You kids today have it made...

[Layback Bear]

The 50's and 60's compared to today.
Then teachers ruled the class room.
Now the students and ACLU rule the class room.
--
Then drug reports on the news were by the ounce.
Now reported by the ton.
--
Then you could be out playing all day without a problem.
Now you can't sit on your front porch in safety.
--
Then kids mowed the neighbors lawn because they wanted to help out.
Now your parents have to pay a stranger to mow their own lawn. Kids are raised that way.
--
Then it was yes Sir and yes Ma'am.
Now $%%%#^ and &^$%##^&
--
Then they did hold a door for a woman or older person.
Now they push them out of the way so they can get ahead of them.
--
Then raising children was with the help of the parents, family, church, scouts, and friends.
Now raising children is with judges, courts, police and the ACLU.
--
Then your house and car was unlocked whether you were in them or not.
Now they are locked all the time.
--
Then children ask parents permission to do something.
Now the children tell the parents that they are going to do something.
---------------------
It sounds like I'm picking on the Now people and that is a mistake.
The Then people raised the Now people. Hopefully when the Now people become
the Then people a few years down the road, a better report can be given.

 

[pincushion]

You say that the past was harder and we have it all better off, but my dad is 49, and when he tells me about what he used to do when he was a kid and started to go drinking etc. The 70's and the 80's sounded so much better than they are now!

You got so much more freedom, he could finish school with a few half-decent O levels and walk into a comfortable job, yes I know there was still unemployment etc. Now, you need 20 odd qualifications just to get a half-decent job :O

You could walk into a pub at 16, and have a drink without no-one noticing or really caring, that was my dad's and his mates free time when you finished school

Harry - 17

This thread is mostly just fun remembering the old times and I doubt many truly feel things were actually better then - they were certainly different. As to the employment well when I left school (early 60's) I was lucky and walked into a job because I was recommended by a teacher but my mates were out of work for quite a while since unemployment was high just then. Things are a lot better now in many ways - for those who might have had racial problems then and for homosexuals for example - these are big advances. I think kids have it better in many ways but also have many influences and temptations now which we never had. We often think of our childhood as better perhaps because we do not look with adult eyes - WWII was a really significant impact on our parent's lives - something that most of us kids probably really didn't appreciate until much later. I had few relatives who actually talked about the past.

 

[Terronium 12]

Brilliant post, Bill. I can relate to much of that entire list despite being younger.

Yes, I was raised the old school way.

 

[x BlueRobot]

I do think we (kids) need to show more respect to people, but I think it's because the police, parents and teachers are not firm enough with kids when they start doing drugs, binge drinking and stealing etc.

Sorry don't want to hinder the positive atmosphere of this post, by all my complaining

Anyway, I'll probably say to my kids that it's much better for you than it was me

 

[strollin]

...
Then you could be out playing all day without a problem.
Now you can't sit on your front porch in safety.
...

This actually isn't true but is our perception due to media sensationalizing child kidnappings and such. Then, as now, your child was much more likely to be kidnapped, hurt or molested by a family member, neighbor or trusted friend. Stranger abductions and the like are extremely rare now just as they were back then, it's just that the media hypes it more.

 

[Layback Bear]

Well I'm not going to look into the statistics from back when and compare with now. We have many more news outlets compared to back then. That is true. My self and many others walked or hitched hike all over every where without ever having a problem day or night. I don't think you can do that now. I haven't seen any body hitching a ride in 30 years. Us kids would either hitch a ride or walk from Cottage Hills Ill. to Alton Ill. just to watch a movie that started in the evening. That's about 12 miles round trip. I worked at a Burger Chief in Alton 5 night a week when I was in high school and hitch hiked to and from. I don't think their is to many places in this country a child could do that today.

 

[Hopalong X]

Well I'm not going to look into the statistics from back when and compare with now. We have many more news outlets compared to back then. That is true. My self and many others walked or hitched hike all over every where without ever having a problem day or night. I don't think you can do that now. I haven't seen any body hitching a ride in 30 years. Us kids would either hitch a ride or walk from Cottage Hills Ill. to Alton Ill. just to watch a movie that started in the evening. That's about 12 miles round trip. I worked at a Burger Chief in Alton 5 night a week when I was in high school and hitch hiked to and from. I don't think their is to many places in this country a child could do that today.

LBear

That first 3-4 miles is still unlit.
Nice and gloomy at night until you almost hit the Beltline. LOL

Of course "we" weren't afraid of anything back then.
Brave and definitely naive.

 

[Layback Bear]

Is the State mental hospital still on rt 140? We were scared walking by at night. Years ago I lived all over that area. Elsa, Clifton Terrace, Godfry, Alton. I just looked and Clifton Terrace is big time money. When I was a kid their were two house and a bunch of corn fields. We lived in a old farm house with no running water. I remember walking the top bluffs to school in the winter and using the low road in the summer because the woods were too dense to make good time. At the top their was a one room, one teacher school with 6 grades. I think actually the system worked well because while you were doing your grade you were hearing and seeing the other grades. You could find more rattle snakes and copper heads than you could count around those bluffs.

 

[Hopalong X]

Yes it is still there. The inpatient section was closed back in the 80's when they emptied most of the hospitals nation wide.

All outpatient now or closed down.
Most of the buildings are full of asbestos and no money to do anything with them.

 

[Layback Bear]

My grandfather spent some time in that hospital. They thought he was crazy by he was just drunk. It took them about a year to figure it out and let him come home. Folks I'm not making these stories up. They are true.

 

[A Guy]

When I was a kid, we went out to play in the morning, and were gone all day. We'd go home when the street lights came on, or we heard our Moms yelling for us. If we had a football, we were all set. Baseball was harder, needed equipment and enough people. But we played with sticks and clothespins and rubber bands.

I'm sure it happened, but I can not remember anyone I know who only had one parent, or who were divorced.

There was the Vietnam war and the campus protests/riots on the news at night, but the worse I can remember is we couldn't go trick or treating one Halloween because the Zodiac killer was out and about somewhere.

We'd collect bottles and cash them in and get some candy. We'd stand on 2 sides of a street with a short piece of rope, and pull on them like we had a rope strung across the road when a car would come.

Big fights were on TV. Ali/Frazier, etc.

We'd go to the movies, and they'd show at least 3 movies, and always some Road Runner or Bugs Bunny cartoons. We'd go to the Ben Franklins before and buy Twizzle sticks, and candy necklaces and Milk Duds.

It does seem like simpler times. Were we safer, or were the bad things just less reported? We cartainly didn't have the media like it is now.

I grew up on the San Francisco Bay Area peninsula (still live there now), and there were hippies in the Haight Ashbury, protests in Beserkly (Berkley).

Drive in theaters, Roller rinks, miniature golf, Cruising, Playland at the Beach.

Looking back, we had it good, and we had fun. Again, better? I don't know, but sure seems so to me. A Guy

 

[pincushion]

I think it was much the same here in the UK as in the USA and perhaps there was more respect and trust then and we seemed more free. Children definitely had more freedom but were also at risk - I can remember a child dying at our primary school because he played with an extendible platform and got his head caught in the mechanism. Child sexual abuse was perhaps as much prevalent then but was simply not reported - I had such experiences and never told anyone until much later.

I think the media has played on our fears to make us feel less secure but as pointed out the crimes that seem to make us such have not essentially become worse - they are still rare, it is just our perceptions that have changed. I think many of the good things that can be pointed to today often outweigh some things we have lost - for example, in our TV programmes and other media we are much more relaxed and allow greater liberties to be taken - especially with humor - although some still seem able to push through the boundaries and to cause offence. In the UK we are much more integrated racially and shows of emotion are normal now rather than being concealed and frowned upon. I don't think we change essentially - we just adapt to our environment and circumstances. When we were kids one fluffy toy was enough but now it seems one is not satisfied until at least a dozen are acquired - perhaps just a result of more wealth generally.

 

[Joan Archer]

You mention playing with sticks Bill, we did that but we put them in the drains that ran in the gutters to use them as cricket stumps. Our street was cobbled and we'd dig out a hole inbetween a couple so we could play marbles. At the top of the street there was a church with trees in the grounds and come Autumn the leaves would fall on the pavement in the street and we put them in lines as if making sections of a house with the different rooms.

We'd go to the cinema on a Saturday morning for the matinée, have one film and trailers of others plus cartoons and quite often get an orange and apple when we went in.

On bonfire night there was always a big fire in the street and we'd bring our own potatoes to stick in the bottom of the fire to cook, someone would be in charge of the fireworks but we'd usually have sparklers of our own.

We weren't ruled by possessions back then so if someone had something we didn't it was no big deal they'd probably share with us anyway. We had respect for our parents and teachers so when you were told to do something you did it.

Would I want that time back, in some ways yes as things were simpler but in others no but one things for sure I don't look forward to whats ahead and feel sorry for the youth of today and wonder what they have to look forward to.

 

[strollin]

I think we all look back at our childhood years and perceive that we were safer, or that times were better, but I believe it's because, as a child, we were unaware of the dangers out there and we were totally care free. We didn't need to worry about the mortgage payment, the electric bill , car payment, etc... nor did we need to worry about the welfare of our family. As an adult, we have a relatively much larger burden to bare than we ever did as a child. I think that, whether we realize it or not, that's the aspect of our childhood we miss the most.

 

[DirtRider]

I don't know for me this side I know it was much safer back then. These days there are public places that you just don't go to alone even as an adult let alone as a child. Then this is a product of a changing Africa I suppose

 

[Joan Archer]

I think we all look back at our childhood years and perceive that we were safer, or that times were better, but I believe it's because, as a child, we were unaware of the dangers out there and we were totally care free. We didn't need to worry about the mortgage payment, the electric bill , car payment, etc... nor did we need to worry about the welfare of our family. As an adult, we have a relatively much larger burden to bare than we ever did as a child. I think that, whether we realize it or not, that's the aspect of our childhood we miss the most.

Well at least my parents didn't have to worry about the mortgage or car payments, they didn't have either, they did have to make sure they had enough hay and corn for the horse though.

 

[msdos622wasfun]

Yes, the eighties were a simpler time. A six-sided multi-colored cube that you could rotate provided hours of entertainment, and text-oriented games on a green monitor on my Apple //e made me happy.

 

[JimJoe]

Hmm. I grew up during Segragation and right after WW2. Lots of prejudices and hatefulness.

But I also remember penny candy. 10 cent comic books. a half-pound burger costing 25 cents. Two movie features, and a cartoon, for 65 cents at the local movie theater.

 

[Borg 386]

I did like the comics back then. Some scans from my collection....

 

[strollin]

I remember penny candy and 10 cent comic books and I also remember making $1.35/hour at my first job.

When my daughter got her first job making $8.50/hr, I mentioned to her that I made $1.35 at my first job. She laughed and teased me saying, "Ha-ha, I make more than you did at your first job." I then asked her if she was sure about that, since gas was 27 cents a gallon back then meaning I could buy 5 gallons of gas with 1 hour's wage. With gas costing over $4 a gal now, she could buy only 2 gals. I also pointed out that going to the movies cost 50 cents back then and we got to see 2 movies and a cartoon while a movie today costs $9.50 and you only see a single movie. Her hourly wage wasn't even enough for her to enter the theater let alone buy any refreshments while my hourly wage got me into the theater with enough money left over to buy a soda or popcorn. She wasn't laughing anymore.

The good thing about the good old days was that you could actually live on the minimum wage, not so nowadays (at least here in the US).