As a kid we got Pong for Christmas one year. Remember Pong...
Hours of fun for those snowed-in Saturdays.
Posted on 05/18/2005 9:07:02 AM PDT by LIConFem
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED 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 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!
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!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.
AND while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
Dammit....where did I put the scissors??!! LMAO
That's great. I grew up in the '80's in the country, but we were poor so that pretty much summed up my life.
I was talking to my dad the other day about how much things have changed. When we were little, we wouldn't hear from some of the family for weeks. Now, if we call, and no one answers the cell phone we want to know what's wrong.
No car seats either. I remember riding the flip-down arm rest in the front seat while it was flipped down. Also, my mom has a picture of us in the car getting ready to go someplace and I am wrapped in a blanket while she held me.
Been there done that and have the scares to prove it.
These are the people who are directly responsible for creating the Nanny State we live in today.
Sometime ago, I was watching Stand By Me.. It is sad that kids can't be kids nowadays.. It is funny that the saftey freaks grew up in the same era and somehow survied yet want to tell us in how to raise our kids. I think they had a misrable childhood..
Practiced all winter in all kinds of weather so you could make the team the next year. And you usually rode the lumber most of that year.
God, how did we ever survive that trauma!
I remember riding on the back shelf of my Dad's Isetta!
Exactly No Seat Belts! and we bounced up so hard in the car, the seats tore and the foam stuck out!
As a kid we got Pong for Christmas one year. Remember Pong...
Hours of fun for those snowed-in Saturdays.
....would like to add one other FACT to this:....we have paid more into the Social Security system than we will ever get back......
Oh! and the big thing was to Jump off the garage and take your Sting Ray Bike and go down the Steepest hill without holding the handlebars!
Sundays were family day all the women with Big Hair smoking Cigarettes cooking men sitting around watching sports, everyone talking Kids galore in the frony yard playing!
Man those were the days!~
I hitchiked in the 1970's. Got into cabs of truckers. At age 16, 17. Female from NY. went from Manhattan to Vermont and Massachussets and back. Glad the one guy I made out with wasn't a rapist.
NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER would I do that now. I wouldn't even let my kids ride their bikes out of my sight now. Just look at the proliferation of pedophiles, perverts and loonies just waiting to pray on unsupervised kids in parks, country roads, behind laundromats...
We may not have had all this computer stuff but we did have TV and we watched a lot of it. Just as dulling to the brain as an XBox or Playstation.
AND as for eating crap growing up, many of us are FAT because of it and many of us had ROTTEN TEETH needing to be pulled at early ages from eating a diet of candy, Twinkies, Twizzles sticks and sour acid candies.
And as for riding in cars without car seats, exactly why do you think it is now a law? Because some of your fellow kids growing up in those days were mangled and died when their little bodies were propelled, unrestrained, in a sudden stop.
As for lead paint, I for one am glad they finally figured out it causes brain damage to kids with high levels of it. Thousands of children's learning problems have been traced to high lead levels.
My mother smoked with me and as a result I was low birth weight and am an adult barely 5 feet 2 inches.
Just remeber that many kids who did not survive the 30's-70's and many who are not healthy now because of poor diets and health choices during those years. Not all modernities are worse than the past.
I think the author's point was that the pendulum has swung too far the other way. I doubt seriously that he or she was advocating the return of lead paint, et cetera.
Cause we had friends to go outside play hid'n Seek you played in the Sprinklers when it was hot, you rode your bike, skateboard pulled your friends down the street in your wagon, you built your toys with your friends.
Played dodgeball in the street, went to the park all day, we did not have to worry about geting kidnapped, raped and killed, the neighbors watched out for you when your parents wern't around..
We got spankings when we mis-behaved and were dis-respectful, our parents were of the World War 11 and Korean War generation, we gave them grief and happiness and I sure miss those days!
Kick the can
Ding-dong-ditch-it (ring someone's doorbell and take off running)
Hide and seek
Kick ball
hahah that was brilliant!
we weren't just to play outside we were told to play outside!
everyone smoked and the only non smokers were the "little ones"
hahaha that was the good life! what the hell happended anyway?
There were a ton of kids in my neighborhood and we all really wanted a Slip N Slide, but none of us had parents who would buy it.
So we improvised.
We took wallpaper and aimed the hose down it. Viola! Homemade Slip N Slide, BUT (!) for some totally unknown reason we put it on the driveway! We all had perfectly good yards, so I have no idea why we thought this would be a good idea.
This kept us busy for hours. When one girl got an actual Slip N Slide we didn't like it. LOL!
Then I wonder why I have a bad back now as an adult....
Anyone else remember playing "Smear the Queer"? Now you'd be thrown into sensitivity training for even suggesting it. Sigh...
We rode our bikes everywhere.
I loved my bike. It was the best and coolest thing I ever had as a kid. (check your FReepmail)
LOL..! I remember when my mom finally broke down and bought us a Slip and Slide we would put laundry soap all over it..Man we would be sliding all over the place! the soap proably wan't good for the grass but heck parents were more concerned we were having fun! rather than what the grass looked like! anyways my brothers had to mow it with that push lawnmower that you had to empty the bag!
I think the game *TWISTER* was a back problem waiting to happen!LOL...
Good one!
That sounds like "hazing" in the new kid on the block :)
That is so cute! That bring back memories! Stingrays were the best bikes! no gears you rode!
I remember the paperboy had a great Stingray and carrying those 2 nap sacks with all the papers were heavy! he's always threw the paper right on the porch!
I had a Stingray and I would ride and ride until I was hungry then went home got a Fried Bologna Sandwich on white Wonder bread, left on my bike again! We were never a bunch of FAT KIDS!
That was a great idea! Much better then our stupid drive-way idea. LOL!
And boys acted like boys.
Now there's a mini-strip mall where it used to be.
We didn't have many fatties in our neighborhood either.
They sure did! Boys now cannot climb trees, fix there bikes or build anything! it's a shame My brothers built everything!
They even built a pool out of plywood and plastic and filled it up with the hose! hey it worked!
Some of those are before my time, but growing up in the Chicago area of course I know Bozo! It was a major deal if you were lucky enough to get tickets to a taping.
I know Summer Vacation was so cool, because there was so much to do! we did not have to go on elaboate vacations, you just got dressed in the mornings grabbed something to eat and said BYE MOM! and she would say BE IN BEFORE DARK!
Thunderstorms were still pretty scary when you're nine years old.
Some of those shows I think were filmed locally in L.A
My mom took me when I was 5 to Sheriff John Show and my brother was on Winchell Mahoney Show and Billy Barty!
Yes Bozo was great! lots of kids wanted to be on his show!
My best cartoon was the Jetsons!
LOL..I think there was an episode of the Brady Kids doing that and a big thunderstorm came!
Kids sure miss out on so many things today it's truly a shame!
I love the Jetsons, too. I was a Flinstones addict. I can still sing a lot of the songs.
Theres a town I know where the hipsters go
They call it Bedrock
Twitch! Twitch!
We're the last of a dying breed.
Flinstones meet the Flinstones!
Jetsons!
His boy elroy!
No sex or violence we just sat to close to the TV and mom had to say sit back!
It really is sad! it sucks to be a kid now a days!
We are just lucky to have some great memories!
IMHO:
What many of us do with each other on Freerepublic reflects who we are as people who interacted socially with others it's just now it's on the Internet because we don't all live in the same neighborhood! but if we did what a heck of a Block Party it would be!
Could you imagine if there were a huge FR meet-up? Some place big, like the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. I know I would be there with Mr. RK in a heart beat.
Me too! A Vegas trip would be real fun! One hotel only for Freepers!
Everyone would have to wear there Freeper Screename Tag
That would be so cool!
Of course! That would be a fantastic time!
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