Go BottomDid you survive the 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s and 70 s
 | DRankin
Join Date: Jan 2000 Posts: 5116 Northern Nevada 
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2005-08-05 114393
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, tuna from a can, 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 and 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 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 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 put 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!
Our 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 are 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, and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?
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Add PhotoDid you survive the 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s and 70 s
 | Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2005-08-05 114396
A very good thought ......
But let's not forget those of us who actually lived through Jolly Jumpers without becoming paraplegics.
Or who rode around in a car our entire childhood without a seat-belt let alone a car seat...... Oh, but wait that was back when people DROVE cars, not POINTED them.
Best of luck. ....
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Add PhotoDid you survive the 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s and 70 s
 | kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
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2005-08-05 114398
Pretty good stuff. It's sort of funny that the safety nazis may be making things worse. One theory on the explosion of allergies in humans says that kids who are constantly protected from exposure to bacteria and viruses actually grow up to have screwed up immune systems. Eating mud and worms might have actually been good for you! ....
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| Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2005-08-05 114402
Ken, I hadn't thought of it that way.
I was born in the late fall of the year, and starting that first winter (in Toronto, Canada) Mom would put me out on the front porch in the pram on nice days for my nap to 'take some air because it's good for a body' as my grandmother would say, and obviously taught her.
Even with all the other health issue I do suffer with, I'm allergic to nothing and still only get maybe one cold a year.
Best of luck. ....
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Add PhotoDid you survive the 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s and 70 s
 | Mikef54
Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 43 CT 
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2005-08-05 114407
Don't forget eating raw ground beef as Mom was making meatballs or hamburgers or eating cold raw hotdogs straight from the butchers wrapping paper! No one I know ever got e-coli or salmonella.
Mike. ....
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Add PhotoDid you survive the 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s and 70 s
 | shortmagnum
Join Date: Nov 2003 Posts: 848 Wisconsin 
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2005-08-05 114408
"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."
I solved the problem by making my little brother ride down first. If he made it OK then we'd all ride down. ....
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Add PhotoDid you survive the 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s and 70 s
 | AC5ZO
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 928 Rio Rancho, NM 87144
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2005-08-05 114415
A couple of other things come to mind.
My mom would buy us fireworks for July 4 (the good stuff, not the stuff that they sell today!) My family still has all their fingers and eyes.
My grandparents' houses had wood burning cookstoves, did not have inside plumbing, electric lights, or telephones until I was about ten. We would go outside to the out-house and drink water from a cistern that collected rain water off the roof that we pumped and carried into the house in buckets. It was kind of like camping out to go to grandma's house, but we did not get sick. ....
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Add PhotoDid you survive the 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s and 70 s
| 091755
Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 143 brantwood wisconsin
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2005-08-05 114427
DRankin
Your expose on growing up "unprotected" is so eerily
close to my own, I wonder if you were my neighbor.
Just kidding, but I wholeheartedly agree with it.
We all made it. I dont remember anyone dying or
even getting hurt from any of these things,BUT one
thing I believe we did have as kids is- COMMON SENSE.
Today I see kids do stuff that is absolutely ludicrus
and I have to blame the parents. My parents 'educated'
me to not 'screwup'(to keep it clean). We knew the
consequences of screwups and hence we either rectified
the situations(occasionally) or we just didnt do dumb
ass stuff.
From a kid in the late 50's and early 60's
doc ....
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| 091755
Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 143 brantwood wisconsin
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2005-08-05 114428
DRankin
As a followup. I have a difficult time understanding
why people(cities)etc. are allowed to sue paint manufacturers that made paint with lead in it. I never
could see why they should be blamed if parents allowed
their kids to eat it. Paint is not made to eat. What if
the same thing was going on with toilet bowl cleaner?
Another product that is clearly not made to be eaten.
It seems today too many parents look for a scapegoat,
instead of taking the blame themselves for not protecting
their kids.
doc ....
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| DRankin
Join Date: Jan 2000 Posts: 5116 Northern Nevada
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2005-08-05 114429
I can't take credit or the essay. It was sent to me by a friend.
I thought you guys might enjoy it..... ....
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| hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 3583 iowa
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2005-08-05 114432
Born in 41 and growing up on a farm in eastern Iowa one of my greatest memories was how beautiful the night sky was without the light polution we have today. Going to town on Saturday night was a big deal, free movies in the park usually Ma and Pa kettle. All three grocery stores, the hardware store, the International Harvester dealer, the shoe store, drug store, three taverns, barber shop, etc, etc. stayed open late. The size of the town? Less than 500 but it had everything we needed. Oh and I almost forgot the new car dealership and I think three gas stations that really wanted to fix a flat, even on Saturday nitht. Frank. ....
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Add PhotoDid you survive the 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s and 70 s
| brokenarrow
Join Date: Jan 2004 Posts: 1288 Wisconsin 
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2005-08-05 114440
We used to sneak out at night to go riding the country roads on our bikes. Not just once a summer but 3-4 times a week. From 12 till 3-4am. Dad always knew we were out. Ma had no clue for many years. I had one rule from Dad (the lawman) Dont get caught and embarress me, you would regret it)!!!. NEVER!!! Done anything wrong except drink too many Ten High and cokes!
Yes those were the days!Just about every thing you all mentioned was performed by myself and many other accrossed the country. It is amazing youall bring up sooo many things I did also! Must of just been a naturally occuring thing amungst boys!
Now for the damper on this shangrila.
Its easy to blame playstation and all the other easy targets for whats wrong with this country. Here is my take as a father of three living just outside a city of 90+K. Yes I am considered living in the country, although my land and other house is really in the sticks most of the same holds true there but to a lesser extent. We now live in a place where it is a crap shoot on what the kids could do or have done to them if they were to leave at 7am and come home at dark. Our kids friends parents BOTH work or in most cases anyway. MOM is not home to make sure the kids are here or there, at the other nieghbors or maybe in the school yard playing pick up baseball. Rapes, muggings, killings, drive by shootings. Drugs (even though they were prevalent in the 60's, NOT so much with 10-14 year olds) are everywhere, even in the most remote sticky places. Families need (or almost need to) have two incomes, that means less time to influence the path they will walk down. Jobs are cutting back on vacation offered to many in the lower income jobs. Over time is heavy. All this plays into reasons we need to monitor what the kids will do and will not do. The fear of your kid being abducted is real and is scary. Sexual predators being released back into society (LIKE THEY ARE CURED!!!! DAH!) PREGNANCY!!!! WOW, I have two daughters also!!! I am affraid to death of them meeting a rat ass boy (just like I was)!!! The biggest problem in my hood, is that other parents have NO clue what their kids are doing and for that matter dont care. Those are the ones you need to watch and keep your kids away from because like it was mentioned before parents are defending their kids actions and believing everything they say!!!
Remember when the guy down the street would call your dad and tell him that he heard his kid swearing on the street? WOW!!!! To this day I remember my dad. He walked calmly into the baseball field (in back of the school) With out saying a thing he walked up to me and reached back and nailed me accrossed the back of the head with a slap. What was that for!!! I yelled! He told me, "I could hear you swear all the way back at our house!" I got to tell you this! The embarresment infront of my friends and the astonishment of how he knew? That was enough to make me respect the public places I was in at future dates! I can not ever remember swearing or talking like an idiot again infront of or loud enough for any other adult to hear me. Now a day my dad would of lost his badge, had to go to counseling, and maybe pay a fine or do some time!
Yes I miss the old days also! I am affraid they will never return though in this politically correct and this corrupt society we are now entering.
PS
I believe what you said about allergies and NOT being out side enough. My wife is alergic to the world and she was sheltered from the sun when young because of some old wives tale's and because she is fair skinned. I never had allergies and was out ALL the time. Since I became domesticated and spend more time in that out I think I have a slight case of some forms f allergies now! ....
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Add PhotoDid you survive the 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s and 70 s
 | kyvette
Join Date: Feb 2004 Posts: 194 Central Kentucky
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2005-08-12 114768
I grew up in the 50's & 60's and looking back, it was a good time. Everybody was in church on Sunday and a good date was Sunday night church and the drive-in at Frisch's afterwards.
You could go anywhere after dark and not worry about someone kidnapping or shooting you. There was very little evidence of evil, like the kind that occurs today.
You could carry a firearm anyplace, could spank you kid in public, a handshake and your word was good enough. The doctor would make house calls, as would the milkman. If you didn't work, you didn't eat. You could repair your own car.
No cell phones or IPAQs or computers. Life was simpler and moved much slower. Dave ....
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Add PhotoDid you survive the 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s and 70 s
 | Chief
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 4297 Southwest MiddleTennessee
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2005-08-13 114798
I will have to admit ashamedly so that in my youthful years that a friend and I while intending to play a prank on another friend, accidently blew up the sewer. Blew the man hole covers plumb off the grates for about 2 blocks and about burned every exposed hair off of our bodies, not to mention the concusion blowing us off of our feet and about 20 feet back on our butts. Real "Nobel Prize Laureats" we were at that age. No property damage done or anyone hurt but we became true "Super Men" from the "rust stains" in our draws during the unintended event. My Dad royally reamed my butt for that and WELL deservedly so in addition to some hard labor punishment. Later on over Dad's strenuous objections I pursued a career spanning over 20 years training and deliberately doing more of the same for "Uncle Same". I consider myself truly fortunate & blessed to have survived to live to talk about all of it. We do INDEED learn and change who and what we are as we do our best walk the path the Good Lord has for us in this life. I guess he knew what was best for me in the following years as he blessed me with 3 daughters to keep me from ulcers in my laters years! LOL!!!!! Or at least I am hoping that is the case in the future! ;O) ....
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Add PhotoDid you survive the 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s and 70 s
| wr5evk8jj
Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 61 Haymarket, VA
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2005-08-13 114800
Absoluely loved it (says another kid growing-up in the late 50's and into the 60's), and it is so very true. It got me reflecting about growing up on the farm, working with dad, and just being a kid. Thanks!
There are a great deal of messages "in there" that I have been using with my own kids (ages 6, 9, 11, and 14) over the years even though I'm an older and hopefully wiser dad (we married late and had kids later than most other parents). Of course, my wife being 7 years younger thinks I'm whacked at times. But, maybe there's others things that explain the differences: I'm from the north (WI, MN) and she's from Texas ('nough said), she's almost from a different era, I grew-up on a farm then moved to a lake area where she grew-up in the city, we are from different disciplines (I'm an engineer, she was a RN), and so on. The kids are surviving even though they can only use their Game Boys for a while like when on a road trip of over several hours or special occassions, the play station is used about two hours a month, they HAVE TO go out and play or ride thier bike or just do something, they need to explore thier world from their perspective. They have known the difference between "right and wrong" for many years; my wife and I are constantly doing "course corrections" where they can maintain course for reaching adulthood contributing as thinking, rationale beings and (hopefully) not some social misfits.
There's a good one that I've been using lately, especially with the three boys, the older ones, when I think they are going to do something "boneheaded" or just as a general caution: "Don't do anything that would bring disgrace to you mother". That usually at least gets them to thinking for a split second. ....
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Add PhotoDid you survive the 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s and 70 s
 | ncrunch32
Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 762 Kingston, NY
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2005-08-13 114804
We used to grab some blankets, hike up the top of the nearest hill and sleep under the apple trees looking up at the stars - and the lights across new york and into connecticut. Or we would play basketball in the barn late into the night while snow was coming through the barn door. We chose from several ponds during the winter for a bonfire (started with an old tire) and ice skated into the night. Swimming meant diving into the pond of choice and swimming to the deepest part to grab a handful of mud to prove you made it. I wish my kids could have had these experiences. ....
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Add PhotoDid you survive the 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s and 70 s
| lbrown59
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2005-09-09 116106
1*Going to town on Saturday night was a big deal,
hardwood
2*We used to sneak out at night to go riding the country roads on our bikes.
brokenarrow
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1*I was born in 1940 and remember this well.
2*My cousin & I used to go for long daytime rides on the country roads on our bikes.
We had a problem with dogs chasing us so we statred carrying our bb guns with us.Needless to say that took care of any dog that decided to chase us. ....
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| lbrown59
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2005-09-09 116109
We used to grab some blankets, hike up the top of the nearest hill and sleep under the apple trees looking up at the stars
ncrunch32
=================
Back in the first half of the 1960s my friend and I did that on a piece of land in the country.
Today I live on that piece of land.
Been here for 39 years.
Back then I never dreamed I would be spending most of my married live living on that 2.33 acres.
....
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| lbrown59
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2005-09-09 116119
Speeking of those days_ Take a look at this!
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I came across this phrase in a book yesterday "FENDER SKIRTS". A term I haven't heard in a long time and thinking about "fender skirts" started me thinking about other words that quietly disappear from our language with hardly a notice.
Like "curb feelers" and "steering knobs." Since I'd been thinking of cars, my mind naturally went that direction first. Any kids will probably have to find some elderly person over 50 to explain some of these terms to you.
Remember "Continental kits?" They were rear bumper extenders and spare tire covers that were supposed to make any car as cool as a Lincoln Continental.
When did we quit calling them "emergency brakes?" At some point "parking brake" became the proper term. But I miss the hint of drama that went with "emergency brake."
I'm sad, too, that almost all the old folks are gone who would call the accelerator the "foot feed."
Didn't you ever wait at the street for your daddy to come home, so you could ride the "running board" up to the house?
Here's a phrase I heard all the time in my youth but never anymore - "store-bought." Of course, just about everything is store-bought these days. But once it was bragging material to have a store-bought dress or a store-bought bag of candy.
"Coast to coast" is a phrase that once held all sorts of excitement and now means almost nothing. Now we take the term "world wide" for granted. This floors me.
On a smaller scale, "wall-to-wall" was once a magical term in our homes. In the '50s, everyone covered his or her hardwood floors with, wow, wall-to-wall carpeting! Today, everyone replaces their wall-to-wall carpeting with hardwood floors. Go figure.
When's the last time you heard the quaint phrase "in a family way?" It's hard to imagine that the word "pregnant" was once considered a little too graphic, a little too clinical for use in polite company. So we had all that talk about stork visits and "being in a family way" or simply"expecting."
Apparently "brassiere" is a word no longer in usage. I said it the other day and my daughter cracked up. I guess it's just "bra" now "Unmentionables" probably wouldn't be understood at all.
I always loved going to the "picture show," but I considered "movie" an affectation.
Most of these words go back to the '50s, but here's a pure-'60s word I came across the other day - "rat fink." Ooh, what a nasty put-down!
Here's a word I miss - "percolator." That was just a fun word to say. And what was it replaced with? "Coffee maker." How dull. Mr. Coffee, I blame you for this.
I miss those made-up marketing words that were meant to sound so modern and now sound so retro. Words like "DynaFlow" and "Electrolux." Introducing the 1963 Admiral TV, now with "SpectraVision!"
Food for thought - Was there a telethon that wiped out lumbago? Nobody complains of that anymore. Maybe that's what castor oil cured, because I never hear mothers threatening kids with castor oil anymore.
Some words aren't gone, but are definitely on the endangered list. The one that grieves me most "supper." Now everybody says "dinner." Save a great word. Invite someone to supper. Discuss fender skirts.
Someone forwarded this to me. I thought some of us of a "certain age" would remember most of these.
Just for fun, Pass it along to others of "a certain age"!!
....
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| hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002 Posts: 3583 iowa
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2005-09-09 116132
Ibrown59; I guess by todays standards most everyone in our neighborhood when I was a kid would have been considered below the poverty level but we were happy, never missed a meal, never was cold. Most everything we ate came from the garden or was butchered at home. I don't remember not having a telephone, but I do remember the REA coming thru with a power line, and getting "Indoor Plumbing" when I was about 16. (my dad would'nt use it at first he said it wasn't necessary.) But I guess one of my fondest memories was the food, no "store bought" pie crust, it was made with real lard, Canned meat, fried down pork, fresh chicken, and of corse real butter and real cream on our oatmeal. Wow, I'm getting hungry. Oh, and dad smoked "Talor Mades" on Sundays and rolled his own the reat of the week. Even tho we cant escape the troubles and turmoils of todays world, those memories give us "Old Folks" some comfort now and then. Frank. ....
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Add PhotoDid you survive the 30 s 40 s 50 s 60 s and 70 s
 | AnnBrush
Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 463 Troy OH
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2005-09-09 116144
Humm here is one possible take:
No antibiotics pre-40's - child birth was the number one killer of moms and children. Then of course thalidomide was all the rave as were the deformed babies. And without effective birth control most women were relegated to bearing and caring for children most of their active lives, the huge families are testament to that. Agricultural accidents were much more likley to be fatal or seriously debilitating in the absence of ROPS, saftey lock-out switches and the like. I would imagine anti-kickback saw chain was not available until the late 70's. Phone calls to family out of state or out of the country were out of the question due to cost. Vehicles lasted a maximum of 100 000 miles before wearing out and one could burn the undersides of your legs just sitting down on the hot vinyl seats in a car without any hope of air conditioning. Then of course they all used carburetors which had their own set of problems and heaven help you if you flooded the enging by over using the choke. What the hell did we do without microwaves - toiled all day in the kitchen. It's human instinct to remember the past fondly our memories often serve us badly. Modern times on average have increased the expected life span and by association suggest an easier way of life with higher standards. I sure as heck dont want to go back. ....
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