Yesterday(s)...
Jan 22, 2016 12:09:04 #
Don G. Dinsdale
Loc: El Cajon, CA (San Diego County)
Prefect... I was 7 or 8 before we owned a TV (green screen and all) until '50 or '51, I loved the radio programmes; Lone Ranger, Roy Roger, G-Men, The Shadow, Dick Tracy... God help us... Don D.
I enjoy this. Whoever wrote it could have been my next door neighbor because it totally described my childhood to a 'T.' .. Sandy M.
Black and White TV
(Under age 45? You won't understand.)
You could hardly see for all the snow, Spread the 'rabbit ears' as far as they go.
'Good Night, David. Good Night, Chet.'
My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.
My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter and I used to eat it raw sometimes, too.
Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice pack coolers, but I can't remember getting e.coli.
Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.
The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.
We all took gym, not PE... and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Keds (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now. Flunking gym was not an option... Even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.
Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the National Anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.
We must have had horribly damaged psyches.
What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.
I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.
I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, PlayStation, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.
Oh yeah... And where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been k**led!
We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of Mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked.
Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $99 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.
We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either; because if we did we got our butt spanked there and then we got our butt spanked again when we got home.
I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off.
Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house.
Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a jerk. It was a neighborhood run a muck.
To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known that? We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes.
We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac!
How did we ever survive?
LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA; AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T, SORRY FOR WHAT YOU MISSED. I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING!
Pass this to someone and remember that life's most simple pleasures are very often the best.
I enjoy this. Whoever wrote it could have been my next door neighbor because it totally described my childhood to a 'T.' .. Sandy M.
Black and White TV
(Under age 45? You won't understand.)
You could hardly see for all the snow, Spread the 'rabbit ears' as far as they go.
'Good Night, David. Good Night, Chet.'
My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.
My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter and I used to eat it raw sometimes, too.
Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice pack coolers, but I can't remember getting e.coli.
Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.
The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.
We all took gym, not PE... and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Keds (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now. Flunking gym was not an option... Even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.
Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the National Anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.
We must have had horribly damaged psyches.
What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.
I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.
I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, PlayStation, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.
Oh yeah... And where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been k**led!
We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of Mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked.
Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $99 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.
We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either; because if we did we got our butt spanked there and then we got our butt spanked again when we got home.
I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off.
Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house.
Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a jerk. It was a neighborhood run a muck.
To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known that? We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes.
We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac!
How did we ever survive?
LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA; AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T, SORRY FOR WHAT YOU MISSED. I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING!
Pass this to someone and remember that life's most simple pleasures are very often the best.
Jan 23, 2016 12:14:54 #
Jan 23, 2016 18:33:10 #
Don G. Dinsdale wrote:
Prefect... I was 7 or 8 before we owned a TV (gree... (show quote)
them were the good ol days!
Jan 23, 2016 19:13:42 #
Don G. Dinsdale wrote:
Prefect... I was 7 or 8 before we owned a TV (gree... (show quote)
Hell, we even had our hunting guns on a gun rack in the back window of our pickup trucks. I'll be 56 in a few months and I can remember quite a bit of what you speak of. We invented games and would play them for hours. I know one thing you never told your parents back then was that you were bored. They'd always find something for you to do and it sure wasn't having much fun. These days parents buy their kid a new video game or something. Do they even have gym class/pe anymore. I remember having to take the presidents fitness test in gym class. I can honestly say that I have thanked my parents for raising me in the manner that they did. I got my ass beat when I needed it and a that a boy when I deserved it. Hell, I got my ass whooped by the principal in school if I acted up and got it again when Dad got home from work and found out about it. Try whooping a kid these days and you'll more than likely be escorted to the police station. A lot has changed due to this PC bulls**t of today. I grew up fine and stuck in my ways, but it's my way and I'm content with it. I don't need no politician, or anybody for that matter telling me what's best for me and how I should live my life. I now find myself praying for the well being of my family and these great United States and every member of our military for their courage on and off the battlefield so that people like you and I can have our "freedom." I guess I'm through rattling on.
God Bless, lock & load and stay safe!
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