Posted on 08/26/2021 2:47:32 AM PDT by sodpoodle
How Old Is Grandfather?
Stay with this -- the answer is at the end.
It may blow you away.
One evening a grandson was talking to his grandfather about current events.
The grandson asked his grandfather what he thought about the shootings at schools, the computer age, and just things in general.
The Grandfather replied, "Well, let me think a minute, I was born before:
' television
' penicillin
' polio shots
' frozen foods
' Xerox
' contact lenses
' Frisbees and
' the pill
There were no:
' credit cards
' laser beams or
' ball-point pens
Man had not invented :
' pantyhose
' air conditioners
' dishwashers
' clothes dryers
' and the clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air and
' space travel was only in Flash Gordon books.
Your Grandmother and I got married first,... and then lived together..
Every family had a father and a mother.
Until I was 25, I called every woman older than me, "mam". And after I turned 25, I still called policemen and every man with a title, "Sir".
We were before gay-rights, computer-dating, dual careers, daycare centers, and group therapy.
Our lives were governed by the Bible, good judgment, and common sense.
We were taught to know the difference between right and wrong and to stand up and take responsibility for our actions.
Serving your country was a privilege; living in this country was a bigger privilege...
We thought fast food was eating half a biscuit while running to catch the school bus.
Having a meaningful relationship meant getting along with your cousins.
Draft dodgers were those who closed front doors as the evening breeze started.
Time-sharing meant time the family spent together in the evenings and weekends-not purchasing condominiums.
We never heard of FM radios, tape decks, CDs, electric typewriters, yogurt, or guys wearing earrings.
We listened to Big Bands, Jack Benny, and the President's speeches on our radios.
And I don't ever remember any kid blowing his brains out listening to
Tommy Dorsey.
If you saw anything with 'Made in Japan ' on it, it was junk.
The term 'making out' referred to how you did on your school exam....
Pizza Hut, McDonald's, and instant coffee were unheard of.
We had 5 &10-cent stores where you could actually buy things for 5 and 10 cents. Ice-cream cones, phone calls, rides on a streetcar, and a Pepsi were all a nickel. And if you didn't want to splurge, you could spend your nickel on enough stamps to mail 1 letter and 2 postcards.
You could buy a new Ford Coupe for $600, ... but who could afford one?
Too bad, because gas was 11 cents a gallon.
In my day:
' "grass" was mowed,
' "coke" was a cold drink,
' "pot" was something your mother cooked in and
' "rock music" was your grandmother's lullaby.
' "Aids" were helpers in the Principal's office,
' "chip" meant a piece of wood,
' "hardware" was found in a hardware store and
' "software" wasn't even a word.
And we were the last generation to actually believe that a lady needed a husband to have a baby.
How old do you think I am?
I bet you have this old man in mind...you are in for a shock!
Read on to see -- pretty scary if you think about it and pretty sad at the same time .
Are you ready ?????
This man would be 74 years old today.(2021)
GIVES YOU SOMETHING TO THINK
The younger generation would not understand.
As do I, and I will be 69 in October!
I’m 77. Sure wish I had saved my baseball cards and comic books.
Hey Sod: I remember my first confession (Catholic). Seems I said I did everything 500 times just to cover my butt.
I checked your home page and had to smile about the ‘knitting scarves’. Did the same thing and donated dozens to a guy at work - who was running a charity.
The old fingers are too crampy to knit anymore;(
You must have a big butt Sac;)
Luv yah!
In my day:
"grass" was mowed,
Apparently Grandpa never watched Reefer Madness
"coke" was a cold drink,
Tell that to Sherlock Holmes or the millions of ordinary citizens who got hooked on hard drugs that were in over the counter medicines
And we were the last generation to actually believe that a lady needed a husband to have a baby.
and if she didn't, which was more common than Grandpa thinks, she got sent away or the baby was raised as a "sister"
I understand how you think the good old days were something fantabulous like Ozzie and Harriet but they had drugs, crimes, murder, inflation, depression just like they do today. Grandpa is just getting too senile to remember.
Sod....The lady next door stood on her front stoop, close to the public walk with a broom as the children passed to go to school. No child dared to step on her lawn.......Unless she turned her head. Every day....I made sure I stepped on her lawn and fervently confessed the 500 times offense. I was seven.
So do I.
We walked to and from school. And if we walked across a neighbor’s yard to save a few steps (as on a corner) our mothers knew about it before we got home. I remember the lecture well, “If everyone cut across Mrs. So and So’s yard, there would be a path worn into her grass.”
My town of about 50,000 people only had school buses for high school as grades 1-8 had "Ward Schools" that were in the various neighborhoods and the kids walked to school.
I went to a Catholic School and they had no buses back then, so while I lived a mile and a half away, we walked every day (up hill both ways:).
There were 8 public school wards and even the "slow kids" learned how to read, write and do basic math, knew The Pledge and could point out the USA on a map.
The Catholic School had Nuns with rulers and paddles with holes drilled in them for better speed in beating your butt, so there was very little or no class disruption.
If you got beaten in school, you got twice as bad a whipping at home.
The gas at 11 cent/gal reminded me that when I was in the Army, being sent to Germany in the late 50s, A Carton of Camels sold for 90 cents.
Two hundred smokes for 90 cents, that's was a lot of coffin nails {that's what we called them} for only 90 cents.
Ummm. 74 is an old man.
This administration is enough to make me wish for the good ole days of the Carter years.
I actually did save my comic books from the late 60's/early 70's. They've all been individually preserved in plastic covers this past 30+ years.
I've saved my old paperbacks as well, although not packaged in plastic. Lately I've been revisiting my old "Mac Bolan" books - seems timely.
And FDR was President ... I’m 79
I have upward from 300 originally packaged AOL Floppies and CD’s all waiting to be catalogued on an x cell data base and advertised on Ebay
Bttt
In other words, sin has been around a long time, and sometime reminiscing about the good old days is done with rose colored glasses. Grandpa may not be senile after all.
That being said, public morality that was woven into the social fabric was more traditional, conservative, Judeo-Christian than it is today. The other point is that this culture existed not so long ago. I guess if I wanted to live in cynicism, I would deny this actually existed in the past, imperfect as it may have been.
To me, 74 is a puppy.
Age is a relative number.
Grand dad was bright enough to understand that self-inflicted artificial stupidity was probably not a good thing.
"I understand how you think the good old days were something fantabulous like Ozzie and Harriet but they had drugs, crimes, murder, inflation, depression just like they do today. Grandpa is just getting too senile to remember."
We know that your stupidity and acceptance of evil, drugs, crimes, murder, inflation is something you won't live to regret. It's going to kill you, and you are too dim to care.
Ponder this. Charly Starkweather went on a multistate killing spree in early 1958. He Rode the Lighting in June 1959. We knew how to handle things, then. Charlie Manson staged multiple murders in 1969, and died of old age in 2017.
Never confuse senility with wisdom.
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