Batshittery that was normal back in the day

[Pleasetakeaseat]

Smoking upstairs on buses

Smoking / non-smoking areas in restaurants

Smoking rooms in hospitals

Teachers going for boozy lunches and teaching afternoon classes pissed (my English teacher was always smashed by 1pm 🤣)

Chopper bikes with that brake thing in the middle that could easily disembowel you if you weren't careful

White van men picking up their underage girlfriends from school

White van men thinking schools were a good place to pull

Little kids being sent to the shop on their bikes for their parents booze and fags, and no law against shopkeepers serving them

Thirty odd years ago Supermarkets shut on Sunday but in the summer Morrisons in my seaside hometown was open on Sunday because it was in the seaside area.

aged 12 I think going on a Sunday morning on my bike to the newsagents for 10 tom thumb cigars for dad, twenty rothmans for mum, paying the papers. A Jackie mag for me plus a quarter of something crunch. ‘Twas very glad when they banned kids buying fags.

it also put me off buying newspapers as I couldn’t get over how much money mum and dad parted with buying them. Never smoked either.

I can understand some people here not believing what they're reading but I haven't read anything I don't recognise.

Until 1972 the school leaving age was 15, only 10% of people went to university and relatively few of those were women. The majority got a job at 15. You worked full time, were considered an adult, and expected to contribute to the household income. All but one of my aunts and uncles were married by 20. It was very very different to today and younger posters don't always understand just how radically different things were. I'm 60.

I remember the threat of corporal punishment in schools - but never knew of anyone who had it. The threat was enough to keep us all in line - even the boys. A teacher bullied one of my brothers once, but corporal punishment? - no. As a teacher, I once or twice gave a light smack to a VERY naughty boy who began in my class. Taught him for 2 years and he was really well behaved after that. And no - he wasn't terrified of me. Held my hand at playtime and was generally lovely. Corporal punishment was mainly a deterrent. In my experience (6 different schools as a child, 4 as a teacher), not one child swore at a teacher or kicked off in class.

It was "the slipper" at primary school and I'm sure it was used on occasion, although it wasn't administered publicly.

Actually, there was the good old standing in the corner for however long the teacher felt like when naughty and we also had the dunces desks area where they would stick anybody who was repeatedly misbehaving and that would be there place in the classroom. Should bring these back to teach respect.

Omg chick I missed that one too 🤣🤣🤣 please follow Harry philby on tiktok it’s madness “DR Emma in the houseeeee 🤣!” The one who smoked 60 fags a day ashthmatic 🤣🤣🤣

I had my so. Mid 1990s. This was definitely not the case. No smoking was permitted in the hospital

Porn stuck in hedgerows.

Absolutely terrifying campaigns about rabies/playing on railway line (where u actually heard the boy screaming as he has his legs sliced off by the train...yes I was about 9 years old at school)/ AIDS etc. If you were a child in the 1970s u know what I'm talking about! It wasn't all just the tufty club and Charlie says.

Burning ur bare legs on the plastic car seats in summer.

No seatbelts. Kneeling on the backseat staring out the back window.

Walking to and from school really young.

Very racist names for places and people which seemed inoffensive at the time.

Stuff like that. But was good because everyone went out to play in the street and u had a laugh and all played together.

I found the railway campaign on you tube. Thought it would be amusing to post it but it's so awful I don't think it is light fun ofnthis thread. The worst nightmare of every child and parent. Makes me think the snowflake things isntnall bad.
Oh yes there was another one about a boy who climbed up a pylon and got electrocuted. Another one to give u nightmares.
Oh dear 🙄 😔

Im loving this thread for unlocking memories that had long since been overwritten.

@Doubledenim305 The Aids advert!!! Ive just looked it up on Youtube. Jeez it's scary and makes out like anybody had a chance of catching it! Parodied many years later by the likes of Brass Eye.

It's weird how things vary from area to area. I made friends with another young pregnant mum who was there as we were the youngest there. Part of my days would entail trying to persuade her not to go or fishing her out.

I'm not joking, I had to go to the drs aged 11 or 12 to be reassured I wasn't HIV+. I was just convinced I had it. Awful. The railway thing was called Railway :Robbie (1979) please don't watch it if u cud be triggered. I was about 8 when our whole class watched it at school in a darkened room with the TV on a trolley.

Have just seen the Australian Grim Reaper Aids advert, now that made the UK one seem soft. Batshittery of the highest order. If they'd used a similar style for covid one advert would have kept us locked up forever and saved all those daily conferences and boris waffling nonsense.

The railways ones were bloody awful too and presumably played to kids. Theres nothing like seeing a kid with his feet cut off and football boots hanging on his bedroom door as a reminder of what could have been.

Look up 'The Spirit of Dark Water'.

I remember my grandma saying drinking Guinness in pregnancy is good for you 🤣

That one week in hospital after the birth was brilliant. You were looked after, you had a a good rest and you had much needed support from hospital staff. Now, a new mother is packed off home after one day.

Yes, I left school in 1974 at 16, school leaving age had recently been lifted to that, my parents didn't allow me to stay on for any further education and I had to get a job as my parents wanted my board money. I was expected to get a local office job as I had some O levels and typing exams from school, I got a job doing office work in a lab and earned £15 a week and paid £5 board.

I recognise everything on this thread and did a lot of it.

I don't think you understand how it worked. Your income was added to your husbands and he paid tax on the total. Most 2 income couples were better off when it changed.

@Vroomfondleswaistcoat This one! Often on between kids programmes.
https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-lonely-water-1973-online

I smoked from about 14, in the early 70s, we used to huddle up around the housing estates in the evenings and light up our cigarettes, also on top deck of school bus. When I started work at 16, we got into the office in the morning and most of us lit up, we used to smoke while working at the desk, office was like station waiting room with the smoke. I gave up smoking when I was about 27

I wrote to Jim’ll Fix It asking to meet Gary Glitter 🫣
Dodged a bullet there…..

That's the one! God, what with that and programmes like Children of the Stones, we really knew how to terrify kids in the 70's, didn't we?

She was only 16?? Really??

I never knew that, always thought she was more like 18😱

Hells Bells! I was 16 and 8 months when I left school, and still quite naive… seems bizarre and ick that her own Mother pushed her to do that as a job.

Oh the smoking anywhere and everywhere, I did it!

Women not being able to get a mortgage of their own.

Able to drink in pubs underage, did that too!

Dogs roaming around the streets, ours did that but only because he was so sneaky and ran between your legs at front door!

Getting detention and pretending to your parents you played sports!

Having hand me down clothes from anyone.

Being covered up going out yet still getting so much attention. X

Babies in carrycots. Wedged between the front seat and dashboard of the car.

Not only that, with at least one younger girl (Lindsey Dawn McKenzie), they did a ‘countdown’ to her 16th birthday. Lingerie and bikini pics when she was 15 and then on the 16th birthday, the topless photo shoot (which they must have done when she was under 16 to publish the pictures on her 16th birthday).

Vile.