Posted on 03/02/2024 12:24:55 AM PST by Morgana
“sitting in the trunk holding the item in place as they drove home.”
my how times have changed ...
In my youth, we fought over the chance to ride in the trunk holding what ever treasure we had found at the dump.
While Dad popped the top on his fifth beer as we hurried home to get a “cold” one.
We siblings dangling out the windows, warning the lucky trunk sitter of up coming pot holes in the dirt road.
Nobody got arrested ...nobody got hurt ... everyone had fun.
Those were the days ..
We used to ride in a station wagon that the third seat faced back. If kids fell out of the large window, our Dads just drove round pulled the kids back in the car and kept going.
” third seat faced back.”
O ya ... we had one of those for a while ...
when I think of all the things that went out that window ..
the when and where ....
It’s no wonder to me now why it was traded in .... 8-)
I really can’t believe someone thought that would be a good idea..??
“...In my youth, we fought over the chance to ride in the trunk holding what ever treasure we had found at the dump....”
I grew up in a town of 810 — the owner of the gas station had an old Plymouth sedan which was missing the trunk lid. When his family drove anywhere the kids were in the trunk and the dogs were in the bask seat with their heads out the open windows...
Simpler times...
Dude, y’all sound like the girl in The Glass Castle, you thought it was all normal and OK, but it was not. It was dangerous as all get out and feral. Your dad was completely irresponsible and half drunk. Believe me, I know, I grew up the same way except I knew it at the time and I hated it.
If you want that kind of freedom nowadays, move to Mexico.
This is right near where we live. Yeh, give her the death penalty. We used to sneak into the drive in in the trunk all the time. We used to pile in the open bed of a pickup truck and ride around.
The crime ,real crime in this area is so bad you would not believe it. The Gwinnett cops have better things to do.
Who didnt sneak into the drive in movie by piling into the trunk?
Hey you *)%#%@$*, shut up back there or we will get busted!
Memories of the good ol’ days.
We got stuck in the mud on our way up to Expo-67 and spent the night there...lost our brakes coming down Pike's Peak, and my dad had to use the emergency brake to stop the car.
We shipped the car to Japan, and were driving down a highway in Yokohama when we forced our mom to stop the care and pick up a stray kitten whom we named Chi-Chi.
When we moved to Subic Bay, we shipped the car there ahead of us.
What a beast of a car.
It was white, red leather interior, push-button automatic transmission (it had no gear shift or selector)
We usually had dad driving, mom the passenger seat (unless someone was acting up and had to go sit between them) three in the back seat, usually me between my older brothers who both tortured me, one of us often sat in the small space between the back seat and the absolutely desirable way back seat that that faced backwards.
That car had a 400 cubic inch engine, and the car would have easily gone well over 100 mph.
I know this because, when we were acting up and my dad was at sea, my mother would take the car up to to nearly 100 mph, her hair standing on end as she screamed at us she would not slow down until we stopped misbehaving.
It worked-we usually stopped!
Here is a link to a story my dad wrote for the US Navy's "All Hands" magazine where he recounts our experience at "Join the Navy and See The World".
LINK: All Hands Magaine: "Odyssey of A Navy Family"
Sadly, when my father got orders home from Subic Bay, we didn't ship that car home, and left it for some happy family. But my dad took us Space Available on the Military Airlift Command, and we flew on a C-141 Starlifter from Clark AFB, stopping in Saigon, Bangkok, New Delhi, Saudi Arabia, and then Madrid.
Then my Dad rented a VW bus, and we camped through Europe for a few weeks. Here my brothers and I are setting up the tent as we did each night, first going across America, then going through Europe!
yes .... yes it was ...
But we were the ones who decided what level of “danger” was ok.
Have you ever climbed to the spindly top of a 60 foot tree?
Ever jumped a bike across (or 1/2 way) a creek?
Ride your bike wearing shorts..no shoes?
or ....
rock climb?
cave crawl?
scuba dive?
eat a little Debbie fruit pie?
As for the beer .... it was not that long ago that most working Joes , at least that I knew, would kick back a 6 pack on saturday while mowing the lawn or fixing the car or what not. Down number 6 after dinner.
“Dangerous” is a concept .....
Personally defined.
Why should my concept of dangerous rule your decisions?
Now if I hurt someone else....
well , you know the old saying ...
your right to swing your fist ..ends at my nose..
We have gone way to far with the nanny state.
Now we are even told that some information will hurt us, so we must be protected.
no thanks ... I'll take my chances ...
Freedom is dangerous
Now I think I'll go jump of the roof with an umbrella..
Join the Navy and See The World". ...... great story..100mph .. that will do it
...while jousting at one another with broom handle. Stanley brush company used to make a green metal broom that held up real well, hardly bent. Man, would mom get pissed when we broke the little plastic hanger grip off the top.
"Ride your bike wearing shorts..no shoes?"
...while jousting at one another with broom handle. Stanley brush company used to make a green metal broom that held up real well, hardly bent. Man, would mom get pissed when we broke the little plastic hanger grip off the top.
(Ive been doing that a lot lately.)
“jousting at one another with broom handle”
just think of all the “life” lessons you learned from that ...
broom handles hurt
pavement is hard
moms can get mad
it’s more fun when the other guy takes the lick
important stuff...
We are frogs in a pot that is now reaching the boiling point. I remember the freedoms we enjoyed in the 60s, 70s and 80s and wish we could return to that time. Too many people have learned to love the nanny state and our overlords.
I road on the tailgate of my dad’s pick-up truck with my feet hanging over the edge and occasionally touching the road. If you weren’t careful, the road would pull you from the truck and the other kids in the back would have to yell for dad to stop. I climbed pine and pecan trees all the way to the top and although I never fell, my eldest sister did once. It knocked the breath out of her but she survived to climb again. We had no seat belts, and no car seats, but I still managed to live to a ripe old age.
My heart aches for young people. They will never know freedom that I had. Granted, I lived on bases for many years and was given the run of the base...after all, what kind of trouble could I get into?
Plenty, as it turns out. But that isn’t the point-the point is...I don’t like what I see, this overarching nanny-statism of “safety”.
Safety all the time, everyone, everywhere, whether you want it or not.
I am sick and tired of living in a society where the media highlights every single person, researcher, politician, or organization that has the vapors about safety issues with everything involving everything from coronavirus, bb guns, bicycles, cars, monkey bars, wine, smoking, encephalitis, flesh eating bacteria, saturated fats, Alar, eggs, coffee, cats, dogs, flying, driving, keeping score in games, walking, exercising, peanuts, Big Wheels, Internet Usage, self esteem, asbestos, lead paint, you name it.
There is this freakish and odd fixation with total safety-the fear that anyone in the world could end with a skinned knee or hurt feelings. They want to wrap not just kids, but people up in bubble wrap.
We are all going to die. All of us. Nobody gets out alive. No one.
I am sick of living in a society where people have panic and fear written all over their faces about damn near anything. A kid has a BB gun in the background while taking part in a virtual lesson and other people...ONLINE...have the vapors because the kid had a BB gun leaning against a wall. The stupidity is astonishing.
It is not too much to predict they would have the same response if there were a photograph there, or even a painting of a BB gun.
Don’t go outside. Don’t swim in the ocean. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. Conservatives are complicit in this too, but the lion’s share of this stupidity is the Left. Their mental illness is becoming contagious.
We see it with this idiotic mask crap, and there is more of this coming.
It brings to mind this quote from C.S. Lewis: “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under live robber barons than under omnipotent moral busibodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good, will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”
Have you ever climbed to the spindly top of a 60 foot tree? Not that high.
Ever jumped a bike across (or 1/2 way) a creek? No.
Ride your bike wearing shorts..no shoes? Yep
or ....
rock climb? No
cave crawl? No
scuba dive? No but my kids have
eat a little Debbie fruit pie? Duh
And I have been an Army officer (JAG) on active duty
I see it more like crabs in a pot ...
the ones who like the pot , trying to pull the escapes back down to join them.
Right or left .... they don't like the “authoritarian” state...
EXCEPT ..... when it is doing the “correct” thing.
People just don't seem to get that power can work for or against you ... better just to not give it away.
"on the tailgate"
see... life lessons ..
the road is hard
pot holes can teach you about energy/mass/velocity ... even gravity
It's funnier if someone else takes the lick
Your dad really does love you (if he comes back)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.