[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Getting older. (Page 1 of 3)
Posted: 9/6/2008 8:19:14 PM EDT
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I heard of a perfect example of something to this effect recently. I notice it more looking at today's kids and young adults. A friend picked up his pampered daughter in an old clunker '80's car he had borrowed. His daughter was completely bent out of shape when informed that the car was born before her and it was "pre-cup holder". She had to actually hold the cup the entire time while in the car! I don't know how she managed. How many of us learned to drive holding a Slurpee or giant sized Big Gulp between our legs. Seat belts were optional too. Your mom's arm was connected to the brake pedal. When she slammed on the brakes, her arm would fly over and hold you in your seat like a toll gate. Ralph Nader grew up before seat belts were even invented! Go figure. There were no tv's in cars either. You looked out the side window and got motion sick on your siblings. That's how it was. You were lucky if you were in the front seat, as it would always go out one window and into the next. If you were not so lucky, your siblings in the back seat had your sleeping bag covering them as a shield. I miss that sleeping bag, it was my favorite. There were no "play dates". I used to have to ride my big-wheel two blocks away from home to hang with the cool kids. Getting a bike made this easier later in life, going up and down curbs on a big-wheel is hard on your rear ( as was the flat spot on the front tire from skidding to a stop all the time jarring your teeth loose ). If I had known directions to 7-11 at that age, I surely would have been there getting a Slurpee. Spilling it on the seat of the car without a cup holder was useless, but on the seat of the big-wheel would have felt alright. Atari??? We had PONG! That was state of the art. Hours of watching the blip go back and forth, honing your skills to be............well..............mediocre at pong at best. IF you had the luxury of cable tv, the "remote" was on a leash and everyone in the house had to step over the cord. If you're younger, you remember the "new" cable box with the shifter on the side. The older ones before that could be likened to holding a patio block with a cord on it with buttons off a blender installed for that cutting edge appearance. There was no frozen yogurt or designer ices. Foxy Pops & Marino's Ices.....mmmmmm.............enough said. We ate our frozen treats with a wood tongue depressor shaped like a peanut or sucked them out of a plastic sausage like casings. My bet is, today kids don't even know to turn the Marino ice upside down as soon as you have carved enough away to make that perfect flip. We played with fire as kids. We got burned with matches as kids. We learned not to play with fire unless you were more careful. Backpacks??? What are we going camping?? We carried a lot more books in the day, under our arm, longer distances AND with slippery book covers. Teachers have a sick sense of humor. I have no pity for the child who needs a backpack to go to the store. I've carried more stuff on a bicycle without a basket than these kids can in rolling luggage! Just some of my thoughts. Your mileage may vary. I feel better now, going to go sit on a donut just thinking about my old big-wheel. 
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Dude, I'm 45yrs old. I remember riding me (Banana seated) Shwinn all OVER the greater LA area in the '60's and '70's with a GUN slung on my back, with NO helmet and (GOOD LORD!) BAREFOOT! Summer days were spent playing baseball and riding bike and the evenings were for hide-and-seek, ding-dong-ditch and finding a bike in the neighborhood that didn't have a tire on the back wheel so's we (All my friends and I) could make showers of sparks in the dark when we hit the brakes!  No VCR's, cell-phones, ipods, DVDs, tivo, computers/internet, video games.........it was HORRIBLE!!! Somehow though, I remember having a whole hell of ALOT fun back then as a kid...... 
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Do that today and you have the alphabet after you. ATF FBI CIA DMV DEA Not to mention child protective services and a camera guy from COPS. |
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I put many a mile on the old plastic little tikes four wheel pedal cars. Hunting black birds in town with a bb gun and not getting a second look. We lit a bunch of car models on fire fueled by gasoline in the alley once it was the biggest fire I've seen and the neighbor guy stopped and asked if our dad knew we had such a big fire burning, we looked at each other and said yes sir with evil smiles on our face and the neighbor said ok be careful and drove off. ahh the good ol days, I would give everything I own to re live them. |
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Marino's Italian Ices - frozen goodness on the bottom. Who made the ices sold in the individual paper squeeze cups at your local deli or candy store? What was the brand name? Were there several brands? Were they also Marino's? Corner candy stores. Pharmacies with soda fountain counters. Chocolate egg creams. Jan's Ice Cream Parlor at the eastern end of Myrtle Avenue near Lefferts Blvd. Pizza by the slice at the walk -up window. Local delis and grocery stores. We have Jiuliano's Italian Delicatessens out here. They are decent and sell Boar's Head brand cold cuts and those large frozen raviolis. |
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Being the first to collect all the Star Wars cards from them bubble gum packs. Playing lawn darts during block parties the parents had. Getting whipped with a belt when I screwed up and no one called some agency to report anything. Attitude of suck it up kid and dont do it again prevailed. Finding that if you place hundreds of match heads inside aluminum foil you can make some really cool fires while the older ones taught you how to spice things up with a coffee can full of gasoline, Oh yea... Times have changed for sure |
I agree with your post. Then after thinking about it I am now freaked out since it sounds like the stuff my grandfather and father used to say. Oh man, I am getting old. I can't wait until my niece is old enough so I can give her the lecture on life before the internet and cell phones!.......I actually had to carry quarters in my pocket to call my mother you spoiled child! 
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Rubik's cube, leg warmers for the chicks, intellevision "B-17 Bomber" game  Pop-Rocks Star Wars (Not the wimpy star wars of recent years) Potato chips in waxed paper bags, not plastic.... 2 liter Coke bottles made out of glass.... (They exploded when the fell over on their sides!!  )Chia Pets!!! Sea Monkies!! Atari (Defender was my favorite... hyperspace here I come!!!!) I'll add more later, as it comes to me |
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I had a 8 track in my '55 Chevy. Ahh, when cars were made of metal and women wore micro-miniskirts, damn! My wife and I buy most non-perishable middle ticket things for her parents now. They still think a loaf of bread should cost $0.05 and a car $1000. For those of you too young to understand, just wait. The freaking 1980s were just a couple of years ago, damnit. And I don't want to hear otherwise. |
holy sh#t click clackers! after about a *super noisy* week our elementary instituted a CC-Ban LOL! the ones kids have nowadays are freaking rubber. I had to stand on a step to kiss my first girlfriend here's to raging hormones!
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I remember going to school with a pellet gun. The school district sponsored a Turkey Shoot. I had the high score for our school and won a turkey. My mom carried me in her arms from the hospital three days after I was born. With no car seat. Dad was driving, of course. They were unheard of back then. Let the Police see a mother do this today and the courts, child services, and public lynching would ensue. We settled arguments with fists. And was friends afterwards. Today, the cops and courts tell you how to run your buisness, with penalties if you don't comply. I respected my parents without giving them any crap. Kids today threaten you with the police and child protective services. Yes, we are losing. It's a slow process, but we are indeed losing. |
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Three TV channels & one was PBS before Sesame Street. You actually had to get up out of a chair & turn a knob on the black & white 19" set to change channels. My mom drove a Volkswagon fastback. She'd put $2 worth of gas in it on Friday & drive all week until the following Friday & put another $2 in. Her car was identical to this one.  I recall mom & dad paid $1656 for it in 1968. My first experience with seat belts was in 1967. My dad had a '63 Pontiac LaMans. It was a fast car so mom added seatbelts to it for his birthday. |
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Playing war in the neighborhood. Stalked and chased each other with our play guns. Street or yard football. Flying kites. Once we put razor blades on the bat kits and dog fought them. The object was to fly your kite into the friends and cut his string first. Rode bikes and played hockey on roller skates- Texas, it rarely gets icy! Tree forts made with scavaged lumber in the neighborhood. Kickball any day. Loved to slam the ball on a runner. |
If you played war today, you would most likely be arrested for tresspassing. In my younger days, anyone's property was free game to hide. Tree forts?? Today's kids would be hard pressed to build a box. Sure, they have a tech class telling them the properties of a box and how one WOULD build it if one had to...........but not one can probably tell you what tool is the hammer in the tool box or how to use it. Don't even get me started on nailing something into a tree, strictly for the purpose of fun! How do you use a handsaw or screwdriver?? Yes..........the EARLY cordless tools are hard to come by these days. "I can't put this screw in, the drill isn't charged". (This applies to a lot of adults now as well.......yes, some of us are getting older.) |
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Charms blowpops. Bazooka gum. Yes, those push-up ice pops with the cardboard tube. HOME MADE WOOD GO-KARTS!!!!!!!!! The kind you garbage picked wheels and parts for and were pushed by a buddy, then you switched drivers. Hours of playing in the DIRT in the yard with Tonka trucks. Yes, in the dirt. We got dirty. |
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Playing tackle football after school in the local park with no pads. Learning that fire can actually burn a 30 acre lot of woods down in no time (the statute of limitations is up on that one BTW). BB gun wars where you actually trusted you friends to not shoot you above the waist, and most of the time they didn't. Leaving home as the sun came up in the summer and making it home just as the street lights came on. Going to all your friends houses at dinner time to see who was having the best dinner. Having every parent in the neighborhood get permission from your dad to give you a butt whoopin if you deserved it, and then get another one from your dad when you got home. Riding on the back of the garbage truck as he went through your neighborhood just so you got the opportunity to pull the lever that compacts the garbage. "Running away from home" and declaring it to your mom to which her reply was "want some help packing?" then going to sleep in your buddies garage while your parents knew were you were the whole time. Getting in fights with your buddies over a stupid girl and all that was used was a fist. Then you actually get smart and figure out that girls are not worth the bruises. |
indeed
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We had three TV stations. Having to be ready at 6:00am for the man to pick me up to go pull tobacco. Just about everyday during summer vacation. At 12 years old. We had summer jobs back then. For $6.00 a DAY! No AC. No color tv. Fuck up at school, get home to a waiting ass whipping. We said the pledge to the flag & Lord's Prayer everyday. No one drove to school unless you had a job after school...except the rich snoty kids. No one locked their doors. Kids had manners, said yes/no sir. We would drink out of the garedn hose, no one died! We played tackle football with no pads on fall Sunday afternoons & no one died. No one ever heard of soccer...thank God! Played baseball just about everyday during the summer after getting up at 5:30am & working to 4:00pm. With nothing but a glove, bat & baseball. And no one died. When we went to pick up our girl friend for a date, we wore almost our Sunday best. And had to have her home by 11:00pm. Not 11:02pm. 11:00pm. Back then girls didn't go out & ride around. Carried our guns in our cars on the days we didn't have to work so we could go hunting after school. We even carried our shotguns in school to show the principle, he was a huge bird hunter. Rifles & pistols too! And no one died. Or even thought of calling the cops. When we got pissed off at someone at school, we would go down behind the fieldhouse & go at it. No one ever pulled a knife or ever shot anyone. When we graduated high school, we could really spell, write, add & subtract. We even sounded educated. Really! We showed respect to our teachers. We acted like humans, not a bunch of animals! The communist were the enemy, not one of the two major political parties! Damn, times have changed! And not for the better!!!!! Oh, I'm 54. Mike |
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We didn't have remotes, we had a knob on the tv, sometimes it would flip in circles, when this happened we turned something called the "vertical" knob. We had records and not tapes. We had party lines on the phones, can you imagine that today!??! We had a childhood and not "preschool", at least I did. There was no pong, but I had a farm set, tops, a majic 8 ball, a sandbox, when a kittie was'nt using it, some jacks, and later on I made creepy crawlers. I remember when my friends family got the first microwave, everyone they knew came over to watch water boil.
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I distinctly remember my dad driving his stick shift '78 Chevette with a mug of coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other. When I turned 16 I bought the car from him and quickly became good at driving it while drinking a Big Gulp. It's a lost art. I also remember driving around without using seat belts. When the laws started changing it was annoying as hell to have to buckle up. |
Had to laugh at that one....many a frozen nut(s) back in the day The greatest Christmas present ever(mid-70's) was the banana seat Huffy bike with the simulated gas tank 
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my mother carried one to the store weekly as a kid. bough a loaf of bred, a bag of gum AND got change! i got the best of both worlds though, i think. a pocket knife since i was 5, played with matches, NES, trees to climb, riding my huffy all day, a cordless remote control, and a HUGE field behind my house. no BB gun wars though, i got whooped enough already, didnt need more for shooting someones eye out! |
| We used to walk around the neighborhood and look for soda bottles to turn in. We got two cents for the small ones and a nickle for the big ones. If you were lucky you could get enough money for a bag of candy. The bag full of candy would cost about thirty five cents! Oh yeah, I used to take my sixteen gauge single shot shotgun to school and keep it in my locker. Our school had a gun club! |
I hate carrying change. 1980: Flew in to JFK Cat Y from Germany, and brought my friends 2 labs back - he requested Cat Y and didn't get it. I had 2 dimes in my pocket to call him to pick me and his critters up. Got to the pay phone, and while I was OS it had changed from 10 cents to 25 cents. |
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Erector sets. Man those things were cool. Seem to remember the edges were kinda sharp also. Lawsuit city for sure, these days. ETA: Holy cow has that toy changed: www.erectortoys.com/ |
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No TV till I was 10 and it was my aunts. 1 car family 1st grade in a 1 room school house grade 1 -3 no bath tub or shower till I was 10, Washed once a week Sat night in a big tub on the floor in kitchen, hot water from top of stove xmas 1 pair of jeans birthday a cake |
When I was a kid our next-door neighbors had a Nash Rambler just like that one (did they even make it in another color?). Funny thing was, the neighbors next door to them were the...Nash family. For years I thought they had sold their car to our neighbors and just left their name on it.
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But were the Army Men plastic or metal?? I was going to bring up the green Army men. Many an hour was spent indoors and out playing with them,setting up more horrific battles than have ever been seen by living man ( or 4-5 year old ). Today the metal ones would most likely be recalled for lead paint. Back then, the missing paint added patina and war wounds. Erector sets...........my bet is I still have scars on the bottoms of my feet from stepping on pieces I left on the floor. Kid wouldn't know what to do with the old sets today. They didn't need batteries, just imagination. I remember a toy called "Earthquake Tower". It was a building you set up and put little figures of people around and on top of. There was a button you pushed on the base of the building ( the sidewalk more or less ) and the building shook. The people plummeted to the ground onto the pedestrians. Something makes me think this toy idea would NOT fly in today's age.  Keep the coming!!!!! Not a word about GI Joe or Big Jim and his Pack so far?? Was I the only one who used to launch Evil Knevil and his motorcycle down the stairs?? Would this be accepted today as normal behavior as a child............or would I be on play dates with a therapist? When I was a kid it took HOURS to pick out a toy gun in the toy store. Do toy stores even have toy guns anymore that are not pink or purple?? They used to go "rat-a-tat-tat"........now my guess is they go "hope and change, hope and change". |