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Post by scrapmaven on Jul 7, 2024 16:20:51 GMT
Our parents and grandparents had cigarettes in a knick knack thing on the coffee table eventhough none of them smoked. It was the polite thing to do for guests. Everyone had decorative ashtrays on their coffee tables. Ick.
Smokers, or as they were called in my school were "stoners", cause everyone just assumed that if you smoked then you smoked pot, too. They all sat in the same place during lunch in high school and they hung out at the same place in Jr. High. Smoking wasn't allowed at either school, but no one checked on those kids.
Cars were vessels for whiplash. The seats went up to your back and seat belts were merely a suggestion. Our parents made us wear seat belts anyway.
We had to watch shows in black and white and if you missed an episode you had to wait for reruns.
In high school Pong was the first video game. You were so lucky if you had a Pong machine. Dh still has one at his childhood home.
As kids we got on our bikes and rode away. We played outside and no one worried about us.
Our parents dropped us off at the movies and we'd go to the tobacco shop next door for our candy, because you could buy candy for $.10cents instead of paying movie theater prices. Admission was .50 cents for kids.
When we flew somewhere we had to get dressed up. Flying was an occasion as much as a way to get from point A to point B.
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huskergal
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,447 
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Post by huskergal on Jul 7, 2024 16:22:38 GMT
My favorite memory is getting my 50 cents on Saturday morning and my brother and I walking the 3 blocks to "downtown" in our very small town and going to the little store and buying a bag of candy. Walk home, watch cartoons, and eat candy. (Does anyone else remember "Groovy Ghoulies"?)
I remember standing in line to get into a movie especially Star Wars. Movies weren't showing at multiple theaters. I also remember watching one movie and sneaking in to watch another one or rewatch the same movie.
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Post by compeateropeator on Jul 7, 2024 16:23:27 GMT
When the orthodontist from the big city (an hour away) decided to open a satellite in our town (I think they were only open a few days a week in the beginning) they put their office on the Main Street in front of the highschool. I also walked to the office and had my adjustment appointments/check-ups by myself.
I also walked to my Dr’s office for my allergy shots. And we walked to Catechism after school. We passed a small store on the way that if you were lucky to have some money could stop and get a snack. I bet they loved catechism day! 😆. The worst days were when catechism and band (also done by someone from the big city once every week) fell on the same day and you had to carry your instrument the entire way. I wanted to play the drums but my parents made me take the clarinet I think because of this.
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snyder
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,348
Location: Colorado
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Post by snyder on Jul 7, 2024 16:24:15 GMT
Leaving our home and car doors unlocked.
The milkman would bring the milk into the house and put it in the fridge. The meterman would come in the back door to the "laundry" room and read the water meter. Mom would be doing varius things when this occurred like vacuuming, cooking, etc. Never give it a second thought that a stranger just walked into your home.
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snyder
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,348
Location: Colorado
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Post by snyder on Jul 7, 2024 16:34:20 GMT
My sister's 7 year old could walk a few blocks to the liquor store and purchase a bottle of wine for my sister. Very, very small town, everyone knew everyone, so it was no big deal as they knew who my niece belonged to.
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Post by compeateropeator on Jul 7, 2024 16:35:08 GMT
Leaving our home and car doors unlocked. The milkman would bring the milk into the house and put it in the fridge. The meterman would come in the back door to the "laundry" room and read the water meter. Mom would be doing varius things when this occurred like vacuuming, cooking, etc. Never give it a second thought that a stranger just walked into your home. I just had this conversation with someone IRL. They didn't put the milk in the fridge but we had a special insulated metal box for our milk deliveries. My parents still have theirs and use it for smaller package deliveries. My babysitter had who we called the egg man come and deliver eggs. He would yell the egg man and come in and deliver the eggs whether someone was there or not. |
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snyder
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,348
Location: Colorado
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Post by snyder on Jul 7, 2024 16:49:26 GMT
Leaving our home and car doors unlocked. The milkman would bring the milk into the house and put it in the fridge. The meterman would come in the back door to the "laundry" room and read the water meter. Mom would be doing varius things when this occurred like vacuuming, cooking, etc. Never give it a second thought that a stranger just walked into your home. I just had this conversation with someone IRL. They didn't put the milk in the fridge but we had a special insulated metal box for our milk deliveries. My parents still have theirs and use it for smaller package deliveries. My babysitter had who we called the egg man come and deliver eggs. He would yell the egg man and come in and deliver the eggs whether someone was there or not. I don't have an insulated milkbox, but I get milk delivered. So much better than what I can buy in the grocery store. The insulated box would be cool. When it is really hot out, they do leave ice shavings on the milk. They deliver like at midnight and usually most of the ice shavings are still intact when we go out to bring in the milk. |
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Post by compeateropeator on Jul 7, 2024 17:00:39 GMT
I still get my milk from the same dairy, as do my parents. It is local to them so they either get it at their store at the dairy or regular grocery store that also sells it. I live in the big city an hour away 😆 and can get it at some of my grocery stores and do. I can immediately tell a difference when it is not my brand of milk. 😉
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leeny
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,804
Location: Northern California
Site Supporter
Jun 27, 2014 1:55:53 GMT
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Post by leeny on Jul 7, 2024 17:27:38 GMT
There was actually a designated smoking area at my high school even though we weren't old enough to purchase cigarettes!
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peabay
Prolific Pea
Posts: 9,941
Jun 25, 2014 19:50:41 GMT
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Post by peabay on Jul 7, 2024 17:29:23 GMT
I remember coming home from Kindergarten on the bus and walking alone from the street corner where I was dropped off to our house - 11 houses down the street.
Our town's school buses won't let K-2 off the bus without an older sibling or someone waiting for them at the bus stop!
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Jul 7, 2024 17:31:34 GMT
Anyone remember candy cigarettes? I would walk around thinking I was “cool” with it hanging from my mouth. And we had cap guns as kids. I remember both of those.
We we had to deal with losing, failure or things that did not go our way without parents intervening. True.
But also, there wasn't a possibility of your worst day(s) being recorded for laughs by any stranger, or a camera doorbell nearby. There was room to make mistakes, to learn, to grow, without our whole futures on the line because of what we said or did as a kid or teen.
There also wasn't the same extreme pressure to succeed in academics, in sports, in dance, or gymnastics as a very young child, as a stepping stone to a future career. Every competitive team wants its athletes to have been playing since they were four, or else it's too late and they'll never make it if they start so late in life, like ten yrs old.
Something else no one has posted yet was that for my family it was normal for my mom to always be baking something. We always had things like homemade cookies, cake, pie, apple crisp, using whatever was in season. These days it seems like nobody does and I can probably count on one hand the number of people my age and younger who know how to bake anything more than break apart cookie dough from the grocery store. People are always surprised when they’re eating something I’ve made and they’re like, “You MADE this?” 😆 In a related vein, my mom sewed a lot of our clothes back in the day too. Now no one even knows how to fix a button that popped off. My mom was a stay at home mom, and every day she cooked and usually also baked.
For the years that I was a stay at home mom, I also cooked nearly every single day, and baked a loaf of bread (albeit in a bread machine usually), and baked a dessert.
I really think not baking, cooking, or mending is more a symptom of all parents in a household needing to work outside the home, rather than parents nowadays not wanting to do those things for their families.
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sharlag
Drama Llama
I like my artsy with a little bit of fartsy.
Posts: 6,584
Location: Kansas
Jun 26, 2014 12:57:48 GMT
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Post by sharlag on Jul 7, 2024 18:00:54 GMT
We were dehydrated, I guess. Never carried any beverages on our daily outings.
Now I feel naked without a travel cup of water at hand. Especially in the car.
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iowgirl
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,319
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Post by iowgirl on Jul 7, 2024 19:14:01 GMT
No seat belts in cars. It doesn’t bear thinking about now. We have an old car that doesn't have seatbelts. I almost feel naked driving it! LOL It usually only comes out for parades. - You could get your drivers permit at 15, had to drive with someone over 18. You could get your license at 16. You were immediately fully licensed…No restrictions. Driver's License is 14 in Iowa right now. Technically, 14.5, because you can get your 'learners permit' on your 14th birthday, but you have to put in enough hours and class to get your school/farm permit at 14.5. But at 14.5 you can drive on your own. To and from school between the hours of 6 am - 10pm (I think). They now have a farm permit, which my kids did not have at that age (drove anyways) to run farm erands, to and from farm work. My kids were driving when they could reasonably reach the pedals. They did some driving before that, dropping hay in the winter. Their dad would get them started in granny low, hop out and jump up on the bed to pitch hay to the cows and yell which direction they needed to turn. No brake no gas - just turn it slow. They just had to be old enough to not cry when they got an @$$ chewing, lol! |
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Post by compeateropeator on Jul 7, 2024 19:41:14 GMT
No seat belts in cars. It doesn’t bear thinking about now. We have an old car that doesn't have seatbelts. I almost feel naked driving it! LOL It usually only comes out for parades. - You could get your drivers permit at 15, had to drive with someone over 18. You could get your license at 16. You were immediately fully licensed…No restrictions. Driver's License is 14 in Iowa right now. Technically, 14.5, because you can get your 'learners permit' on your 14th birthday, but you have to put in enough hours and class to get your school/farm permit at 14.5. But at 14.5 you can drive on your own. To and from school between the hours of 6 am - 10pm (I think). They now have a farm permit, which my kids did not have at that age (drove anyways) to run farm erands, to and from farm work. My kids were driving when they could reasonably reach the pedals. They did some driving before that, dropping hay in the winter. Their dad would get them started in granny low, hop out and jump up on the bed to pitch hay to the cows and yell which direction they needed to turn. No brake no gas - just turn it slow. They just had to be old enough to not cry when they got an @$$ chewing, lol! I come from a rural area with a lot of small family farms and we have a union school district so most towns had their own elementary schools but we shared a junior high and high school. I would bet that some of the kids from outlying farms were driving to school alone with their permits at 15 as there might not have been any other way for them to get to school after what ever morning chores they had. I also agree that I am sure the majority of the kids in our area could and did drive well before 15 (Tractors, trucks, atvs, snowmobiles, etc, etc.) but typically on private property. I was driving my dad’s pickup truck around our business at at least 14. I got it stuck in the mud once being where I shouldn’t have been and got busted because of all the mud on it after finally getting out. 😄. I am not sure that we actually had/have state laws regarding early drivers though. |
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janeinbama
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,214
Location: Alabama
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Post by janeinbama on Jul 7, 2024 19:49:08 GMT
My dad was. Smoker, so all those references. I smoked for a little while, quit in early 20’s. We would ride our bikes to buy his cigarettes. We also went I. The liquor store with our parents and grandparents. Liquor stores are state run here.
Riding bikes and playing in ditches😎
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Post by karenk on Jul 7, 2024 20:41:40 GMT
I remember going to a friend’s house and yelling her name, in a singsong way…oh Carol…to see if she was home and could come out to play. Sometimes someone would yell out…no, she can’t come out right now, and I would move on to another house. The doors were always open.
Going to Canada, my parents had a license but I don’t think we had any proof of anything as a kid.
We moved to a new development when I was ten. I was the only girl then. We went to investigate the new builds and went down ladders into the basements, and checked everything out. No snakes, but lots of frogs. We collected tadpoles in glass jars.
My parents both smoked. I remember being in the back seat and feeling sick to my stomach because of my father’s cigar smell.
We did go on those slides and teeter totters made of metal and nearly burn our butts. And the swings, we went so high it’s a wonder we didn’t kill ourselves.
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Post by melanell on Jul 7, 2024 20:59:08 GMT
Leaving our home and car doors unlocked. The milkman would bring the milk into the house and put it in the fridge. The meterman would come in the back door to the "laundry" room and read the water meter. Mom would be doing varius things when this occurred like vacuuming, cooking, etc. Never give it a second thought that a stranger just walked into your home. That's how some ice men used to deliver ice, too. I know a few relatives who specifically had a small room off the back of the main kitchen where they kept the ice box, so that the ice man could just come in and drop the ice right there instead of having him walk through the house or having someone else have to move the ice into the kitchen once he left. Plus separating the icebox from the stove made the ice last longer. |
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Post by melanell on Jul 7, 2024 21:04:28 GMT
And let me say, for as "free range" as I may have felt as a kid, it had nothing on my dad. The stories he tells---I have no idea how that guy survived childhood!  |
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Post by smasonnc on Jul 7, 2024 21:17:07 GMT
We would walk to the 7-11 picking up coke bottles along the way so we'd have enough money to buy something when we got there.
We didn't have a dryer until I was 10 or a color tv until I was 12.
Neighborhood kids, boys and girls, played sports in a big vacant lot. No sunscreen or water. No refs or umpires, we just decided who was out or safe, whether it was a first down or not. No parents, coaches. My friends and I signed ourselves up for girls softball. Our parents gave us the $5 and that was the last of their involvement. We were pretty good because we'd been playing every day forever. We hated how structured and serious it was. We skipped all-stars because we'd had enough.
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Judy26
Pearl Clutcher
MOTFY Bitchy Nursemaid
Posts: 2,974
Location: NW PA
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Post by Judy26 on Jul 8, 2024 0:38:09 GMT
Every guy had a rifle in the back window of his car or truck at all times. They would hunt on the way to school or on the way home. The science lab was used to clean game if you were successful. We had a smoking lounge that you could go to during study halls. Smoke literally poured out of the teacher’s break room. We drove 20 miles every weekend to NY state where the drinking age was 18. It was a rite of passage to get your fake ID at 15. Keg parties in the woods were huge. When a party got busted we would run like hell, then traipse through the woods until we found a road and hitchhike back to town. For being so dangerous it sure was a lot of fun!
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purplebee
Drama Llama
Posts: 6,802
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Post by purplebee on Jul 8, 2024 1:11:18 GMT
No seatbelts growing up in the 60’s, everybody’s parents smoked. No air conditioning anywhere. Free ranged the neighborhood w/a gang of neighborhood kids and we too explored new construction. Even worse, I remember going into a burned house one time to see what was there. Rode bikes for miles, including to a big forested park. We’d spend the day out in the woods. Also took the bus to the beach in the summer (this was on Long Island) and spent the day, usually coming home with a sunburn.
Mom would whistle a special whistle out the kitchen window to call us in for supper - it was loud!
My childhood was awesome….
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Gennifer
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,242
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Post by Gennifer on Jul 8, 2024 1:17:12 GMT
I remember being a paid babysitter when we lived in Las Vegas. We moved from there when I was 8.
Who the hell trusts an 8yo to watch their kids?!?
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Post by revirdsuba99 on Jul 8, 2024 5:48:18 GMT
I sold Cheerful Cards door to door. Went into houses for personalized orders. I was 7-8. Of course, it was in the neighborhood, long, long ago!!
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Post by rainangel on Jul 8, 2024 9:02:31 GMT
Today is day #83 that I have not had a cigarette. It's hard. It's still hard. I still want to smoke. I am 8 years smoke-free but I still call myself a smoker. But I don't smoke anymore. I know that if I have that first cigarette now I will be back at it. But with the smoking ban in pretty much every place now, it makes it easier to avoid temptation.
I don't think about smoking daily anymore, but it probably took me a year or two to get to that point.
83 days is amazing! Getting to day 83 is VERY hard, you should be immensely proud of yourself. Because it is really, really hard!
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Post by rainangel on Jul 8, 2024 9:09:39 GMT
The feeling of safety and freedom. Both as a child and a parent.
We would roam free, our parents still felt safe about it. We were gone for hours and hours, and nobody panicked.
Today we are more aware of the dangers lurking and keep our children on a tighter leash.
Statistically there were just as many killers and child molesters when we were growing up, but there was little media attention to it. No 24 hour news cycle, no internet....
And adults hushed a lot of things down (but stay away from that man in the red house on the corner).
The awareness now has made us very vigilant, which is a good thing. But I wish I felt that kind of safety and freedom for my own children.
Also; toy stores.
There is ONE left in my hometown. There are a few toy departments in big box stores, but only one toy store.
Growing up they were plentiful, and they were magical places!
I was a child in the 80's.
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Post by monklady123 on Jul 8, 2024 12:38:57 GMT
We would walk to the 7-11 picking up coke bottles along the way so we'd have enough money to buy something when we got there. We didn't have a dryer until I was 10 or a color tv until I was 12. Neighborhood kids, boys and girls, played sports in a big vacant lot. No sunscreen or water. No refs or umpires, we just decided who was out or safe, whether it was a first down or not. No parents, coaches. My friends and I signed ourselves up for girls softball. Our parents gave us the $5 and that was the last of their involvement. We were pretty good because we'd been playing every day forever. We hated how structured and serious it was. We skipped all-stars because we'd had enough. This is a good one also. Growing up I didn't know anyone who had a color TV. So no matter whose house I went to I was never watching a show in color. It wasn't until I went to college and attended movie night where they were showing "The Wizard of Oz" that I learned Kansas was in black and white and Oz was in color.  lol. I remember how totally shocked I was when Dorothy opened the door of her house and looked out into Oz. Also, related to movies...not sure if anyone has mentioned this...Those were the days when we watched TV shows as they were given to us, and then had to wait until the summer to see favorite episodes again in reruns. And movies like "The Wizard of Oz", "The Sound of Music", etc. came around once a year. We planned for it weeks ahead of time. And if there was something wrong with the TV, or there was a power failure, or some other tragedy, well then we just missed the movie and knew it wouldn't come around again for another year.  |
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SweetieBsMom
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,785
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Post by SweetieBsMom on Jul 8, 2024 12:39:36 GMT
No seatbelts. Smoking indoors everywhere. I grew up in Boston and the freedom as a kid.....we'd leave the house in the morning and the rule was to be home before the streetlights came on. If you weren't home and Dad was whistling for you, you were in trouble. There were a bunch of us kids. Riding bikes EVERYWHERE. Some of the places we rode, I can't believe our parents let us, I'd never let DS make those rides. It's not that they "let us" about specific places we went, at least not back in my childhood. It's just that they had no idea where we were, and they never asked. We never had rules like "stay on this street" or "don't go past the school" or anything like that. We just went out and disappeared. After dinner we did have the "come home when the streetlights come on" rule, so I don't think we went too far at that point. Just around the neighborhood. But during the day all bets were off.  If we were leaving the neighborhood, we had to let our parents know where we were biking to and 2 places come to mind where I'm flabbergasted our parents were like "ok, be home before the street lights are on". One was an ice cream place several towns over where we had to ride on Rte 109 another was a park/playground, again, several towns over and I will tell you, I don't even like driving over there due to the narrow winding roads, let alone taking a bike. It's a miracle I'm still here  |
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Post by Mary_K on Jul 8, 2024 13:27:23 GMT
Today is day #83 that I have not had a cigarette. It's hard. It's still hard. I still want to smoke. Congrats to you! It does get easier but it will be a while. I quit MANY years ago and I remember I hadn't smoked in over a year. I was sitting outside on my patio with my beautiful, brand new patio furniture set. I looked across the yards and saw a guy sitting on his patio on an ugly metal folding chair and smoking. I thought "I would trade my whole new patio set for that metal chair and a cigarette right now!" Good for you! Mary K |
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Post by lbp on Jul 8, 2024 14:45:09 GMT
Our school had a smoking block and a vending machine with cigarettes in it!
Another Feral kid here. We would leave in the morning and not come back until we thought it was lunch time. No one had a clue exactly where we were.
We never used seatbelts until sometime in the 1980's when it became a law.
My parents would drop me off at the county swimming pool by myself and come and get me when they were finished their errands. I was probably 9-10 years old. This was okay as long as a storm didn't come through and they closed the pool. Then I was sitting outside the pool in the storm waiting on someone to come and pick me up. This was long before cell phones.
The guys at my high school would carry their rifles in a rifle rack in the cab of their trucks. Sometimes at lunch you would see them in the parking lot with some of the teachers and other students admiring, trading, etc.. them.
I took cans of soda every day in my lunch box.
If you broke the rules, was disrespectful, or otherwise did something a teacher did not like they could and did paddle you.
Just to name a few.
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Post by karenk on Jul 8, 2024 14:45:23 GMT
We used to deliver newspapers and sell Girl Scout cookies and collect old newspapers for newspaper drives. No one would let their kids do those things anymore.
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lol. I remember how totally shocked I was when Dorothy opened the door of her house and looked out into Oz. 
