OT: The Good Old Days
 

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN 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 video 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 yelled for 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 actually 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!

Look at what we had, and look at what we now have, and tell me how in the hell we ever let this happen to us? You never know how good you have it, until it is gone.

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

mmmmmmmmm cupcakes!!

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

Were you feeling a little nostalgic Atrocities????

If you weren't you sure made me feel that way.

Thanks for the thoughts.

Ex

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

Don’t forget to add the part about having to walk to and from school barefoot in the snow up hill both ways!!!

Your parents probably lamented that the kids of the 30-70’s didn’t have to plow fields, milk cows and chop wood before and after school. The probably complained radio was good enough for them who needed three TV channels to watch and in color what would be come of those kids.

I expect great things of the kids now days! Or else they will have to go back to chopping wood and milking cows!!!

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

Oh we walked to the bus stop about a mile each way for years.

Where a trip to McDonalds was as rare as a $0.50 cents per gallon gas is now and was real treat.

Where the family all had dinner together at the same time.

Where the rotary phone was king and there was phone booth on every block.

When you could eat bacon and eggs every morning because Mom got up early and made you breakfast.

Where you could get into a fight in school over kids things and not worry about being sent to prison or having your parents sued into bankruptcy.

Where toys were made of metal and held up to abuse for years.

When Star Wars was the coolest thing ever and ever kid on the block wanted to be luke skywalker flying his x-wing fighter.

A time when we all went to church and sunday school without fear of harm and or offending the politically correct.

A time when it was ok to tell someone that they were a jack *** and say f*** off without loosing our jobs over sexual harrasment.

Where the finger was king and anger managment was even a concept.

Where men settled problems not with lawyers, but with a good old fist fight.

A time when you could leave your house unlocked all day and night.

Where seeing in gun haning in a gun rack in the back window of a pick up truck didn't cause two thousand calls to 911.

When you could ride your dirt bike up the road and no one cared or called the cops.

When kids that were hyper got smacked and told to calm down, and they always did. The poor mans ridillin.

When a large pizza was truly a LARGE pizza and not delivered by some pimply faced drug addict from domino's.

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

Well actually...I'm a child of the mid-late 80's http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif Though since I don't live in a city, most of the above applied to me when I was a child as well! Still do drink water from the garden hose, even drank from a mud puddle a time or two. Didn't kill me, and helped keep my immune system strong!

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

Frogs and snakes...A boy's best friends.

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

And now, in the interests of fairness, a rebuttal from one of those unfortunate children who didn't make it through "the good old days" alive...

...

...

Oh.

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

Has anyone noticed its always the good old days for someone?

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

you could fill your car up with gas for $1.00 and drive all day

go to the cornor drug store and get a nickle rootbeer at the food counter

gas was 17 cents a gal

ciggeretts were 15 cents a pack

going to the show was 25 cents

drive inns were everywwhere and you snuck in hiding in the trunk

your car could get hit by another and only get a dent

kids used their imagniation for toys and playing

you built forts in the woods and slept out without someone calling you in as suspicious punks

very few people watched TV, (most didn't have one)

sitting at the table at night listening to the radio shows,
hopalong cassidy, green hornet, the shadow, amos and andy

a new ford mustang was only $750, $1000 for convertable

mcdonalds burgers were 7 cents

mcdonalds franchise was only $15,000

cruising parking lots of the local big boy restraunts

kids actually worked on their own cars



ahhhhhh, the good old days

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

I just heard on CBS news that there are those in congress and the senate, *caugh* democrats, that want to raise taxes on gas so that a gallon of gas costs $6.00. Oh ya, like I am really going to vote for them if that is how they think....

Lets raise the gas tax to force people into not driving. If they do that, then today is the good old days for tomorrow sure as hell won't be.

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

Yeah, I miss those days when I was a kid...

Some of my happiest moments that I remember were from my elementary school days. I had a couple of good friends. We used to build some our own toys together, out of wood, cardboard, old containers, etc. We played outside a lot, too, climbing trees, running around in the forest, exploring. Growing up in North Vancouver, British Columbia, there were a lot of forests nearby. There still is today, but back then, there was even more. After school, we'd play until it started to get dark, and then we'd go home.

Back then, I didn't worry about my marks at school. I didn't worry about exams or assignments. There were no deadlines, no important projects, no bosses, no customers to deal with, no office politics, no work pressure, no job stress.

Things were not perfect back then. Of course there were problems. I wasn't happy 100% of the time. There were family problems, bullies, and so on. But I didn't worry about those constantly. When we were playing, we were busy playing - not thinking about things that weren't going right. And things usually did work out in the end.

What happened over the years? High school, university, then getting a job, working on a career. More responsibilities, more expectations, and increasingly, our worth is judged by others, on what we produce. Somehow, along the way, something is lost.

Sure, I still do fun things now and then and play games and so on, but it's not the same. It's like, even when I'm playing, somewhere in the back of my mind I'm worrying about something, like the problems at work, money problems, and so on. It's hard to be in the moment.

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

You guys are lucky to have memories like this. I moved around so much I never even got to settle in with friends or anything. :/

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

Hey Atro, did you hear about one of the local schools lowering the requirements to be a valedictorian? That's so there are more valedictorians and less people will have their feelings hurt.

I miss the days of steam powered televisions!

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

Well that's a switch. Schmaltz Atrocities?

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

Oh wow, cshank2, you were SO lucky to see so many places as a kid! Kindergarten through high school I lived in the same old town! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

Hahahaha. Yeah...

I was always moving around the midwest... so different places were all the same, just a varying ammount of wildlife...

Here's a literal conversation between me and my grandma.

"Tree... tree... Dead Deer.... HEY THERE'S A COW!"
"So we're in Wisconsin?"


Yeah... My Childhood sucked.

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

Ask Narf for some nice cheese. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/biggrin.gif

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

What am I, a cheese dispensing machine? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

...Er...Uh...

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

Yup! On that note, I'll have a kilo of chedder...

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

* A kiloton of chedder falls on StarShadoows' head.

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

*Slides out from under said chedder (paper thin)*

Note to self, be more specific...

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

The problem is when you are a kid, you see the world through kid eyes. I could create an equally long list of things that were wrong with the 50s - 70s but have either bene improved or completely stopped.

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

Don't forget LAWN DARTS. You'd be arrested for giving a kid lawn darts these days.

My friends have teenage and early 20 year old kids. They are not "bad" kids, but MAN they have no motivation beyond sitting in the house, playing video games. Can't light a fire under them for ANYTHING.

But I hated my childhood. My parents let me know I was in the way all the time. My HS graduation gift was luggage. I took the hint and moved out before the summer was 1/2 over. I like my life now WAY better than childhood. Good job, great wife, decent health, nice quiet home to go to at night and a handful of friends to hang with. Its a quiet, peaceful life, I like it.

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

My dad thinks we should ship teenagers off to a third world country for a year or two.

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

I remember playing lawn darts when I was a kid. Nobody thought it was dangerous back then. Of course, it was common sense that you don't throw them when somebody's anywhere in front of you.

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

I remember my mom telling me about her experiences with lawn darts...throwing them over her parents' house with her brothers...almost hitting each other sometimes http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif But no one died, so it's all good.

Re: OT: The Good Old Days
 

When I went to the arcade as a kid, my favorite games were Space Invaders and Caterpillar. I don't remember what other games there were. I do remember when Pac-Man came out and it was a big thing, but I didn't particularly like that game.

Using the pay phone cost 10 cents. It cost $5 to see a movie. I remember when Empire Strikes Back came out and there was a double feature showing both Star Wars and ESB, and I went to see that with a friend. Also, I saw E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial at the theatre when it first came out. Those were some of the first movies I ever saw.