Posted on 04/17/2011 12:02:26 PM PDT by OL Hickory
Remember the good ol days? Mom's smoked and drank when pregnant, you were raised on home cooking, your crib was covered with Lead Base paint, rode a bike with no helmet on gravel roads, you went outside till the street lights came on, your parents had no childproof lids or seat belts in cars, you got spanked when you misbehaved, had 3 TV channels you got up to change, school always started w/the Pledge of Allegiance, & stores were closed Sunday,you drank water out of a creek or out of water hose and YOU STILL TURNED OUT OK, if you can remember others that the kids of today would cry and wine about post em..
(Excerpt) Read more at freerepublic.com ...
Yep I remember that kids who got in trouble in school got in twice as much trouble at home.
Nowadays, if someone’s kid gets in trouble in school, it’s quite likely that the parents are ready to call their attorneys in, to question the discipline against their little angel.
I remember playing baseball, not in a league, but just for fun, at the baseball diamond in the park.
I think we can still tell where home, first, and second were worn into my parents’ front yard. Third was a tree which has since been removed.
Military base housing tends to resemble the “good old days.” They don’t play around with fireworks or BB guns, but there are always kids out and about. Six of them are ours, so even if nobody else is out the neighborhood is still busy.
There are so many things that are worse than lead paint that people willingly give to their children.
Mercury fillings
Mercury based vaccines
McDonald's
Processed foods like hotdogs
High Fructose Corn Syrup
Flouride in water
Anti-depressant and ADHD drugs
Soda pop and sports drinks
Synthetic vitamins
And on and on.
Yes, I tasted dirt - it might taste like chocolate, right? But I was taught never to eat anything off a bush or tree - our parents were smart, common sensical people.
My uncle - the WWII Navy vet and all around tough guy and joker - let me puff on his cigarette - once. He swore me to silence - as if I’d be a squealer and tell my mother on him!
Even the little girls were macho in the ‘50s.
Now they have these. You won’t believe it if you’ve never seen one.
http://www.crosman.com/hunting/products/epcp/
Processed hot dogs bad?! (We call them dirty-water hot dogs in NYC - overly processed and cooked in water that hasn’t been changed since the ‘70s. Dee-licious!) McDonalds bad? Soda bad? No way!
When I were a wee tot, maybe 6 or 7, my Dad would send me into the store to buy cigarettes for him. lol
I also remember having bottle rocket fights with kids from the neighborhood. No one was killed, but many were hurt. lol
I know now that my parents didn’t love me....they gave me Jarts for Christmas once... :-/
All of these great anecdotes represent an easier time to raise kids. In defense of parents today, let me enlighten the thread to a few facts:
Playdates were invented to keep kids from knocking on the door at perhaps the wrong time. Mommy and Daddy having an argument/fight. Visitor goes home to tell his nosey mommy who then calls the cops.
Any and all gun, firecracker, wrist rocket, etc. accident are reported to the police. In most cases this constitutes neglect of some sort. If you manage to get an Officer with half a brain, you’re lucky.
Any bicycle or trampoline injury incurred without proper safety equipment is generally NOT covered by insurance companies.
Children seen walking alone under age 12 will usually garner the attention of (again) nosey neighbors who in an effort to feel like a superior parent, will call the authorities.
Locking children outside in the summer heat with only a water hose (as I hated, but survived and employ) would get the LEOs out to your house. See aforementioned “nosey neighbor”.
Your Metal lunch boxes? Weapons. Not allowed on school grounds. As are belt buckles, ball caps, and the ever dangerous “hand gun” (thumb and forefinger.)
I could go on, but I think the point is made. It was an ironically safer and more peaceful time to raise children. When we are allowed to raise kids as kids, trust me, we will.
Fwiw, I live way out in the country and homeschool so am afforded the luxury of ignoring most the above BS. . .sometimes. Over regulated is an understatement.
When I was a kid, we had a bunch of boys for neighbors, so we played games outside ‘til the sun went down, had to wait until I was big enough to climb the neighbors tree without a ladder(ie:NO ladder climbing allowed!). We covered ourselves in the fall with the leaves from same said tree, played slip and slide on the concrete driveway WITHOUT a mat (just waterd down the drive). We ran between the chain link fence and brick wall along the backside next to the I-10 freeway (West Covina, CA) while playing hide-and-seek (you coud get from one house to the other without being seen that way!)
I didn’t ever break a bone or lost any fingers or toes, but did have the BEST childhood growing up!
Can you even buy caps or capguns anymore? I rather doubt it.
I hear a lot of whining from both my kids and their friends about a lot of things we took in stride 40 years ago. I have the same answer to all of them
“You never ate mud pies when you were a kid, did you”?
It is the loss of that culture that has us in the final stages of a marxist takeover.
Yeah, during the summer I don’t think my Mom ever saw me until 9 pm or so. She worked during the day and I stayed outside till it was so dark I couldn’t see anymore. I’d come in, eat, and attempt to get away without taking a bath.
I remember during recess at school, when we played football, that the end zones were two barbed-wire fences. When scoring, you’d attempt to dive under the bottom strand, but if you scored standing up for whatever reason, you were gonna get nicked. lol
Coke was that bottle you bought with your five best friends with the 12 pennies (10 cents for the soda, 2 cents for the bottle) collected among each other at the corner store and shared by wiping the top with your sleeve after taking a sip and passing it to the next guy.
wow.. love the bike...unfortunately only rich kids had bikes like this hahaha
Me, too! :)
I was mowing lawns in 6th grade! This stuff was too cool to pass up. I had a pair of Walkie-Talkies that would reach a mile and a half! And a fort in my back yard for refuge from the B-B gun wars!
(Paint ball??!?? I point and laugh at you!!)
We used to have BB gun wars. No aiming above the shoulders. Thought we were real tough until my uncle told me about the day my dad shot his brother in the ass with a .22 back when they were kids.
They played rough back in the day.
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.