Remember when???

patrickray

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Feb 15, 2008
Messages
256
Those Born 1920-1979



TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!


First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.


They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.


Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.


We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.


As infants &children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.


Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.


We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.


We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.


We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because,

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!


We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.


No one was able to reach us a ll day. And we were O.K.


We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.


We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computer! , no Internet or chat rooms.......

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!


We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.


We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.


We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!


Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!


The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!


If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.


Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:

'With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'

For those that prefer to think that God is not watching over us...go ahead and delete this.

For the rest of us...pass this ON!
 

SS MAYFLOAT

Admiral
Joined
May 17, 2001
Messages
6,372
Re: Remember when???

Ahhhh, those wonderful memories :D

I do remember getting my arse beat with bystanders applauding my parent instead of calling childrens services. Heck, I've even had my butt busted by my neighbor with my parents full consent. Consequencies are not taught anymore for bad behavior.

I feel as if I'm a lucky one. Had both my parents in the same house until they both passed away. It is hard to find people anymore who had both parents at home while growing up.
 

JB

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Mar 25, 2001
Messages
45,907
Re: Remember when???

There are a few more things worth remembering.

My Mom started preparing dinner mid-morning. She had no frozen food, much less frozen dinners. She killed a chicken, plucked and drew it, then put it in the ICEBOX (not fridge). Then she started shucking corn and shelling peas. Bake some bread and a cake, made from scratch.

If she had time she was making preserves or canning veggies for the winter. Then feed the pig and the chickens and weed the garden. If there was time left she sewed up my torn Levis and darned my holed socks.

We had roasted chicken and fresh veggies for dinner, and it was considered a major feast.

She washed the dishes by hand, put the garbage in a can which we fed to the pig, swept floors with a broom, then mopped.

Her big luxury was an Easy Spindryer washing machine. She hung the finished laundry out on a line. When it was dry she ironed most of it. The electric iron was another labor saving luxury.

Milk, ice, coal and groceries were delivered to the house. The house was heated by a coal furnace that needed regular attention at 4:00 AM and cooled by an attic fan. The electric water heater was a luxury. I had to take a bath at least once a week, usually Saturday night, unless I had been swimming. :)

This was lower middle class living in the 30s and 40s. Upper middle class usually had a live-in maid to do, or help with, much of the above.
 

jameskb2

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jul 26, 2007
Messages
191
Re: Remember when???

Amazing how far we've "come" in just 60 years eh JB?

My wife and I talk about this with our kids all the time. We get the usual eye rolling response.

My wife's grandparents owned a slaughter house their whole life. There's some interesting stories! Made sausage by hand, I've seen pics of meat hanging. Her father worked there for a long time, until they died. They never did "retire", just worked every day.

He moved on to become a federal meat inspector.

I was born in '63, just at the time of the big appliance surge. Electric everything, but no place to plug it in. You ever see "A Christmas Story"? Who hasn't right? The part where he plugs the tree in to a socket with all those splitters cracks me up every time. We had things like that in our house. I knew how to change a fuse on our 60 amp service before I was 10!

Sometimes, I wish we could go back to that era. Life sure was simpler then. Didn't need to lock the door to your house, everyone looked out for everyone else's kids, a decent toy (just ONE) under the tree was a big deal... Boots and a new coat were the usual Christmas gift. If you had a new bike, you were "it" for the whole summer!

We played and "made" most things. The town junk pile was to be visited on Saturday to find "parts". Sounds pathetic perhaps, but man we had lot's of fun, and learned how to make do and make work anything and everything.

Good memories.
 
D

DJ

Guest
Re: Remember when???

-We "lived" outside. We slept outside, in a tent, whenever we could.

-We built forts and scrounged stuff for all kinds of things to ride on.

-Baseball, football, basketball, hockey (NO soccer).

-We fished, we hunted, we explored.

-We walked to school.

-We came home for dinner and were back outside until the streetlights came on.

-We knew EVERY neighbor and we knew they knew our parents.

-Our house was never locked, neither was the neighbors.

-We were fortunate to grow up in that atmosphere.
 

puddle jumper

Captain
Joined
Jul 5, 2006
Messages
3,830
Re: Remember when???

You know i grew up like that and loved it. One thing that i think needs to happen is mom has to stay home and not work. Sure the wife can work when the kids are grown up but not till then. This is one thing that i think is destroying our family unit. I think our kids are growing up too independent of there parents. We depend on daycare and after school programs way to much. Kids that stay home and do nothing but play video game and watch TV are the good kids becouse thay never get into trouble.
Just my two cents
 

puddle jumper

Captain
Joined
Jul 5, 2006
Messages
3,830
Re: Remember when???

One last thing that every kid in my neighborhood new when the weekend was over was when the Disney show came on at pm6:00 Sunday. It was like law or something every one ran home and watched Disney and got ready for school on Monday.
 

oops!

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Oct 18, 2007
Messages
12,932
Re: Remember when???

One last thing that every kid in my neighborhood new when the weekend was over was when the Disney show came on at pm6:00 Sunday. It was like law or something every one ran home and watched Disney and got ready for school on Monday.

the whole family did that ...all togeather...every weekend.....

i wonder if a play station age child would think of making a working crossbow out of a 2x4 and a knife.....or a bow and arrow out of a branch and some string

i wonder if small town sleepy america is the only place where that stuff is even partially existant any more.........

could you guys imagine........getting a ride to school ???????
 

jameskb2

Petty Officer 2nd Class
Joined
Jul 26, 2007
Messages
191
Re: Remember when???

Heck yeah! I ran a trap line from age 13 to age 18 for Christmas money. There was a pond near our house, got permission to use an Oooold 10' jon boat and pushed it with a maple tree "pole". Bought chest waders after the first year, ran on ice, sometimes thin, would fall through.

Tent in the summer you bet! Almost all summer, fire pit and root beer. This was at our second house, dad moved up a bit.

Still didn't lock the house.

Oh and Disney? LOL! How could I forget that? Same here! We'd be in and PJ'd and ready for Disney. Got a single scoop sundae in a bowl when watching. I'm the oldest of 4 kids, we'd all be sitting there glued to the set. Yes, we did have color by then. ('75 in the new house)

Remember Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom? Sheesh, watched that too forever. One of my dad's favorites, that, and Columbo.

Geeze, I'm getting old and sentimental. I can't imagine the world when my kids are my age and looking back remembering "the good old days". Probably a cashless society by then, you get scanned where ever you go, and there's a camera everywhere.

Who knows....
 

SS MAYFLOAT

Admiral
Joined
May 17, 2001
Messages
6,372
Re: Remember when???

I remember when there were so many choices for what you could buy with just 1 penny. Then if you had a nickle, oh boy you could get a lot of stuff.

Dad died in the early 80's and joked that he could remember when the cops would make sure you made it home after drinking to much instead of arresting you.

Won't be long when I can set my grand kids on my knee and tell them the time when a person could smoke a cigarette in public.

I also remember that chewing on a lead based paint chip would take the bad taste out of my mouth from my sisters cooking!

I wonder if our children will be telling their grandkids about when cars ran on gasoline?
 

Windykid

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Apr 17, 2007
Messages
1,177
Re: Remember when???

rotory telephones

non disposeable diapers

string and cambell soup cans

home made sling shot

little house on the prairie

Black sheep squadron

hogans heros

outboard motor that was always in foward all the time.

skipping rocks

burning ants with magnify glass

saying helo when a mail man came by

glass milk juggs

stick ball

king of the mountain

home made fishing poles

cap guns

roller skates with a skate key
 

kenmyfam

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Aug 10, 2006
Messages
14,392
Re: Remember when???

Those sure were the days eh !!!!!!
And we all did alright with our lives did we not !!!!
And a good clip around the ear or a severe telling off from a police officer put you back on track in a heartbeat !!!! never to be repeated again !!!!
 

arboldt

Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Aug 25, 2007
Messages
417
Re: Remember when???

OK...

Lassie
Rin-Tin-Tin
Sky King
My Friend Flicka
Wagon Train

And hearing the fire siren each noon
Watching fireflies in the vacant meadow across the street
Riding my bike 4 miles across town to the library or pool
Playing kick the can after dark on summer nights
Being able to look at stars from my front yard -- and maybe even see Sputnik or Echo I as they orbited

Knowing which stations would usually have regular gas for 19c/gallon
 

JB

Honorary Moderator Emeritus
Joined
Mar 25, 2001
Messages
45,907
Re: Remember when???

Saturday double feature at the movie house was $.07, nickel for a big box of popcorn and another nickel for a 6oz. Coke. Still had $.08 left from my allowance.

Sunday nights it was The Jack Benny Show, followed by Fred Allen, then Phil Harris. Any one remember The Great Gildersleeve?

Manning the Red Cross booth at the train station (with my Mom) giving out coffee and doughnuts to guys in uniform. Updating the war maps in my bedroom to show the new battle lines and major battles. Mom was dating Gen. Jim Gavin from the 82nd Airborne for a while. One heck of a soldier but also a real jerk.

The 101st Airborne troopers on maneuvers dug foxholes in our back yard. We traded them hot coffee and sandwiches for chocolate. My older sister made friends with a squad and was madly in love with a Sergeant from Texas. The whole squad was killed at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.

Mom was the sponsor and got to christen the Destroyer Braine, DD630, named after her grandfather.

What sort of memories like these do modern youngsters have to shape their character? There must be some.
 
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