I miss this..

[Lloyd_E]

77,

Bang on. We have two children. And we(wife) agreed to a number of things regarding parenting before having them. One being they learn to respect others and tolerate others; we also agreed if and when they or one had a fit in public we would remove them immediately. I dislike interruptions and can understand how other people feel in public - it is their space too.

My parents never hit me or my siblings but we did get time outs and enjoyment of things removed from our schedule if we did act up. I remember sitting under a tree across from our house for about 6 hours - knowing I did a terrible thing but afraid to return home. My mom came and got me at the end of the day and ended the ordeal. She kept an eye on me throughout the day from the house unbeknown to me. Like someone said earlier our parents and neighbour's looked after each other...

My dad had the "look" and now I do too. Our children have never been physical hit and will never but they will go without or be grounded when appropriate. And at 5+8 they understand this.

Some other things from the past:
Building non-motorized push carts out of anything you could find. Snow forts you could sleep in... although we never did. Skating parties on the lake. Our winters aren't like they used to be... hard to find a secure frozen pond most years. Drive in movies - managed to go to the last of them in my late teens. Cap guns and for louder bangs hitting the whole roll with a hammer!!!! Raiding gardens in the neighbourhood - I was no angel!
Hanging on to bumpers of moving cars on snowy streets - KIDS DON'T DO THIS AT HOME!!!!
Water ballon fights and building tree houses. Sneaking into rock concerts at the end of the evening - I was no angel! : )!


Keep them coming...

 

[sweettractors]

77,

Drive in movies - managed to go to the last of them in my late teens.


Keep them coming...

Hey Lloyd, Did you guys ever slip anyone into the drive in by putting them in the trunk? We did. Our local Drive in had a concession stand with a flat roof and several times during the summer, the owners would hire some big music stars and they would perform on the roof with their band. That always filled the parking lot. Ken Sweet

 

[milkman]

Ken,

I grew up a couple of counties East of where you're at. I can remember driving to town with the folks and leaving the house wide open the whole time. And when you got to town, there was no reason to bother locking the car doors. Plenty of people just left their keys in the ignition.

You also had 20 mothers in your neighborhood, not just the one at home. They all treated you like one of their own (and disciplined you the same way). If you happened to be at one of their houses at lunch or dinner, you just stayed and ate, and the same applied if they were at your house.

Now a'days, you often don't even know who half your neighbors are. And you have to think long and hard about who you can let your kids hang around and wonder about any times you plan on leaving them with someone else.

As I was going through late middle school and high school is when things started to change...break-ins, stolen cars, drug crimes, child molesters became almost common news.

That's the way it was when I grew up, now people scoff at the idea of "takes a village to raise a child", worked really well for a lot of us older folks.

 

[RadarTech]

But you are a young whippersnapper. I"m 63 and I think I remember a Pepsi being 5 or 6 cents, and it was a special treat.

If he is a young whippersnapper what is JohnDeere 3270 and me?

Yesterday I had a co-worker call me sir. I told him I work for a living, and to never call me sir again. I also learned a long time ago working as a waiter, you NEVER call a woman "ma'am". The word "ma'am" denotes age. For myself, I always call a woman "Miss", unless she tells me otherwise.

I was out in a TN town back in the country a month or so ago and was called sir, and being less than 40.... I said, "little lady while I understand and appreciate the respect, you don't have to call me sir... I still have hair and it ain't gray yet..." She was too sweet to pass up that chance for a laugh....



Times are a changing.. and these ole stories are always nice to read... soon enough those that tell them will be a story too... we just need to be kind and remember all the great things we share with them.....

J

 

[Johndeere3720]

If he is a young whippersnapper what is JohnDeere 3720 and me?

J

that is a good question.

 

[RadarTech]

that is a good question.

JD-- I think you would qualify as a youngun....
:laughing:
BUT I digress.... nuf said....


J

 

[gauthier]

Yeah,42 ain't old enough really to be missing the good old days,,think you got to wait till your about 60 to do that??:laughing:

 

[Lurch]

In my experience they don't become "good old days" until the memory starts to fade a little.

 

[Redneck in training]

I am 62. I grew up in Europe in a village near large city. There were only two farmers and the rest of people we factory workers. Interestingly I have very similar childhood as kids in the USA at that time. We played in woods building forts, shooting slingshots at squirrels and pheasants, waging wars with neighboring villages which involved shooting slingshots at each other. It is a miracle that nobody lost an eye. I still have a small scar just between eyes. We did a lot of "bad" stuff too. When the village got first street lights the light bulbs lasted just one night. We shot them all. All of us were collectively punished and slingshots were illegal weapons for about one or two weeks after that I suppose. We put a glass sheet on neighbor chimney and watched smoke coming out of windows. He returned from work and food was not cooked because the stove would smoke. He opened the chimney cleaning port and stuck his head in looking up. He could see the sky. It took him for a while to figure it out. Then he yelled to the woods: "I know who did it. Just wait when I catch you." We would collect all paint cans thrown to the village dump and pour the content across the gravel road and light it up just before the bus was supposed to pass. We would dam the street and break the dam full of water when the people coming from the bus stop were in the middle of the block. Some climbed the fences and some just got wet.
We let water out from the pond upstream of the neigboring village flooding several houses and cattle stable.
We were building bicycles and carts from parts found in a village dump. Only sissies had breaks.
We slept in hay all summer in grandpas house so we could raid neighbors cherries. One of our neighbors was a butcher, big mean guy strong like a bull. We were feasting on his cherries when he showed up with a bull whip under the tree. We knew that we will get beat that night so we made an agreement that all of us would jump from the tree in the same time. Well only three of us jumped. I got hit so hard that I just hit the ground flat on my face. I swear I could beat Jesse Owens that night how fast I was running. I guess I jumped 5ft tall fence without touching it. And next day my back looked like somebody inserted a foot long sausage under my skin. If I would tell my parents I would have another sausage on my butt I suppose.
Well there are many stories to tell. Some good some bad. Most kids but not all of them turned out OK. Several are already dead, there are few alcoholics, about half is divorced or second time married and all of us are old enough to tell storries about good ol' days.
Now I live on a hobby farm in Iowa wishing for grandkids to come to build forts and tree houses. So far no grandkids are on the way. Our children don't want to cooperate. Carriere comes first I suppose. So I just hope I live long enough and in good health.

 

[doall]

77
did you grow up in Mississippi? That sounds just like my childhood. I'm just shy of 40, and can relate to everything you said.
I can add a few things to the party line phones; like learning which ring was for grandaddy's house, and eventually all the rings on the road since all were my great aunts or uncles. I even miss hauling tons of fire wood for all my grands and greats, getting poison oak so bad every year and swearing I would never have wood heat. Now I don't but wish I did (insurance). Hauling hay every summer and fall (all square bales of course). Stacking them in the lofts and barns with all my cousins and brothers. Going grabbling every chance we got, almost getting drowned by fish as big as we were.
Did anyone else's town allow egging on halloween? We could for that night only the police kind of watched over us and made sure we didn't damage anything. All was well as long as we were only throwing at each other.
I miss all those times and many more. I miss riding bulls in the little britches rodeo and chasing greased pigs, trying to climb greased poles to get a $10 BILL. That seemed like a lot of money back then.
Yes I got many whippings and deserved them all and more. Never was abused. Spare the rod spoil the child. Our people are just getting too "soft".