Looking back. Wow. how did we ever survive?

[Ice]

Black and White TV
(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 river 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 Keds (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 Freddie Holiday from down the street 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 (no lawsuits back then).

Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood 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?

[msb]

Yuri, that describes me growing up on the shore of the lake in my small hometown of Nelson BC almost to a "T". I say almost because we didn't have TV, but other than that everything else was the same...it was awesome too! We tried to give our kids as much of that as we could as well...excpet the spanking part, I just couldn't bring myself to swat my daughters...thankfully they were a lot better behaved and less mischievous than I was as a kid 

[old2soon]

         Supper at our house growin up-well Any meal actually-you had two choices-take it or leave it. I've Still got scars I managed to put on myself in my youth. We played stretch at School with a pocket knife. You know-throw the knife into the ground-hadda stick-and the other guy had to put his foot near the knife. Then it was his turn. Had some shoes with minor cuts but NO blood EVER. Teachers would watch and encourage both boys. Mumbly peg and other friendly knife games. No one EVER died. Played hockey on the frozen lake(s) in the winter and yeah we got cut up some by the skates but no one lost a finger or a limb. Has a sledding hill in the winter that got Interesting at times. Oh-learned to drive on a manual transmission. Plus we helped with the laundry helped prepare meals cut grass painted the house and other sundry items as Mom and Dad deemed needed. Allowance you ask?      Yeah-things were tough growin up!  RIDE SAFE.

[Jess from VA]

ME:  Dad, my friends have newer color TVs, how come we still have this B & W portable?  I'd sure like to watch color TV.

DAD:  Well go over to your friends' house and watch theirs, we don't waste money on TVs.

We didn't get a color TV until I came home from college one summer.

Our antenna was on the roof, way the hell up there (2 1/2 stories).  I'd climb up there and move it around and dad would yell out the window when it was as good as it was going to get.

It always came in clearer when you held the antenna with your hand, but I was not going to sit up on the roof to make it better.  We had 5 channels (including CBC from Windsor Ontario).
 
The Jr Hi and HS sports teams doctor lived next door.  My annual sports physical (conducted out in our yard) consisted of a couple questions and some thumps on my chest and a scope in my ear. OK, you're good for football this year, don't forget to wear your cup.    No charge, ever.

[Bighead]

School nurses ,team Doctors? Hell you boys had it good. It was a 45 minute drive (speeding) to the nearest Dr or nurse.
Asses whipped by neighbors and another when parents got home. Yep happened more than once.
We used to have BB gun fights. Had more than one welt hell we all did couldn’t shoot higher than the navel ( so nobody would lose an eye) built forts on the creek bank and had cane spear wars across the creek from one another. There were a few injuries that happened but with about 10 of us we could usually ome up with a plausible lie caught snakes never bitten. Kids today have no idea what they are missing
Neighbor across the street has 2 sons. One 7 the other 3. He is raising them right. Makes em get outside and roughhouse and such. He and I are planning a camping trip with them. In a few weeks we will see how they fair at roughing it, will be isolated from everything but nature. 

[old2soon]

       Grew up in The Chain O lakes area in Il. We were Always around the water. Fishing swimming row boats then small power boats and that led to water skiing. Camped a couple time growing up with the Family and Cub Scouts Boy Scouts and Civil Air Patrol. My very first flight was in a Piper Tri Pacer I believe. I was 13 or 14. First powered 2 wheeler ride was a Friends Whizzer. I was 11 or 12. Tire swings runnin bare foot in the summer on gravel then asphalt road surfaces. Learned how to ride a 2 wheel bike with out helmet knee pads or gloves. What wuz I thinkin?  Remember gettin cut bleedin a little and rubbing it with dirt or mud? And I have lost track of how many fish hooks I've stuck in either hand. Good time as I'm STILL here!  RIDE SAFE.

[msb]

School nurses ,team Doctors? Hell you boys had it good. It was a 45 minute drive (speeding) to the nearest Dr or nurse.
Asses whipped by neighbors and another when parents got home. Yep happened more than once.
We used to have BB gun fights. Had more than one welt hell we all did couldn’t shoot higher than the navel ( so nobody would lose an eye) built forts on the creek bank and had cane spear wars across the creek from one another. There were a few injuries that happened but with about 10 of us we could usually ome up with a plausible lie caught snakes never bitten. Kids today have no idea what they are missing
Neighbor across the street has 2 sons. One 7 the other 3. He is raising them right. Makes em get outside and roughhouse and such. He and I are planning a camping trip with them. In a few weeks we will see how they fair at roughing it, will be isolated from everything but nature. 

Oh my, BH...brings back memories... we coulda' been neighbours  Bb gun fights shooting "low" only... even did that at school during lunch breaks now and then (actually the first and only time I ever got the strap in school if I remember correctly). We had giant fern fields... would also build fortresses and pathways throughout then hunt each other down... those big ferns made great spears.

Funny, I always refer to the late 70's and very early 80's during my HD and 4x4 club days just prior to getting married as my "Thank Heavens I Survived Period"... looking  back, it was really a lot earlier 

[CoreyP]

I grabbed a Black White TV out of someone's garbage on big garbage night. 19 inch and worked well, I guess they got a color TV?

I took the speaker out and put longer wires on it so I could have the speaker close to my ear, reason why was not to wake up the parents. I was supposed to be in bed not watching TV. 

[Ramie]

Every one in town was our baby sitter,

We could get a glass of water from any one in town and sometimes a piece of candy. 

It wasn't uncommon for someone in town to shoot a skunk after dark in the alley. 

We knew every dog in town as they ran where ever they wanted to.

We played war with sticks for guns and baseballs for grenades.

[cookiedough]

we must have been RICH growing up in the mid 70's having a true 25 inch console TV even with a rotor box we turned left/right with the cable going up to the antenna on our roof for adjusting for best pic for the 5 local stations.  I vaguely remember the 1st COLOR TV as a young person was super happy to have color vs. B&W in the 70s.  In the mid 70's even had a few 3 wheel power wheelers sitting low to the ground all plastic with pedals and doing burnouts all over the street in front of our house until the front and rear tires would get holes in them.   I played atari 2600 games on my 12 inch black and white TV though in my bedroom for way too long in the 80's though.

BB guns shooting each other we never did way too dangerous for us younger folks as compared to some on here.  I did enjoy though shooting blackbirds and sometimes dying right away or letting it squak to attract about a dozen more blackbirds around and shooting them as well, good times.   Shooting at cars going by on the road with POP guns that were real metal at the time making a BIG BANG was fun even had one car stop and yell at us for shooting at him as he drove by with thinking it was real threatening to call the local cop in town.

[Jess from VA]

We did not shoot each other with BB guns.  We did take the good Canadian firecrackers, core out rotten apples (hopefully full of worms and bugs) stick the firecrackers in them, and play hand grenade in the abandoned orchard.  When we moved up to Cherry Bombs, it got a little dangerous.  (We could never get Silver Salutes or M80s)

When the winter ice broke up on Lake Erie in early spring, we'd go out on the docks and get on canoe shaped icebergs and pole around with long poles, and try to knock each other off their iceberg into the water jousting.  It was only about chest deep between the docks but colder than sh!t, and you'd wade over to a dock ladder to get out.  No one ever died of pneumonia.  Everyone knew how to swim, and the folks thought nothing of it (esp with quiet in the house).

[msb]

We did not shoot each other with BB guns.  We did take the good Canadian firecrackers, core out rotten apples (hopefully full of worms and bugs) stick the firecrackers in them, and play hand grenade in the abandoned orchard.  When we moved up to Cherry Bombs, it got a little dangerous.  (We could never get Silver Salutes or M80s)

When the winter ice broke up on Lake Erie in early spring, we'd go out on the docks and get on canoe shaped icebergs and pole around with long poles, and try to knock each other off their iceberg into the water jousting.  It was only about chest deep between the docks but colder than sh!t, and you'd wade over to a dock ladder to get out.  No one ever died of pneumonia.  Everyone knew how to swim, and the folks thought nothing of it (esp with quiet in the house).

I love these kind of reminiscing threads... I guess these types of discussions get better the older one gets.
And speaking of getting older.... shouldn't you have been in the sack hours ago back East there Jess?  A man your age has gotta get his beauty sleep, ya know   

[0leman]

Grew up on the outskirts of Tulsa.  Lived in a home on a dead end street.  No real water around us to play in, though one of the neighbors (no kids) had 3 acre pond.  Never wanted to swim in it as he also had snapping turtles and cotton mouths in it.  He didn't put them in, they just stopped by and never left.  It also had large mouth bass and huge bullfrogs.  Grew up listening to the bullfrogs singing at night.

We got a B/W TV after it was out for several years.  Could only watch it in evenings after dinner/chores/homework was done.   Yeah the rabbit ears were fun to play with.

Never had a bb gun, though had some knives and several bullwhips.  Bullwhips were laced to gather from a Tandy's kits.  Used nylon rope on the end as a popper.   Still have some scars from being hit by the popper.

Had a steel frame, no fender, bike.  Several of us would try to jump ditches with our great bikes, mostly just crashed.   We would get up dust off and try again.   Dirt in cuts would stop them from bleeding.  Never got infections, though that maybe due to Mom requiring the wound to be washed out and alcohol or the what ever as handy to be put on it when got home.

Yeah, how did we survive. 

[Jess from VA]

We did not shoot each other with BB guns.  We did take the good Canadian firecrackers, core out rotten apples (hopefully full of worms and bugs) stick the firecrackers in them, and play hand grenade in the abandoned orchard.  When we moved up to Cherry Bombs, it got a little dangerous.  (We could never get Silver Salutes or M80s)

When the winter ice broke up on Lake Erie in early spring, we'd go out on the docks and get on canoe shaped icebergs and pole around with long poles, and try to knock each other off their iceberg into the water jousting.  It was only about chest deep between the docks but colder than sh!t, and you'd wade over to a dock ladder to get out.  No one ever died of pneumonia.  Everyone knew how to swim, and the folks thought nothing of it (esp with quiet in the house).

I love these kind of reminiscing threads... I guess these types of discussions get better the older one gets.
And speaking of getting older.... shouldn't you have been in the sack hours ago back East there Jess?  A man your age has gotta get his beauty sleep, ya know  

Thanks for the concern Mike.  

But more days than not now, I take afternoon naps, and then don't go to bed until late.  

The ultimate freedom of single aging life.  

I just mowed the front and back, raked out the scape,  blew off the roof, and everything clean.  I'll shower off, get some breakfast, and a nap will be coming on about an hour later (as usual).  

PS;  No matter how much I sleep, no beauty is happening.    

[Patrick]

Kids today have no idea what they are missing coolsmiley
end quote




Thats fer sure and fer certain !


I know folks that won't let the kids get their clothes dirty.  Glad I won't be around to see what this country is like in the future.

[pais]

Kids today have no idea what they are missing!
[/quote

I could not agree more! Wife and I made a point to do activities with the kids that we enjoyed as kids. For our kid's b-days they would have 4 or 5 friends over and we would camp out. Snipe hunts, bon fire, s'mores, dogs on a stick, flash light tag. The boys loved it and so did the girls. I miss it to be honest. Waiting on a grandkid. All those kids looked forward to it every year.

Pick up baseball, basketball and football games. Socialization and conflict resolution skills were learned doing this. We just didnt know it. Having too much fun.

I could go on and on.

1 more, lol.

Record albums, CD's displaced the vinyl and granted better sound. Nothing could beat buying a new album running home, putting it on the turntable, plug in the headphones, pull out the sleeve with the lyrics and learn every song.

Great post Ice!  Fit me to a T! Brought back many wonderful memories.

[RP#62]

OK, its just a matter of time before someone posts this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEIApUNVBKg

-RP

[flsix]

BB gun fights.....yep.
Playing hockey on a pond about a mile up in the woods.
We had two B&W tv's. Now before you start thinking we were living in high cotton ,the two were stacked one on top of the other and one had working sound and the other had a picture. Good times.

[0leman]

Don't forget riding coaster bikes without helmet, drinking from hose, riding without seatbelts, picking up dropped food off the floor and continue eating it.   WOW  how did we survive.

[Oss]

stickball in the Bronx streets dodging the taxi's 3 manholes to a home run;
climbing fire escapes to continue playing roof to roof 6 stories up,
off the point,
hopping turnstiles to go watch Yankee games from the southbound platform of the #4 train before the facade was rebuilt in the old Stadium,
rolling around in the back of the Falcon station wagon while dad was driving anywhere

[Skinhead]

I was so happy when we moved out of our cardboard shoe box in the middle of the road, and up graded to a discarded plastic storage container.  I used to sit in it and wonder what the poor people were doing.

[msb]

I was so happy when we moved out of our cardboard shoe box in the middle of the road, and up graded to a discarded plastic storage container.  I used to sit in it and wonder what the poor people were doing.

[Jess from VA]

Another fun subject is hand-me-down clothes.

Usually from older brothers (or sisters).

I was the oldest, so they brought me back old worn out stuff from my cousins in WVa from their trips down there, so I didn't feel left out.   

Come to think of it, I could use an old worn pair of bib overalls.  (but not some 58s)