16 “Offensive Things” That Are Not Acceptable After 100 Years Later

Hold on to your hats and buckle up because we’re taking a trip back in time to explore some of the wackiest things that were once considered normal. We’ll cover everything from indoor toilets being a luxury to the infamous radium craze of the 1920s. So better get ready to scratch your head when you see ten bizarre and outdated practices.

1. From Outhouses to Inhouse

Ah, indoor toilets! Can you imagine the luxury of relieving yourself without having to trek out to the outhouse in the cold? It’s a wonder how indoor toilets are a relatively recent phenomenon. One person recalled how their dad got indoor plumbing as late as the 1950s, and we are talking about the U.S. here.

2. Radioactive Elixir

As someone mentioned, people were so obsessed with putting it in everything that they even made radium water. Talk about glowing reviews! Alternatively, many users recounted the horror story of the Radium Girls who’d paint watches with radium. Unfortunately, they ended up with a radioactive farewell.

3. Corporal Punishment

Corporal punishment was so prevalent back then that seeing a school that didn’t paddle its students was odd. However, many users mentioned their experiences from the 90s where they were regularly paddled for mundane issues such as bad handwriting or using the toilet too much.

4. Not Graduating High School

Many people mentioned how there was less stigma surrounding dropouts in the 1920s than today. It was a norm for people to drop out, and school was seen as a buffer until you could start working. Today, the concept of a dropout frequently relates to a lack of academic achievement, access to resources, etc.

5. Thinking Milky Way Is the Universe

In today’s time, it feels like common knowledge to expect that there are other galaxies besides the Milky Way. However, as someone highlighted, galaxies besides our own were not discovered until 1924.

6. Asbestos

What was once crowned as a miracle fiber is now a recognized carcinogen. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. One person caught my attention when they shared that asbestos in cigarette filters was a thing. What? How is this legal?

7. Gun Clubs in Schools

Real guns in schools are unimaginable today for all the right reasons. However, back in the day, gun clubs were quite popular. Many users recalled their fathers taking rifles to school for shooting practice on the football field. Thankfully, these days, we’re all about gun control and safety.

8. Institutionalization of Women

The origins of labeling women as “hysterical” make up for an exciting discourse in psychiatry. However, as many have pointed out, it was nothing more than parents and husbands finding it hard to “control” the women for whatever petty excuse they could think of. Most admitted women were completely fine according to today’s psychiatric standards.

9. Racial Segregation

This is your reminder of how recent the civil rights movement is. It is eerie to think of property covenants that did not allow sales to people of color. A person of color shared, “I live in a house where that was in the original deed restriction.”

10. Opium

Opium was the magic potion at the time. From recreational use to medicinal purposes, it was all the rage. Someone voiced their concern for such absurdity since no two uses would be remotely close. They joked, “Have a headache? Have some opium. Just had a baby? Here’s some opium.”

11. Spittoons

The name says it all, but it’s a container for spit. A final user explained seeing one in the bars when you walked in (or out) was expected. Ah, the good old days when you could walk into a bar and see a container full of spit sitting there, just waiting to be used. I guess it’s a reasonable thing hygiene concerns finally caught up with us and outlawed those things.

12. Memorizing phone numbers

woman shocked looking on her phone — Photo Credit: Depositphotos.

In the pre-smartphone era, memorizing phone numbers was a necessity. Now, our reliance on contact lists and speed-dial functions means few people memorize more than a handful of numbers, relying instead on digital storage. The convenience of storing contacts digitally has made this skill almost redundant.

13. Having a CD or record collection

Owning shelves of CDs or boxes of vinyl records was pretty common back then. However, the digital era has transformed music storage, with MP3s and streaming platforms rendering physical collections less common. While vinyl has seen a resurgence among enthusiasts, the idea of CDs making a comeback seems unlikely due to the convenience of digital music libraries.

14. Calling a theater for movie times

female on phone-shutterstock — Photo Credit: Shutterstock.

Before the internet era, checking movie showtimes required calling the theater or consulting printed listings. Now, with the abundance of online platforms and search engines, accessing movie times is as simple as typing a query into a search engine or movie app, making the act of calling theaters for showtimes nearly obsolete.

15. Cutting things out of the newspaper

expired coupons — Photo Credit: Depositphotos.

Clipping articles from newspapers was once a common way to share interesting stories or information. However, in today’s digital age, access to online news archives and the ease of sharing articles via email, social media, or text messages has largely replaced this practice.

16. Looking up the spelling of words in the dictionary

man talking different languages — Photo Credit: Depositphotos.

Spellcheck features tools like word processors and note-taking apps have largely replaced the need to consult physical dictionaries for spelling accuracy. We no longer need the physical dictionaries to check for spellings.