Ugh for sure. I didn’t even realize it until it was called out, but that episode also has no background music. It’s a subtle change but it makes everything so much more real and unnerving. Just thinking about that episode is making me cry now!

was the norm

In the US, it was only banned from being sold in 1996, but it wasn’t the norm for long before that. The last model year that leaded gas was allowed for cars was 1974. Yes, all Boomers and most of Gen X would have had high exposure, but it would have been fading out by the time younger Gen Xers were born.

And yes there are some non-car applications of it that are still legal to this day, but the overall frequency of it would have dropped a ton well before the mid-90s. (Source, and actual graphs of the decline over time)