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In the 1930s, American students began the bizarre fad of goldfish swallowing. The practice was characterized by swallowing a live goldfish. In the 1940s, goldfish swallowing was replaced by telephone booth stuffing. In this fad, adolescents would cram themselves into telephone booths. In many cases, as many as 25 students managed to enter a standard telephone booth. Telephone booth stuffing was a great fad, but the practice was finished by 1959. Other common fads during this time in history included hunkerin’ on the balls of your feet, streaking and panty raids. In 1948, the first panty raid was carried out at Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois.
A panty raid is a prank in which a large collection of college men sneak into a women’s dormitory room and steal some of their panties. By the end of 1952, panty raids were common in American schools and the fad spread to over 52 campuses. In many cases, the women loved the attention and cheered on the men. They opened up their doors and tossed out lingerie. In response to the raid, the women would often times organize their own counterattack. Panty raids functioned as a humorous protest against curfews and restrictions that barred male visitors from women’s dormitories. By the 1970s, the implementation of mixed dorms created a decline in panty raids. The prank made a strong comeback in the middle of the 1980s with the release of the comedy film Revenge of the Nerds, which holds a classic panty raid scene.
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