Now I know this will cover several generations, but I just picked the 1970's because that is when I was a kid and I remember life being very similar to this description. :)

---------------------------------------------------------------




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 were pregnant.


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


Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs 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 infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, 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, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-Ade made with sugar, 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! 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound , CD's or Ipods, ! no cell phones! , no personal computers , no Internet or 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!

These generations have 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!


If 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 so much of our lives for our own good

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.


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

thanks for sharing this....it makes me wanna go back in time. I'd give up everything I have today, to be able to live in a time where all of this was present. :-\\

Thanks for posting.  It brings back alot of memories when times were much simpler.  :)

Ahh, to be young and eat dirt again :)  That's for reminding me I had a normal childhood. :)

Ahh, to be young and eat dirt again :)  That's for reminding me I had a normal childhood. :)

Karma was given to the provider of the flashback. http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/01/1syellow1.gif

nice post. we've had a lot of conversations lately about how e-mail's ruined the art of letter writing, GPS has made it so no one knows how to read a map, online banking and billing have made it so no one knows how to balance a checkbook.

of course, when the printing press was invented in, what?, the 16th century?, people lost most of their ability to memorize stories. so progress is always tied in with losing old skills.

haha seriously!!!

Now I know this will cover several generations, but I just picked the 1970's because that is when I was a kid and I remember life being very similar to this description. :)

---------------------------------------------------------------




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 were pregnant.


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


Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs 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 infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, 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, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-Ade made with sugar, 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! 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound , CD's or Ipods, ! no cell phones! , no personal computers , no Internet or 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!

These generations have 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!


If 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 so much of our lives for our own good

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.


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




Great post!  :)  How did we survive, indeed?  ;D

Great post!   :)   How did we survive, indeed?   ;D


Nice just remember what was taught to us back in school in the 60's of the basic food groups. It is now a death list. ;D

Nice just remember what was taught to us back in school in the 60's of the basic food groups. It is now a death list. ;D
my favorite scene in "phantom of the roller coaster" (1978, starring ike eisenmann) is when he's at an amusement park and asks his adult guardian guy to buy him a cheeseburger, fries and a coke. and he says, no, we'll get a cheeseburger, fries and WHOLE MILK. because if we're gonna have food, we might has well have good food.

ah, to live in the day when cheeseburgers and fries were wholesome and nutritious.

AAHHHHH The memories. Those of us who lived it truly were blessed, or lucky, or fortunate.

Those who didnt live it I feel sorry for. I guess its having children myself and seeing all the material things they have (playstations, computers, microwaves, widescreen colour TV, mobile phones and the like) and seeing all the things they lost because of them (Imagination, the ability and the wish to be able to cook, the inability to not be found if they wish) as well as all the things they have not lost but dont really know about, like being able to walk the streets alone without the constant fear of abduction, building tree houses, building BMX bike tracks and racing on them, staying out until the lights came on....

I often tell my daughter about my own childhood back in the late 1970's and early 1980's. My daughter doesnt play video games, nor is she allowed on the computer for more than an hour a week. She spends her time playing in the back yard...She wishes she could live in a time when all that I did as a child was still possible.

Who knows...One day maybe she can.







AN

AAHHHHH The memories. Those of us who lived it truly were blessed, or lucky, or fortunate.

Those who didnt live it I feel sorry for. I guess its having children myself and seeing all the material things they have (playstations, computers, microwaves, widescreen colour TV, mobile phones and the like) and seeing all the things they lost because of them (Imagination, the ability and the wish to be able to cook, the inability to not be found if they wish) as well as all the things they have not lost but dont really know about, like being able to walk the streets alone without the constant fear of abduction, building tree houses, building BMX bike tracks and racing on them, staying out until the lights came on....

I often tell my daughter about my own childhood back in the late 1970's and early 1980's. My daughter doesnt play video games, nor is she allowed on the computer for more than an hour a week. She spends her time playing in the back yard...She wishes she could live in a time when all that I did as a child was still possible.

Who knows...One day maybe she can.







AN



well said. karma points to you...

Man what awesome memories! I can relate to much of the above. They were definitely simpler times.

Thanks so much....brings me back to the good ol' days!  :)

Now I know this will cover several generations, but I just picked the 1970's because that is when I was a kid and I remember life being very similar to this description. :)

---------------------------------------------------------------




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 were pregnant.


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


Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs 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 infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, 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, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-Ade made with sugar, 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! 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound , CD's or Ipods, ! no cell phones! , no personal computers , no Internet or 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!

These generations have 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!


If 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 so much of our lives for our own good

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.


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


Well,my parents never smoked.they hated the fact thei iown parents did.And the artifuicial sweetrener high fructose corn syrup became widespread in the mid-70s,about when i started dislikeing regular soda.If you want real classic sodas,you have to look for the kosher kind.

Not much for nostalgia.  I am glad I was there for the Beatles and for the politics, the rest, well, there a cons that go with those pros.  For instance: I can own my own home, stay at any hotel(that I can afford), choose birth control, work in a lot of different professions and go to educational institutions whose doors were closed to me, and onandonandon....

I was thinking about this today. there is a big thing going on here...a child drowned in someone's pool; climbed over the fence and could not get out of the pool.

in my day, everyone could swim.  we stayed in our own yards. my parents had a clue.
no one drowned.
now it's going to be law to have a locking gate on your pool.

if i stub my toe, will coffee tables be outlawed?


i dno't wanna rant, but that's what these things remind me of.

I often think I was born at least 20 years too late.  :-\\

I often think I was born at least 20 years too late.  :-\\



It sure was fun then.  Just get some bell bottoms and send your retro bad self thru time. :)

I was thinking about this today. there is a big thing going on here...a child drowned in someone's pool; climbed over the fence and could not get out of the pool.

in my day, everyone could swim.  we stayed in our own yards. my parents had a clue.
no one drowned.
now it's going to be law to have a locking gate on your pool.

if i stub my toe, will coffee tables be outlawed?


i dno't wanna rant, but that's what these things remind me of.
I agree.In the old days,if a kid went into someone's pool without his parents' knowledge,off goes the dad's belt and down go his pants!parents need to teach their own kids,not blame others for something their kid does wrong.

I agree.In the old days,if a kid went into someone's pool without his parents' knowledge,off goes the dad's belt and down go his pants!parents need to teach their own kids,not blame others for something their kid does wrong.


right. more care and responsibility and more freedom.

I agree.In the old days,if a kid went into someone's pool without his parents' knowledge,off goes the dad's belt and down go his pants!parents need to teach their own kids,not blame others for something their kid does wrong.

Of course if you do that now, DCF will take your kids.

Of course if you do that now, DCF will take your kids.
But won't they take your kids if you let them go into people's backyards without permission?

With all due respect (and as much as I obviously like all the decadeology/birthrate/generation-type threads myself), isn't it a little ridiculous to say someone born in 1978 has more in common with someone born in the '40s than with someone born in 1979?

Even though the examples in the thread are extremely generalizing, they probably do have a grain of truth (although every generation and decade tends to think the following ones can't compare to the preceding times) -- but my question is why 1979? Why this particular year for the cutoff? That's what bewilders me about this thread, lol.

These are how I see the basic "generations" (not like this hasn't been written before): ;D

1913-1928 - (not sure the name for it, but from WW I to the roaring '20s)
1929-1945 - Silent (start of the Depression to end of WW II)
1945-1963 - Boomer (end of WW II to the JFK assassination)
1964-1980 - Gen X (The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, until the end of Carter's term/Lennon's death)
1981-1996 - Gen Y (Reagan's election/premiere of MTV until the end of the old-school, pre-Internet age)
1997+ - Z

With all due respect (and as much as I obviously like all the decadeology/birthrate/generation-type threads myself), isn't it a little ridiculous to say someone born in 1978 has more in common with someone born in the '40s than with someone born in 1979?

Even though the examples in the thread are extremely generalizing, they probably do have a grain of truth (although every generation and decade tends to think the following ones can't compare to the preceding times) -- but my question is why 1979? Why this particular year for the cutoff? That's what bewilders me about this thread, lol.

These are how I see the basic "generations" (not like this hasn't been written before): ;D

1913-1928 - (not sure the name for it, but from WW I to the roaring '20s)
1929-1945 - Silent (start of the Depression to end of WW II)
1945-1963 - Boomer (end of WW II to the JFK assassination)
1964-1980 - Gen X (The Beatles on Ed Sullivan, until the end of Carter's term/Lennon's death)
1981-1996 - Gen Y (Reagan's election/premiere of MTV until the end of the old-school, pre-Internet age)
1997+ - Z



Yeah, I was thinking about that too. It sort of seems like everyone always thinks that things were better when they were a kid. I actually think alot of things on this list apply to my childhood and I wasn't born until 1987. And when you think about it, alot of the things that we all use today have been around for years. Video games have existed since the '60s, heck televisions been around since the '40s.

In fact i've heard the whole 'kids these days have it made' sentiment on tv shows as far back as the 1950's. I will say that kids today do have alot of things that I didn't have when I was growing up though(i.e internet access, cell phones, etc.)

I can remember getting the game "pong" the 2nd year it was out..for Christmas.  The intrigue lasted all of about 1 hour, and the calling of the couple thousand BB's I got was stronger than sitting on my butt inside when I could be outside plinking cans and the like.....even in the dead of the winter..