Things that would be completely un-PC today

[sdchickie]

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.

We were allowed to skip our recess to stay in after lunch and wash the dishes in the school kitchen. At 9 and 10 years old we were using the industrial washers! The reason we all wanted to volunteer, extra desert.

 

[DebbieB]

About 30 years ago, I got my kitten declawed. Now, that is taboo.

 

[low-key]

when i was a kid everyone knew the commercial song Fritto Bandito, I later heard it wasnt pc

 

[maxiesmom]

I remembered something else: In grade school I had a teacher who would give the kids with the best math scores Burger King Whoppers as a reward.

 

[oam]

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!

Our gym teacher sanctioned " smear the queer" for class on a regular basis.

 

[Tiffylv]

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[Minnesota!]

Some of the violent songs we used to sing. "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer had a very shiny gun. And if you ever saw it, you would turn around and run." Or how we would choose who went first for a game by saying "My mother and your mother were hanging up clothes. My mother punched your mother right in the nose. What color blood came out" And you would end up pointing at one child, who then "won".

Sounds bad, but I haven't heard that any of my friends turned into criminals.

We still do the "my mother" jingle when we put our feet in the fire to determine who goes first. I have taught my kids all the rhymes!

I remembered something else: In grade school I had a teacher who would give the kids with the best math scores Burger King Whoppers as a reward.

We got BK when I was in school, too...but my kids go to the same school and for the same activity, the reward is Subway. The kids ride there in the teacher's car on Friday's.

 

[linzjane88]

When I was in kindergarten I had to pee *SO* bad on the hour and fifteen minute bus ride home that I started crying. The busdriver pulled over at someone's house she knew and asked if I could use the bathroom. I got yelled at when I got home for causing such trouble and from then on out I had to go pee every day at 2:15 before I got on the bus home.

Funny thing is that I live about half a mile away from that house now. I still remember what it looked like inside.

 

[linzjane88]

Thanks for the funny trip down memory lane. At the school I work at we say the pledge every day. I remember fondly growing up in the 60's/70's and kids having to stay after to clean the chalk board (after writing 100 times I will not...) Kids being tied to chairs, I do remember one boy with a crew cut having to sit with a chalkboard eraser on his head since he was too rambunctious! We had "pets" in the classroom in elementary school - hamster, snake, fish. Oh and we all walked to school every single day rain or shine. My neighborhood was heavy "Catholic" believe it or not we had one - yep One - girl in our school who was a Jehovah Witness. When we had elaborate holiday parties, she had to leave and sit in the office! She also had to leave if the class celebrated a birthday (the b-day kid always passed out candy!) And the rebels we were back then.. we ate... PEANUT BUTTER!! We also rode our bikes helmet-less all over town and went to the local pool ALONE!! And not so PC just me being "old fashioned" we would never, ever in a zillion years ever call any adult in our worldly bubble anything other than MR/MRS so-n-so. In high school we were "tracked" so if you had any type of brain activity you were "college" track and you never ever saw shall-we-say certain kids. In high school swim class we had to get undressed, walk NAKED to a general area and call out our suit size and wait for the teacher to find our size and hand the suits out. Most of us brought string since suits were all stretched out and had to tie the straps! And heaven forbid you had your monthly "friend" it was announced to the world as you sat out of swimming... Ah the memories....

Haha, I think I was the 'one Jehovah's Witness'. LOL. We lived in a small town too. I remember going off to the "Friendship Room" during holiday parties and it was always sooooo exciting. I don't know what the rooms purpose was but there were so many toys and games. I think it had something to do with special education - whatever the purpose, it was super cool and I looked forward to it.

I also remember the peanut butter. There was a little snack stand in the cafeteria with cookies, chips, and other junk food. One of the things there was little paper cups of some type of sweet peanut butter--it was PB mixed with honey I think. It was either .10 or .25 for one.

 

[phorsenuf]

I remember singing song like this on the last day of school. We'd all lean out the bus windows and sing. This was back in elementary school.

No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher’s
Dirty looks.
Kick the tables
Kick the chairs
Kick the teachers
Down the stairs!


I know there were others but can't remember them.

 

[BillBrasky]

My favorite story is from when I was 2, and my dad called home from work and was talking to my mom about his work trip to Germany he was leaving for the next day, and she was like "sigh, too bad I have to stay here with the kids" and he was like "screw that, come to Europe" and she was like "OK I WILL". So it was me and my 3 older brothers, aged 10, 11, and 15 on our own for a week and a half.

Also, I'm not even allowed to own people anymore. And it may sound crazy, but I'm pretty sure my wife VOTED last week.

 

[linzjane88]

My favorite story is from when I was 2, and my dad called home from work and was talking to my mom about his work trip to Germany he was leaving for the next day, and she was like "sigh, too bad I have to stay here with the kids" and he was like "screw that, come to Europe" and she was like "OK I WILL". So it was me and my 3 older brothers, aged 10, 11, and 15 on our own for a week and a half.

Also, I'm not even allowed to own people anymore. And it may sound crazy, but I'm pretty sure my wife VOTED last week.

Haha! I was also left on my own alllll the time starting when I was about 8 or so. My dad is a paramedic and my mom decided to be an EMT and they worked shift together in our small town. Even after my sister was born (I was 10) they continued working shifts together--I learned to babysit quickly and did it frequently (daily, overnight) until I moved out. If I wanted to go somewhere I just loaded my sisters car seat up in my ride. One time I took her to the river so we could go swimming. Granted, it was with extended family, but I can't imagine OK'ing a 13 year old to take a 3 year old to do that! We found out just recently my mom had many other extracurricular activities during that time that contributed to the time home alone (dad thought she was home with us, we thought she was working with dad) but thats a whoooole nother ball of wax.

I also got to ride in the ambulance sometimes when they went on calls. I remember going to an old ladies house and waiting in the front seat while they went in and loaded her up.

 

[ddwlms]

Very old....nineties? You mean 1890s? How old is this very old friend? Just wondering.

I would say, very non- PC is mentioning anyone's race or colour at all. Not even being interested in their culture, where they or their parents were from and just enjoying there is such diversity in the world.
Awhile back, my girlfriend dropped in at the store I work at and I was in a meeting so didn't get to see her. When I got out of the meeting, my co-workers said that 'Crystal' was in to see me. I asked which Crystal as I know quite a few but they just shrugged and said that she just said her name was Crystal. The Crystals I know all look very different so they should be able to find SOME words to describe them without saying 'the fat one' 'the skinny one', 'the one with purple hair' or 'the pregnant one' but they couldn't. That night my girlfriend phoned and said she wanted to see me so she had stopped by the store.

Well...wouldn't it have been easier if they had said she was Chinese? Even Asian or Oriental? Next day I went to work and asked about Crystal "was she Chinese?" and they all said "yeah, that's her." Are we that afraid of mentioning race that they couldn't even tell me it was a Chinese lady who had come by? (The reason that she wasn't the first one who popped into my head is because I'm not used to her English name LOL.)

This ^^. My two youngest are Chinese. One day their cousin was trying to point one of them out to her friends. DD was in dance class wearing a pink tutu. 75% of the class were wearing pink tutus. DD was the only one of Asian descent, or even with long, straight, black hair, but her cousin worked so hard trying to describe DD with only describing her pink tutu. I finally interrupted with "the Chinese girl." -It's ok! They are Chinese. In fact, we are very proud of the fact that they are Chinese.

Now, if you want horribly Un-PC. My father use to say "Isn't she the cutest Chinc you've ever seen?" That was a really weird one to process as he had a horrible habit of playing favorites with his grand kids and the two Chinese grand kids were his absolute favorite. He loved them to the moon and back but didn't see anything wrong with his choice of words.

 

[Jafar30]

These two are really un-PC but we used to play a football game where one kid had the ball and you had to Smear the Queer.

And a large pile of people was called a Blank Pile

 

[Jdbsfw]

"Smear the queer" was also known as "tackle the man" in Texas, we sometimes called it the latter as to not frighten the weaker, smaller, and slower kids to keep them from not playing as they were the ones we wanted to smear.

 

[Land Shark]

We weren't allowed to play backyard tackle football for fear of getting hurt but played "smear" all the time. I got my bell rung numerous times. Football would have been less physical since there are actually rules involved.
There were a lot of these types of terms used when we were kids that we thought nothing of but as I got out in the world realized how pejorative they were.

 

[bcla]

Revisiting an old thread......

The first time I visited Asia as a kid was with my dad on a business trip. We were in Taiwan, where we were guests in someone's home. And in their bathroom was the #1 selling toothpaste brand in Taiwan, which I won't name here. But the name and image on the package was astoundingly offensive. Eventually Colgate-Palmolive bought the company (based in Hong Kong), changed the offensive name, and finally changed the offensive image. However, the name in Chinese is still the same - translates as "Black Person/Man Toothpaste". Kind of a loose translation since there's no singular/plural or separate word for man/woman. The original image was of a caricature and the name was even more offensive. Here's the Wiki article on it. The original name differs by a single character.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darlie

 

[MillauFr]

I pointed out that these "reality" shows are not real at all. They are all scripted. People really don't want to hear that. They want to cling to their delusions.

 

[L&Lfan]

Statues of anyone/anything involving the CSA.

 

[Suger Mag]

Statues of anyone/anything involving the CSA.

CSA... Community Supported Agriculture? Although I love my CSA... best veggies and organic meat in the area, and I love knowing where my food comes from, we don't have any CSA statues that I know of... well the giant butter sculpture at the Big E might count as a CSA statue...