TO THOSE BORN 1930 - 1979

[Ray S S]

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 blu cheeze 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 cribs with bright colored lead based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we wore
baseball caps on our heads, not helmets.

As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts, no booster seats,no air bags, bald tires, and sometimes no brakes.

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

We drank water from a garden hoseand 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, Real butter and bacon. We drank Cool-Aid made with real white sugar and we weren't
overweight. Why?

Because we were always outside playing.... That's why!

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

No one was able to reach us all day and we were ok

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

We did not have Playstations, Nintendos, and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personel computers, no internet andno 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 was no lawsuits from these accidents.

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


We were given BB guns for our 10th birthday, 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 doorbell, or just walked in and talked to them.

We had LIttle League 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 inovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success, and responsability and we learned how to deal with it all.

If you are one of them? CONGRATULATIONS.


If you want to share this with others who have the good 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, foreward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.

Kinda makes you want to make you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?

The "Quote of The Month" is by Jay Leno:

With tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms
tearing up the country from one end to the other, and with the threat of bird flu and terreriest attacks, are we
sure this is a good time to take God out of the "PLEDGE OF ALLEGIENCE?"


I got this in an e-mail and am passing it along. I am wondering if someone will come up with an answer
to all of this after a bit. That might make for some interesting reading too. LOL


Ray

 

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[bbqbull]

Eloquently stated Ray!

 

[Mich. Wolverine]

Wow that really brings back memories. I remember when we won a little league game there would be 15 kids in the back of a pickup truck sitting on the tailgate and the sides on the way to the icecream shop. Living on the farm we only got 3 channels on the t.v. and if you got on the roof and turned the antenna you could get P.B.S. too!! I try to tell my kid how good she has got it but I think she thinks I'm full of crap, lol. Nice post.

Wolverine.

 

[Monty]

I was a child of the 1950s. I was poor and didn't know it and mom and dad didn't get welfare. I wore shirts made of flour sacks just like everyone else in grade school. My first grade picture had one side of my shirt collar longer than the other but I didn't notice and wouldn't have cared. Bluejeans had two layers of cloth in the knees and one layer was most often worn through, but I didn't notice and didn't care. Lots of times I walked to school barefoot and so did everyone else. I stored my .22 or my .410 shotgun in the school broom closet until after school when I'd take it out and use my 2 or 3 shells to rabbit hunt on the way home. Our school books were Dick and Jane and Baby Sally and Mother and Father and of course Spot. The pages wee crimped and faded, but I didn't care. The first word besides my name I learned to spell was C-A-T, and it was downhill from there. We learned the 3 Rs and manners and said no Sir and Yes Maam, and the pledge of alliegance and the National Anthem and to place our hands over our hearts and that our flag was sacred. We had kids in school that was poorer than I and we all pitched in to help them get shoes and coats in the winter and shared our sack lunches and felt good about doing it. I rode the school bus when we moved out into the real country and I always left my shoes or my coat or something at school and dad had to go back and get it when he got home for work and I got into trouble and got my butt swatted, and it wasn't cruelty and I expected it and didn't care. No, I didn't walk barefoot in the snow uphill both ways, but my dad did when he was a kid. When I tell my kids how it was for me, they think it is just as bad. I never did drugs, never went to jail and never got into trouble at school except maybe for a fair fist fight once and there were no guns involved and the winner was your friend again and after it was over you shook hands. And there was a school bully who was bigger than the rest of us and he took our things until one day I got so angry I just exploded on him and whipped his butt and henceforth he gave me a wide berth and I and my friends never had any trouble from him afterward. We couldn't eat the snow because the Reds were testing nuclear weapons and it was thought the snow had nuclear fall out on it. (A myth of course.) And we "ducked and covered" about once a month just like a fire drill. And there were signs everywhere designating shelters in case of nuclear attack. And Ike was the president and Tricky Dick was the veep. And how do I wind this up? Just to say times were different and I don't regret living through them. Monty

 

[Goodyguy]

Hey Monty I think we went to different schools together

 

[TheHarleyMan2]

Being in my mid 40's I can relate to everything said, I grew up in Front Royal, Va until my parents moved to Louisiana when I was 11 years old. People could go trick or treating and not worry about someone spiking candy or being kidnapped, I remember you could go trick or treating and see hundreds of kids walking out in their costumes all over the place, Christmas was ACTUALLY Christmas, where there was snow, kids and grown ups making Snowmen, ALL the family members getting together, in-laws and all, Now it is one has to go to one parents house then another parents house, instead of everyone getting together, (isn't that what FAMILY is about?). Mom making donuts, cake, pies, and other treats for us to enjoy. You could venture out all day and not worry about crime like today. Paddling you got in school kept you in line. Parents would whip their kids like crazy, (if need be), and you learned RESPECT and RIGHT from WRONG. If one got into a fist fight is was the "OLD FASHION WAY" BAREHANDED, now a days kids shoot at each other with guns instead of taking it like a kid should. Government and the school systems took away parenting rights, (my mother is a COUSIN to the HATFIELDS), she would use anything from shoes to thorn switches to whip the crap out of us, and I don't mean 1-4 swats, we would have the CRAP BEAT OUT OF US! I don't know, me and my brother were terrified of our mother when she found out we screwed up but me and my brothers TURN OUT JUST FINE and stayed out of trouble at that, as we KNEW what WOULD HAPPEN when MOM got a hold of us! Parents got involved with their kids, (even though my dad worked for the government and was hardly around), he still took us places when he was home. He was never into sports, so I never grew up playing sports. There were NO CELL PHONES, NO VIDEO GAMES, until Ping Pong came out then Atari in the 70's. Parents worked hard and taught their children if you want something you have to work for it, and learned to save money, I was washing/waxing cars and cutting grass at 12 years old and buying the clothes I wanted and went to the movies etc, without ever having to get money from my parents. Now today, people are on welfare and have children because they refuse to work much less look for it when the government gives them free money, housing, and food. School teachers don't care about teaching anymore. I remember when I was in school teachers ACTUALLY helped a student trying to learn and spent many of their own time to make sure you learned and cared. You could actually work for a company and get FULL RETIREMENT BENIFITS! Today companies keep you working for a few years, then they boot you, if you worked for them close to 15 years, they boot you, If you are getting within 10 years of 65 years of age, they boot you because they don't want you to get retirement benefits from them. Companies hire illegals and pay them less money when back in the day, they HIRED AMERICANS and paid pretty good darn wages. Companies moving plants to other countries so they could make it cheaper and not have to pay for CRAFTSMANSHIP and AMERICAN PEOPLE, putting Americans out of work, Homes are thrown together with illegals working and building them with POOR QUALITY WORK, Older homes built before early 70's had BIG living and dining rooms, plenty of closet space, 2 car garage that you could actually put 2 1/2 cars in, (now a 2 car garages can barely hold 1 1/2 cars that is why people mostly have to leave 1 car out in the driveway), well crafted tile work, cabinets, flooring, you could ACTUALLY STAND in a shower and take one instead of ducking down to take a shower because the shower head is too low in today's built homes, yards used to be real big, today's homes you have small garden size lawns for your yard, etc. Man I could go on and on, but this would turn into a book!

Today things are much different, I live in a good size neighborhood and this Halloween we had maybe 10 kids, Christmas, there were no children playing outside. Sometimes I have felt all my life that I have lived in the wrong time zone because of the "GOOD OLE DAYS GONE BY" when you could pretty much have the freedom to do anything without any consequences unless you were breaking the law, I feel like I should have lived either in the mid 1800's or during WW 2 for some reason, maybe my spirit from the past life is pulling me back and I can't get there, I don't know. I love the mountains as my older brother and I would venture out into the Blue Ridge Mountains exploring, never having a care of danger.


Today kids can't even walk down the street with someone stalking, killing, or kidnapping them. Both parents working to make ends meet, kids running about with very few parental involvement in their life. Kids being home by themselves all day for hours on end while the parents work. Marriages going to crap and kids growing up in single parent environments, some fathers abandon their children because the ex-wife screwed the daylights out of him in court, (due to the fact that quite a few men battered their wives so the rest of us are labeled and the court is MOST ALWAYS for the women), and took everything he had worked so hard for and now can barely make a living for himself as well as support his kids. Marriages doesn't last for "TRUE LOVE" anymore as today's marriages it is about what one can get if they get divorced.

By the way I STILL eat cupcakes.

 

[Lowbatts]

Gee, seems to me WE raised those kids who are such a problem now.

On child rearing, be fearful, be very fearful. We (the wife and kids) did daycare for many years here at home. We had children who had parents (primarily mothers) who could not raise their own children without some idiotic book that taught them things such as the word "No" being a gateway to retarded social growth and ultimately violent children.

Watched these moms pick up their kids once in a while. The kids were well behaved here, they learned "No" here. Of course if they did not want to go home with mom, a frequent problem, they would simply lay out and jaw mommy with a fist. This would lead the book-trained Mommy to crying and begging the child and saying "Mommy doesn't feel good when you hit her in the face..."

Waiting to read in the paper one of these days the last cry of some mommy like that, "Mommy doesn't like it when you stab her in the neck..."

Kind of funny how our predecessors, those known as "The greatest generation", they did raise us and our peers who have spent this nation into a hole, delivered a court system that almost rewards criminal activity with things from celebrity to free education and in many cases laws that hold victims to account for any bad that happens to their attackers.

Keep that chin up!

 

[Ray S S]

Thanks bbqbull, texastee, and goodguy for your replies.

wolverine, I don't suppose you live near the village of Wolverine, do you? My wife and I lived there during all of the 70's. You probably got it from being the wolverine state. Either way, it's a good name. Thanks for the reply to my
post, glad you liked it.

Monty, I really enjoyed your reply here. My childhood was similar to yours. By 1950 I was in the 4th grade.My father died when I was 3 years old so my mother raised my younger sister and me by herself. I learned how to snare rabbits and kill porcupines with an axe before I was big enough to handle a long gun by myself alone in the woods. We lived in a forrested area and moved around alot and went to one-room schools. Our schoolrooms always had the flag on a staff in the front of the room. We always recited the pledge to the flag every morning and at least twice a week we would have singing. Most of the schools had a piano and the teacher would play it. We had little songbooks that had some of the old western songs and some of the popular tunes of the day.

Your reply brought back a lot of memories for me too. Thanks again.


HarleyMan2, Wow , that was a great reply you have here too. You mentioned some of the fights in school. It was the same way with us. If we got into a fight over a disagreement, we would fight until other said "I give" and it would be over. We all had pocket knives for whittling but we never thought about using it on another kid. We fought with our fists; no weapons of any kind. Like you said the teachers were more responsive to each kid's needs. I had some good teachers. Also during the summers when I was 13 and 14 years a teacher that lived only 3 or 4 miles from me let me work
in her flower and vegetable garden weedind. I'd start about 10:00 AM and work till about 2:00PM. I saved my money and
bought a used bicycle the first summer doing it. Owning a bike made me feel like I was sitting on top of the world. LOl

You mentioned going into the mountains exploring. That would have been great. I spent a lot of my time in the woods
too. Rarely had any kids living near me so most of my spare time was in the woods with my dog learning to track animals,
making bows and arrows and sling shots. I got pretty good at trailing. Although I haven't been hunting for several years,
I still love the heavy forrests and feel right at home there. When I was young, there were times when my Mother told
me that she thought that was born 100 years too late, like you, seems like I would have fit right in at that time too LOL

Thanks again for your good reply

Lowbatts, you are right about some of the "new and improved' ways of child rearing. I have seen some of that. It doesn't seem right the way some of them get away with the things they do.
Thanks for the reply.

Ray

 

[smurf-42]

We got spanked and our parents didn't have to worry about someone calling the police and report child abuse. If we spank our kids now you will have the police or child protective service knocking at your door.

YES, I do remember getting spanked. The most embarrassing time getting spanked was when my Dad excused himself from the pulpit in the middle of a sermon, took me from the pew and spanked me in church for not behaving. Yes, I am a PK, preachers kid.

Sue

 

[*Molly*]

Very much an eye opener.
Thanks for the Thread Ray.

Molly.

 

[P.B. and Dylan]

Yep my childhood was similar (and great) to the posts above.
Actually one of the reasons I got into metal detecting was that it is a great way to get my 10 year old son out of the house and into the woods and fields and water...to get dirty and wet and scraped up and sore. To enjoy nature and everything it has to offer. He really likes it and I've seen the change in him. Up until now he has just tagged along and helped me dig, today I ordered him a metal detector!!! Now,hopefully,I raise his enjoyment of the outdoors to a new level. I want him to have some of the great memories that I have of being a kid.

Paul

 

[BIG61AL]

i remember riding my bike twenty miles away from home and no one knew where i was for hours. You do that now and the police would be involved. My dad use to drive us in the Chevy with no seatbelts while he openly drank beer. When we went to a department store my parents shopped while we stayed in the toy section unsupervised for hours. I'd walk to and from school every day in all kinds of weather. Heavy rain, blizzard wind it did not matter. I played all day with just a stick as a toy. We would explore in all kinds of danger places like - garbage dumps, gas station back lots, back alleys, along the high way, water towers, electrical towers. All the play ground equipment was bare metal and concrete.

 

[EDDE]

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

 

[warsawdaddy]

I can relate to all of it.And I remember the whole school gathered on the playground and we sat on the iron railing around it and sang patriotic songs on the 8th Dec,1941.I'll never forget.I was in the second grade.

 

[rwsnc]

Good Post, KRay08. You sure described my childhood. Except you left out the part about father spanking us with belts and us not suing.

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

Very similar to this here woman, too.

You didn't look for a fight, but, you were expected to stick up for yourself, too.

If you got in trouble at school, you got in MORE trouble at home, for getting in trouble at school. The school had a "board" of education, and used it on occasion.

The biggest sin to my parents was LYING. Yes, I broke the most expensive or the most sentimental thing you own - I'm sorry. Lie about it, your behind would need a lawnmower.

I disappeared for hours also. Hunted and fished (underage) all by myself and managed not to shoot a house or a person or myself, or destroy someone else's property. (which I was frequently on - since I cannot remember ever seeing a "no trespassing" sign.

Our first phone had many many people on it - all the neighbors.

You didn't have to be a perfect student - you just had to do your "BEST" - doing your best was ok. (heck, kids now do the same homework in 2nd or 3rd grade, that I had in 7th grade - and they often HAVE to study for hours).

Nobody had to tell me when dinner-time was - I knew. It saddens me to see the kids of some of the parents where I live now.

Anyone remember the commercial "It's 11 o'clock, do you know where your children are?" - well, in this town, I have to change it to:

"It's 11 o'clock, do you know where your parents are?" Everyday, some kid calls and asks if their parents (or one of their parents) is there.
They haven't eaten, or need help with some school thing - or something. A cold sandwich out of our cooler is a treat for dinner, in many situations.

It's bad timing to read this tonight, because today, we had a situation where a pair of "parents" called their kid to walk all the way to the store because they didn't have enough money to pay their bar bill - and wanted their kid's money for it (this is a good kid, he works after school and on weekends to get the stuff he likes or wants - including most of his own clothes, and he is 13 years old, I think).

Funny, both me and all my children are part of the "generation" that is in this topic, and my kids have pretty much raised their kids the same way they were raised.

B

 

[rwsnc]

I remember the "board of education". I got caught smoking and was given a choice. Three hard "whacks" with the perforated (less wind resistance) board or the school would tell my parents. That was a no brainer... definitely did not want my parents to know. My punishment would have been worse.

The best toy we had was our bikes. We'd spend all day riding our bikes and playing cowboys and indians.

Life was simple, back then. It's very complicated today.

Bob

 

[mrs.oroblanco]

The kids now-a-days know how to play the system.

Heck, you don't have to worry about the neighbors turning you in for child abuse - your kid can have you arrested.

B

 

[trish76642]

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious
diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what
with walking Twenty-five miles to school every morning..Uphill..
barefoot...BOTH ways

Yadda, yadda, yadda

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in
heck I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on kids about how hard
I had it and how easy they've got it!

But now that.. I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but
look around and notice the youth of today.

You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a
damn Utopia!

And I hate to say it but you kids today you don't know how good you've
got it!

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to
know something, We had to go to the dang library and look it up
ourselves, in the card catalogue!!
There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter, with a
pen!
Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the
mailbox and it would take like a week to get there!
Stamps were 10 cents!
Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us.
As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission
to kick our butts! No where was safe!

There were no MP3's or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to
hitchhike to the dang record store and shoplift it yourself!

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio20and the D
J'd usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up!

There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our
favorite tape and "eject" it when finished and the tape would come
undone...'cause that's how we rolled dig?
We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone
and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!.

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either!
When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your
school, your mom, your boss, your Bookie, your drug dealer, a
collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and
take your chances, mister!

We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with
high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like
'Space Invaders' and 'asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You
actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels
or screens, it was just one screen forever!

And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder
and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on!
You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off
your ass and walk over to the TV to change the channel!

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on
Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK
for cartoons, you spoiled little rats!

And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had
to use the stove ... Imagine that!

That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too
easy.
You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes back in 1980
or before!

 

[rwsnc]

Yeah..... as bad as WE had it, it's a miracle that we lived passed 18.