earthdog
Cave Dweller 
Don't eat yellow snow
Member since June 2006
Posts: 2,731
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Post by earthdog on Jan 31, 2007 18:04:15 GMT -5
Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't get food poisoning.
My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat a bite raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper, in a brown paper bag, not in icepack coolers, but I can't remember anybody getting e.coli.
Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.
The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.
We all took gym, not PE... and risked permanent injury with a pair of hightop Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built-in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have
happened, because they tell us how much safer we are now....
Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.
Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the National Anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention. We must have had horribly damaged psyches.
What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything, and she could even give you an aspirin for a headache or fever.
I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself. I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.
Oh yeah..and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed!
We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of Mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked!
Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.
We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either, because if we did, we got our butt spanked there, and then we got butt spanked again when we got home. I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off. Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house. Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof.
It was a neighborhood run amuck.
To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a "dysfunctional family". How could we possibly have known that we needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac! How did we ever survive?
LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA, AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T---- SORRY FOR WHAT YOU MISSED. I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING
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MichiganRocks
starting to spend too much on rocks
"I wasn't born to follow."
Member since April 2007
Posts: 154
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Post by MichiganRocks on Jan 31, 2007 19:11:34 GMT -5
Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't get food poisoning. My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat a bite raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper, in a brown paper bag, not in icepack coolers, but I can't remember anybody getting e.coli. Hey Jimmy, along these same lines, the reason that pepper became such a valuable spice in history, was because it was so good at covering up the smell of rotted meat. Funny that we ate that meat all those centuries, and we're still here. I think that maybe we've over-complicated life. I mean, after all, life should be fun, no matter how long or short it is. Ron |
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Post by lbowman1 on Jan 31, 2007 19:59:14 GMT -5
Here's another topic that's not good to get me started on. I think so many people are in therapy now because people now adays are basically nuts. But there's nice, fun kind of crazy and then there's stupid crazy.
When my older son was little I told I was a horrible parent by another parent because I didn't force my son to watch Barney, that evil purple dinosaur. He didn't want to watch Barney. He wanted to go out and play which I thought was a better idea. Shame on me!
Last year I was told I was a horrible parent because my younger son doesn't wear Nikes and the embarrassment of being the only one in class without Nikes would scar him for life. A teacher told me this and threatened to report me (Who to? Nike?) Neither of my sons have ever asked for a pair and frankly they would rather wear cheap shoes have me give them the left over cash to buy stuff they do think is cool.
Just last month the school board ruled that the children are no longer allowed to run and play on the playground or in the gym at any time because they might fall and get hurt. They are also not allowed to play with baseballs, softballs, basketballs, footballs or soccerballs. This came just 2 months after the PTA had a huge fundraiser begging everyone for money to buy new playground equipment that now can not be used. It's still all shiny and pretty because no one can play on it. If that's not enough the school is constantly sending flyers home on the importance of teaching kids to get enough exercise to prevent them from getting obese and growing up to be couch potatoes.
Some of the good old days weren't all that good but I sure do miss common sense.
Lori
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Post by ladyt on Jan 31, 2007 20:48:24 GMT -5
E-dog, I hear ya!! I miss the days of non politically correct garbage. Life was so much easier. All the gadgets and such, man we must have been a boring bunch of kids. LOL I can remember all that stuff and yep it was a great time!!! Tonja  |
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Post by sandsman1 on Jan 31, 2007 21:09:39 GMT -5
all so true --- and i know in my heart we had it better then kids today -- we usta love a snow storm on trash nite we would all get anything that would slide out of the trash and head for the cemetery there was a good hill with a road up the center and even as we all got older you could still see us on the hill slidin down on fridge doors or a broken chair on a board we just had a beer or a fatty in our hands hahaha--- last time i went there with my daughter we where asked to leave after acouple mins -- and it was all fathers with there kids and i knew most of them from years gone by--- whats with all the rules haha --- kids now adays dont know how to have fun unless they have something that plugs in ------ hell we usta cut pimple balls in half go steal crazy elenores mop and unscrew the mop and have a game of half ball for 8 hrs hahaha you leave kids alone for 8 hrs without elec. now and they will be in a comma hahaha--- well mosta them anyway
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earthdog
Cave Dweller
Don't eat yellow snow
Member since June 2006
Posts: 2,731
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Post by earthdog on Jan 31, 2007 21:35:20 GMT -5
We used to have dirt clod battles where they were building new houses and hide behind the piles of dirt. We used to get all the kids together and play kick the can, or walk down to the creek and shoot frogs with our bb guns.
We used to be scared when another parent yelled at us. We didn't flip them the bird and yell, "you ain't my parent". I remember in 1970 when I was 10 and I got a record player to play 45's on. Remember bands like Grand funk railroad and Blue Oyster Cult?
At homecoming we used to ride around in hotrods and tomato other cars and other kids..
Those were the days.. Today you go to jail and or get sued for tomatoing someones car..
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Post by lbowman1 on Jan 31, 2007 22:15:48 GMT -5
I still remember 5 kids riding a car hood down a snow covered hill. Crashing through the snow with a bunch of friends was fun even if the ride couldn't properly be called a sled.
I remember we used to have persimmon fights. It they were green it was kind of painful and we got some bruises but nobody thought anything about it. Now DSS would be called in to check for physical abuse. If the persimmons were over-ripe and starting to rot it got pretty disgusting and the object was to be the one with the least persimmon goop on you when you got home at teh end of the day. Our parents would just hose us down before we went in the house so we wouldn't track goop on the rug. No big deal. Now DSS would be called in for rotten food and water torture.
Sure seems like things were more fun back then. Kids toys are more expensive and more complicated now but kids still usually prefer playing with the boxes they come in. People should take a lesson from that.
Lori
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spikeict
fully equipped rock polisher
Alba gu bra! In Promptu
Member since November 2006
Posts: 1,413
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Post by spikeict on Jan 31, 2007 23:03:19 GMT -5
Right there with you. I worked and saved for my toys, played with my friends until well after the street lights came on, and when I asked to sleep outside I was asked if Wayne was sleeping out also and I said he was, dad would turn his head away and say yes knowing that my best friend and I would be prowling the neighborhood half the night. But it was ok because we could be mostly trusted and there were no real life boogie men out there.
One of my best memories is a afternoon after a major snow, a buddy and I spent the whole day slidding on sleds, plastic and our bellies in the street. Glad I am not able to say it was a day I was allowed a extra hour playing Age of warcraft or whatever it is.
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Post by joe on Jan 31, 2007 23:32:24 GMT -5
Yeah! We had acorn fights in the fall and FIREWORKS in the summer!!!
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Post by parfive on Feb 1, 2007 1:35:39 GMT -5
Edog - I'll give ya a break cause you were only 10, but seeing Grand Funk and Blue Oyster and 45's  in the same sentence makes me cringe. Gotta be albums, maaaaaann ;D Rich |
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Post by puppie96 on Feb 1, 2007 2:21:53 GMT -5
I agree in spirit with a lot of what's been said, totally disagree with some, and mixed on the rest.
The one I have to add is that I noticed a couple of years ago that you never see kids in line at the supermarket by themselves getting milk, bread, hamburger, and such. What's up with that? From age 8 onwards it was routine to get sent to the store for such stuff...last minute ingredients for dinner that were forgotten, bread that ran out before the lunches were packed...you know, the same stuff as today. It was a couple long blocks to the store & we walked or biked. It was normal. Where I live now, it is also a suburb with zillions of kids and the grocery store at the corner, bigger and nicer than the ones from my childhood but still within the same distance or less from all of these kids, and still no dangerous streets to cross, but moms no longer send the kids on supermarket errands.
On the hamburger, ecoli and all that, we all have to face the fact that the bugs have gotten much worse. They are nastier and much harder to get rid of. If you look at publications on home canning for instance, recommendations coming from the extension services every year have changed considerably. They aren't just blowing smoke, the danger is greater. We could have another whole discussion dealing with the reasons for this, since we brought many if not most of these problems on ourselves with things like overuse of antibiotics, hybridization that's lowered the acidity of most tomatoes to the point that they can't be assumed safe from botulism, etc. To be fair, some of the problems are consequences of improvements, like sanitation, that save lives but limit exposure to germs and development of immunity.
Looking back on it I'm sometimes amazed I survived to adulthood. My hair stands on end when I think about the bike "obstacle courses" we would invent that involved going down a steep grassy slope with a terrace halfway down and a curb and parking lot right at the bottom and barely enough time to get the brakes on before you smashed into the bumper of the car parked just a few yards from the curb. I wiped out on the bike plenty of times, as well as the sled (one run resulting in an ER trip with a smashed arm -- this was caused by ROCKS actually -- they were hiding under some snow that I thought I could run into safely), I took headers off of scooters and even wagons, which we'd drag to the top of the hill, sit in and get a running start to jump in and go downhill -- in the street. Wheeee! And the many hours of exploring the storm drain system, which I pretty much had mapped by the time I was 13, and was easily accessed through a pipe on the next street. As much as I wouldn't want my own kid doing this stuff, I'm not sure that helmets and other safety equipment would have made much difference.
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flatumbler
starting to spend too much on rocks
Now totally addicted!!!
Member since January 2007
Posts: 191
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Post by flatumbler on Feb 1, 2007 5:14:29 GMT -5
Although I am not quite 40 yet, I too can remember how so many of these things are true. I tell my children all the time about how it "was" . We have all come a long way since then and so many things have changed and not all were for the better, careful how you scold your child... you might face jail time or lose your kids all together. That crack across the butt for running all around the store may just cost you your life now. Don't you dare even think about sending your child to the store for anything unless you plan on going, they may be taken, raped, sold or just flat out killed because they no longer have the right of way anymore.
All the new strands of viruses, bugs, infections and what not is unfortunate but very true. That of course just goes along with everything else that has changed in the last 30+ yrs, and all of our so called improvements in life. Seem to me life was better and much simpler before all the "improvements" began.
My children come home from school now and tell me, dad I need to get on the computer tonight because the teacher says this must be done on Microsoft Word in a particular format and all my information needs to be referenced with links from the internet. (So much for encyclopedias anymore) My other son comes home and tells me he must have a special $120 calculator for his advanced math class in high school. If he fails to produce one then he will fail the class. What the heck? Glad I can afford it and feel bad for the parents who couldn't, guess their children will be denied the education they deserve because of it.
Anyways, I am just rambling on and could go on for quite some time on this subject, but bottom line is, All these improvements seem to add up to shorter lives, more expense and heck, its just not as much fun anymore.
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KG1960
has rocks in the head
Member since August 2008
Posts: 512
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Post by KG1960 on Feb 1, 2007 9:42:35 GMT -5
Yes, the antibiotic-resistant germs, etc. are a problem.
I remember going to the store a couple of blocks away by myself for my parents. There would usually be an extra nickel or dime so I could get a candy bar for myself. (Remeber nickel candy bars?) My father even had me get cigarettes for him. He would write a note saying it was all right with him to sell cigarettes to a 9 year old. They would sell them to me - no problem. Now you get arrested if you are 17 and possess a cigarette. (BTW, I never smoked.)
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themax
having dreams about rocks
Member since April 2005
Posts: 61 
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Post by themax on Feb 1, 2007 10:24:55 GMT -5
I too remember walking to the neighborhood store for the "forgotten" dinner item. It was an added bonus if you found a pop bottle along the way that you could "return for deposit" and buy yourself an extra treat. For me, the treat was usually a pack of baseball cards. I don't remember how much they cost but probably not more than a quarter and certainly less than they do today; even figuring in inflation. And remember the gum in the pack? I bet the cards tasted better than the gum. And if you got a card you didn't like, you clipped it on your bike with a clothespin so it flipped in the spokes and sounded like a motorcycle.
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stefan
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2005
Posts: 14,113
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Post by stefan on Feb 1, 2007 10:51:15 GMT -5
I must be VERY Lucky- Our school (ok my daughters school) still has a CHRISTMAS CONCERT- where they sang songs like Rouldolf- but also Songs like Away in a Manger!!! And Merry Christmas was wished to ALL!!! They have PE but also they have one period a day were they either A: Play outside on the playground, or B: play in the gym. We have a pool and the kids take swimming. If you don't do your Homework- You get detention!!! If you manage to do ALL your Homework for the YEAR you get a pizza party- Miss just one assignment- NO PIZZA FOR YOU!!!! If you don't go to school- they call you and ask why? About the only thing they are a bit nuts on is the Medication issue-
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Post by takilasunrise on Feb 1, 2007 12:58:52 GMT -5
I would imagine it still depends on what neighborhood you live in today. I won't send my girls to the store or go bike riding or even walk the dog unless they are going together and have their cell phones and it's still light out. Though they are too old for trick-or-treating now, I always went with them when they were younger. I don't ever remember my parents going with us when we went as kids; and it was at held at night on the night of Halloween! Where we live now, Trick-or-treating is held the Sunday prior to Halloween and from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM.....yes, in the afternoon. So much for all the decorations. Not quite the same during the day. Respect for adults has definitely went by the wayside. Unfortunately, that has come with different views of childrearing, some good and some bad.
But, I do remember my mom, who was a teenager in the 1950's, thinking my generation was just as bad as we think of the teen-agers now. She thought listening to Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin and not going out on a "proper date" would send me to "hell". Yes, I've had my moments, but I'm still here, as a productive citizen, served in the military, never went to jail, I pay my taxes, never went on welfare, etc.
Yes, we've discovered what does make you sick and medicines to make you better, we've come up with tremendous new technology to help our lives be easier. But now our lives depend on this new technology and the next generations won't know how to be self-sufficient. That's a scarey thought!
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Post by lbowman1 on Feb 1, 2007 16:27:02 GMT -5
Yeah, I remember when Pink Floyd was the work of the devil. Now it's in the elevator music section of the bargain bin at the music store. Used to be called the record store but people don't know what records are anymore.
Some things have improved and some haven't. I agree with the thing about kids not being self sufficient. I have made sure both my kids know how to cook and wash clothes and do things around the house--even the little one. One day my older son told me he isn't going to cook because that's a womans job. I grabbed him by the shirt and looked him in the eye. "Hold on one minute. The reason I want you to know how to cook is so that you wont have to rely on anyone else to feed you. I don't want you to have to marry the first woman you can find that will cook for you just to keep yourself from starving. As long as you can take care of yourself you can date who ever you want for what ever reason you want without having to worry about where your next meal is coming from."
He went in the kitchen and made himself a cheeseburger. LOL
Lori
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Post by takilasunrise on Feb 2, 2007 10:28:10 GMT -5
Good! It's nice to hear of a mom teaching her son how to do the "woman's jobs", too. I think the majority of the "old school" moms spoiled their sons and the majority of men over 35 still have the attitude that it's a woman's job to take care of them. BS! I only have daughters, but I taught them to be self-reliant and not depend on a man to take care of them. It's nice to be able to share your life with a man, but you got to be able to take care of yourself. Don't be afraid to lean what you can about fixing your car or doing home repairs.
Anyway, referring to my post above, about how it depends on where you live? Well, I came home last night, and just a few blocks away from my house, the block was surrounded by cops. A man, who apparently went over the deep end, told the bank that he has a bomb and wants directions to the police dept. so he can blow it up. We had the news copters above our house for hours last night. There was no bomb, but it sure ruined a lot of people's night with evacuations, etc. And that's why I don't send my kids to the store to pick up stuff I need for dinner!
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181lizard
Cave Dweller
Still lurking :)
Member since December 2005
Posts: 2,171
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Post by 181lizard on Feb 3, 2007 16:38:31 GMT -5
This is kinda strange. I just ran across a journal my Mom started. It's only a few handwritten pages, but very appropriate to this thread, I think.
She was born in 1929. The same year of "The Big Crash". Here's a little bit of her story:
Suicides were reported daily in the papers. Businesses failed and scores of people were out of work.
Mortgages went unpaid and families were evicted from their homes. Bread lines & soup kitchens were formed to feed the hungry. Welfare as we know it now...did not exist.
A great trek of humans began all over this country. Most were men, some were women and some were families. There were no jobs to be had. They came from the cities & towns hoping to exist on begging or working ANY menial job they could find.
My parents called the men that traveled across the country "Hobo's." These men hopped the freight trains, running out of the weeds & brush along the tracks. Many of them lost legs & arms. Some even lost their lives.
On the backs of the hobo's, they carried all they possessed. In a rag or burlap bag, tied in a knot, some would slip a stick in order to carry their treasures. Some had a bar of soap. A few lucky fellows had a blanket in which they rolled up their things.
Hobo camps sprung up along the tracks. Here, they would congregate, telling their tales & passing along information about many things. They followed the harvests. Backbreaking work for pennies. Chopping wood for meals. Some begged at doors for handouts but always offering work for exchange. They also had a system of marking a home, farm or business where people had been kind, telling those that followed after, they might get lucky.
One instance: we lived on a small 3.5 acre farm outside of Eugene in a community called Bethel. A field separated our house from the tracks and hobos would find us. Some asked if they could pick a few plums, apples, cherries or whatever was ripe. Sometimes they even asked of they might have a few vegetables from our huge garden to make a stew. They always offered to work for whatever they asked for.
About 10 o'clock one nite, we heard our dog Brownie yapping & barking furiously. We heard running feet across the yard. When we opened the front door, we saw the figure of a man heading to the road yelling bloody murder with Brownie firmly anchored in the seat of his pants. Poor fellow kept pleading "call him off!" but Brownie wouldn't relinquish his hold.
They disappeared across the road, but a few minutes later he came back with a a scrap of cloth firmly clenched between his teeth and a swagger in his step! For some reason...we weren't bothered by hobos for a time after that.
Can any of us imagine this happening today? Lawsuits would abound! People would sue the railroad for their injuries sustained while hopping the cars...We'd be shooting people for trespassing on our property...we'd be getting sued by people who had been attacked by our dog for coming unasked onto our property & we'd probably lose in court cause the insurance company would want to cancel our homeowners policies, so we'd have to put our faithful dog down...then...we'd get sued by a hobo cause they got e-coli from eating fruit or veggies out of our garden...
nuff said.
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in the same sentence makes me cringe. 
