ONLY Read this if your were born in the 40's 50's or 60's

reply to post by SpaceJockey1


I wasn't born in those ages, but I'm still responding.

Start a 90's thread if you will, I'm sure lots of the younger ones will enjoy it. I've seen quite a few of them already do it in other areas of the Internet.

I remember playing "The Three Musketeers" on the battlements of Kronborg Castle in Elsinore (Helsingor) - and yes it is Hamlet's castle (although nothing like Shakespeare's description).

We ran around waving stick as swords and when we "died" the brave ones rolled down the slope and straight into the moat which had about four-five feet of water.

I don't think I had healed knees and shins until I was past 12 years old.

being from a small village in scotland,i can relate to all of these things, i guess our village was slightly behind the times haha! i didnt get a computer/xbox until i was what 12 years old? by that time i didnt really care because everynight we went to play football at the local square where sometimes it was just me and some friends other times there would be different groups and we would create 1 big match for us ice cream trucks...we got £1 from our mums and ran 2 blocks to get to the ice cream truck that was always fun.

OH - I forgot.

My father's trial period with democracy at home which ended prematurely when he realized that the rules he made allowed four sibling's votes to outvote his single vote when mom voted blank.

Come on now You tell me i cant look its like saying the opposite but anyways, Im 20 and i really wouldn't mind living in in that time, It actually sounds really nice to me. I love spending time outside with friends during the summer, we did some crazy things

We lived in small towns and cities, the woods and the the countryside were never far away.

When we wanted to go fishing, we hiked to the lake, and we didn't need permits.

52 here......I'm an American who happens to be black.......not freakin AFRICAN-AMERICAN!
mowed neighbors yards, washed their cars, raked their leaves for spending money.
went crawfishing in the canal ditch with bacon fat tied around a string and thrown in the water.
rolled car tires down the street to hit your friends tire he was rolling.
only had 3 TV stations...IN BLACK AND WHITE......and "Dixie" was played BEFORE the national anthem when the tv signed off at 12:00 midnight.
picked blackberries in the field and hoped your Aunt would make her favorite cobbler!
HAD to go to church every Sunday. If you faked sick,,,,you couldn't go outside or have friends come over for that day.

just a few......

I am too young for this thread also, as I was born in the early 70's.
I grew up in a small country town in Australia, where we only had two TV stations, no McDonalds, Pizza Hut or Hungry Jacks.
If we wanted to call our friends in our own town we only had to dial the last 3 digits of their telephone number. Nobody cared if you didn't have the latest bike or running shoes. Brand name clothing was unheard of, my mother knitted our jumpers, and cut our hair. Raised our own sheep and chooks, grew our own veggies.
The times back then seemed less rushed and free of pressure. There were no social pressures of nowdays, but then you didn't have society telling you continually what is right or wrong.
I liked growing up in those times, and would not have wanted it any other way, as I am sure my kids wouldn't want theirs to change either.
Oh, and as a footnote, I named my son Blade, and he's almost 18, you got a problem with that OP?

reply to post by Destinyone


That's pretty much how I try to raise my kids. I tolled them about the ice creamtruck a couple of years back and they were flabergasted.. I do miss those chimes. Last year I gave both my son and daughter pocket knives. Tought them how to whittle. My son loves it. My daughter doesn't whittle, it'll give her man hands...well that's what she says

Originally posted by Destinyone
I couldn't wear makeup until I was 15.

No dating until that same age.

There was a set bedtime on school nights.

If rules were broken, I was grounded. And it stuck.

My first money I earned was babysitting, It went into the bank.

We ran when we heard the ice cream truck coming.

If we wanted to go somewhere, we rode the bus.

A real family treat was going to the drive in.

I earned the money for my first car.

edit on 2-2-2012 by Destinyone because: (no reason given)

o, my this brings back so many memories - the only thing is we didn't have buses where i was raised - just dirt roads and the store where we got candy gave us a $1 credit during harvest time! WHOOPY! but i do remember the ice cream trucks when i got to visit my aunt who lived in the big city! yes, the drive in was the biggest treat of all times - rare indeed!

I remember:
Lincoln logs
Erector set with small steel beams
Family time in front of the TV on Sunday watching Disney at 7pm before bed
Odd-ogg
Plastic army men
Glass cat’s eyes and bulldozers
Silly putty and color comics
Book of the month,Hardcover books and The Hardy Boys Mysteries
Cutting old lady Hack’s grass for free because she needed the help
Pinewood derby cars and time with dad

Thanks for the memories “op”

Originally posted by ShadowAngel85
This glorification of the past sure seems popular. How many times has this text now popped up here on ATS? I bet at least 10 times.
I wonder what people accomplish, by hating on modern generations and glorifying the past by pointing out the things they thought were 'better', while ignoring the negative things (except of course "our parents hit us with belts and shoes because they had no clue about parenting")

You know, those people born in the 40's and 50's were so wonderfully raised, had such great lifes and were overall so much better than the people later....that they became the assholes that make life bad today...politicians, dictators, greedy CEOs. Wonderful people growing up in a wonderful time that shaped them to what they are today. What a wonderful world

Guess you can't miss what you never had. I don't hear the sounds of kids playing made up games laughing outside anymore on summer nights

We used to play hide and seek, the whole neighborhood until after midnight on weekends and red rover and other run run run games. We ran a lot and laughed a lot even those like me from really cruddy families.

I was born in 1983, that makes me 28. I think what has been the biggest issue regarding this topic the OP brings up is not the boom in technology and the video games and computers. It has more to do with the lack of parenting. Times change it cant stay the 1950's, Norman Rockwell Americana utopia forever, inevitably things will and have to change.

Over the years the influx of bad and too young parents have been responsible for not being able to control and teach a child how to behave and how to act and how to be independent because they themselves don't really know how. And so the cycle begins. I will say that video games and technology are in part responsible for aiding in laziness, no doubt. But is it not the parents responsibility to control how much time their child is engaged in these activities?

In my eyes it comes down to parenting and its awful, on both sides of the spectrum. The lazy, immature young people that had kids way to early and the workaholic absent parents that have housekeepers and nanny's raise their children instead of them. Either way its no good.

Don't forget your African slaves back then in the 40s with your anti women rights.

reply to post by intrptr
great list I'm sure I've forgotten more.But surprised I remembered that many,woo i've overworked my tired old brain....

Great reading the majority of the replies and I am sorry for the few that seem to have their feathers ruffled as some of us 'oldies' reflect on our childhood and young adult years. The purpose of the post was for a group of people to reminisce on a time when life was more relaxed, but also we were seeing great changes in culture & lifestyles quickly taking place.

Not everything was perfect for sure, but I sure liked the fact that us kids were really allowed to be KIDS

I believe we are better for not having the invasion of mass (controlled) media that we see now, though I certainly don't include the Internet (at this stage) as a bad media source, but once TPTB gain control of that...

Anyway nothing personal against the younger ones here, so don't get your knickers in a twist!

reply to post by xyankee



Yes, I loved those "can tab" belts and chains we made. You're right about high school, too. My high school had 2 different smoking areas for students.

Anyways, everything you guys said brought back good memories. Remember how good the air smelled; like honeysuckle? Remember how the sun felt; just warm and pleasant, not too hot.

Thanks for the memories.

reply to post by St Udio


Yep, the good ole days of the 40s and 50s when many kids would die young from asthma attacks from lack of effective medicine, when kids would die of infections because of limited antibiotics, when getting leukemia was an instant death sentence from lack of effective treatments that weren't yet developed, when soldiers were forced to watch nuclear explosions to see how it would affect them... and on and on....

I have some fond memories of my childhood, but let's not forget the crud we also had to deal with 50 years ago.

We didn't have malls OR fast food back then either!

When my Grandmother took us shopping for school clothes, We'd take a taxi to the bus station, and ride the bus from Pompano to Ft. Lauderdale.

Then taxi around to Sears, Burdines, and J.C. Penny's.

For lunch we ate at the Woolworth's lunch counter. (A grilled cheese sandwich and a chocolate shake, made with REAL Ice Cream!).

Dang, I'm hungry now!

reply to post by LeLeu


Will do, thanks for the tip!

I'm always looking for new artists to put on my iphone