What from your childhood would be UNTHINKABLE today?

[Malthus]

Back in my day we ate lead paint chips we peeled off the walls AND WE LIKED IT.

Hey, back in Roman times they flavoured stuff with tasty sugar of lead. As a re-enactor and as a gourmand, you should get right on that action. 

[Caliga]

Me has eating lead sirrup on Roaming food. 

[Habsburg]

From the original question:  Zac Efron would be cast as Johnny Quest. 

[charliebear]

Becasuse I like you and I feel charitable towards someone who roots for a team that has Izzo as a coach:

EEC ALERT:

High Levels of Lead Found in Common Use Garden Hoses



Some common use garden hoses that are sold at local stores such as Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Target and Ace Hardware may contain very high levels of lead. Garden hoses tend to be made of PVC, which is a dirty plastic, in which lead is used as a stabilizer.[1]

<snip>  [//quote]

Note that it is ok to drink from "safe" hoses, hence it is clearly the hose that is the potential problem, not the "system".

Thank you for the informative article.  I would never have thought that filling kiddy pools could be bad.

[Capetan Mihali]

A lot of the smoking issues have definitely become extremely marginal, but are still thinkable at least.  I used one of those apres-elevator ashtrays staying on a smoking floor of a Holiday Inn in Pittsburgh last year (before the new PA smoking laws), and just last week used an ashtray in a garage waiting room (though it might not have been strictly legal, the ashtray was full).

[Razgovory]

Back in my day we ate lead paint chips we peeled off the walls AND WE LIKED IT.

I got alot of lead poisoning as a kid.  It was painful.

[Capetan Mihali]

Also, comically, the interior stairwell of the Common Pleas Court (the main criminal court) in Philadelphia is full of people (defendants, lawyers, and staff alike) lighting up cigarettes in front of massive cigarette-crossed-out signs, and completely stinks of stale cigarettes.   

[DontSayBanana]

All the rockets talk got me all nostalgic- in seventh grade, we fired off a bunch of model rockets from the backyard of my school during science class. Everybody else got Estes Alphas, but the science teacher let me run a Big Bertha, modified to accept a couple extra D engines. The rocket was Timmy-approved, too- I painted it to look like one of the missiles hanging on a VF-1 Valkyrie from Robotech.

On the OP:

Actually getting two hours on a Saturday morning where I'd have a whole block of cartoons I wanted to watch is a biggie. TV in general seemed so much better when I was a kid.

[Camper]

Wow, being a kid these days in North America sucks

Especially if you suck up to the prevailing orthodoxy.

[Caliga]

Also, comically, the interior stairwell of the Common Pleas Court (the main criminal court) in Philadelphia is full of people (defendants, lawyers, and staff alike) lighting up cigarettes in front of massive cigarette-crossed-out signs, and completely stinks of stale cigarettes.   

I think I was there once for jury pool selection.  Thank Cthulhu I didn't get selected.

[Brazen]

Only three TV stations which stopped broadcasting about 11pm and for a large chunk of the daytime. Test card FTW.

[Ed Anger]

Only three TV stations which stopped broadcasting about 11pm and for a large chunk of the daytime. Test card FTW.

For me, it was CBS, NBC, ABC, a UHF station(maybe) and a PBS station. When cable came, it BLEW MY MIND.

[Caliga]

I was: not allowed to watch Showtime! 

[Ed Anger]

I was: not allowed to watch Showtime! 

MY PARENTS DID NOT CARE WHAT I WATCHED.

[katmai]

I was: not allowed to watch Showtime! 

I use to watch Prism for the Pornos