for us older folks

Can't Believe You Made It? If you lived as a child in the 50's, 60's or
70's, hooray for us! Looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived
as long as we have. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts
or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a
special treat. Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored
lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or
cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention
hitchhiking to town as a young kid!) We drank water from the garden hose and
not from a bottle. Horrors.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode 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 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 all day. No cell phones. Unthinkable.
We played dodge ball and sometimes the ball would really hurt. We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth, and there were no law suits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame, but us. Remember accidents? We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it. We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda but we were never overweight...we were always outside playing. We shared one grape soda with four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X Boxes, video games at all, 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, Personal Computers, Internet chat rooms ... we had friends. We went outside and found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rung the bell or just walked in and just talked to them. Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in the cold cruel world! Without a guardian. How did we do it?
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although
we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did
the worms live inside us forever. Little League had tryouts and not
everyone made the team. Those who didn't, had to learn to deal with
disappointment. Some students weren't as smart as others so they
failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.....Horrors.
Tests were not adjusted for any reason. Our actions were our own.
Consequences were expected. No one to hide behind. The idea of a parent
bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided
with the law, imagine that! This generation has produced some of the
best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50
years has been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom,
failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it
all. And you're one of them. Congratulations! Please pass this on to
others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before lawyers and
government regulated our lives, for our own good.

what a post. while i'm not that old i remember most of that stuff. and it is so true, americans have become some of the wimpiest people on this planet. it's time to take a lesson from days gone by and bring this nation back to the good old days, when you could ride a bike without a helmet, eat worms, share your soda with your friends, and most importantly take responsibilty for your actions instead of blaming everyone else. again excellent post keep em coming.

But what if your friend has HIV???

Excellent post nyeff, do any of these thngs ring a bell?

spud guns
slinkys
army sets
ipana toothpaste
RC cola
etch-a-sketc
sting ray bikes
skate boards made from a 2x4 and an old shoe skate divided in two
nehru jackets
granny glasses
duncan yo-yos
drive-ins
going to the movies for 25 cents
39 cent hamburgers
Jerry Lewis movies
the 3 Stooges
Abbot and Costello
the 7-up little league teams

I will always remember the happiest day of my childhood as being when my mom dropped me and the kids of one of her friends off at P.O.P. (Pacific Ocean Park) in Santa Monica, California - and us kids ran riot in there all day long. We were completely free from parental controls and rode all the rides as many times as we liked. We laughed and joked and went through the glass-house so many times that we knew the way by heart. Our pockets were bursting with all the change our folks gave us and that was more then enough cause it only cost $1.99 to get in and the rides were all free. We stayed there until midnight when it closed and my mom picked us up, that was big fun for an eight year old.

Yeah, those were some good old days for sure.

Thanks for the memories,
Deep

Ice cream trucks that came around every day during the summer...

26 cents/gallon gas
25 cent comic books
60 cent paperback books
fountain pens
"Leave it to Beaver"
Shocking Elvis
"Donna Reed" (ick)
"Rocky & Bullwinkle"
love-ins
"Laugh In"

I would like to reflect on that post. Although I did not live those wonderful years in the United States, as I am only 18, I wish I could have.

The world that I am being forced into is not the one I wish I could live in. I don't want the reality that is all to real these days, the car crashes, murders, shootings, and plain and simple disrespect from todays youth. It frustrates me. Today, youth choose not to do these simple activities that you all in your later years enjoyed. They choose to do drugs and have sex, and they ask themselves why not. I wish I lived in a society where I could put those temptations aside and live a life of simple pleasures. But I can't, not here at least, that is why I shed a tear when reading that post, I will never live that life, only the one thrown at me.

I think this post is more for those that are my age rather you older folks. Speak to the younger folks on this board, tell them these is so much more to life than just the computer or television. They need some direction.

We had a thread like this before -on old TV -and it's so cruel!
FISH AND CHIPS IN NEWSPAPER
APPLES THAT TASTED OF SOMETHING
POSTAL ORDERS
DRIPPING TOAST
BATH NIGHTS
PERMANENTLY CUT KNEES..

the pain, the pain.
Seriously, most kids of eight I bump into nowadays are little old men and women who already despise the suggestion that anyone of their age would still "play"!
Few of them seem to be able to perform any sort of arithmetical operation without a calculator, however: so perhaps we worked as well as played back then.

LoL .... I remember when i was in 1st grade 6 years old and my mom would give me a $1 bill and tell me to ride to the store on my bike and buy her a pack of smokes and with the change play a video game or buy a candy bar, lol those were the good ole days then pong came out as home entertainment and when i was 13 got my first pc a commodore 64 with a tape drive, lol then van halens 1984 album came out the next year......................................awwww had nuthin to worry about back then

Life was good back then.
You could fill your car up with gas for about five bucks.(I had a Fiat Spider).

Or when I was even younger,walking to school,about a half mile,with no parent.I wouldn't let my kids walk down the street today.

If you got a cut or scrape your mom would spray Bactine on it,and tell you it will only sting for a second.

Ok I'm starting to get misty now.

nyeff, thanks for the flashback!

I was not remembering all the things that you wrote.

Now, I'm feeling a little bit sad for my daughter and hers friends. Sometimes, I speak with my brother, about what we did when we were kids, and I tell him that I hope that my daughter will never do what we did.

That's so true. We were playing outside for hours and hours, and we were not reacheable.I don't dare to imagine that my daughter do the same ! Even the others parents, who have boys, don't let their kids playing outside like my brother and I did it. Sad, very sad....

Where are the old good days ?

that the reason for the big change was this...

Kids no longer have a parent at home. Nowadays, it takes both parents working for most families, to pay the bills. When I was a kid, dad went to work, mom stayed home with us. With more parental supervision, there wasn't a need for outside rule-makers.

Add to that, now you have kids getting home from school before either parent gets home from work, and you've got an even bigger recipe for disaster. Maybe the best fix would be to simply make school from 9-5? (Hell, it would beat what I had to do...7-3)

Anyways, thanks for the dose of nostalgia. Even though I'm not quite that generation, I still was in the "before you had to wear a helmet" period (heck, if you wore a helmet riding a bike when I was a kid, it was a liscense for a beating, hehe...). We didn't have "on a curve" tests, and other such babying either. Of course, I also remember being one of only two kids in a class that could find Vietnam on a world map, so my generation had it's issues too, hehe...

Lemme give you the OTHER side of that nostalgia:

Segregation -- if you even LOOKED Hispanic, Italian, Black, or anything but Swedish-blonde white, you would have trouble getting jobs, trouble getting served anywhere, sent to "segregated" hotels (this happened to a friend of mine who is half Philippino)

Blacks couldn't work in any place that Whites worked.

Child abuse was unreported. You could beat your kids to unconsciousness and nobody would tell on you.

You could kill your wife, say she was having an affair, and get off on "justifiable homicide."

Minorities (and anyone who looked minority) couldn't ride public transportation in the south (and would be harrassed or killed if they were.)

Women and minorities generally could only hold menial jobs. The one exception was the military service... and then you could only command others like you (no woman could command men. No Black could command Hispanics or whites.)

Women could not get credit cards.

Women could not buy houses or cars UNLESS (in most cases) they had a man to cosign the loans (father or husband or brother.)

People who looked or sounded "different" were tossed into mental institutions. If you were a political extremist, you could be put into a mental hospital.

If they thought you were a communist, you could be thrown in jail.

Untested drugs.

Pollution that was so bad that it killed 4,000+ people in London in one weekend. Air in Los Angeles was horrible -- the smogs caused traffic accidents and killed people there, too.

Polio outbreaks.

Pouring turpentine on dogs and setting them on fire was "entertaining." Yes, really. Cockfighting was common, as was dogfighting. It was just animals -- who cared how they suffered?

Corporal punishment in schools. You could not speak, write notes, read other books, etc. You got spanked for misbehaving.

Many parts of the cities were decaying and had no law enforcement... in areas where there were minorities (which could also include the Irish (who were not considered White) or Italians or anybody different), law enforcement was often lax. Hence the rise of the Mafia and gangs.

Gambling, drugs, buying politicians was very common. Lyndon Johnson got to power on the Goodole Boy system ... sex, and power, and he knew a lot of evil secrets -- things that people didn't want out. He blackmailed a lot of his fellow politicians.

Women could be beaten and raped by their husbands. If he kicked you in the stomach and killed your baby, it was YOUR fault. Rape by husband was considered right, since the woman had been "denying him his rightful priveleges."

If a girl got pregnant (unwed) she was considered little better than a prostitute. In fact, the only job she could find after that (unless she moved far away and lied about everything) was as prostitute or waitress-prostitute.

A rapist could get off by claiming the woman seduced him by wearing "short skirts."

The Korean War. You guys don't remember it, but my dad was there. There were a lot of men who didn't come back from that one.

"War brides" that were little more than sex slaves... abused and tortured sex slaves.

Divorced women were considered prostitutes. It was hard to get a divorce (unless you were in Hollywood) and divorced men were viewed sympathetically. Divorced women were considered trash.

The only jobs open to minorities were work in businesses that catered to minorities OR janitorial jobs. Most minority/foreign women worked as maids and were expected to take care of their own families after working 10 and 12 hours caring for upscale White families.

No "Miranda." They could put you in jail and didn't have to read you any rights.

Anyone suspected of being homosexual/bisexual was harrassed, beaten, and sometimes killed. (They didn't have to have proof. Just a suspicion was good enough.)

Bad water quality.

Hobos and tramps.

Children that starved to death here in America. Families living in cars (this was quite common.)

Trash. Litter. The roadsides looked like a garbage dump (I noticed this after coming back from Germany.)


...and there was more. The Beaver Cleaver era wasn't quite as rosy as it's painted... unless you were the male son of an influential Caucasian family; a family that had been in American for well over 4 generations.

[Edited on 6-1-2003 by Byrd]

Nobody's perfect JB

Nyeff, if you want to relive your youth, come to Scotland. We're so backward here that life here is just as you described in your post...more or less. Kids go outside and play, go and knock on their friends doors without invitation, and run into lampposts and fall out of trees like theres no tomorrow, thinking nothing of it. Theres a fught every day at my school. I don't have a mobile phone ( something I'm very proud of as 2 out of 3 children in the UK has one ). We do have computers and playstations, but it's - 2 degrees C outside right now, so what else are we expected to do in winter?
We've moved on in the respect that everything costs far more than it is worth these days, but otherwise, we're living in the dark ages

being on the young end of the boomers group.

I remember the fun things but there were also many terrible things that were hard to digest for a 8 to 10 year old kid.

Vietnam, the first TV war, seeing the carnage every night on the "dinner news" was disturbing for a child of any age.

Race Wars, watching again on TV as blacks were hosed by fire depts and police beating people simply because they were a different color just seemed horendous for a California kid who grew up in a nieghborhood with every color of the rainbow represented in the faces there.

I had 3 older sisters who were very active during the 1960's Flower Power movements, it was an eye opener to me seeing how my parents reacted to this strange behavior that my big sisters were exhibiting. Smoking pot, going to nudist colonies, not wearing bras, I thought my mom would explode!!! I thought most of that was quite funny but looking back now as a parent myself it must have been very hard for them.

There were good times and fun but there were some very trying times for our world and its peoples.

Thank you Byrd. Another thing, your generation is responsible for this pussification over the times. (I hope pussification don't get me banned.) Your generation is now in charge and seeing this new era. By the way, I was the same kid you were mentioning. But I grew up in 80's and 90's.

deepwaters: Excellent post nyeff, do any of these thngs ring a bell? -- RC cola

I'm not that old, but in chicago there is a great mexician restaurant that only serves RC as their drink...
--ANDY

Actually, OXman, my generation was the one that changed things. Civil rights marches, feminism, etc, etc, etc. We came, we said "that ain't fair!" and we did something about it.

The "kids play outside without fear, no locks on the door" has ALWAYS been true (and still is true) in smaller towns. It was that way in Big Spring, Texas, back in the 1980's... heck, it was even that way in most areas of Lubbock in the 1990's. I can name a dozen communities within an easy drive of the Dallas (Pleasantville) metroplex where the most excitement the police get is stopping the occasional drunk or speeder.

I'd bet Albany (30 miles south of Madison, Wisconsin) is equally idyllic. In fact, you can probably make a very long list of places like that. I've lived in some of them.

HOWEVER -- In the big cities like New York, the "unlocked door" wasn't a practice even back in the 1950's. The streets were decidedly UNsafe, particularly if you lived in the neighborhoods where the Mafia used to hang around. I remember locked car doors and nervous looks as we drove through some parts of Miami back in the late 1950's, and being kept inside because it wasn't safe.

i'm 18 years old and grew up (and still live in) Euless, Texas, which borders on D/FW airport right in between Dallas and Ft Worth

growing up i played outside all day on weekends, my friends and i rode our bikes all over, down to my school (3 blocks away) down this little creek (bout a mile away) and such, all over, my range was pretty much as far as i could ride. I remember from the time i was about 12 to pretty much right up until i started driving we used to ride up to blockbuster to rent movies and games and such. Fun stuff *flashback, sigh* all without fear, i never got beat up by anybody, i knew i could trust people in my area, had no fear, didn't know there was a reason i should fear. I drive around my old neighborhood, and my new one (when i was 15 right before i turned 16 we moved into a bigger house across town) during Saturdays and after school ends and such and see kids playing and riding bikes and having fun much the same as i did as a little kid.

My girlfriend's little sister (who is 11 and pretty much my little sister too) is always goin out, playin with her friends, walkin a mile or so to the comic book store, playin in the park near their house, etc...without anything happening to her (and if something did happen to her i would hunt down and torture brutally whoever did it but that's beside the point), they live in Hurst, a city in the same region of the metroplex as Euless (HEB, Midcities)

lol, I remember going to get smokes for my mother as well. I had to be about 10 - they'd occasionally ask: 'Those for you or your folks?' Funny - any kid that would try smoking would have to try what their parents smoked.

RC cola? I think thats still around. Heck - give me a 'Tab.'

I seldom lock my door - usually just at night. I once went a few months without an actual lock while I was doing some renovations. My son goes and plays outside in the backyard w/ out me or my wife - he just has to take the dog out w/ him. And my wife has the habit of leaving the car keys in the car. (geez, come rob Bob's house and cars- lol). If I moved I'd adjust.

Dodgeball was fun - we'd play 'battleball' in middle school. 2 teams each on side of the gym, line in the middle and about 10 volleyballs - you'd throw a ball at someone on the otherside - as hard as we could.

pussification, OXmanK? I can't wipe the smile off my face - I just spit my coffee out on my monitor - I can't stop laughing - my coworkers are asking me what's wrong.