I miss this..

[sweettractors]

Wow, never guessed I'd get so many responses to this!:thumbsup: Thanks to everybody that posted! It's nice to know I'm not the only one out there who has good memories of a simpler, slower time.

I'm going to add a few more things here that may shed a little light on the upbringing I've had and how it has shaped my thoughts about life and doing the right thing.

In 1982, my mother was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis(MS). My father has taken care of her ever since. She has been more or less paralyzed from the neck down for roughly 25 years. Dad feeds her, bathes her, gets up every 3 hours to let her use the bathroom and cleans her when she's done. One day (out of curiosity) I asked my Dad how/why he has steadfastly refused to put her in a full-care type facility and he just smiled and looked me in the eye and said (QUOTE) " Son, when I married your mother I said In sickness and in health, 'till death do us part, so help me God, And I meant it...As long as I'm physically able to take care of her, I will."

That pretty much sums it up for me. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned and sentimental, but when he said that to me it hit me like a 10lb. hammer!
It's about character and integrity.
It's about making a promise and keeping it.
It's about love,faith and family and honoring the love and faith that shape that family.
It's about not giving up just because things didn't turn out the way you wanted.

Lord knows I'm no angel, and it's taken me the better part of the past 10 years to realize that what really matters in the grand scheme of things is Love.
Love of God.
Love of Family.
Love of Country.
These are some perilous times we face now and it seems every day we see/read about some tragedy or atrocity committed. If people don't wake up soon and get back to the core values and beliefs (Life,Liberty and the Freedom to pursue happiness) that founded this country, there may not be a country to Love...

Thanks again to everyone who posted and commented!
Keep 'em coming and let's all remember the lessons we've learned and pass 'em on to future generations.
Support our military forces/veterans because without them we would not be here.:thumbsup:

God Bless America and God Bless us all... David (aka; 77transam)

You have a great Father and I like the way you have your life prioritized. You have them in the correct order Ken Sweet

 

[Army grunt]

$00.25 hair cuts,side burns engineer boots,the $00.17 a gal. gass, gas wars price would drop to 15 an it was pumped,oil checked,all belts an tires looked at.The ability to shift your 3 sped (on the colom)trans. from reverse to first by sticking it in 2nd while moving backwards an pealling out,an on ocatation blowing the trans. in the proses, then going to the local junk yard with a few buddies an for a $25 to 50 you could take out a trans an do it all right there under the car with bumper jacks
Sadly my old man didnt live long enough so I to returne just one of the beatings i got.All an all it was cool growing up in the 50s&60s till a place called Viet Nam came into our lives.
Army Grunt

 

[jayste]

77, this has been a great thread and I really appreciate your last post. Well said and well presented. I fully respect your father for what he has done since 1982 and in raising you. Walking the walk speaks far more than the talk. Lord bless him.

How about no bottled water and drinking from a water hose or directly from the windmill (water well). Water coolers in the window for cooling the house, a sled made from a car hood and pulled from behind a vehicle down county roads when we got the occasional "big snow" here in Oklahoma. Picking up "pop" bottles on the side of the road to get money for more "pop" and a candy bar. "Pop" in real cans with pull tops that came off. Peeing in said "pop" bottles, on a trip in the car, and tossing them out because Dad wouldn't stop the car. If he did stop the car it was to "wear you out" because you were fighting with your brothers in the back seat...he used a belt...in public....on the side of the road....nobody stopped. Not wearing seat belts and standing up in the front seat of a moving vehicle. Our folks would reach over and put their arm in front of us if they had to use the brakes a little too much....thinking the arm would keep us from hitting the dash or worse. Learning to drive in vehicles with manual steering (complete with suicide knobs and bruises) and "three on the tree". Manual chokes, carburetors, oil bath filters, baby moons and runnin' her on drip gas. Riding in the back of a pickup (legally), gun racks in the back window (with guns)...at school! Pocket knives and numbly peg. Stag and Fallstaff beer, oil in cans, swimming in the pond or creek. Levi 501's, shrink to fit, American made, pointed toe boots (roach killers), snaps on shirts with the sleeves rolled up. Prince Albert tobacco in a can and Grandpa had his own "makins'" (loose tobacco and rolling papers) complete with a zippo lighter with the all familiar "clink, zip, whoof, puff, puff, clink" sound. Later in life he packed old Prince Albert into one of several pipes and lit it with the old zippo. Grandma's "cathead" (size) biscuits and flour gravy. Squirrel dumplings and cupboards full of canned goods complete with the curtain on the front instead of a door. Shotgun style homes- When you came in the front door you had to pass through every room in the house to get to the back door..except the bathroom of course. It was an after thought due to the plumbing being moved in doors. Fresh milk in gallon pickle jars and any milk that came from store was either "sweet milk or butter milk". Baths came when you needed them, clothes where washed in the "wash house" (all part of the building that consisted of the barn, garage and spare bedroom). Grandpa's work clothes where called Kahki's or greasers. We only watched TV in the evening with only what the antennae would pickup.....

 

[clemsonfor]

Riding in the back of a pickup (legally),....

You can still do this here in SC "legally" even children. Just this last year GA voted to make it illegal for adults to ride in their pickups without a seatbelt, prior to this it was legal for an adult to ride with out his seatbelt in his picup on the road. :confused2:

 

[jayste]

You can still do this here in SC "legally" even children. Just this last year GA voted to make it illegal for adults to ride in their pickups without a seatbelt, prior to this it was legal for an adult to ride with out his seatbelt in his picup on the road. :confused2:

I really don't know if it is illegal here as well I've just heard of places where it it is.

 

[blueriver]

How about when you called a company and someone answered!! Never pressing 1 for english ...

 

[sweettractors]

How about when you called a company and someone answered!! Never pressing 1 for english ...

Speaking of phones, we were on a party line until the early eighties and we had lots of eavesdroppers. Ken Sweet

 

[blueriver]

Speaking of phones, we were on a party line until the early eighties and we had lots of eavesdroppers. Ken Sweet

Ken ... my mother and her sisters where famous for that ... and then when they all got together one of them was mad as heck "How did you know that?"

 

[jayste]

Speaking of phones, we were on a party line until the early eighties and we had lots of eavesdroppers. Ken Sweet

In about 1985 I was still on a party line. When we first got our phone service there we where asked if we wanted a party or private line. I started to go with private until she told me we would be the only ones on it, at least for the time being. I think we went several years being the only people on it. Kind of nice being it was a considerably cheaper rate compared to a private line. I don't even have a land line now!

Hey how about when things were called what they were. Like when the old colonel was around KFC was known as Kentucky FRIED chicken!

 

[sweettractors]

Hey how about when things were called what they were. Like when the old colonel was around KFC was known as Kentucky FRIED chicken!

When John Young Brown bought it from Colonel Sanders, It was "Kentucky Fried Chicken" and sometime after they changed it to KFC. I guess it helps in marketing or something. I have been to the Colonels first store in Corbin, Ky. It is really nice and still a functioning KFC franchise. Ken Sweet