Things People Used To Think Were Safe in the 80s and 90s (But Definitely Weren't)

You know that moment when you tell a younger person what childhood was like in 80s and 90s Britain and they look at you like you’re making it up? That’s what we're talking about today, as we list the “normal” things we grew up with that now feel wildly unsafe, sometimes hilarious, and sometimes genuinely grim.


If you’ve got your own UK childhood memories that would never fly today, subscribe, share the show, leave us a review, and drop a comment with the most dangerous “normal” thing you remember.

Transcript

Welcome And The Big Question

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome to Who Remembers the UK Nostalgia Podcast? And in this week's episode, we are asking who remembers the things that people did in the eighties and nineties that were actually really, really dangerous. They do, but I think this they're all things that I think we can remember great. So just to start off, we're not going to be doing stuff like when people thought heroin was cough medicine, you know, in the in the in the eight in the eighteen hundreds or whatever that was. Coca-Cola had cocaine in it. These are things I think everyone didn't know those.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

I think they're they're things everyone knows. But if you didn't know those things, we're just throwing them away as comments.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

They did have cocaine in Coca-Cola. And Cough Medicine, like I mean, when Erwin first came out, people mad. I was watching this a couple of days ago for some reason, uh about Arrowed, and it said uh people thought when it first came out this was the most safe alternative to morphine because it was not addictive at all. One of the most addictive ever drugs.

SPEAKER_00 1:53

It is an opiate, isn't it? Like um anyway, we're not we're not mentioning it. We don't remember them, do we? We now don't remember uh opiates being considered safe.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

So these all the these things might have been before, and some laws have come in that um that what did say they weren't safe, but they were sort of seen as like turned the other way and it wasn't a bad thing. Whereas now when we were growing up, these were things that weren't weird at all, I don't think.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

No, I I think for the moment, yeah. Obviously we'll we'll chat about each one. Um we'll have we'll have some laughs along the way, I'd like to think. Um but yeah, we'll we'll chat chat our way through it. Um but yeah, these are things I think if if a sort of kid today you said we used to do that, I'd say, What no chance you that's that can't be right. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

And like I said, there's some of them where the laws were already the law has been broken, the law was in uh the law was in putting it.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Some of these the law yeah, some of them the law had not been broken, and some of them the law have been broken. But either way the law has been broken, yeah. But either way, that they wouldn't be considered safe now, whether they were technically safe then at the time or not.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

You wouldn't get away with this now, for love nor money, I reckon, these sort of things.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

Anyway, do you want to start them? So we've got four sections to go through. Yeah. Um in your notes you call them segments and then refer to them as sections, just to throw me a curveball, yeah. It's just segments you've got to watch out for. Yeah. So the first one, and obviously I I can probably relate to this one better than you, but you but you still you can still contribute, you're welcome. Yeah, yeah, I think so, yeah. You're here

Parenting With Near Zero Supervision

SPEAKER_00 3:23

now. Yeah, so it's so it's parenting. So these are things that probably we remember that our parents doing with us around us that these days you would think, well, come on, Nate, that can't be right.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Get them on Jeremy Kyle, yeah. That's what you'd be thinking now, isn't it? Like if well, you he obviously you can't get on TV for love and money now, but you know, it is uh that's what you'd be thinking. With these sort of things that are happening here, you'd be saying, These are bad parents. Here they are. Look, here he is, dad of the year. Do you know what I mean? When you're in the yard picking your kids up and stuff, but yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:52

So the first one we've got is so, and I love this is sentences. No one knows where their kids were.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

So I yeah, this were your first one there's because we we've got together to put these notes together. I think this was the first thing that you thought of, and it's it's a classic.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Yeah, because you literally and again, you have to you have to embrace this. This is this is you know, Peter K. Who remembers like it this is what this is what we do, so you have to come on.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

That's what we do, yeah. Sit down, enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

You'll enjoy it. Yeah, go on. But yeah, this is who remembers when you used to say to your mum or your dad or both, right, I'm off out, and you'd go out on a weekend at half nine, ten in the morning. You didn't have to know you didn't they didn't know where you were going, who you were going with, what you were up to. You just you just go out for the day. And you could I mean we kind of rode all around the the sort of local estate, and and yeah, I'm trying to think like what what would we get up to? Probably not much. You'd end up at someone's house, you might play some computer games, you might climb some trees as we talked about last year. You might go to a shop and buy some sweets, you might play some football, someone might turn up with a football. Mug an OAP. There were different times, weren't they?

unknown 5:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:05

Well, to be fair, no, they probably the joke is that we wouldn't mug an OAP, would we? But yeah, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

But then these are things I'm mad with this is obviously this is before films or anything like that. So you would say to your mum, like you say, six sixty weeks holidays is a big one for me. I'm just going to, I don't know, my mate's house. Uh I'll I'll yeah, I'll let you know, I'll be back for tea. All right, yeah. Yeah, see you later.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

And then sometimes you won't be back for tea, and all your mum would be bothered about is that you didn't come. I've had to throw up bloody tea and bin. They won't be thinking like, where have you been? They weren't worried about where you've been.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

No, sometimes I just do it in a good mood. Like, well, your tea's keeping warm in oven. Like, I thought you were coming back hours ago. Yeah, I know, but ended up playing football.

SPEAKER_02 5:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

No, right, no worries. Yeah. Um, and obviously, yeah, the the world's changed. I think probably the generation before us maybe I don't know, would they have more freedom or were they walking down coal mine? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 5:55

I don't know if they were working down coal mine, but I do think we used to have this thing. I mean, you're probably the same. It were almost like I don't know, I don't know if this ever it were almost like once the street lights come on, it's probably time to come home. Like, but I used to play Barbersfield where I you know where that is, I think, on Woodsy's where I used to live. We'd be there for seven or eight hours in the dark. They were used to be like quite funnily sometimes playing football and you couldn't even see ball. Ridiculous, really. I mean, it would obviously you're all together and stuff, so you you were safer in numbers. And I'm this is obviously things about that were danger were dangerous. I I don't know if it was dangerous or if it I don't know, was it dangerous at the time?

SPEAKER_00 6:30

It certainly didn't feel it, did it? No, it never it never felt like oh god, it's gone dark now and I've got to get home. It was it was more that the danger was, oh my mum's gonna kill me. Like yeah, that's it. I mean, yeah, the streetlights thing is is big in a sense that it was kind of the moment that everyone were like, Oh, streetlights coming on. Like it's kind of like we're gonna have to start thinking about making our way home now. Yeah, yeah. And when you got in, like it one might say, Streetlights been on for half an hour. You say, Look, honestly, it didn't come on, it's just come on where I was. Like, I've as soon as it's come on, I've walked back. Well, it's been on here for half an hour, so I don't know where you've been.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

Yeah, do you know? Sometimes I used to take my dog out, this is true. There's my first family dog, and I'd take him onto the field and stuff, and he'd come back before me. Genuinely, like he'd come back, be like, he'd be baller, like I'm off, and he'd work his way back home, and then I'd be back three hours later. Ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 7:23

Yeah, yeah, no, no. But I mean, good times really that that you could kind of still feel safe like that. Um, next one we've got definitely remember this random neighbourhood kids babysitting. I mean, I think I think this is kind of an American a bit of a sharp.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

I don't know if sorry, I don't know if this happened to me. My cousin used to babysit me. We were about 15, and I remember once, um, and I didn't realize I was way too young, she was a lot older than me, she was being sick and stuff, and I later found out years later is because she was smoking weed in front of me, and that's why she was being sick. She'd had a white tag and she weren't hard to babysit me anymore.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Right. Well, well, I I do remember this by the way, so I'm not saying it's not a Brit thing, but what I mean though is it's it's I don't know, I associate it more with like uh American teen films where uh the somebody's babysitting someone. But we do I definitely did have neighbours' kids babysitting. What what the tangent I was gonna say, and for anyone listening, let me know if this was exclusive to the site I worked in in Manchester or if this is a thing. But when when anyone used to sort of if anyone added a new coat or new equipment or new new boots, there was a thing where people sort of like pointed it and sort of roll their eyes and say, it's an American idea. I don't know if that's a thing anywhere else. Let us know. Never heard it's an American idea.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

It sounds like some of a part of it, I've never heard it myself.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

Yeah, no, I don't know where it originated, but we all used to say it on uh on the site that I worked

Kids Driving And No Car Seats

SPEAKER_00 8:50

on. Uh number three, letting a child drive on a parent's lap. So yeah, I've done this one recently. But what were your kid? Yeah, well, not with someone else's kid.

SPEAKER_02 9:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

Um, but but I've done it on a kind of quiet industrial estate with no cars around, just to let them have a go at sort of turning the car around.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

I've I've not I've not done it on the road, so well as as as regular listeners will know, and I I don't like to speak about I've got dyspraxia, but even my dad sometimes used to let me do this. Imagine like the the there could have been like some absolute tragedies on the road, couldn't it?

SPEAKER_00 9:25

You you only was it was it seven fatalities at the end of the road?

SPEAKER_01 9:28

Seven fatalities, yeah, yeah, yeah. They've only had to shut like a thousand rows down when I were reading it. But yeah, I do remember like getting like young kids on the seat on the on the on the knee or whatever. Come on, steer the wheel.

SPEAKER_00 9:39

What I don't know, kind of the the call it the statute, statute of rights. What is it where there's a certain amount of time's gone by that you can no longer get prosecuted? Oh yeah, yeah. Oh right, all right, yeah, because you've got sex.

SPEAKER_01 9:51

My dad once broke his wrist and oh you're not gonna tell it. What old were you? You drove you you drove him home. No, I was I was doing the gears for him while he was driving.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Fourth. Yeah, yeah, literally was him saying, right, one second, right, move up into third.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

You should have done it though, really. Like, to get you a better driver, you should have done it really quick. Like, yeah, he did it at the round of a second. Liam, two!

SPEAKER_00 10:13

Oh speeding round, yeah. No, I don't know whether that was okay or not, but yeah, that it wasn't very often. And and if there is any sort of thing that I'm suggesting that could could get him in trouble with the law, then it is a fictional story for a podcast, although it happened or didn't, depending on what the legal status is. And uh car seats. But what does that mean? It means the law has been broken. The law has been broken. Lack of uh kids' car seats. And I and I think actually this is uh this is not just a lack of car seats, this is almost lack of number of seats. Is that what sorry is that this is what it's the reason specific car seats or number of seats?

SPEAKER_01 10:59

This came to me this weekend when I got a lift down to uh wherever we were going this weekend. And um I got a lift off our mate, so I don't know I've can't remember.

SPEAKER_00 11:08

You made that sound like you went somewhere really dodgy, and I know, yeah. When I went to wherever it was I was going.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Where I I I couldn't even come from deny that I was in the whole house this weekend. No, I weren't. Um but um but now I got a lift down off our mate Tom Jolly's uh other half, Sophie, and uh they've got a young daughter. And she were in one of those, you know, those car seats for kids where you could sort of lift up. And and and as I knew we were doing this episode, obviously, and I wrote it down on my phone, like, oh that's another one. Because I don't remember like I don't remember car seats, and I do remember sitting on my nan's knee because there were too many people in the car.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Yeah, so absolutely, definitely. There was no car seats, even booster seats weren't a thing that that I was aware of, anyway. No, no, no, no. Because I think all I mean this this sort of ties into something else we're gonna mention later on, actually. But I think booster seats, the reason you have a booster seat is to make sure the seat belt's in the right place. So that kind of maybe there's a reason why they didn't have booster seats that we'll come to later on. But yeah, we we drove to Cornwall and my grandad used to go kind of all the back routes because he didn't like motorways. It took about nine hours, I think, to get there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But yeah, it was there was I don't know, it was about eight of us, nine of us in a in a five-seater car, just everybody's so and and this is this is one of these things that I question. So so my Mrs. Jodie, she tells me things that I say, that that's not true though, is it? Like you've you've kind of just you're embellishing the story. She swears that her cousin, when he was a baby, there wasn't enough space in the car, so they used to put him on the the sort of shelf in the bike, you know, in the boot. Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Well, this is one coming up later in a way. Um not not not for a baby though. Um, yeah, I do know what you mean. I mean, I'll we'll go to it now because we're out of it, but yeah, I remember my dad had a a van, a work van, and you know, like where they put tools in the back and they what do you call it? Uh open racked you know what I mean, don't you? Just just like no seats, just a no seats. Yeah, and it's there's no top to it. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 13:07

Oh yeah, like a pickup.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

Pickup, that's yeah, yeah, yeah, pick-up, yeah. Yeah, pick-up trolls, that's what I'm talking about. And now and again, like if my dad were picking me up, I wouldn't be in the back, but one of his workmates or something or whatever, being just stood on like sat in that and back.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Yeah, no, I've certainly seen that done. I mean, when I worked in Spain, yeah, we used to travel in the back of a flatbed. I think they're less cautious about the laws over there. No, I'm talking, do you know, like when you close your boot and you've got that like I don't know if it's is it a parcel tray or something? That doesn't seem right, but the the bit that sits kind of on top, they reckon she reckons used to just put a baby on that.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

I'm not convinced. I mean that I mean I think it's bad enough just having a kid on a because that's the first one to die. If you just got them on your knee, they're going straight through it window, aren't they? Like, do you know what I mean? It's like such a I can't believe I do remember the gang to die. The first of the gang with the yeah, without the seatbelt. Yeah, because there'd be no seat belts on it, as we'll get to later. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:05

Yeah, um, and I think I think oh no, sorry, there was a couple more. So a couple more, yeah. This one is another one that you've sort of added on, and I assume you've got this from research or notes, because I I don't know this as a

Baby Advice That Aged Badly

SPEAKER_00 14:18

thing. Giving babies water bottles.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

So apparently it it's now known as unsafe. Common in the 80s and 90s, but offering water before six months old apparently risk water intoxication, electric imbalances and malnutrition. Um, and it's really sort of I mean you'll know more than me, because you've had a kid recently, but more recently than me, and in the sense that I've not had one for 42 years. So um yeah, so yours doesn't exist yet. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so um, but apparently, yeah, it's not good to give kids water out of bottles.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Yeah, I mean I it's funny because I don't I don't sort of I don't remember everybody anybody saying to me, don't give your kids water. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Imagine that, imagine that as a public information just says that don't give your kids water.

SPEAKER_00 15:02

It's like a thing in a dial place, water, the water, water, the water.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

Yeah, but apparently this is like I mean, I because I did type in, you know, I went on I get a lot of my research on Reddit these days, I'm not gonna lie. But yeah, and it were like things that used to think were safe, and this were a big one that came up, and I thought I'd pick your brains about it.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

No, I I mean it's funny actually, because yeah, I don't remember it being a thing, but yeah, you you don't. You give I mean they were both sort of breastfed and then bottle fed, but it's but it's milk, it's yeah, you're not giving them water that I remember. It's I wonder when the first water was, it's like you right past the water. Well, you know the uh first water.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Do you know what the in the 1800s where there was uh so much gin got into the water stream in London? You heard about this? It sounds like another myth again, but it's true. And you know why I know it's true? Because I went to a gin tasting session and they told it. So everyone just pissed all that. Why was there just gin in the water? Because I don't know, I I didn't I don't know, I didn't listen, but I just heard that bit and then yeah. Let us know if you remember. Oh no, it might have been that the water was mucky, so they drank gin instead. Yeah, so so but they used to drink mead and and like Yeah, I'm thinking that, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I I've got it wrong, yeah. River Thames full of gin. I'm not always full of research, like that, because I didn't know we were gonna be talking about this. I brought it up and I've uh yeah, but yeah, in the 1800s, yeah, the gin yeah 1700s apparently, 1723. These days the walls is not gin. Drunk by women and children, uh in the in the set in 1700.

SPEAKER_00 16:36

What is it, Ape or whatever it would have been? Ape. Anyway. Um and actually that this one's quite interesting because I I think this is still a thing, but I saw some comments saying you shouldn't do this anymore. So intrigued to you know, if there's a doctor listening, uh probably not, but let us know. Um so we quite recently we've done this. So there used to be a thing when we were kids, I remember it. If somebody had chicken pox, everyone would go around to their house to try and catch chicken pox. And I and the thinking behind it is if you don't get chicken pox as a kid, I think it can be quite dangerous if you get it as an adult. I think as a kid it's not great, but it can be quite dangerous. And I so fairly recently my daughter is nearly ten, my youngest, and my niece got chicken pox, so we sent her around to go and get to go and catch it, and she did. And yeah, she was a bit poorly for a few days, but she's had it now, so so she's not gonna have to deal with it as an adult. So so we thought that was a great thing to do. But yeah, I've I've seen I've seen things recently and and after and I don't know, I don't know if I've actually looked. I'm interested, I'm wondering why I haven't looked into this, because it does interest me. You shouldn't do it, apparently.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

It's it's yeah, well, I presume that it can affect certain kids in a in a in a more dramatic way. So just having a chicken pox but it's a bit like remember when people had COVID parties, like when it f ah, we'll all get it, like especially younger people, it weren't really gonna affect us quite as bad. But people did die because obviously no one knows how their immune system's gonna react to it. And I think it's that. I think it's the same thing that the the the there are kids who suffer badly from chicken pox.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

So so yeah, so potentially it could be dangerous for your kid, it's not just a blanket solution.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

No, no, no, that's what I think. Yeah, I don't I think it because like I say it could be so obviously.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Well we did it and it worked, so I I'm not advising that you do it, but yeah. Did you itch did you itch your chicken pox? Did you like itch it or a big and German measles at the same time?

SPEAKER_01 18:36

I don't think I've had measles.

SPEAKER_00 18:38

And mum said I was said she felt like so sorry for me. She said I was just laid on the sofa, just like wriggling around. She's she told me like if I scratch him, I'll get covered in scars. So I was just laid like like a what are they called? Widgety grubs is it? You know, just like I'm itching now. Yeah, go off. Yeah, I'm I am actually, yeah. Yeah, but yeah, she said like it was awful, like I was absolutely covered. Um but you know all my life I've I've head butted the challenges away.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Yeah, you've then put a chicken pox away, aren't you, all your life? Yeah, so yeah, but I imagine that was because I remember chicken pox being I don't think it hurt or anything like that, but it was so frustrating to have and chicken. Mad, one mad thing, chicken pox. Anyway, get your vaccines, that's what we say here, isn't it, Liam? On the on who remembers. But all although if you are a conspiracy theorist and you don't believe in them, then don't have them because we're everyone's welcome. Like someone told me that someone told me that one of the conspiracies going around at the moment is that the COVID vaccine had um some of Jeffrey Epst uh Jeffrey Epstein's blood in it. A DNA, sorry, DNA. So everyone's got Jeffrey Epstein's DNA, yeah. I don't know, yeah, I don't know where that one came from, but it's an interesting one. So I'm not sure the comments can either confirm or deny every vaccine has Geoffrey Epstein's. No, but apparently they started he started COVID, they had the the COVID uh or convid as they call it, uh, because he wanted to get these vaccines out that had his DNA in it, so his DNA would be on everybody. Yeah, as I said, let's let the buff in the five. Let's move on. Yeah, let's let that.

Drink Driving As Social Normal

SPEAKER_01 20:07

Yeah, so on to segment two, um, which is what I've called what I've called transport and street life. And this is the first thing I thought of. Street life, street life. Who is that?

SPEAKER_00 20:18

The only way to be street life, street life.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Street life, inner city pressure. Oh, that's another one. Anyway, uh drink driving as a social norm, right? This was right, I'll I'll go through the facts here first and we'll have a talk about it. So it was actually in 1925 that it became an offence to be found drunk um in in front of any vehicle on the highway. But it wasn't until 1967 that breathalyzers were introduced. But in the 90s, and I I thought this might just be a false memory, or maybe my granddad was an alcohol and your granddad was an alcohol because we've both mentioned this before that they were known for drink drive. Well, they weren't known for drink driving, like they were famous for famous for drink driving. But we're we've spoken before my granddad genuinely would have eight or nine pints and just drive home, and no one would blink an eyelid, I'd be in the back. Do you know what I mean? It won't weren't a big thing at all. And I thought, I wonder if that's just us like thinking about this. But apparently, according to gov.uk, um, drink driving was more prevalent in the 1990s compared to today, where nearly half of serious road crashes involved alcohol. Social stigma was beginning to increase, but it wasn't anywhere near as much as it is today. And binge drinking among younger male drivers was much higher. So, like I say, my granddad had drink like 10 pints or whatever, had come home, and it would just like seen as like a social normal, I think.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

But I think I think that you sort of you're mixing up two separate things there. So I think two different versions. I think that the old boys who used to have a few pints and drive around the corner when there wasn't much on the road, the the punters. Yeah, I think that's a very different thing to uh to in the nineties. And we sort of caught the very tail end of this, but where lads sort of thought, well, it's all right, right, I'm I'll I've had a few, I'm fine. I think I think it's two separate things. I think there's the guys who've done it all their lives. But then I think in the nineties there became this thing of young drivers sort of pushing a look and thinking, well, it's it's all right. Yeah, I don't know. I can't imagine lots of sort of 17, 18-year-old kids had cars before the nineties, and then all of a sudden, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

So so yeah, I I don't I don't dispute what you're saying, but I I think there's a very big difference in Was it a social norm though, would you have said like as a like when you were 15 for someone to pick you up drunk?

SPEAKER_00 22:32

Well well we knew people I mean again, I don't know if if I'm certainly not going to name anyone, but but we we got in the car with people after a night out, and um this is early 2000s now, so it's not nineties, but who we knew were over the limit. And and I'm I'm not proud of that now, and I don't think it's very good.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:51

Yeah. But it wasn't like a shoe. No, it wasn't like someone would say, Oh, by the way, like you sort of say, Oh, let's go get taxi. Oh no, it's alright, I'm in the car.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Well, I can be careful what I say. Well, someone had uh now lost a job recently because of that. I don't know if that would happen now, if you know what I mean. Like sorry, I don't know if that'd have happened then. I don't know if that would have just been literally looked the other way.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Yeah, no, I don't know if we knew that would happen. You know, they yeah, they did they just took the car down and they decided rather than get the taxi back, they were going to seek it home. I I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

I mean well apparently.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

I think it's one of the things in it where it it's one of them this is not particularly humorous at all, but I think the thing is it's it's not about whether you crash and you hurt yourself or your own car, it's about you crash and you hurt somebody else or another family, or it it's obviously unacceptable.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Um what's interesting about this is I've been looking at some videos and I'll share I'll we'll share these on the socials. There's there's one in the in in the 80s in America where it's sort of brought in because obviously the different I don't know the full thing, but in it's different in states. I think they sort of up the the drink driving limit to or downed it, whatever, do you know what I mean? From five units to three or whatever it was. It's like these American guys are like going, Oh my god, it's the same as communism, man. Like they can't get their heads around it. And then I watched a video from the 60s, I think it is, in uh and it in Britain. And these people are like, What? I can't even have four pints. I can't have four pints and drive. That's that's absolutely ludicrous. And there's this one guy who's like talking about how he's gonna get round it. Like, so he's I can't remember his plan now. He's got a mad plan where he refuses to take the breathalyzer test. So by the time they'd taken him to the police station, he'd have sobered up enough for it to not to not come up. And it's like really openly spoken about that. Yeah, I am so obviously I'm gonna keep it.

SPEAKER_00 24:32

Well, there were people weren't there who swore blind that they were a better driver after a few pints. It's a bit like uh Canadian snooker player that we mentioned last week, innit?

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:42

For every mile, I need a pint. It just keeps me keeps that edge. But I mean, yeah, and and just on my grandparents, so so one of my grandparents was a policeman and he wouldn't drive every night. No, to be fair, he he absolutely wouldn't. Um but he would have a whiskey on a Saturday night and then drive home, but it it'd only have one. But but even that kind of looking back surprised me a little bit because he was a surprise.

SPEAKER_02 25:06

Man of the law, but he was a broker.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

My other granddad, uh over in Ireland used to go, he was a lorry driver. He used to drive to I don't know what he was selling, but he was he would used to drive and take some stuff that he was selling. And and my dad sort of says that he basically used to get the price that he needed really quick, but then he'd he'd just drink sort of some of the profits away, drive it back and say that he'd had like a really hard time negotiating a price and he'd had to get like a lower prize for it. But that's a complete sort of chanter, but yeah, very uh very likable, man. And and I don't know how much of that has been embellished over time, but it yeah, yeah, that was just part of his job. He negotiated part of the deal to give him some drinking money before driving. But but again, it's like I said, I'm I'm conscious, you know, we're trying to be light-hearted and very entertaining. I I know people may have had experience with drink drivers that's that's completely unacceptable.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

I think this is the biggest one where I can't believe on the videos. The biggest culture change, yeah. Yeah, how outraged people are on these videos going, what I can't get hammered and drive home. And someone said, like, there's a guy in his slurring his words. Like I said, I will try and share these. There's a guy slurring his words going, I'll be absolutely fine, actually. Do you know what I mean? It's like he jumps with Nell and I when he goes, I've just had a couple of ales officer. Like, they're not like, do you know what I mean? It's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Yeah, and and obviously, yeah, different different times. Some people would have been dead against it back then, but but it's certainly you know, there's been a lot of money spent on sort of letting people know that it's not safe to drive while. My dad, now for instance.

SPEAKER_01 26:46

I don't I don't know if my dad did drink drive, to be fair. My granddad did, but now he won't have a drink the night before as he's driving the day after. Do you know if he's like sort of you know, and I'm talking about he doesn't have a lot to drink my dad anyway. I'm talking like three or four pints, and if he's got a drive area in the day after, he won't drink the night before.

SPEAKER_00 27:01

So that's all that much of the we've gonna have something to eat. Like I I used to think you could have a pint and a half and drive home, but I know certain logs are different strengths, and so yeah, I'll I'll occasionally have a pint if it's a weaker log is.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

Just have super tenants and get back on the road.

SPEAKER_00 27:19

A couple of nuclear browns, and then that's it, I'm fine. But no, I I it it does sometimes make me think like I'm I'm not even sure if one is okay, so maybe just don't have anything. I think I might be wrong with it. So I think a pint of no, in fact, I should I shouldn't be advising anyone. Don't drink, don't drink anything if you're gonna drive.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

That is how you're gonna say I'm sure you were gonna say a pint of whiskey is alright.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

No, no, I was gonna say I think a pint of do you like a foster's or a call in or something like that? Yeah, yeah. I think that is right. I think that's good enough for you. I think so, but I don't know so. So I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

This is terrible, there. I like the idea of someone who's really trying not to drink, and you're going, ooh, nice Fosters before you get on the road. Like, do you know what I mean? Yeah, don't do it. Listen, officer, listen to the Who Remembers episode because they said it were fine to have a call in Anna Foster's, and I'm sure they said something about a super tenant and a party. If you're gonna get behind the wheel, leave leave the alcohol on the shelf.

Seatbelts Then Hitchhiking Then Helmets

SPEAKER_01 28:11

And put your seatbelt on, because this is another one. This blew my mind, this seatbelts didn't become mandatory until 1983. I find that mad. And it wasn't until 1989 that it became uh it became mandatory for children to have seatbelts, and not until 1991 for passengers to have seatbelts on.

SPEAKER_00 28:30

Yeah, so the the first bit was for the driver, wasn't it? And then it Yeah, this was the first bit of the driver, but the the thing that we haven't actually kind of looked at, as I'm as I'm looking at that, I'm thinking, when were they invented?

SPEAKER_01 28:41

Uh they came out in 65. Well, it was it were mandatory to have in cars i i in 1965. Uh that for every new car from 1965 onwards, I had to have a seatbelt in it.

SPEAKER_00 28:51

All right, so so even when it was first installed, you didn't have to wear it for a new one.

SPEAKER_01 28:55

No, no, no, we just there. Yeah. If you look, how many people did you use? I mean, again, going back to like my nan and my grandad, I'll just put it round my do you know what I mean? Like that with that's I mean to be honest if you couldn't find the if you couldn't find the hold, what do you call it, the holster of the seatbelt, you'd be like, my man, I'll just put it round me, it'll be fine.

SPEAKER_00 29:12

Completely pathetic for me this, but when I first passed my test, you just put it round you. Well, no, I did I I didn't wear it. I don't know why. I don't know. Obviously, it's a safety thing. But it passed you, it passed you as well. No, no, I don't mean on my test. Imagine me just smugly turning to him, like uh put your seatbelt on, doubt it, mate. I wouldn't have thought so, not for this. Now it, mate.

SPEAKER_01 29:30

I've had a couple I've had a couple of fosters.

SPEAKER_00 29:34

No, I I passed my test and I was driving. I was coming back from I don't know where I was coming back, but I was coming up like uh Prince of Wells Road towards Manotop. I told you the story before, but I might not have told the listener. And yeah, it's it's pathetic that I didn't have a seatbelt on, but there was one in the car and I wasn't wearing it. The police pulled me over, I don't know how they knew, but they pulled me over, and I tried to sort of really slyly, like, whilst they were getting out of their car, sort of pull it on.

unknown 30:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

And he said, Do you know why I've stopped you? And I the only thing I could think that saved me is because I was honest, I said, Yeah, I've I've I've just put my belt on now. I don't know if you saw, and he said, Yeah, yeah, we saw you didn't have a belt on. He said, Look, I'm getting all sorts of people in all sorts of trouble today. Honestly, I'm not gonna name the officer, I'll tell you his badge number. But he said, Look, we're gonna leave it for now. Just make sure you wear your seatbelt, it's designed to keep you safe. Don't drive about without seatbelt. And I said, Yeah, no problem, thank you. And then as I drove, that so they drove off and I drove behind them. And as I got to Manitop, they were in the pizza place at Manor Top. Uh the police cars parked outside. So they basically put up. We can't be bothered with the paperwork. We've got a pizza waiting up there.

SPEAKER_01 30:41

Yeah, and do you know another thing though? In your defence and people who didn't wear seatbelts offense of our age group, can you remember it were a bit before our time actually, but you can you remember the public information film or uh what celebrity um the clunk click um oh yeah, I do remember clunk click, yeah.

unknown 30:56

Mr.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Jimmy's not a celebrity, oh was it? Yeah, so maybe that's why they wear it then. So I wonder subconsciously, you've always had your suspicions about Jimmy. I wonder if like you thought I don't there's something about him. Yeah, maybe. Imagine if you'd have said that while remember Jimmy Savile. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, on the all I'm and you get it, get it out on your phone, the public information film. And they went, yeah, no, no further.

SPEAKER_00 31:22

They might have done me. I might have gone missing after that day if I see.

SPEAKER_01 31:26

I know. Um on public information films. Do you remember that one in 1998? I looked into it. Uh Julie knew her killer, it was her son who was sitting behind her without a seatbelt. Do you know that crap? And I'm gonna try and share that as well. So it's gonna be a lot of sharing for these clubs. Because that is a brilliant one, that stuck with me. That one. You know, when she's screaming like the sister next to her, brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 31:45

To be fair, that that is and maybe that's why I'm so sort of I don't know, I think it's so pathetic that I was driving around without one on. It's not impressing anyone. Very few people can say one except the Peter Officer.

SPEAKER_01 31:59

But but yeah, we'll be wearing shades and having a cigarette as well while I'm driving around. Yeah, no, I'd wear a seatbelt, don't drink and drive. Hitchhiking, Liam. Uh I've never done this, but that was another thing that were far more prevalent and pro far more normal uh I think in the 80s in particular than it than it is today.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

Yeah, I I know my dad used to hitchhike to get to sort of sort of from Corby to Leicester to get to watch games of football and Yeah, I don't know, it's it just seemed a normal thing that he did. You'd you'd sort of ask how far they were going on your journey and have a bit of a chat with a a a lonely driver and then he'd drop you where you needed to be and then you'd try and that is that is dangerous now.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

That I mean you'd never I mean I know people still do it. Yeah, I'm gonna say I still people still do it, but I I'm talking about you know, that is something if I if you were the kids said to you if your if your kid said to you, I'm gonna hitchhike to to Nottingham or whatever, you'd be like, No, you're not. Yeah, clunk click. Um there's a story actually, everyone talk sport, I think we talk sport, Nor Gallagher said that he uh once hitchhiked all the way from Manchester to Stoke for uh Stoke City away game, like and they set off early in the morning and stuff like that. And that that was a fairly normal thing. Like I I don't think that would like seen as an odd thing to do.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

I mean, I wonder as the sort of stories came across the pond about the American sort of serial killers, whether that became any connection, because obviously that was how a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 33:32

I would never hitch Ike, nothing to do with people getting murdered, just small talk. I fucking hate the worst thing I think about if there is a heaven, imagine like waiting at the gates and the small talk that you have to have with people who you don't know. Happen at night, or yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

Sometimes you don't do it, and Jody says I'm really rude, but I just don't yeah, but it's just in heaven, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 33:51

Like you'd be thinking, you know what? Can you imagine queuing up at the gates?

SPEAKER_00 33:54

Like do you exactly support mate? Weather's alright, isn't it? Yeah, weather's alright, I fear, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 34:00

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's definitely something.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

Got any all of these plans?

SPEAKER_01 34:03

No, I'm I'm I'm waiting to get into heaven, mate now. I'm waiting to get into heaven now, mate. Yeah, yeah, I'd hate it. Small talk at the gates of heaven. Anyway, there's good small talk, certainly not me. There's someone who can't really ride a bike due to the crippling uh disability that I've got. Riding bikes with no helmets, and I did ride a bike a bit, um, and I never wore a helmet. I don't know about you. No, never. And it's still not legal, it's still not legal, by the way. Um it's still not illegal, should I say, not to wear a helmet. But you don't really see any bikers without helmets on these days, do you?

SPEAKER_00 34:35

No, and I think that's I I suppose I do see kids riding about without helmets on, but not we used to be all over the place riding on the roads. I had some some quite bad falls off my bike. But no, I know.

SPEAKER_01 34:47

No, this one, you and Rome, get out of my way!

SPEAKER_00 34:51

I don't know, just it was never a thing. Uh it makes me think actually of uh again I might have said it to you, I don't think I've said it on the podcast, but I love uh Carl Pilkington anecdote where he says um he was riding his bike round and he got a bike helmet on, and his dad got back from work and said, Hey, hey, come here. He said, Yeah, what's up? He said, You look absolutely ridiculous in that helmet. I don't ever want to see you wearing one again. Told him to not wear the safety equipment because he thought it looked ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

That's a great well, fashion comes first, doesn't it? As we know, we call Pilking and run around for his fashion.

SPEAKER_00 35:24

You look absolutely ridiculous. Yeah, it wasn't actually. I mean, to be fair though, as well, like now you get those sort of cooler like BMX type ones, whereas there were like a massive, big sort of postyrene with like a huge turtle shell on top of your head, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_01 35:38

I still don't think they look very cool to be honest. But it wasn't until 2005 that the International Cycling Union made helmets mandatory in racers. They tried to do it in 1991, but it was abandoned because all the riders like they went on strike because they didn't want to wear helmets, but it would take it more seriously. We look absolutely ridiculous, it would take it more seriously for the following the death of Fabio Fabio Casatele uh in the Tour de France and then some riders start wearing them voluntary, but it wasn't wide widespread, and now obviously you'd never see a race where you know um with the bikers aren't wearing helmets, I don't think. Don't drink, wear your helmets, put on your seatbelts.

SPEAKER_00 36:16

Tour de France.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

Anyway, Lim, onto you, Segmark three.

Indoor Smoking And Asbestos Everywhere

SPEAKER_00 36:20

Yeah, we're talking indoor, we're talking indoor activities. Uh the another one of the big ones. I think seatbelts is is probably the biggest, but this is the the other huge sort of culture change. So smoking. Smoking indoors, yeah. You know, we mentioned it on uh which episode did we talk about it on? Uh one you don't see anymore.

SPEAKER_01 36:38

Yeah, the yeah, so someone walking down the street with a cigarette, you said you don't see that anymore.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

Well this was pretty much wherever you you just go into a restaurant, a pub, you could go into the cinema, you could go into I mean even like restaurants? Yeah, but like.

SPEAKER_01 36:55

You could go into the most expensive restaurant in the world and you could easily have someone next to you get in a get in a Marlboro yeah, Marlborough um a Marlboro light out.

SPEAKER_00 37:06

Yeah, but but but again, it like at home as well, like now I know vaping's more of a thing, and uh I know people sort of do vape around kids but they shouldn't. But I mean uh I I don't know kind of what the data's telling us about vaping. I I don't think you should vape around kids, but we we kind of even known when it was known that smoking was causing lung cancer, people were still smoking in the house is the most normal thing in the world.

SPEAKER_01 37:31

And by the way, the smoking ban now, it seems obvious to me that you shouldn't smoke indoors and you shouldn't smoke in pubs and you shouldn't smoke in restaurants and cinemas and what have you. There was an outrage about it at the time, like there was genuinely like this is this a bit like where they say now, like big brother gone mad, you know what I mean, trying to ru ruin uh run everyone's lives and keeping an eye on it's absolutely disgusting. That's never coming back indoor smoking.

SPEAKER_00 37:54

That's what I think I I miss it. I I know it's the right thing.

SPEAKER_01 37:57

Nah, you do you miss the smell, you don't miss having someone blowing folk uh folk smoke in your face, but blowing folk Bob Dylan in your face, blowing smoke in your face.

SPEAKER_00 38:06

No, I know what you mean. Yeah, if uh if I was sat in a cinema and the guy in front just kept turning around blowing smoke into my face mid-film.

SPEAKER_01 38:13

Imagine with Mike Parry with like 20 fags at once. But but yeah, I I I think this is I mean, you know, I vape when I've had a drink, um, I don't vape otherwise, but this is something that it I I I don't think there's any excuse really for for yeah you can't bring this back. Certainly smoke a w around children, which was sort of yeah, I'm I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

Well it's like if they were there then it they just have to put up with it. Like it would it wasn't it wasn't really a thing, was it? Like, yeah, just you just smoke and if if the kids were there, they were there. So yeah, definitely that's a huge one. I mean, this is I I assume this one is purely because we didn't know then what we know now, but but asbestos asbestos my granddad died on asbestos, yeah. Oh really? I didn't I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

Yeah, yeah, he he we thought he had lung cancer for ages. He was one of those old men who would never go to the doctors and you were coughing for ages. And we used to live with him because we were uh moving out, you know, when you were in between houses or whatever when I were young. And um, yeah, we lived with him for about three months, but now and it was so obvious he were ill. We were stunned when he got asbestosis. Like I mean now we're really young, I didn't really understood sound the difference, but everyone just thought he's he's got cancer or he's got some. Yeah, and it were asbestosis, and it's a fucking horrible way to go.

SPEAKER_00 39:24

So I when my asthma was really bad, I they they looked at whether I had silicosis because I worked obviously around concrete or concrete dust and that can cause similar sort of things, but but luckily it wasn't. It did something they managed to kind of medicate and it's okay now. But yeah, I I think it's a it's a horrible kind of infliction. I think it it just lungs, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_01 39:47

Absolutely everywhere. Schools, ceiling tiles, floor tiles. Yeah, for a while. We've used a knit without with yarn, asbestos yarn.

SPEAKER_00 39:54

It was like a like an insulated material, wasn't it? Is that why why it was so commonly used?

SPEAKER_01 39:59

I I believe so, and it was really cheap. It was classed as like a miracle material because it was it were waterproof, rock proof, cheap. You people only get on the trip. Wizard of Oz used pure asbestos for the snow in that film. So you know the scene where Dorothy in the poppers, do you know what I mean? That is rounded by asbestos. That is asbestos genuinely just being thrown on the cast, which it's ridiculous. It used to be used in theatre curtains read about smoking in theatres and uh or cinemas. Used to be used in that it it would just like audiences just sit under loads of asbestos for for decades and decades and decades. Yeah, and and I mean apparently the uh the were concerns flagged right back kind of pre-1900, but yeah, 1890s doctors noticed it, but it wasn't until 1999 that all forms of asbestos were banned, and in America, apparently there's some states where it's still not formally banned. Wow.

SPEAKER_00 40:56

So yeah, yeah. Our our American friends, our American listeners, um make sure you're not surrounded by the fucking asbestos, man.

SPEAKER_01 41:03

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But like I say, that that was that that is one a bit close to my heart, but purely because my grandad passed away with it. And it it's it's frightening that he died in 97 and it wasn't even banned by 99. It's still banned, you know, you can still do it up until 1999. You still find it. You can still find it. Segment four for me, Liam. I'm gonna go to the house. I've I've got uh more that I I wanted to just mention in there. Oh, sorry, yeah, sorry, my fault.

DIY Electrics Coal Fires Roof Dares

SPEAKER_00 41:28

So another thing that I remember is like people doing their own electrical work around the house. Like you'd never, ever, ever get away with that now. It it kind of fails the the sort of safety inspection. You everything has to be certified, but yeah, yeah, you people are just like have a go at their own wiring. And like I just remember it being a thing that like, yeah, he got a couple of shocks, but he's he's done it now, he's fit on right now. Yeah, um coal fires so uh we had a coal fire, which probably contributed to to my chronic breathing problems, to be honest. But we uh yeah, it was good. I like I liked having a coal fire, but yeah, chronic breathing, yeah, it was good. It was good, yeah. You take it off in a smooth, don't you? That's that's the thing. Yeah, yeah. Nice fire, I can't breathe, but but my auntie's got uh one of these well, a few people I know, but my auntie's got a log burner at the minute, and because they've had their sort of kids round and and our kids round, the fire guard they've got around it, it's it's outrageous. It's like a sort of two-metre exclusion zone. It's like a you know, like we see around a prison, like sort of what wire box fence like barbed wire and like security cameras and stuff. They've got that round their fire. We you could just walk up and touch our coal fire if you wanted to. So that's something that's moved on, probably rightly so. And this one's probably a personal one. Um and this is slightly an insane one to be honest, but would it have been nineties or would it have been yeah, no, I think it would have been late nineties. So at my cousin's house, we used to go and open one of their upstairs windows, climb on top of the window and then climb onto the roof and go and sit on the roof.

SPEAKER_01 43:03

I've done this before, my cousins, yeah. I've done this before as a kid with my cousins, yeah. And you sit on the roof, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

And and when I think now about the fact that we're putting all of our weight onto this sort of window frame that's not designed to take any load at all. And I I I don't really know why we did it, other than to say, are you going up on the roof? Yeah, I'm I'll go up on the roof for a bit if you're going up. Yeah, so yeah, when his mum and dad were out, we'd go up and just have half an hour on the roof. Just up on the roof.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

I don't see anyone on the roof these days. Robson and Jerome. Just them two. Uh what did your name called? Jerome Jerome. Jerome Jerome, yeah. She she liked him as well. That's the mad thing is she bought all the singles because I bought their new single, Jerome Jerome. Jerome Jerome. Jerome Jerome. Well, I just will not will not acknowledge Robson Green. I refuse, I condone, I condemn Robson Green. Right. So I'm on to outdoors now. This

Playground Injuries Sun Oil And Stray Dogs

SPEAKER_01 44:02

is moatball, it's all pretty much about playground. So 200,000 children are still treated annually in ER for injuries caused by falls from climbing equipment, swings, or slides. Um monkey bars, obviously, you know, climbers and stuff like that, they apparently are responsible for the most fractures and hospital visits of anything. Are you surprised by that, Liam? Still today that is, and I might be much safer now.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

I think when you say climbers, you mean what I would class a climbing frame? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Monkey bars though. You're swinging on the monkey. No, no, monkey bars are a different thing. Monkey bars get from one side to another, it's just a row of bars. Climbing frames, for for anyone who doesn't know, was uh it's almost like a scaffold. It was just like a collection of metal bars put together that you'd like bump your head on, sort of bang your arms and legs on, and sort of just climb through and yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:52

Slides, metal, met metal slides, so hot. Can you remember this? Like you if you're wearing shorts and you put your like you get third third degree burns when putting your legs, like on a do you know what I mean? On the slide, it was like and they were really steep as well. I've seen like having a lot of.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

If you had shorts on as well, your skin would stick to it and like burn like uh merry-go-rounds.

SPEAKER_01 45:16

Uh, children, I remember going, I used to be quite scared of merry-go-rounds because people are just trying to do it as fast as they can, obviously. So easy just to be thrown off. Do you know what I mean? Like you're all you're holding on for deal. Because if you let go, you're you're flat, you're ending up in the top of a tree.

SPEAKER_00 45:30

You're like I was once, I reckon, about six or seven, and my dad was spinning my brother on a merry-go-round as fast as he could. And he said to me, Don't touch it, it's going too fast. But I thought, I'll do what he's doing. You know, like when he's sort of grabbing it and spinning it.

SPEAKER_02 45:45

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:46

So I grabbed it and it skimmed me across the floor and took all the skin off one of my arms. And my dad, like, was kind of it he felt sorry for me, but he was so angry with me that I'd done what he said not to do that he kind of carried me back, sort of like, half, are you alright? And half like, what on earth are you doing? You you're a complete fool. I told you not to do that. When I got in, he just sort of plonked me down the side and told my mum to sort me out. Well, that's another thing, actually.

SPEAKER_01 46:10

The the the flooring and stuff, like gravel and concrete level. Yeah, there's concrete floor, yeah. Concrete floor. If you fell off a slide from the top, which were easy to do, you're climbing up a slide, you know, you could fall backwards. See you later, mate. I'll see you in AR. A R.

unknown 46:23

A.

SPEAKER_01 46:23

E and R. ER. All right, mad. A R's um like a record scout, isn't it? E and R. E or, yeah. So um people using tannin oil rather than sunscreen. This is one of yours, Liam, but yeah, this is mad.

SPEAKER_00 46:40

I think sort of bodybuilders and like sort of models maybe still do this, but yeah, it's crazy to think like obviously we're known now about skin cancer and and the risks, but people not only did they not used to put protection on, they used to actually put like some people used to put like uh baby oil, like um just just an oil on to grow.

SPEAKER_01 47:00

I remember genuinely it was sort of seen, and I'm someone who always had to have factor 5,000 because of my uh red roots, pale pale complexion I've got. Um, some may say an Irish complexion, some may say Scottish. Um Celtic.

SPEAKER_00 47:14

Let's say Celtic.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

Celtic, yeah. Um and I genuinely at school, if it were hot and I used to have to wear it or we're gone to trips or whatever, I'd get like called out, like, oh what what a ponch, do you know what I mean? Like because I'd be wearing because I thought even like the the idea of wearing sun cream was seen as like somehow like a bit girly, yeah, quite cowardly, wasn't it? To put sun cream on. That's ridiculous, yeah. I do remember I mean we've mentioned before Matthew Stratford, he used to go, I don't believe you're putting sun cream on. Are you like wandering around? Like, yeah, I I hope that's not the case now with kids, but I do remember it's cool. That was one of the things that I used to.

SPEAKER_00 47:49

Well, people used to think as well, which I assume is absolute nonsense, but yeah, you've you've kind of got a burn to then get the tan. Like you've got to keep you've kind of got to go through that first burn.

SPEAKER_01 48:00

Yeah, crazy, absolute crazy. Uh, and another one on the outdoors is dogs wandering around estates on their own. Obviously, you don't see this as much now because most dogs have got chips, aren't they? And and what have you.

SPEAKER_00 48:10

So I don't know if it's a thing anymore. And it's you know, mentioned it before, but it it's a Frank Skinner thing. But he used to say, like, they they didn't walk their dog, they just used to let it out in the morning and then it just grew home at night. Yeah, so it'd just go wandering off. And like there were times when I not so much at home, but I do remember seeing just random dogs wandering around. But yeah, particularly at my grandma, sometimes like I'd I'd go to the shop and like and I was quite scared of the dogs at the time, they'd just be dogs wandering around, and I'd sort of sometimes they come up and bark and growl at you, and sometimes they'd sort of just wag the tail and walk past.

SPEAKER_01 48:44

And yeah, but people would just let the dogs do what they want, yeah. I mean, uh like I say with my dog, right? Would you let your kids take your dog out for three or four hours like I used to do? Like I say, he used to come back on his own.

SPEAKER_00 48:57

No, I've said this recently because I tell he'd asked about taking our dog out, and it it's I think she'd be fine. I just don't trust some other dog owners. Like with a dog come running up to like my dog's fine around other dogs, but she she kind of looks quite tough, she's a bulldog, but she's a bit of a wimp. But yes, and some some woman, her dog come running up to my dog, and then she said, Oh, your your dog's alright, isn't it? Like, uh and I said, Yeah, she's fine. She's not on a lead, she's fine. It's it's just because my dog can be really funny around other dogs. And I said, Well, well, your dog should be on a lead then. I said, She's fine, like it's why why I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 49:35

I I just thought like my first dog, you you know him, Blade. Yeah, um, really good with people, quite aggressive with the dogs, so we never had him uh neuter. Uh we love that word, neutered. Um, but yeah, we never had him neutered, so we were quite aggressive with the dog, and I'd used to take him out, and and I were like 12, 13 or whatever it be. Do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00 49:56

That's yeah, he he's one of my favourite dogs, by the way, purely because once when I saw it.

SPEAKER_02 50:00

You had a row in, didn't you? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:01

Yeah, me and him had a bit of a tussle once, yeah. I think that to be fair, he was past his prime, so I I can't I I maybe in his day he'd have sorted me out. But yeah, I had to I had to sort of put him in his place once. Um but yeah, he's one of my favourite dogs purely because once I was I fell asleep on your sofa after a night out, and when I woke up, he was sort of next to me looking down on me, completely motionless, with just a little bit of his tongue sticking out. I remember laughing out loud when I woke up. I found it really funny.

SPEAKER_01 50:32

Yeah, but like I say, you kids taking dogs out. I don't really see them. When I take my dog out now, like I don't really see kids holding dogs unless his parents with them.

SPEAKER_00 50:42

Yeah, I don't know if that's a sad one that one. I think most of them I agree with maybe that's slightly sad that one. Yeah. Kids taking dogs for walks. Next segment, Liam. I thought, yeah, well, I thought I'm sure you introduced it by saying there were four. But yeah, we've got we're going on to say five, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:01

So this one is I I wasn't a huge sort of partaker in this one, to be quite honest with you. I I dabble, but not very much.

Underage Drinking And Fake IDs

SPEAKER_00 51:09

This is underage drinking. So this is this were massive, I think. Absolutely huge. Like not again, not so much for me, but but certainly for people I knew. Yeah, they were going out getting absolutely wasted in the sort of local park or local shopping area at like graveyards.

SPEAKER_01 51:24

I used to get drunk in drinkers. Not on my own. You are I used to get drunk in graveyards. I said not on my own.

SPEAKER_00 51:35

Sorry, I didn't hear you say graveyards, I just said you say not on my own. For some reason I didn't hear that, but um Yeah, yeah, drunk in graveyards, yeah. I mean Yes, it was a weird time this where you'd sort of I mean you still see it now actually, but you I would never do this. But you would have sort of people in the group who would say to people going into shops, adults, oh can can you get us can you get us some beer, mate? Can you get us some cans? Or or white lightning or like what was the other one? There was another uh 2020 stuff. But yeah, you'd try and sort of get the the strongest.

SPEAKER_01 52:08

Well they were alcohol the auto alcohol pops, weren't they, obviously, which were like they got hammered when they first came out, like hooch and uh reef, tropical reef and all that sort of stuff. Because they looked like they weren't they were aimed at kids.

SPEAKER_00 52:20

Yeah, absolutely. And and I remember kind of when I was very first going into sort of pubs and bars that you you'd have like a a reef or a hooch or something like as your first couple of drinks because they were quite sweet and tasted quite nice, but uh yeah, I I don't know, I I associate more sort of park drinking rather rather than those things with like like say like the strongest cider you could get hold of, or or someone would have half a bottle of coke that was actually full of whiskey that they'd nicked out of their dad's drinks cupboard or something like that. Like it was all sort of that that type of drinking for me, yeah. But I don't know, not not really not really for me that one.

SPEAKER_01 52:58

But parents used to turn a blind eye for it, fake IDs were massive as well. We used to be able to get fake IDs from FHM magazine. Think how illegal that is today. Like a mainstream magazine was selling fake IDs.

SPEAKER_00 53:11

I think my brother had one. I I thought it was genius actually, because it was so ridiculous. And it was something like uh the hot air balloon club. It said that it's day of birth on it, and like you thought that's so ridiculous that they would never have seen that before to be able to say this is a fake.

SPEAKER_01 53:27

Yeah, this is something like that, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:29

I can't it might mean the balloon club or something, but I remember thinking that's so ridiculous, it's almost quite good.

SPEAKER_01 53:35

But it's obviously now you like you think twenty twenty-five now. Back then, you'd get into a nightclub if you were just if you looked if you looked 15, you were in. Yeah, I'd I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 53:46

I think it was harder for the for the chaps.

SPEAKER_01 53:48

Yeah, the the the ladies had to put a bit of makeup on.

SPEAKER_00 53:52

To me, if you could kind of start growing a beard, you were all right as a guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's a weird way to judge it, but yeah, that that's kind of what I associate with getting into pubs and bars, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 54:03

But studies do show that underage drinking was a stable, long-standing behaviour, not a sudden 90s phenomenon. Apparently, criminal statistics didn't reflect how often it happened because obviously most incidents were never actually enforced. But whilst the 80s and 90s, as you said, were dominated by cider and lager or cheap wine, by the 1990s, um, people were drinking much more heavy stuff, like you said, with whiskies and things like that, and that apparently contributed to what is the binge drinking culture, which we still have today for people our age, me and you me and yourself included. Yeah, um, and ri recent surveys show that underage drinking has declined now from 11 to 15 year olds by apparently 40%. Um so apparently sorry, I re-40% of pupils at school aged 11 to 15 have never had an alcoholic drink as of 2021, which is miles down from earlier years, um, which is very woke.

SPEAKER_00 54:55

But yeah, really, my nephew who was 16, 17, and we have a family meal, I'd say to him, like, do you want a pine? He'd say, Oh, no. I'd say it's all right. You I think you can have one with your meal anyway, but like it's fine. Nah, no, definitely.

SPEAKER_01 55:10

I love how you just keep encouraging people to drink.

SPEAKER_00 55:13

Have a fosters and get on road. What's the matter with you? Yeah, but no, I I could definitely see in him that he if if I'd have been that agent and someone had said, like my uncle had said, can you can have a bite if you want? Oh yeah, definitely. I'd have thought that that would have made me feel grown up, but he just wasn't interested.

SPEAKER_01 55:30

See, all this nanny state stuff, it has actually worked realistically, because uh when you used to go out 15, I used to be able to walk into an off licence. I don't want to always get served, but I don't know, 50-50, I might get served if I was 15 going to because they don't really give a shit, they're just thinking I can't be bothered to ask, whatever. If the person serving was quite young as well, like you'd think probably gonna be alright, like yeah. But that now you've got to the thing that you will lose your job if you don't ask, and that company will get you know prosecuted and stuff. So obviously it has cut down and stuff, and yeah, we are seeing less people drinking, um which is good, I suppose.

SPEAKER_00 56:07

Uh yeah, I think so. I think so. I think we can we can agree on that. We can give it the who remembers stamp of a confirmation of approval.

Listener Messages And How To Find Us

SPEAKER_01 56:18

Right, Liam. That was that were a long one, that actually. We we've got into quite a lot there. Uh a lot of health and safety stuff. Very woke episode in the sense that most of them were saying, Yeah, that that that's right, that's right. If you if you are if you think we're wrong about anything or there's something we've missed that we're all over, then please do let us know. Thanks for all your comments. We are gonna do a listeners' episode soon, aren't we? And then we keep your listeners' feedback, should I say, yeah, because we we we are gonna do that very, very soon, and it should be a mammoth one. So do let us know. Thanks for all your comments and stuff that you're posting. We will you know, we do try to respond to them all and everything.

SPEAKER_00 56:49

And yeah, keep using um keep smashing those like buttons. Smashing that like button.

SPEAKER_01 56:54

Send us a comment, keep yeah, yeah, just keep the just keep doing it. Yeah, just just just just enjoy it, man. Thank you for listening to Who Remembers. If you want to get in touch with us, you can find us at WhoremembersPodAllot.com. If you are a right wing fascist, you can find us on Twitter at Who Remembers Pod. Or if you're a wokener, you can find us on Blue Sky at WhoRemembers Pod. Once again, thank you for listening, and we'll see you next time for more remembering.