Times gone by

[DVS]

i remember noisy metal wheels on roller skates .. and how they could be ruined if forgotten outside on a rainy day.

Those skates were put on with a key, and you had to wear a certain kind of shoe, if you wanted them to stay on. No such thing as shoes with the skates built on, when i was a kid.

I bought one of the first ever skateboards. I still have it. It's actually a set of those same skates, taken apart and added to a wooden plank (there is a red shark painted on the board, which was cool, back then). The only shock absorbing material was some tire inertube that was folded up and stuffed between goard and skates. That allowed the board to move a little from side to side, as a reasl surfboard would on water.

God forbid if you happened to go down a sidewalk and roll oer even a small rock, though. That skateboard would stop cold, and you'd keep going. Think of the law suits we could have filed for all of the skinned knees and elbows.

Oh, there were no helmets and no elbow or knee pads back then, either. If you went down, you went inside where mom bandaged you up, and then came back out for round two.

 

[BeachGurl2]

Well, I thought you might be, but better safe than sorry.

Don't worry about offending me, Graceanne. Takes a lot to do that.

 

[DVS]

[1]Television (Baird) was invented in 1926. First TV Station (NBC) in America came around in 1939.

[2]Frozen Foods (Swanson) came around in the mid 40's. I'm going to have to assume you're refering to yourself being older than 55 here.

[3]Xerox machines came around in the 40's.

[4]Synthetic Tires (Firestone) were invented in the 40's. There was other applications for plastic before then.

[5]Ballpoint Pens (Biro) were invented in the 20's.

[6]Drip-dry clothes pretty much refers to any clothes that drip dries - i.e. pretty much every cloth out there.

[7]Your reference here is simply due to naivete. Similar statemets can be drawn today by young kids today. However, the great paranoia of Outer Space and Aliens began in 1939.

[8]Nursing Homes/Retirement Homes are the same thing. They have been around since Napoleonic times.

[9]Tape Decks were invented in the 30s.

[10]Electric Typewriters have been around since the 40's and possibly earlier. I know my grandfather had an electrical typewriter from 1946 for his company he started after coming out of WWII.

[11]Word processors refers to a profession back then, in the same vein as a stenographer.

[12]Yogurt has been around a lot longer than you, I'm quite sure about this.

[13]Sailors and members of the Navy often had piercings in the WWII era.

[14]hardware still refers to hardware. A circular statement this is.

[15]The notion of Rock music was beginning to form around in the forties with a shifting in the style of big band and bebop. It did not solidify itself into an established style (rock & roll) until the mid 1950's (around 1953-1954)

Kids today. They think they know so much.

 

[graceanne]

Don't worry about offending me, Graceanne. Takes a lot to do that.

Yeah, me too. But you never know. If I'm gonna offend someone I prefer to do it on purpose, so if I'm not sure I explain.

 

[Joe Schmoe]

I remember my dad telling me he had to walk 37 miles to school, neck deep in snow, wearing only his brother's hand me down socks on his feet while a pack of wovles circled him trying to get his butter sandwiches he had for lunch

I had it easy as a kid, I only had to walk 22 miles.

 

[graceanne]

I remember my dad telling me he had to walk 37 miles to school, neck deep in snow, wearing only his brother's hand me down socks on his feet while a pack of wovles circled him trying to get his butter sandwiches he had for lunch

I had it easy as a kid, I only had to walk 22 miles.

My dad told me he had to walk 50 miles to and from school, in snow up to his armpits, uphill both ways. I told him that all the drugs he did in the sixties must have fucked him up more than we thought. He said I was a brat. Go figure. Me? A brat? I told him he must be thinking of my sister cause I'm an angel. My step mom had to pound him on the back - he tried to inhale his water.

 

[LadyAria]

I remember...

playing with lawn darts and real horseshoes in the summer.
doing "penny drops" from the monkey bars over an asphault playground.
beating up boys I thought were cute.
being cool for having the only beta tape player on the block.
watching empire strikes back in the theater.
wanting to be one of Charlie's Angels.
wishing my family was like the Brady's.
reading books all summer to pass my vacation.
not having Santa stick his fat nose in Halloween
and actually enjoying Christmas.

 

[INSIDEYOURMIND]

I remember my dad telling me he had to walk 37 miles to school, neck deep in snow, wearing only his brother's hand me down socks on his feet while a pack of wovles circled him trying to get his butter sandwiches he had for lunch

I had it easy as a kid, I only had to walk 22 miles.

And the next guy said at least you had socks! I went barefoot!

and the next guy says, barefoot?, I didn't have feet.................................

 

[bullaford]

I remember riding in the back of the truck or standing up in the seat next to my father.

On a long trip, laying down in the back window of the big ole car to sleep because my older sisters had the seat and the floorboard already.

Going exploring in the woods from dawn til dusk and nobody had to wonder if some stranger stopped and picked me up.

 

[h_i_s]

..............God forbid if you happened to go down a sidewalk and roll oer even a small rock, though. That skateboard would stop cold, and you'd keep going.........

Yep ... i have scars on both knees due to that having happened to me, many times......

 

[graceanne]

I remember riding in the back of the truck or standing up in the seat next to my father.

On a long trip, laying down in the back window of the big ole car to sleep because my older sisters had the seat and the floorboard already.

Going exploring in the woods from dawn til dusk and nobody had to wonder if some stranger stopped and picked me up.

I remember that. We used to move - a lot. (By the time I was in 9th grade I'd gone to 9 different schools.) And we never moved from city to city or state to state, we move CROSS COUNTRY. (Like Minnesota to Texas and back. Or Missouri to Oregon.) We couldn't afford to fly, so mom would put down the seats of her hatchback and make us up a bed so we could sleep.

 

[BeachGurl2]

I remember my mom's old green pontiac, no seat belts. One of us would be standing up in the front seat and if she had to slam on the brakes, her arm would shoot out across us to hold us in. Like that would really work.

 

[Evil_Geoff]

For me....

1st list = the 'rents
2nd list - the grands

I'm younger than almost all of that stuff. But lets take a look at some of the things that actually ARE better.

Cancer is no longer a 100% death sentence. Surgery, drugs, radiation therapy have come so far that many forms of cancer, while scarey, are curable if caught in time. A lot of other diseases that were terminal or life threatening are no longer problems and one, smallpox, ONLY exists in labratory cultures. There have been no new outbreaks of smallpox in the wild in decades.

Cars come with 100,000 mile warranties and I've had 2 (working on my third) that rolled over a QUARTER MILLION MILES EACH.

We've gone to the moon and back, we have re-usabled spacecraft and we are on the verge of private enterprise taking over space development.

Because people came out of the closet we have a lot more diversity today. And less bigotry.

And we can talk to people around the world and bare our thoughts and souls from Leningrad to Antwerp to Buenos Aires to San Francisco to Maui to Auckland to Tokyo to New Delhi to Johannesburg, to Cairo. Literally. Eventually enough people will be exposed to and know people from enough cultures that being afraid of "those people" because they are different, will be a distant memory.

500 digital channels, 100 of them in Hi-Def. And we STILL don't have a damn thing to watch!

eBAY!

We've crossed over into the Third Millenium and didn't vaporize our planet in a nuclear holocaust.

*smiles*
Yes, there are some things to miss from the "good old days" but there are things I will never miss from "way back when". Chief among the things I won't miss:

A way of life that told me a man or woman could only be as good as the color of their skin.

Or the gender of who they chose to have sex with.

Or the race of the person they chose to love.

Or _how_ they chose to have sex.

Screw that. Even if the choices people make sometimes squick me (I did, after all, start of life in the pre-civil rights days of the Jim Crow South) I am terribly proud to see more inter-racial couples, more gay and lesbian couples, more BDSM folk coming out... We aren't where we need to be, but we're a dam site closer than we were 40 years ago.

 

[FurryFury]

For me....

1st list = the 'rents
2nd list - the grands

I'm younger than almost all of that stuff. But lets take a look at some of the things that actually ARE better.

Cancer is no longer a 100% death sentence. Surgery, drugs, radiation therapy have come so far that many forms of cancer, while scarey, are curable if caught in time. A lot of other diseases that were terminal or life threatening are no longer problems and one, smallpox, ONLY exists in labratory cultures. There have been no new outbreaks of smallpox in the wild in decades.

Cars come with 100,000 mile warranties and I've had 2 (working on my third) that rolled over a QUARTER MILLION MILES EACH.

We've gone to the moon and back, we have re-usabled spacecraft and we are on the verge of private enterprise taking over space development.

Because people came out of the closet we have a lot more diversity today. And less bigotry.

And we can talk to people around the world and bare our thoughts and souls from Leningrad to Antwerp to Buenos Aires to San Francisco to Maui to Auckland to Tokyo to New Delhi to Johannesburg, to Cairo. Literally. Eventually enough people will be exposed to and know people from enough cultures that being afraid of "those people" because they are different, will be a distant memory.

500 digital channels, 100 of them in Hi-Def. And we STILL don't have a damn thing to watch!

eBAY!

We've crossed over into the Fourth Millenium and didn't vaporize our planet in a nuclear holocaust.

*smiles*
Yes, there are some things to miss from the "good old days" but there are things I will never miss from "way back when". Chief among the things I won't miss:

A way of life that told me a man or woman could only be as good as the color of their skin.

Or the gender of who they chose to have sex with.

Or the race of the person they chose to love.

Or _how_ they chose to have sex.

Screw that. Even if the choices people make sometimes squick me (I did, after all, start of life in the pre-civil rights days of the Jim Crow South) I am terribly proud to see more inter-racial couples, more gay and lesbian couples, more BDSM folk coming out... We aren't where we need to be, but we're a dam site closer than we were 40 years ago.

That's beautiful, I love your POV!

*HUGS*

Fury

 

[Netzach]

For me....

1st list = the 'rents
2nd list - the grands

I'm younger than almost all of that stuff. But lets take a look at some of the things that actually ARE better.

Cancer is no longer a 100% death sentence. Surgery, drugs, radiation therapy have come so far that many forms of cancer, while scarey, are curable if caught in time. A lot of other diseases that were terminal or life threatening are no longer problems and one, smallpox, ONLY exists in labratory cultures. There have been no new outbreaks of smallpox in the wild in decades.

Cars come with 100,000 mile warranties and I've had 2 (working on my third) that rolled over a QUARTER MILLION MILES EACH.

We've gone to the moon and back, we have re-usabled spacecraft and we are on the verge of private enterprise taking over space development.

Because people came out of the closet we have a lot more diversity today. And less bigotry.

And we can talk to people around the world and bare our thoughts and souls from Leningrad to Antwerp to Buenos Aires to San Francisco to Maui to Auckland to Tokyo to New Delhi to Johannesburg, to Cairo. Literally. Eventually enough people will be exposed to and know people from enough cultures that being afraid of "those people" because they are different, will be a distant memory.

500 digital channels, 100 of them in Hi-Def. And we STILL don't have a damn thing to watch!

eBAY!

We've crossed over into the Fourth Millenium and didn't vaporize our planet in a nuclear holocaust.

*smiles*
Yes, there are some things to miss from the "good old days" but there are things I will never miss from "way back when". Chief among the things I won't miss:

A way of life that told me a man or woman could only be as good as the color of their skin.

Or the gender of who they chose to have sex with.

Or the race of the person they chose to love.

Or _how_ they chose to have sex.

Screw that. Even if the choices people make sometimes squick me (I did, after all, start of life in the pre-civil rights days of the Jim Crow South) I am terribly proud to see more inter-racial couples, more gay and lesbian couples, more BDSM folk coming out... We aren't where we need to be, but we're a dam site closer than we were 40 years ago.

I was going to say something much to that effect, so I won't. I don't find a lot of these things so great. I'm sure people got bacterial infections and for every "gee it's great to spank your kids" there's a Lisa Steinberg or a Sylvia Likens story to tell you how non-great things have been through the ages for kids. Finally we tend to view the little shits as legal humans, more so than before.

I survived growing up in newyorkmotherfucking city and STILL think it's the best place in the world to be a kid.

I have choices for the rest of my life other than just getting my guts slowly hacked up. Or dying painfully and mysteriously. Or staying on prednisone. There are a million reasons I'm extremely happy to be a child of the early 70's and I'm indebted to those people my mom's age who didn't think the 50's were so great.

 

[graceanne]

No matter what time you lived in their will be good and bad. It's a give and take thing, a 'glass half full/glass half empty' type thing. *shrugs* You can spend your time wishing for things that were, or enjoy the things that are.

 

[FurryFury]

No matter what time you lived in their will be good and bad. It's a give and take thing, a 'glass half full/glass half empty' type thing. *shrugs* You can spend your time wishing for things that were, or enjoy the things that are.

Smart lady you are beautiful Graceanne!

Fury

 

[graceanne]

Smart lady you are beautiful Graceanne!

Fury

LOL Thanks - I like to think so.

 

[Red Sonja]

No matter what time you lived in their will be good and bad. It's a give and take thing, a 'glass half full/glass half empty' type thing. *shrugs* You can spend your time wishing for things that were, or enjoy the things that are.

I just keep thinking of Gandalf: So do I, and so do all who live in such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

Maybe we should try to make our time better.

 

[FurryFury]

<snip>

All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

Maybe we should try to make our time better.

Hi Red Sonja!

I absolutely believe that what you wrote above is true.

Fury

 

[graceanne]

For every time period you will have someone who's tried to make things better. I do. But also for every time period you'll have someone who's trying to make things worse. It's why their's always good and always bad in a time period.

 

[Red Sonja]

For every time period you will have someone who's tried to make things better. I do. But also for every time period you'll have someone who's trying to make things worse. It's why their's always good and always bad in a time period.

That's true... but we can decide for ourselves which we want to be. It makes it more interesting that people don't all agree on what is making things better or worse.

 

[graceanne]

That's true... but we can decide for ourselves which we want to be. It makes it more interesting that people don't all agree on what is making things better or worse.

Well, there is that, too. Tons of people fighting eachother to make things better, sure that their way really will work, and the others way will make things worse.

Imagine how much could be accomplished if everyone worked together?

But I don't see that ever happening.

 

[FurryFury]

All we can do is our best. I have a story about that that I dearly love to tell.

Fury

 

[Marquis]

I remember when not wearing your tie to school could get you sent to the deans office for a paddling.

I remember when there were only two channels.

I remember when being a homosexual or getting pregnant outside of marriage could get you killed by your father and brother.

I remember when there was such a thing as a dowry, and it was paid in livestock.

I remember when street cops carried AK-47's and muggers carried machetes.

I remember when refusing an invite for tea would probably guarantee you were never invited to that house again.

I remember when we used to eat the same 2 or 3 dishes for dinner every night for months.

Of course, I grew up in Kenya.