Good Old Days

Joseph · June 9, 2003, 02:41

Quote:

Sometimes I wonder, how did we survive?

My mother 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 mother used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat it raw sometimes too, 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)

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 much safer we are now.

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

Every year, someone taught the whole school a lesson by running in the halls with leather soles on linoleum tile and hitting the wet spot. How much better off would we be today if we only knew we could have sued the school system.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and the pledge and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention. We must have had horribly damaged psyches.

I can't understand it. Schools didn't offer 14 year olds an abortion or condoms (we wouldn't have known what either was anyway) but they did giveus a couple of baby aspirin and cough syrup if we started getting the sniffles. 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 cable stations.

I must be repressing that memory as I try to rationalize through the denial of the dangers could have befallen us as we trekked off each day about a mile down the road to some guy's vacant lot, built forts out of branches and pieces of plywood, made trails, and fought over who got to be the Lone Ranger. What was that property owner thinking, letting us play on that lot. He should have been locked up for not putting up a fence around the property, complete with a self-closing gate and an infrared intruder alarm.

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, mother pulled out the 48 cent bottle of mercurochrome 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 mother 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 (physical abuse) here too. And then we got butt spanked again when we got home.

Mom invited the door to door salesman inside for coffee, kids choked down the dust from the gravel driveway while playing with Tonka trucks (remember why Tonka trucks were made tough... it wasn't so that they could take the rough Berber in the family room), and Dad drove a car with leaded gas.

Our music had to be left inside when we went out to play and I am sure that I nearly exhausted my imagination a couple of times when we went on two week vacations. I should probably sue the folks now for the danger they put us in when we all slept in campgrounds in the family tent.

Summers were spent behind the push lawn mower and I didn't even know that mowers came with motors until I was 13 and we got one without an automatic blade-stop or an auto-drive.

How sick were my parents? Of course my parents weren't the only psychos. I recall Donny Reynolds 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 survive?
The good old days.

Just received this on the internet. Some of you younger people should read it.

Q Classic · June 9, 2003, 02:52

wait, playing king of the hill doesn't require a computer?

cinch · June 9, 2003, 02:54

Quote:

How did we survive?
The good old days.

Who wrote that? Charlie Daniels?

(Revelation: There were no good old days.)

Nubclear · June 9, 2003, 03:04

A bit too conservative, and too American-centric to be true.

Remember, Americans have had VERY HIGH standards of living since about 1930.

Geronimo · June 9, 2003, 03:18

the start of VERY HIGH standards of living in the US coincides with the beginning of the Great Depression? That doesn't sound right.

Makeo · June 9, 2003, 04:57

Weird. Hey Geronimo you were just in the latest where are they thread.

Nubclear · June 9, 2003, 05:13

Quote:

Originally posted by Geronimo
the start of VERY HIGH standards of living in the US coincides with the beginning of the Great Depression? That doesn't sound right.

Higher than many other countries. I will admit, the great depression wasn't very good, but.....Do you really think, say, the Soviet Union or China was much better off?

(AKA.....I made a mistake

)

And then AFTER the depression.....The standards of living rose quite quickly, almost outshadowing every country in the world. Though Norway still wins.

But I do suspect were talking about 1940-1970.

Seeker · June 9, 2003, 09:31

Also totally untrue about the 'we all' parts. Maybe for the picket fence set.

My dad spent part of the first period outside class in the hallway for refusing to stand and bow his head to pray at his school.

Heck, my grandfather would sure have been happy if they had Sex Ed back in the 1920s....it would have spared him many nerve wracking moments over his youthful indiscretions.

Why is it that these Good Ole Days types never seem to have grown up in the same neighbourhoods my family did?

Getting beaten up by the Orange Lodge in the '20s?
Booze rackets in the 40s early 50s?
Getting chased by farmers with sheep shears in the 60s? (long hair is BAD)
Dealing grass in school in the 50s...from the back of a Cadillac on Wasaga Beach, 1958!

the Old(er) Man even says the best whores were from the 30s...

God, sometimes I do wish I lived in the late 50s early 60s...seems like there was so much **** goin' on.

But we do have MUCH better video games.

MrWhereItsAt · June 9, 2003, 09:35

If I ever start to say "you know, life was so much better back then because..." shoot me.

Shoot me dead. If I turn my back on the future I don't want to live anymore.

Jack the Bodiless · June 9, 2003, 10:33

Quote:

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and the pledge and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention. We must have had horribly damaged psyches.

If this is a dig at "under God": that was added in 1954.

See how much today's youth have degenerated since they started saying "under God"...

Arrian · June 9, 2003, 10:42

Oh yes, the world has changed since you were young, so it's all so horrible and difficult to understand.

Kids these days!

Human beings don't like change. So every so often some crotchety old fart writes up a list like this and sends it out. Other old farts like it. When I'm an old fart, I'll probably like it. But now it just sounds whiny.

-Arrian

GePap · June 9, 2003, 10:43

Yup, I am sure that was the experience of your average black family..wait, no.....

This is as much a pack of lies as whent he same old foggie says "kid's today!...."

Zkribbler · June 9, 2003, 10:45

Quote:

Originally posted by Jack the Bodiless

If this is a dig at "under God": that was added in 1954.

See how much today's youth have degenerated since they started saying "under God"...

By George, you're right! There used to be the good old days, then Ike added "under God" to the pledge and the whole country went to Hell in a handbasket!

GePap · June 9, 2003, 10:46

I remember when I saw this kid in my uncle's farm, had to be about 8-9, my age at the time, drinking his black coffee and eating his plain white rice breakfast, about to go out and work on the fields.. yeah, kids like that are tough! Not like a bunch of soft whinny kids who "go to school" and live in homes with "indoor plumbing". Shouldn;t we all be like that one kid? Real kids?

MikeH · June 9, 2003, 10:48

You think that was tough?

I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing "Hallelujah."

But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.

alva · June 9, 2003, 11:02

I'm not disagreeing with the opinions to the 'ol'den days 'crap, but arern't some of you missing the sarcasm of the article (some of which is quite good )

MikeH · June 9, 2003, 11:06

Yes, but Monty Python did it better and without the US-Conservative bias.

Seeker · June 9, 2003, 11:43

I don't appreciate his humour.

Unless he's being satirical, in which case Python was better and I'm just being a boob.

I'm gonna break down what he's trying to say:

1. Pain builds character. An overprotective and milksoppy adult society has left kids unable to deal with frustration and disappointment in healthy ways.
'Kids today' are soft and need to be tougher. BS. Volunteer for community sentencing and get a look at the young offenders. Kids today need to be SOFTENED not 'toughened up'. I wish there were a few more plain old 'protective' parents. Protective in the sense of not driving their kids out onto the street.

2. The pledge to be under god(or the Canadian religious indoctrination crap, which we've been spared for sometime thank Odin): This is the thing that pisses me off about social cons....indignant anger at being forced to do and say things you don't believe in is 'whining'. If it wasn't for a **** of a lot of 'whining' there are a lot of priviledges that this generation currently enjoys. Yes, there is such a thing as real 'whining' but I think most adults know the difference. Yeah it was really great back in those days when we weren't allowed to question authority. After all the government/cops/principal know what's best for you. Cr of S.

3. The innocence and naivety of my hazily remembered smalll circle of well-off friends/people I saw on TV! Guess what...it wasn't domestic violence that increased, it was the fact that it's now considered wrong to smack your family around when their 'whining'.

And you know what, teens were having sex! Even during the World Wars, the Greatest Generations were having lots of unreportered, illicit sex....ESPECIALLY during the wars. Do you know just how many women my grandfather and great-uncle on my mom's side had sex with in Italy, 1944 (17 and 21 respectively at the time)? There was a small army of prostitutes following them around! Yep, as far back as we go in history, teens keep having sex....and the Cato's of the world always regard it as the worst thing in the world.

Ever think that your 'innocent and naive' generation must have had some pretty crappy ideas about how to treat women in general given what happened 1975-85? Wanna discuss the religious/political make-up of wife beater/broken/'dysfunctional' homes? Thought not.

Yeah, this might well be a joke making fun of these sorts of attitudes but what the hell I'm stuck in Shi Hwa on a Monday night with no English speakers around for far as can see so I'll hold forth wherever the fork I want to. OK!!??

mrmitchell · June 9, 2003, 12:19

This is a recurring thing...every once in a while, someone will leave Grandpa on the computer too long and he'll figure out how to type, and then he can type this up and send it out. Other grandpas see this and they start agreeing with it, and the deluge begins.

"Why, I had to walk 15 miles to school through the snow every day...uphill both ways!"

alva · June 9, 2003, 12:42

Quote:

"Why, I had to walk 15 miles to school through the snow every day...uphill both ways!"

true, but that doesn't mean everything is better now then it was

Boris Godunov · June 9, 2003, 12:50

If I hear any more whining about how things are so awful today and they were so much better back then, I'll puke.

More people enjoy a higher standard of living today around the world than they did 50 years ago, and more people are enjoying equal status in our society than 50 years ago. Things are better for more people.

Plaintive pining for a bygone era is nauseating nostalgia at its worst.

MRT144 · June 9, 2003, 13:43

joseph, sounds like you should just commit suicide and get it over with.

as for me i prefer a world with computers and electronic music

Grandpa Troll · June 9, 2003, 14:05

Quote:

Originally posted by cinch

Who wrote that? Charlie Daniels?

(Revelation: There were no good old days.)

Actually, to quote the great lyricist James Taylor..."THESE ARE.........THE....GOOD OLD DAYS

What we are living now will soon be referred to as the good old days...sooner than we think....

Peace

Grandpa Troll

Joseph · June 9, 2003, 21:07

Quote:

Originally posted by MRT144
joseph, sounds like you should just commit suicide and get it over with.

as for me i prefer a world with computers and electronic music

Don't count on it.

Ben Kenobi · June 9, 2003, 21:50

Quote:

Plaintive pining for a bygone era is nauseating nostalgia at its worst.

I grew up on a farm in Rural Canada, different in many ways than what Joseph lived through, but very similar in others.

The schools could have been mine, at least elementary school.

I guess I've led a sheltered life growing up, and I'm thankful for some of the stuff I got to do.

Didn't watch much TV, during the long summers since we only had two channels. Much more fun to read a book.

Why play music on long trips? My dad would play his radio and listen to his 60's songs that we would all listen too, and try to remember all of the words.

I can remember long trips that I would read a book solid for maybe 5 hours, and not want to get out because the book engrossed me completely.

Joseph, thanks for your posts. Where would any of us be without nostalgia, and yearning for simpler times?

Thanks for the reminder.

MrWhereItsAt · June 9, 2003, 22:42

Yeesh. Some unnecessary viciousness here.

You'd think some of the guys here are jealous of the "grandpas".

Me, I'll just stick to my present and future. My "good ole' days" are in the future, and I hope that's where they will stay. The past sounds nice at times too, it's just not for me, and obviously not for some others here.

Oerdin · June 9, 2003, 22:45

For me a good day is anyone which I don't have to go to work and which I have a spare beer in the frig.

Boris Godunov · June 9, 2003, 22:54

Whenever I'm from time to time depressed
And a trauma wells and swells within my breast
I find some pride deep inside of me
And I fondly walk down the lane of memory...

I see Bonaparte, a mean one if ever I've seen one
And Nero fiddlin' through that lovely blaze
Antionette, dainty queen, with her quaint... guillotine!
Nya ha ha ha
Those were the good old days!

I see Indians draggin' an empty covered wagon
When scalping the settlers was the latest craze,
And that glorious morn Jack the Ripper was born
Nya ha ha ha
Those were the good old days!

I'd sit in my rockin' chair peacefully rockin' there
Counting my blessings by the score
The rack was in fashion, the plagues were my passion,
Each day held a new joy in store!

Was anybody happy?

I see cannibals munchin' a missionary luncheon
The years may have flown but the memory stays!
Like the hopes that were dashed when the stock market crashed
Nya ha ha ha
Those were the good old days!

I'd walk a million miles or more
For some of the gore of those

good
[BUMBUMBUMBUMBUM]

Old
[BUMBUMBUMBUMBUM]

Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaays!

Ben Kenobi · June 10, 2003, 00:03

Seems you need a dose of Wordsworth:

London 1802
Milton! thou should'st be living at this hour:
England hath need of thee: she is a fen
Of stagnant waters: altar, sword, and pen,
Fireside, the heroic wealth of hall and bower,
Have forfeited their ancient English dower
Of inward happiness. We are selfish men;
Oh! raise us up, return to us again;
And give us manners, virtue, freedom, power.

Thy soul was like a Star, and dwelt apart:
Thou hadst a voice whose sound was like the sea:
Pure as the naked heavens, majestic, free,
So didst thou travel on life's common way,
In cheerful godliness; and yet thy heart
The lowliest duties on herself did lay.

Mr. President · June 10, 2003, 00:21

I remember when we didn't feel the need for anything more complicated than Super Mario Brothers 3 in gaming. Now, you have democracy games, online households, Social Engineering windows, Mortal Kombateers with 3D textured muscles, just because you can.