Remember when? (Page 1 of 2)

Well I remember as a kid, eating  Swanson TV dinners, that were in aluminum containers (and they actually tasted good!) in front of the black and white TV, on metal TV trays, while someone fiddled with the rabbit ears with the aluminum foil on on the tops, to get better reception. We had 3 channels.  I have 92 channels now, and still cant find anything good to watch half the time. Oh and we ate oleo (margarine),not butter. And coca-cola was in a bottle. I could buy a huge candy bar for a nickel.  There were no "rest stops" along the interstates and highways. If you had to go pee, you had to find a nice wooded area, or wait till you got to a gas station, or a Howard Johnson's, which were few, and far between.
Obviously, a lot has changed since the '60's, when I was growing up. I guess the biggest thing I have noticed is the lack of consideration and respect for other people. (Sounds like what my grandparents use to say )  Parents nowadays are way too  over indulgent with their kids. They want it all, and they want it NOW (the Veruca Salt syndrome) Honestly, I cannot sit thru a school assembly or performance. People just talk thru the whole thing, they bring their 3yr olds that run amok, talk on their cell phones, converse with the person next to them. The school principle actually has to get up before the program and ask everybody to  not talk during the performance, and the people just talk over him!!!  When I was a kid, you could hear a pin drop in the school auditorium. Dont even get me started on this one! I see parents spending their whole day just driving their kids from one activity to the next. (Okay, my youngest plays soccer, no I dont drive a minivan, and its her ONLY activity, and its once a week) My best freind who is a single mom, takes her daughter to pottery class on Sat., swim lessons on Sunday. She sends her to Space Camp in the summer, 2 wks of day camp, 1 week of away camp, 1 week of a enrichment program at the local college, 10 days of vacation to some location in the world with her grandparents, and pretty much whatever else her child wants because, "she's ALWAYS wanted to do this". Her daughter gets 3 Christmases, yes three. One with her mom, one with each set of grandparenst. She has to use a van to bring home all the loot every yr.  She went to Puerto Rico last summer for a week with her sister, paid for by her father. Yet, when she hears that the neighbors took a cruise to the Bahamas, she ALWAYS says, "Gee, must be nice".   She doesnt see that her child is over indulged. She says she sacrifices a lot so that her daughter can have these things. Hmmm, her house is twice the size of mine, (she owns it) she has 2 cars in the driveway (I have one, it sucks sometimes but we manage. Who wants 2 car payments?) She pretty much goes out and buys whatever she wants, when she wants it. So where's the sacrifice? Her daughter may have all the material advantages, but she has no social skills. Most folks when they meet her kid, say "god, who is that kid, she's annoying as hell". Heck, most kids her age dont like her.  Dont get me wrong, I love her daughter. But how do you tell your best friend she's just making life more difficult for her kid? . "its not fair", "the world owes me". "Im special".  Why does everything have to be "fair" all of a sudden? How come ALL the soccer teams get trophies, not just the ones who WON the tournament?  How come ALL the kids get an award at the end of the school year awards ceremony? The neighbors kid got an award because he got a C instead of a D! WTF?  My friend was mad because her daughter didnt get to be in the school play. She auditioned and didnt make the cut (maybe because she cant carry a tune in a bucket?) Her comment, "I think they should let whoever wants, to be in it! Thats so UNFAIR!"  No thats disappointment, your kid needs to LEARN it.  My kids learned it and they survived.  I see too many parents with the same attitude.

Oh yeah, by the way, we had the "tin can" of bacon grease in the fridge. You fried EVERYTHING in it. Potatoes fried in bacon grease in an iron skillet, mmmmmm!

Farms. Dairy farms everywhere, just outside the city limits there was nothing but farmhouses and silos. Everyone knew at least one farmer, if they weren't one themselves. Now it's a Sea of Subdivisions. The northeast at one time was the dairy farm capital of the US, them days have long since passed.
I watched ADM and other comglomo-giants go from relative obscurity to all-powerful corporate farm operations.

I was born in '72, so I'm right in the middle of the age spectrum on this forum, I think.

I remember how the cars smoked and stank, there were still tons of cars on the road with no emission controls, if ya got behind one of those, or especially a diesel truck, it could really knock you out with fumes- bad.

I vaguely remember bits of the gas crisis, how everyone had to ration their fuel, lest they spend half the day in line waiting for gas.

Allied Chemical, which was in operation until the mid 80s, is responsible for making Onondaga lake, in Syracuse, THE most polluted lake in the US, there have been many efforts and proposals over the years to clean it up, it has not happened. The lake gained notoriety for being one NEVER to fish in, for the most part that has not changed.

Bristol Laboratories, which is now Bristol-Squibb was a major employer in Syracuse as well, before the EPA came in and put clamps on their emissions, smokestack scrubbers, etc., if the wind was blowing in the right direction, the stench could knock out a skunk. So many improvements have been made. Nostalgia is not always good nostalgia.

I've seen Syracuse go from a giant of industry- to a ghost town of paper pushing and government agencies.

Everything was made in the US, we might have seen the occasional 'made in Hong Kong', or Taiwan R.O.C., but NEVER did we see 'made in China' -never.

If you drove a German or Japanese car, you were considered borderline unpatriotic- which now I find it hilarious whenever I see a bumper sticker that says "Be American- Buy American". All we make is noise and trouble anymore.

Now everything is made in China, The US's only exports seem to be weapons and waste (but I repeat myself), gone are the Mom & Pop stores, everything has been integrated and "optimized" for profit at the top of the pyramid.

We used to lock our doors at night, because the locks were THERE, not because we felt it necessary. Rotary phones with (gasp) cords! No speed dial, no remote controls, no microwaves or nuclear snacks.

No 24 hour support hotlines, if something broke or was not working, you FIXED it, and most stuff was uncomplicated enough so that you could!
Seeing that spirit of do-it-yourself, and self-sufficiency disappear, is one of the most tragic developments I have seen in my lifetime.

But the awakening from what once was, away from cold hard materialism and 'productivity' and toward a unity where none of these thing exist- is more than worth what has been lost, and what has changed. SO much more worth it.....                                                                J

Like Ape-X I was also born in '72. I was talking with a woman at work recently about the life we enjoyed as kids before home computers/games consoles, video players and mobile phones all came along. It's another world to today's kids and I feel strange to think that they'll never experience anything like it. With no electric gizmo's, except maybe for Snoopy Tennis we entertained ourselves climbing trees, cycling, building dens, playing postman's knock, searching the woods for abandoned piles of old porno mags (which were quite common for some reason I've never figured out) and spending hours staging battles with minature soldiers and tanks and of course using dirt bombs as ammuniation. As soon as me and my mates got our Vic 20's or Spectrum 48k's for Xmas one year (1981?) that was it: the beginning of the end.

Too many kids these days seem to be walking around acting like some wannabe gangsta punk off MTV, or whatever crap they watch. Also, the labels they wear! I wasn't even aware of fashion until I went to senior school, but nowadays even little kids have to be kitted out in designer trainers, which cost a bomb and then they grow out of them in six months!

T.V cartoons were REAL cartoons, not the crappy animation we get these days. The old Looney Tunes/Walt Disney cartoons seemed to be made with a passion that shone through in the lovingly created characters, but these days they seem to be mostly cheap looking, computer generated crap. I miss the 'violence' of Tom & Jerry and co before the P.C brigade got their knickers in a twist and complained about the damage it was doing to our fragile little minds.

Real winters: Weeks of killer snow, roads blocked for days, old people stuck in their houses, schools closed, snowmen, snowball fights, throwing snowballs at cats (sorry cat lovers, I'm one too but it was great fun)...most of these things are distant memories.

Teachers could be teachers. They were allowed to inflict pain in order to instill discipline and in most cases it worked. There was a line and kids knew the consequences if they crossed it. I once called a teacher who lost an eye in an accident 'cyclops' and he dragged me by my hair accross the floor and into a store cupboard where he slapped seven shades of sh*t out of me for a good couple of minutes...and I deserved it. Word got around the school and no-one EVER had the balls to mess with him again. Do that today and the teacher would most likely be sued, sacked and the 'poor little child' offered counselling or drugged up on Ritalin.

But for all the changes, be they good, bad or ugly, I've learned to take them with a smile. A sense of humour helps greatly in flowing with change.

And (how could I ever forget) there were those nights lying in bed my heart leaping into my chest if I heard an airplane, because we were so afraid the Russians would launch a sneak attack.  There was much of this beautiful time that was ruined by fear of Russian nukes.

Im a baby boomer too.
yeah, we had "air -raid" drills in school in the 60's. The siren would go off and you'd have to go into the hallway and face the wall with your hands on the back of your head. Lot of good that would do!
Then there were all the nike missile bases all over upstate NY. Theyre all gone now.
Penny candy was 2 for a penny!
Friday nights were fish fry at the local catholic church.
"Polka Hops" at the local Polish Fisherman's club. You'd have lots of polish sausage, free-flowing beer and polka dancing!
You'd go outside to play and come home just before dark, and nobody had to worry about you.

In the '70's, I could buy a 4 finger ounce of marijuana for $20! Lots of drugs, beer and sex in the '70's. The movie "Dazed and Confused" is like a documentary of my high school years.

Oh gosh, the good'ole days, where one could actually be a kid and love it! Yeah, times change, things change, I guess it's all about change

I was born in 1978 and I've lived in rural Georgia most of my life.  The first thing that comes to my mind is dirt.  There were a lot more dirt roads back then, and if someone had a paved driveway it was like a status symbol.  Our yard had as many dirt patches as it had grass, and I liked it because you could find rocks and arrowheads all over the place. 

We had a jeep when I was little and it was always an adventure to go out riding.  A lot of back roads still didn't have bridges, the creek just ran across the road.  If there had been a lot of rain you couldn't get across until the water went back down again.  Now most of those roads are paved and have been recut so they don't have so many twists and turns, so it's not nearly as much fun to ride.

Sometimes my dad took us out on the service roads that go to the electricity pylons.  I was both scared and fascinated by the pylons.  They are on steep hills and the roads were very rough so it was always exciting to see if we would be able to make it up the hill to the top.  Coming back down the other side was terrifying and wonderful.

I didn't have any brothers or sisters, or neighbors close to my age, so I rarely got to play with other kids outside of school.  When I did it was usually with the children of my dad's friends, rather than my own friends from school.  When any of my cousins came to visit it was a really big deal.  We never had anything in particular to do, so we mostly just ran around inside the house or outside acting silly.

Hardly anyone was into video games or computers yet.  It was cool to have a trampoline, or a 4-wheeler or go-cart.  We climbed trees and went exploring in the woods.  Sometimes we would pick blackberries, or shuck corn, or gather up pecans in the yard.  We played in rivers and creeks, and went swimming at the lake.  It was a rare treat to use a swimming pool. 

We never stayed in motels when we went on vacation, we stayed in campgrounds.  I walked mountain trails by myself and no one ever bothered me.  I collected bucketfuls of river rocks and never had a thought that some crazy environmentalist might try to stop me.  I loved going to Six Flags, Rock City, and Ghost Town.

Sometimes we had a frozen pizza and french fries and ate dinner watching TV.  Back then you were lucky to get than 2 or 3 channels clearly with your TV antenna.  My dad eventually got tired of that and mounted an antenna on a pole so high it scandalized everyone in the community, with a rotary mechanism so we could turn it to get stations from any direction.  So after that we were able to get TBS from Atlanta, and Fox from Greenville. 

But I remember watching PBS more than anything else.  My all-time favorite show was Benny Hill.   I also remember seeing a lot of Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, Doctor Who, and Mr. Rogers.  As I got older I loved Masterpiece Theater, Days of Our Lives, and miniseries like The Thornbirds.  And I always looked forward to seeing things like the Charlie Brown holiday specials, and The Grinch That Stole Christmas.

My mom's parents had cable and I soaked up every minute of it I could get.  I watched MTV in the early days when it was good, and I was always trying to catch dirty movies on HBO or Cinemax.  My granny would pretend to fuss at me about it and then leave me alone so I could watch what I wanted.  No one bothered much about ratings in those days.  If a show got too "ugly" an adult might change the channel for a few minutes, and then turn it back when the bad part was over.

VCRs weren't common yet, and they still showed films in school or at the library on a projector.  My favorites were Peter and the Wolf, Alice in Wonderland, and Fantasia.

I came home from my first day at kindergarten covered from head to toe in red dirt.  I never slept during naptime, and one time my kindergarten teacher spanked me by hand in front of the entire class just because I was still awake.  At the end of the year we each got a Mr. Goodbar if we had learned to say our ABCs, count to a hundred, and tie our own shoes.  I looked forward to getting that candy bar like it was made of gold.

Riding the school bus was horrible.  The older kids were always groping each others butts and heckling everyone.  There was always someone spitting tobacco juice on the floor, and every time we went rode past a chickenhouse the stench nearly choked us to death.  I would read on the way home and it gave me headaches.

I read almost every book I could get my hands on, except for the Bible.  I read the encyclopedia for fun.  I read Good Housekeeping, Redbook, Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies' Home Journal, and Woman's Day when I was still a long way from being a woman.  I collected every issue of Mad Magazine for five years straight.

I listened to records and eight tracks, and when I was 6 I got my first cassette player.  My first tape was the Journey album Frontiers and I loved the song Separate Ways (Worlds Apart).  I sang along with Madonna, blasted Guns N Roses, took showers with Bon Jovi, and rode my Big Wheel listening to Aerosmith with headphones in my ears.

When a thunderstorm came we unplugged everything in the house and sat still until it was over.  You weren't allowed to go in the bathroom or kitchen during a storm.  But sometimes I would sit outside with my dad to watch the lightning.

Our county government hasn't allowed much development, so the community doesn't look much different than it did 20-30 years ago.  But it feels like living in a different world.  Growing up I felt that the energy here was very dark and ugly.  Attitudes have changed and it is a lot more pleasant to live here now.