[RickJ]

I get 30 of these a day and in the 3 years I've been on this site I bet I've passed along no more than a half dozen...

This one is definitely worth a read/reminiscence in my humble and possibly worthless opinion...

************************************************** *********

We survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because,

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day.And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nitendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computer, no Internet or chat
rooms...

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If YOU are one of them... CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.

While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?

... and laugh a bit at lawmakers and those others who assure us they know best for us...

[J_9]

Oh, I just LOVE it!!

And to think, I still raise my children with most of those life's lessons so that they can pass on the good ole times!!

[RickJ]

I see now that spanking is not mentioned. It should have been! :p

[Curlyben]

How true.

[J_9]

I see now that spanking is not mentioned.

That's the one thing I don't do... my children are intimidated enough by the sound of the wooden spoon hitting the kitchen counter top. :eek:

[RickJ]

:p :p
Haha, I know that one too!

Or the phrase, "Honey, go get me the belt"

[firmbeliever]

I was born in the 80s but it seems my family was old fashioned in the sense that many in your list seems so familiar:).

[J_9]

"Honey, go get me the belt"

"Mommy, am I gonna get a spanking?" Can be enough punishment!! :p

[WVHiflyer]

OK if I start e-mailing this around?

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

You forgot about trying to see who could get their sled as far as the creek - the winner went it...

And spanking was a good deterrant. Sometimes all Mom had to do was fold the belt and then SNAP it. That was the last warning...

And we played ball in the street.

[RickJ]

Haha hoo hoo, good additions! :p :p

[progunr]

What a great post, yes, we survived, and many of us thrived.

It is truly sad to make the comparison with today's society.

What scares me is this.

Every generation, has to come up with a way to "shock" the previous one.

We grew our hair long, painted flowers all over our VW Buses, wore frayed bell bottom jeans, and protested the war.

Now, they put fish hooks through their lips, eyebrows, even their noses, they place tattoo's all over their bodies, they dress like the vampires and demons from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, they listen to so called music full of foul language and horrendous references to sex, women, and society in general.

Yes, they have "shocked" me, don't know about everyone else.

The really scary thing for me though is this:

What the hell is the next generation going to come up with to "shock" this one??

[westnlas]

It also might be noted that those who committed crimes against children did not get to spend many years basking in the comfort of a jail cell or prison day room. Families took care of those who harmed relatives and were considered in the right to do it. Teachers received respect and the vice principal owned a large wooden perforated paddle. TV still showed respect for women and sex was not a part of every advertisement. We ate dinner as a family and there were no excuses not to be at the table at 6:00 pm. Families had 2 parents in the home that were married to each other and marriage wasn't disposable. Most families could survive on the father's income. Unions protected workers and their wages. Times might have been tough at times, but we were much better off when we considered ourselves Americans and supported other Americans instead of cheap foreign labor. Companies got greedy and the bottom fell out. Reagan's huge tax increases on the average working family killed the "good times"

[Emland]

Where I grew up a child with divorced parents was a rare exception.

Not only did I survive riding my bike without a helmet and pads, I usually had another friend sitting on the handle bars while another was in the seat while I stood to pedal. (Yes, it was quite a sight.)

Fireworks! They're banned in the state I reside in now, but where I grew up (southeastern Arkansas) our church youth organization ran the firework stand. About half a dozen kids would load up in the back of my brother's El Camino ane we would ride around town shooting bottle rockets at friends. Now a days I would imagine that would be tantamount to a terrorist attack.

If you did something incredibly stupid or destructive around town your mother knew about it before you could get home. That was way before cell phones, Email, IM or chat!

You knew your neighbors, your neighbor's momma and where they went to church. (I don't even know my current neighbor's last name.)

[RickJ]

GREAT stuff!

... I'm recalling now: When I was in elementary school spankings were issued by the techers themselves!

Between 4th and 6th grade I was spanked several times in school. Once by the Principal herself and several other times by teachers.

... and I remember well; the paddle had a label on it "The Board of Education".

... and it had holes in it.

The "position" was bent over with hands on a chair while the administrator of the punishment gave some swings.

I'm confident that those spanking did not particularly do me any good, but I am positive that it was a good deterrent for others who were thinking of doing what I did to get the punishment. :p

[excon]

Hello RickJ:

Yeah. I survived those times too. I loved it.

But, my family couldn't join a "restricted" country club. Black people couldn't drink from the same fountain as whites. People regularly got a slap on the wrist for being drunk on the road, and kids DID fall out of the back of pickups.

I'm sure there's a point where they should have stopped making laws, but I don't know where that point is. Even now they come up with a good one once in a while.

In the country I'm in, there no seat belt laws. Women regularly carry their infants on their laps. I wish they couldn't do that.

excon

[Emland]

GREAT stuff!!

...I'm recalling now: When I was in elementary school spankings were issued by the techers themselves!

Between 4th and 6th grade I was spanked several times in school. Once by the Principal herself and several other times by teachers.

...and I remember well; the paddle had a label on it "The Board of Education".

...and it had holes in it.

The "position" was bent over with hands on a chair while the administrator of the punishment gave some swings.

I'm confident that those spanking did not particularly do me any good, but I am positive that it was a good deterrent for others who were thinking of doing what I did to get the punishment. :p

In the school system I attended they administered paddlings all the way to the 12th grade. The Head Coach for football commissed a specialty paddle from the shop class. It was cut from 1/2 inch plexiglass and had holes drilled in it to reduce drag. It was usually used on the boys but on rare occasions a girl got "fired up."

We had one of those country clubs, too, excon. My mother refused to join and would never allow me to go as a guest of someone else. I didn't understand it then - only thought I was being cheated out of a chance to go to the pool. I understand it now and am glad I didn't go.

Our high school had another policy that would be heresy today. If you were a Juior or Senior and filled out a form they would allow you to smoke - in a special designated area. Nearly every teacher smoked at that time, so as long as your parents didn't care - you were allowed.

[JudyKayTee]

Where I grew up a child with divorced parents was a rare exception.

Not only did I survive riding my bike without a helmet and pads, I usually had another friend sitting on the handle bars while another was in the seat while I stood to pedal. (Yes, it was quite a sight.)

Fireworks! They're banned in the state I reside in now, but where I grew up (southeastern Arkansas) our church youth organization ran the firework stand. About half a dozen kids would load up in the back of my brother's El Camino ane we would ride around town shooting bottle rockets at friends. Now a days I would imagine that would be tantamount to a terrorist attack.

If you did something incredibly stupid or destructive around town your mother knew about it before you could get home. That was way before cell phones, Email, IM or chat!

You knew your neighbors, your neighbor's momma and where they went to church. (I don't even know my current neighbor's last name.)

Oh, neighbors! You're so right - my mother was part of some underground of Motherhood. She knew what I did the minute I did it - and long before I arrived home. We knew all the neighbors and if something happened all the neighbors raced out of their houses. We also had a dog and he went everywhere with us - no leash laws, no problems. Nobody bothered us, either, with that dog standing there.

If I did something a neighbor didn't like, first the neighbor told me, then she told my mother, then my mother told my father. I gave up any thoughts of a criminal life early on.

And, yes, we ate dinner as a family every night - no exceptions, no eating early, no eating by yourself. And we talked about anything and everything during dinner and often after dinner, over dessert.

I knew 2 people who were in 1 parent homes - one's mother was widowed and the other was (gasp!) divorced. If other people were divorced, re-married, had step parents, I don't know. Nobody talked about it.

I went to a graduation ceremony this week and the girl who was graduating said that 1/3 of the kids in her class are in 1 parent homes. Surprised me.

[JudyKayTee]

"Mommy, am I gonna get a spanking?" Can be enough punishment!!! :p

My mother had no qualms about smacking somebody on the rear end - well until we were teenagers.

But, oh, even worse was my father - if the offense was bad enough the big guns would be brought in (my father) and it would start as a meeting on the hallway stairs and it would go along the lines of: "I hear you upset your mother," go on to what a good woman she was (and she was/is), how much she loved me, how much she sacrificed for "us" kids and would end up with the offender sobbing. And if you made my mother cry - then the speech got somewhat longer and involved moral character. I don't ever remember my father raising his voice but I would have preferred it (or hitting) over "the speech." Then I would go to my room to "think about things."

I was raised for a number of years by Grandparents and my Grandmother never said anything if I misbehaved but my Grandfather would come home and he and I would sit on the front porch or in the livingroom and he would rock in his chair and we would "talk" about what was expected of me, how proud of me he was but it was difficult to be proud when I did bad things - and I would end up sobbing then, too.

So in my case, smack me and get it over with. PLEASE don't talk to me if I do something wrong.

[RickJ]

Hello RickJ:

Yeah. I survived those times too. I loved it.

But, my family couldn't join a "restricted" country club. Black people couldn't drink from the same fountain as whites. People regularly got a slap on the wrist for being drunk on the road, and kids DID fall out of the back of pickups.

I'm sure there's a point where they shoulda stopped making laws, but I dunno where that point is. Even now they come up with a good one once in a while.

In the country I'm in, there no seat belt laws. Women regularly carry their infants on their laps. I wish they couldn't do that.

excon

MOST excellent, Excon.

Why, I don't know... but I get a big grin with every reply in this thread :p

[NeedKarma]

As I'm chatting with a lot of parents these days it seems that the pendulum is swinging back to being more liberal parents. Kids are allowed to wander further in the neighbourhood, much more outdoor play, restrictions are being placed on electronics, kids allowed to try risky stuff at the park, etc.

Of course I live in a medium sized city in Canada, not sure if that stuff would fly in the US.