In the USSR, hundreds and even thousands of people could drink soda from one glass in a vending machine. I drank it, rinsed it, put it back.
All those who are in the subject remember that even those who think for three very rarely encroached on such a public property as a faceted glass.
In the USSR, among teenagers it was in the order of things to pick up cigarette butts. If the goby was with a filter, then the filter was either torn off or singed for "hygiene" purposes. Cigarette butts without a filter were either smoked just like that, or their tobacco was stuffed into self-made elderberry pipes. Particularly advanced comrades used mouthpieces for such purposes.
We spent most of our free time outdoors. These were parks, primitive sports grounds, rivers and lakes. There were no ticks in the forests. One could safely drink water from the streams. The lakes were not closed for epidemiological reasons; in villages, up until the early eighties, children could run barefoot. Broken glass on the streets was a rarity, because all bottles were returned.
We drank water from the tap. And in the largest city and in the most distant collective farm. Sanitary standards in that era were such that Escherichia coli, hepatitis bacilli or some other nasty thing did not take root in the water supply system.
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It's scary to think, but in cooking, the saleswoman served a pie or cake with her hands. Bread, sausage, and any other products were served by hand. Nobody bothered about gloves.
I don’t know how anyone, but we spent one or two shifts in the pioneer camp, without fail. It was considered good luck to go somewhere to the resort, the main camps were an hour's drive from home. But it was always fun and interesting there. I don’t remember a single camp where I didn’t like it.
Since there was absolutely nothing to watch on TV, it was used a couple of times a week on Saturday and Sunday, plus in the evenings, if there was a series "about Stirlitz".
In the USSR, there were teenagers who did not read books, but there were very few of them. School, environment and free time encouraged us to read.
We didn't have computers, so all our games took place in the courtyard. Usually a crowd of different ages of boys and girls gathered, games were invented on the go. They were simple and not intricate, but the main factor in them was communication. Through games, we became aware of patterns of behavior in society. Behavior was assessed not by words, or even by actions, but by their motives. Mistakes were always forgiven, meanness and betrayal, never.
Have we talked about politics? Were you fooled by Soviet propaganda? Have you suffered from a bloody regime? No no no. We did not give a damn about all this in our 12-14 years. I only remember that each of us looked into the future with undisguised optimism. And those who wanted to serve in the army, and those who decided to become drivers and workers, and those who were going to enter technical schools and institutes.
We knew that for each of us there is a place in the sun …
