Friday, October 12, 2007

The good ol' days ... (for some of us anyway...)


On this Friday, I want to leave you with a little simplicity. I know you've seen this snippet before on the net, and probably in one of my postings of last year. Back then, one of the fine commenter's wondered why I was harking back to the days of "Ozzie and Harriet". Well, I'm really not. I know the days of yore were not always full of noble and good things, and we have certainly done many things as a society to correct some of the "bad" things that were considered "normal" or "American". We've come a long way, Baby. I simply want us to recall the days when we weren't as concerned about lead paint, smokers, and dozens of other things that have taken over our social psyche. I present to you....


THE WAY WE WERE...., and TO THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 30’S, 40’S, 50’S, AND 60’S ...


First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing and didn’t get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints (built HERE not in China..). 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 children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle (thus not contributing a jillion plastic bottles to waste). We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, 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 Playstation’s, Nintendo’s, X-Box’s, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet 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 made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not out vary many eyes, nor did the worms live in us forever. 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!


This generation has produced some of the best risk takers, problem solvers and innovators 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! And YOU are one of them!


CONGRATULATIONS! Send this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?!


There, I've had my ration of a feel-good I.V., .... Do enjoy your weekend, lighten up a little, and know that for every one ****ed-up thing in America and the world, there are ten things well worth the joys of smiling and living.


Coda

21 comments:

Robert said...

True dat.

I have two younger brothers. We had a fort at the end of the subdivision, and we played football in the fall, basketball in the winter, and baseball in the summer - All in our yard! No mouthpieces or helmets or chinstraps.

We do have a generation of wimps. My two teenaged daughters are examples, although I would like to think not so bad as many others.

I kick my kids out of the house whenever I can. The silence is jsut an added bonus.

Dardin Soto said...

...True story. I was playing backyard football back in '78, (no flag football, by-the-way), hit my friend so hard on a punt return I broke his jaw,....

His dad took care of him with the tough love of those years,... and that night we shared a vanilla milk-shake (albeit through a micro-straw) I swear that wired-shut jaw of his was like a badge of honor,... he certainly got laid more than I did ..... , and I never got sued, there were no cameras in my front lawn trying to film the kid of the "inhumane hit", and no local legislator was doing face time to the press to gather political points off our coat-tails....

... oh yeah, and his Dad did not go over to my Dad's house to punch his lights out....

Robert said...

I played ball in high school, and we also had a neighborhoos rivalry. There were "teams" from each of three different subdivisions that were within walking distance of a big park. We set up weekend games against other neighborhoods.

I got a concussion during one of these games one early fall and spent the night in the hospital. I went to an "Air Supply" concert the next night (I know it wasn't hard rock, but it was me and 3 girls. Who could have said no?). The next Saturday we were out there doing it again. No lawsuits, not even a phone call. Just a nervous mother who didn't tell me no, just told me to be extra careful.

Even mothers had cajones back in the day. My wife doesn't even like my son to climb trees without me being around.

Anonymous said...

No doubt, it’s a generational thing. Those of us who are in the fall of our lives tend to remember the best part of our youth, and we honestly don’t understand the young people of today. Earlier today, my wife and I went to Lowe’s (they need our money) and sitting in the parking lot was this 20-something man listening to loud filthy-talk rap music. And I remember wondering – what is the fascination with all of this anger and lewdness? I know that my grandparents wondered about my enjoyment of the music genre of the 1950s, but I also know that there is a significant difference between Betty-Sue and cop-killer lyrics. And as I look back, I cannot remember a single incident where children aged 8 to 14 carried firearms to school, made hand-grenades in their rooms, or murdered their classmates in cold blood.

This is what I remember, though: hot rods were cool, and although we did get in trouble from time to time the one thing that kept us in check was the fact that we would have explain our misbehavior to our father. You probably recall that of all your father’s virtues, understanding wasn’t one of them.

So, at the risk of being a fuddy-duddy I’ll just conclude with this observation: I would not want to be a pre-teen in today’s world. I much preferred to have my mother at home after school, I liked having a father without a sense of humor, and I think that referring to my elders as “Yes sir or “No ma’am” established an important relationship within our community.

Thank you for a creative post today, TP.

Semper Fi

Dardin Soto said...

Robert!

Air Supply?... LMAO :-)

I admit I am a sucker for those cheezy 70's bands. I used to love Player, Supertramp, Boston, 10cc,....

Yes, I was "lost in love and did not know why".....

As to your comment, I am just as guilty. The first time my 4 year old daughter tried her skills in the monkey bars at the local park I nearly had seizures.... I followed her everywhere and had ulcers thinking about her dinging her little knee.... what the hell happened to me...? Talk about the wussyfication of Truth-Pain...

Brooke said...

It's a wonder anyone survived! LOL! Thank goodness we have Congress legislating slews of safety laws to save us!

WomanHonorThyself said...

awwwwwwwwwwww.nostalgia reigns supreme bro..nicely done!
I love Lucy anyone?..heh

Robert said...

I do it too, T-P, with my daughters. My son though is different. I encourage him to be a boy, and when he falls I tell him to "Dust off your britches and get back on".

Robert said...

Oh, and I didn't say that I didn't like Air Supply. I think I own(ed) everything they ever had and my band (werent we all in one at one time?) even played some of it.

Those bands aren't cheesy, they are the music of my youth. Boston rocks....

Ottavio (Otto) Marasco said...

Great post, great comments. I recall the era well. All that great music and tough love ... ing. There is a lot to be said for those days. Today's lot are not in the ball park, my 11 and 9 year old think I'm strange when I play the old tunes and yea they're whimpish alright and so is the schooling, so much shielding!

Terri@SteelMagnolia said...

I love this post... and I love all the comments...

Those sure were the days, huh!

Never used a seat belt, we'd all pile in the "family wagon".

We used to trick or treat all alone ...Naperville, Illinois in 1968...I was ly on8 years old...

We always played outside ... even walked thru the woods to 7~11 ...
alone....

We'd never send our kids out to do that stuff alone nowadays...

I sure miss those carefree easy breezy days ...

I recently downloaded some 70's music to my ipod ...take me back while jogging on the ole treadmill:

The Archies ~ Sugar Sugar
Bobby Sherman ~ my first crush
The Partridge Family ~ David Cassidy, my second crush
Commodores
Chicago
Grand Funk Railroad
Foreigner
Kenny Loggins
Van Halen
Ted Nugent
Lynyrd Skynyrd
Marshall Tucker Band
Freda Payne
KC and the Sunshine Band

What a geek, huh!

The Liberal Lie The Conservative Truth said...

Excellent post. I remember the days when doors were left unlocked, kids played in the streets without having to worry about perverts, Ozzie and Harriet etc.

To add to your good old days true stories - I was raised on the east BAy side of SF Bay Area. My next door neighbors had a garage and their kids and a couple of freinds had a rock band that practiced until the early hours of the AM.

Dad would call the police on them while I laid in bed loving the music. Nearly everyday we would play football, baseball or basketball in the street with the guys next door and never thought of them as anything else than friends and neighbors.

They finally got a break and cut a record to which I receieved one of the first copies and played it until it was so scratched it would not play anymore.

The neighbors were the Fogerty's and the gruop was CCR. I never sought an autograph on the album or anything because after all these were guys from the neighborhood. Wish I had the album now though with autographs. I could retire!

Dardin Soto said...

Mustang,
Looks like the Genie has shot out of the bottle on this one, no? I know it is impossible to even attempt to rewind the hands of time,... I just hope this giant social battleship of ours is not too difficult to steer against the coming icebergs of changes.

Brooke,
Is Dora still trying to make you go Medieval?....

Woman,
I dont care too much for Lucy, but that Tim Conway guy had me in stitches... :)

Robert,
Cheez is good! And you're right, Boston is (was) amazing... I still have their 3 or 4 albums around here somewhere,...

American Interests,
I guess you had the same thing back in the day down under, eh?...

Anonymous said...

wow, i miss those days so much! however, i would like to point out that my kids could take all of y'alls panzy kids LOL!

seriously, i must be the meaniest, most uncaring mother left on the face of the planet. we don't own a video game. we don't own any computer games.

i'm a systems consultant and we have only one computer in the house that the kids are allowed to use. and then (outside of school work) they are allowed one hour on the computer per seven days.

we watch the red sox and the lakers when they are on television. other than that it's fnc, the history channel or the discovery channel. that's it.

my kids walk or ride their bike or the metro bus darn near everywhere. none of them are overweight or scaredy cats.

my 20 year-old is self-sufficient and well grounded. and all of my kids are able to carry on a conversation on myriad subjects without hesitation.

i'm nowhere near as good a mother as my mom. i don't have her patience or her "mom voice" for starters.. but i do believe i do fairly well emmulating her in how she raised us.

not all of us ascribe to her methods, but i do. i think the most important thind i learned from my mother is that the careful application of terror is a valid form of communication.

my kids aren't perfect, but they're mine and they haven't been pampered. for now, that's enough. what they do with that remains to be seen.

Robert said...

Heidi said "...the careful application of terror is a valid form of communication."

My daughter is sitting here asking why I am laughing and no one said anthing...LOL. I also slip into "Drill Instructor" mode on occasion hen nothing but fear works.

Dardin Soto said...

Terri,
Your playlist looks like all the 8-track tapes I had on my 78 Chevy Nova..... Geeks are cool :)

TLLTCC,
You must have been talking about El Sobrante, Berkley or Emeryville,...yes? I'm for the Bay Area so I know the CCR history well,.... man were you lucky to have witnessed that!!!

Dardin Soto said...

HJ,
I wish I would have had the discipline you espouse in your comment! i WANTED to go that route.... but in the end...i just wussed out...

Robert,
Don't you just love when that happens?... when someone writes something to which you can completely relate?....;

? said...

I'm a mere chitlin who grew up in the 80s, so I was indoctrinated into the wussy ways of the world.

When I fall down and break a nail, I cry like a little bitch. When I don't feel like doing something 'cause I don't see the benefit in it for ME, I don't do it. When I wanna make new friends, I go perusing the internet for 15 year old boys.

Not really ... but you get the picture. ;-)

Dardin Soto said...

BB,
I feel ya'... my GF is just like you,... heaven forbid she chips one millimeter or nail polish on her feet.... its disaster.... :)

Anonymous said...

so tonight my son came running in the house "mom, mom, help!! i have blood and everything so i'm not being a baby!"

5 stitches later life is good again :)

Always On Watch said...

I have to wonder what deleterious effects hovering over today's children will produce down the line. Children today are supervised even at the bus stop!

Many children--too many, IMO--are growing up in condos and in townhouses, with little chance to run free with the wind blowing in their hair. And even those with nice yards aren't outside much. They are sequestered.

I can't imagine growing up that way. No fun!