To All of You Born Before 1978!!!!!

I was born in 1985 and I grew up like that. I would leave with my friends in the morning on our bikes and not come home until dinner time. My mom would toss me and my brother outside and tell us to go find something to do.

My boyfriend's brother and sisters never go out and play. The sit inside, watch tv or play video games and eat junk food.

It's sad. I used to have so much fun going out on adventures with my friends.

This is great, even though I can't relate - it must have been so different back then!

I remember those days, it's so true. I really remember drinking from the garden hose when my dad was outside and playing tag always with my sisters and next door neighbors, then coming inside to play a board game. (I grew up without cable)

Thanks for the memories.

I just weighed in a 17 year old male at 283 pounds trying to join the military. Asked him what he does for exercise. What a blank stare on his face. Asked him if he was part of the Nitendo - Twinkie generation. How in the H_ll does a parent let their child get to be 283 pounds. I can just imagine what his parents look like. I am just amazed, yet not surprised, of the lack of parental (supervision, control, guidance) of their kid's health and well being.

I agree that I am toting an extra 5-10 pounds around, but an extra 100? One of the first things I noticed when moving to Iowa was amount of people who are what I call "corn fed". I would go in the store and see whole families who were large. I was waiting to hear farm animal noises. Don't mention the local buffet restaurants. With some of these families, I do not know how they stay in business.

<-------- Runs With Scissors
D'Elle


So true, and I so do remember. I see kids of eight or six talking on cell phones and cannot get used to it. I never had TV to watch, because my parents did not approve of it and we did not own one, and I have always been grateful for that. I didn't really care that much about what I was missing at the time, and since then I have realised how many books I read and how much time I spent outdoors as a result.

Thank you! I enjoyed this!

I laugh about this everyday......in my neighborhood, all of the kids have scooters - but not regular scooters like ours were, they started out with battery operated and now have gas powered scooters!!! Now, they don't even have to stand on the darn scooters, they have seats on their "gas powered scooters"!

I have a 4 year old son but I am trying my best to raise him like I was raised. We do not have video games, and all of the other technology, I thiink that it rots the brain. My hubby on the other hand says that it develops eye hand cooridination.......so does playing baseball!! I hope I"m doing the right thing. I just believe that he needs to learn appreciation, success and most importantly, disappointment at a young age but life is not fair!

Oh yeah, when I was 5, I broke my foot - I jumped off the top of a slide. Then when I was 9, I broke my elbow playing P.E. at school and had to have 2 surgeries to correct it. NO LAW SUITS IN EITHER ACCIDENT. If it had happened in today's time, the child welfare people probably would have taken me.

My son stood up in a chair at 10 months old and broke his collar bone- I was questioned for 30 min and my mother was as well.

Boy, times have changed!!!!!

ever did this crazy thing?? When I was a kid growing up inthe 70's we used to gather at a friend's house to play a game called "Spud". I don't remember exactly how it was played. It involved a circle of people with one person in the center of the circle with a ball. The person in the middle of the circle would heave the ball way up into the air and yell "Spud"!! Then the circle of people would scatter and try to hide as the ball came down and the person from the middle would catch it, then run and try and tag someone who didn't hide (or run) fast enough. The stupid (or dangerous thing) some of us would do, as during the summer, our local mosquito abatement truck would drive by at dusk and spray a REALLY THICK cloud of mosquito chemicals into the surrounding air along the road, would run through/into the thick cloud and run into the woods across from the yard. We were able to hide before the white chemical smoke would dissapate


We also played "flashlight tag" after dark without fear of being abducted and we used to ride sitting on the tailgate (closed) of our station wagon with our upper bodies out the window. We sat on the edge of the closed tailgate and hung onto the luggage rack rail on the roof of the car as my parents drove down to the lake or to the local store.

Oh we played that flashlight thing as well!

Oh happy days, and the good thing was we were never bored!.

I was born IN 1978, and I remember being able to do ALL of these things. My mother had a little 'lay-down bed thing for me for the car back then, and she wasnt required to buckle me in. Things have still changed DRASTICALLY scince then!

And...we could make prank phone calls and not get caught with caller ID.
For those who missed out:

Kid, dials grocery store down the block...Hello, do you have pigs feet?
Grocery man: Well, hold on, let me check.

Grocery man, comes back from checking and responds... Why yes, Miss I do.

Kid says...Well then, were in the hell do you buy your shoes?

Left us in stitches everytime..poor kids of today..no fun at all!

Oh boy, I remember that list growing up..

Originally Posted by NavDoc

Thanks for the memories.

I just weighed in a 17 year old male at 283 pounds trying to join the military. Asked him what he does for exercise. What a blank stare on his face. Asked him if he was part of the Nitendo - Twinkie generation. How in the H_ll does a parent let their child get to be 283 pounds. I can just imagine what his parents look like. I am just amazed, yet not surprised, of the lack of parental (supervision, control, guidance) of their kid's health and well being.

I agree that I am toting an extra 5-10 pounds around, but an extra 100? One of the first things I noticed when moving to Iowa was amount of people who are what I call "corn fed". I would go in the store and see whole families who were large. I was waiting to hear farm animal noises. Don't mention the local buffet restaurants. With some of these families, I do not know how they stay in business.

Click to expand...

WE did not have FAST FOOD and Nintendo and all the video games. WE did not sit on our Arses after school WE were out playing.

When my brother was about 4 he would leave our home and go door to door introducing himself "Hi my name is Hael" and ask the neighbors "do you have some candy"? They adored him and NOBODY thought to harm him. IN warm summer nights I would take off at a run and run to the top of the hills and sit at a bus stop and just look over the city (SF) and nobody ever even approached me.

Too much TV and too much copy cats due to media and the world is no longer a safe place for adults OR children.

Originally Posted by Mom of Franz

And...we could make prank phone calls and not get caught with caller ID.
For those who missed out:

Kid, dials grocery store down the block...Hello, do you have pigs feet?
Grocery man: Well, hold on, let me check.

Grocery man, comes back from checking and responds... Why yes, Miss I do.

Kid says...Well then, were in the hell do you buy your shoes?

Left us in stitches everytime..poor kids of today..no fun at all!

Click to expand...

WE had our own gangs! THe GOOD kids and bad kids (not really bad just bullies) and the bad kids would make the good kids scream and run by yelling bad names at us such as "GENERAL ELECTRIC"! LOL! We would plug our ears and run home!!!!

My brother played with Army men and I worried he would become a fighter and buy guns. HE is the biggest pasifist I have ever known!

AS a child he and his friends had a game they played. They would call a number out of the phone book at random. When the person picked up the phone he and his friends would tell them they were phone repairmen working on the phone lines, and NOT to use the phone for so long as otherwise they would be electricuted. THEN they would call the people back and when the people would answer they would scream like they were dying. NOBODY called the police. Nobody seemed to mind!

WE had a TV but were always too busy to watch. AS a just out of my teens girl, I did not drve as I could go anywhere on a dime. When we moved to a non incorperated area there were no busses for about 2 miles so I hitchiked. ONe day I hitched a ride with 2 guys and I was in the back of a Van. Suddenly I started remembering all I had been warned about. Finally I became scared and asked to be let out at the corner. When I spoke up I scared them half to death. They not only had no intentions of harming me - they had forgotton I was even there!

I remember being 12 yrs. old in 1970, riding my 10-speed bicycle, wearing a bathing suit (I wasn't developed at all then!!).

Can you imagine a 12 yr. old doing that NOW!!!!

Yep...drank water RIGHT from the hose in the backyard... stayed out 'til dark and had to come back inside when the local churchbell rang.... We rode our bikes or walked or rollerskated EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!! And we just stayed away from suspicious bad men who might offer us some candy No abductions going on, like they are now, so we felt safe and sound playing hide and seek and running around with jars to catch lightening bugs. Oh gosh, I SO miss those days!

When I was a kid growing up inthe 70's we used to gather at a friend's house to play a game called "Spud". I don't remember exactly how it was played. It involved a circle of people with one person in the center of the circle with a ball. The person in the middle of the circle would heave the ball way up into the air and yell "Spud"!! Then the circle of people would scatter and try to hide as the ball came down and the person from the middle would catch it, then run and try and tag someone who didn't hide (or run) fast enough

Click to expand...

I remember SPUD! Only when we played, the person who threw the ball would call out someone else's name. That person had to run back and catch the ball and yell FREEZE. Everyone then had to stop in their tracks. The person with the ball could only take 4 steps calling out S P U D. Then you had to hit the person with the ball! If you hit the person, you got to choose the next person. If you didn't, that person threw the ball in the air for you.

I was watching a show the other day, and they were talking about backyard safety. One of the tips was never leaving the child outside alone. My mom NEVER sat outside with us! If you were in your backyard, you were safe!

I remember SPUD! Only when we played, the person who threw the ball would call out someone else's name. That person had to run back and catch the ball and yell FREEZE. Everyone then had to stop in their tracks. The person with the ball could only take 4 steps calling out S P U D. Then you had to hit the person with the ball! If you hit the person, you got to choose the next person. If you didn't, that person threw the ball in the air for you.

Click to expand...

Yes!! That's right!! Thanks for jogging my memory!! I do recall that the group would scatter and hide as the one person got called back to catch the ball, that way he/she had a harder time with yelling FREEZE!! If many were quick enough to vanish! But, yes, those were the best times of my life.

I also grew up in a house with NO air conditioning whatsoever. We used to have basement PJ parties or we would go down to the lake at 1:00 am for a swim to cool off. Sometimes my father (and only my father) would even sleep the entire night on the pier.