WAY WAY OT - For All You Baby Boomers Out There!

[joelin]

How did we survive?

If you lived as a child in the 40's, 50's, 60's or 70's how did you survive?

Looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have...

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode 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 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.

No cell phones. Unthinkable. We played dodgeball and sometimes the ball would really hurt. We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth, and there were no law suits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame, but us. Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda but we were never overweight... we were always outside playing. We shared one grape soda with four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, video games at all, 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, Personal Computers, Internet chat rooms ... we had friends. We went outside and found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rung
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..... Some students weren't as smart as others so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade..... Horrors. Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. No one to hide behind. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law, imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors ever. The past 50 years has 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're one of them. Congratulations!

Personally, I feel lucky to have grown up “back in the good old days” before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.

Very good and I relate to all of that! I remember walking across railroad trestles, actually playing in the railyard by the huge coal storage bins! We always were outside unless it was 0 and wind chill wasn't even mentioned in "those" days.

Kids in the neighborhood played together as a group, red rover, kick ball, etc. We called my sister bulldozer and I still do if I have a head start!!!

My sisters tell the story of dropping me in the creek but my wool clothes were so heavy water logged they couldn't lift me out. I was 2, they were 8 and 9. I was on my back, one sister watched me and the other went for help!!! We rented a house on a farm and it was a great way to grow up. Today Morton Grove is a major suburb and our little rental house is still there, surrounded by bigger ones.

Those were the days, my friend!

Susie

[Lisa]

Ah, the good old days - when kids were allowed to be kids and didn't have their days scheduled down to the second and when kids actually used their imagination to entertain themselves and others.......I'm afraid that imagination is being lost among the children of today and tomorrow....

[Mgram]

Remember it all for sure!

[Thomas]

Yea, I remember running in the clouds behind the truck spraying chemicals throughout the neighborhood to kill the mosquitoes. We'd get as wet as possible and then slide through the yard.

I remember having to get off the couch to change the channels. And adjust the antenna. And continuously fumbling with the vertical control to keep the picture from rolling.

I remember getting out of the car to raise the garage door. In fact, I remember having to roll up the car window by hand.

I remember pushing a lawn mower through the yard which didn't have a motor on it.

I remember party phone lines. You had to pick up the receiver to listen for anybody else on the line before you could use it. And then while you were talking you would hear a click and know someone was listening in.

I remember when a car was worn out at 50,000 miles. It was junk at 6 years old. The radio in the car had mechanical push buttons.

I remember going through disaster drills at school. How to survive a nuclear attack! "Everyone in line and stay calm. We're going to the fallout shelter".

I remember when air conditioning was all the windows open and a fan blowing. Heat was a radiator you had to put your butt up against to get warm.

This is bringing back great memories. (well, some of them maybe)

Regards,
Thomas

Now everybody who hasn't seen "Matinee" (a lovely little sleeper of a John Goodman film) should go out and rent the DVD this weekend.

AR

[Boomer]

...I read all the "I remembers" and...I remember too. One other that I recall might have been a local TV ad warning about finding blasting caps from construction projects. Quite scary. Bob

[Seahunks]

Okay, here comes some autobiography, along with some nostalgia.

I remember:
After a life-changing accident, being taught to walk on crutches, and how to cope with obstacles. How to climb stairs and curbs. How to fall down safely, when I tripped or when balance failed, and how to get myself up again without having to ask for anyone else's help. I only cite this to highlight the contrast between today's "accommodations" and yesterday's Physical therapy--and I will knock the Dickens out of the first to say, "God bless us, every one!":-)
...Learning to ride a bicycle, three years after the accident, paying for the first lesson with a skinned and bloody big toe. The second lesson was wobbly, but I remained upright. And, oh yes, no helmet, ever.
...Going down to the river (over a mile away) alone on the previously mentioned crutches, to catch fish that couldn't be found in the fishing pond at the park. My friends and I would even sneak down to the local BAB (Bare ***Beach) for skinny dipping. Our favorite short-cuts followed the busy railroad right-of-way, and over the trestle to get from the fishing side of the river to our quarry swimming hole. Sometimes, along the track, we'd find a discarded railroad flare (Fusee), which we'd use to light campfires.
...Occasionally, we had to stand up to bullies, all of us, because it was accepted by teachers and parents that the only way to deal with bullies was confrontation, not capitulation, and certainly not zero tolerance. No parents wanted their kid to show any kind of cowardice in the presence of bullies. And no teacher would tolerate classroom disruption, responding to perpetrators with a pointer or yardstick applied at the seat of learning.
...Civil Defense brochures about how to build fallout shelters.
...The Duck and cover TV commercial and drills during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
... Feeling delightfully naughty when using Carlin's big 7, on our own, and shocked when they occasionally appeared in songs, or on TV or radio. Songwriters tried to be creative, putting obscenity and controversy "between the lines." How we chuckled at our parents' reaction when they found out the meanings of "Annie Had a Baby," "Dirty Water," "Louie, Louie," etc.
And I do remember the blasting caps commercial. And "Casey Jones," (Alan Hale) "Spin and Marty," (Tim Consodine) "Corky and White Shadow," "Robin Hood," "Circus Boy," (Mickey Dolenz) "Fury," (Peter Graves) "Tug Boat Annie," "Adventures in Paradise," "Surfside Six" (Troy Donahue) and, appropriately enough, "Oh Susanna." Gale Storm played a CD aboard a ship whose name I can't recall. Her best friend, also a crew member, was Elvira Nugent. The Captain was Captain Huxley, the first mate was Cedric. It was kind of a 1950's version of "The Loveboat," with Lucy-esque slapstick.
Anyone remember the "Pop a Chocks" children's vitamin commercial? What hath advertisers wrought?

Steve