Things that would be completely un-PC today

[lovin'fl]

Bad News Bears. Very much not PC. Also, All in the Family. It really makes you choke on your drink or popcorn when watching these now.

We had some sort of taped circle on the floor that we had to stand in, for like an hour, if we were naughty at school. Naughty kids would have to stay in for recess (gasp if teachers did that today). There was always threat or fear of going to the office to get the paddle.

I rode in the car without car seat or seat belt. I can remember sleeping in my mom's arms in the front seat at, like, age 6...while she and my dad smoked in the car with the windows up (in winter). This is more safety, not really PC. Though I judge when I drive by a car with little kids not strapped in.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

If we didn't have enough kids to play backyard football then we'd just play "smear the queer". I'm guessing that's frowned on, today!

LOL

My kids were playing together in the snow in the backyard one particular snowy day, and I asked what they were playing and they said "Smear the Queer" I about fell over - they were about 10, 6, and 4 at the time. They heard that from the oldest's friends or schoolmates, I assume, and he taught the little ones.

I told them to make up a new name for it - I didn't want to get a phone call from a parent who thought it was less amusing than I did that their 4 year old was walking around using the term Queer!

Now, the youngest is almost 10, and he reports that they are allowed to play some sort of variation of it at recess, but it is called "Smear the Ball Carrier". Non-contact now, of course

 

[Lilacs4Me]

I agree, but it would probably be on a cable channel as opposed to broadcast. That's where all the best stuff is these days anyway.

Yet....Family Guy has been on for years? Wasn't/isn't that on FOX?

 

[BrianL]

Yet....Family Guy has been on for years? Wasn't/isn't that on FOX?

Okay, good point, though Fox actually censors Family Guy a little and uncut episodes will air on Adult Swim on cable. Of course, almost nothing on All in the Family is as bad as your average Family Guy episode in the first place. Fox is the edgiest of the networks anyway.

 

[wvjules]

Never thought about FG. Which is weird since I often say "OMG Did they just go there" while watching it. lol

 

[smokeyblue]

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[EMom]

My DD had never seen a pool with a diving board, since you pretty much only find them on OLD pools and most of those have been torn down. She took a class at a pool that still had what I call the LOW diving board when she was about 5. She was terrified of that that thing and thought it seemed as high as one of the Olympic diving platforms. I mentioned that at my hometown pool, that would have been the low board and the high board was several times higher than that.

I don't know how high the HIGH board was, but I'm guessing about 15 feet. She asked for details and I told her we mostly jumped/dove off the low board, but almost everyone used the high board to a lesser extent. We rarely dove off it, but jumped or walked off. I mentioned that you would start to climb the ladder and there would be a bunch of kids on that ladder, waiting their turn. So you couldn't go back, but instead had to follow through and the only way off the board was to jump, no matter how petrified you were. She could not grasp what I was saying.

"What if you were too scared to jump? What if you wanted to go back down the ladder? What if you changed your mind?" When I told her it didn't matter how scared you were or whether you had any business even being on the high board, you WERE GOING TO EXIT IT BY JUMPING, she still seemed to think there had to be a way out. I then told her the other kids behind you on the ladder would start griping and harassing you to hurry and jump so they could have their turn and at some point, you just had to suck it up and take the plunge. There was no choice.

"That sounds really harsh, Mommy. They were mean." I laughed and told her life WAS harsh, but that we all survived jumping off that board. And some learned to not go up it again if they were too chicken to jump off. She asked, "Didn't anyone care if a kid was scared?" Nope, no one cared. They cared that you were delaying their turn.

The School of Hard Knocks, public swimming pool style.

 

[Diznotyzed]

In the '70s when I was in Jr High, aka the most embarrassing time of your life, we were forced to take a shower after every PE class. You had to show a monitor that you'd gotten all wet. Horrible.

 

[NotUrsula]

Well, I was thinking more along the lines of some Disney movies. Until Tiana, all the Disney leading ladies sat around waiting for their Prince to show up and carry them off into the sunset. None of them had any meaningful work--just cleaning stuff (and some didn't even do that much) and talking to their little animal friends. Snow White lives with 7 little men and treats them with some condescension, patting them and kissing them on the head like they were children. In Peter Pan you have the whole Injuns & Tiger Lily story that would NEVER be recorded today. Same with Lady & the Tramp's slant-eyed Siamese cats playing the piano with chopsticks and singing "We are Si-a-me-ese, if you ple-ease...meow". And how about Jungle Book's King Louis, the brassy jazz-singing orangutan, voiced by Louis Armstrong--stereotyping, much? And don't even get started on "Song of the South". That movie script would never even make it to the table today.

Just one correction: King Louis wasn't voiced by Armstrong. He was voiced by Louis Prima, who was a white Italisn-American. Prima basically played himself; that was exactly his act; he was, as the appelation went at the time, a hep-cat. He was famous for a nightclub act featuring scat-singing.

PS: About the Pledge. Requiring students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in school has actually been illegal since 1943, some 21 years before the words "under God" were added to the Pledge. The case is West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette,319 U.S. 624(1943). Interestingly, the plaintiffs, who were Jehovah's Witnesses, objected to the Pledge because they believed that the Pledge (and saluting the flag) violated the 2d Commandment prohibition against the worship of idols.

 

[Lilacs4Me]

My DD had never seen a pool with a diving board, since you pretty much only find them on OLD pools and most of those have been torn down. She took a class at a pool that still had what I call the LOW diving board when she was about 5. She was terrified of that that thing and thought it seemed as high as one of the Olympic diving platforms. I mentioned that at my hometown pool, that would have been the low board and the high board was several times higher than that.

I don't know how high the HIGH board was, but I'm guessing about 15 feet. She asked for details and I told her we mostly jumped/dove off the low board, but almost everyone used the high board to a lesser extent. We rarely dove off it, but jumped or walked off. I mentioned that you would start to climb the ladder and there would be a bunch of kids on that ladder, waiting their turn. So you couldn't go back, but instead had to follow through and the only way off the board was to jump, no matter how petrified you were. She could not grasp what I was saying.

"What if you were too scared to jump? What if you wanted to go back down the ladder? What if you changed your mind?" When I told her it didn't matter how scared you were or whether you had any business even being on the high board, you WERE GOING TO EXIT IT BY JUMPING, she still seemed to think there had to be a way out. I then told her the other kids behind you on the ladder would start griping and harassing you to hurry and jump so they could have their turn and at some point, you just had to suck it up and take the plunge. There was no choice.

"That sounds really harsh, Mommy. They were mean." I laughed and told her life WAS harsh, but that we all survived jumping off that board. And some learned to not go up it again if they were too chicken to jump off. She asked, "Didn't anyone care if a kid was scared?" Nope, no one cared. They cared that you were delaying their turn.

The School of Hard Knocks, public swimming pool style.

Wow LOL Your DD unwittingly just perfectly summed up a whole generation of kids:

1. What if I'm scared?
2. What if I change my mind?
3. Doesn't anyone care about me?
4. Why isn't a grown up coming to save me?
5. Why are these kids bullying me?
6. Why am I not getting bailed out from this horrible choice I made??!!

and....

7. I need my MOMMY!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Bec3b1g]

My DD had never seen a pool with a diving board, since you pretty much only find them on OLD pools and most of those have been torn down. She took a class at a pool that still had what I call the LOW diving board when she was about 5. She was terrified of that that thing and thought it seemed as high as one of the Olympic diving platforms. I mentioned that at my hometown pool, that would have been the low board and the high board was several times higher than that.

I don't know how high the HIGH board was, but I'm guessing about 15 feet. She asked for details and I told her we mostly jumped/dove off the low board, but almost everyone used the high board to a lesser extent. We rarely dove off it, but jumped or walked off. I mentioned that you would start to climb the ladder and there would be a bunch of kids on that ladder, waiting their turn. So you couldn't go back, but instead had to follow through and the only way off the board was to jump, no matter how petrified you were. She could not grasp what I was saying.

"What if you were too scared to jump? What if you wanted to go back down the ladder? What if you changed your mind?" When I told her it didn't matter how scared you were or whether you had any business even being on the high board, you WERE GOING TO EXIT IT BY JUMPING, she still seemed to think there had to be a way out. I then told her the other kids behind you on the ladder would start griping and harassing you to hurry and jump so they could have their turn and at some point, you just had to suck it up and take the plunge. There was no choice.

"That sounds really harsh, Mommy. They were mean." I laughed and told her life WAS harsh, but that we all survived jumping off that board. And some learned to not go up it again if they were too chicken to jump off. She asked, "Didn't anyone care if a kid was scared?" Nope, no one cared. They cared that you were delaying their turn.

The School of Hard Knocks, public swimming pool style.

This brings back so many memories!!! Thanks for the post

 

[Mizzoufan]

We as a classed prayed before lunch.
public spankings were the norm
homemade snacks for class or birthday parties
The Christmas program at school was Christian based
We had Christmas and Easter parties.
If kids got in trouble at school the parents were mad at the kid and not the teacher .

 

[Bec3b1g]

We had our baccalaureate service immediately preceding our hs graduation and we were all required to be there.

 

[Kellykins1218]

When I was in 5th grade I was the school office assistant and answered the phone while the secretary was at lunch. I also stayed after school and answered the phone during staff meetings then our male principal would drive me home.

 

[sunshinehighway]

I'm much older than most on the DIS. When I was in grade school, we said the pledge of allegiance before the first class of the day. We put our right hand over our heart and faced the flag. I assume that isn't PC now.

We call the weather we are now having "Indian Summer". I would guess that isn't PC now.

I taught high school business for one year in '71-72. The teachers lounge was so full of smoke, you could barely see across the room. I know that isn't PC now. I never smoked.

My daughter still says the pledge every morning - public school, "one nation, under God" version.

Yeah the pledge of allegiance is still said here too. I think it's more one of the scare things that you see thrown out but it's really bunk..I mean that schools don't allow it. You know, every once in a while there's some random story about someone being upset about it, then FB and the internet goes nuts but it's really just an isolated story.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

At our once-a-week assemblies in the early seventies the kids who'd got into trouble the previous week were paddled. I remember my friend Florence got it one week. She was wearing a dress and the principal lifted it up (exposing her panties) to paddle her. This was in Philly in a public school.

 

[Tiffylv]

.

 

[brooke789]

I distinctly remember that in 3rd grade our (public school) teacher made us say a prayer before we left the classroom to go to lunch. We just all recited it together.

In 4th grade the school had the idea to group all of the students by test scores and we ended up with essentially all white or all black classrooms.

2nd grade teacher liked to get massages. It was a 'prize' to be picked to give her a shoulder massage.

I'm sure I have more, but that is what pops into my head first!

 

[Mizzoufan]

We all graded each other papers.

 

[Tiffylv]

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