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

[Don]

Great post! Kids now a days are missing some important lessons because of the pampering they get. I grew up in an Irish Catholic neighborhood just outside of Chicago and on a regular basis while out playing with my little chums a group of older boys would show up to give us our "tough lessons". These usually consisted of push ups, sit ups and jumping jacks. They also had us run an obstical course and then just plain knocked us around. Sometimes we thought they were mean. One thing was for sure we learned to take our knocks and not whine about it. Psycologists call it distress tolerance now a days, we called it "not bein a whimp". We never retaliated by belting frends and family we just figured out how to out smart or out tough the older boys the next time they came around. Seems folks now a days when they run head long into lifes many injustices either give up or lash out in ways we never would have thought of. Now I'm not recommending we knock the neighbor's kids around but we need to discourage our kids from getting caught up in self pity and teach them better ways to cope other than shootin the fella that called them a name(Thank you Hollywood for that bit of disfunctionality)

Off the Soap Box Now

Don

 

[bob1961]

yer all very welcome....i also remember going out on my bike with a fishin pole at 9:00 am and not gitting home till just bout dark (i was told to be home by dark which ment dinner or missed it) and traveled bout 10 + miles from home....fist fights and and weather ya won or lost it WAS done fer....raiding the farmers gardens with a knife and salt shaker and gitting salt shot at us (ouch)....ah them were the days....there's more but fer the life of me i'll have to sit and think harder to bring them back....i wish i could claim this post as mine but it was emailed to me and thought ya could use it :thumbsup:............bob

 

[horkeye]

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.

I received this a few weeks ago from a friend, read it and thought that it was quite true; I was so impressed I sent it to my wife.

I gave it some more thought a day or so later, and realised:

1 - Which generation invented PlayStations etc?

2 - What generation do the "lawyers and the government" come from?

Unfortunately, the answer is MY/OUR generation!!!

:thumbsup:

Lehigh County, propa longarms!

 

[Powderhorn]

Zonie: Your mention of dirt clods really brought back a flood of memories. It seemed that there were always house being built back then (1950's) and dirt clod fights were a weekly activity. I remember some major injuries being inflicted yet no one got sued, etc. I still have a cap on one of my front teeth from having it shot off by a BB gun! Those were the days. I do believe lawyers have been the major reason things are so screwed up now. :imo:
Hornman

 

[LeeRoy87]

Heartfelt thanks for posting this. I was born in 1940 and wouldn't trade my good childhood memories with anybody. Don't feel especially long-winded just now -- I'm a writer by trade and wrote myself plumb out finishing up a money-maker tonight, so suffice it to say I grew up mostly in the country -- Southern Appalachia and northern Lower Michigan -- and dogs, guns and fishing tackle were as much a part of my boyhood as schoolbooks and chores. In fact I feel profound sorrow for the kids of today: compared to us and the freedom we enjoyed, they are as oppressed as slaves (and yet paradoxically as purposeless as pampered wantons), and I lament the fact they will never be allowed know anything even remotely approaching the liberty and independence we all took for granted.

 

[redhairedwench]

Great post. Brought back loads of memories. I was born in 1967, and remember catching fireflies in my Grandpa's back yard and putting 'em in a jar to watch them glow. My cousins and I used to play Tarzan in the weeping willows that lined the driveway, and quite often fell out of the tree as we were swinging on the vinelike branches. We got bumps, scrapes, and bruises, and never complained, since our parents would just tell us to go clean it up, and wrap it in a piece of old clean sheet!. We drank water straight out of the pump using a mason jar EVERYONE used. And I don't recall EVER having a problem sleeping at night, since we usually were outside all the time, reguardless of the weather. I grew up in farm country in southeastern Michigan, and still remember getting milk in glass quart bottles, having coal delivered, and party line phones. No TV after the news at night. Ditto with the AM radio station we got. I even own a pic of me watching I LOVE LUCY on our black and white tv!! I truly think we were better off without all the modern toys we have today! :m2c:

 

[Maynerd62411]

Don't forget fireworks. I loved fireworks. When I was 12 I saved my money and ordered 3 big boxes of fireworks from Missouri. They came UPS . It was illegal to have fireworks in Illinois , even then. Noone said a word. I blew up everything I could think of. My Mom showed me a few tricks with ladyfingers and cow patties. :crackup: That was a blast.

 

[Walker357]

Yeah cuz, rotten apples make great aerial bombs. Ya just got to get them thrown before the fuse burns down. Hard to the apple stain out of your clothes. :haha:

 

[rabjr]

I miss drive in movies.

 

[Rebel]

The movie, or the back seat? :: ::

 

[rabjr]

What movie?? Ohhhh to be 16 again... :winking:

 

[bob1961]

I gave it some more thought a day or so later, and realised:

1 - Which generation invented PlayStations etc?

2 - What generation do the "lawyers and the government" come from?

Unfortunately, the answer is MY/OUR generation!!!

sad but true :cry: ..................bob

 

[caneman]

I have 3 drive-ins 10 min., 30 min., 50 min. from my house. Still like them and they are sellouts at least three nights a week and half or more the other four nights.

Never go to a under roof type.

 

[musketman]

I miss drive in movies.

I about froze to death when I went to a drive in to see "Closed for the season"...

 

[Gordon Horn]

Being raised on a farm, we had ponies. After morning chores I'd bridle up 'Paint' (we didn't have any saddle) and off we'd go. Paint, me and my Winchester (Daisy BB gun) be gone till dusk. Ran all over the neighbors farms and such. Nobody said nuthin' about tresspassin' and we never did either. Hunt where ya wanted cause the game did'nt belong to anyone. Fished and swam in all the ponds around, nobody worried about it. Learned lots of lessons the hard way, but once learned, they stuck. Did'nt realize it then but it was a great childhood. Wish kids today had freedom like that.

 

[horkeye]

I about froze to death when I went to a drive in to see "Closed for the season"...

MM,

I thought rollingb was not well, but I see you are right there with him!! :crackup: :crackup:

:thumbsup:

PS My daughter (18) adores your pet!

 

[musketman]

PS My daughter (18) adores your pet!

Thanks, me too...

 

[shmrck1]

MM,
you must have gone to "closed for the season" by
youself. One thing i never got at the "Drive-In" was
cold!!!!!!
What i miss is the old drive-in restaurants, street
drag racing and my mom and dad!
snake-eyes :thumbsup:

 

[The Kansan]

I wrote this a few (ok, MANY) moons back while in a severly nostalgic (and utterly pensive) frame of mind. It's not the best I've written and this is the first time that anyone outside of family/friends have seen it. (with built in apologies to Robert W. Service's "The Skeptic")

The Refective Skeptic
(c)1989 by ...Me - The Kansan...

Early morning yesterday,
We spent a lot of time along the way
Pickin' flowers an' skippin' rocks
Across the streams of our youth.
But tomorrow always comes
With banners and beating drums
And age demands that we must
Carry on and carry through;

We grow up alike, in different ways
And bid goodbye our childhood days.
And suddenly find where we were headed
Was really nowhere fast.
Then one day we reach the peak,
Just to find the answers that we seek
Are only further questions
That link us to our past...

Well, the circle goes 'round and 'round,
As down life's road we go -
I lost my father Christmas
When I was barely seven.
And by my twenty first birthday,
I was sure I'd never know
What thrill it was to see the gates of Heaven.

Yet not in any of these lies the curse -
I guess the hell of it's because:
I don't know which loss hurt me worse;
My youth, my God... Or Santa Clause.


...The Kansan...

 

[Walker357]

Very well done. We all lose our youth, and with it Santa Claus, but I sincerely hope you haven't lost your God. eace: