“I went to high school in the early ’70s.
We had areas where we could smoke during lunch, breaks, and in between classes.”
“When we were young, we didn’t have cellphones, so we’d play outside all day.
Some friends' parents would come outside and ring a bell for dinnertime.
You didn’t dare misbehave, or the neighbors would walk over to your house and tell your folks.
It taught us kids to respect others.”
Jack, 71, Ohio
3.
“Mailing letters and having to read the handwriting from letters you received.
“I went to high school in the early ’70s.
We had areas where we could smoke during lunch, breaks, and in between classes.”
uniquegazelle1381
5.
It was always a ‘yes,’ and into the cockpit we would go.”
They were at hotels, restaurants, many businesses, and government buildings.
deadpansquirrel535
7.
The first one we got was black and white and maybe only 13 inches.
It wasn’t flat, but it was heavy.
At midnight, the TV went ‘off.’
And, yes, we put aluminum foil on the ends to ‘help with reception.’
There also weren’t any movies on TV!
“During elementary school, we all wore bracelets with the names of missing POWs from the Vietnam War.
We were to wear them until the ‘boys’ came home.”
joyfulmagazine45
9.
“Doing your hair.
I grew up in the ’60s and, of course, had long hair.
awfuljaguar57
11.
“Schools were not the ‘prisons’ we have now.
Back then, students could come and go.
Kids even first-graders could leave for lunch.
Everyone walked to school, and school was never closed for weather, save for the occasional blizzard.”
“‘Smog alerts’ in the ’70s.
I remember the air being so brown and hazy that breathing hurt my chest.
On smog alert days, we weren’t allowed to go outside for recess.
Then, in the late ’80s, we had helicopters spraying pesticides over neighborhoods.
I don’t think that would be acceptable now.”
Bill, 58, California
13.
“Growing up in the ’60s, one of my favorite memories was the ‘bookmobile.’
It was a highlight of the week and a fabulous way to keep up on my reading skills.”
“We lived in a rural subdivision that was constantly growing.
There were no guards, fences, signs, or rules.”
kjrothsf
15.
Liz, 66, Louisiana
16.
“Not worrying about seat belts.
We climbed through the back window of trucks going 50 mph and sat in the beds.
And on back roads, we sat on the truck’s edges.
“I went to high school in the mid-1960s in suburban Ohio.
My high school had a shooting range in the basement where students could shoot .22 rifles.
After school, you could hear the sound of the shots echoing throughout the school basement.
It was considered completely normal.”
Anonymous
18.
They’d then return our cans to the garage and shut the door for us.
Just pure trust.”
George, Kansas
20.
There were no ‘virtual’ cards or tap-to-pay.”
My legs were paralyzed from the illness, and the only treatment available was hot packs.
The children whose polio affected their lungs lay in machines nicknamed ‘iron lungs’ that breathed for them.
Children died daily, and we knew when someone was dying when their curtains surrounded the bed.
We heard the screaming and crying of parents.
I received physical therapy for my legs, which included swimming or moving in a heated pool.
I also had surgery on my leg muscles and was in traction to stretch them.
It’s hard to believe that one single hospital in a city was filled with ill children.
This was happening in cities and towns all over the US."
Sue, 87, North Carolina
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
