When we were kids

Help Support CattleToday:

flaboy

Well-known member
Joined
May 4, 2005
Messages
2,254
Reaction score
1
Location
Florida
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, and tuna from a can.
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 koolade 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 OK.

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 Play-stations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound, CD's or I-pods, no cell phones!, no personal computers , no Internet or chat rooms.......

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!
 
Up until the 50s being a lawyer was considred an honorable thing to be.
 
dun":1cidezyc said:
Up until the 50s being a lawyer was considred an honorable thing to be.

If you think of it in economic terms, maybe the supply has outpaced the demand for lawyers.
 
skyline":2rd48r33 said:
dun":2rd48r33 said:
Up until the 50s being a lawyer was considred an honorable thing to be.

If you think of it in economic terms, maybe the supply has outpaced the demand for lawyers.

AGree, and the demand seems to have outpaced peoples principles
 
well my baby sister had a taste for aspirin you didnt leave a bottle in reach with her. i lost track of how many time she had her stomach pumped. but us boy's would line up by the road too watch mom and dad roast the tires on that GTO
 
flaboy":2rjct5pd said:
. . . Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat. . . .

So true. Even if you were on the side Pa Pa was on. (Pa Pa liked his chewing tobacco and would spit out his window, which was no big deal easing through the fields, but was a different story flying down the highway.) :)
 
Just last weekend my wife was reminding my boy to do up his seatbelt on our drive home. I told him he'll probably never know the joy of his head bouncing off the dash after a quick stop. :) Also explained the purpose of the front seat in the old Buicks was to catch kids as they were launched out of the back window during the same.

I remember as youngters some of us kids in the neighborhood getting bows and arrows with the rubber suction cups on the end. Off came the rubber cups and then the ends were sharpened by rubbing them on the sidewalk. After all, there wasn't much point in shooting them at each other with rubber tips on them. :shock: Funny thing was our parents wouldn't even bat an eye, just watch us as we played cowboys and indians.
 
CUZ":15rnzmaj said:
flaboy":15rnzmaj said:
. . . Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat. . . .

So true. Even if you were on the side Pa Pa was on. (Pa Pa liked his chewing tobacco and would spit out his window, which was no big deal easing through the fields, but was a different story flying down the highway.) :)
well when i was growing up it was'nt safe to set on momas side either... most of the women dipped bruton snuff and the men smoked hand rolled :lol:
 
We used to have wars with BB guns, it was a slow day if you didn't get shot in the face at least once. The funny thing was we would hike a mile or more up into the hills to do it and never give it a second thought. Now the kids don't want to walk to the other end of the house for a battery for the I-Pod.

The other thing I remember was no matter who's house you were at if something bad was done there was gonna be a but whippin and it didn't matter whose kid you were, everybody got it. Nobody ever went home and complained to the parents that so and so's momma whipped their but cause your own momma would give you another one just for good measure.

The other thing I don't remember was ever telling my folks I was bored. We did our chores and made ourselves scarce cause if they saw you looking bored you were found a job.
 
Train":4gqiea43 said:
Just last weekend my wife was reminding my boy to do up his seatbelt on our drive home. I told him he'll probably never know the joy of his head bouncing off the dash after a quick stop. :) Also explained the purpose of the front seat in the old Buicks was to catch kids as they were launched out of the back window during the same.

I remember as youngters some of us kids in the neighborhood getting bows and arrows with the rubber suction cups on the end. Off came the rubber cups and then the ends were sharpened by rubbing them on the sidewalk. After all, there wasn't much point in shooting them at each other with rubber tips on them. :shock: Funny thing was our parents wouldn't even bat an eye, just watch us as we played cowboys and indians.

One of our favorite stupid kid tricks was to shoot that arrow straight up in the air and stand there to see where it would land. Had one land right beside my foot once. It never occured to me to be scared about it.

Riding our bikes through low water crossings flooded by rains was also a good way to pass the time. We rode as far as we could before the current would start to sweep us away then we could try to get off and drag the bike back. Once again, no adults and no one ever thought twice about it.

I was allowed to play with fire crackers by myself when I was five. Me, alone in the yard with a coffee can of Black Cats and a smoldering stick.
 
Lammie said:
One of our favorite stupid kid tricks was to shoot that arrow straight up in the air and stand there to see where it would land. Had one land right beside my foot once. It never occured to me to be scared about it.

quote]

I get nervous just thinking about how stupid we were doing that too. I hope my kids are smarter.
 
Lammie, I did the arrow thing too. Was a lot of fun with a recurve bow but I saved my money and bought one of those Browning compound bows. Shot the arrow up in the air and it disappeared. I was scared. Broadhead came down in the roof of the house and Mom was po'ed to say the least.

Dumbest thing I ever did was to get on top of the house and try to fly with Mom's umbrella's like Mary Poppins did. Grabbed one of those "see-thru mushroom ones" first but crashed and burned with it. After much thought I came to the conclusion that Mary Poppins used one of those big black ones like you see at rainy funerals. I grabbed one of those and climbed back on the roof only to repeat the same results. After three failed attempts and as many torn up umbrellas I decided that maybe everything you see on the screen is not true.
 
A friend of mine tells a story about his dad's family back in Kansas during the depression. I guess there were 5 or 6 boys and mean little sh--s. Apparently one day they wanted to see if they could make one of the younger ones fly a little, so they put him in a washtub with an umbrella and hoisted him up to the platform on the windmill. they just kinds threw him off. Broke both his arms. Cost the rest of them a large part of thei a$$es, when the folks found out. His Dad went to his grave saying it worth worth every bit of the beatin they got for doing it.
 
Just think that folks were a whole lot smarter years back without all of the regulations that are intended to protect people from themselves. The really stupid kids never made it out of puberty.
The kid that jumped off the barn with a towel around his neck thinking he was superman and the one that thought that he could climb down and back out of the well...some kids were not meant to contribute to the gene pool.
Lived across the state line a number of years back in a small mining town and know a family the had three "slow" children in a row, couldn't immaging how the normal ones got along.
I guess that I have a pretty sharp guardian angel as I should have killed myself numerous times in the past sixty plus years and the worse that I came out with was a broken hand...of course the joints are protesting these days.
Excuse the ranting, slow day with a light snow and I don't want to do much....Dmc
 
Jogeephus":23nnzbis said:
Lammie, I did the arrow thing too. Was a lot of fun with a recurve bow but I saved my money and bought one of those Browning compound bows. Shot the arrow up in the air and it disappeared. I was scared. Broadhead came down in the roof of the house and Mom was po'ed to say the least.

Dumbest thing I ever did was to get on top of the house and try to fly with Mom's umbrella's like Mary Poppins did. Grabbed one of those "see-thru mushroom ones" first but crashed and burned with it. After much thought I came to the conclusion that Mary Poppins used one of those big black ones like you see at rainy funerals. I grabbed one of those and climbed back on the roof only to repeat the same results. After three failed attempts and as many torn up umbrellas I decided that maybe everything you see on the screen is not true.

Jogee, that was one of the few things my big brother was able to talk me out of. I don't know why. If it had been my little sister, I probably would have let her try. I do remember jumping off the top of the house once, though, when I was about 8. It didn't seem like that far a distance. I was wrong. Thank goodness kids have bones like green sticks. I would break everything up to the knees if I tried that one now.
 
Susie David":3u1ruo2l said:
The really stupid kids never made it out of puberty.
The kid that jumped off the barn with a towel around his neck thinking he was superman and the one that thought that he could climb down and back out of the well...some kids were not meant to contribute to the gene pool.

Dave, you are hitting pretty close to home here. I really don't think I should have lived as long as I have. After the Poppin's episode, my brother and I pooled our money and bought a supply parachute from the army surplus store and gave that a whirl as well. It didn't work either. Just glad we never watched Deer Hunter. :oops:
 
Jogeephus":296c7i47 said:
Susie David":296c7i47 said:
The really stupid kids never made it out of puberty.
The kid that jumped off the barn with a towel around his neck thinking he was superman and the one that thought that he could climb down and back out of the well...some kids were not meant to contribute to the gene pool.

Dave, you are hitting pretty close to home here. I really don't think I should have lived as long as I have. After the Poppin's episode, my brother and I pooled our money and bought a supply parachute from the army surplus store and gave that a whirl as well. It didn't work either. Just glad we never watched Deer Hunter. :oops:

I remember when that movie came out and everyone said it made kids want to play Russian Roulette. It personally never occurred to me, as even I thought that looked pretty stupid.
 
Evel Knievel was amazing. You youngsters need to bear in mind that we didn't have all the fancy trick bicycles around today. No one had even heard of a pike until years and years later.

We did manage to get the boards onto 55 gallon drums for the ramp to jump that junk car left out by the bus stop. No one considered down ramps. We just needed enough ramp to get us over the car. Three of us in a row. Half of the kids in the county must have been there to watch. (How did the adults not know about this?) Two of us didn't break any bones.
 

Latest posts

Top