>
>
> Mum used to cut chicken, slice eggs and spread mayo on the same
> cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't get food poisoning.
> My Mum used to defrost mince-meat on the kitchen sink AND I used to
> eat a bite raw sometimes, too.
> Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper, in a brown paper bag,
> not in icepack coolers, but I can't remember anybody 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 played sport, and also did PE... and risked permanent injury
> with a pair of Dunlop runners (only worn in the gym or the sports
> ground) 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 sport was not an option.... even for stupid kids! There were
> not many fat kids.
> Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the National Anthem
> and got free school milk for strong bones and teeth, 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, and she could even give you an aspirin
> for a headache or fever.
> 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, Play Station, 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 killed!
> We played 'king of the castle' on piles of gravel left on vacant
> construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mumpulled out the 48-cent
> bottle of Mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting
> like iodine did) and then we got our hair ruffled and got told to get
> back out there! Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a
> 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mumcalls the
> Solicitor to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of
> gravel where it was such a threat.
> We didn't misbehave at the mate's house either, because if we did, we
> got our bum smacked there, and then we got bum belted again when we got home.
> I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his
> tricks on the front veranda, just before he fell off. Little did his
> Mumknow that she could have owned our house. Instead, she picked him
> up and swatted him for being such a yobbo.
> It was a neighbourhood run amuck.
> 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

I'm not over 40, in fact, I'm 16, but I grew up(and am still growing up) just like that. The only thing different is the schools. And when you made the comment about anger management, the schools are the only ones who said that they think I need it. I remember playing king of the hill(or king of the castle as you put it) I remember playing football and getting the snot knocked out of me, all that good stuff you listed. Things haven't changed in some parts of the country, just the ones you hear about on the news all the time.

Good post.
I'm 53 and I can remember all the boys had pocket knives.Now you'll get kicked out of school for even drawing one on paper.
Nobody shot each other,fistfights and bloody noses usually settled any hard feelings.
The hardest drugs were a pack of Camels you stole off of your Dad.
You could walk into any of your friends houses at about any time of day.Now everyone is locked down.
When you opened a jar of Peanut-Butter,it didn't have 57 Safety Seals on it.
Grandma and Grandpa either passed away at their house or yours,they weren't sent off to a 'Old Folks Warehouse'.
We had a Pistol & Rifle Team at our High School and didn't shoot anyone.
We were taught Archery in Gym class and didn't shoot anyone.
The only single parent household I knew of was one where the father was killed in Veitnam.And the kids turned into law abiding,hard working, tax paying citizens.
No ones house was blown up making Meth.
My siblings and I knew better than to tell Mom & Pop that we were bored.

Billsleg and Poletax:

At 76 I remember all that you have written for the most part.

For us Americans, I think it was that our parents were self reliant - and expected their children to be so likewise. We also had an automatic respect for police officers - NOT because they could arrest us - but because they were just that - officers of the law. (The only time I feared police officers was when I was speeding. My mother used to give state troopers hot meals (the pay was terrible in those days and they were high caliber men). When I got my junior license, she actually urged the troopers to give me a ticket if they caught me speeding. They didn't during my junior license days {the consequences were too harsh} but always gleefully told my mother at the dinner table whenever they had ticketed me after I was 18. Today that kind of thinking is almost foreign to most doting parents)

Between both your posts, there is a common thread and one of you is an Aussie and the other is an American (Maybe it's why I like Aussies and Americans like Poletax so much) - Stand on your own two feet, take what comes and don't whine. (Above all, don't whine!)

It has occurred to me that a couple of youngsters like Billsleg and Poletax don't really remember far enough back so I will tell you kids that I remember when:

Western Union messengers wore grey uniforma and rode bikes to deliver messages

Beer truck driver and helper (huge and potbellied)wearing leather aprons rolled beer barrels across the sidewalk

a refrigerator was still being called an "icebox"

the only "air conditioning" was in movie houses

milk was delivered by truck each morning and was in glass bottles.

US Navy sailors really wore "bell bottom trousers".

the expression "gay young bachelor" meant exactly the opposite of what it does today

police officers would take a young delinquent into the nearest alley and lay a few whacks of a night stick on his behind - and, gee! we had no social workers or bleeding heart judges - and a lower crime rate.

As kids we called each other all kinds of insulting names, Micks, guineas, squareheads, Hebes, Polacks ( we never heard of "political correctness") and still had those kids as friends. ("I'm sorry" "That's OK") End of argument.

A cop killer would be hunted to the ends of the earth. All civilians wanted a cop killer to be killed. (In those days, few of them ever lived to see a stationhouse or state police barracks, fortunately - much less write books and be interviewed on TV as we have had today)

Just a few thoughts of my own.

Mail was delivered twice a day.

The "junk man" had a horse-drawn wagon.

The garbage man picked up the garbage for free and used it to feed the hogs on his farm.

I could walk down to the corner store and get 4-5 pieces of hard candy for a penny.

When you went to the shoe store, you put your feet into a fluoroscope machine that showed exactly how the shoes fit and you could watch your toes wiggle.

Not only was milk delivered daily but the breadman delivered bread, rolls, etc. twice a week.

You were special if your folks had a private phone line instead of a party line.

The starter in the car was actuated by the clutch pedal pushing against a button on the floorboards, the lights were dimmed by another button that was pressed with the left foot and big trucks were chain-drive.

Tires were aired with a meter on a stand - the correct pressure was dialed in and the meter would 'ding' periodically until the set pressure was reached.

Oil at the gas station was dispensed in glass jars with a spout attached.

Gas stations also sold guns and ammunition as did the auto parts store, Sears, and Montgomery Wards.

The insurance man would come to your door monthly or weekly to pick up the car/house insurance payment. In cash. Nobody used checks.

On payday you got your pay in cash in a small envelope.

When donating blood, you would get a shot of whiskey afterwards.

Carknocker: (Don)

I forgot about twice a day mail delivery. What really brought back memories was your reminder about dimming the lights of a car with the left foot (I suddenly remembered how I would often be pressing down the foot and cursing because some bastard wouldn't lower his beams) Guns were sold in my area in upstate gas stations and always in Sears Roebuck.

Here's what I'm having trouble remembering - a self starter using the left foot. I do remember starting a car with a foot self starter but I seem to remember that it was the right foot. (Maybe it's just an old man's memory failing him. Also I only remember it on my mother's favorite car - Ford Model A - two seater, rumble seat. Is my memory failing me?)

quote:

Originally posted by Car Knocker:
Mail was delivered twice a day.

I could walk down to the corner store and get 4-5 pieces of hard candy for a penny.

You must be a lot older than I am..I could only get 2 pieces of candy for a penny!!

I feel sorry for the new generation that's only grown up with fuel injection and "rice rockets". My first was a '49 Merc with a flathead V8.