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!

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

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.

[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

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
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!