How DID We Survive?

[bdwaygirl]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 6:59am

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 carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were 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 children, we would ride in cars with no 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, bread and butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, 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 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet 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 made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live in us forever.

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!
We ate peanut butter sandwiches without getting deathly ill.

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!

This generation has 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!

And YOU may be one of them! 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 our lives for our own good.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 12:36pm

My father's response (keep in mind he was still in high school when he saw JFK moments after he was shot):

"Forget about 99 channels, how about no TV. I believe we crossed a big line in human behavioral change after the TV came into the home, (call it BTV and ATV). BTV, we listened to radio programs and had to imagine what was happening. I loved to listen to the Lone Ranger on Saturday mornings while eating breakfast. And for years ATV, the TV world was black and white on a 21" screen, (a biggie back then). Walking and bikes were the mode of travel with friends. When I was little, we didn't even have a car. I still remember a big treat was walking up Hobson St. to the Crest theater on a Saturday and take in a double show like a Western or Ma and Pa Kettle or perhaps Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy. In the early days, they added a serial which is supposed to keep you coming back so you can see the next part to find out how the hero survived. They also included cartoons and maybe a Three Stooges short. So we could spend the entire afternoon in that air conditioned theater for 50 cents which also reminds me that we grew up without AC in Dallas! We didn't do Little League and I never even heard of it growing up in South Oak Cliff. What we did was play school ground football, (shirts and skins). Toys were simple with no electronics such as Tinker Toys, Monopoly, and maybe a Chemistry set for the older kids. As for drinking water, we drank from the faucet or a hose without thinking twice but I do remember a 14 year drought led to us drinking bottled water since the city water supply wasn't fit to drink. That drought ended in 1957 when we were almost flooded off the face of the earth. The biggest threat to health when you Mother and me were kids was polio and it was real until the vaccine came out."

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 12:38pm

My upper middle class friend had Pong. I could play for HOURS. Thought it was the most brilliant invention EVER.

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 12:42pm

I could play "Trouble" for hours..I loved pressing that plastic thing down.

Updated On: 1/25/05 at 12:42 PM

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 12:43pm

It was the popping sound! Couldn't get enough!

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 12:46pm

Sorry was another favorite of mine. Kids now need the sounds and something else moving the pieces for them.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 12:50pm

I had Sorry as well.

Anyone else have Art Linkletter's House Party Game?

All In The Family Bridge (card game)?

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 12:52pm

Rath...I still have "Party House" or is it "Birthday House"..see what age does to you....the album..yes LP...remember singing "Hi Mike" to the microphone.....silly kids that we were.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 12:57pm

Sadly, I was an only child - I would actually sit and play those games by myself! How pathetic is THAT.

[Mister Matt]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 12:57pm

I loved spinning the wheel on The Game of Life. I used Vaseline under the wheel to make it spin faster. My brother and I used to love riding our bikes in nearby wooded trails. And when we went to our summer place (which was nothing more than a mobile home 40 miles from South Padre Island), we didn't have TV, bicycles, or much use of the car unless my dad was not fishing. The closest activities were Wal-Mart (2 miles away) and Pizza Hut (4 miles away) and the movie theatre with two screens. We walked everywhere during the height of summer (and if you've ever experienced a summer near the Gulf of Mexico, you will understand the accomplishment). And we had a good time. Even the simplest things were somehow special because we put forth more work and effort in everything we did.

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 1:00pm

The Game of Life....I believe I still have that somewhere. Things were so much simpler back then Mister Matt and we don't realize it until now. I wish we could have some of those days back so we could appreciate them.

[B.B. Wolf]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 1:05pm

Vaseline under the wheel? Brilliant! Why didn't I ever think of that? It always got stuck, didn't it? But, if you didn't get lawyer or doctor on the job lane, you may as well toss that session out. You ain't winning.

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 1:07pm

We played in our tree houses and forts in the woods all summer. We taunted the bull at the farm down the road. We road our bikes alone out in the countryside for hours. We built tobaggan runs in the snow which our fathers then iced over with water so they were faster and dangersous. We played in everybody's basement except our own. We walked two miles each way to the general store to buy candy with our twenty five cent allowance. We raked leaves, shoveled snow and ran errands for the spinster sisters and other old ladies up and down the block so that we could go to the $1.00 movie on Saturdays. We watched Gone With the Wind 16 times in one summer because the theater had air conditioning.

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 1:09pm

What was up with Candyland??? It wasn't pop-u-lar in my house. I don't think my parents ever bought it for us...were we deprived?
I did have Operation which would amuse me for hours..I had to get the funny bone or I wouldn't quit.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 1:10pm

I didn't have Candyland either, and for years lived under the delusion that it came with REAL CANDY that you played the game with. I wanted it BAD.

I didn't have Operation but I loved playing it. My Spirograph was a special friend to me, though.

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 1:12pm

SOMMS...remember double features???? We could spend a whole day at the movie theatre and our parents would be very happy.

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 1:13pm

Rath...I have the new Spirograph...we should have a sleep over and bring out all the old games. Being Girly started this thread she'll have to host the party...LOL !!!

[B.B. Wolf]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 1:13pm

You didn't miss a thing with Candyland. Sorry, Life and Trouble were FAR superior games. Hell, Chutes and Ladders was a superior game.
My sisters got really vindictive when playing Sorry, too. That game was brutal!
Of course, my family was addicted to an old card game named Rook. Anyone, remember Rook?

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 1:15pm

Rook sounds familiar, yes.

Boobs, I have Yahtzee and Masterpiece at my "country house" (my best friend's house upstate). I'll bring those to the sleepover!!

[bdwaygirl]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 1:15pm

Boobs, you supply the house, I'll supply the rest.

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 1:15pm

My little brother and sister had Candyland and Chutes and Ladders and I played with them. I still have my original game of LIFE--seven was always my lucky number. I loved using my sisters Spyrograph and my brothers Etch-a-sketch. They played with my Monopoly game and my Chinese Checkers. We got our games once a year at Christmas and actually wrote a "shopping list" from Santa from the Sear's catalog.

[Rathnait62]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 1:16pm

Oh that Sears Wish Book. That was fabulous.

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 1:18pm

I got games when my Mom saved up enough of those Green Stamps.

Girly..I'll supply the house....although SOMMS may have lots of food if no one shows up at his this weekend.

[B.B. Wolf]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 1:19pm

I hate to say it, but the womens underwear section in that Sears catalog sped puberty along. God, that's sad.

[Broadwayboobs]

Posted: 1/25/05 at 1:20pm

So did the mens underwear section Wolf.