The attractive young woman had a dog on a lead and she waited patiently while it crouched and did what dogs do. Then she bent down and picked up its business in a plastic bag.

This is now seen as normal behaviour but can you imagine the reaction if you recounted the story in the pub 50 years ago?

“And then she did what?

She picked it up? Oh my God.”

It would have been unthinkable to clear up after your mutt. Dog dirt in the street was normal, you just had to be careful where you stepped. If you had picked it up and taken it home people would have sent for men in white coats, put you in a straitjacket and a psychiatrist might have enquired: “Now tell me, how long have you had this obsession with poo?”

These days, leaving your dog poo behind is simply not done and has been an offence in the UK since 1996.

The only dog owners who are exempt are the registered blind. For which I am sure they are truly thankful.

Most dog walkers –from Catherine Zeta Jones to Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge scoop the poop.

There is always a minority who don’t, of course, and dog mess is still one of the most common causes of complaints to local councils.

What is socially acceptable behaviour has changed over the years.

Spitting used to be commonplace by both men and women centuries ago.

Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary a visit to the theatre in 1661: “Here I, sitting behind in a dark place, a lady spit backward upon me by a mistake, not seeing me, but after seeing her to be a very pretty lady I was not troubled at it at all.”

Which is nice.

In the 1950s buses had No Spitting signs but that was mainly to combat TB. Mind you, they should have similar signs on lamp posts today because too many blokes still spit in the street despite it being unhygienic and a disgusting habit.

Use a handkerchief or a tissue – it’s called being considerate to others.

One of the greatest changes in attitude in modern time has been towards smoking. It is now taboo to smoke in public, which is of obvious benefit.

There will be those who can remember when everyone smoked in the cinema and you watched the big picture through a haze of fumes. How healthy was that?

And going upstairs on the bus was entering a smog zone and the ceilings of pubs had to be repainted regularly because of brown stains left by the nicotine.

Farting in public has never been acceptable in Britain although the word is one of the oldest in the English language and wasn’t considered vulgar until the beginning of the 20th century. One of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales was about it and today there are children’s books on the subject.

It was, however, socially acceptable in Ancient Rome when the Emperor Claudius thought it bad for the health to hold it in and passed a law making it acceptable to break wind at banquets.

The Arab and Hindu cultures considered it an act of purification, the Inuit people of Canada use it as a sign of appreciation after a meal and a tribe in South America apparently fart as a greeting.

Thankfully, it is not socially acceptable in this country, although there have been misunderstandings reported:

“I say! How dare you break wind in front of my wife?”

“Sorry, old chap. I didn’t realise it was her turn.”