things gone by...............

[bob1961]

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
carried us.



They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.



Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored
lead-based paints.


We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we
rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took
hitchhiking.


As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.



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



We drank water from the garden hose and 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 and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but
we weren't overweight because
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!



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. And we were O.K.



We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride 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 did not have Playstations, Nintendo 's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no
99 channels on cable, no vi deo tape movies, no surround sound, no cell
phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet 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 were no
lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,
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 bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had 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
actua lly sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers
and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have 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 are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!


You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as
kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.
and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

does any of this sound like you guys from that time period....a step back in time or a time warp....hope ya all get a good tear from this memory from yer past......................bob

 

[jaybeach]

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no
99 channels on cable, no vi deo tape movies, no surround sound, no cell
phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat
rooms..........

Boy - we sure were underpriviledged! Got to wonder how we ever survived! :crackup:

 

[rabjr]

Oh my god did that bring back memorys. ::

 

[leslie]

To-day our Parents would likely get arrested for child abuse.Thanks for the memory!! :RO:

 

[RJR]

Great post Bob, I've been wondering for years how I survived as a kid with out all these necessities of today. Although I got my BB gun at 7 from my grandfather, a good old Daisy Red Rider and still have it, and it still works! Can't remember how many times I got my back side warmed for getting in trouble for various stupid things I did. But all that so called "child abuse" seems to have paid off as I'm a grown well adjusted adult in my 50's, never been in trouble with the law, hold a steady job, pay my bills and enjoy the simple things in life. Growing up like that taught me to be self reliant and appreciate what I have, not sorry for what I don't have. Enough rambling for me. Again, great post. Rick

 

[Zonie]

So THAT'S why I turned out the way I did!! :: ::
I knew falling out of that tree on my head would do something bad, but all my friends fell out of trees on their heads so we all seemed to think alike.

That's a good list!!
It did forget the match guns made from clothspins and the dirt clod fights where there was no denying someone "got" you because not only did you have a rising knot on the side of your head, but your cloths were covered with dust from the clods explosion. ::

Then there were the rubber band guns we made. There are rubber band guns, and their are BIG rubber band guns. The BIG guns fired rubber bands made from slices of worn out inner tubes we got at the Service Station. The RED ones always worked best!!

Then there's things like running full speed across the neighbors yard at night to get back to HOME BASE and tripping on the tricycle his kid left out there, and skidding across the gravel driveway and halfway thru the rose garden before coming to a stop. Then as you try to move, you hear your friends laughing and pointing at you! Then, a hand reaches out of the dark and whacks you in the small of the back and a voice says "Tag! Your "IT" boohahahahahha!!"
Those old scars come in handy during show and tell at the pub.

I better stop so I can go work on my "wayback" machine!
Dam! After living thru it, looking back is more fun than should be allowed. :: :: :crackup: :crackup:

 

[oomcurt]

Man, Right ON! Can't for the life of me figure out why/how parents today got so hooked on all the BS that is told them by schools, goobermint and sawbones. Just wish they would wake up and get real

 

[Holley]

Think it started with Dr. Spock...and then everyone got on this "I will sue" you train. :: :: :imo:

But it sure brought back memories for me. Kids today to not have an imagination for doing much. WE...use to go on the playground and make up stories of Cowboys and Indians, Zorro or draw a house in the ground with rooms and furniture you could "imagine" using. :huh: What ever happen to playing with paper dolls, wooden toys and just telling stories ::

 

[Cherokee]

Man that hits home with me.
My parents had to force me in the house at night.
I have to force my kids to go outside now.

 

[2172]

All of it hit home. whenever the local movie house showed a swashbuckler movie, like Errol Flynn's Robin Hood, we bought a 3 cent dowel at the hardware store, and a metal funnelslid on and taped on the dowel to provide a hand guard, and we fenced for a week or two...I remember leading the 7th cavalry down the middle of Maple St. waving my dowel sword to encourage my 4 troopers to attack..."They Died with Their Boots On" was good for a month...Hank

 

[lanedh]

Great post, Bob. I think my two grown sons (born in '65 and '70) would like to see this, too. Would do their self-esteem no end of good.

 

Thanks for sharing that. To top off my politically incorrect childhood, I was given a pocket knife at age 7 and made many of my own toys with it over the years(such as swords and guns carved out of soft pine)! Born in 1944.

 

[Rebel]

Got my first gun, a Daisy Model '94, when i was about 9. Killed many a barn rat with it. Then my grandpa got me my first sigle shot .22 when i was about 10 and a single shot .16 ga. at 11. I have been in to guns all my life , and am 51, almost 52, now. And you guys are right, we had imaginations as kids. We played cowboys and indians, and might only have a stick for a gun. We climbed trees, (and fell 0ut), and did all kinds of really stupid stuff, but we survived without lawsuits and lawyers. The world is a messed up place any more.

 

[Cherokee]

Me and my brother had a lyman 22 cal pellet gun. We sniped birds and anything we could see with it.
We both had pocket knifes when we were about 7.
No seatbelts and the highway speed was 75mph.
Our dogs never had a license. We had mini bikes and a moped once never had a helmet or a tag.
Fistfights witht he neighborhood kids and it never went past that.
Now you looked at me funny at a stop light pistols are pulled!


Makes me wish we could stop time and go back before the lawyers and whiners ruined it all.

 

[Rebel]

"Makes me wish we could stop time and go back before the lawyers and whiners ruined it all."

Yep, you and me both.

 

[rabjr]

Geesh to think about what was "normal" then and is "taboo" now. I wore a buck folding knife on my belt all through high school. Not that I ever thought I was getting away with something either. We used a knife for alot things in Agriculture class, it just was a normal thing to carry.

My parents signed for a brand new chevy pickup when I was 16 in 1977 as long as I made the $98.00 a month payment, which I did. At the time my school was on double sessions and we got out of school at 12:30. Sept/Oct would find a couple of pickups parked in the school parking lot with shotguns in the rear window rack, mine inclueded. A few of us would race after school let out to our favorate dove field. It was a normal thing to do back then.

 

[newt]

I was born in the Late 50's and I remember my uncle giving us .35 cents to ride our bikes to the gas station, and get him a pack of smokes out of the machine that was placed outside the station 24/7.
Nobody stole the machine!
After we returned he'd give us money to go back and buy a pop.
We built tree forts in the woods and nobody cared.
Hardly ever wore shoes.
Hardly ever swore.
Never did too much wrong, maybe coon a garden now and then.
even then we never took more than we needed.
We sang and prayed in school.
We got into fist fights now and then.
Nobody ever used a knife, gun ,or bat at a fight.
We hunted and fished from the time we were 8.
We opened doors for our elders.
We knew ever neighbor by name for three blocks around.
Our leaders and our teachers were honest.
Times sure have changed. :m2c:

 

A few of my high school classmates, ( Class of '71!), have forwarded this same thing to me in the past. I never tire of reading it. Proverbs says "Spare the rod, spoil the child". My parents took that to heart.....of course I'm confident I deserved it more often than not....hehehe. Thanks for the[url] memories......again[/url]!

Vic

 

I still got the skate key, from the skates I got for my eigth birthday, but the skates are gone. :cry: Remember skate Keys Bill

 

[Gary]

Different country, different times, happier too.