Do YOU remember when...

[Monica65]

I saw Lil Brat make a similar thread once, but I received this as an email and thought folks here might get a kick out of it.

Whoever put this together described our childhood to a T.














(Under age 40? You won't understand.)

You could hardly see for all the snow,
Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go.
Pull a chair up to the TV set,
'Good Night, David. Good Night, Chet.'

My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice-pack coolers, but I can't remember 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 took gym, not PE .. and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in gym) 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 m uch safer we are now.

Flunking gym was not an option, even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, 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.

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 Hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of Mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked.

Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.

We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either because if we did, we got our butt spanked there and then we got our butt spanked again when we got home.

I recall the kid from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop just before he fell off. Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house. Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood 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.

 

[Draconian Pheonix]

They're missing, Lost in space, Land of the giants, Buck Rogers in the 21st Century, Battlestar Galactica, Moonbase 2010, oh what else.

P.s. I have found that you can watch original BSG and Buck Rogers on NBC.com, as well as Bionic woman and many other old shows. I spent about a month re-watching all the shows they had.

Oh and does anyone remember The Last Unicorn and Rock and Rule? Took me forever but I have them both on VHS now, also got a copy of Black Moon Rising.  

[Monica65]

I loved those old shows! I had some 20 somethings living across the hall from me who owned The Last Unicorn. Totally blew me away!  

[Sakurada Ichigo]

I'm only 23 and through the wonder of cable TV I too have fond memories of most of those shows.^^

But no memories of the 1950's lifestyle save for what I've seen on old TV shows and recreations of the 1950's in modern media.^^;  

[Amarella Harte]

Sigh! You brought a tear to my eye! No really! It always makes me sad when I think of how no one does and kids aren't taught to be responcible for their own actions today. Everyone wants to be a victim.

Its sad how greedy people have become:

Quote:

Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.

how cowardly they have become:

Quote:

I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now.

how we've screwed up our health environment by feeding cows poop and overusing antibiotics etc.:

Quote:

but we didn't seem to get food poisoning. but I can't remember getting e.coli. no beach closures then.

And if you look at the statistics, most of it happened when we stopped:

Quote:

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.

stopped teaching:

Quote:

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.

and stopped having actual consequences for our actions:

Quote:

We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either because if we did, we got our butt spanked there and then we got our butt spanked again when we got home.

Of course, that leads to the sorry society we have to day:

Quote:

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!

 

[Dancing Wheels]

I miss those simple days *sigh*  

[Dancing Wheels]

I was on the bus yesterday, this teenage girl was on her cell phone complaining to her mom that she NEEDED to get her nails done because they were so ugly.

GIVE ME A BREAK! rolleyes  

[Corbin Noir]

I know what I had when I grew up, I know now that it really sucked.

I'm 41, and I don't remember any of that s**t. I'm also not fooled by any of that "things were so much better" nostalgia rose-colored thinking. I mean things were hunky dory --if you were white (if you were any other color you were fcuked -I remember the first black family in my neighborhood was petitioned by the neighborhood to move out, after a few months they were gone), domestic abuse was politely ignored leading countless women to die at the hands of their husbands, and child sexual and physical abuse was likewise swept under the rug -things are much better today on all those fronts.

I'm old enough to remember that we went to bed not knowing whether or not the russians were going to bomb us as we slept. [sarcasm]Good times, man, good times. [/sarcasm]

Are kids spoiled today? Maybe, maybe not -isn't it the obligation of the previous generation to ensure that the following generation has it better than they had it? I know that the silent generation worked their asses off so that the boomers could have a good life. All the boomers have done is turn around and b***h because the generation after theres has anything (the generation previous to the boomers would have been happy, no -not the boomers).

Also, the people who grew up with annette funicello, christopher reeves, etc wound up doping themselves silly through the 60's and 70's while running around the country screwing like bunnies. You don't have room to to say jackshit on the issue of personal responsibility.

If you think people are greedy now you must have slept through the 80's and 90's.

There's plenty wrong now -especially the idea of treating everything with prozac.

s**t sucks now, but s**t sucked THEN, as well --it was just a different batch of problems.

I'll tell you what, though --you didn't have an internet or a gaia back in those days; so if you want to go back to them, you're welcome to it!

I'm sorry to rant, I try to normally ignore these irritating, self-righteous back-patting glurge-fests, but you invoked my age and dag-nabbit, I -for one- refuse to be painted with that brush (especially when you use a bunch of crap that was long gone when I was a kid, I mean -what the hell??? eek )

Ok, rant off. twisted  

[Dancing Wheels]

easy, breathe.  

[freaxy]

apparently superman had no package...>.>  

[Corbin Noir]

Dancing Wheels

easy, breathe.

xp cool  

[Monica65]

Hmm, that was fun. For those of you who enjoyed it, you're welcome. For Corbin, I'm sorry that it upset you. I'm sure all the generations, even before us, bitched about how good the younger generation have it. I don't remember ALL that stuff either. Hell, by the time I knew who Annette Funicello was, she was doing movies with Elvis. Didn't even know who the guy with the horse was 'til my Mom told me today. I think she said Roy Rogers. I tried to put a poll on it asking how much of it people remembered, but it didn't work. The other day I had someone tell me how terrible the world is. My response was that there is good and bad all over this planet. Some think the world is terrible and others think it's wonderful. The Libran in me sees both. It's balanced. The good changes bring about bad results as well. The women's movement was good for women, but it took them out of the home to raise their children and the 2 person income made the economy require that a household HAD to have a 2 person income to get by. Yes it's wonderful that society is more aware of various abuses to women and children, but innocent people get accused of those atrocities just out of spite and have doubt placed on their reputations for many years afterward. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't change women's rights or the courage of those women and children who speak up against their abusers. I'm just saying that for every good change a bad result can come from it. Although, so far I've seen no lasting negative effect from treating people with darker skin with the same respect we would someone with lighter skin.

Anyway, the person that this originated from may have some bitches about the world today, but I like it all (then and now). My only goal was to invoke good memories. Perhaps I should have done like Lil Brat and just reminesced off the top of my head. But I thought parts of it were fun. Sorry Corbin :kisses on cheek:  

[Nei1]

This was a file I saved when back in 1998-2000. I forgot who wrote it, but you get the idea after reading this.

WHAT A CONCEPT!!!!

Whoa! What in the world is happening with our kids today? Let's
see...I think it started when Madalyn Murray O'Hair complained that she
didn't want any prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you had better not read the Bible in school-the Bible
that says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor
as yourself. And we said, OK.

Remember Dr. Benjamin Spock, who said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem? And we said, OK, we won't spank them.

Then someone said that teachers and principals better not discipline our
children when they misbehave. And our administrators said whoa, no one in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued.

Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want,
and we won't even have to tell their parents. And we said, that's a grand
idea.

Then someone else said, let's give our sons all the condoms they want, so
they can have all the "fun" they desire, and we won't have to tell their
parents. And we said, that's another great idea.

And then some of our top officials said that it doesn't matter what we do in
private as long as we do our jobs. And we said, as long as I have a job and the economy is good, it doesn't matter to me what anyone does in private.

So now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I
think it has a great deal to do with "we reap what we sow".

Whoa! What a concept!  

[Hattey]

Musketter's and old Batman! I may not be over 40 but I remember watching those shows when I was younger. They'd play them late at night and I'd get so excited to stay up and watch them. Most tv today is such crap *sigh*  

[Monica65]

To Nei1: That's all true. I agree with all of it except, "And then some of our top officials said that it doesn't matter what we do in
private as long as we do our jobs. And we said, as long as I have a job and the economy is good, it doesn't matter to me what anyone does in private." It doesn't matter what someone does in private, so long as it doesn't hurt someone else. But the rest of it is so true. Once again, good intentions with some bad results.