Those Were The Days

[Marilyn. 340]

Moms used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board

with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't get food poisoning.

Moms used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND we used to eat a bite raw

sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper, in a brown

paper bag, not in icepack coolers, but we can't remember anybody getting

e.coli.

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a

pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.

The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a

pager was the school PA system.

We all took gym, not PE... and risked permanent injury with a pair of

hightop Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic

shoes with air cushion soles and built-in light reflectors.

I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened, because they tell

us how much safer we are now....

Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be

much harder than gym.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the National Anthem, and

staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention. We

must have had horribly damaged psyches.

What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses?

Ours wore a hat and everything, and she could even give you an aspirin for a

headache or fever.

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed

to be proud of myself. I just can't recall how bored we were without

computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.

Oh yeah..and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that

bee sting? I could have been killed!

We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction

sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of

Mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did)

and then we got our butt spanked!

Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a

$49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the

contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a

threat.

We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either, because if we did, we got

our butt spanked there, and then we got butt spanked again when we got home.

I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on

the front stoop, just before he fell off.

Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house. Instead, she

picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof.

It was a neighborhood run amuck.

To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were

from a "dysfunctional family". How could we possibly have known that we

needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? We were

obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that

the entire country wasn't taking Prozac! How did we ever survive?

[smoochies 0]

[Jasman0717 9]

[mike&jie 0]

Yup,, I still remember those,s days

[almaty 19]

i remember some of this

[Jason-Sasha 1]

Very old thread but I just had to say that this really brought the good 'ole days back into my head. I miss the 70's and 80's very much now.

[Ladylethal 12]

Yeah, I remember those days.

In my hometown now, when a kid falls or hurts herself the mother is called to a judge to prove it wasn't her that did it or it was due to neglect. Before kids fell and hurt themselves all the time. Now mothers are all over their children and don't let them play alone or climb trees etc 'cus the judge will think they are abusive to their children.

[sakurasama 0]

I remember my sister and I being bored because there was nothing good on TV so we would turn it off and go outside and play. We had one TV and about 5 channels.

[PlatyPius 5]

I remember not wearing bicycle helmets when we were kids, and no one ever had a debilitating brain injury from wrecking their bike.

Kids could walk to school without having to file a parent-signed release form with the school.

Staying in the house all day meant that it was raining. And sometimes not even then. Reading was done outside, if one were the bookish sort. No video games back then.

We actually knew who our neighbours were.

No one sued anyone for anything. The idea of suing someone for your own stupidity/unluckiness never crossed anyone's mind.

If the neighbour lady offered you cookies, you took them. You didn't worry about being abducted, murdered, or poisoned. Your parents most definitely didn't call the cops on her for her perverted, child-endangering ways.

Most kids had a Dad who lived with them. If there wasn't a Dad, your Mom was usually known as "Widow Smith", or whatever your last name was.

Kids didn't call the police (or a shrink) on their parents and report them for abuse when punished. Likewise, parents weren't afraid to discipline their children.

Kids didn't go to restaurants very often, and if they did, they most certainly didn't run amok screaming, yelling, and throwing tantrums. If they did, they got their ### beat, and didn't come back to the restaurant for a long, long time.

[KarenCee 3]

I remember not wearing bicycle helmets when we were kids, and no one ever had a debilitating brain injury from wrecking their bike.

Kids could walk to school without having to file a parent-signed release form with the school.

Staying in the house all day meant that it was raining. And sometimes not even then. Reading was done outside, if one were the bookish sort. No video games back then.

We actually knew who our neighbours were.

No one sued anyone for anything. The idea of suing someone for your own stupidity/unluckiness never crossed anyone's mind.

If the neighbour lady offered you cookies, you took them. You didn't worry about being abducted, murdered, or poisoned. Your parents most definitely didn't call the cops on her for her perverted, child-endangering ways.

Most kids had a Dad who lived with them. If there wasn't a Dad, your Mom was usually known as "Widow Smith", or whatever your last name was.

Kids didn't call the police (or a shrink) on their parents and report them for abuse when punished. Likewise, parents weren't afraid to discipline their children.

Kids didn't go to restaurants very often, and if they did, they most certainly didn't run amok screaming, yelling, and throwing tantrums. If they did, they got their ### beat, and didn't come back to the restaurant for a long, long time.

Reminds me of what I've told several kids during lunchtime at school (after watching their table behaviour and eating habits)..."There is no way I'd ever take you to a restaurant"... Makes me wonder what momma and daddy let them do in public.

[Jasman0717 9]

Wow, this is a really old thread

[Jenn! 918]

Just got to get it out of my system:

Boy the way Glen Miller played

Songs that made the hit parade.

Guys like us we had it made,

Those were the days.

And you knew who you were then,

Girls were girls and men were men,

Mister we could use a man

Like Herbert Hoover again.

Didn't need no welfare state,

Everybody pulled his weight.

Gee our old LaSalle ran great.

Those were the days.

Ok, maybe I can get Edith Bunker's lovely singing voice out of my head now while I browse OT.

[Kathryn41 3,205]

hehehe, NOW you've done it! I'm hearing Edith Bunkers singing voice in my head, too!!

(but yeah, I remember those good old days:-) )

[Marilyn. 340]

Wow, this is a really old thread

and your point is??

[Jason-Sasha 1]

Its almost nightmarish these days planning to have children. There are so many new regulations for what's acceptable and what's not. They cannot even play tag at recess anymore. Officials are too worried that the ones who perform poorly will develop a complex with low self esteem. It's a world full of pansies, I tell ya! How will the world survive if we keep dumbing down to suit the weakest? Survival of the fittest isn't just a term, it's a fact. In the animal kingdom the weakest are destroyed. Makes me think that old movie with Sly Stallone "Demolition Man" isn't too far from our actual future. A population of sissies!