other moved out.
We only really had toys and presents on birthdays and xmas, nothing the rest of the year, so birthdays and xmas were a really big deal, very exciting.
My Mum never worked outside of the home, her own choice , she was very happy.

We also wore a T shirt and knickers for PE, and once had to go and stand outside school in them when there was a fire alarm!

Loads. I was Born in 1981:
Going out in the school holidays from about 10am and only returning for lunch and then going out again until it got dark. From about 8 years old.

Playing in the local graveyard which included performing tap dances on the flat gravestones!

Going round my own family and neighbours and asking if they needed any "errands" running such as going to the corner shop, washing cars etc as we were so bored and also needed money for sweets!

Having penpals that I found on teletext (from places as exotic as Kent and Birmingham)🤣 I lived up north and thought my pen pal from Kent was really posh as she went horse riding!

Spending all my pocket money on erasers and stickers from the local stationery shop. If only kids were content with stuff like that nowadays!

Also, babysitting random neighbourhood kids from the age of about 11. As long as I had a friend with me I was allowed - but thinking back I really wasn't mature enough to be looking after small children.

Being allowed to just roam during summer holidays from school. I grew up in the countryside and it wasn’t uncommon to just call on my mate and for the two of us plus her dog to spend the afternoon playing out in the woods. No one worried about our safety and nothing untoward ever happened, but I can’t imagine it being ok now.

Adults thinking it absolutely fine to smoke in front of children (often in a car). Smoking on the school bus whilst the driver ignored it all (not me, though I did used to return home reeking due to the fug created by everyone else). One of our male teachers getting drunk and kissing all the girls (which was considered a bit weird and embarrassing but also perfectly within normal adult parameters).