Normal Things in The ’60s That Would Never Be Allowed Today
If you lived through the 1960s, you know firsthand that this was a decade with a vibe all its own. And while we may still enjoy many of the pop culture artifacts of the decade, whether we’re listening to the Beatles or watching “Lawrence of Arabia,” some things from the 1960s would be totally unacceptable today. So sit back and get ready to cringe at some of the surprising things we used to do half a century ago.
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Cars Without Seat Belts
It’s hard to imagine it in the era of the five-point harness, but up until the late 1960s, cars could still be manufactured in the United States without seat belts. That ended in 1968 with legislation requiring every vehicle to have them. However, car collectors sometimes own models so old they predate the legislation by decades, allowing motorists to go commando. But would you step into a car with no seat belts today and tear down the highway? Absolutely not!
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Ice Cream for Breakfast
A Cream of Wheat advertisement from the storied days of long ago suggested that if consumers wanted to enhance their experience of shoveling the flavorless farina into their tummies, they should add a scoop of ice cream. Today, of course, we would never consider such heresy since breakfast is supposed to be nutritious and not just another opportunity to tempt diabetes. It also just sounds kind of gross.
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Lead Paint
Lead was a common component in paint until it was banned in the United States in the late 1970s, with the exception of road markings. Today, you won’t find it in any newly painted homes unless it was put there by some crooked landlord absolutely determined to break the law. Even then, they would have difficulty getting their hands on a can of the stuff since people today rightly associate it with all kinds of medical misfortunes.
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Encasing Everything in Jell-O
During the 1960s, encasing various foods in Jell-O was not only acceptable but “de rigeur” when entertaining. When we say everything was up for encasement, we mean it. Look no further than this 1967 recipe for Jellied Lamb Salad, whose name combines terms that should reside nowhere near one another. While there’s no ironclad academic source to back this up, we believe it’s safe to say no one engages in this hateful culinary practice anymore, and we’re delighted.
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Separate Want Ads for Women
During most of the 1960s, it was customary for a newspaper’s classified ads to be segregated by gender. There were ads for men and ads for women, since it was believed that some work could only be performed by chiseled, muscular men and not by their frail counterparts, who may fall victim to dropsy if they did too much filing. In 1968, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission forbade these ads, and the Supreme Court upheld the decision, paving the way for women to apply for jobs previously set aside for men.
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Asbestos
Asbestos was once used for many things, such as making homes flame retardant. It can cause severe respiratory illnesses and diseases such as mesothelioma, something that only started to become widely acknowledged in the 1970s. If you think you could still get away with using it today, try selling a home to a potential buyer after mentioning that it was built with asbestos. You’ll see firsthand that you can’t get away with it today.
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Women + Credit Cards = No Way
It was not until 1974 that women were allowed to get a credit card in their own name. Before the passage that year of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, women were not allowed to get a credit card unless their husbands co-signed, and woe to the unmarried woman who wanted to get one, or the married woman whose husband was a controlling jerk who wouldn’t co-sign. If you want proof that this would never fly today, tell anyone born after 1970 about how it used to be and watch them become enraged.
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Supporting an Elected Official Who You Didn’t Vote For
It should come as no surprise that in 1960, when John F. Kennedy ran for president against Richard Nixon, the very right-wing John Wayne voted for Nixon. When Kennedy won, Wayne said, “I didn’t vote for him, but he’s my president, and I hope he does a good job.” This attitude is long gone, and many supporters of a losing candidate may refuse to be magnanimous in defeat. They may not even be willing to accept that the other candidate won.
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Gender-Based Jury Exclusion
Women in the United States were not allowed to serve on juries, as many believed they were too emotional to judge a case dispassionately. Furthermore, it was thought that a woman hearing the details of a gruesome murder might take to the fainting couch and require smelling salts to regain consciousness. This changed on a state-by-state basis, and it wasn’t until 1968 that every state allowed women to serve on juries – it was in that year that the lone holdout, the state of Mississippi, finally took the “L” and let women do their civic duty.
Related:
- 13 Classic Albums That Are Turning 60 This Year
- Popular (& sometimes really gross) slang throughout the years
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