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When I was a kid...

People just seemed nicer and more caring back then. I remember the front and back doors along with the windows being open at night. We only locked the screen doors to keep the wind from blowing them open and shut all night. Not because we had to fear someone coming in and robing us. I remember going to the neighbours and asking for sugar / eggs or what ever else we needed I also remember throwing a fit in the store and everyone was whipping my butt. I think even the stock man got in on it. We collected soda bottles and we also collected greenback stamps. We were also fortunate enough to live just down the road from a bread company so we always woke up to the wonderful smell of the fresh bread. I remember going up to construction sites and asking if we could have some wood to build a fort and not only would they give us wood but nails as well. There was always one or two off the workers who would keep up with how we were making out and if we needed anything. I also remember going to school and saying the Pledge of Allegiance. We could Pray and when we got in trouble at school we would purposefully miss the buss so that we could get home later hoping that DAD would have already left for work or that he was already at the bar with the guys. Seemed like everytime though he was home and ready to whip me again.

The best thing about it all though was I wasn't responsible for the lights, water, mortgage, phone, groceries, gas, I respected my elders always said yes maam and no maam Did what I was told and was grateful Most kids this day and age seem to think we owe them some kind of living. They Run From responsibility like its the third plaque.
 
....Timeout was something a team called to develop their strategy during a game, not a form of discipline.

....Not everyone came in first place at events because our parents didn't think that a bruised ego was necessarily a bad thing.
 
Nissan was still Datsun
.50 a gallon for 'regular unleaded'
Stamps were a nickle
VCR's were gonna ruin the movie business
TV only had 13 channels (with UHF and big rabbit ears)
There was only Disneyland and Space Mountain was the main attraction
 
We saved our $7 allowance for months to buy the gameboy!
Played with toy cars.
Our parents followed the warning on tv regarding age (TV-7 .... etc)
Got spankings and mouths washed out with soap/hot sauce
*Had* to say please and thank you.

the thing that makes me nervous, is that I consider myself mature for my age group. And I still feel quite like a child in many situations. It really scares me thinking that people who graduated with me are having children or have them.... children raising children.... :eek: annnnyyyywayys ;)
 
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When I was a kid we had no TV. My neighbors had one that all the kids got to watch on Saturday mornings like it was the movies. All of us piled into the living room and loving it. We always played outside and had no toys to speak of. Our favorite games were kick the can and shinny on your own side. Both played with an empty tin can. We would build a large circle with crossing lanes within like a bicycle wheel and spokes in a wheat field and play tag... having to stay within the carved paths. I was in my teens the first time I went swimming in a pool of water where I could see my feet. Rope swings over the deepest creek pool was the norm. When one of the neighbors painted their house or built an out building, everyone around helped and then we'd have a great cook out following. Going to town was to attend church and shopping was something that was done on rare occasions. You started school with a new pair of jeans... the legs rolled up so you could let them out as the year and your growing progressed. Holes in jeans were not stylin... they were patched up with with older jean material and matched everyone's jeans toward the end of the school year. We went to the movies and saw Old Yeller... even got a soda. I still, to this day, shake my milk before pouring a glass out of habit to stir the fats. We ate fried chicken at least four nights a week. Everything was fried now that I think about it. The neighbor lady to the North baked bread for everyone around. I have no idea what she charged for it. I was in high school when I had my first slice of pizza and my first taco. We ate well though but far from healthy but none of us were over weight and all healthy. Everyone worked and played and helped one another do everything. Everyone got along and there were never an outsiders or one unliked. All the boys slept outside during the summer for it was cooler. The parents were wise enough to make the girls stay inside. My dad cut the grass with a scythe
before we got a push reel mower. Basically we had nothing.. and everything. It was a great time to grow up.
 
Olbriar...you are so right. We were fortunate to have lived in a simpler time, so that we can appreciate what we have now, but I so miss that simple way of life in many ways. A lot of these young people have never known a sense of community.
Time changes everything, some things for the better, and some for the worse.
 
olbriar said:
When I was a kid we had no TV. My neighbors had one that all the kids got to watch on Saturday mornings like it was the movies. All of us piled into the living room and loving it. We always played outside and had no toys to speak of. Our favorite games were kick the can and shinny on your own side. Both played with an empty tin can. We would build a large circle with crossing lanes within like a bicycle wheel and spokes in a wheat field and play tag... having to stay within the carved paths. I was in my teens the first time I went swimming in a pool of water where I could see my feet. Rope swings over the deepest creek pool was the norm. When one of the neighbors painted their house or built an out building, everyone around helped and then we'd have a great cook out following. Going to town was to attend church and shopping was something that was done on rare occasions. You started school with a new pair of jeans... the legs rolled up so you could let them out as the year and your growing progressed. Holes in jeans were not stylin... they were patched up with with older jean material and matched everyone's jeans toward the end of the school year. We went to the movies and saw Old Yeller... even got a soda. I still, to this day, shake my milk before pouring a glass out of habit to stir the fats. We ate fried chicken at least four nights a week. Everything was fried now that I think about it. The neighbor lady to the North baked bread for everyone around. I have no idea what she charged for it. I was in high school when I had my first slice of pizza and my first taco. We ate well though but far from healthy but none of us were over weight and all healthy. Everyone worked and played and helped one another do everything. Everyone got along and there were never an outsiders or one unliked. All the boys slept outside during the summer for it was cooler. The parents were wise enough to make the girls stay inside. My dad cut the grass with a scythe
before we got a push reel mower. Basically we had nothing.. and everything. It was a great time to grow up.
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Don't forget, paragraphs weren't invented yet either.
th_Smiley-hiding-behind-couch.gif
:p
 
I'm still much younger that most here, but share a lot of sentiments of the "old times". I grew up in a tiny town in MA. We had a huge forest (we called it "the woods") behind our house that all of us would explore, play games, etc. It had a reservoir that people would put massive rope swings where we would swim in the summer time.
Never had video games growing up and didn't watch a ton of TV.
We had a milkman. I remember when they switched over from glass bottles to these monstrous 5L bottles with a spigot (hey, 4 growing kids, we lived on milk).
My relatives who live in upstate NY (Columbia County) have a siren go off everyday at noon still.

Does anyone think it's funny/ironic that we're all reminiscing about the "simpler times" on a forum where we're obsessed about the latest and greatest of tech? :hmmmm2:
 
olbriar said:
I still, to this day, shake my milk before pouring a glass out of habit...
Click to expand...

I am SO glad I'm not the only one who does this! My kids think it's an obsessive-compulsive disorder or something! :rolleyes:

Oh yeah:

  • There were no dollar stores. There were "five and dimes" and almost everything cost 5 and 10 cents. And NOTHING was made in China.
  • There were no infomercials.
  • There was no such thing as Walmart or self-serve gas stations.
  • We had FOUR TV stations in Atlanta: Channel 2 (NBC), Channel 5 (CBS), Channel 11 (ABC), and Channel 17 on the UHF band, which was the independent station*. ALL of them signed off at midnight with the National Anthem, and signed back on with it at 6AM.
  • We all got to ride in the back of Dad's pickup truck. No belts, no safety harnesses, and no one fell out.


*-WTCG eventually requested a call sign change to WTBS and went to an unprecedented 24-hour format. It went on to become the first "superstation" and is now the TBS you know so well. It was owned by - yep - Ted Turner.

:)
 
9to5cynic said:
We saved our $7 allowance for months to buy the gameboy!
Played with toy cars.
Our parents followed the warning on tv regarding age (TV-7 .... etc)
Got spankings and mouths washed out with soap/hot sauce
*Had* to say please and thank you.

the thing that makes me nervous, is that I consider myself mature for my age group. And I still feel quite like a child in many situations. It really scares me thinking that people who graduated with me are having children or have them.... children raising children.... :eek: annnnyyyywayys ;)
Click to expand...


I'm glad I'm not the only young one. :) That's pretty much the same for me, I saved up my $5 allowance for a year or so to buy a Nintendo 64. (When they first came out) It was really hard for an 8 year old to do.

I played with Ninja Turtles and Power Rangers. :p

The number one rule I always followed was to never piss off Grandma, or else she'd go find her yardstick, or a wooden spoon.
 
dreadnatty08 said:
Does anyone think it's funny/ironic that we're all reminiscing about the "simpler times" on a forum where we're obsessed about the latest and greatest of tech? :hmmmm2:
Click to expand...

I hadn't even thought of the irony in that when I started the thread:stupid:. Great observation.
 
dreadnatty08 said:
Does anyone think it's funny/ironic that we're all reminiscing about the "simpler times" on a forum where we're obsessed about the latest and greatest of tech? :hmmmm2:
Click to expand...

Nah, it's human nature to remember the past more fondly than it actually was. They weren't really simpler times, it's just that the issues from those times have been worked out for the most part so we no longer see them as challenges.

When I started school, there was segregation. When I started driving, there was gasoline rationing. Interest rates were approaching 20% and unemployment was the highest since the Great Depression. The stock market was down almost 45% through the '70s (adjusted for double digit inflation) and in the aftermath of Vietnam, we were impeaching a president.

And let's not forget that pollution was at its worst in almost every major U.S. City and cancer was a death sentence.

Still want them good old days back?
 
lunatic59 said:
When I started driving, there was gasoline rationing. Interest rates were approaching 20% and unemployment was the highest since the Great Depression.
Click to expand...

I remember my parents and aunts and uncles debating the merits of putting a locked gas cap on and having someone puncture their fuel tank as opposed to just hoping they didn't siphon out the gas.:rolleyes:
 
Unforgiven said:
I remember my parents and aunts and uncles debating the merits of putting a locked gas cap on and having someone puncture their fuel tank as opposed to just hoping they didn't siphon out the gas.:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

When it all started, gas was around $.40/gal. During rationing it jumped to $.60 and by the time it was over it was up to about $.85/gal. Remember, too that most cars in the early '70s were huge, heavy and inefficient. 10 miles/gal was common and no one had locking gas caps or little doors hiding the filler cap (except for some models which hid it behind a spring loaded license plate -- no lock, just hidden.)

At that time I was driving a 1962 VW Beetle and the filler tube was located under the hood (old 40 HP rear-mounted engine) and you had to unlatch it from inside the car. Of course the engine compartment had no lock and the engine weighed about 198 lbs and was secured with four bolts. They could have easily walked off with that. ;)
 
...we invented games based on the equipment we had and the number of players. Hit the bat anyone?
 
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