Remember when ??

[bassman]

Black  and White (Under age 40? You won't understand.)
You  could hardly see for all the snow,

Spread the rabbit ears as  far as they go.
Pull a chair up to the TV set, 

'Good Night, David. 
Good Night, Chet.' 
My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on  the counter and I used to eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice pack coolers, but I can't remember getting e..coli. 

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then. 

The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail  cell, and a pager was the school PA system.

We all took gym, not PE..and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors.  I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now.
Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.

We  must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.

I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations. 

Oh yeah... and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed!

We played 'king of  the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like  iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked. 


Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat. 

We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either; because if we did we got our butt spanked there and then we got our butt spanked again when we got home. 


I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off.

Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house.   

Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighbourhood run amuck. 




To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family.

How could we possibly have known that? 

We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes.

We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac!

How did we ever survive?

LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA; AND TO  ALL WHO DIDN'T, SORRY FOR WHAT YOU MISSED. I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR  ANYTHING!

[Garfield]

Those were the days.

[SANDMAN5]

Ah, yes. I remember!

[Big Rig]

 

No helmets needed when riding your bicycle...

[Dubsvalk]

We have gone a long way since then.  Mostly in the wrong direction!
Bernie

[Hef]

Amazing isn't it! We actually enjoyed life in all our primitive ways. Most folks had great moral values and a man's mere word actually meant more than a written contract does today. Kids were healthier and most of us learned the value of working for what we wanted and appreciated it much more when we got it. We learned how to do a variety of things out of neccessity. We learned some hard lessons about life but survived. I have shared this story before but when I was 5 or 6 years old I was in a store with my mother and I stole a pack of easter egg dye.When we got home I was playing with the package and my mom ask where I got it. I lied and told her the store owner had given it to me. She saw right through that and said well I didn't hear you thank him for it so we are going to go back to the store right now and you are going to tell him thanks. At that point I confessed and she whipped my butt for stealing and then again for lying. Then she still took me back to the store and made me tell the owner what I had done and say sorry. I'm 62 years old now and can honestly say that was the first and last thing I ever stole. I truly appreciate the rearing I had and having lived in that era.

[Master Blaster]

yup 71 here, and remember it well.  Hell its just been the last few years that I realized we grew up dirt poor.  However no welfare, food stamps, or other programs, those were mostly for those that had no pride, and chose to work the system rather than just work for a living.  Ate a lot of pintos back then, the beans, not the car.

[HayHauler]

yup 71 here, and remember it well.  Hell its just been the last few years that I realized we grew up dirt poor.  However no welfare, food stamps, or other programs, those were mostly for those that had no pride, and chose to work the system rather than just work for a living.  Ate a lot of pintos back then, the beans, not the car.

Sir Blaster, you and I grew up in very much the same way.  I still love pinto beans, potato salad, and corn bread to this day!

Hay 
Jimmyt

[Spirited-6]

We have gone a long way since then.  Mostly in the wrong direction!
Bernie

Bernie, I agree. But it is nice to think back to those "days"   

[solo1]

Yep, I remember it all and then some.

I told my family doctor the other day about something he couldn't believe.

In 1935 when I was seven, my Mom and Dad told us to play outdoors because the doctor was coming over. They cleaned up the dining room and closed the double doors to it. The doctor came with his nurse and my oldest sister was led into the dining room where the doctor removed her tonsils.  I can remember the lousy smell of ether to this day!  Times have changed!

When i was 12, I finished my paper route in the early morning and then jumped on my bike and rode 15 miles out of town to go squirrel hunting, WITH MY .22  RIFLE SLUNG ON MY BACK ALL THE WAY.   I never got stopped.  Try that today!

[Jack]

I remember everything except the school nurse.  Our school secretary handled that job.  I remember, too, the grapefruit juice they would give us in grade school.  Now, they serve meals.  My daughter lives a block from the school and has a bus pick up the kids.  We had to walk unless we lived further than two miles.  Yeah, uphill both ways!

[Romeo]

It was called, individual responsibility, nowadays most of us need(expect) our government to help us out of all our troubles, protect us from ourselves, and tell us what we should or should not believe. I remember, riding my bicycle, at breakneck speeds, down the side of wooded hills, between the trees, and into the river at the bottom, what a rush. No one ever got hurt, except for a bruise or scratch. What have we done to ourselves? We would play ice hockey on the lake, from the time the ice was thick enough to hold us, all through the winter, until it warmed up enough to play baseball. Didn't need a "coach" to tell us to play. It was, get home from school, throw on the skates, wear a cup, if u were the goalie, and trudge over to the lake, and play till dark. What a blast. My kids never experienced that much fun. What a shame. Most people call it progress. I call it stupidity.

[Brad]

Along with the Mercurochrome don't forget the Merthiolate and a good scrubbing with pHisoHex.  Also I still remember to this day some of the paddlings I got in school for misbehaving and if my parents found out I got another one at home.  There was a lot fewer behavioral problems in school than now.

[joefromperry]

Hey, Hef, your story reminded me of a similar one I had forgotten until now: When I was very young, probably the same age you were, I saw a small pen knife in the corner store. When Mom wasn't looking (or probably she was and I didn't notice) I took 50 cents from her purse and went to the store and bought it. When I got home, she asked me where I got the money. Eventually through tears I confessed, and she said I had to give the money back, which meant I had to go back to the store and beg them to take the knife back and return the 50 cents. What a lesson - and, funny thing, I never felt angry with my Mom, only myself for doing something to anger/disappoint her. Boy, times have sure changed.

[hubcapsc]

When I was a little boy (eight? ten?) I used to collect Lincoln head pennies and Mercury head dimes...

One thing I'd do was go up to the Esso station and Mr. Hawkins would pop open the cash drawer and
I'd search through the coin slots and trade him "regular" pennies for the good ones... I don't remember
that that they supervised me...

-Mike

[Devl]

Yeah guys...good read!  Remember all that stuff!  I think living like that enriched us all and gave us an understanding of respect that is not around today!  Great times!  I should probably be glowing from all the Mercurochrome that was used on my ouchies...lolol

[dosnewfs]

I don't think you all remember as well as you think you do.  Sure most everyone lived through growing up, but

I remember the girl who was riding on the back of the bike and got her toe removed by the spokes of the rear wheel,

and the girl who fell off the slide that didn't have the safety cage over it and broke her arm.

My brother who almost cut his hand off with a machete.

The epi pens for those allergic to bee stings do save lives and/or shorten hospital stays.

I agree with the personal responsibility and such.  but a lot of this stuff has changed because people did get maimed and die.

[MacDragon]

I certainly remember all that... and I remember leaving the nest before I was 18 yrs old.   My sons, and many other in their age group stay well into their upper 20s now.  Not that i mind... They were protected and I knew where they were... Just saying we grew up and took on responsibility alot earlier then the next generations.   
I do miss the 60s and 70s. 

[Sonny]

I remember very well!  
Helping my dad work on his truck when I was 6, washing engine parts off in gasoline. No such thing as rubber gloves or protective clothing. Mowing the yard, (1 acer) twice with a 20" push mower because I did a poor job and missed spots.  It was a learning lesson not child abuse.

Eating beans & corn bread two or three times a week. Cheep easy for mom to make and always filled us up. She cleaned houses for a living and was proud of what did. It was called an honest living. Not demeaning. She always said if want anything in life you will have to work for it.

My grandad had bacon & eggs every morning for probly 65 years of 76 years he lived I don't think the man ever got sick.

I have 2 boys, 11 & 12 both are good boys. But simply have no idea what life was like when we were young. I tried to tach them to mow the grass. You know with a nice John Dear tractor. I explained it all and showed them exactly how to do it. Apparently it was to much work.  The next Saturday they got to mow the hole 3 acers with that same 20" push mower. It took them 12 1/2 hours.
They tell people what they had do and then say now I listen when dad tells me how to do something!   It was a learing lesson.

[Mr.BubblesVRCCDS0008]

I too remember all of that good old life. One thing I do remember is our TV knob broke off and we had a pair of needlenose pliers that set on top of the TV and I was the remote control. Also dad kept a 24in pipe wrench clamped on the attena pole so I could tune in the channels.  Remember tube testers at the local stores to fix you tv's problems.

[alph]

my daughter comes home the other day, complaining that they had to write a report on the "MOVIE" they watched in class!!!  i told her she was right, the book was much better......

[R J]

yup 71 here, and remember it well.  Hell its just been the last few years that I realized we grew up dirt poor.  However no welfare, food stamps, or other programs, those were mostly for those that had no pride, and chose to work the system rather than just work for a living.  Ate a lot of pintos back then, the beans, not the car.

Sir Blaster, you and I grew up in very much the same way.  I still love pinto beans, potato salad, and corn bread to this day!

Hay 
Jimmyt

That makes 3 of us.      Thanks Thomas.

[hubcapsc]

I too remember all of that good old life. One thing I do remember is our TV knob broke off and we had a pair of needlenose pliers that set on top of the TV and I was the remote control. Also dad kept a 24in pipe wrench clamped on the attena pole so I could tune in the channels.  Remember tube testers at the local stores to fix you tv's problems.

Yeah, I remember the wrench clamped to the antenna pole  ... We have
a real remote control, though...



Happy Thanksgiving everyone...

-Mike

[shortleg]

   I acn remember going to the air port to pickup my
Dad when he came home from Korea in 1954.
   We stopped at the Farm for fresh milk and eggs on the way home
and none of us died from them.
    While my Dad was gone my Mom was bring back bottles
 so we could eat. I didnot know this untill years later.
    My Dad just wanted to get a car and I still have the scars
on my farhead from standing on the front seat and him slaming
on the brakes. That caused one of many trips to Bethesda Navy
Hospital.  Funny to think of that place because just down the road from there
there used to be farms,yes real farms.
               Shortleg[Dave]

[JerryB]

Remember them well......ya gotta stop and put it into perspective.We thought they were so bad when we were growing up we swore our kids were not going to be treated like that.So we actually brought it on our selves!!!!!!!!!

[Stude]

 It helped dull the pain of everyday life...
That being said, now how do we deal with the crap we have now.

[Stude]

 You're not old enough to remember... you are only 25 years old 

[bigguy]

Sir Blaster, you and I grew up in very much the same way.  I still love pinto beans, potato salad, and corn bread to this day!

Hay  
Jimmyt

Did someone say Solid Potato Salad?

Solid Potato Salad - The Ross Sisters (1944)	powered by Aeva

[Stormrider65]

Ah yes the memories.  A comment was made about me one time about I could eat just about anything, having a cast iron stomach.  My wife was making hamburgers when I reached around her and took a little raw hamburger and popped it in my mouth.  My wife was a paramedic and her son is also a paramedic for Careflite both started to yell at me, wanting to know if I have lost my mind.  (Lost that a long time ago, too late for that observation )I started to tell them about all the times I had done that and l LOT more.  I'm still here, (which is a miracle in itself, Thanks to God )I haven't caught anything, AND I hardly get sick.  Whats wrong with this picture??  Be safe ride safe and God bless.

Walt