What were we thinking!?

[doc834]

My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and roll out pie crust on the
same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't
seem to get food poisoning.

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat
it raw sometimes too, but I can't remember ever getting E-coli.

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead
of a pristine pool (talk about boring), 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
don'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.

Every year, someone taught the whole school a lesson by running in
the halls with leather soles on linoleum tile and hitting the wet spot.
How much better off would we be today if we only knew we could
have sued the school system.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and the pledge and staying
in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention. We
must have had horribly damaged psyches.

I can't understand it. Schools didn't offer 14 year olds an abortion
or condoms (we wouldn't have known what they were anyway) but they
did give us a couple of baby aspirin and cough syrup if we started
getting the sniffles.
What an archaic health system we had then.

Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was
allowed to be proud of myself. I don't recall how bored we were
without computers, playStation, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital cable
stations.

I must be repressing that memory as I try to rationalize through the
denial of the dangers could have befallen us as we trekked off each
day, about a mile down the road to some guy's vacant 20, built forts
out of branches and pieces of plywood, made trails, and fought over
who got to be the Lone Ranger. What was that property owner
thinking, letting us play on that lot. He should have been locked up
for not putting up a fence around the property,complete with a
self-closing gate and an infrared intruder alarm.

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 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 (physical abuse) here too ... and then we
got our butt spanked again when we got home.

Mom invited the door to door salesman inside for coffee, kids choked
down the dust from the gravel driveway while playing with Tonka trucks
(remember why Tonka trucks were made tough . . . it wasn't so that
they could take the rough Berber in the family room), and Dad drove
a car with leaded gas.

Our music had to be left inside when we went out to play and I am
sure that I nearly exhausted my imagination a couple of times when
we went on two week vacations. I should probably sue the folks now
for the danger they put us in when we all slept in campgrounds in the
family tent.

Summers were spent behind the push lawnmower and I didn't even
know that mowers came with motors until I was 13 and we got one
without an automatic blade-stop or an auto-drive.

How sick were my parents? Of course my parents weren't the only
psychos.

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????

Easy----Simply; "In God We Trust"

[bsg1fan1975]

you said it doc! I remember alot of that stuff. What happened to the good ol' days?

[doc834]

I guess they went to the court room.

[bsg1fan1975]

yup!!!!!!! Wish they would come back, I miss them and I ain't even 30 yet!

[amberstar]

I remember those days too and I'm just a little over 30.

We swang on grape vines and let go to drop in the river! We could have broken our necks ....but never did.

Road our bikes, played ball, or ran all over town playing war, tag ext... from day light till dark, but when those dawn to dusk lights came on we knew we better get home or MOM would come looking for us! * Now kids don't have to go home they can stay out all night*

We were afraid to get into trouble at school......for fear of a public spanking, and what was even worse... if we got into trouble at school ........it was double trouble when we got home!

Television shows were centered around family..... Little house, family ties, Happy Days, The Cosby Show, even the Bradys & Dukes of Hazzard. I think we only had three or four channels back then!

I remember going to the arcade to play video games ski ball, and pin ball! Went through a lot of quarters back then until ATARI came out......

We did pray every morning and before every ball game, people even took their hats off during the prayer and the raising of the Americian flag.

You could even leave your doors un locked all night, and nothing bad would happen. but now if a thief broke in to your house and got hurt on your property they can sue you!

*I miss the old days too*

[Gemini1999]

I remember those days better than most of you.....I'm past 40! Reading that made me glad that I grew up when I grew up and went to school when I went to school. I shudder to think what it is like to raise a child in times like these....

Best,
Bryan

[BST]

Originally Posted by Gemini1999

I remember those days better than most of you.....I'm past 40! Reading that made me glad that I grew up when I grew up and went to school when I went to school. I shudder to think what it is like to raise a child in times like these....

Best,
Bryan

It's not to difficult to raise a child these days, as long as you stick to YOUR value system. If you retain what is good from the past and add to it some of the tech advancements made since then, you'll do fine.

Also, it helps if the grandparents are still around. The lessons / tricks of the trade that are imparted from that generation can be invaluable in raising a child.

[Senmut]

Originally Posted by Gemini1999

I remember those days better than most of you.....I'm past 40! Reading that made me glad that I grew up when I grew up and went to school when I went to school. I shudder to think what it is like to raise a child in times like these....

Best,
Bryan

As am I. Hasn't modern "education" and TV just done wonders?????

[martok2112]

Spankings. YES
Time Outs. NO

The Corner: YES
Counseling: NO




'nuff said,
Martok

[martok2112]

Originally Posted by Gemini1999
I remember those days better than most of you.....I'm past 40! Reading that made me glad that I grew up when I grew up and went to school when I went to school. I shudder to think what it is like to raise a child in times like these....

Best,
Bryan

Originally Posted by Senmut

As am I. Hasn't modern "education" and TV just done wonders?????

Today ,kids have to deal with politically correct claptrap. Today, kids are not allowed to pray in school because it might offend a child of a different religion, or a child who (for some unfathomable reason) is an aetheist.

Today, kids are taught by their peers that the things that were taboo so long ago (alternative lifestyles, anti-God sentiments, Kurt Cobain, etc) are now cool and acceptable...and even fashionable.

Today, in some schools, kids have to learn the ridiculous stuff, like "ebonics"...great way to teach them how to speak with a lazy tongue.

Today, kids are taught that they can pass school because the answers they give in school to questions are now "all correct"..even if they're wrong.

Today's kids are an experiment in "liberal whimsy".

Stopping now before I get too Klingon.

Martok2112

[Archangel]

Originally Posted by Warrior

You know what's sad about all of this "old days" stuff?

Those kids you happily remember just happen to be those new parents you despise today...

And that's the worst thing. It seems that the more we 'advance' as a society, the more retarded we actually get.

What the hell's wrong with letting kids be kids and getting the requisite scrapes and scratches that go with it.

I know that I'm not the only person today that had a rough and tumble (but for the most part enjoyable, childhood) None of my well earned dings, bruises, cuts and scrapes killed me.

How did we (d)evolve into such a litigious and supposedly safe society?

[martok2112]

It almost feels like the world of "The Demolition Man".

[Archangel]

Originally Posted by martok2112

It almost feels like the world of "The Demolition Man".

If it comes to a point where sex is done through goofy looking helmets, I think It'll be time to check out of this existence

[julix]

This Thread is very funny but also very sad,
I am a Mom as are other members here and I agree there are lots of times I miss"the good old days" and I agree with a lot that is said here but I want to be able to focus on what is positive. So much of it comes down to good parenting and it is hard and takes lots of committment. A lot of people out there aren't doing it. We can't go back obviously and shouldn't. I used to idolize the 50's and then I talked to a friends Mom about her experience growing up then and it isn't always as good as it seems. Everyon'e experience is different. There are pros and cons for everything. We all have choices to make...we all have a say in where the future goes don't we????



Btw....BST you said it well!

[BST]

Thanks, julix.

[braxiss]

reading this made me look back at high school and laugh, because the stuff i did then, kids are going to jail for now. interesting how things change