For The Over 40 Group. Remember When?

[Shadow_Thomas]

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 get food poisoning.

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat a bite raw

sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper, in a brown paper bag, not in icepack coolers, but I can't remember anybody 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 hightop 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.

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, and she could even give you an aspirin for a headache or fever.

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 butt spanked again when we got home. 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 ever survive?

[KeithLDick]

Ahhh, the Memories!!!!!....

[blim]

Ah, the good old days...Now, I DO remember getting the "24 hour stomach flu" growing up, and my kids have never had it (too many years working in a restaurant kitchen--I'm a careful cook)

BUT every parent of my kids' friends had "Spanking Rights". I remember the time when Kate was playing with our Pastor's daughter, in the Church while he was working in the office....they got naughty and he spanked them both *gasp* in the Church Sanctuary! Well, that's where they were being naughty....caused quite an uproar, but I thanked him and defended him! Yup, we were mean, mean parents...

Hee, hee, I never bothered the "medic treatment" after a King of the Hill accident--just took off a sock and tied it around the injury....of course, Mom had to get the dirt and blood out of the sock and I got in trouble....FOR THE BLOODY SOCK!

Remember the horrid Gym Uniforms the girls had to wear??

Good one, Shadow, and passing that on! Thanks

Liz

Edited February 12, 2006 by blim

[novi]

That is too funny! When you think about it, it's a wonder we survived. I remember no matter what the time of year we were always outside playing. Those were the days.

Thanks,

Pat

[bearskin]

everyone has to be politicallly correct now...every school kid has to have a computer available...every kid I know has to have prozac and a cell phone...they are mature enough to have a driver's permit but when they get into trouble it's mommy and daddy's fault.

[medab1]

I remember when there were lots of jobs available.

Most times I could go to a place & talk to somebody & get hired or not without filling out an application telling them my life history.

You could buy fireworks too.

Parents told you,"Be careful.You can get hurt with these.Don't blow your fingers off."

Then the government decided people were unable to make decisions for themselves.

It seems like a few morons ruin it for everybody.

I remember city dumps.

I collected lots of copper & pop bottles to sell.

Finding coins in old couches & chairs was always nice.

Those coins were made of silver.

I had quite a coin collection as a kid.

The doctor made house calls for $5.

Lots of things have changed.

Not necessarily for the better...

The internet is the best thing to happen since printed books,I think.

[rv56]

Hey Shadow...haven't seen ya for awhile....

Those are some good ones....man, how things have changed alright. Good memories though.

Take care Shadow...