Article created by: Ilona Baliūnaitė
The only constant thing in this universe is change. That’s something Greek philosopher Heraclitus said ages ago, and since then a lot—a lot—has changed.
So, it’s only normal for subject legality to be affected by this as well. Well, that, and everything that it is subject to. Mostly ethics, morality, and not losing your head because child labor laws were not a thing back in the olden days.
Exposed hair in Iran
Sending your kids to the store to buy cigarettes
When you picked someone up at the airport, you used to be able to walk right up to where they got off the plane.
Riding around town in the back of a pickup truck.
I’m someone who won’t take my car out of park if all the seatbelts aren’t fastened, but as a kid I would jump at the chance to ride in the truck bed.
Smoking at school.
My HS had a smoking area for students.
Cocaine. Used to be in everything, an I think it’s time we brought it back. -caffeine isn’t kicking the way it needs to.
So much pollution. People used to change the oil on their car and dump it down storm drains or pour it into a hole in the ground. Old bottles of pills got thrown in the trash. So much aerosol hairspray. Commercially, we dumped so much chemical waste into rivers they started catching on fire, and it started burning through the ozone layer. Superfund sites, the list goes on and on
I can remember when it was perfectly normal for someone to leave their kids in the car (doors unlocked and windows open) while they went inside a business. No one gave it a second thought.
Letting kids walk to school (or other places) by themselves.
The first time I heard about parents being arrested for this I thought "well, this is a one-off bizarre thing where we don't have all the facts". But I've seen it happen too often now and it blows my mind. I was walking a mile to school by myself in kindergarten and it was not only normal, but expected back then. Not one of my classmates had a parent drop them off at school.
Used to buy dynamite at the hardware store. My dad and I used it to remove stumps.
Cigarette vending machines. No age restriction, just drop a couple of quarters in and pull the handle!
Being a latchkey kid. Growing up I had so many friends that would get home alone only for their parwnts to come home two or three hours later... Actually just saw somebody on this site who apparently called CPS on this recently
Dosing your baby with OTC Laudanum so you can go out dancing all night.
Or so my grandmother said - a couple of flappers overdosed their babies and they stopped selling Laudanum in the drugstore.
Adults marrying teenagers.
“Younger than she are happy mothers made.” - Paris, Romeo and Juliet, Act 1, Scene 2.
Juliet is not quite 14. She’s an eighth grader.
The ingredients in cough syrup at the beginning of the 1900s
Spankings in school, including with paddles.
Lead paint and asbestos in housing.
Child labor. And the arguments to maintain it ranged from "nobody is forcing them" to "but if we ban it our industries will no longer be competitive" and "when they work, they are not on the streets"... I think this is an example that we must always keep in mind because many of these arguments from the "so-called choice" to "competitiveness" through to the "false alternative" are still regularly used today to justify practices that are morally reprehensible...
Public executions.
Owning other humans
Driving with no seat belt. Driving while talking on the phone. Driving with no car seat for a child.
Lobotomies
You suffer from nightmares, headaches, or depression? We’ll just slice a chunk out of your frontal lobe and call it a day!
Our high school had a rifle club in school. Kids kept their .22s in their lockers.
Edit: not saying rifle teams are now illegal. Bringing guns into school and storing them in a locker is what is now verboten. And I’m not from a particularly rural area.
not wearing a seatbelt. people used to make fun of you for wearing one
Does anyone remember the 90s when "mooning" was a thing. I remember my mom driving down the highway and my brother and I laughing hysterically at some random guy who was mooning us out his window. I dont know if it's illegal now, but I think mooning would be perceived a lot differently these days.
Burning your trash in the backyard.
Smoking on planes.
Smoking indoors.
Drinking and driving
Punching your wife in the face for not having dinner on the table.
