Well as a 12 year old in 1974 things seemed very different to now.
No internet - so reduced access to knowledge, luckily intelligent adults were always on hand to answer any of my questions openly and unbiasedly. I think I still thought babies came out of belly buttons at that time!
I got up and did a paper round on my bicycle at 4am before school. These days they'd call that child exploitation. I loved it!
I had a girl friend who was the same age and we could kiss at school without being put on the sex offenders registry. We'd go skinny dipping down by the river at her parents place and that was considered normal.
I used to do shooting as a school sport, so I'd take my semi auto .22 on the back of my bike to school and we'd leave them in their bags at the back of the class room. Nobody dared take them out until we got to the range or endless adults would kick the crap out of us. Could you imagine taking a .22 to school today?
Public swimming pools had not just diving boards but huge diving towers. Yes you used them at your own risk. Hurt yourself and an adult would punish you for hurting yourself!
Back then people weren't terrified of breasts. I remember walking into a Coles supermarket with my mum, and they used to have racks of those large wall posters for sale, like posters of pop stars and nature etc. but they also had topless ones, and I remember seeing stuck to an Isle pinned up for all to see, was a huge poster of Farah Fawcett topless and nobody batted an eyelid. These days they'd probably torch the supermarket!
The local drive-in was located right behind my family home, and back then every movie showing was soft porn, so at night, I'd go out to the lounge after everyone had gone to sleep and I could see the drive-in screen through the window, so would watch movies like Felicity lol! Could you imagine public broad casts of movies like that these days?
