Remember When ~ Good Ole Days

There's nothing like the good ole days! They were good then, and they're good now when we think about them.

Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?'

'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him. 'All the food was slow.'  'C'mon, seriously Where did you eat?'

'It was a place called 'at home,'' I explained. 'Grandma cooked every day and when Grandpa got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'

   By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears AND Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.

My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow). We didn't have a television in our house until I was 11, but my grandparents had one before that. It was, of course, black and white, but they bought a piece of colored plastic to cover the screen. The top third was blue, like the sky, and the bottom third was green, like grass. The middle third was red. It was perfect for programs that had scenes of fire trucks riding across someone's lawn on a sunny day Some people had a lens taped to the front of the TV to make the picture look larger.

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young

If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older

If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,

If you remembered 16-25 = You're older than dirt!

I might be older than dirt but those memories are the best part of my life.

Below are some Comments made in the year 1955!

That's only 54 years ago!

"I'll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, it's going to be impossible to buy a week's groceries for $20.00."

"Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won't be long before $2, 000.00 will only buy a used one."

"If cigarettes keep going up in price, I'm going to quit. A quarter a pack is ridiculous.

"Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a dime just to mail a letter?"

"If they raise the minimum wage to $1.00, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store."

"When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 29 cents a gallon. Guess we'd be better off leaving the car in the garage." "Kids today are impossible. Those duck tail hair cuts make it impossible to stay groomed. Next thing you know, boys will be wearing their hair as long as the girls." "I'm afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying DAMN in GONE WITH THE WIND, it seems every new movie has either HELL or DAMN in it." "I read the other day where some scientist thinks it's possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century. They even have some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down in Texas." "Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn't surprise me if someday they'll be making more than the President." "I never thought I'd see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric. They are even making electric typewriters now." "It's too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet." "It won't be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work." "Marriage doesn't mean a thing any more, those Hollywood stars seem to be getting divorced at the drop of a hat." "I'm afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business." "Thank goodness I won't live to see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes. I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best people to congress."

"The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on."

"There is no sense going to Lincoln or Omaha anymore for a weekend, it costs nearly $15.00 a night to stay in a hotel."

"No one can afford to be sick anymore, at $35.00 a day in the hospital it's too rich for my blood."

Can you relate? THOSE born 1920-1979  

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!! First, we survived being born to mothers who 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, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up 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 and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because, WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING! 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 O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms....... WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. 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, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not poke 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 50 years have been 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 themCONGRATULATIONS!

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 While you are at it, share it with your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

 Can You Remember When?

Before the Internet or the PC or MAC.

Before the drug war and crack.

Before chronic and ritalin and dysfunctional.

Before SEGA or Super Nintendo.

Before.....

Way back . . .

I'm talkin' bout hide and go seek at dusk.

Sittin' on the porch, HOT fresh from the oven bread or bisquits and butter. A time when mom or grandma would make bread and biscuits from scratch, not just scratch them out of a box of store-bought mix. (And we could snitch pieces of dough, or help push down and knead the bread, or cut the bisquits with a mason jar ring and plop them on the cooking sheet. Didn't it smell good??)

A time when the biggest thrill of the year was when Barnum and Bailey's wagons were unloaded from the train, and the Fireman's Volunteer Band came marching down the street ahead of them, on the way to the vacant lots where we watched the elephants put up the tents.

Remember . . .

Red light, Green light. Chocolate milk, Lunch tickets. Penny candy in a brown paper bag. Hopscotch, butterscotch, doubledutch, jacks, kickball, dodgeball, y'all!??

Mother May I?

Hula Hoops and Sunflower Seeds, Jolly Ranchers, blowpops, Mary Janes, Grape and Watermelon Now-Laters? (What about "Alexander the Grape," "Lemonheads"?)

When the ice cream man came jingling down the street, kids coming running from blocks around, and eatin' a 'super dooper sandwich' for a nickel.

Running through the sprinkler . . . The smell of the sun and lickin' salty lips . . .?

Watchin' Saturday Morning cartoons at the Rialto, all day for 10¢. And if your allowance was a quarter, you had enough left over for 2 bags of popcorn and a soda!!

The National Anthem was played and we all stood, hands on our heart, as the curtains opened before the NewsReel and the first movie, Our Gang, the Bowery Boys, The Three Stooges.

Intermission -- for all the kids to go running for whatever they needed to do most... The best part was the cartoons, Mickey Mouse, Road Runner, Porky Pig, ------ and Bugs.

Then -- Tarzan, Jungle Jim, Tom Mix, Gene Autry, Wild Bill Hickok, Errol Flynn, The Lone Ranger, Sky King, The Invisible Man, Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff -- OH BOY!!!

And a pocket full of dried peas and a peashooter??

Catchin' lightening bugs in a jar, playin sling shot and crack the whip?

When around the corner seemed far away, And going downtown seemed like really going somewhere?

Climbing trees and getting sticky fingers, and a million mosquito bites?

Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians. Runnin till you were out of breath, then sittin on the curb and watching the stars? (You could see them then, 'cause the nearest street light was two blocks away at the trolley stop.)

Sitting in an old apple tree and eating as many green apples as you could without worrying about the green apple trots.

Going shoe skating (without real ice skates) with friends on the old slough that froze over in winter.

Bedtime . . . Jumping on the bed, pillow fights, being tickled to death, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt?

Being tired from playin'.... Remember that?

Crowding in a circle around the 'after school fight', then running when the teacher came?

What about the girl that had the big bubbly hand writing??

Do you remember each of the many loves you have had through life?

Eating Kool-aid powder with sugar - didn't that taste good?

Just to go back and say,

Yeah, I remember that!

There's nothing like the good old days! They were good then, and they're good now when we think about them. One can't be serious ALL the time, eh?

Remember . . .

When there were two types of sneakers for girls and boys (Keds & PF Flyers), and the only time you wore them at school, was for "gym?"

When it took five minutes for the TV to warm up? (How about before TV, when almost all families had a radio, usually in the living room? . . . Or tickling the crystal to find the hot spot?)

When nearly everyone's mom was at home when the kids got there?

When nobody owned a purebred dog?

When a quarter was a decent allowance, and another quarter a huge bonus? When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?

When girls neither dated nor kissed until late high school, if then?

When your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?

When all of your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done up, everyday?

When you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, for free, every time? And, you didn't pay for air? And, you got trading stamps to boot!

When nobody was prettier than

Mom. And scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.

When laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box? When flour came in 50lb. and 100lb. printed cotton sacks for Mom to make pretty new dresses and blouses for your sisters? (And your boxer shorts?) {{frown}}

(August 2008 - Mom still has some of those flour sacks saved after all these years, more than half a century later, and she just told me she would make me some new shorts .... ARGGGGGHHHH!!! .... Mom is 95 now!!! (2008) And still beautiful and going dancing three times a week!!! )

When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him, or use him to carry groceries, and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.

When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents.

When they threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed . . . and did!

When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home? Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of drive by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat!!

When we were taught the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution for United States in school and knew what they meant, and we said the Pledge of Allegiance every day in the first class of the morning.

When a hobo came to your door, you'd open the door and help them, never fearing for your life....you were just helping another who was experiencing rough times.

I want to go

Decisions were made by going eeny-meeny-miney-mo and mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do it over!"

"Race issues" meant arguing about who ran the fastest.

Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in Monopoly.

Catching lightning bugs could happily occupy an entire evening.

It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.

Being old referred to anyone over 20.

The net on a tennis court or the neighbor's fence was the perfect height to play volleyball and rules didn't matter.

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties.

It was magic when Dad would "remove" his thumb.

Remember the before your eyes and how it made them blink when Dad would thump you on the noggin, just before you went under his thumb? (Lordy, I was under it often enough!)

It was unbelievable that dodgeball wasn't an Olympic event.

Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot.

It was a big deal to finally be tall enough to ride the "big people" rides at the amusement park.

Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.

Grampa said "Pull my finger."

Grandma would hide cookies for you.

Abilities you didn't know you had were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare".

Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute ads for action figures.

Do you remember when . . . "Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense?

Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles?

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team?

War was a card game?

Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?

Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?

Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin?

Home-made fresh peach or strawberry ice cream from real thick cream skimmed off the top of the bottles was considered a basic food group? (You mean it isn't???!!!?)

Your older siblings were your worst tormentors, but also your fiercest protectors?

Feeling the unrelenting love and warmth that comes from hugging a fuzzy puppy while it happily licks your face away...and all you can do is just giggle.

Cigarette smoking was fashionable, GRASS was mowed, Coke was a cold drink and POT was something you cooked in. ROCK MUSIC was Grandma's lullaby and AIDS were helpers in the Principal's office.

We certainly were not before the difference between the sexes was discovered, but we surely were before the sex change, we