If that's the manual kind with the rotating cylinder of blades that spit the cut grass forward, I remember using my grandfathers from the 50's in the 70's when I was a kid.
(They sound better when someone else is using it ;-)
Posted on 05/28/2003 5:21:55 PM PDT by tpaine
Were you a kid in the Thirties, Forties or Fifties or so ?
Everybody makes fun of our childhood! Comedians joke. Grandkids snicker. Twenty-something's shudder and say "Eeeew!" But was our childhood really all that bad?
Judge for yourself:
In 1953 The US population was less than 150 million... Yet you knew more people then, and knew them better... And that was good.
The average annual salary was under $3,000...Yet our parents could put some of it away for a rainy day and still live a decent life... And that was good.
A loaf of bread cost about 15 cents... But it was safe for a five-year-old to skate to the store and buy one... And that was good.
Prime-Time meant I Love Lucy, Ozzie and Harriet, Gunsmoke and Lassie... So nobody ever heard of ratings or filters... And that was good.
We didn't have air-conditioning... So the windows stayed up and half a dozen mothers ran outside when you fell off your bike... And that was good.
Your teacher was either Miss Matthews or Mrs. Logan or Mr. Adkins... But not Ms Becky or Mr.Dan... And that was good.
The only hazardous material you knew about...Was a patch of grassburrs around the light pole at the corner... And that was good.
You loved to climb into a fresh bed... Because sheets were dried on the clothesline... And that was good.
People generally lived in the same hometown with their relatives... So "child care" meant grandparents or aunts and uncles... And that was good.
Parents were respected and their rules were law.... Children did not talk back..... and that was good. Your Dad knew how to adjust everybody's carburetor... And the Dad next door knew how to adjust all the TV knobs... And that was very good.
Your grandma grew snap beans in the back yard...And chickens behind the garage... And that was definitely good.
And just when you were about to do something really bad... Chances were you'd run into your Dad's high school coach... Or the nosy old lady from up the street... Or your little sister's piano teacher... Or somebody from Church... ALL of whom knew your parents' phone number...And YOUR first name... And even THAT was good!
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ REMEMBER....
Send this on to someone who can still remember Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Laurel &Hardy, Abbott &Costello, Sky King, Little Lulu comics, Brenda Starr, Howdy Doody and The Peanut Gallery, The Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows, Nellie Belle, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk as well as the sound of a reel mower on Saturday morning, and summers filled with bike rides, playing in cowboy land, playing hide and seek and kick-the-can and Simon Says, baseball games, amateur shows at the local theater before the Saturday matinee, bowling and visits to the pool...and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar, and wax lips and bubblegum cigars
Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, Yeah, I remember that!
And was it really that long ago?
And that also bought one car & one house... now, most families need two wage-earners to make ends meet. Of course, we have so many more goods now.
We didn't have air conditioning when I was a kid. Being swarmed by mosquitos while sweating buckets was my experience. I have air conditioning now...and I like it.
Laying in the ditch watching the bats fly overhead was great fun for the neighbor kids. Laying in the middle of the street to see if we'd get run over was even more fun.
Burning leaves in autumn. I can still smell it. :o)
The dry cleaners man picked up and dropped off. He looked like Jimmy Durante.
Our milk was delivered in the 60's.
Hey grammie...you had wooden teeth, didn't you?
I grew up in a great time, when people counted more than animals, when we put our friends ahead of TV. when church was the social gathering for like-minded people.
Gosh, I sound old, but they were good times. God, family, friends.. those were our codes words. What happened?
And whatever happened to the joys of a party line for phone service?
And those expansive closets! Some of the bigger ones were maybe 2 feet by 8 feet.
That's very nice to hear- I had a somewhat atypical family- no sibs, and my Dad was retired
( yes, I had the dreaded "older parents"- got a lot of grief from other kids, but mine were so calm & collected compared to their youngish folks... )
and so I got the benefit of having both male & female role-models around all the time.
My Dad was the cook, so I came by my househusbandly proclivities naturally.
I grew up on an island off the Georgia coast, about 3,000 souls, a third or so black, and we never locked the house at night, or the car.
Of course, Dad's 16 gauge Browning shotgun by the bed may have had something to do with that...
-Water balloon fights
-Bottle rocket fights
-Leave in the morning, come home for dinner
-Digging tunnels
-Riding bikes to the creek during a storm to watch the H2O
-Flushing out moles in the yard
-Catching "horny toads"
-Knowing everyone around my block (I was the paperboy)
-"throwing" the paper (hated Sunday mornings)
-Camping in the backyard
-Coming in the house about 12am from camping in the backyard
-Riding my bike to school
-Building forts in the "Piney Woods"
-Winning 45s by calling the local radio station
-Five of us riding around town on a tandem bike
-etcccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc
talking the 60's here, folks.
If that's the manual kind with the rotating cylinder of blades that spit the cut grass forward, I remember using my grandfathers from the 50's in the 70's when I was a kid.
(They sound better when someone else is using it ;-)
You're right, of course, and I recall that first B&W TV with the little round tube... no air conditioning ( despite my Dad having an HVAC shop in his business... ) and August nights so hot you could not stay asleep... the dial phone, MElrose 8-2210... my Mom's brother had a party line...
We had a party line til 71!
My daughter is an only child..and we had her while in our 30's. She's 13 now and such a sweetie. I'm the main cook...and that's a good thing. Trust me. lol
My daughter's favorite programs are Bonanza, Big Valley, Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver. Oh...and Gidget. She's being raised on good shows!
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