To all the kids who survived the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's, and 70's

[Theatrix]

Was watching a piece the other day about H.G Wells and Jules Verne. Made me think about how it must have been when there was no TV, no video games, no distractions and only time to kill.
One has to wonder where we would be as a society if we did not have these modern day distraction for our children and ourselves. All that brain power being focused on solving problems of the day.
I say the jury is still out as it relates to TV and electronic games and their impact on the future of our children.
I once asked one of my sons high school friends, who play basketball, if he plays pickup ball dailey to hone his skills (the way we did). He looked at me as if he didn't understand. Kids today don't know what its like to go out after school and play ball in the street. Xbox is the new frontier!

 

[mature muscle]

Yes. I did have a couple of those in my years. It stung!!!! My parents would smack my butt with a belt and my grandmother used the fly-swatter People didn't thing a thing about that in those days.

Mature Muscle, when you said stand in the seat of the car, that reminded me of my earliest memory as a kid. I remember standing between my parents in the seat of our pick-up truck on the way to the drive-in movie. I remember my mom asking me if I wanted a baby sister. That would have put me about 3 years old.

Anybody remember the playgrounds in front of the movie screen at the drive-in? We would play on those things until dark, then the movie would start. First you walked over to the food stand and loaded up on burgers and fries though.

Playgrounds at the drive in that brings back memories 5 bucks a car load. theirs guys her probably dont even no what a drive in is.

 

[mature muscle]

Was watching a piece the other day about H.G Wells and Jules Verne. Made me think about how it must have been when there was no TV, no video games, no distractions and only time to kill.
One has to wonder where we would be as a society if we did not have these modern day distraction for our children and ourselves. All that brain power being focused on solving problems of the day.
I say the jury is still out as it relates to TV and electronic games and their impact on the future of our children.
I once asked one of my sons high school friends, who play basketball, if he plays pickup ball dailey to hone his skills (the way we did). He looked at me as if he didn't understand. Kids today don't know what its like to go out after school and play ball in the street. Xbox is the new frontier!

I can answer that for you a whole generation of fat kids with diabetes.with sick and twisted minds they wonder why kids are like they are some of those video games are disturbing at best.

 

[kid1dakota]

Playgrounds at the drive in that brings back memories 5 bucks a car load. theirs guys her probably dont even no what a drive in is.

Out past the cornfields when the winds got heavy
Out in the back seat of my '60 Chevy
Workin' on mysteries without any clues
Workin' on our night moves
Tryin' to make some front page drive-in news
Workin' on our night moves
In the summertime
In the sweet summertime


Night moves by Bob Seger


Memories

 

[marilyn]

you guys are making me laugh..thanks..love the stories.

i do remember drive-ins..they were alot of fun until, one night..my grandmother came with us (a group of my cousins..we already werent happy about it) but at the beginning of the movie there was a naked girl....well, she made my uncle get us out of the hell out of there quick, lol.

and the one other time, I was in Conneticut, and a guy took me to drive in..I thought ok..cant believe they still have those ....turned out to be PORN!!!!..at a drive-in!!

oh, well, still memories, lol

 

[kid1dakota]

Drive- ins

In Atlanta they have a newer one built about 2001 with six screens.

 

[thebrick]

and the one other time, I was in Conneticut, and a guy took me to drive in..I thought ok..cant believe they still have those ....turned out to be PORN!!!!..at a drive-in!!

oh, well, still memories, lol

Ah, come on, you can say it. That guy was Tony

 

[marilyn]

Ah, come on, you can say it. That guy was Tony

lol...no..he wouldnt have done that.

 

[thebrick]

lol...no..he wouldnt have done that.

I know... just some light hearted humor on my part. Just how high was that fence at that porno drive-in?

 

[marilyn]

there was the time I rode all over the place never using my hands on the handle bars of my bike.....while having something in my mouth...a lolly pop, a spoon....well, I did crash once..there was a parked car and I wasnt not looking...I think this time I moved up to riding with no hands, up the hill with something in my mouth and I would close my eyes..just to see how far I could go..I always won though..man I was an idiot...thank goodness I eventually got a bit smarter.

 

[marilyn]

I know... just some light hearted humor on my part. Just how high was that fence at that porno drive-in?

Let me tell you Brick, ..not high enough...when we left in a hurry, after I was shocked, I swear you could some action from the road.

Drive-ins were fun when I really young though..blankets, snacks, friends, drinks..

 

[RV63T]

we played cowboys and Indians
we played army
we had rock fights
we played tackle the man with the ball
all took lots of running, hiding, climbing, chasing.
we eather walked ran or road bikes every were we went. (miles to school)

now playstation, xbox, computer
mom take me here or there

but can you let your kids run free for miles these days untill the street lights come on.

if something happened to them the cops or child services would try and bring you up on charges.

it was a better time i really think so.

 

[animal eater]

now a days it is a monumental effort to get kids outside. While I am not as old as a few of the posters (41) I can identify with what is said. For me and my brothers, you couldn't get us in the house while there was light in the sky. Seasons were marked by the sports you played outside.

Why would you want to play a game on a TV when you could go outside and do it for real? Growing up in the 70's was a magical time. Anything was possible and you didn't feel asif harm was constantly around the corner.

animal eater

 

[marilyn]

now a days it is a monumental effort to get kids outside. While I am not as old as a few of the posters (41) I can identify with what is said. For me and my brothers, you couldn't get us in the house while there was light in the sky. Seasons were marked by the sports you played outside.

Why would you want to play a game on a TV when you could go outside and do it for real? Growing up in the 70's was a magical time. Anything was possible and you didn't feel asif harm was constantly around the corner.

animal eater

you know you are right....It's kind of sad kids don't and can't experience the freedom some of us did....I can't imagine letting mine go out like I did and explore the world as a kid...for fun....like in Alfresco post, to leave the house in the morning and to be back before street lights come on or a bit later...and be ok...

 

[jamez]

I grew up in the country in the 80s/90s and experienced most all of those things. Although we did have super nintendo and satellite TV.. the majority of our free time was spent outside on the lake or in the woods .. ah the good ol days

I can't imagine what it would have been like to grow up in the city

 

[marilyn]

I grew up in the country in the 80s/90s and experienced most all of those things. Although we did have super nintendo and satellite TV.. the majority of our free time was spent outside on the lake or in the woods .. ah the good ol days

I can't imagine what it would have been like to grow up in the city

I got to experience both of those worlds......City and the Country..I wouldnt have changed a thing..I enjoyed both.

 

[Pekkerwood]

Thanks Alfresco, I am copying that one.

You guys bring up tons of memories. In the South it was popular when we were young for our mothers to send us out in the yard to get a "switch" to be punished with.

We also got our BB Guns at young ages and shotguns and .22 rifles by age twelve. We would spend days in the woulds with no adults, and no one got shot and we didn't grow up to be murderers.

Almost any parent around our neighborhood could "punish" any of the kids and the parents would thank them instead of sue them.

I made my best friends by fighting each other then becoming friends.

The same group of boys that I played backyard football, and baseball in the fields became my teamates on the school teams for twelve years.

We all had gardens and all neighbors would share and use us kids to help make gardens for the elderly neighboors without expecting to be paid.

It as big time to get to be old enough to load hay bales in the truck and get paid for it.

Waiting on that ice cream truck bell, or the sno-cone truck. (Except my mother told me that when the music was playing that meant they were out of ice cream!)

If one of us had a dollar, we all had a dollar. Everything was shared.

Come into our neighborhood and fight one, you fought us all.

No snitching. Take your punishment and keep you mouth shut. Your parents would actually be a little dissapointed if you snitched.

Getting paddled out in the hallway while your friends waited there turn getting scared with every blast.

Saying the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at school. Having a flag in every classroom. Learning to duck under the desk for "drills".

Eating the same vegetables from the garden every day of summer and loving it.

Fishing, catching your own bait (Green grasshoppers, crawdads, worms, etc)


Hide and seek, freeze tag, tackle the man with the ball, dodgeball, foursquare, football in the road, building our own carts, forts, etc from scraps.

And so forth.

 

[ronnie0072]

I am 28 y/o and agree with most of this stuff. Except for maybe the lead paint. I mean come on, we can do with out that! LOL. But even my generation still went and found friends outside and at there house or at the local hotspots when I was a kid. Nintendo was just starting to emerge when I was around 12 i think. Oh well I am gretful that I had an uncle to teach me powerlifting at a young age. That always instilled in me that I had to "get up and do something" after maybe chilling in the house for an hour or so.

 

[Oldlifter]

Fishing, catching your own bait (Green grasshoppers, crawdads, worms, etc)


Hide and seek, freeze tag, tackle the man with the ball, dodgeball, foursquare, football in the road, building our own carts, forts, etc from scraps.

And so forth.

Ahhh, yes! The days! Loved "grunting" the worms up.


.

 

[thebrick]

Thanks Alfresco, I am copying that one.

You guys bring up tons of memories. In the South it was popular when we were young for our mothers to send us out in the yard to get a "switch" to be punished with.

We also got our BB Guns at young ages and shotguns and .22 rifles by age twelve. We would spend days in the woulds with no adults, and no one got shot and we didn't grow up to be murderers.

Almost any parent around our neighborhood could "punish" any of the kids and the parents would thank them instead of sue them.

I made my best friends by fighting each other then becoming friends.

The same group of boys that I played backyard football, and baseball in the fields became my teamates on the school teams for twelve years.

We all had gardens and all neighbors would share and use us kids to help make gardens for the elderly neighboors without expecting to be paid.

It as big time to get to be old enough to load hay bales in the truck and get paid for it.

Waiting on that ice cream truck bell, or the sno-cone truck. (Except my mother told me that when the music was playing that meant they were out of ice cream!)

If one of us had a dollar, we all had a dollar. Everything was shared.

Come into our neighborhood and fight one, you fought us all.

No snitching. Take your punishment and keep you mouth shut. Your parents would actually be a little dissapointed if you snitched.

Getting paddled out in the hallway while your friends waited there turn getting scared with every blast.

Saying the Pledge of Allegiance every morning at school. Having a flag in every classroom. Learning to duck under the desk for "drills".

Eating the same vegetables from the garden every day of summer and loving it.

Fishing, catching your own bait (Green grasshoppers, crawdads, worms, etc)


Hide and seek, freeze tag, tackle the man with the ball, dodgeball, foursquare, football in the road, building our own carts, forts, etc from scraps.

And so forth.

Good ones! Being a southern boy myself...
Don't forget wading in the creek and catching crawdads.
Building a treehouse