Good Old Days
The Ragtime Midi Playing is called "Good Old Days" - enjoy
Looking back, it's hard to believe that
we have lived as long as we have.........
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we
rode our bikes, we had no helmets.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back
when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones. Unthinkable.
We played dodge ball and sometimes the ball would really hurt.
We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth and there were no law suits from
these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember
accidents?
We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get
over it.
We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda but we were never
overweight.........we were always outside playing.
We shared one grape soda with four friends, from one bottle and no one died
from this?
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X Boxes, and video games. TV was relativly new so we didn't have 99
channels on cable (cable -- what was that). We didn't have video tape movies, surround sound, personal cellular
phones, Personal Computers, or internet chat rooms,....
We went outside and found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home
and knocked on the door, or rung the bell, or just walked in and talked to
them. Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out
there in the cold cruel world! Without a guardian. How did we do it?
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we
were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes,
nor did the worms live inside us forever.
There was no "Little League" and no parents sticking their noses into our play, and trying to correct their own inadequacies through their kids. Baseball and Football teams were made by "bucking up", and not everyone made the team, unless you owned one of the few baseballs (usually covered with electrical tape). Games were usually played on "sand lots" and those who didn't play that day, had to learn to deal with disappointment.....
If yours was an active sports neighborhood, somehow the word got around to the right ears, and you might get a visit from one of the pro scouts who came to watch kids like "Donny Rollins", or "Weezie O'Connor" play, and maybe extend an ivitation to try out for the pros. Both Donny (my cousin) made the team, only to contract "Bulba Polio" in 1954 thus cancelling his pro career before it got off the ground. "Weezie" also got the invite to try out, but was ushered out of Fenway Park, the day of the tryouts when it was learned that "Weezie" was a nickname for Louise. Damn, she was gooooood. Best in the neighborhood.
Tests were not adjusted for any reason. Our actions were our own.
Consequences were expected. No one to hide behind. The idea of a parent
bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the
law, imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers
and inventors, ever.
The past 50 years has been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had
freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with
it all.
~ Try My Home Page ~
What did we have that we were so proud of, you ask? ........... we had friends.
Some students weren't as smart as others so they failed a grade and were held
back to repeat the same grade.....Horrors.