Made our own root beer, using extract bought in the A&P and cakes of yeast, and 5# bag of cane sugar and 5 gallons of water.
Gosh! I still remember the recipe. Heh.
I loved to use the bottle capper.
The stuff tasted like Moxie. Yuck!
Posted on 09/12/2020 4:32:04 AM PDT by sodpoodle
First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank - while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
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, locks on doors or cabinets, and, when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps, not helmets, on our heads.
As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no airbags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.
Riding in the back of a pick- up truck 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, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And we weren't overweight.
WHY?
Because we were always outside playing...that's why!
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 OKAY.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, Only to find out that we forgot about brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not Have Play Stations, Nintendo and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVDs, no surround-sound or CDs, No cell phones, no personal computers, no internet and no chat rooms. WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and lost teeth, and there were no lawsuits from those accidents.
We would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles, or just a bare hand, and no one would call child services to report abuse.
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, 22 rifles for our 12th, rode horses, 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!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventors ever.
The past 60 to 85 years have seen an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
If you are one of those born between 1925 &1955, CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it ?
~~~~~~~ The quote of-the month by Jay Leno:
"With hurricanes, tornadoes, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of coronavirus and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"
I remember playing Peewee baseball, basketball and football, and there were hardly any parents watching or trying to coach us from the sidelines. Playtime was OUR TIME, KIDS TIME, and the adults left us alone. I walk by the ball fields now and they have full attendance for a Frickin practice. I pity these children, I really do. We literally lived 1.95 miles from where we practiced and had home games, and it was not uncommon to walk home in cleats because practice got out early, or Dad said he had something to do and he would pick us up well after practice ended. WE lived, and we thrived. We had our own pecking order, and you didn’t tattle.
The NYC Old McSorley’s pub used to offer that onion, Limburger, bread comb. Only place I ever saw it on a menu.
“I recall blue cheese dressing to be an 80s thing. .......................... Yup! With Buffalo wings.”
Oh it’s still a “thing”, just go to Hooters.
And when you say “it’s for a typewriter”, he will say, “A what?”
LOL!!
I shoveled coal into the furnace,shook down the ashes,shoveled them into a metal ash can,and turned the dampers. Dreadful.
.
bookmark
Hitchhiked (13-18) - Detroit area, some interesting folks met along the way - farthest ever hitchhiked, Virginia.
Walked to all schools - Elementary, Jr. High, and High School. In Elementary - would walk home for lunch, no lunch room.
Police - me being a smartass @ 15 had the cops beat the $hit out of me - Mom & Dad came down to cop shop and knew the cops involved - told me to apologize for being an a-hole.
Worked from age 13 on - first job $1.50 an hour under the table at a Greek restaurant...
Work - paper route, all thru 10th grade , delivered Detroit Free Press to ~100 houses, cleared over $40 a week.
Gosh, I loved my youth...
Shoveling coal ash, I thought that was the fun part:)
Made our own root beer, using extract bought in the A&P and cakes of yeast, and 5# bag of cane sugar and 5 gallons of water.
Gosh! I still remember the recipe. Heh.
I loved to use the bottle capper.
The stuff tasted like Moxie. Yuck!
We early ones rode in the rumble seat of a car -— with no seat belt.
South Dallas in the 60s? Near Fair Park, or do you mean South Oak Cliff?
The image below encapsulates my 1970s childhood. I turned 13 in 1975 and during that era I was turned out in the morning (on non school days) with my bicycle and I was not to return home until around dark. For lunch, sandwiches and bug juice were to be handed out through the window by neighborhood mothers (so as not to dirty up their floor and carpets) and we would always find plenty to do on our own. Stickball, street hockey, Risk and Monopoly games on picnic tables, or just hanging out somewhere outdoors. Probably burned 3,000 calories a day so it didn't matter what we ate.
And yes, from about May to September, we pretty much went barefoot all day long. Even on our bikes.
Owenwood, between Haskell Ave and Hwy 30, just a little bit north of Fair Park. We moved just outside of Woodrow Wilson High School when I was a few years older.
Myself and my brothers and sister all went to Mount Auburn Elementary.
As a Boy Scout, I used to be an usher at the Cotton Bowl during Dallas Cowboy games.
And they had yearly rounds of polio and measles and various flus without vaccines... and the country just got on with fighting wars and doing business
Baumgartner’s baby!
https://www.baumgartnercheese.com/
High dives were the best. Check out youtube vids of Action Park! Brings a tear to my eye.
Dallas City Buses. I would earn extra money mowing yards, get on the bus and just stay on it until it had made its entire route. Found out that Dallas had a main public library downtown and made that my summer pilgrimage place. Tried to read every single book in the library.
What a wonderful city back then.
My Mother rode a motorcycle a few times (on country dirt roads), in 1933, when she was 7-8 months pregnant...
Here I am, still waiting to see any effects...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.