26 Toxic Trends From The “Good Old Days” That Are Actually Horrifying To Look Back On (snowflake alert)

Buzzfeed ^ | October 17, 2026 | Jamie Ko

[DoodleBob]

Everyone loves reminiscing about the "good old days," until we start digging a little too deep into what actually went on back then. And the more you hear about what was considered completely normal, the more you start to wonder how anyone survived.

So, we asked the BuzzFeed Community to share even more toxic trends from the past that would never fly today, and all of their responses are genuinely hard to believe. So here are 26 things from the "good old days" that will make you very thankful that times have changed...

1. "My mom used to put rum in our baby bottles or ice cream to get us to sleep through the night."

2. "I remember going into Sears and stepping onto an X-ray machine in the shoe department so we could see the bones in our feet. It was supposed to help with fitting shoes, but nobody stopped us kids from using it just for fun."

3. "The toys! We had glass balls on strings that you'd clack together until they eventually shattered, sending glass shards flying everywhere. A kid I knew almost lost an eye. And lawn darts? Yeah, let's give kids an incredibly dangerous toy! There were even chemistry sets containing uranium and other toxic materials. I sometimes wonder how so many of us survived unscathed."

4. "When I was a young mother, my doctor would give me paregoric to rub on my babies' gums when they were teething. I was very naive, so I used it often. Things are so different now, thank god!"

5. "I remember playing with the mercury that came out of broken thermometers on more than one occasion, without realizing how dangerous it was."

6. "Babies were deliberately left to cry in their cribs because people believed that picking them up every time they cried would 'spoil' them."

7. "I was regularly given money and sent to the store to buy cigarettes for my dad. Nowadays, you have to be a certain age to purchase them."

8. "We used to have keg parties at high school classmates' parents' houses. We'd get fall-down drunk, and most of the time, the parents were home. It was just a normal thing to do on the weekends."

9. "Several times a week during the summer, on weekends, and on days off school, we'd get kicked out of the house and weren't allowed back inside until the streetlights came on. They called it 'learning independence,' but looking back, it was actually neglect."

10. "Girls and women were expected to play dumb or act incompetent so boys and men could feel superior. I was a very good pool player, skilled enough to beat almost anyone. But I noticed early on that men would get especially upset when I beat them, and the general expectation, from both men and women, was that I should tone it down to maintain some stupid idea of male superiority. What b*."

11. "Growing up, we rode our bikes and skateboards without wearing helmets. Nobody even thought twice about it."

12. "I remember sliding down ridiculously tall metal slides in the summer."

13. "Parents would leave their children unattended in the car while they ran errands or went grocery shopping."

14. "Teaching children racism. We didn't even realize it at the time. That unfounded racism stuck with some kids for their entire lives, but fortunately, not with me. Recognizing how wrong it was helped shape my beliefs, along with having a super kind mother who taught us to respect everyone."

15. "We used to get older relatives, especially Vietnam War veterans, to buy us powerful firecrackers like M-80s. They'd even teach us how to make much bigger explosions by collecting the gunpowder from them."

16. "My brother was very artistic and used to build intricate model airplanes and warships with tiny pieces. He used a highly toxic glue that has since been banned. He'd come out of his bedroom high from the fumes, and nobody in the family seemed concerned."

17. "I remember riding the school bus in North Carolina in the 1970s, when high school seniors were allowed to drive the buses for credit through some kind of school program."

18. "In high school, we had initiation rituals that would now be called hazing. During freshman initiation week, each freshman was assigned as someone's 'slave' and had to do chores like carrying books to class. On the last day, the boys had to wear dresses and makeup, and at a pep rally, each freshman was assigned a humiliating task. I was covered in cooking oil and rolled in dirt. The athletic club was even worse. If you earned a varsity letter that year, you were thrown into a gym blindfolded, wearing only a jockstrap, while the other lettermen beat you with paddles they'd made in industrial arts class. They wouldn't let you leave until you fought your way out. Only then were you considered a member of the club."

19. "When I was little, my dad and uncle used to let me sit on their laps and drive the car. There were no seatbelts back then, and they were usually drunk. I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread."

20. "Using the phrase 'What would people say?' just to make your kids listen. People will always have something to say, and if they don't, they'll make it up. I feel bad for older generations who didn't do what they wanted because they were so worried about what other people would think. No wonder they're so bitter."

21. "When I was in elementary school, we had 'chicken fights' on Field Day, where kids would get on each other's shoulders and try to knock their opponents off. So dangerous!"

22. "We'd disappear for hours into the local woods to investigate burned-out cars and bird skeletons. I'm surprised I made it past the age of 10.”

23. "Toilet-papering people's houses eventually progressed to egging them. Kids considered it normal back then, but aside from all the obvious reasons to avoid doing it, I'm thinking kids probably couldn't even afford it today!"

24. "People drank Pepsi or Coca-Cola every single day, including with most meals. They also drank water straight from the hose."

25. "MySpace's Top 8 friends feature, where everyone could publicly rank their closest friends. It basically turned friendship into a popularity contest, and people would get upset or start drama over who made the list and who got left out."

26. And lastly: "Trick-or-treating. We're taught not to take candy from strangers, but somehow it's okay to take candy from neighbors? You have no idea who gave you what."

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TOPICS: History; Society
KEYWORDS: goodolddays; snowflake

[DoodleBob]

Buzzfeed a uber liberal site. Thus, these comments are undoubtedly from aging NPR fans who have never been to the range, never used a power tool, and never scraped their knee.

[ridesthemiles]

#1 & #4-—bourbon

[DoodleBob]

For my friends of Hellenic descent, they got Ouzo as kiddos.

That’s hard core, man.

[Texas Eagle]

We drove around without seat belts.

We'd hitchhike down to the creek and dive in off of tree limbs hanging over the water without even thinking what might be in the water.

We'd have b.b. gun wars in the woods.

We'd rush to sit in the back of the pickup.

[kaktuskid]

#24 - we either had milk, water, iced tea, or coffee at the dinner table…no soft drinks.

[CFW]

Well, you can tell this person was no fun in the 70s/80s. I bet she was a teacher’s pet and told a teacher each time she saw someone breaking the rules. She is quick to let us know SHE didn’t do these things. It was all those icky other people. She was more enlightened.

I did a lot of those things and I certainly wouldn’t call them “toxic”. Well, maybe the mercury but we all survived.

[Steely Tom]

3. "The toys! We had glass balls on strings that you'd clack together until they eventually shattered, sending glass shards flying everywhere. A kid I knew almost lost an eye. And lawn darts? Yeah, let's give kids an incredibly dangerous toy! There were even chemistry sets containing uranium and other toxic materials. I sometimes wonder how so many of us survived unscathed."

'Cause we were smarter than you. And they weren't made of glass.

[sjmjax]

As I read that I was at first a little offended. Much of it describes my wonderful childhood.

But, I now believe it’s written “tongue in cheek“ or facetious humor.

[Deaf Smith]

Up around 1984 or so, it used to be legal to drink ‘n drive in Texas.

Pickup trucks used to have built in ice chest.

Our motorcycles had swinging beer holders on the handle bars.

Distances were measured in beer consumption between two points.

[fruser1]

will make you very thankful that times have changed

These kids need to be beaten.

[Allegra]

Yep. Soft drinks were a once-in-a-while treat. We did not have them daily. Not even close.

We did drink water out of the hose. And it didn’t kill us. 😄

[DoodleBob]

These are all submissions from readers of Buzzfeed.

It’s not from one person, but from multiple people.

Buzzfeed leans very left, so the submissions likely come from people who voted for Dukakis, Mondale, Clinton, and Gore.

That explains a lot.

[SunkenCiv]

Millennials are still the stupidest generation according to Brad Up in this clip form his second Dry Bar Comedy special. Brad Upton is back and funnier than ever in this clip form his second Dry Bar Comedy special. In this clip Brad Talks about his experience growing up and the hilarious nick names they used to give to people. Whether you're someone who has a nick name, or you're just someone who loves Brad Upton this clip is sure to have you laughing from start to finish.

Millennials Are Still The Stupidest Generation. Brad Upton | 6:59
Dry Bar Comedy | 3.09M subscribers | 2,398,306 views | June 27, 2022

[Jamestown1630]

i think so too. We did all that ‘dangerous’ stuff, and yet here we are, holding down the fort.

[BenLurkin]

“I remember playing with the mercury that came out of broken thermometers on more than one occasion, without realizing how dangerous it was.”

One of any number of Democrat politicians.

[Sequoyah101]

Some of these are pretty silly and a bit overstated.

What I was thinking about today was Sizzlin’ Sirloin. We went after church on Sunday. It was either an 8 or 12 oz piece of nice sirloin steak, baked potato or mashed, rolls and salad bar for, are you ready for this? One hundred and sixty-nine pennies. That’s all, a buck sixty-nine. It was so regular that the price was permanently part of their sign out front with the big Hereford cow.

You couldn’t even get a sniff of a steak for a buck sixty-nine these days.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

A few of those things were dumb, but there is some exaggeration in a lot of these claims. Nobody that I know was “kicked out of the house” and not allowed to go back inside until nightfall. We wanted to be outside all day. We went in for lunch and dinner and other necessities. We were usually reluctant to go in when the signal for the end of the day- the porch light — was turned on. We could explore the woods and prairies without fear of disappearing into someone’s basement or a drainage ditch because, for some reason, the world was not as dangerous then. I ran errands to the local market for a neighbor lady and she sent a note for me to buy her cigarettes. She smoked them. I didn’t,

[Raycpa]

I miss those days.

[dandiegirl]

Number 9, haha, I guess we had a pretty dang good time while our parents were “neglecting’ us.

[Political Junkie Too]

I used to jump off the Empire State Building just to see if Johnny would do it, too.

Spolier Alert: Johnny never did.

-PJ