Thursday, May 04, 2006
When I Was Young
Someone started a really great thread on a message board I frequent so I am going to share what I wrote, add some to it and hope that you will share some of your memories of the good old days.
When I Was Young:
We played King of the Mountain where the goal was to knock kids off the snow hill and no one thought it was too violent.
All the kids were required to be inside when the street lights came on.
Young boys delivered the news paper to your door and collected the money from you.
Kids rode their bikes, skates and skateboards without a helmet.
Your dad taught you how to change a tire and the oil long before you ever got to drive a car.
If you didn’t get picked for the team, that was just how life was.
Teachers gave you an “F” with a bright red marker if you failed and did not try to lighten the blow.
The principal was allowed to smack your ass with a board if you acted out of line.
Kids were to answer to all the neighborhood grown ups and show them respect.
Those neighborhood grown ups were also allowed to spank you if you were out of line.
Saturday morning cartoons were smart enough for adults and didn’t dumb down the kids and no one was stupid enough to try the things they saw.
Kids did not need activity centers to keep them from running around on the streets causing problems. They came home from school, watched the Flintstones and Gilligans Island, did their homework, ate dinner with the family and then went to bed.
Our allowances were small and we had to earn the toys we wanted, not just have them handed to us.
You could go Trick or Treating without your parents and you were only warned not to eat any unwrapped food unless it came from the nice old man down the street.
Dodge ball was played in P.E. class and nobody’s parents complained about it.
People washed their hands before they ate and after they blew their nose.
Kids mowed lawns, pulled weeds and helped out their neighbors over the summer for extra money.
We rode in the back of pick up trucks and seat belts didn’t come in all the cars.
I could buy three candy bars and a 16 oz bottle of pop for $1.
The family car had fake wood grain on the sides.
Dinner was home made, not microwaved or from a place with golden arches.
Kids had chores to do before they could go out and play.
Smoking and drinking were what “bad” people did and drug abusers were not considered cool.
When I asked my dad if he made as much as the guy in the newspaper, ($30,000 a year), and he said, “About that much”, I thought he was so rich.
If you went to the mall or Disneyland or some other amusement park, the family could go their seperate ways if they wanted and meet back at a certain time but your dad would always take you on the roller coaster when everyone else was too chicken.
Even the kindergartners could walk to school by themselves.
All the neighbors knew each other and watched each other’s back.
On Christmas or your birthday, the first thing you did after opening your presents was to get out pencil and paper and start in on the “Thank You” notes.
We could make a blanket tent out in the backyard using the clothes line and get to spend the night out there and not worry about someone coming to steal us.
Everyone drank their water from the tap.
People were a lot more patient and willing to help.
We didn’t have cable tv, satellite tv, pay per view; we had 13 channels. Not all of them came in clearly and we didn’t have a remote control.
Your city or town didn’t have 6 different area codes making a phone call to your neighbor across the street long distance. In fact, you didn’t even have to dial the whole number: If the number was 123-4567 you only had to dial 3-4567.
No one needed cell phones because everyone knew exactly where everyone was at all times and all your mother had to do was call the mother of your friend if she needed you to come home.
There was always someone home.
People actually talked to each other and said, “hello” when they passed you on the street.
Christmas was fun and everyone enjoyed the decorations, no one complained about them.
We weren’t PC, we were truthful.
The library would hold a contest for the kids over the summer and whomever read the most books got a big prize. And the kids loved it.
The playground equipment was not plastic and we had cement or gravel underneath us.
No one sued the school if their kid fell and hurt themselves on that playground.
In fact, it was extremely rare that anyone sued anyone at all.
We had to use our imagination and the only scary things were getting old, losing a relative and the monster under the bed.
What the hell happened?
