My How Times Have Changed...

ruaround

Active Member
a little dialog in the "confession thread" made me dig this out...
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's and first half of the 80's!
First, 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 Kool-aid 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 OK.
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 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computer! s, 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 poke 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 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!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
These generations have 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!
 

bionicarm

Active Member
Man, does that bring back memories. I can relate to every one of those situations, since I probably did all of them (I'm on the tail-end of the Baby Boomers). I can even remember some of those good times ( I lived in a perverted sort of Leave It To Beaver neighborhood):
We used to make our own gunpowder with sulfer, charcoal, and saltpeter. We'd mix the three ingredients together until it had the same color as the gunpowder in Black Cats. I remember we took an small 'apothocary' bottle and put BB's in the bottom, then packed in some of our homemade gunpowder, then a cotton ball, then a wick, and pushed on a cap. We lit it and dropped it into an old gas can and ran! When it went off, it left a small crater in the ground.
We found out you could take a Coke bottle, pour in water, add a few small pieces of aluminum, add Lye, and the vapor coming out of the bottle was a form of hydrogen. We would stick a balloon on top of the bottle, fill it up, tie the end, then tie a piece of rag on the end that was soaked with gas. Let the balloon go, light the rag, and BOOM! Nice fire ball in the air.
Kite fights using the old Bat Kites. My brother and I got in big trouble because we rolled the end of our string in glue, then rolled that string into crushed glass. When we fought our friends, we'd wrapped our string around their kite string, tug a few times, and SNAP, there goes their kite.
Shooting off Estes Rockets.
Sling shot wars using Chinaberries as ammo.
Football and kickball games in the middle of the street.
Hide and seek when it got dark.
Tank Wars using empty washing machine or refrigerator shipping boxes. Take off the ends of the boxes, get inside, and push the sides. See who could get over the other opponent in another box.
Building forts and treehouses for the Boys Only Clubs.
Riding your Schwinn Stingray with the Sissy Bar and the baseball cards in the spokes (for the motorcycle sound-effect) 10 miles to the Mall to watch a movie for 50 cents.
Hanging out all summer at the local City Park. Play ping pong, basketball, wiffle ball, do arts and crafts, and play board games (Sorry, Risk, Monopoly, Parcheesi, Carroms, checkers, chess, CandyLand, Mouse Trap).
Pulling your lawn mower around the neighborhood behind your bike to mow an entire lawn for $5.
 

hammerhed7

Active Member
Originally Posted by Crashbandicoot
http:///forum/post/2599504
kids these days are soft in all the wrong ways , and tough in all the ways they shouldn't be .
Right we used to be able to have a disagreement or even a fight without being charged with "bullying" or having to wonder if the person you got into it with would shoot up the school. The spoiled, perfect, sheltered kids of today melt down the first time things don't go their way.
 

ice4ice

Active Member
Not only kids today are getting too soft, they just don't know how to have fun anymore. My 8 year old niece acts like she's got the whole world on her shoulders. She certainly doesn't have a sense of humor for an 8 year old.
 

teresaq

Active Member
I remember doing all those things, Running the neighborhood all day, and having to be in the yard by the time streetlights come on, Now I am afraid to let my children play in the front yard because someone may pull up and drag them into a car.
so sad kids cant be kids anymore.
T
 

spiderwoman

Active Member
I remember hitchhiking and not worried about anything. I'd ride my bike to school on 1st grade, life just was so much more worry free.
 
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