45 Things That Were Totally Normal In The '60s That Would Be Considered "A Trip" (AKA Completely Weird) Today

The 1960s were a decade of massive change — but day-to-day life looked nothing like what most people picture now. After our recent post about things that were normal in the '70s , readers who grew up in the '60s flooded us with their own memories. From making ashtrays for your parents in art class to getting your news exclusively from Walter Cronkite, the '60s were a whole different world. Here's what readers told us:

1. "Smoking was allowed in almost every public place you went. Every restaurant, airplane, and even the YMCA gym. The teachers had a smoking room at the school. There were literally smoking sections for everything. The smell would permeate your hair and clothes, and at busy places a blue cloud would hang above your head."

2. "When we were in elementary school, we would get to use clay, and instead of making sculptures, we all made ashtrays to take home to our parents. The trays were fired and glazed and came complete with little spaces to hold cigarettes, made by using our fingers to press the indentations."

—Anonymous, 65, Female, California

3. "Doctors and patients smoking while in the hospital. There were ashtrays at the bedside and in the nurses' station where the doctors would write their notes. This lasted into the '70s and maybe later. Wild if there was oxygen on."

—Anonymous, 63, Male, Pennsylvania

4. "During summer vacation, we would leave the house at 8 a.m. to go to the park to play stickball — that's baseball for you non-New Yorkers — and we'd stop home for lunch, back to the park, stop home for dinner, back to the park. Just be home as soon as the streetlights come on. But basically, parents had no idea where we were for about 10 hours every day."

5. "Going outside to play and mess around all day with a buddy or two and no adults. No phone, no pager, just running wild in the orange groves and canyons near my house. Showing back up for dinner and being asked by my mom, 'What did you do today, honey?'"

—Anonymous, 75, Male, Arizona

Related: Literally NO ONE Under The Age Of 60 Is Going To Ace This Quiz

6. "Kids came home from school, changed their clothes, and were out the door until dinner. It never occurred to my parents to worry about where we were. There were no playdates. No organized activities. It was up to us to figure out how to have fun."

—Anonymous

7. "Front row bench seating in the car. As a child, I would lie there at night with my head in my mother's lap while my father was driving. Or stand in the back. No seat belts."

8. "Riding in the rear window — the speaker deck — of the car."

—Anonymous, 63, Male, North Carolina

9. "Back when seat belts started appearing in cars, to encourage buckling up, all the kids would start silently counting. Whoever ended up the last one to remember to buckle up would get punched in the arm the same number of times as the count. Those hundred-count punches would start to hurt after a while."

—Anonymous, 67, Male, Georgia

10. "Being dehydrated 24/7. On Field Day, we'd be sweating like mad and completely parched, and they'd give us an 8-ounce Orangeade. If you were lucky, you could stand in a line for a quick drink from a water fountain dribbling tepid water at best."

— oldcake427

11. "Kids didn't wear any safety equipment when biking, skating, or sledding. No helmets, no knee or elbow protection. Having fun could be pretty dangerous."

12. "No leash laws or scooping up after dogs . The dogs ran in packs around the neighborhood, and people would whistle for them to come home. Also, the playground jungle gym was built over cement."

— magicalphone813

13. "I lived in Northeast Minnesota in fifth and sixth grade in 1968 and 1969. Girls were not allowed to wear pants to school, even during blizzards with wind chill factors well below zero degrees."

—Anonymous, 69, Female, California

14. "Girls having to wear skirts or dresses to public schools regardless of the weather! Older boys who were 'safety patrol' on street corners, making sure our skirts were not culottes!"

15. "In elementary school, girls had to wear dresses and boys had to wear button-down shirts and slacks. No jeans. But one day a year, we could all wear jeans or shorts. It was called 'Camera Day' because we were also allowed to bring a camera, if we had one, and take pictures of teachers and friends. We looked forward to this day all year, and one year I asked for a Kodak camera for Christmas just so I could bring it to school on Camera Day. I can still remember how excited I was when I opened that present on Christmas morning. I felt so grown up to have a camera of my very own!"

—Anonymous, 64, Female, San Diego

Related: People Are Discussing The Historical Facts That Are So Heartbreaking They've Stuck With Them Forever, And I Think I Could Cry

16. "I attended a rural Indiana high school from 1969 to graduation in 1973. Four towns consolidated for a student body of around 450 students. Once kids had driver's licenses, most drove to school. At least half the student vehicles in the parking lot were pickup trucks, and the majority had gun racks in the cab. During hunting season, most had rifles or shotguns in the gun racks. Some had weapons in the rack all year in case you wanted to stop and shoot on the way home. No one raised an eyebrow."

—Anonymous

17. "I grew up in a small town in Indiana, with 800 people. I was 10 years old in 1965. At that time, my friends and I thought nothing of tying a rifle or shotgun to the handlebars of our bicycles to go hunting. The usual response from parents was: 'Get home before dark.'"

—Anonymous

18. "Kids would get together after school or on weekends, or during the summer, and organize their own activities — whether it was baseball, football, street hockey, punchball, capture the flag, something mischievous like throwing snowballs at cars or people, scouting golf balls at a local course, or going through alleys making noise and looking in windows. We had such fun and independence. Now everything is organized by parents or some institution."

— mellowpepper6654

19. "We never had 'snow days' off from school back then, and most of us walked a mile to school — no one drove us. My school didn't have a cafeteria, so we walked home for lunch, then walked back to school right away, then back home at 3:30. On cold, snowy days, we were walking almost four miles and then staying outside playing until dinner. It was fun — I don't remember feeling cold. I was too busy building snow forts or playing football or sledding down the hill behind my house."

20. "We played Little League in a larger town about 10 miles from our small town. Our transport was the bed of our coach's pickup truck. In case it was raining in our town, we would all pile into the back of two station wagons — no seat belts — for the ride."

—Anonymous

21. "No one cared about kids. You come to school, obviously beaten up — no one says a word. You have no winter coat — well, run around more at recess. No lunch five days in a row — you look chubby anyway. So many signs of abuse and blind eyes."

— surprisednugget76

22. "At parent-teacher conferences, my father would tell the teacher, 'If he gets out of line, smack him.'"

—Anonymous, 62, Male, Minnesota

23. "Getting paddled, hit, or otherwise physically punished by teachers. Certain teachers were worse than others, and many times it was blatant child abuse. Discipline is one thing, but what some teachers did absolutely crossed the line. That goes for parents, too."

Related: People Who Went To Private School Are Sharing The Scandals That Got Covered Up, And I'm Genuinely Disturbed

24. "As was typical then, my mother didn't work — she had three children ages 6, 5, and 3. I remember that every weekday at 4:30 p.m., we would be given a snack and the TV was turned on so that she could 'get ready' for Daddy to come home from work at 5:30 p.m. Getting ready included teasing and styling her hair, putting on makeup, including false eyelashes and lipstick, and changing into a 'proper dress.' After changing into that dress, she would start to prepare dinner so that it was on the table promptly at 6:00 p.m."

—Anonymous

25. "After my last brother was born, my mother had to get my father to sign a paper so she could get her tubes tied because she didn't want more children. And if he chose not to sign, the doctor would not give her the procedure. I can't imagine having to do that. My body, my decision."

—Anonymous, 67, Female, North Carolina

26. "Married women receiving mail addressed to them as 'Mrs. [Husband's Name].' For example, Edith Bunker's mail would be addressed to 'Mrs. Archie Bunker' rather than 'Mrs. Edith Bunker.'"

—Anonymous, 67, Male, California

27. "Nurses — mostly female — were expected to rise to their feet when a physician — mostly male — entered a room."

28. "It was common among middle-class families for pre-teen young ladies to go to charm and etiquette classes. It was a class outside of normal school. You had to learn how to behave and act ladylike. Later, after senior year, you could be chosen to be a debutante."

—Anonymous, 64, Female, Oklahoma

29. "The way everyone was so segregated. Most of our teachers in Harlem schools were white. I didn't know any white kids my age until high school, and everyone still mostly kept to their own. It was all we knew."

— fluffyeggplant595

30. "I had just learned to read in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1962, and my mom took us to a clothes store. I was thirsty and looking for a water fountain. Found one, and there were signs above them saying 'White' and 'Colored.' I decided colored water would be way better than white water and drank it."

31. "Drinking and driving. Every Friday night, my dad would load the family into the car to go to the fish fry at the lodge where he was a member. There was an open bar and he'd get hammered, but since he was the man, he wouldn't let my mom drive us home. This was back in the days where seat belts were simple lap belts and often tucked into the crevice of the car seats to get them out of the way. My brother and I would sit on the floor of the car because the ride home was pretty erratic and scary."

—Anonymous, 59, Female, Missouri

32. "The stiff hair. I can remember my mom and other women with their beehive hairdos. They were heavily sprayed and stayed in that styled position for a week at a time. I can't imagine going even a few days without washing my hair. Thank goodness the '70s came around with loose and natural styles."

—Anonymous, 61, Female, Texas

33. "Wearing curlers while we went grocery shopping. Before most people had home hair dryers, it took hair so long to dry that we would just pop it in curlers and go about our daily errands."

34. "Men wearing dark suits with a real white handkerchief in the top left outer pocket that just showed a thin slice. In fact, now that I think about it, having handkerchiefs in all pockets — and in women's purses. Kleenex was very expensive and didn't really come out until later in the '60s."

—Anonymous

35. "Children, teenagers, and young adults always addressed adults as Mr. or Miss — never by their first names like they do today. This was respect for our elders and for people of authority."

—Anonymous, 70, Female, North Carolina

Related: Huedoku #1 — Can You Solve Today's Color Puzzle?

36. "Asking a stranger for directions. Without GPS, it was completely normal while driving to pull your car to the curb, roll down the window, and ask a complete stranger — who might be walking their dog or working in their yard — how to get to a business or specific address. Or you could stop at a gas station or small business and ask the attendant or receptionist."

—Anonymous, 66, Male, Wisconsin

37. "Meeting someone at the gate when their flight arrived or saying goodbye at the gate. There were no TSA or security lines. People were free to move around the airport wherever they wished to go."

38. "If you found a wallet, a book, or someone's personal belonging and there was ID in the wallet or an address on the book or belonging, you could throw it into the nearest public mailbox and it would be delivered back to the person."

— proship288

39. "Walgreens and Woolworths stores had lunch counters inside the stores! Maas Brothers/Allied Stores had a swanky restaurant on the second floor with white tablecloths and an à la carte menu — very shi-shi-la-la."

40. "Window shopping on Sundays because everything was closed due to blue laws."

—Anonymous, 64, Pennsylvania

41. "Soda and beer cans had ringed pop-tops. You'd put your finger through a ring and pull a perforated strip off the top of the can to open it. People either threw the pop-tops in the trash or on the ground. There was no pushing in an opening where each component stayed attached to the can."

— evilorca597

42. "In the '50s through the early '60s, our suburb of LA had an air raid siren that they tested once a month on a clear day at noon. One night it malfunctioned and freaked out the whole neighborhood. As a kid, I thought it was the end!"

43. "Hippies went barefoot everywhere, and often the males were shirtless. Restaurants had signs: 'No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service.'"

—Anonymous, 66, Female, Colorado

44. "Immunizations. We lined up in elementary school and got a shot. No questions asked and no concerns. It was for your own good and for the benefit of everyone else."

—Anonymous, 63, Female, Minnesota

45. "Walter Cronkite on CBS was the only trusted source for news. If Walter said it, it was true."

Do you have a '60s memory that belongs on this list? Drop it in the comments below, or submit anonymously using the form. Your story could be featured in a future BuzzFeed Community post!

Also in Rewind: Today's Huedoku Will Humble You...Unless You're Really Good

Also in Rewind: Can You Recognize These 99 Famous Things From The 1980s, Or Does Your Pop Culture Knowledge Not Go Back That Far?

Also in Rewind: Only Actual Geniuses Can Solve This Color Sudoku Puzzle With No Help

Read it on BuzzFeed.com