14 Creepy Things That Were Once Considered Normal

The past is a place full of wonderful and horrifying things. Sure, some things were better in the old days, like cars and dresses, but other things deserved to be left in the past. Like waking up from a nightmare, I'm left wondering if these things really happened or if there's some messed up part of my imagination playing tricks on me. 

In these particular, unfortunate cases, they very much happened.

Be sure to COMMENT and let us know what creepy relic surprised you most!

1. Gas masks, need I say more?

Yes, they were a necessary evil and they saved lives. They were also creepy af. This little parade of nightmares was in Leningrad, 1937.

2. Ventriloquist dummies.

Lord in heaven, protect me. How were these seen as anything other than soul-sucking demons in doll form?

3. Edison's talking dolls.

They were only manufactured for six weeks, partially because the recordings didn't survive shipping, and partially because children found them terrifying. No surprise there.

4. Wildly inappropriate Valentines.

Believe it or not, this one is actually pretty tame. Most were horrifically racist and featured really bad puns.

5. Post-mortem photographs.

Because pictures were so expensive in the Victorian era, there was usually at least one dead person in most photographs. *Shivers*

6. Beauty pageants like this.

That would be the "Miss Lovely Eyes" pageant. I don't think it was meant to look like something out of a horror movie. 

7. The Utica crib.

It looks innocent enough, but it was used to restrain psychiatric patients after chaining was deemed inhumane. This one was made out of wood, but many were made of iron and patients were left to sleep in them for hours at a time.

8. Vintage "Freak Shows."

Back in the 1800s, showing off people with medical conditions as freaks was considered acceptable. Now we're able to treat them and help them lead normal lives.

9. Seances.

Contacting the dead was all the rage back in the '20s.

10. Vampire-resistant graves.

Just in case, y'know, they wake up with an insatiable thirst for human blood.

11. Sword-swallowing children.

I don't know if this was considered normal per se, but it was allowable, and that's just as bad.

12. Creepy-ass statues for your desk.

This one reaches back to the 16th century, when it was apparently appropriate to keep a statue of a rotting corpse in your medical practice. 

13. Being buried alive.

It was 100% considered creepy at the time, but it was such a real concern that graves were constructed with escape hatches! That's a pretty far stretch from the vampire graves we saw earlier.

14. Buying and selling slaves.

Yeah, remember when you could own other people? That was seriously MESSED up.

Welp.

That's enough history for today.

Were you as creeped out as I was? COMMENT and let us know which old practices surprised you most!