Ahhh, The Good Ol' Days

[Ladyzekke]

Well, you are over thirty-five if you get this.

You lived as a child in the 60s or the 70s.

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 dodgeball 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 cellular 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 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!

[img]tongue.gif[/img]

[pcgiant]

Sounds absolutely horrible.

[Ladyzekke]

I'd like to add that there was no Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream (The Horror), nor microwave popcorn, it was either using the "popcorn pumper" LOL (funny enough I still own one in a box somewhere) or crappy Jiffy Pop [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Sazerac]

Sad thing, LadyZekke, is that the upcoming generation has been so reared in a victim-based mentality that it's likely to go down in history as one of the weakest generations in humanity. I pity to see what things are going to look like 50 years from now.

And Jiffy Pop was good, BTW!

-Sazerac

[Ladyzekke]

LOL, Saz dunno I never liked the Jiffy, but it may not have been Jiffy's fault, dunno, but it mostly all burned! I'd open up the puffed foil and there'd be mostly burned unpopped kernels, and the popcorn in there that actually did pop tasted burned too [img]tongue.gif[/img] Shoulda shook it more maybe LOL. Ah well, no worries on that anymore, it's ACTII Extreme Butter microwave popcorn for me now! Yee Haw!

[AzRaeL StoRmBlaDe]

Our younger generation has the unpenetrable wave of apathy, that must count for something. . . Ohh never mind I don't care.

[Lord of Alcohol]

I remeber those days well Lady Z, being gone all day at Lake Acotinc (or however its spelled-Acostink lol) and it was no big deal. [img]smile.gif[/img] Yep them were the good ole days....... [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Ladyzekke]

Originally posted by Lord of Alcohol: I remeber those days well Lady Z, being gone all day at Lake Acotinc (or however its spelled-Acostink lol) and it was no big deal. [img]smile.gif[/img] Yep them were the good ole days....... [img]smile.gif[/img]

HAHA! Yeah Lake Acotink sucks! No big deal is right, and it is the same to this day. You should visit it again, relive your childhood, catch a tadpole, get mesmerized by the floating scum on the lake whilst canoeing about, buy a hotdog at the stand with the yellow jacket bee swarms, playing put-put golf on the pockmarked 20-year-old astroturf LOL, yee hawww! And if you play your cards right, and get lucky, you may get run over by a biker, or sexually assaulted on a picnic table! The sky's the limit Pauly!

[antryg]

I agree with your observations Z. When I was young life was lived at full speed (literally) and in personal contact with others. It was a treat if you got to watch cartoons on TV (if you had one) once a week. Air conditioning wasn't used much and schools only started getting them when they figured out that if the windows/blinds were closed then you couldn't look outside and would have to pay attention. The emphasis was on doing, interacting, knowing. Now we seal ourselves off in our own little world with our own personal entertainment and teaching coming from our own little boxes. This generations mantra seems to be "I'd be apathetic but I just don't care." Writing this on the internet to people I've nevermet and probably won't may seem ironic but it isa matter of degree. How many of us at IW spend as much time interacting with others (not counting school or work) every day as we do alone with our computers or in front of a TV (alone) or playing a game (alone).

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Great Post, LadyZekke. [img]graemlins/thumbsup.gif[/img]

Let me see what I can add.

Being an only child with two working parents, I had to "invent" ways to entertain myself during summer vacation. For a couple of years, we lived in a house right next to a busy highway with no other houses around....so I was on my own during the summer. I was by myself and unsupervised all day. I would take my Daisy BB gun and go "hunting" in the woods behind our house (never shot anything other than an occasional bird, though). I played with firecrackers - a LOT! I learned to "light and throw" or bundle them together. I would make "dynamite bundles" of 6 at a time.

It was a special treat to go visit my cousin's house, because they lived in a neighborhood with lots of kids and their house was the local "gathering place". We would sit in yard on the lawn furniture, drinking cokes and eating candy (after supper, of course). We would play tag, hide-n-seek, Red Rover and even went Snipe Hunting once or twice.

I had favorite TV shows, but there were no VCR's...so if you missed your show - you just missed it. No way to see it again unless you happen to watch it on the right night during re-runs. Some of my favorite shows were Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, The Wonderful World of Disney Sunday Night Movie, & Batman!.

I remember when "damn" and "hell" were NEVER heard on TV (unless you stayed up late enough to listen to Johnny Carson. I remember when Carol Burnette had the best "variety" show on TV. I remember when the Jackson 5 and Osmonds had their own TV shows...and other "TV groups" like the Monkees, Partridge Family, and even the Archies crossed over to produce musical albums.

I remember when the really cool kids had those snazzy 8-track players with the "dynamite plunger" handle. Then there was the CB fad, mood rings, pet rocks, and that most accursed device ever invented by man...the RUBIK'S CUBE!.

I remember going to town on Saturday afternoon, and my mom dropping me off at the department store (where I would head straight for the toy section) while she went to a DIFFERENT store to look at clothes. Same thing on our next stop at the first ever "strip mall" in our little town. I would stay in Sky City, looking at more toys, while she bought the groceries at Ingle's.

I remember how ecstatic I was when we finally moved to the SAME neighborhood where my cousins lived. Our house was on a quiet little cul-de-sac with a big field right across from it. The neighborhood kids would play softball and football until it was too dark to see the ball anymore. Big kids and little kids played together and nobody got seriously hurt. Yeah, we all got our share of cuts and bruises, but that was just part of growing up.

I remember thumbing through the Sears Wishbook every year before Christmas, until the pages were almost worn out. Our parents could take the kids to the local movie theater on Friday night and "drop us off" without having to worry for our safety.

I never "hitchiked" to town, but I knew lots of kids that rode their bikes to town. I also remember going to the Skating Rink on Saturday night and skating for hours at a time.

Ahhh...SO many more things I could include...but I'm sure the "younger crowd" is already bored stiff with my reminiscent rambling....so I better stop while I can.