Under 65...

[Mr70]

We survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing,tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs 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 infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, 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 koolade made with sugar, 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, Nintendos, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVDs, no surround-sound or CDs, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or 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.

Playing Army with all the kids in the area,and building forts.

And if you got in trouble in school,you were more worried about what your father would do to you when he got home.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell,or just walked in and talked to them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that.

We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either because if we did, we got our butt spanked there and then we got butt spanked again when we got home.

If you fell down at a neighbors house,you were picked up,brushed off an told all was OK.No one would file a lawsuit with you later on to own that very same house.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.They actually sided with the law.

Our Moms used to defrost hamburger on the counter and some of us used to eat it raw.Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag,not in ice-pack coolers,but I can't remember getting e.coli.

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool,no beach closures then.

We all took gym,not PE .. and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can'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.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself?

The past 60 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.These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever in the history of mankind..

If you grew up with these or anyothers,feel free to add on..

[427.060]

That sounds a lot like a song I heard on the radio today.
James

[Nova Jed]

I did not live in this era, but I learned what my parents have taught me. I grew up learning the same values that you had mentioned in your post and totally agree with all of that.

I am one of those kids that lived my life with the value of playing outside, playing baseball in the summer, building forts out in the woods and having good fun with my friends when it snowed or we were all bored in the neighborhood. You could ride your bike for a couple of miles and not have to worry about getting picked up by some pedofile. Go throw toilet paper around trees on Halloween and not have to worry about the cops coming. Set fireworks off in the backyard without the fire company coming. Make phone calls from the "house" phone and fight over who gets to watch what show when. Listen to foul language movies without repeating the words around grown ups. Work on model cars without the side affects of becoming brain dead. Working at age 14 because I wanted to.

I didn't do what everyone else did because it was popular. I did my own thing. I worked on bikes and made ramps and bent rims and changed them. I popped my tires and patched them. I took apart a cookoo clock and put it back together and I didn't even have directions. I took apart a 307 in my Nova before I knew what valve timing was and got that running better then it was before and didn't call a mechanic.

My parents weren't caught up in keeping up with the "Jone's" but, keeping up with their kids studies. And when the sun went down, we were in the backyard catching lighting bugs. When my parents split up, I was 11 and mowed the grass for my Mom because I knew she didn't have time. I lived in a rural area when I was a kid and moved to the burbs when I was a teenager and it was a culture shock to me.

I don't own any video games and I don't have a dvd player, but it's sad to know that society has become greedy and marketing plays a key in the necessities of our daily lives. You need a computer for certain jobs and cell phones to keep in touch with everyone because no one is ever home. It's become easier to get on the internet and read something instead of finding space for books. Everything has been made to be a convenience because no one has patients. Jobs are "hurry up and get it done" because "we don't care about quality" type attitude. Or the "ah who cares if it doesn't last forever, make it cheap so people will have to by another one sooner". I'm sorry to go off, but my one friend and I would talk about the same things that you have mentioned all the time. I have had this conversation with my parents and my friend's parents all the time and the one thing that they say is, "you kids don't have it like we did." Meaning, they think it was a lot easier to live comfortable when they were starting out.

Ha, how about dating? WOW! Try to find a good woman nowadays that isn't caught up like these girls on these TV shows. I'm 27 and I myself have no clue what the hell this world is coming to? If I would ever get married and have kids, the odds are against me before I even get started. If I would raise kids like I was, I'd be in jail for child abuse because some official saw a bruse on my kid's arm and said it was abuse and not punishment for something they did. Where does it start to be the end of this crap. I still wonder what this world would have been like if John Lennon was never killed and yes I was alive when he was shot. FWIW, just my .02.

Jed

[69LM1]

"Sigh"
Just had this battle with my 9yr old. Had to force him to learn to ride his bike w/o trining wheels. Gnashing of teeth and crying all the way, but he finally did it between "Dad, are you trying to kill me or somethin" and "my butt hurts"

Here's one I'll add-
Picking up leftover bottle rockets (now illegal) and making a bomb out of the leftovers.

Now you are a terrorist if you do that!



Anybody ever made a potato gun? Now those were fun!

[COPO 70 RS/Z28]

We used to take cardboard tubes and make bottle rocket bazookas out of them and have bottle rocket wars. We would have teams and shoot them at each other. Aslo used to break open black cats to make bigger bombs

Ahhhh the good old days, you could watch a nuclear blast with raybans on and no one cared!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Z-11 396]

+++ Rick +++ I fully agree, and I grew up just like that, I'm over 65, and I look at the kid's, as well as my own, and think are they better off, HA, if it wern't for our support, they would be in alot more debt than they already are.. If they have a problem , they can't call fast enough, if you try to give advise, Ha, never take it, YES, it's my fault to a point, but I love them, but oh what hell they put me through at times... ..Kasey

[427TJ]

[ QUOTE ]
We survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, my mother smoked all during her pregnancy with me (I was born in '62) and I was delivered not breathing and had to be resuscitated and then lived three weeks in an oxygen tent. My mother was so upset that she took me out of the tent and tried to take me home one night and the Air Police found her walking toward base housing (Robins AFB, GA) with me wrapped in a blanket. They put me back in the hospital. Then my dad came to sit with me and I started choking on the gook in my lungs and throat. He grabbed me from the panicked nurse and held me upside-down by my feet and slammed me on my back until all the gook came out of my lungs. He said my gray color went away and I instantly reddened-up looked like a normal baby. So, not everything about the good old days was so good. Yes, I survived but just barely.

Riding bikes without helmets all day long and your parents had no idea where you were until you came home for dinner was pretty neat though!

[quick-bowtie]

AMEN' to the first post.

[Dog427435]

My Mom would put me out and say "go play". There was no question as to where, she knew I'd be around. In the winter I knew when the street lights came on, I needed to be home. In the summer the fire departments six o'clock whistle was the signal.
We thought nothing of hitchhiking anywhere we needed to go, everyone did, it was an accepted means of transportation.
The man from the Crestwood Dairy would come by about 4:30 in the morning in his Divco, dripping water from the ice that kept the milk in the back cold. Once in a while we'd sneak a note to leave some chocolate milk or orange juice into the milk box.
Ten cents bought you a Hostess turnover that was full of filling. A nickel got you a coke to go with it. The deposit on the bottle was two cents, so scrounging for empties in the weeds could get you enough cash for both.
The Police were respected and feared. If a Cop told you to do something - you did.
If a Cop kicked your butt for screwing around, the last thing you'd want to do was tell your Dad.

[COPO 70 RS/Z28]

10/4

I remember, you whatever the cops or your teachers did to you was nothing compared to what Dad was going to do when he found out!!!!!!!!!!!

I also remember if you got away from the cops they knew who you were anyway and would be sitting in the drive when you got home!

The other thing was you never and I mean NEVER disrespected or pissed off a Chicago cop or you got your lunch handed to you right there no questions asked.