Things that happened 20/30 years ago that wouldn't today

[Putrid46]

As a child I recall aunties, uncles and grandparents smoking around me all the time with no ventilation. I'd stay at my grandparents for the weekend and go home with a cough, it was seen as normal.

Parents driving me to school hungover from the night before possibly still slightly drunk.

As an A level pupil in the early 2000s I recall staying until around 7pm one evening with 2 teachers to finish coursework due in the next day, the teachers practically did it for me and then one of them dropped me off home in her car, nobody batted an eyelid.

We had a French language assistant, who was actually French and she invited us to her home one Sunday to do coursework and eat croissants, again it was all above board, she was a lovely Mrs Doubtfire type lady and it was all fine but looking back, that'd never happen now!

Interested to hear from anyone else

I remember falling into a drunken stupor on a park bench at 17 and being awoken by 2 coppers, I lied and said I was 18, once they realized my mates were nearby they did sweet FA!

Smoking area on a plane or in the cinema.

I was a foster carer 25 years ago, and distinctly remember going to another FC’s house where four adults were smoking in a room where a toddler was. I later adopted that toddler, and she does suffer with asthma.

If I know a new employee has had a long wait from their last payroll, and they are particularly junior, I let them know that I’d rather they came to me than have trouble with rent etc.

Smoking in the office when I first started work - revolting...

Being chucked out of the house to go and play in all weathers when DM had had enough of us. We lived on the beach in south Wales so some of the most dangerous tides going.....

Dirty old men sitting flashing at us when we had PE on the common - we weren't allowed to wear tracksuit bottoms - we had those flappy open little wrap skirts that blew up at the slightest gust of wind. The teachers didn't bat an eyelid.

Going to the pub and drinking with a gang of my mates when we were in year 10.

I was out in Soho last night and someone walked past me and I smelt their tobacco cigarette! It’s so unusual these days; there was plenty of smell of weed around - every few yards. And the odd smell of fruity vapes. But tobacco? A blast from the past!!

Freedom to roam if you chose to at school. The secondary school I attended had open front gates and all entrances and exits were open all through the day. So many off us would wander out to the chippy at lunch and the smokers would linger out the front in the car park.

That same school is now locked from the beginning to the end of the school day and all pupils stay on site. I appreciate it's for their own safety but it does highlight how much freedom we had back in the day.

I started work and commuting on a train in 1979. Smoking on the train was normal. There were a few non-smoking carriages but they got filled up quite quickly.

The chap I sat next to at work was a chain smoker, and so was my boss. My boss used to send me out most mornings to get him 40 Rothmans and whatever chocolate I wanted for myself.

Most people would walk round with a cigarette in their hand, and I often had to flick fag ash off the photocopier glass before I could use it.

Going to the pub at lunchtime was normal, even before I turned 18 and the managers were often the ones buying the drinks for us typists.

As a child it was very common to be left in car with a bottle of pop and a bag of crisps while adults were in the pub.

4 or 5 crammed on the back seat, no car seats, was pretty normal.

The ice cream man often gave us lifts round the estate in his van.

I went out on my trike round the estate from 3/4 onwards. All the kids played out in the road, most mums were at home and there was one car per family usually which dad took to work, so not much traffic.

I came home for lunch all through primary, or took sandwiches and went to my friends house.

Dogs often roamed the estate, our neighbours dog appeared at our kitchen door most days to say hello and get a biscuit.

Bread got delivered to us daily by the baker in a van and my mom dropped her list in to the grocers on a Saturday morning and "the lad" brought it round in the afternoon in a box on his bike.

My "supper" before bed often consisted of a fizzy drink and sweets.

It was a different universe.

Are posters talking about 20 - 30 years ago or longer?

I still buy Rimmel coffee shimmer lipstick.

Going to see the engineers in the warehouse at work and talking to them with porno calendars of women with their legs open etc (late 90s).

Seeing how many we could fit in the car to go to the pub.

Ringing people just for a chat. A lot of friends now if they rang me rather than text my first thought would be ‘what’s happened?!’

Doing A levels in 1983 and smoking in class

I was thinking about the smoking in restaurants yesterday. The smoking ban came in when I was pregnant with my 1st. It seems crazy that it was seen as okay to smoke indoors with children just before he was born. I've never took my DC into a smokey environment but I was wondering if I'd had them a few years earlier would I have took them to smokey places and not thought much of it.

Having to sit in the smoking area of pubs or restaurants, simply to pander to cater for the one member of our group who isn't a non-smoker.

I dont know where you lived, but in our very London, working class house, it was!

And every pub we ever went in was fogged with smoke!

Going to the pub at 15 and drinking Guinness or vodka and lime.
Going to the Bath festival of jazz and blues at the age of 13. Getting the last bus home at about midnight.
Being an adult the moment you left school.

In 2002, going the BHS cafe, eating a massive cooked breakfast and then drinking coffee and smoking fags there. There was a non-smoking area, but still a smoking area that was always full. All the clothes on the rails must have stunk.

Yea and it was always dressed up as the young girls being a wild child/ good time girl
Rather than what it actually was a much older man grooming a young girl .

Approximately 25 years ago my older sister would send me to the shop with another to buy her cigarettes. As a kid staying outside until dark, up to 11 pm in the summer, playing on top of the roofs or the lockups. Not waking up and the first thing you do is look at a screen.

In the 70s I walked to primary school on my own - quite a long way.
i had a key to the school in year 6 and went in at weekend to feed the goat chickens and guinea pigs in the Animal Centre.
i played out from 10 til 5pm on Saturdays.
Rode horses with friends with no adults.
Dogs roamed around and weren't always walked.
Sat in the car park with the dog and my baby brother when my mum did weekly Sainsbury's shop.
def remember people smoking around us! but this was more like 40 or 50 years ago!

I’m physically disabled and my mainstream schools female PE teacher victimised and bullied me right up til she left 3 years later. I look back in horror and wonder why no one intervened

Sorry - realised you wanted 20'years ago..
I had 2 sometimes 3 phones on my desk and we were constantly on the phone, queued by the fax machine to send info quickly to clients, smoked at my desk when on the phone....
awful!

Absolutely this and Wyman suggesting he ‘waited’ until she was 16 😳

I very recently bought a Coffee Shimmer lipstick!

We used to travel hundreds of miles on holiday in the boot of the Volvo. (Only two of us, the youngest got seats.)

Yep there was a newsagent near the bus station that several local schools used that would sell single cigarettes for ten pence to kids in full school uniform.