Posted on 03/18/2013 7:32:31 PM PDT by navysealdad
Yeah, we have Ebola, Terrorism and flash mob beatings today. There are always those things, or things like them.
Born in 59. Lived two miles outside of a small town. Rode my bike EVERYWHERE (on the highway)! Played in the woods all winter (Mom wouldn’t let me in the woods until after the first frost, snakes and chiggers). Hunted in the same woods as a teenager.
Played war, had a huge pine straw pile that I made into a fort, pinecones made great hand grenades. Worked summers in tobacco fields from age 13, added mowing lawns on Saturdays after I got my license. Drove a school bus my junior and senior years in high school.
All Saturday morning in front of the TV, cartoon time!!!! And went to church EVERY Sunday. Unless I was puking, had the runs or a temperature, went to school. The common cold didn’t stop me. Doctor’s cure-all was pennicilin shots in the backside.
3 TV channels, 7PM Saturday gave the choice of Lawrence Welk, Hee-Haw, or Chapionship Wrestling, and with one TV in the house, I never got to see wrestling. And don’t forget Marlon Perkins and Wild Kingdom. Reruns of Gilliagn’s Island, Hogan’s Heroes, The Lone Ranger, and a local TV kids show starring Witney the Hobo (WITN-TV 7 Washington, NC).
Scouts, third grade school picture in my Cub uniform, camping with Boy Scout troop when older.
Taking the boat with Mom and Dad and another family and camping on Cape Lookout.....fresh caught fish fried on the beach for breakfast. Raw clams straight out of the water. Riding down the beach on the front fender of Dad’s beach buggy.
Travelling a whole day to visit my grandparents in TN every summer. Helping out on the farm. Stepping barefoot in a warm cowpie (I know....EEEEEEWWWWWWWW!!!!) Making the same trip on Thanksgiving Wednesday and (at 12 years) hunting for the first time with the menfolk on Thanksgiving day.
Waking up Christmas morning to see what Santa brought. Brand new Murray Wildcat banana bike in 1966 (I still have it) and an engraved Bible in 1967 (still have it, too).
Remember when the spokes became loose and you had to find someone with a spoke wrench? And the spokes would poke holes in the inner tube?
I wonder how many people have no idea what an inner tube is. I just realized it’s two words myself.
Hah...did you ever crunch aluminum cans with your heels, walk around with them for a while on your heels, then remove one and place it upside down on the top of the rear wheel where it passes through the frame?
It made a cool motor sound, especially if you had a knobby tire!
Heh, nowadays, they just give kids a motorcycle, they don’t need no stinkin’ sound generator...:)
Inner tube...I remember making slingshots, I was so inept at it. It’s a wonder I didn’t put my eye out, I was constantly pulling the thing back and having it either come loose at the wood and hit me in the face (leaving a dark red welt) or it would come loose at the pouch, and when that happened, it was worse, because my knuckle holding the pouch would hit me in the face and drive my glasses into my nose, and the rubber strap would fly forward and leave a red welt on my hand!
But...I persisted!
Yep, we did the can thing. Back then cans were made of tin and were a lot heavier and thicker. I believe that’s why soft drinks today don’t have as much carbonation. The whimpy aluminum cans can’t take the pressure.
We trick- or- treated for hours within at least a 10 block radius, took candy from strangers and ATE it. Halloween parties where your best friends dad turned out the lights, passed around raw spaghetti and peeled grapes while telling a horror story - giggling, gloriously frightened little girls! (The poor man would probably be arrested today).
There were no iPads, iPhones, iAnything; but didn't those new refrigerator boxes make fine spaceships, race cars, and country houses? All it took was a magic marker and imagination.
Tree houses! Wood pilfered from everywhere, old bent nails, and a hammer borrowed from someone’s dad..we actually played in those unsafe structures.
That is what's wrong. In today's world, you can not risk it. Too many crazies out there.
It is not that parents do not desire those experiences for their children, the world has changed.
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