OT: The Good Old Days

[Atrocities]

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.

[Yimboli]

mmmmmmmmm cupcakes!!

[ExSentinel]

Were you feeling a little nostalgic Atrocities????

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

Thanks for the thoughts.

Ex

[Glyn]

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!!!

[Atrocities]

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.

[Renegade 13]

Atrocities said:
And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!

Well actually...I'm a child of the mid-late 80's 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!

[narf poit chez BOOM]

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

[Hunpecked]

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.

[Caduceus]

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

[mac5732]

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