What was it like, when you were a kid?

[theoldchick]

Muscle cars. Gas wars. Target of a gang initiation. Tennis champ. Minolta camera. No cell phones. No computer. No Internet. Lots of horseback riding. Science fair scandal. First Starwars movie. Alien movie. Original Star Trek series. Partridge Family (My sister's thing-yuck!) HabiTrail for hamsters and gerbils. Aquariums. Parakeets, cockatiels, parrot. Dog. Brady Bunch (again my sister's thing). Six Million Dollar Man. Stress free Halloween.

 

[desertdarlene]

Quote:
The same when I was a kid. Adults were always right and most adults were allowed to use physical punishment of some kind. People rarely thought about suing anyone about anything even if they had the rights to. Adults who knew the family were expected to tell parents if they saw their kids doing something wrong like smoking, cursing, etc. And, you would be punished! Nowadays, if you report any child's bad behavior to their parents, you are more likely to get a "mind your own business" comment or worse by some parents.

I was shocked one time when I was having a problem with a bratty teenager at a high school where I was taking adult education classes to learn how to fix my car. I was told that the school will take a child's side 100% against any adult even if the child definitely did something wrong to the adult. In their words, the child is 100% right, the adult victim is 100% wrong. This definitely would never have happened when I was a kid. Perhaps that's the problem with the world nowadays.

 

[MaryMouse]

When I was a kid, We first lived on a lake, I spent all my time outdoors. Swimming, fishing,roaming the woods. I had my own bait bussiness, made more money than a kid my age should have. I remember swimming all alone all the time day and night. Sometimes I would not come in till 1 or 2 in the am. Some times I didnt come in at all and would just sleep outside. Then we moved to grandpas farm, my folks split. Then I really was in heaven. Mom and Dad were way too busy with their SOs to even notice my brother and I exsisted. So spring summer and fall, I was outside somewhere on grandpas 250 acres. I came in the house to bathe, or put a bandaid on. Everyonce in a while mom would bring food out on the front porch, just so I would eat. If I slept inside I would sleep in the sun porch, in the winter on the hard wood floor in front of the woodstove, but seldom in bed. I spent 6 hours or more riding horse daily. Unless there was a blizzard. I am not much different now accept I can not tolerate the elements as well as I used to. Still live on the farm, wouldnt leave, so I am the squatter.
When DH wanted to marry he had to move to the farm. Grandpa warned him, you cant tell her nothing, she is the way she is. What can I say he had a fair warning. Our DD is alot like Mom. Guess history does repeat.

 

[sourland]

In a nutshell: easier, safer, less complicated, BETTER.

 

[Nitrous]

My parents were less interested in "keeping me safe" and more interested in giving me all the childhood I could have. Including broken bones and skinned knees and stitches and paddlings. Paddling never caused me to give in. I was very stubborn

Not like now though....

 

[Skyesrocket]

I liked reading this thread! MY PEOPLE! lol

My best friend and I were the neighborhood tomboys. My job in the neighborhood was to take snakes that were just caught and tame them so they wouldn't bite. We played baseball and football with the boys. Our mothers tried their best to get us to play with the girls that played with dolls and played store all day. We tried, but were bored to tears and kept getting into trouble because we didn't understand the rules for playing with girls.
We spent all day long playing outside too. When we went to a friends house it was to see if they could come outside to play.
My parents, like many of the people on thee rode, had huge gardens. We didn't go inside for lunch, we went to the garden and picked something to eat. My very old neighbor had a huge patch of red raspberries and I would sneak underneath them and eat as many as I could. I would get all scratched, but that was better than being caught stealing them.

No ones mothers worked. They worked in their gardens and canning and picking berriers in the fields. Washing clothes and hanging them outside to dry.
We caught frogs and crawfish in what we called, "the big ditch". When they started putting in the sewers we would sneak down the man holes and explore them.
I remember building a huge corral in the field with saplings for my invisible horses. We had tree forts and underground tunnels and warred with kids from other neighborhoods tearing each others forts up. They caught my brother once and hung him in a tree. He was there for a couple of hours before his buddies could rescue him.
Family vacations were the whole family getting into the car and driving either to Canada for camping or down south the see the everglades and ocean. It was the only time we ate in restraunts.
I first learned about racism on a vacation to Florida. We were in Georgia and a gas station attendant was asking about the "you know the word" that was elected mayor in Cleveland. He asked my dad if we were all crazy up there in Ohio to allow that. I heard the conversation but didn't quite understand it back then.
In elementry school I remember the principal using the pa system to tell us that President Kennedy was just killed. My teacher was crying and us kids felt sad, but again not really understanding what assasination meant.
Parents rarely went trick or treating with their kids. The older kids would take the younger ones. We also had beggars night and most people expected that kids would be out then too. No store bought costumes.
If we cried it had better be for a good reason. Parents let kids work out fights for themselves. We hung out in groups and it was within our group that we found protection.
Tv's were never on durig the day. Daytime was for being outside either working or playing. Neighborhood adults walked into each others houses without knocking. Nothing was ever locked and rarely stolen.
It was a different world back then. I wonder how we let so much get away from us. Didn't it seem like the days were longer back then?

 

[SunnyDawn]

Reading this thread brings back a lot of memories. I also remember when president Kennedy was shot. I had stayed home from school that day and my younger brother and I were playing a game when we heard a dish break. We ran into the kitchen to see our Mom crouching on the floor, next to the broken dish, with her hands over her face crying. We asked what was wrong and she told us that President Kennedy had just been shot. We didn't really understand the significance of this either, we were too young.

I was a terrible Tomboy then too but it wasn't a compliment in those days. My parents fretted to no end wondering what would become of such a headstrong "girl" child.

I loved animals and fighting and mud! OMG I loved playing in mud puddles! The way it would squish between my toes was heaven to me.

I was never a bully (and still love to fight for the underdog) but wrestling and friendly fighting was a lot of fun. We did get a lot of cuts and scrapes and went through quite a few bandaids (a cut or scrape had to be bleeding pretty good to require a bandaid in those days) but we had fun. All of my other siblings were much neater than I. They managed to stay pretty clean and their hair was rarely messed up, even the boys. I used to love to catch lizards and tarrantulas and bring them into the house to scare my Mom. I always got a kick out of her dramatic reaction! lol

My sister used to say that my Dad was such a Chauvanist pig when we were little and would complain about all the things he would say she couldn't do. I asked him about this, wondering why he didn't treat me the same way and he responded "I tried! You wouldn't let me get away with it!" I did remember one incident when my Mom and Dad gave me a vanity set for Christmas. ME a vanity table and chair!!! I had wanted an archery kit. I think they were hoping I would start brushing my hair or something. My younger brother got an electric race car set and all I wanted to do was play with that. My Dad saw me and my brother playing with the race cars and he told me I couldn't play with it! I got soooo mad at him that I wouldn't speak to him for a week (we were very close and this 'bout killed him). He finally gave in and told me that I was right, that it wasn't fair to not let me play with the same toys as my brother.

 

[Nitrous]

LOL!!! Way to stand your ground! back in the day, girls had to be girls. I hated that. I always liked a girl who was her own person. Oddly, flowers work on everybody though. No matter how tomboyish, she might be embarrassed, but she'd still take them to her room and covet the flowers.

And hate the flowers for it.

)

 

[citychickx6]

In the summer we rode bikes and flew kites.
No computers, video games, or talking back.
We were to be seen not heard and seen very little.
Trust me it was better not to be seen at all.
The belt was for more than holding up the pants and we got it.
We wore what we were told.
We did what we were told.
We said please and thank you.

Things cost a lot less in comparison to the income level.
No one worried about lead paint, who the neighbors were or what they did, or someone bombing the school.
I think all in all I am better for it.

 

[geepy]

Quote:
Yes, and I deserved every whooping.