I turned out OK

Oh, the good old days. They were the best!. ... as a kid on a farm, when it was lunch time, I went to the garden and 'picked' my lunch, and then for desert went to a nut tree or the grapevines, and yes, drank from a hose. Life was simple. :)
 

My school day not only started with the Pledge but also the Lord's Prayer (and it was a public school). No parents descended on the school objecting.

We also left school once a week for an hour of "Weekday Religious Education" at a nearby Protestant church. It was optional but I don't remember very many kids opting out. Imagine that happening today?
 
We burned leaves in our driveway, dumped crankcase oil in out gravel driveway, put out garbage in paper sacks then in metal garbage cans that were loved by flies, wrapped everything in wax paper, ate hot dogs that turned the water red, ate tons of white bread and once in a while grabbed a BB gun, went out in the back yard and shot a bird.
 
My dad built me stilts. First a small set, then a tall pair. I guess he thought I'd be too busy to bother him if I was learning to do something else. We used to make our own kites from newspaper and sticks. I used to pick elderberries and then sell them to a local shop who did something with them for $2 a bushel. That was my first job. Didn't like drinking from the hose. Did play in the creek. Did I turn out all right? The jury is still out on that.
 
Having grown up in the days when military pay was quite bad and my dad in the army, there wasn't much money to pay for toys. I set up my own puppet theater from card board boxes and made puppets from other kinds of card board and wrote my own scripts. I never really missed toys. It just made me have to be creative. And I had a set of the Wonder Books, which I really loved. I could always get books from the school library. Not like nowadays where I think I have to buy books. I feel like I really learned to entertain myself. I I don't think kids of today really learn that so well.
 
Children are not as damaged by hardships & poverty as they are by abuse. Many abused children become decent, honest adults in spite of, rather than because of their upbringing.
 
I did those things also. I was also taught to be respectful. If I referred to a person as he or she my Mom would always say they have names,use them.
One of my fondest memories was my Dad helping me build a kite. We use paper bags all glued together. He made the frame and then I spent hours coloring it. Finally the day came to fly it. It was taller than I was. We took it to a big vacant lot He did a lot of running that day and I remember him adding a big long tail. The highlight of the day was sending a note up the string of the kite. I can still see it getting smaller and smaller. Great memories.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top