TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!

[pedro]

I think there's a distinct difference between some of these things. I bemoan the loss of kids playing outside, but I'm pretty happy they no longer pile into cars without seatbelts and are forced to wear "dorky" helmets. I'd be all for parents forcing their kids to go without air conditioning or DVD players for a summer to show them they don't really need it, but I don't see the problem with taking the precaution of a childproof medicine bottle. My mother smoked two packs a day the entire time she was pregnant with me and I'm right as rain, but it's not a risk I'd take if I were pregnant, and if my doctor suggested I get tested for diabetes, I'd see no reason to scoff at the advice.

I'm for nostalgia within reason, I guess, but I think sometimes it interferes with people's common sense.

(This is mostly referring to the original post, by the way.)

FTR, I may not have worn a bike helmet when I was a child but I do now. Whenever I think about not wearing one I'm reminded of the many "ghost bikes" around portland marking a place where someone was killed on their bike.

http://www.ghostbike.org/

[Yachtzee]

I never lived in a place with AC until college. It was often hotter inside than outside.

I can remember riding my bike all the way across town for baseball practice.

In the summer, the city had "park and rec", which involved hiring high school and college students to supervise local parks so that kids could come hang out. They had this "golf" game that involved a board with "holes" on it. The "ball" was a wooden disc and you used a dowel rod as a cue to hit the disk into the holes. We'd also do crafts or play "500" or HR Derby.

Instead of learning about the birds and bees from ED commercials, we either learned about it by discovering the stash of nudie mags in the nearby woods or else catching the babysitter getting felt up by the boyfriend she invited over after she thought we were asleep.

We still have a drive-in movie theater operating about 15 miles away. We might take the boys there for a movie this summer. Well, they'll fall asleep and we'll watch the movie.

[KittyDuran]

[We still have a drive-in movie theater operating about 15 miles away. We might take the boys there for a movie this summer. Well, they'll fall asleep and we'll watch the movie.

We went to the Holiday on the west side of Hamilton (it's still operational). Remember seeing the two movies of 101 Dalmations and Goldfinger... well I remembered Goldfinger up until Bond sees Shirley Eaton painted in gold.

[Chi-Town Red]

I never lived in a place with AC until college. It was often hotter inside than outside.

I can remember riding my bike all the way across town for baseball practice.

In the summer, the city had "park and rec", which involved hiring high school and college students to supervise local parks so that kids could come hang out. They had this "golf" game that involved a board with "holes" on it. The "ball" was a wooden disc and you used a dowel rod as a cue to hit the disk into the holes. We'd also do crafts or play "500" or HR Derby.

Instead of learning about the birds and bees from ED commercials, we either learned about it by discovering the stash of nudie mags in the nearby woods or else catching the babysitter getting felt up by the boyfriend she invited over after she thought we were asleep.

We still have a drive-in movie theater operating about 15 miles away. We might take the boys there for a movie this summer. Well, they'll fall asleep and we'll watch the movie.

500..what a great game

[KittyDuran]

Our family was one of the first in the neighborhood to have central A/C and got it in 1965 - 1966 - but we were still always outside in the summer.

[vaticanplum]

I maintain that the single greatest difference between my childhood and the ones even a half-generation back was the advent of the VCR.

When I was little (very little), there were exactly three shows to watch on television every day: Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers and the Electric Company. On Saturday mornings the Smurfs were on for like three or four hours. Sunday night was Silver Spoons and Punky Brewster. Apart from the occasional sports event, that was the absolute maximum -- MAXIMUM -- that I could be in front of the TV all day, of my own volition. The limits put on me were often less. But I myself was not at all interested in being in front of the television more than two hours a day, because there was simply nothing for me to watch.

When the VCR came along, not only did children have hours and hours of potential TV watching at their fingertips, they could do it whenever they wanted. Mid-morning. Mid-afternoon. Bedtime. They all had a huge selection of movies from which to choose, and they didn't have to wait until 4 pm to choose them. I think it has given kids -- many otherwise completely unspoiled -- a entirely different outlook on choices and immediate gratification. I really think it's made a huge difference.

People who roll their eyes at those who say "TV is bad!!!" aren't realizing something, I think: it isn't that TV or its content is bad, it's the way kids have TV these days that affects them. It's whatever and whenever they want. I babysat three siblings who had no television in the house, and they were by no means perfect children, but there was a serious difference in the way they were able to amuse themselves compared to other kids. If they didn't get what they wanted, they'd go find something else instead. Kids with a library of videos, and no limits placed on when they watch them, sometimes don't even develop that ability, I think.

[TeamMorris]

If we were on a long car trip and my older brother wanted to sleep in the back seat, I was relegated to laying down in the rear window area of the car.

My parents would have been charged with child endangerment many times over.

Ah yes, I remember many car trips laying down in the back window. It was really cool to lay on your back and look at the sky and trees as they flew by. I also remember sitting on my father & grandfather's lap while they drove. It didn't happen often (was a sort of treat) but it did happen.

The whole list makes you go wow! All I can say is...how did I live to be 38 so far and what the heck happened to this world on other parts!

[KittyDuran]

Didn't get color TV until 1973 - before then we always knew where to find my Dad in a department store... in front of the rows of TVs... Cable TV came in 1974.

So it was B&W TVs with only 6 channels (Channels 2 & 7-Dayton) (Channels 5, 9 & 12-Cincinnati) (UHF - Channel 19-Cincinnati). Couldn't get the PBS stations at all and I don't remember Channel 22 in Dayton existing until the 70s.

[TeamMorris]

Back in the day, parents didn't come to all your little league games and they certainly didn't hang around your practices like *some* parents do today... you know who you are.

Very, very true! This day and age though you are considered a "bad" parent if you aren't. I was honestly amazed at some of the things I heard this spring as my son played his first season of T-Ball. I was at all practices and games because I wanted to be...not because I was expected to be by other parents standards. If I needed to run to the grocery store on a night he had practice I would have gone. Honestly, my son preforms (pays attention) better when I an NOT lurking in the shadows.

[KittyDuran]

It's funny reading through all these things (I also slept in the back window of the car and ate food cooked in lard...) and then thinking about how protective people are these days.

Now we protect kids to such a degree that they need pills to cope with the stress of it all. I'm glad I was a kid back then and not today.

My Dad was only around for one of his children's births... it was my second oldest sister and he was stationed in CA. They were going to induce my Mom so he asked the quartermaster for the day off. The quartermaster said that the kid better be born that day or you'll never get any time off for a while (actually he language was crude). He was aboard ship when me and my oldest sister were born, and on duty as a police officer when my little sister came into the world.

I wasn't on any sports teams but 2 of my sisters were involved with sports (gymnastics and swimming) but my parents only saw them in a few meets. We only had one car and my Dad worked all shifts as a police officer.

[TeamMorris]

Even though the internet and video games get the rap, I think a lot of the changes to kids behavior, like less outside play, can be traced to sparser kid densities.

Who remembers ripping off their pop-top and dropping it into the can?

I remember doing that! The kind that you really had to remove...not just "pop" like today. The basement in my grandfather's house was his party room (Pool, shuffle board & ping pong table down there). He actually had strings of them over the small windows as curtain's. A cool memory I haven't thought about in years

[bucksfan]

Thanks for reminding me why I'm not a Democrat.

????? not sure I understand

[Yachtzee]

Very, very true! This day and age though you are considered a "bad" parent if you aren't. I was honestly amazed at some of the things I heard this spring as my son played his first season of T-Ball. I was at all practices and games because I wanted to be...not because I was expected to be by other parents standards. If I needed to run to the grocery store on a night he had practice I would have gone. Honestly, my son preforms (pays attention) better when I an NOT lurking in the shadows.

I tried being an assistant coach the first time I enrolled my son into a sports program. He stuck to me like glue and wouldn't play with the other kids because he didn't know them. So now when I take him to T-ball or soccer, I drop him off with the team and take up a seat as far away as possible. The only time I got involved was when the team was practicing hitting off the tee in the outfield and my son got bored and started playing near a tree covered in poison ivy.

I can't believe how much stuff people bring for an hour-long practice...water, snacks, first-aid kit, sunscreen, tailgate chairs, wipes, and more. And of course there was one family with a portable DVD player so that little sister could watch movies to keep her occupied. I can remember when kids showed up for practice with gloves and hat. Coach provided a bag of balls, bats, helmets and catcher's equipment. Coach or someone's dad would bring a big cooler of water and paper cups.

[Yachtzee]

I remember doing that! The kind that you really had to remove...not just "pop" like today. The basement in my grandfather's house was his party room (Pool, shuffle board & ping pong table down there). He actually had strings of them over the small windows as curtain's. A cool memory I haven't thought about in years

That just made me think of the old "beer can macrame" hats, where people would take apart some old PBR or Schlitz cans with a pair of tin snips and knit the pieces together with yarn into a lovely chapeau.

[Johnny Footstool]

That just made me think of the old "beer can macrame" hats, where people would take apart some old PBR or Schlitz cans with a pair of tin snips and knit the pieces together with yarn into a lovely chapeau.

My mom had one made of Bud cans.

Even at age 4, I knew it was utterly ludicrous.