What I wouldn't give for kids to experience this kind of childhood without all the stress from the technology of today!!!
When I was a child, eating out at a restaurant was a huge deal that only happened for a special occasion. Fast food was a bologna and cheese or pb&j sandwich to take outside in the yard. Eating ice cream was a treat on a hot day.
You took your school clothes off and church clothes off as soon as you got home and put on your play clothes. We had to do our homework before being allowed outside to play.
We never knew anything about air conditioning. If you were too sick to go to school or church you were too sick to see your friends, play ball or go outside.
We ate dinner at the table. We went to school every day and rode a bus with 2 to a seat. There was no taking or picking you up in the car, you walked!
Our phone hung on the wall in the kitchen and had a cord attached to it, there were no private conversation's or cell phones!
We played Cowboys and Cops and Robbers, 1,2,3 Not It, Red Light Green Light, Kick the Can, Tag, Hide & Seek, Truth or Dare, Freeze Tag, Baseball, Football, Army, Whiffle Ball, Basketball, Man Hunt and rode our bikes EVERYWHERE!! We climbed trees as high as we could and sit there for hours. We didn’t go to summer camps, the Whole town was our local playground.
Staying in the house was a punishment and the only thing we knew about "bored"--- "You better find something to do before I find it for you!"
We ate what mom made for dinner or we ate nothing at all and if you asked mom what she was making the only answer you got was "food". There was no bottled water; we drank from the tap or the garden hose that always had warm water first before it ran cold.
We watched cartoons on Saturday mornings, rode our bikes for hours around the neighborhood. We weren't AFRAID OF ANYTHING. All of the neighborhood kids were friends. If someone had a fight, that's what it was and we were friends again a week later, if not SOONER. We played 'til dark, sunset was our curfew and we didn't dare make our parents come looking for us.
School was mandatory and teachers were people who you could TRUST and RESPECT. We watched our MOUTHS around our elder's because ALL of our Aunts, Uncles, Grandpas and Grandmas AND our Parent's best friend's were also our PARENT'S (they COULD & WOULD WHOOP Y'ALL!,) and you didn't want them telling your PARENT'S if you misbehaved. And if you DID misbehave, your parents knew about it before YOU even got home!
I loved my childhood; I wouldn’t trade those memories or those friendships for anything.
Good Times
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Same. Guess that shows our age though.
ReplyDeleteOh I remember those days.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget about collecting pop bottles from the sides of the road to return for the deposit money. 5 cents could buy you a bubba daddy chewing gum that would last two days.
I did that
DeleteSummertime meant I was making money, whether that was following the sand cleaning machines in the 70s and finding paper money or walking miles to all phone booths for change.
ReplyDeleteThose were the days.
They were the days, but if a kid could even find a toll phone today. Have to sanitize the hands after touching it. :(
DeleteAah, the good old days.
ReplyDeleteWell said and indeed they were good times and we appreciated our parents, friends and what we had.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100 per cent, that's the way it was at my house, and the world was a much better place. I really believe that our country has not been the same since the Viet nam war. I remember when I was over there on an aircraft carrier, and going down to our living compartment,the guys had the tv on to the evening newS, first was the war protestS on, then you got the war in front of you on the screen. I just don't think that things have been the same since. By the way our news came by arm forces tv.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100%. Those were the days. I would come home at night and my mother didn't ask me what I had done all day. She would wash the dirt off so she could see if I belong to her.
ReplyDeleteAmen! My wife and i were just talking about that. How you'd come home, and TV was not SO PC. I remember the news was just ABC, NBC, CBS, or your local channel. It was 1/2 hr long. 10 min of local, 10 min of National, 5 min for sports, 5 min for weather, then whatever was on! It wad SO MUCH more calm and peaceful, and every channel wasn't trying to cause division.....Ahhhh, childhood!
ReplyDeleteWe had chores at home with no allowance , if you needed money, you would knock on neighbors doors asking to cut grass for money.
ReplyDeleteYes yes yes. Grass in the summer, shoveling snow in the winter.
DeleteWhaaaaaaaaa happened?
Kids in our neighborhood yesterday were playing Cops and Looters.
ReplyDeleteYup, I remember playing with the black kids in the neighborhood as well as the whites. We all played together, but that was before I was told I had white privileged and am a racists. Now I just scorn them!
ReplyDeleteI agree but also know those times will never return. Then you learn respect for others, good work ethics, you were corrected with a switch and never bruised, you learn lessons by defeat and you were not pampered.
ReplyDeleteAhhh yes the good old days when women were expected to stay in the home, being gay was a crime and schools were segregated. I bet life was just mighty swell if you were a little white boy.
ReplyDeleteNorthwest Woodsman: That was Snow Hill circa 1950s. The only game not listed was spin the bottle.
ReplyDeleteOhhhh yes. Try that around a fire pit with 4 women. Best day ever and there were No losers. Damn Damn Damn. Loose lips sink ships!
DeleteBWAHAHAHAHA
Amen. Not the case now and I am afraid it will never be like that again. Things are different. Liberals/progressives are in charge now. We had a chance to stand up to this garbage and we did not. It is too late now.
ReplyDeleteThe Sheriff didn't wear and gun and the town drunk use to ride a cow to town.
ReplyDeleteThese comments here crack me up and show exactly what the problem is. Your comments illustrate the exact definition of white privilege so lets stop and think here. While you paint this rosy picture of your childhood as the good ol days, you should go talk to folks like my dad (black man). He can tell you plenty of stories from my grandfather being attacked by whites on the job, to my dad almost losing his life because the doctor refused to see black patients until all of his white patients were treated. While you reminisce about the good ol days, imagine you are a black kid growing up dealing with crap schools with infrastructure that was highly underfunded, unsafe neighborhoods that lacked basic service because local governments deliberately reduced/denied service to minority communities, and you were deliberately passed over for both blue collar and skilled jobs because of race. My dad joined the Marines during the Vietnam era to fight even though he didn't have the same basic civil protections as the rest of America. You guys want to paint everything as being such a joy back in the day only because you didn't have this experience. Now you want to be upset because those who didn't have your experience are speaking up! Not only do you wish to deny these folks the opportunity to speak up, you act as if their experiences are invalid because the notion of being truly oppressed is so foreign to you. God help us
ReplyDeleteI do pray God blesses you richly I am sorry for your childhood but at the same time we were growing up too we were children we did not write the rules, we were not in charge, we listened to our parents or we answered for it, because parents spanked back then it was not time out. We aren't responsible for the grown up doctors and their ways any more than we're responsible for the school system or how your elders were treated on their jobs. We were not the adults we were children same as you. We appreciate your service to your country I lost 2 cousins and a boyfriend in Viet Nam. The thing you need to learn is don't take your anger and your hatred out on the race that was growing up the same time you were. Don't hate us all, my life hasn't been a bed of roses either but I take each person individually and get to know them and treat them the way I want to be treated.I don't point the finger at things I couldn't control and each generation learns from their generation they grew up in and the one they are living in, I answer for what I have done and the way I try to live every day, and I love all races, individuals can disappoint and when they do I avoid them. Try to make each day better and also for ALL those around you, being bitter will not make you happy. God Bless you and I hope you find peace.
ReplyDeleteThat was also the times that you could actually leave your windows open at night and your door unlocked. These days it is windows closed and locked and a gun on your night stand. What changed here on the shore was when the Baltimoron's started retiring and moving down here. Brought their lousy way of life with them.
ReplyDelete