Totally. Early Hanks role. Probably part of the reason my dad thought I was becoming a ‘devil worshipper’
I was a little scared of D&D too when I first got some of the stuff. And that’s how I learned the adults were completely full of shit.
They can strip a cow to the bone in under 30 minutes!
I worked in an aquarium specialty shop for years but never got bit by one, in fact when you went to scrape the algae off the glass, unlike most of the other fish species, they would cower in the corner. If you weren't careful you could get dinged if you were scooping one out for a customer but I never got bit. They had a special net which was usually the oldest dinged up fish net rotated to their use and it had a bunch of bite holes in it
The HIV pandemic comes to mind.
If you were LGBT, you ran the risk of your parents kicking you out of their home, and bashers stomping you to death, or setting you on fire, or dragging you behind their truck, or sending you off to religious re-education camps.
Garden variety bullies were only somewhat less dangerous (or equally as dangerous, if you weren't white). I can't remember how many times I was stabbed in elementary school alone.
Leaded gasoline was a thing, though we didn't know it was so dangerous at the time.
Other than that, not sure. I guess a lot of us broke bones on the jungle gym, or threw up after getting spun on the go-around, or lost skin sliding down a steel slide in the hot summer sun, but those were pretty low-grade threats.
Looking forward to seeing what other Xers remember.
**Edited to add:** Nuclear holocaust! How could I have forgotten nuclear holocaust? We went to bed every night not knowing if we'd waken the next morning.
They knew lead was dangerous hence it's ban from house paint in 1978. But it took much longer to phase out leaded gasoline.
Anyone else remember Gasohol?
They knew for SO LONG. They knew when they introduced it into gas in the early 20th century. They knew when it was in makeup in the 1800s. They even knew in Roman times. The problem is, it's an irresistible material to us. Easily found, easily mined, easy to work, and you can do a lot of stuff with it. And it hasn't stopped. There's high lead levels in a lot of cheap shit, the Temu type stuff.
I can’t imagine being stabbed. Wow. Since moving back to the town I spent the first seven years of my life in, I have been robbed incessantly for 15 years. Probably by someone I know. It’s debilitating.
Quicksand, nuclear war, not getting let out of the trunk sneaking into the drive in, only having seeds and stems, cops stealing our booze and strangers.
Or another forgotten classic, scraping the pipe for resin and smoking that. Now, when legal weed is $6 an eighth, you just throw a half burnt bowl away for a fresh one.
It's insane now cheap it is. I was in Denver a few weeks ago. We didn't even shop around. We just went to the closest dispensary to the airport. With tax $102 for an ounce. I was paying that for decent Mexican brown in the 90s. That was their price for every strain. I've gotten ounces there for $80 with tax looking for specials.
Portland's got $40 ounces, i.e. what i used to pay for an eighth. You can spend more, ofc, but that weed's still better than most i got back in the day. Its really great to head over to a buddy's house, but first swing by the shop like its no thing, get a couple dollar joints and be set.
Lawn darts, BB guns, bow and arrow with the river suction cup tips that were very easy to remove, trampolines without the safety curtain and with exposed springs.
Toys were downright hazardous when we were kids. My older cousin had some sort of steel tank that shot pencils out its cannon. He convinced me to put my finger over the mouth of the cannon because he _totally wasn't going to shoot it, he swore!_ Anyway, I got a pencil lodged in my finger. I still have the scar.
Ohhh the trampolines. My brother when he was 6 was jumping on one and was a little too ambitious and tried to do a flip.
Fell face down into rock hard Georgia clay and broke his arm and one rib and scratched up his face pretty badly.
Reposted comment:
Homophobia and racism were pretty bad. As a bisexual, I used to just call myself gay because I didn’t think bisexuality existed and it was often said that you needed to "pick a side"or some BS.. I actually "came out" in '96 or just say outed becuase a couple of boys found a love letter I sent to a girl. (Not really gonna go deeper into what happened after that, you can probably guess.)
Mental health was still highly stigmatized. Lost a couple of friends due to suicide, both happened in the 90s. My ADHD was called laziness and I’ve been told that it only affected boys, exactly what happens with autism.
This is exactly why I say the 80s were a horrible decade, and the 90s was the best one. Anyone who dared be "different" in any way, be it looks, style, logic, or orientation, were mercilessly crucified. I'm straight, so I never had to endure the abuse or hate a gay person did, and I can't imagine what it felt like to live knowing you weren't acceptable in society. Throw in AIDS and being gay was akin to leprosy. I'm sorry it took so long for you to find peace for yourself.
I dealt with being awkward and uncoordinated as I was tall but skinny with pigeon toes and had to wear orthotic shoes that looked like church shoes from 3rd to 5th grade. It was hell being bullied mercilessly, and my one and only fight happened in 4th grade when I got punched in the head in gym class unprovoked, and it hurt so bad I could only cry. That was when I learned to have a razor sharp wit and to this day can cut a person down with just my words.
Also, the 80s were brown and ugly and only became neon in like 89, so even the nostalgic part of the 80s was stolen from the 90s. I give credit to the 80s for awesome music, however, and one of the best things is that the younger generations have discovered them and now those old bands are touring again. I'm seeing Flock of Seagulls on June 30 and as a 12 year old that wasn't a possibility!
The *late* 80s had the color, pre-1985 was distinctly still browns. There was definitely a distinct line in that decade between blah and outrageous and most people paint the entire decade in one broad stroke.
EDIT: Oh, and if you think I'm wrong, it's because you're basing your memories around "Miami Vice" that showed Miami that has always been outrageously colorful and not typical of the rest of the country.
I was a teenage girls and had the clothing to prove it. The color scheme did become more neon later in the 80’s, but I was 12 in 1982 and everything was becoming more colorful. My parents did some remodeling and carpet/paint/furniture was also colorful.
uh no. by the late 80s neon was pretty old, in a *party city* kind of way. BUT it all depends on where one grew up ! like in the 70's kid's thread, one girl looks early 80s to me, and the pic is from 1970 ! i think there was a vast variety on when something hit the mainstream depending on where one grew up.
then again i think the alternative scenes were opposite that, people who lent into their individuality and differentness, various types of people and orientations, openmindedness, support, creativity etc. it wasn't ONLY one way in the 80s. there was A L O T of Counter Culture.
Major serial killers and volcano, poisoned Tylenol, and pop rock and coke, and mikey that sob would eat anything and like it. Then to really hurt us pop a Rubix cube in one hand and a Zima in the other
When we were young….quick sand or lava. As we aged….nuclear war and HIV came into the picture along with drugs. Those are just a few things that come to mind
Accidentally cussing in front of parents or any adult.
Hand, slipper, belt or all of the above with soap as dessert. 😂😭
I hear toddlers dropping F-bombs in grocery stores and it makes me cringe. Nobody cares now.
I didn't see Bigfoot and the Bermuda Triangle mentioned yet. Also, Jaws. Watch that movie at ten, then spend the rest of the summer scanning the pool for sharks before getting in.
Yep, the milk carton kids made it seem like we could get nabbed out of our yard at any moment.
It turned out 95% of the kidnappers were non-custodial parents.
Pedo babysitters, pedos in organizations with kids like scouts and Big Brother/Sister, pedo church people, pedo teachers, pedos lurking the perimeter of school properties, and all the adults that wouldn't believe you when you asked for help basically making things easier for them
Oh right, this thread is about things that never existed before like \*checks thread\* quicksand, homophobia, nuclear anhelation and alligators in toilets. My bad.
Different people worry about different things. Growing up in NYC it was the crack epidemic, AIDS, and the Red Menace. Nuclear missiles were aimed right at us by our enemies. Friends in Ottawa or Wisconsin didn't worry but we were acutely aware that we were target #1.
According to the safety films when I was growing up - flying a kite into pylons, falling into slurry pits, drowning in quarries and getting your boot stuck in the rail track.
Then we had Charlie warning us about matches, strangers and scalding teapots.
The religious right forming a kind of continuation of the anti-hippy sentiment. It was the foundation of the war against aids and gay people, the satanic panic, the ramping up of the war on drugs, the alienation of black and immigrant people. we allowed the dumbest, greediest among us to define society when everyone realized they were morons and they had to scramble for some type of flat earth relevance before the nation shifted to a deeper spirituality.
Nuclear annihilation
Isn't it nice that now there is no threat of nuclear annihilation
Dungeons & Dragons, heavy metal music, your brain on drugs, and explicit lyrics.
Don't forget..... 
Subliminal messages:)
We played a lot of vinyls in reverse on the turntable and didn't hear a single satanic lyric! So disappointing.
Black Sabbath at 78 speed. I saw God, man.
That movie where Tom Hanks goes mad because he played monsters and mazes
Totally. Early Hanks role. Probably part of the reason my dad thought I was becoming a ‘devil worshipper’ I was a little scared of D&D too when I first got some of the stuff. And that’s how I learned the adults were completely full of shit.
Piranha were huge danger there for a while.
They can strip a cow to the bone in under 30 minutes! I worked in an aquarium specialty shop for years but never got bit by one, in fact when you went to scrape the algae off the glass, unlike most of the other fish species, they would cower in the corner. If you weren't careful you could get dinged if you were scooping one out for a customer but I never got bit. They had a special net which was usually the oldest dinged up fish net rotated to their use and it had a bunch of bite holes in it
Piranhas. My fwend saw it happen one time. He told me.
Killer Bees
The Q stuff
Acid rain
Men in windowless vans offering free candy.
On a tangential note - Being offered free drugs to get me hooked was something I was promised
Exactly, we were warned constantly about drug pushers. Where the hell were the pushers? Please push some on me.
Puff puff pass
Nowadays it's 26 year old single men in dirty apartments posing as 16 year old girls.
Razor blades in Halloween candy. AIDS. Getting the sexual history of someone before getting together.
The razor blades in Halloween candy wasn’t a real threat, though. It was mass hysteria.
AIDS is the first thing that comes to mind.
Alligators in toilets
The HIV pandemic comes to mind. If you were LGBT, you ran the risk of your parents kicking you out of their home, and bashers stomping you to death, or setting you on fire, or dragging you behind their truck, or sending you off to religious re-education camps. Garden variety bullies were only somewhat less dangerous (or equally as dangerous, if you weren't white). I can't remember how many times I was stabbed in elementary school alone. Leaded gasoline was a thing, though we didn't know it was so dangerous at the time. Other than that, not sure. I guess a lot of us broke bones on the jungle gym, or threw up after getting spun on the go-around, or lost skin sliding down a steel slide in the hot summer sun, but those were pretty low-grade threats. Looking forward to seeing what other Xers remember. **Edited to add:** Nuclear holocaust! How could I have forgotten nuclear holocaust? We went to bed every night not knowing if we'd waken the next morning.
They knew lead was dangerous hence it's ban from house paint in 1978. But it took much longer to phase out leaded gasoline. Anyone else remember Gasohol?
They knew for SO LONG. They knew when they introduced it into gas in the early 20th century. They knew when it was in makeup in the 1800s. They even knew in Roman times. The problem is, it's an irresistible material to us. Easily found, easily mined, easy to work, and you can do a lot of stuff with it. And it hasn't stopped. There's high lead levels in a lot of cheap shit, the Temu type stuff.
I can’t imagine being stabbed. Wow. Since moving back to the town I spent the first seven years of my life in, I have been robbed incessantly for 15 years. Probably by someone I know. It’s debilitating.
Quicksand, nuclear war, not getting let out of the trunk sneaking into the drive in, only having seeds and stems, cops stealing our booze and strangers.
To think, we may be the last generation to get stiffed on a bag of brick weed that was 50% seeds and stems.
My daughter has never known the down to seeds and stems blues.
Or another forgotten classic, scraping the pipe for resin and smoking that. Now, when legal weed is $6 an eighth, you just throw a half burnt bowl away for a fresh one.
It's insane now cheap it is. I was in Denver a few weeks ago. We didn't even shop around. We just went to the closest dispensary to the airport. With tax $102 for an ounce. I was paying that for decent Mexican brown in the 90s. That was their price for every strain. I've gotten ounces there for $80 with tax looking for specials.
Portland's got $40 ounces, i.e. what i used to pay for an eighth. You can spend more, ofc, but that weed's still better than most i got back in the day. Its really great to head over to a buddy's house, but first swing by the shop like its no thing, get a couple dollar joints and be set.
Quicksand It was every where!!
HOW ARE YOU ALMOST THE ONLY PERSON TO MENTION THIS????
I'm the only one that survived
I think we were worried about strangers in vans wanting to give us rides and nuclear holocaust. Otherwise, it was peachy keen.
Quicksand. Kids don’t worry about quicksand like they used to.
Metal slides in summer time.
Lawn darts, BB guns, bow and arrow with the river suction cup tips that were very easy to remove, trampolines without the safety curtain and with exposed springs.
Toys were downright hazardous when we were kids. My older cousin had some sort of steel tank that shot pencils out its cannon. He convinced me to put my finger over the mouth of the cannon because he _totally wasn't going to shoot it, he swore!_ Anyway, I got a pencil lodged in my finger. I still have the scar.
Ohhh the trampolines. My brother when he was 6 was jumping on one and was a little too ambitious and tried to do a flip. Fell face down into rock hard Georgia clay and broke his arm and one rib and scratched up his face pretty badly.
Reposted comment: Homophobia and racism were pretty bad. As a bisexual, I used to just call myself gay because I didn’t think bisexuality existed and it was often said that you needed to "pick a side"or some BS.. I actually "came out" in '96 or just say outed becuase a couple of boys found a love letter I sent to a girl. (Not really gonna go deeper into what happened after that, you can probably guess.) Mental health was still highly stigmatized. Lost a couple of friends due to suicide, both happened in the 90s. My ADHD was called laziness and I’ve been told that it only affected boys, exactly what happens with autism.
This is exactly why I say the 80s were a horrible decade, and the 90s was the best one. Anyone who dared be "different" in any way, be it looks, style, logic, or orientation, were mercilessly crucified. I'm straight, so I never had to endure the abuse or hate a gay person did, and I can't imagine what it felt like to live knowing you weren't acceptable in society. Throw in AIDS and being gay was akin to leprosy. I'm sorry it took so long for you to find peace for yourself. I dealt with being awkward and uncoordinated as I was tall but skinny with pigeon toes and had to wear orthotic shoes that looked like church shoes from 3rd to 5th grade. It was hell being bullied mercilessly, and my one and only fight happened in 4th grade when I got punched in the head in gym class unprovoked, and it hurt so bad I could only cry. That was when I learned to have a razor sharp wit and to this day can cut a person down with just my words. Also, the 80s were brown and ugly and only became neon in like 89, so even the nostalgic part of the 80s was stolen from the 90s. I give credit to the 80s for awesome music, however, and one of the best things is that the younger generations have discovered them and now those old bands are touring again. I'm seeing Flock of Seagulls on June 30 and as a 12 year old that wasn't a possibility!
The 70’s were brown/earth tones. 80’s were colorful.
The *late* 80s had the color, pre-1985 was distinctly still browns. There was definitely a distinct line in that decade between blah and outrageous and most people paint the entire decade in one broad stroke. EDIT: Oh, and if you think I'm wrong, it's because you're basing your memories around "Miami Vice" that showed Miami that has always been outrageously colorful and not typical of the rest of the country.
I was a teenage girls and had the clothing to prove it. The color scheme did become more neon later in the 80’s, but I was 12 in 1982 and everything was becoming more colorful. My parents did some remodeling and carpet/paint/furniture was also colorful.
I never watched Miami Vice.
uh no. by the late 80s neon was pretty old, in a *party city* kind of way. BUT it all depends on where one grew up ! like in the 70's kid's thread, one girl looks early 80s to me, and the pic is from 1970 ! i think there was a vast variety on when something hit the mainstream depending on where one grew up.
then again i think the alternative scenes were opposite that, people who lent into their individuality and differentness, various types of people and orientations, openmindedness, support, creativity etc. it wasn't ONLY one way in the 80s. there was A L O T of Counter Culture.
Major serial killers and volcano, poisoned Tylenol, and pop rock and coke, and mikey that sob would eat anything and like it. Then to really hurt us pop a Rubix cube in one hand and a Zima in the other
Nuclear bombs, but luckily, we all had desks to hide under for protection.
The consequences of not being home when the street lights came on.
Facebook
The world.
Ourselves of course.
According to tv and movies, Quicksand! My friends and I even had a plan on how to survive it.
My parents
We used to practice dying with dignity jn school with nuclear bomb drills
The hole in the ozone layer HIV/AIDS Nuclear meltdown Having your eyes get stuck if you crossed them
Back up from that TV - you're sitting too close
Lead poisoning from chewing on our crib rails
Apparently we are getting more cancer and at faster rates than the Boomers. So we got that going for us.
When we were young….quick sand or lava. As we aged….nuclear war and HIV came into the picture along with drugs. Those are just a few things that come to mind
Accidentally cussing in front of parents or any adult. Hand, slipper, belt or all of the above with soap as dessert. 😂😭 I hear toddlers dropping F-bombs in grocery stores and it makes me cringe. Nobody cares now.
Why should they? Sticks and stones and all that.
Illiteracy and reading comprehension was obviously a danger you faced.
They were a danger to us all. Thankfully, I was able to avoid them.
I guess we should add "memory loss" to the list since you have to ask us to remind you lol.
HIV is the biggest one I could think of. I don't think nukes were ever going to happen.
Quicksand and killer bees.
I didn't see Bigfoot and the Bermuda Triangle mentioned yet. Also, Jaws. Watch that movie at ten, then spend the rest of the summer scanning the pool for sharks before getting in.
Quicksand Jarts The merry go round rope swing by the river or lake
Boomers
We didn't know them as Boomers then, just the asshole martinets that made our lives hell as our supervisors at our jobs.
they were probably silent gen
Everything. "It's 10pm. Do you know where your children are?"
Stranger danger?
Yep, the milk carton kids made it seem like we could get nabbed out of our yard at any moment. It turned out 95% of the kidnappers were non-custodial parents.
And still are.
Pedo babysitters, pedos in organizations with kids like scouts and Big Brother/Sister, pedo church people, pedo teachers, pedos lurking the perimeter of school properties, and all the adults that wouldn't believe you when you asked for help basically making things easier for them
They existed before. We just didn't have a national 24 hour news channel telling us about it
Oh right, this thread is about things that never existed before like \*checks thread\* quicksand, homophobia, nuclear anhelation and alligators in toilets. My bad.
> alligators in toilets lol
Different people worry about different things. Growing up in NYC it was the crack epidemic, AIDS, and the Red Menace. Nuclear missiles were aimed right at us by our enemies. Friends in Ottawa or Wisconsin didn't worry but we were acutely aware that we were target #1.
According to the safety films when I was growing up - flying a kite into pylons, falling into slurry pits, drowning in quarries and getting your boot stuck in the rail track. Then we had Charlie warning us about matches, strangers and scalding teapots.
Abandoned refrigerators with the door still attached.
Satan!
Pop Rocks and Coke. Projectile firing toys.
AIDS
Satan worshippers in the sewers playing D&D
Your crazy mother locking you in an attic. Crazy clowns in the drain. Pigs that know karate.
Pop Rocks and Coca-Cola
“Faced”? Past tense???
Quicksand
Demonic heavy metal that would make you kill yourself
Definitely quicksand. That stuff was everywhere.
This is your brain...
quicksand…just kidding
All of them… dying from having sex… crack… Cold War… boy bands… frosted lipstick and Aqua Net
Secondhand smoke.
Spider eggs in Bubble Yum
Feelings, because our boomer parents sure didn't like those.
More than a few were stolen from their teenage mothers at birth.
AIDS!!!!!!!!!! Which 50% of America was dying of. According to Ricki Lake.
School fights and bullying
The religious right forming a kind of continuation of the anti-hippy sentiment. It was the foundation of the war against aids and gay people, the satanic panic, the ramping up of the war on drugs, the alienation of black and immigrant people. we allowed the dumbest, greediest among us to define society when everyone realized they were morons and they had to scramble for some type of flat earth relevance before the nation shifted to a deeper spirituality.