16 people share a major high school memory that could never happen today.

While high school isn't always 'the best four years of your life' as nostalgic tipsy aunts love to tell their teenage nieces and nephews, the experience can usually can conjure up one or two hilarious or bizarre core life memories...

As the times change, though, it can be hard to connect with younger generations who document their entire school day to TikTok while Millennials used to end friendships in the cafeteria over their MySpace Top 8. So, when a Reddit user asked, 'What is something you remember happening in school that could NEVER happen today?' people were ready to share today's most impossible moments. No, you definitely can't smoke cigarettes in gym class anymore, grandpa.

1.

On the last day of school in Grade 9 - last day of junior high - my friends and I took our principal 'hostage' with water bombs and squirt guns. We tied him to an office chair with an electrical cord and wheeled him up and down the halls.

We called the school board and demanded ransom of ice cream sandwiches. After two hours of this, they gave in and we got our sandwiches. We released the principal - I think he got an ice cream, too.

It was all in good fun. We were the 'good kids', and everyone including the principal was laughing along with us. But this was 1985. - cw7585

2.

My father told me how they would settle fights in his high school. He graduated in '77. He told me that if two guys were fighting, the coaches would take them to the gym, give them boxing gloves, and let them fight it out.

The winner got 1 pop (lick, hit, ect), the loser got 2. That's how they let them get their aggression out and they still both got punished. This is Texas in the 70's mind you. - [deleted]

3.

R.I.P wooden playgrounds. We all miss you. Plastic playgrounds are just not the same. - BeccaAnn

4.

In Kindergarten we had 'free time' in the class room where we were allowed to play with various activities around. Most activities were fairly benign, except for the woodworking bench.

This was a bench with a bunch of a scrap wood, saws, hammers, etc. Everything you'd need to make a book shelf really, all put into the hands of a 5 year old. - vanheldenma

5.

Be given peanut butter cups as a reward. My sister is 7 years younger than me and in elementary school kids who brought peanut butter to lunch had to sit at a separate table to prevent kids with peanut allergies from having a reaction. - FogWalkerWithaBag

6.

They made us do P.E in our underwear, in a mixed gender class...as if I didn't hate P.E enough already - letmeonreddit

7.

In elementary school in the early, early 1980s, if you misbehaved, you had to put your name on the chalkboard in a special place. Misbehavior subsequent times made you put one or more check marks next to your name.

Get two or more checks next to your name, and you had to 'stand on the line' at recess -- which entailed, as the name implies, standing pretty much motionless on a line for up to 45 minutes, watching the other kids play.

Bear in mind this is in southern Texas, where 8 out of the 9 months of school are done in 90+ degree weather. Also bear in mind that this is around the time that parachute pants were popular. For those not in the know, parachute pants are pants made of parachute material -- you know, virtually airtight and made of plastic.

So, we have misbehaving children forced to stand in the 90+ degree weather, under an ever-shining sun, slowly asphyxiating their lower body, and you weren't allowed to get a drink of water from the water fountain.

Also, the line you stood on was 5 feet from the water fountain, teasing you so as you slowly melted away starting with your legs. - DiabloConQueso

8.

The woodshop teacher smoking during class. - HypocrisyEverywhere

9.

When I went to elementary school in Asia everyone had their own pencil case and brought small box cutters to cut pieces of paper and it was never an issue with teachers.

Fast forward to high school in the U.S. I'm having trouble cutting paper, so I ask to use the box cutter on the teacher's table. Teacher proceeds to freak out and tells me that THEY have to cut it themselves for my safety. - smart_cereal

10.

My daughter and her classmates are not allowed to run during recess. At all. We used to run and play tetherball and kickball and dodgeball, etc. etc. etc.- DIGGYRULES

11.

When I was in grade school, all the older classes (think grades 7-8) would have a battle-royale at recess with every piece of sporting equipment we could get our hands on (soccer balls, footballs, basketballs, frisbees, tennis balls, you get the picture).

If you got hit, you were out, simple. People were getting hit in the face with frisbees, but everyone loved it. I'm just gonna assume kids aren't alowed to do that any more - just_one_redman

12.

In 1st grade I got in trouble for talking too much. At one point, my teacher threatened to sew my lips shut and even had me come up to her desk where she pulled out a little sewing kit and made me pick what color thread I wanted her to use. I'm 41 years old and that is one of a very few things I remember from grade school. - bardobeing

13.

When my dad was in elementary school, as a reward for being good, students were allowed to play with mercury with their bare hands. - DukeEsquire

14.

Went to a vocational high school in the 80's. In the welding shop we had a huge roll of raw asbestos paper. It was kind of like a paper towel roll, but with a more cardboard like texture.

You'd tear off a piece, soak it in water and wrap it around an area of a part to be welded to stop heat from traveling beyond the weld. The kids would throw it at each other like huge spitballs. - am336

15.

I graduated in 1994. Robin Hood was the play we did. There is this HUGE, crowded sword fight in the middle of the play that is supposed to represent the river scene from the story.

Anyway, instead of plastic or wood or whatever...we got our hands on these HUGE, heavy as f*ck, 'stage' swords that 'sparked' when they came in to contact with one another.

So there we are, 10-15 sixteen year old kids, with giant swords, swinging them wildly, and smashing them together so they would spark a lot. Someone could have died. - nataskaos

16.

South Carolina used to let 18 yo HS seniors drive school buses until about the early 1990's. - fdtc_skolar