Posted on 09/12/2020 4:32:04 AM PDT by sodpoodle
So while I do think it was BETTER to be a kid back then, it is also SAFER to be a kid today. It’s up to everyone to decide if they think its worth it or not.
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Better because we learned to take risks which made us stronger
Safer now because mon and dad (if there is one) will take care of them until almost 30 years old which when we had already been married, had kids, served our country, bought land and built our own home, while they cower in the basement easy pickings for whatever media line the Dems dream up.
Typical summer morning with friends:..................Yeah, and when there was construction nearby, it meant wood for a club house, “No girls allowed”. My 40’s were, turning produce grates and 2x4’s into scooters with roller skates, throwing dirt bombs at each other,playing kick the can in the middle of the street along with stick ball and stoop ball. Scavenging empty Coke and Pepsi bottles at the beach for the 2 cent deposit to purchase a full one, or a frozen custard. We mowed lawns for 25-50 cents, we played the real sand lot baseball, we chose teams after we designated captains. I was usually the last one picked, but it didn’t mater, they were still my friends. After a few coaching lessons from my peers, I moved up on the choice scale. Umpires? Who needed them, we worked it out when there was a disagreement by fingers odd or even.
We spent quiet time making model planes, only to make them fly by a string attached to the wing as it burned in flight due to cotton soaked in lighter fluid or alcohol. But! Remember, we had our chores to do, there was always a list.
After school hours there was always a little time to do something with your friends before dad came home. I grew up on the Streets of NYC, we shared them with the traffic. Most of the activity centered around the middle of the “block”. Every kid on my block had dozens of mothers who knew us all by our names. I am sure this scenario covers most of us back then when candy bars were a nickel. We were taught a lot, we learned to drive nails, screw boards, and cultivate gardens. Yes we had gardens in the city, post war Victory ones, that continued in to the late 40’s and 50’s. Every spring, I had to dig up the plot in the back yard for planting. Tomatoes, squash, beans, peppers and eggplants were the big thing, big ones, thanks to all the fish carcasses that we buried in the soil. We lived in that little fishing village west of Coney Island. I have to say, it was a great time to have been a kid in that era.
.Yeah, and when there was construction nearby, it meant wood for a club house, “No girls allowed”.
“So while I do think it was BETTER to be a kid back then, it is also SAFER to be a kid today. It’s up to everyone to decide if they think its worth it or not.”
Sure, but then a bunch of Karens and their neutered mates decide that child seats until the end of puberty lest their precious little things get a boo-boo is a good thing. So we end up with laws mandating that we live the way the Karens want us to.
Then they decide its not fair that kids who work hard and excell are awarded trophies, so now everyone gets a participation award.
They decide that its sexist, misogynistic and patriarchal if we recognize a womans beauty, attractiveness or other aspect of desirability. So we get mandatory sensitivity training and whatever else they can think of.
The result of pampered children raising pampered children is the world we have today.
Where does it end?
Born in ‘69 on the same date as R. Lee Ermey, Steve McQueen and Houdini.
Rode (And crashed) bikes through the Colorado foothills.
Thought Pong was awesome.
Couldn’t afford skis, so I melted the rubber soles of my shoes with a Zippo, and slid down the snowy hills during school lunch break -because it looked rather cartoonish.
Built a go cart out of scrap wood....with wings.
Gone by sunrise, back by sunset.
Listened to old Cheech and Chong, Bill Cosby and Richard Pryor records.
Made audio tapes quoting said records on a tape player with low batteries, then put new batteries in it to listen to our voices. Sounded like The Chipmunks.
Played with Micronauts and Shogun Warriors toys.
Believed human flight was possible if the cape was long enough....jumped off a few rooftops.
Electrocuted myself in Grandpa’s back yard trying the old metal spikes hammered into the moist ground wired to house current, and I grabbed one of the spikes. When Grandpa saw this, he unplugged it and chased me around the backyard swinging a shovel, spewing profanities.
“YA G-D CRAZY KIDS!!!”
Had toys with actual mercury in them.
And his wife, Mabel, is more liberal than he is — X10. Big feminazi, throws fund-raising events for commies, etc. I always had the feeling she wears the pants in the family.
Bkmk
My aunt, born in the ‘20s, inherited millions of $$ from a single man she helped when he was elderly. She had no idea he was wealthy. He had made his money inventing something for a Fortune 100 company. She still washed out and re-used sandwich bags (not Zip-Loc bags; they were too expensive!), and tore paper napkins in half.
“What’s wrong with blue cheese dressing?”
Bleu cheese. (Gross!)
Good post.
Bleu cheese. (Gross!)
So how does Limburger cheese with raw onion on black bread with a mug of beer strike you?
;>)
Hard to find Limburger now days.
The rag man with his mule-drawn cart. The ice man that when the kids gathered around was a bit sloppy in cutting the cubes that would perfectly fit the ice box (from memory) so the kids would have some cold ice shavings on a hot summer day. (”Growing up - we never had ice cold drinks!”)
—
The junk man on his mule-drawn cart piled high with stuff. In the summer when the ice man came, it was always an excuse to nag for ice cream so mom would churn it using real cream poured off the tops of the farm fresh milk bottles delivered that morning from the farmer down the road. Our ice box was open enough that it was basically a 4 foot high insulated box with a few shelves in the middle - no need to carve the 5lb blocks of ice to fit.
Our creek was too muddy and polluted from the hurricanes that brought floods to swim in, besides it smelled funny.
The key point I remember in my childhood was that we planned our own day, set our own goals, solved our own problems and self initiated ourselves. Adults were not involved in our play time. Heck, even older teens were excluded.
We liked watching the little rascals for ideas. Adults usually got in the way of the plans.
Born in ‘49. Did all those things and more. Raised in Florida by Yankee parents displaced by WW2. No home A/C in those days either.
Well, I had a Chemistry Set with Potassium Nitrate, Sulfur, and powdered charcoal.
Powdered magnesium,powdered aluminum and some other things.
We made gunpowder that burned in all kinds of colors.
Can’t do that today.
Oh... Limburger. I never had it; I never want it.
Mom and Dad told us about how, when they drove away from the church after they married, a terrible smell overcame them. The pranksters had smeared Limburger cheese under the hood on or near the engine (I don’t know cars). In any case, it took forEVer to get rid of the stench.
years before I stopped calling a refrigerator an ice box:)!
*****
Did the ice man come around on certain days?
nice
You could get one from Sears. Not today!
I'm one. My next door neighbor's kid lost an eye from a BB gun.
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