Some of us did grow up like this......

[Randi]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

If you lived as a child in the 40's, 50's, 60's or 70's. Looking back, it's
hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have...A schildren, 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 cell 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!

Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids,
before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.

[RICHARD]

Originally posted by Randi
CONGRATULATIONS!!!

We shared one grape
soda with four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this.




but someone always left ufos (unidentified floating objects)
from the sandwich (we all shared) in the backwash....


LOL!!!!!!!!

[Freckles]

I can't believe my mother let me do this!
http://home.sprintmail.com/~jwalborn/_uimages/janetinbikebasket.jpg
This was in the early '50s but I only rode on the sidewalk!

[Edwina's Secretary]

The other day I was telling this young (late 20's) guy I work with about going to school in Mexico the summer I turned 16. My mother drove me to the University of Missouri where I got on a bus (with no toilet!) with a bunch of other high school and college students none of whom I had met before. The bus took us to Monterrey Mexico. We stayed 6 or 8 weeks and telphoning home was not an option (at least not one of which I was aware.) I remember going horseback riding and drinking water out of a yard hose on a farm.

He was flabbergasted that my parents allowed such a thing!!

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

We were told to go outside and play and not come back in until suppertime. This was no problem for us since we lived in the country with a big woods behind the house and cornfields all around and a river down below - it was paradise for a couple of kids. We had free reign to go anywhere on the property (about 4 acres) without telling anyone, and if we wanted to go down by the river all we had to do was tell someone.

These days it seems you wouldn't dare let the kids out of hearing distance for any amount of time. If you don't know exactly where they are at any moment, you start to panic - always thinking the worst.

Last fall my mom was babysitting my 12 year old niece, who had a friend with her. The two girls wanted to take a walk down the road and there was no way my mom was going to let them go by themselves. She could just picture some weirdo pulling up, pulling them into the car and taking off with them. Of course, this was shortly after those 2 girls in California actually got away from the guy who nabbed them, so my mom was extra paranoid.

[DoggiesAreTheBest]

I am a child of the 80s and yesterday, I felt so old all of a sudden. My roommate has 2 girls: 5 and 11. The 11 year old was wearing this bright blue shirt and I told her she looked like a smurf. They both looked at me like I was from a different planet and asked what a Smurf was. I was shocked! Andrew laughed so hard when I told him the story!

[Corinna]

I feel old too I remeber all that stuff even worse we played by the river and I can't swim. My 19 year old son remebers me packing him a back pack with food and sending him out to play out in the woods behind our house (homeschooled so after work was done) til dinner time. He was hyperactive not add or what ever the fashionable letters are today. He was just an active boy.
My daughter would take her horse out and ride trails up the road. She'd be gone for hours, sometimes with freinds some times not.
The kids sure miss being able to do that now that we live in town . We still do go hiking together (bears ) in Glacier Park.
Ps Ben the 19yo was born very cold they put a white stoking cap and blue sleeper on him He did look like a smurf.

[Barbara]

We were playing in the woods all day. Nobody was afraid something could happen to us, because you always had your little sister with you. You tried to get rid of her but she wasn't lost in the jungle too. You were not afraid by murder. You thought a bear or a dragon would come (Germany is neither bear nor dragon country).

My husband reports he built a bow and tried the "Wilhelm Tell" show with his sister. (For those who don't know German poet Schiller: Wilhelm Tell was the guy who put an apple on his son's head and pierced with his longbow ..... the apple.) Thanks God, my husband did not hit his sister....

When I was 5 I was sent to the bakery. It was 10 minutes away but I had to cross some streets. There were no red lights then but there were not too many cars too. We did have no fridge. In wintertime we could put milk near the window. In summertime you always checked whether it was ok. Often it wasn't. We did not have a washing machine. Every monday, my grandmother and my mother did the washing in a big basin where the laundry could be boiled. Children got new clothes once a week. Saturday we were not stainless. Now we are 2 humans in our apartment and have 2 bathrooms. Ok, the bathroom downstairs is shared by the cats.

When I went to school I walked 10 minutes to the railway station, went to the next town (20 minutes), walked to the school (half an hour) and in the afternoon the whole story back again. Somtimes I had plenty of time to catch my train. Then I went in the department store and read books. I was looking for more erotic education in the books:D

When I was 12 we did not listen to Britney Spears and Kylie Minogue, we were Indians (ok: native Americans) . I always was a Sioux because I loved the word (it sounded so strange ;) ). I learned to play with friends and I learnt to be alone. We did not have meetings then. Or piano classes. Or dance lessons. I would have liked to learn the piano.


This is a great thread. Life has changed so much in the last 40/50 years. I loved it then and I love it now.

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Originally posted by Barbara
My husband reports he built a bow and tried the "Wilhelm Tell" show with his sister.

:eek: :eek: :eek:

[mugsy]

I remember running all over the neighborhood and my mother wasn't worried at all. When I was really little I had to stay within yelling distance. I remember going out in the summer in my shorts and shirt and barefeet and running around screaming with joy at being able to run in the rain. We rode our bikes all over the neighborhood and went trick or treating by ourselves when we were as young as about 7.

[RICHARD]

when we were misbehaving we were given the switch, belt or a good paddling. we all turn into maniacal criminals and just plain rotten people...




the four boys from my family were called to the couch and asked
who was the person responsible for doing something that pissed my parents off, after a few minutes of questioning a very small voice came from my right.......i heard, 'can't you just hit us and get it over with??? corporal punishment was not only o.k.- we asked for
it....
:)

[Vio&Juni]

Originally posted by Barbara
....... you always had your little sister with you. You tried to get rid of her but she wasn't lost in the jungle too......



This is a great thread. Life has changed so much in the last 40/50 years. I loved it then and I love it now.

I can sympathize with you Barbara, mine neither :D

And, the same as RICHARD, we never told on each other, even my brother who was much younger than us, me and Carolina.

[lovemyshiba]

I grew up in the 80's but in a very small town--we could stay out whenever, as long as we were home for dinner--or when it got dark. We played dodgeball in gym class--do you know what my little brother's gym class does now (he's 10)--they learn square dancing--he hates it---he is such an athelete, and he hates gym class because they dance:rolleyes:
We told on each other, fought with each other, walked to school, drank from the hose, drank from the same soda bottle, and got into fights. And we didn't watch tv all day--in the summer we were never bored--we always took walks up into the woods and used our imaginations to have fun--sometimes I wonder if some of the kids today even have imaginations or creativity.

[Daisylover]

What a great thread!

Yes, I could leave the house in the morning and didn't have to be back by dinner time but I did have to tell my mom where I was going. The city Dept of Parks and Recreation had a morning program where we would do crafts, play games, have a bicycle parade, or take field trips. Once a week they showed a movie using a huge piece of material hung on the wall of the elementary school which was about a mile away starting at dusk of course. We never thought anything about walking all the way back home in the dark.

Then there was "the shopping center"....a good 2 and a half miles away which we would WALK to. Even better was the Penny Candy Store that was several blocks beyond that! What a great way to spend my quarter allowance.

[sammi]

Did you ever sleep in the back window of the car on a trip???

You called your teacher only by the last name - god forbid you would never think of calling them by first name. Let along call them anything else.

If your uncle gave you a light swat on the bottom when you were being bad - nobody threatened to call social service.

We did not buy pop by the 12 pack. Seldom had any in the house -- it was a special treat when you went someplace.

The doctor sometimes made house callls at night for a sick child!

Everything was wrapped in wax paper!

[Dixieland Dancer]

I am also a child of the 60's and 70's. I graduated from high school in 1977. We use to go to the corner store with our allowance (25 cents a week) and come home with a weeks worth of penny Candy. Back then penny Candy meant you got 2 pieces for a penny or 3 for a penny! Bread was only 10 cents a loaf but you never bought it that often because it was always being baked at home!

We use to collect pop (soda) bottles and get the refund. We held carnivals every summer with all the neighborhood kids manning a booths for charity. Kids from neighborhoods as far away as two miles or more would come!

Never listened to FM radio. We only got AM. We never went to a swimming pool. Our pool was the creek with a swing hanging from a tree limb over the deep part! You could find the whole neighborhood there all day long!

We walked almost a mile to elementary school (it was uphill both ways) in the rain and snow and sunshine. We never were told not to talk to strangers. In fact it was just the opposite - we were told to be polite to everyone!

I could go on and on but all I can really say is life was simpler then and I feel bad that the kids of today will never know the innocence of those days! Technology has it advantages but it also has it draw backs.

[gini]

Do I dare share this? Oh well, here goes!

I was raised in Ohio, but my Grandparents, other Aunts and Uncles lived in upper state New York. We would visit them over the holidays and I remember my Grandmother giving me this little pot with a lid. She told me to use that because it would be too cold for me to go outside and use the "outhouse." I was pretty small and had a bathroom in Ohio. I remember what a celebration there was when real bathrooms were installed in their home!

Richard - the switch - yup we had one too. I was raised with two male cousins and a brother - and I am amazed that the switch was still intact. They outgrew the switch and there was a ceremony and the three of them presented it to me. Did it get used on me? Yes!! Did I deserve it? Yes! I think that is when I learned to put on a little "padding" so it wouldn't hurt so much.

I also had to eat some Ivory soap bars along the way and I can assure you that it didn't do one bit of good! Shucks!!

We didn't have much money so my first bike was used. It was the most godawful shade of green - but I loved that bike more than anything! It was fun to ride it as fast as you could on a hot summer day and then feel the breeze on your face.

Did any of you have "keys" for your roller skates?

Not a care in the world.......those were the days!

[Dixieland Dancer]

Originally posted by gini
.......those were the days!

Sad to say but I think that is what the kids of this 00's generation will be saying in 20 or 30 years from now too! :(

[Tubby & Peanut's Mom]

Originally posted by Dixieland Dancer
We walked almost a mile to elementary school (it was uphill both ways) in the rain and snow and sunshine.

We walked to school too, until I was in the 5th grade. Then we moved and we got to ride the bus. But we loved walking to school. We had to walk down this side road because our parents didn't want us walking on the main highway. It went past an old mill that wasn't in operation. We were told in no uncertain terms to stay away from there because the floors might not be stable and we might fall through. I never went inside, but my brothers and their friends did (I was too afraid to fall through). A little bit past the mill were some houses with the river behind it, which sometimes flooded and was on both sides of the road, but the road was dry. A little bit past the houses was an old rickety bridge that the river went underneath. There was a rock in the middle of the river, right under the bridge, that we used to tell how high the water was. A little past the bridge was a house where an old lady lived. She would sometimes come out and ask us to help her bring coal in for her stove. Our parents told us to never go in her house, but the lure of the quarter she would give us was too much. Then, with the quarter in hand, we'd head to the little local store and load up on that same penny candy. One time I got a whole dollar, spent the entire thing on candy, and got caught when the teacher saw all this candy in my desk and called my parents. :mad: Then I had to admit that I did go in the old ladies house even after I was told not to, and I spent the entire dollar on candy. How awful of me. ;) :D Shortly after the old ladies house was the school. We had many, many wonderful trips back and forth to school. I honestly don't remember what we did when it rained. The only time I remember walking being a problem was one time when there was a bad snow storm and the teachers were afraid to let us walk home in the snow. We were told to take the highway instead of the back road, but to stay well off the road and to watch out for the plows. We all made it home safe and sound. I remember when we moved and we had to take the bus I didn't like it. I would much rather have walked. Oh, and the reason my mom didn't give us a ride was because we only had one car and my dad took that to work everyday, so she couldn't.

I love the memory of walking to school - even if it was uphill both ways and the snow piles came to the bottom of the telephone wires. ;) :D

[RICHARD]

Originally posted by Dixieland Dancer


Sad to say but I think that is what the kids of this 00's generation will be saying in 20 or 30 years from now too! :(


they'll never know the joy of snaking a drink of ice cold milk from a bottle (i'm lactose intolerant now:D)

gas was 25 cents a gallon, bazooka bubble gum 1 cent,
4 track tape players, gum in baseball cards, the weekly reader in
school! the smell of fresh hand outs in school (mimeographs)

gini-

ivory soap? how barbaric! my parents used LAVA!
roller skate keys!!!!!! and sharing your skates, you got one and
your friend got the other!!!!

dixie-

2 cents a bottle???? we were rich beyond compare.

lut-
as a male i learned to wash clothes when i was 13....and how to know how much soap to use!

sammi-
wax paper- these days people would protest the cruelty toward bees for making them make our wax paper

about three years ago i was yelled at, in front of patients, for calling a nurse, 'ma'am'. when i explained it was habit from going to a private school that made things worse

love my shiba-
one day i fell and cracked my head on the gym floor during dodgeball, i walked around with a head ache for three days because i was afraid to tell my parents....

mugsy-
to this day they call me alligator feet because my feet would dry and crack from no wearing shoes....


more!

[RICHARD]

Originally posted by Freckles
I can't believe my mother let me do this!
http://home.sprintmail.com/~jwalborn/_uimages/janetinbikebasket.jpg
This was in the early '50s but I only rode on the sidewalk!


let's see,
no helmet
child endangerment-riding in the
basket
no bike license
riding on the sidewalk
no mirrors

what a rebellious kid
;)

[Karen]

Just so you know,

the neighbors' children have always been friendly to me here, even before I lived here, when I visited my Great Aunt, the eldest, who was about three then, would wander into the yard to visit. The children on our street play IN the street, draw large murals with chalk on the sidewalk and street in front of our house in the summertime, and know all the families in the neighborhood. The twins three houses down often have a lemonade stand, from which I have purchased the warmest, weakest lemonade ever.

That is right now, I guess it depends on your neighborhood.

[Miss Meow]

Playground equipment was made from wood, not cheap plastic

You could climb high on the monkey bars and spin fast on the playground equipment without the threat of lawsuits if someone fell over

Cleaning was hot water and elbow grease, not antibacterial everything filling the supermarket shelves

A bit of dirt was good, built resistance

You could have soft-yolked boiled eggs or salad dressing without the 'this product contains raw eggs' warnings

Real cows' milk

Small houses with big yards to play in, rather than the opposite

Riding in the back of a ute or tray truck, no seat belts or anything!

Fruit and veges didn't look as perfect, but tasted a hundred times better

Gawd, and I'm only 32!

[Vio&Juni]

I just remembered how I used to go to my granny's house - she lived 3 houses from school, and have something to eat, although they used to feed us for free at school. I hated school food, I liked only how my mom cooked, and I absolutely loved how my granny cooked. I could eat ANYTHING made by granny, even what I didn't like at home. This is what I miss about her most, how she liked to have us in visit - it was like a fairy tale to be in her house - she made us feel like princesses.

[moosmom]

I grew up in the 60's. I remember going to the store to buy cigarettes for my mother at 25 cents a pack!!! Gas was $.29 a gallon and a pack of gum was 5 cents.

I could go anywhere on my bicycle without the fear of some pedophile trying to abduct me from my own backyard.

My friends were made of up all races. There was no such thing as discrimination. We lived in the projects and could sit outside on our front steps without worrying about flying bullets, drugs deals, etc.

Times have DEFINITELY changed, sadly.

[Chinadoll]

You could climb high on the monkey bars and spin fast on the playground equipment without the threat of lawsuits if someone fell over

Cleaning was hot water and elbow grease, not antibacterial everything filling the supermarket shelves

A bit of dirt was good, built resistance

You could have soft-yolked boiled eggs or salad dressing without the 'this product contains raw eggs' warnings

AMEN! I loved hanging upside down from the top of the monkey bars. Now some mothers freak if their precious were to try that.

Dirt? What dirt? :p

We always ate raw cookie dough and raw brownie mix with raw eggs...I still do. Yummy! If it didn't kill me when I was younger, I highly doubt it will now. Had a friend who gave her godchild raw cookie dough...the mother freaked saying that has raw egg in it! oh, the horror!

[Karen]

Thinking about this, I realize that not everyone DID live to grow up. A friend's brother was killed when their mom's car hydroplaned and hit a tree. No airbags ... so he lay in a coma for a month then died.

Little boy down the street rode his Bigwheel down a hill out onto the street and was killed instantly, right in front of his twin when he was struck by a car - no bicycle helmet.

I could go on ... but I don't want to depress everyone.

So we can all make fun, but the safety features and cautions of the current day DO have their benefits.

[RICHARD]

Originally posted by Vio&Juni
I just remembered how I used to go to my granny's house - she lived 3 houses from school, and have something to eat, although they used to feed us for free at school. I hated school food, I liked only how my mom cooked, and I absolutely loved how my granny cooked. I could eat ANYTHING made by granny, even what I didn't like at home. This is what I miss about her most, how she liked to have us in visit - it was like a fairy tale to be in her house - she made us feel like princesses.

my grandmother grew and canned her own food,
in her yard she had squash, plums pomegranates, peaches,
grapes, figs.....made her own preserves........found the cure for baldness, hah, you are paying attention!..made the best toast ever, on the griddle, with real butter and apple butter,
washed her clothes with the washer w/the rollers on top,
pulled a wagon to go shopping...made her own clothes, gave the best hugs in the world......

that was a real woman (sorry ladies!)!!!!!!!!;)

[mugsy]

That she was!!!

[Dakota's Mommy]

My neighbor and I discuss these things all the time. Yes, I'm a child of the 80's, but even the little amount of time back was so different from today. Not that long ago, she was telling me what she had seen a person do with thier kids and we started discussing how if it were us, we would not have done that. She does have 2 girls and a boy on the way while I don't have any kids right now. However, it was just so weird to sit there and discuss the things that we could feel free to do in those days that we wouldn't even think about letting our kids do today because of how the world has changed. It was just really weird to find this thread then today. It makes you so warm to remember those days and it's kind of scarey of what's to some because of what has become in the last 20 years!