I Grew Up Back When - Post Your Memories...

carouselsilver said:
I do wonder about the current generation of kids growing up in these troubled times. and I mean the troubles are beyond anything that we could have imagined; Covid, constantly being exposed to negative social media, not knowing the simple pleasure of just being in the moment without whipping out a phone to "capture the moment." Our brains are perfectly able to capture moments!

I can remember, as a child, lying on my stomach in the grass and watching tiny insects marching back and forth. I can remember standing by the garage and nibbling on honeysuckle flowers, sucking the sweetness out of them. Getting excited when exploring was rewarded by finding a cherry tree. Getting lost in a field of grass that was taller than me, and feeling as frightened as if I were lost in a jungle. Thinking that maple seedlings were angel wings. Ah, memories.
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Yes and we never had to worry about being shot or killed when while we were in school !
 
~You better not have talked back let alone cursed in front of your parents (or their peers).
~Everyone's family looked out for one another so if you misbehaved, someone else's parent set you straight and told your parents.
~We went to church every Sunday and were there for a good part of the day. We children went to Sunday school, then there was church service at 11:00. Usually by the time church let out and the brief socializing was done, it would be 1:45 or 2:00 when we got home.
~Ladies and girls wore our fine dresses, gloves and hats. Men wore suits. ties and hats.
~We'd eat dinner after church. Everything was made from scratch and absolutely delicious. 😛
~We played outside: hopscotch, jumped double dutch and raced our turtles up the street.
~I lived in an integrated neighborhood and we all played together without issues. Never heard any name calling.
~When it started getting dark, it was time to go home. And Mama and Daddy better not have to call you in.
~The churches ran bus rides to Coney Island and Rye Beach.
~I used to enjoy going to the church teas. I loved the colorful finger sandwiches and petits fours.
~When I got a little older, I went with my friends to Palisades Amusement Park in N.J.
@Pecos
 

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OneEyedDiva said:
~You better not have talked back let alone cursed in front of your parents (or their peers).
~Everyone's family looked out for one another so if you misbehaved, someone else's parent set you straight and told your parents.
~We went to church every Sunday and were there for a good part of the day. We children Went to Sunday school, then there was church service at 11:00. Usually by the time church let out and the brief socializing was done, it would be 1:45 or 2:00 when we got home.
~Ladies and girls wore our fine dresses, gloves and hats. Men wore suits. ties and hats.
~We'd eat dinner after church. Everything was made from scratch and absolutely delicious. 😛
~We played outside: hopscotch, jumped double dutch and raced our turtles up the street.
~I lived in an integrated neighborhood and we all played together without issues. Never heard any name calling.
~When it started getting dark, it was time to go home. And Mama and Daddy better not have to call you in.
~The churches ran bus rides to Coney Island and Rye Beach.
~I used to enjoy going to the church teas. I loved the colorful finger sandwiches and petits fours.
~When I got a little older, I went with my friends to Palisades Amusement Park in N.J.
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I guess we all pretty much did the same things, Diva. I have fond memories of those days, but then we were carefree kids.
 
carouselsilver said:
My experience was the opposite. My mother took me out of public school due to excessive and extreme bullying. At Catholic school I was safe because the nuns did not allow bullying; they were very strict.
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Yet who stops the man who took it upon himself to slap me across the face for no reason. This on a day he had visited going up and down the rows of desks to what, inspect....
Who was he....I don't think he was the pope ....the next higher from the priests there
Yes, they were strict.
No bullies when they were the bullies. As far as him.
She took me out immediately.
Too it costs money for uniforms and dues. Why pay if they get to have housekeepers and go around slapping kids for no reason.
Maybe it was their way to make room for the richer kids to give them more money.
 
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I grew up back when.....a sixty year old man could take his 10 year old neighbor boy fishing. Loaded up the truck and drove to the lake the night before, slept in the truck till dawn then got out on the lake at daybreak.

Think that would happen these days?
 
OneEyedDiva said:
~You better not have talked back let alone cursed in front of your parents (or their peers).
~Everyone's family looked out for one another so if you misbehaved, someone else's parent set you straight and told your parents.
~We went to church every Sunday and were there for a good part of the day. We children went to Sunday school, then there was church service at 11:00. Usually by the time church let out and the brief socializing was done, it would be 1:45 or 2:00 when we got home.
~Ladies and girls wore our fine dresses, gloves and hats. Men wore suits. ties and hats.
~We'd eat dinner after church. Everything was made from scratch and absolutely delicious. 😛
~We played outside: hopscotch, jumped double dutch and raced our turtles up the street.
~I lived in an integrated neighborhood and we all played together without issues. Never heard any name calling.
~When it started getting dark, it was time to go home. And Mama and Daddy better not have to call you in.
~The churches ran bus rides to Coney Island and Rye Beach.
~I used to enjoy going to the church teas. I loved the colorful finger sandwiches and petits fours.
~When I got a little older, I went with my friends to Palisades Amusement Park in N.J.
@Pecos
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Palisades amusement park! We went there a lot; such good memories!
 
I grew up back when transistor radios were the hot high tech item. My parents gave me my first one for Xmas with much ceremony in the mid-1960’s that was this Westinghouse, but in a different color. It cost the then-princely sum of around $20, and only played the AM band. It came with a carrying case!

Prices came down when the Japanese produced models that you could buy for as little as $5. I scraped up money so I could eventually buy an AM/FM model, and listen to jazz out of NYC. I envied a friend who had a Sony model big enough to have a carrying handle. He got a lot of stations clearly on that Sony, a premium model of the day.

Mostly, though, kids would carry their cheaper transistor radios around, and pass time in the summer listening to Cousin Brucie playing top 40 hits on WABC out of New York City...

D7A6676A-9F9E-4203-9470-408DA2E3E408.jpeg
 
I think it’s a shame that with all of this woke crap going on, along with gender and sex ID and CRT, most of the little ones today may not know what a great childhood they missed out on.

I know from reading former posts on this forum that some of you did not have a good childhood and that’s a shame also. We always had kids around in my small town growing up. Hardly anyone sat indoors everyday. It was a great time back then.
 
One of my items I wrote for our hometown newspaper several years ago.


The sun is starting to set on Gold St. back in the fifties. One more week until school starts and we have a lot of playing to do before it starts. It was a much easy going time as there was very few TV sets, video games, etc. We had to invent our own games and things to do.

Anyway, I'm rushing through my supper as a fierce game of kick the can will soon be starting. Mom says, why are you eating so fast? I explain to her that Terry, Warren Teddy, Jimmy and a few more guys are meeting outside by the street light in a few minutes to start the games.

Later, as everyone has had their fill off kick the can, we would sneak around in peoples back yards, between Gold and Rexford St, and "borrow" a few apples and then we might see how many fireflies each one of us could catch. Our faces dripping with sweat, we would sneak into into our clubhouse, which was a building attached to the back of my parents garage. The clubhouse was well stocked with "penny" candy and comic books. My mom wouldn't allow candles in the old clubhouse, so we had several Roy Rogers or Hopalong Cassidy flashlights hidden in secrect places to read by. Batteries didn't last very long back then, but we managed to finish up our reading.

Then came the dreaded call. "Time to come in, it's time for bed." Time for a bath and off to dreamland. My dreams....what are we going to do tomorrow night?
 
I grew up during the 50's - 60's.
Playing cowboys & Indians in the woods behind our house.
Going to to the old swimming hole down in the creek .
Winters sledding , snowball fights & snowmen.

Later when I bought a horse ,,it was off to where ever on it.
Really upset my mother who was afraid of horses.

Heard a lot of,"I wish you would tell me where you are going."

How could I when I didn't know,until I got there.
There were a few guys & girls that had horses & we did meet up at times.;)
 
Pepper said:
The two boys in the picture look like twins!
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Note the long hair on those boys, obviously not my generation. Boys wore their hair short. In fact I remember a girlfriend and I were walking downtown when we saw this rather large person with long beautiful hair, we ran in front of the person to try to figure out the gender, he also had a long beard. We had never seen a man with long hair before that one. In fact when the Beatles came along everyone was shocked by their "long" hair. Then boys and men started wearing their hair longer than before.
 
Fyrefox said:
I grew up back when transistor radios were the hot high tech item. My parents gave me my first one for Xmas with much ceremony in the mid-1960’s that was this Westinghouse, but in a different color. It cost the then-princely sum of around $20, and only played the AM band. It came with a carrying case!

Prices came down when the Japanese produced models that you could buy for as little as $5. I scraped up money so I could eventually buy an AM/FM model, and listen to jazz out of NYC. I envied a friend who had a Sony model big enough to have a carrying handle. He got a lot of stations clearly on that Sony, a premium model of the day.

Mostly, though, kids would carry their cheaper transistor radios around, and pass time in the summer listening to Cousin Brucie playing top 40 hits on WABC out of New York City...

View attachment 215918
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Cousin Brucie! Wow, that takes me back! WABC was my fave station. I got a Panasonic radio for Christmas when I was fourteen. I lived with that thing, took it to bed and listened all night.
https://external-content.duckduckgo...47523614414b0f21c4754ec0489126.jpg&f=1&nofb=1
 
squatting dog said:
View attachment 215997
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This brings back a memory of romance between two teachers. I was in the second or third grade, and I remember my teacher, a woman, sending a note to a male teacher down the hall, and him sending one back via another student. It wasn't until some of the students started giggling when this male teacher came into the classroom to speak to our teacher, that I realized that a romance was going on between them. I thought it was romantic.
 
quid.jpg
We used to have these, you were well off with a couple of them in your pocket.
quid coin.jpg
Now we have the pound coin, it's not worth a light.
ten bob.jpg
With ten bob, you could treat your girlfriend to the cinema, have a drink afterwards and probably have enough for your bus fare home.
ten bobby.jpg
Nowadays the ten shilling equivalent is the 50 pence coin, just like the pound coin, it's not worth a light.
For those not familiar with British currency, both the ten shillings and the fifty pence are exactly half of the pound. (stirling)
 
carouselsilver said:
My experience was the opposite. My mother took me out of public school due to excessive and extreme bullying. At Catholic school I was safe because the nuns did not allow bullying; they were very strict.
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Most of the Nun's I had were crazy. They would always have a yardstick in their hand and hit you with it if they thought you were misbehaving. Another thing I remember from the past was getting under your desk to protect you from an atomic bomb. Like a wooden desk would protect you.
 
The Fuller Brush Man came to the house to offer his wares (which were quality)
An afternoon at the movies meant a cartoon and 2 movies (not old enough for news reels)
Long afternoons reading a book while lying in the grass in the shade of a tree
We sang school songs at assembly (even into high school)

It wasn't a perfect time, but it definitely had it's good points!
 
Sassycakes said:
Most of the Nun's I had were crazy. They would always have a yardstick in their hand and hit you with it if they thought you were misbehaving. Another thing I remember from the past was getting under your desk to protect you from an atomic bomb. Like a wooden desk would protect you.
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@Sassycakes, I'm sorry you have such bad memories of nuns. The nuns I knew were nice--even funny at times--though strict. Wish we could re-write our history sometimes (with different people). =(
 
CinnamonSugar said:
@Sassycakes, I'm sorry you have such bad memories of nuns. The nuns I knew were nice--even funny at times--though strict. Wish we could re-write our history sometimes (with different people). =(
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I wish we could change some things from the past. I had one Nun in High School that pulled me out of my chair and threw me on the floor. Then she said, "Oh I made a mistake ,I meant to throw Miss Ryan on the floor."Then she threw the girl behind me on the floor.She never apologised to me or helped me up.
 
Sassycakes said:
Most of the Nun's I had were crazy. They would always have a yardstick in their hand and hit you with it if they thought you were misbehaving. Another thing I remember from the past was getting under your desk to protect you from an atomic bomb. Like a wooden desk would protect you.
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I did see a nun smack another girl, but I escaped that sort of abuse, fortunately!
 
I did have some pleasant times with some of the Nun's. When I was in grade school if you got good marks you were allowed to miss school for a week and help clean the convent. I remember when I was in fourth grade and cleaning a nun's bedroom she came in with her bathrobe on and I finally got to see her hair. She had it in a long braid that went all the way down to her feet. She looked at me with a smile and asked me not to tell anyone that I had seen her hair.I never told my classmates. She was a very gentle person and the best teacher.
 


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