50 years ago we believed....

[packman]

Just shake the fat off...

History is full of crazy weight loss devices and pills that promise to "melt the fat away while you sleep." But one of the craziest devices ever invented was the vibrating belt workout machine, which was supposed to jiggle the fat off you while you just stood there.


Talk pretty, girls...

But that didn't magically make all the misogyny go away or anything. No, the 1960s were full of sage advice from grandmothers and magazine editors about the very best way to woo your man and keep him happy after he hath been wooed.


Drunk driving was thought of as a rite of passage...

n the 1960s most people thought that drunk driving was a "folk crime." In fact it was kind of thought of as a rite of passage, so when parents found out their boy was caught drinking and driving, it was more like a "boys will be boys" thing


You could just bring your gun to school 50 years ago....

public high schools often had shooting clubs and sometimes even gun ranges on campus, and since practices were held after class kids could pretty much just take their guns to school with them so they could go straight to the shooting range after school let out.



Airline stewardesses had to be hot because being hot was literally in the job description

Sugar was harmless

One day, we will all live a life of leisure

Unmarried women aren't responsible enough to have credit cards

Seatbelts were totally unnecessary

Asbestos was a great building material

It wasn't weird to put vegetables and tuna fish in Jell-O

A woman's most important job was to make her husband happy




More:
https://www.grunge.com/48616/bizarre-things-people-believed-50-years-ago/

[Phoenix61]

1. It wasn't until 1974 that a married woman could get a credit card without her husband's signature.

This was 4 years after The Mary Tyler Moore Show, which was the first show staring a single career woman, hit the air waves. Crazy stuff right?

[lark]

2. In the early 1970's, think it was 72, businesses wouldn't accept checks signed with a womans name.

When I went to get my replacement glasses in 1972 (and I'm blind as a bat) the optometrist wouldn't accept the check with my first name signed on it. He said I was Mrs. Steven Sweat and I said no, I'm Mrs. Sandra Sweat. He refused to accept my check or give me my glasses, even though the check also identified me as Mrs. Sandra Sweat . I went to the bank, got cash, came back & picked up my oh so necessary glasses and actively told everyone not to go to him in the future. If we'd have had FB back then, I would have posted about it.

[Wicked Blue]

3. Girls were taught "Always let the man win"

in games like tennis, chess, etc.

Mustn't hurt their poor weak little egos.

[Walleye]

4. Girls were not allowed to play baseball, among many other things

[malthaussen]

5. I *did* just bring a handgun to school one day...

... I was going to use it in the play immediately after class. Somebody reported me to the principal, but all that happened was that he confiscated it until the play.

-- Mal

[Archae]

6. I was a teenager in the mid-70's...

There were guys a little older than me who would brag about "Getting home on autopilot."

[Yavin4]

7. Is this the "Make America Great Again" period that the MAGAs refer to?

50 years ago was a period of "greatness"?

[hunter]

8. The gun story doesn't end well in my childhood.

Back when I was ten years old and thought sixteen year old kids were more awesome than any older grownups there were some high school kids in my neighborhood who went out with their rifles shooting ground squirrels.

This was perfectly normal and accepted behavior for sixteen year olds in those days.

Ground squirrels really are wretched creatures, carriers of the plague, destroyers of orchards, and cannibals of their own kind as well.

Somehow one of the kids ended up dead, just another one of those "tragic accidents" gun fetishists so often speak of.

Thoughts and prayers.

Fifty years later I believe gun related "tragic accidents" are EXTREMELY RARE.

Once the guns come out everything is FUBAR. Even for people who call themselves hunters, or carry the name.

Yes, I have been a hunter and it's my name as well. I've eaten animals I've killed.

But no, your favorite uncle did not accidentally kill himself "cleaning his gun."

And no, the cops were not competent to carry guns.

And yes, absolutely, your neighbor with the gun fetish is potentially dangerous.

I've got far too much personal experience with these sorts of things.

As for the other stuff, it was possibly my good fortune to grow up in a matriarchal family. My great grandmas were all Wild West, as were their daughters. They married dreamers, but owned the properties. In the family tree I'm one of the dreamers.

[Boomerproud]

9. Everything in the OP is true, but as a kid I remember the

music being righteous and MOST of the tv shows being great (I know, for every Twilight Zone there was a Gilligan's Island). I guess if you're a kid the crap (culturally I mean) isn't so bad if your home life is lucky enough to be stable.