Last week’s top ten list took a look at what was great about growing up in the 1960s. Today’s look checks out the flip side about what wasn’t so great about being a kid back then.

10.  Year after year, food manufacturers created amazing, space-age convenience foods like Tang, Pringles, Tab, and Dream Whip. Turns out, the preservatives and additives that made those foods convenient weren’t very good for us.

9. Female students and teachers had to wear dresses to school even in the winter. Trying to stuff your skirt discreetly into your snow pants for recess so boys didn’t get a peek at your panties was exhausting.

8. Women who wanted to attend college were limited to three career paths: nursing, teaching, and secretarial work.

7. Without air conditioning in homes, stores, and cars, Iowa summers were long, hot and humid, m-i-s-e-r-a-b-l-e affairs.

6. Fifth and sixth grade boys were allowed to go to the gym to watch daytime World Series games on the television. Fifth and sixth grade girls got to do extra worksheets while the boys watched the World Series.

5. The coffee was terrible.

4. Public buildings and private homes were inaccessible to people in wheelchairs.

3. The nightly news featured stories about the assassinations of JFK, Bobby Kennedy, Malcom X, and Martin Luther King.

2. Walter Cronkite and other national news anchors regularly reported inflated numbers of Viet Cong casualties and deflated numbers of American soldiers killed in Viet Nam.

1. Parents in the neighborhood watched out for all the kids in the neighborhood, so if you did something stupid, your parents found out about it and you usually got in trouble.

What didn’t you like about growing up in the 1960s? Leave a comment.