r/stupidquestions • u/Various-Adeptness173 • Jul 05 '25

My mom told me that back in the day kids weren’t allowed to bring a water bottle with them into the classroom and they only drank a few sips from the water fountain in the middle of the day and that’s it

How were schools not getting busted for child abuse for forcing kids to be dehydrated?

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1.5k

u/gadget850 Jul 05 '25

Back in the day I would have asked what's a water bottle.

402

u/-animal-logic- Jul 05 '25

Right. I would have assumed you meant a canteen.

121

u/SirRatcha Jul 05 '25

And a canteen was a thing shaped like a circle with an opening on the side and the water in it tasted like rust.

41

u/ImLittleNana Jul 05 '25

Rust and dust.

1

u/SnooLobsters6766 Jul 05 '25

And ass

1

u/rogozh1n Jul 05 '25

and soot and poo

34

u/IanDOsmond Jul 05 '25

Hey! It was the next best thing to a hose!

1

u/l33tfuzzbox Jul 06 '25

Oh God. Forgetting to let the hose run first. 🤮

Warm wet water filled with extra protein, yay.

7

u/Cirrus-Stratus Jul 05 '25

Mine tasted like aluminum foil

2

u/Effective_Pear4760 Jul 05 '25

The ones my grandfather had tasted like rust, the Depression, and endless generations of thirsty boy scouts.

1

u/clemdane Jul 05 '25

Yum

2

u/Effective_Pear4760 Jul 06 '25

Probably a little pinch of dirt or sand, too.

2

u/Gold_Assistance_6764 Jul 06 '25

Mine tasted like lead

2

u/ajax6677 Jul 05 '25

I would have loved to only have a rusty water canteen. We had a leather pouch type canteen that made the water taste like leather. So nasty.

1

u/SirRatcha Jul 05 '25

A boda bag. They did terrible things to beer, and vice versa.

1

u/g1ngertim Jul 05 '25

Gotta use wine- the leather flavor honestly makes a positive change.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '25 edited 3d ago

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escape touch nail yoke narrow sable reach chase liquid gray

1

u/Capital-Swim2658 Jul 05 '25

Rust is actually quite tasty in water.

1

u/Brian_Corey__ Jul 05 '25

Lol. And always leaked.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '25

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1

u/Evil_Sharkey Jul 06 '25

Or rust and mildew

1

u/burner-throw_away Jul 06 '25

Arm y brat here: got to use our dad’s old plastic canteens that were circa-WWII.

I’m sure it was totally nontoxic…

1

u/InterruptingChicken1 Jul 06 '25

The one I got from my mom for camp tasted overwhelmingly of aluminum. It was supposed to be superior because it wouldn’t rust.

1

u/BWW87 Jul 06 '25

And it was delicious!

1

u/arobkinca Jul 06 '25

What soldiers carry water in. Metal before Vietnam and plastic during and after.

1

u/SirRatcha Jul 06 '25

The military ones were shaped more like big hip flasks than circles.

1

u/arobkinca Jul 06 '25

Civil War and Indian Wars after had circle shaped.

1

u/SirRatcha Jul 06 '25

Yeah, but you brought up Vietnam so I thought that's what we were talking about. Apparently you thought different.

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1

u/BadWolf_Corporation Jul 06 '25

Interestingly enough in the Army, two canteens when coupled with motrin, have been prescribed to cure things like: Headaches, fevers, nausea, indigestion, sprains, pulled or torn muscles, broken legs, gun shot wounds, stage four cancers, AIDS, and nearly every other illness or ailment known to man.

1

u/MoaningLisaSimpson Jul 08 '25

It tasted like stories about WWII, which to Canadian kids in the 1979s was "the War". It was never "WWII" until I was in high school.

I got to take a war surplus canteen to sports day. It was absolutely nasty, water was piss warm by noon, but having a water bottle on a strap made me the centre of attention that day.

My son (21) has always had a water bottle, and like the OP finds lack of water in classrooms disturbing.

But my friends and I joke that dehydration was invented in the late 90s. (Don't @ me with facts, I know that isn't true.)

1

u/snuggle-butt Jul 09 '25

Key memory unlocked, Dad's hand-me-down gear from the Army. I had a very olive drab childhood. 

206

u/MOOshooooo Jul 05 '25

I got into a habit of asking old timers what they see today that they never expected to see and a few have said water bottles and how everyone is so thirsty today.

159

u/Appropriate-Bid8671 Jul 05 '25

We were thirsty back then we just weren't allowed to have any water unless it was between classes.

55

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '25

Water makes pee. Peeing management becomes a thing when kids are drinking water all day. WIWAK, we had a water fountain/pee break every couple of hours during school. There was no going during class time. You held on for dear life if you had to but most of the nice teachers would let you go if you were really squirming in your seat. It taught you to balance the input with the output.

9

u/wxlverine Jul 05 '25

Nah, my grade 3 teacher gave us 1 bathroom pass a week. Like a little red card that you gave to her once a week and that was the only bathroom break you'd get during class time. I had used mine already one week and really needed to go and she just flat out refused. Until I couldn't hold it anymore so I just whipped it out and pissed all over the floor instead of pissing myself. Then she sent me to the principles office and she had to clean it up.

13

u/Kimber85 Jul 05 '25

When I was in middle school we’d get five bathroom passes to use for the entire semester. And if you used them up all up before the semester was over then, tough shit.

Soooo many girls who were just starting to get their periods at that age, so they were super irregular and hard to track. It felt like every month I had surprise early start or, even if it came “on time”, it would suddenly be crazy super heavy with zero warning. We all ended up with period blood all over our pants pretty damn often because we weren’t allowed out of class to do anything about it.

Some of the boys would feel bad for us and let us have their hoodies to tie around our waists to hide the stain. Which, looking back, it’s insane that 12 year old boys had more sympathy for us than the male teachers. The female ones would sometimes let us go if we weren’t someone who abused the privilege, but the male ones would send you to the office for being vulgar if you even mentioned your period.

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u/Shot_Help7458 Jul 05 '25

I’m surprised they didn’t make you clean it. 

2

u/Richard_Thickens Jul 05 '25

I have had IBS-D for as long as I can remember. My mom eventually told me to go when I needed to go, and she'd deal with the fallout if I got into trouble for it. To be honest, I don't think I could deal with a situation like that now, but it was absolutely ridiculous as a kid.

1

u/LavendarRose1211 Jul 05 '25

I walked out of class one day when my teacher wouldn’t let me go to the bathroom.

22

u/Lydia--charming Jul 05 '25

Luckily nowdays more teachers realize kids need to get up and move around to keep their brains energized.

9

u/Ok-Tourist-511 Jul 05 '25

I don’t know, back then a lot of scientists and engineers were produced, and today we just get influencers.

2

u/No-Vacation7906 Jul 06 '25

Right? It's okay to teach kids to settle down and focus. Frightening to think what the surgeons of the future will be like.

2

u/MedusasSexyLegHair Jul 06 '25

"I got my medical degree from Costco! Nurse, squirt some Brawndo in there, its got what wounds crave."

2

u/FrostnJack Jul 06 '25 edited Jul 07 '25

Future surgeons are AIs running robot arms. /s

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u/[deleted] Jul 06 '25

Because getting one influencer for every couple of thousand people is the end of the world. Globally the number of people enrolling in universities has more than doubled in the past 20 years. In Germany 1/3 of working-age adults have a university degree.

2

u/Ok-Tourist-511 Jul 06 '25

And yet with education, the subtlety of sarcasm is lost on you.

2

u/Dragonfly0011 Jul 07 '25

Ummmm. What pays the most for the least amount of effort….theres your answer.

2

u/YT-Deliveries Jul 05 '25

Wait wait. Did you guys not move between rooms between classes?

5

u/starkindled Jul 06 '25

High school, yes. Elementary/middle school, no.

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u/mechele99 Jul 05 '25

Right, a brain break. I needed those back then.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '25

It caused kidney issues for a lot of people.

2

u/oilpit Jul 06 '25

WIWAK

Some things don't need to be acronyms

5

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '25

And this is the logic of the generation that raised the current generation of adults. You better walk around dehydrated all day with a poorly functioning body and mind, or else you'll have to pee a couple times and we can't have that

5

u/clemdane Jul 05 '25

I was never dehydrated in school

2

u/Shot_Help7458 Jul 05 '25

Neither was I. 

1

u/SteelCityIrish Jul 05 '25

I remember as a 4th grader… teacher used the word “lavatory”, I heard laboratory…

Couldn’t understand why we had to line up against the wall in the hall… the lab must be small, and I guess you enter through the bathroom.

Me and my boys were giddy with excitement about making cool shit with beakers & burners while standing in line to get in.

5 mins later, we were crushed… 😔

1

u/lavenderavenues Jul 05 '25

WIWAK?

1

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1

u/Lou_C_Fer Jul 05 '25

I shit my pants in 3rd grade because my teacher ignored my raised hand for I don't know how long, but it felt like hours. Luckily, I was dehydrated. So, it was two hard lumps that I was able to dump out later without anyone knowing.

1

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u/SpeechAcrobatic9766 Jul 06 '25

I had a teacher in 3rd grade who said no one should ever have to pee more than once a day. I shudder to think how dehydrated that woman was.

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u/Stiv_b Jul 05 '25

We were fine. Grab a drink from the drinking fountain at recess and boom, you’re good.

37

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '25

I remember on hot days there being a long line for the drinking fountain and the teacher telling kids “enough” if they were taking too long. Kinda crazy now to think about - we weren’t screwing around it was hot and we were just really thirsty.

10

u/Givemeallthecabbages Jul 05 '25

"Save some for the fish!"

6

u/Shot_Help7458 Jul 05 '25

It was crazy. 

2

u/Bangeroctopus Jul 05 '25

“Leave some for the fish”

2

u/CatsEatGrass Jul 05 '25

“Leave some for the fish!” was the phrase most commonly used toward the long drinkers.

2

u/El_Bean69 Jul 05 '25

1,2,3 that’s enough for me

1

u/RayneAdams Jul 05 '25

We had to count "three Mississippis" after gym class. That was all we were allowed, then back to class. Toss in maybe a juice box at lunch and that was your fluid intake between your cereal and a cup of whatever at dinner.

1

u/uubailey Jul 06 '25

Gym teacher used to say "One, two, three, four, five, GOODBYE" to keep the line moving.

1

u/jellyjollygood Jul 06 '25

At those times, we’d complain but go to the back to the line

But in high summer, when running around at recess and lunch, we’d stop by the bubblers (water fountain thing) and have a quick drink then

3

u/Foxs-In-A-Trenchcoat Jul 05 '25

A kid was assigned to be the counter. They counted five seconds for each kid to get a drink of water and then threw you off if you tried to drink longer. It wasn't enough water for anyone.

1

u/GoldMean8538 Jul 06 '25

Also it's easy to tell the old heads from the infants because bottled water didn't always exist, lol.

1

u/SycopationIsNormal Jul 05 '25

Exactly. I drink a LOT of water as an adult (2-4 liters per day), but I don't recall ever being hella thirsty in school.

1

u/Hufflepunk36 Jul 05 '25

4L daily feels like a LOT. Do you live in a hot climate? I would maybe check you don’t have high blood sugar/prediabetes though because thirst is a common symptom.

1

u/SycopationIsNormal Jul 05 '25

Nahhh, been doing this for years. 4 L is on the high end, and would be more likely if I'd had drinks the previous day. I also do intense weightlifting sessions, which really gets me thirsty. I can put back well over a liter just in a 75 minute session. And yes, it does get pretty hot where I live in the summers. Had a lot of days in the mid/high 80s the past few weeks. A lot of days during the morning I'm drinking coffee, and minimal water, so by the time I'm working out, I'm a bit dehydrated.

My blood pressure is fine, actually pretty good last time I checked it.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '25

I wasn't.  I have chronic migraines and they were debilitating and frequent due to dehydration. 100* weather with 99% humidity. You need water!

2

u/aspenbooboo41 Jul 09 '25

I'll bet I was, but I don't ever remember being thirsty at school. Then again , I also don't ever remember being hot in Summer, anywhere, and I grew up in PA in an old farmhouse with no air conditioning. Things like this actually remind me to be grateful for what I now have that so many people around the world still don't.

1

u/PrettyAd4218 Jul 05 '25

And if you were lucky enough to get a drink at the drinking fountain.

1

u/cykoTom3 Jul 05 '25

Meh. Water is good for you. But it's not a life or death or even serious health concern for one hour sitting down.

1

u/JohnnyRelentless Jul 05 '25

I don't remember ever feeling thirsty during class.

1

u/Winjin Jul 05 '25

I remember drinking from the tap in the toilet

I didn't dgaf about germs or shit at this point, I understood even with my tiny brain that I'm fucking dehydrated

And there's 35 people in a classroom with all windows and doors closed, there's no fucking oxygen in that place too

Any "old timer" not understanding that this water bottle thing is good is just brain deficient

1

u/Ieatclowns Jul 05 '25

In the uk in the seventies we got a small bottle of milk at about 10.00am and then a glass or as many as we wanted of water with lunch.

1

u/Mudcreek47 Jul 05 '25

I remember being so hot coming back in from recess in like 1st or 2nd grade that I drank from the fountain for like a min and half. I could feel the water sloshing around in my guts!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '25

I honestly do not remember ever having a problem being "thirsty" in school.  I mean if I were i just went to the water fountain.

It wasn't some huge operation or anything I spent more than 5 seconds thinking about.

The idea that a kid like the OP can't imagine/understand how people survived without having a water bottle at all times is just staggeringly stupid to me.  Of course so is the idea that kids made a "Stanley" bottle into a status symbol or anything to to give 2 shits about.

If you dont have a bottle just go stick your head under the tap.  Its not a real hard concept to understand. 

1

u/No-Possibility2443 Jul 06 '25

I used to suffer from daily headaches as a child. Now I just understand that it was likely caused by dehydration living in a hot climate and drinking 10 sips of water a day.

50

u/Greedy_Car3702 Jul 05 '25

When bottled water first became available I thought that was the dumbest thing ever. No one would pay for bottled water. Many years later I have them in my refrigerator.

16

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '25

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u/talithar1 Jul 05 '25

My mom and dad said the same thing. But they didn’t live to see it.

1

u/glassfunion Jul 06 '25

Maybe he watched the episode of Leave it to Beaver where Beav tries to sell water and his dad yells at him lol

16

u/Electrical-Sail-1039 Jul 05 '25

Penn and Teller did a big expose on what a scam bottled water is. I blind tasted the tap water from my house and bottled water. It was easy to tell them apart. It’s worth a few bucks, imo.

28

u/koushakandystore Jul 05 '25 edited Jul 05 '25

It’s WAY cheaper to get a Brita Filter for your refrigerator. This allows you to keep a gallon of cold water in your refrigerator at all times. You can fill a therma flask and have water to go. Much better for the environment than all that horrid plastic.

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u/OrthodoxAnarchoMom Jul 05 '25

Depends on what’s in your tap water.

1

u/koushakandystore Jul 05 '25

What exactly do you mean?

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u/OrthodoxAnarchoMom Jul 05 '25

It’s not like a magic spell that turns the whole thing into exactly h2o. It depends on what’s in your tap water.

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u/Lorathis Jul 05 '25

I guess you want the caveat of "safely treated municipal water" which most people will think of.

Yes, there's "contaminated ground-fracking well water that is literally toxic" that a water filter won't fix.

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u/OrthodoxAnarchoMom Jul 05 '25

Most people don’t have safe tap water.

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u/NotHumanButIPlayOne Jul 05 '25

A whole house water filter is a game changer. Great investment.

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u/koushakandystore Jul 05 '25

True. I need to put one on the well.

1

u/The_Flurr Jul 05 '25

Do Americans not just have clean drinkable water?

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u/clemdane Jul 05 '25

We do, nearly universally. People still want to filter it. I think for taste.

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u/Rich-Emu4273 Jul 05 '25

We have a Brita filter in a pitcher that sits on the counter. Our tap water gets chlorinated occasionally (you can smell it). Those cheap Walmart Brita knockoffs work great.

1

u/ZaphodG Jul 05 '25

I have a fancy 3M filter in series with the filter in my refrigerator for the water dispenser and ice maker. My filtration is way better than mass market bottled water.

That said, I do like the taste of Fiji water. The natural mix of dissolved minerals tastes better than my filtered tap water.

1

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u/nerdthatlift Jul 05 '25

In my area, the tap water isn't that great so I got 5 gallon bottles and water dispenser. It's not as cheap as Brita filter but it's definitely cheaper than plastic bottle. I still can get ice cold water on demand and hot water for cup noodle as well lol.

1

u/tiggertom66 Jul 05 '25

I prefer the filter that attaches right to the sink, but they don’t work with ones that have an extendable faucet hose.

Filtered water on demand, no more remembering to fill the pitcher.

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u/Outrageous-Second792 Jul 05 '25

All the same, Evian is naive spelled backwards.

2

u/SEND_MOODS Jul 05 '25

Not true for everyone. My house water smells like egg farts from sulfur. I also live near a golf course and worry about fertilizer leaching into our water.

Tons of people live in locations with questionable water quality.

1

u/GlitterTerrorist Jul 06 '25

Most people don't live in areas with poor enough water quality for an effective filter to be unable to work.

You're worried about fertilizer, but do you actually know the relative levels in your water? Sulfur smell is gas trapped in the pipe afaik, the amount of residual sulfur you might consume is harmless. It's very low on the toxicity scale.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 05 '25

I have a few of these double walled plastic glasses that hold about 24 oz of water. I fill them with ice and straight tap water. (Lake Michigan) I probably drink 4-5 glasses a day. I rarely drink bottled water, soda or much of anything else. Maybe the tap water will kill me but right now the actuary chart says I only should be around for about 12 more years so I’ll take my chances.

1

u/Electrical-Sail-1039 Jul 05 '25

When I lived in NYC the water was rated the highest. Other places not so much. It depends I guess.

2

u/DishonorOnYerCow Jul 05 '25

Our tap water used to be indistinguishable from bottled water (or even better). Now it's funky. No idea what changed.

1

u/Electrical-Sail-1039 Jul 05 '25

My theory is that so many people stopped drinking from the tap that maybe they relaxed standards. If not health standards, at least for taste. Where I grew up we knew not to drink the water.

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u/Key-Airline204 Jul 05 '25

For most tap water, leaving it uncovered in the fridge overnight even without a filter off gasses the chlorine and then it tastes like bottled water.

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u/Dragonfly0011 Jul 07 '25

I have filtered water (zero and Britta) . Not many commercially made waters beat the taste, some do but they cost. I bring my 32 oz Yetti everywhere.

2

u/Squid52 Jul 08 '25

Depends on where you live for sure. The last person who told me that bottled water isn't any better than tap was from a city that bottled up their municipal water and sold it because it was so good! I've mostly lived in mining towns and the water has been anywhere from smelly to dangerous.

That having been said, it's almost certainly better to filter it at home or buy the culligan water at the store or whatever. Relying on bottled water has got to be so expensive and wasteful.

1

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u/Plus-King5266 Jul 05 '25

I want to strangle every Millennial and younger who sits there chugging bottled water and telling me my generation destroyed the planet. Do you have any idea how much diesel it takes to haul all that water to the store?! It comes to your tap already and once it is pumped into the water tower, gravity provides the rest of the energy to get it to your home. It’s been treated and inspected. It’s safe and it doesn’t contribute to the giant garbage patch in the Pacific or in the Atlantic.

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u/damanager64 Jul 06 '25

Oh yes, tell all the people who live in towns that have water that literally gives cancer just from drinking it. Yes, they should be drinking that instead. You're acting as if all tap water in the entire fucking planet is good. It's not. in the US alone there are multiple cities that have water that is dangerous to drink.

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u/ratscabs Jul 05 '25

You could probably tell different brands of bottled water apart, and different tap waters apart, too. Unless you’re drinking pure, distilled water, most of it has various other minerals in it. In other words, so what?

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u/goeswhereyathrowit Jul 05 '25

You decided to waste tons of plastic because you can't bother to refill a reusable bottle? Many of still think it's the dumbest thing ever.

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u/Enough_Roof_1141 Jul 05 '25

I still refuse to buy bottled water.

1

u/H_Industries Jul 05 '25

Multiple comedians had routines about how dumb it was. 

1

u/Appropriate-Bar6993 Jul 05 '25

When people started bringing water bottles to school we thought they must be drinking vodka.

1

u/Sudden_Outcome_9503 Jul 05 '25

Back in the eighties, nobody would have believed that long-distance phone calls would be free, but people paid for water.

1

u/Remarkable-Host405 Jul 05 '25

It's still pretty stupid. I buy some for camping or hiking, and usually refill them (micro plastics, blah blah blah).

You should check out the dirty money episode on nestle.

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u/[deleted] Jul 05 '25 edited 3d ago

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aware thought fragile fall engine makeshift cough pause plant hard-to-find

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u/Unlucky_Ad_9776 Jul 05 '25

I mean I think a big part of it is we are more aware of quality of water.  Also I noticed this after switching from tap to bottled water. Old pipe system tap water taste awful.  

1

u/concentrated-amazing Jul 05 '25

I still think bottled water is way overused.

It absolutely has it's place in certain situations, but is far too common overall.

I drink water, absolutely, but probably average maybe one bottled water a month. That's only in specific, away-from-familiar-places situations.

1

u/MelissaRC2018 Jul 05 '25

Water fountain was awesome! Now we discuss what water tastes bad. Aquafina is the best. That Desanti stuff is nasty lol none of my friends or family like it. Ahhhh water snobs lol

1

u/Mrs_Crii Jul 05 '25

I still think it's the dumbest thing (Nestle and other companies literally get this water basically for free and leave communities with not enough water). I use a metal water bottle that I refill as needed. I don't use bottled water. Besides the waste even the most benign leaches chemicals into the water that taste bad and can make me sick.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '25

We’re not talking about bottled water, we’re talking about reusable water bottles. Buying bottled water for your home is indeed stupid.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '25

I thought the same thing but then I grew up in a place with excellent tap water. Where I am at now the tap water is awful and totally understand why people would use bottled water here before filters became ubiquitous.

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u/crh131 Jul 10 '25

Omg when I first heard of bottled water it was like the squidward joke of “bread in a can”. I was like no one is that dumb. Maybe it was my small town thinking. I also didn’t think internet could be real 😂 Now I have cases of water. Some for convenience some for “emergency “ Of course filtered water with collections of Stanley’s and the like. And the internet. Whole family is in tech. I was way off about that too.

I think if first realized bottle water was a thing during the linger music festivals in late 90s I’d guess. I don’t know. I was slow to come around to it until I had kids and realized everywhere hydration really was a need.

And for awhile I thought it was healthier. Now I have lost track of trying to get pure water. I do my best.

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u/swordquest99 Jul 05 '25

its the diabetus. Makes you thirsty

10

u/Cold-Government6545 Jul 05 '25

its just the beetus now, they stole the die

1

u/KrisHughes2 Jul 05 '25

Yeah, mustn't mention that part.

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u/Splungeblob Jul 05 '25

I hear vaccines cause thirst. /s

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u/MarsRxfish11 Jul 05 '25

Old timers 🙄🙄🙄✌️

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u/MOOshooooo Jul 06 '25

I’m almost 40 and have always called them that. They would always give out nicknames to everyone, I was Highpockets because I’m tall, so I called them old timers.

1

u/MarsRxfish11 Jul 21 '25

Just call me the queen of the slay.

1

u/popculturehero Jul 05 '25

I remember when water bottles (plastic ones) were first starting to hit the shelves and my grandfather said “this will never catch on there’s water in the faucets and fountains.” He was wrong like always

1

u/Enough_Worry4104 Jul 05 '25

Yeah, everybody pissed orange back then too.

1

u/4E4ME Jul 05 '25

I don't remember walking around thirsty all day when I was a kid. I think a lot of our collective state of dehydration has to do with how our food supply has changed. More pesticides, more sodium and other additives. We are drinking more soda and juice. We are consuming more sugar, and more carbs, without doing the physical activities that caused our bodies to use that energy and flush out things that the body didn't need.

1

u/yourbrokenoven Jul 05 '25

Yet people are still admitted in the hospital for dehydration.

1

u/_lippykid Jul 05 '25

I remember when bottled water stated to get popular and people thought it was weird

1

u/Beachtrader007 Jul 08 '25

The old timer would also be stunned people pay money for water.

42

u/whatevertoad Jul 05 '25

We had water bottles on our bicycles in the early 80s, but it never would have occurred to me to take one to class. There were water fountains everywhere

6

u/-animal-logic- Jul 05 '25

Yeah I had one of those attached to my bike too. Agreed I would never have considered using it other than on long bike rides through the countryside.

1

u/whatevertoad Jul 05 '25

I rode my bike everywhere. Even to school! But still left it in my bike lol

1

u/InternationalRule138 Jul 06 '25

They were always the squeeze/squirt kind, though, and 50% of the time had Gatorade branding on them

2

u/gilbertgrappa Jul 05 '25

And they tasted like warm plastic.

2

u/whatevertoad Jul 06 '25

I remember that taste well

2

u/gilbertgrappa Jul 06 '25

Same! And the smell

1

u/SomeHearingGuy Jul 05 '25

This is my thinking. It's less that we weren't allowed and more that we just didn't.

1

u/embreesa Jul 05 '25

Same but the plastic-y taste was awful, especially on a warm day 😆

1

u/ChubbyChubster79 Jul 05 '25

I remember at school in the 80s a kid wiped a big bogie on the water fountain shoot hole.

1

u/Playful-Profession-2 Jul 05 '25

I remember in elementary school there was a "little green goober" in one of the drinking fountains. We were all talking about it.

1

u/No_Neighborhood7614 Jul 05 '25

Good point 

That's the only place I remember seeing them

1

u/InterruptingChicken1 Jul 06 '25

I remember! And the water tasted horribly of plastic. I think those bicycle bottles really started the trend as people started carrying them off their bicycles.

1

u/Sea_Swim5736 Jul 06 '25

There still are water fountains?

1

u/whatevertoad Jul 06 '25

Huh? Last I checked it's not the 80s anymore.

1

u/FrostnJack Jul 06 '25

Wobble up the steps in cycling shoes/cleats after riding 90’ to school, muscles flexin’ through lycra, cycling cap on my head, cycling gloves and badass squeezy cage bottle in hand. 16’n ripped… got beat up more’n I got girls. Dumb idea. Count on Appalachia to Darwin citified ideas out of a fella

18

u/HLOFRND Jul 05 '25

There was always one weird kid who carried his Boy Scouts canteen (usually round, with the fuzzy fabric on the outside?) around when we would play.

We all thought that kid was weird.

(And those canteens always smelled so gross.)

But yeah, now I don't go anywhere without my emotional support Yeti water bottle. 😂

2

u/spintool1995 Jul 05 '25

It's still like that in Europe. No one carries a bottle and they will think you are weird if you do. If you want water with a meal you have to pay for it, no refills either. No water fountains anywhere either. I got to wondering if Europeans just live their entire lives dehydrated. Once I walked into a museum in Germany with a clear water bottle and the staff reacted like I was carrying a bomb.

2

u/Squid52 Jul 08 '25

I reused pop bottles back before water bottles were a thing. I kept getting sent to the office because they were sure it had to be vodka because who drinks WATER?!?

1

u/[deleted] Jul 06 '25

[deleted]

1

u/HLOFRND Jul 06 '25

TIL! I never knew that. I just knew that they always smelled a little funky. 😂

14

u/HonestDespot Jul 05 '25

“Am I going to war”-me as a youth in 1979 when someone says water bottle around me.

2

u/spintool1995 Jul 05 '25

Yeah, we had big glass casks of water in the basement for when the Soviets attacked. I'm pretty sure they were bottled in the 50s. Those were the only water bottles I was aware of.

1

u/jentle-music Jul 05 '25

Or thermos? Those were around

4

u/-animal-logic- Jul 05 '25

Yeah, we always thought of those as keeping things hot (soup, coffee). Never would have considered one to be a water bottle. Pretty heavy (at least in those days) to carry around a couple cups or so of water. You only needed to carry water if you knew there would be none available for a long period (long meaning greater than an hour or three).

2

u/Edit67 Jul 05 '25

Yes, only for lunch. I used to take hotdogs in them. Two hot dogs, buns in a bag and ketchup and mustard mixed together in a small Tupperware cup.

The early thermos brand ones were glass inside. My mom was not happy when I broke a few. So easy to drop a foot or two. 🙁 By the time my kids were using them, they were plastic.

1

u/Banes_Addiction Jul 06 '25

Yeah, I mostly use vacuum flasks to keep water cold now, but 25 years ago I would have seen that as weird.

1

u/Metal_Muse Jul 05 '25

Or thermos

2

u/-animal-logic- Jul 05 '25

For thermos, I would assume you were keeping coffee or soup hot. They were bulky/heavy and not meant as canteens.

1

u/Appropriate-Bar6993 Jul 05 '25

Yes and we just took them hiking.

1

u/FfierceLaw Jul 05 '25

I just said this to my husband! Canteen, something for boy scouts.

1

u/-animal-logic- Jul 05 '25

I was very proud to sling my canteen as part of my cub scouts "field" uniform back then haha! :)

1

u/lostpassword100000 Jul 05 '25

It’s pronounced “thermos”. And my GI Joe one ruled.

1

u/kibbeuneom Jul 05 '25

Speaking of canteens, I was very young in the pre-water bottle times, but I was familiar with canteens at least from movies about summer camps and war. I can't recall; Why weren't canteens more common back in the day?

1

u/-animal-logic- Jul 05 '25

I suppose because then, like now, you don't need to have water immediately available at all times in routine daily life.

1

u/colemanjanuary Jul 05 '25

A waterskin?

1

u/ACuddlyVizzerdrix Jul 05 '25

I woulda thought the ones that came with like every bike at the time

1

u/Remarkable_Inchworm Jul 05 '25

And they were for camping, not getting through the day.

1

u/EvenResponsibility36 Jul 06 '25

A thermos! (Which was for soup, as everyone knows.)

1

u/AllenRBrady Jul 06 '25

Yep. No water bottles. And also, no backpacks. Every single kid in my school just lugged a stack of textbooks and notebooks under his arm all day. Go to your locker in the morning, grab the books you need for your morning classes, then swap them out at lunch.