19 "Old-Fashioned" Practices And Beliefs From The Past That Are Considered "Wild" Now, According To Older Adults
Note: This post contains mentions of sexual harassment.
Recently, Redditor u/Josefina10_ asked the older adults of the Reddit community to share the "old-fashioned" beliefs and practices from "back in the day" that were totally normal then but would be considered wild now, and as a Gen Z'er, I'm shocked by some of them. Here are some of the responses that, depending on your age, will either have you feeling nostalgic or perplexed:
1."When we played sports, they told us not to drink water because it would 'weigh you down' or something. The best case was to rinse your mouth and spit it out. Of course, this is now known to be dumb at best and dangerous at worst."
2."'Mad money.' Before my sisters and I would go out on dates, our dad would give us a dime for the payphone and enough money for cab fare in case the date went bad. Also, not being allowed to call boys or knock on their doors. This was a huge no-no. None of the girls in my neighborhood were allowed to call a boy. I'd have to wait for my friends who were boys to come out of their house, or I'd have to tell a boy who was walking by to knock on the door for me."
3."Not wearing a seatbelt and riding around in the back of a pickup truck. I can't remember, but I think it wasn't until the '80s that people really started belting up (I assume because of government safety campaigns.)"
4."We lived on the edge of town, and my best bud lived on the opposite edge. He or I would ride our bikes right through the middle of town to the other's house with a shotgun across the handle bars and go hunting together. No one batted an eye."
5."Making long-distance phone calls (out of town) was a BIG deal. Calls were charged by the minute after the first three, and conversations were short. Rates were cheaper on Sundays and late nights, but it wasn't common to call long-distance. People wrote letters often to save on phone expenses."
6."There used to be a section in the newspaper of births. It would list the parents' names, the baby's gender, and what hospital the baby was born."
7."Water wasn't really a thing because no one carried water bottles. You couldn't have a drink in school except at lunch or if you went to the water fountain. For lunch, you drank milk or brought something from your home, like a juice box or a can of soda. There was no water in vending machines — just soda."
8."Saying 'sir' and 'ma'am.' The first time my boss called out for me around 22 years ago, I said, 'Yes, sir.' He said, 'Please don't call me that.' It still freaks me out to this day to call people 'sir' and 'ma'am.'"
9."Immediately after getting a burn, the best treatment was rubbing butter on it — not, like, water or anything, but butter."
10."Hearing a new song on the radio and racing down to the record shop to see if they had it. Finding out it wouldn't be in stock for two weeks. It would be the longest two weeks ever, but it was totally worth the wait. Yes, people had to wait."
11."We used paper liners for indoor trash cans. Imagine rushing out to the garbage can with leaky ick in your hands and hosing out the garbage can after it's picked up."
12."We used to iron sheets and pillowcases. The pillowcases had these grosgrain ribbons stitched into the open end that you could tie shut to prevent the pillow from sliding out. For the bedding to be considered ready, those had to be ironed into a zig-zag pattern (folded back and forward with each crease ironed)."
13."Having a 'lucky' rabbit's foot as a keychain. A foot. Of a dead animal. With your keys in your pocket. Gross."
14."The abuse girls were expected to take from boys. I got spit on, experienced constant bra-snapping, and received constant sexual and threatening comments. The attitude was always 'Boys will be boys' or 'It just means that he likes you!'"
15."We used to record radio shows on cassette tapes to listen to later. The idea of streaming music instantly was unheard of!"
16."You had school shoes, play shoes, and church shoes. Every Easter, I received an Easter dress, hat, and shoes, and at the beginning of summer, I would get new sneakers."
17."A car needed an oil change every 3,000 miles, and you'd have to replace plugs, wires, the distributor cap, the rotor, points, and a condenser, and put a timing light on the car at least once per year. Reaching 100,000 miles was a big deal because most cars fell apart before then. If you lived somewhere with road salt, the car would corrode to dust in five or six years."
18."Waiting in line overnight for concert tickets. And if you bought the tickets at the venue's box office, you didn't pay the Ticketmaster service charge."
19.Lastly: "Women were not allowed to have their own bank account or credit cards until 1974. That was only 50 years ago, which was only SEVEN years before I was born."
"Butter on a burn" isn't a sentence I ever thought I'd come across, but alas. If you're an older adult, what "old-fashioned" beliefs or practices would be considered wild now? Let me know in the comments, or you can anonymously submit using this form!
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
