How Did We Survive?
 

HOW DID WE SURVIVE?

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.

Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was
always a special treat.

Our baby cribs were painted with bright colored lead based paint.

We often chewed on the crib, ingesting the 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.

We would spend hours building our go-carts
out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot
the brakes.

After running into the bushes a few times we learned to
solve the problem.

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.

We played dodgeball and sometimes the ball would really
hurt.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank sugar soda,
but we were never over weight; we were always outside playing.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the
team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

Some students weren't as smart as others or didn't
work hard so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same
grade.

That generation produced some of the greatest risk-takers and
problem solvers.

We had the freedom, failure, success and responsibility and we
learned how to deal with it all.

Ah-men!!

i second that brother . .i was tought to learn from my mistakes and take responsiblity for my own actions. . . .how the hell did i get this far in one piece. man i did some stupid stuff in my day :rolleyes: . . .but it sure was fun :D

Along comes technology and there are all these little whiney ass brats who play computer games all day long and eat cheeto's. Through temper tantrums when they dont get their way and the parents cant do a damn thing for fear of being reported to child services for abuse!!! :mad:
Hell back when i was growing up we had the fear of being beat to a pulp in us! If you screwed up, YOU WERE GONNA GET WHOOPED! no if's, and's, or buts!.....well, sore butts but thats the way things were!
I dont understand where things took a turn for the worse? I think it was somewhere around 1990 during my Senior year of Highschool that i noticed all these little kids coming to school (freshman) man i remember my first year as a freshman and we were just a tad smaller hieght wise then the Seniors.....these little kids looked like they just got out of 6th grade!!! And all of them looked pale like they have never seen the sun! All from sitting inside and playing games! I think they should maybe put a limit to some of the game technology so these kids get bored and actually get outside and do normal kid things!

and dont forget,our parents could woop our a#$%......and I never figured out that brakes thing on my go cart.....I let my little brothers try them out first.......and dont forget...the cars were made of real metal then,not recycled beer and soda cans!!!!


NOW get back to work and sell my boat!!!!!!!

AMEN. I think it was called personal responsibility. Today, everybody is a damn victim of something and needs time to heal along with a financial settlement.

I remember too, growing up, that I was guilty until proven innocent . These days, all you hear parents say is "not my Johnny". No, really lady your little Johnny is a pain in the *&^*%$ ass.:rolleyes:

God I sound old:D :D

The bottom line is we were just lucky because everyone knows that “It Takes A Village” to raise children these days to protect them against all the things that were common when we were growing up, such as:

Asbestos – all public buildings, including my schools were insulated with asbestos.

DDT – yes we sprayed bugs with it and I ate food that had been sprayed with (as well as dirt).

Lead Paint – already mentioned.

Walk/Don’t Walk Signs – If a car or truck was coming we didn’t walk in front of it.

Trigger Locks – once you showed common sense your Dad taught you how to handle a gun.

Knee/Elbow Pads – Hey I was proud of my scabs and scars.

Hazardous Warnings on Toys – You didn’t have to tell me how to play with a toy.

Sometimes progression is counter productive. I hate the f*&%ing feel good mentality with "positive reinforcement". Bull****, you can't cut it, get left behind and "FIGURE IT OUT". It used to make us try harder. Nowadays, it makes WHINE and COMPLAIN HARDER! Funny thing...if you took all the money in the country and distributed it equally to everyone, I would bet doallrs to donuts, that in 5 years, those who have it now, would have it again. If you can't and won't suck it up and deal with it, and work harder the next time, I feel no pity nor sense of urgency to bail you out. If you are looking for a hand out, move to a socialist country. We are capitalists, risk takers and comprised of individuals that have made untold sacrifices to get where we are, and I will not let you take it away because you are too god damned lazy to make it happen on your own! I will not tell you how good you are when you suck. I will tell you what I was told, if you would like to do better, try harder, make sacrifices and work at it. If you are not willing to apply yourself, it is no one else's fault but your own. DEAL WITH IT! No one owes you a thing. You owe alot to others, so get your ass in gear.

I'll step off my soap box now.

"As children we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags."
Maybe our parents were better drivers than we give credit for. Remeber, back then the speed limits were a lot higher thatn now.

'Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was
always a special treat."
You bet! But I remeber being taught the dangers of doing that back in the 3rd grade.

"Our baby cribs were painted with bright colored lead based paint. We often chewed on the crib, ingesting the paint."
Lead poisoning wasn't a concern I guess.

"We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets."
I as properly disciplined to not touch anything in the medicine cabinet.
It's just our government protecting us from ourselves. Lord knows I banged my head enough.

"We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle."
Bottled water was for rich and frivolous.

"We would spend hours building our go-carts
out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times we learned to solve the problem."
Ah, backyard mechanics. No place better to learn about physics.


"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."
I too was that way. Out playing, riding my bike, building forts in the woods, climbing trees, etc
Todays parks a recreation areas are no longer safe. They've been taken over by punks and drug dealers. Anybody that hangs out in those places long enough is loitering and labled a trouble maker.

"We played dodgeball and sometimes the ball would really
hurt."
Today that calls for a lawsuit. Todays kids are mostly pansies, can't take a hit and keep on going.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank sugar soda,
but we were never over weight; we were always outside playing."
That's the thing, we were outside playing, burning it off. Todays kids are kept indoors, seated in front ot the TV or computer playing video games munching on junk foods. Our parents, mine anyway, made us go out to play. Unless it was raining I was always outside.

"Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the
team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment."
Disappoinment is part of life. Learn to deal with it and learn fom it. It makes you strive to be better. The ones that always got what they wanted were called spoiled.

"Some students weren't as smart as others or didn't
work hard so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade."
Hell yes. I stayed back once (first grade) and even had to do summer school for failing freshman year high school. Obviously I'm not afraid to admit it either. I see nothing wrong with it. Failure is good it teaches us to work harder.

Wally made a good point:
"Along comes technology and there are all these little whiney ass brats who play computer games all day long and eat cheeto's. Through temper tantrums when they dont get their way and the parents cant do a damn thing for fear of being reported to child services for abuse!!!"
Goes back to not making the kids go out to play. TV makes a great babysitter but a poor substitute for human interaction.
If i got out of hand, WHAM!!,I got hit. Didn't matter if it's in public or private.

Posted by Iggy

Ain't that the truth, and if it DIDN'T happen in public you knew private was gonna be hell!!!:D

Things different today than when we grew up.

1. Cartoons that sell toys instead of attempting to blow up a road runner.

2. Color TV's that take 3 men and a boy to carry.

3. News agencies that attempt to make news instead of reporting it.

4. Liberal anti-self-protection lobbies.

5. Weather proof video cameras in every parking lot, store, school, intersection and cop car.

6. Video games

7. Today it's praised to be an indiviual that has contempt for all institutions that have given them the freedoms to be able to have public displays of contempt for those institutions.


Please add to the list as required.

Thanks jr, that's a good one.

Worthwhile things that we have today:

1. Skaters

2. OSO

3. Ford PSD's

4. The Food Channel

5. Last Sunday's Toddy Run.

6. Doug Lewis' remarkable new Cancer Treatment.

It's not all bad........ but a lot of it is hype. Sadly, in a world of dramatic new "business plans" and political correctness most of what is "new" is either old mediocre wine in new bottles (step bottomed boats)....... or worse.... absolute malarky (2nd generation "improved" step bottomed boats).


T2x

a seven ounce bottle of coke was 10 cents, now 3 something for a six pack. the surgeon general still declared smoking to cause cancer, yet we are sueing the tabacco companies for millions, hell billions because we cant read well enough.

One Thing Changed How Every Thing Used To Be..... LAWSUITS...... And Greety Lawyer's.....


Money Talks.....

Ain't that the truth.

Ahhh the good ol' days right Bro? Ass whoopin's were a pretty common thing.:eek:

Go-carts with no brakes................
 

This reminds me of when my dad finally bought that used rotor- tiller so I can up grade from 2 1/2hp to 5hp. I was still very young so when he installed it, he hooked up the throttle cable to the governer." You have to get used to it before you go wide open son", he said. About two months went by and while my dad was gone for the weekend, I decided I'm going to see what this 5hp Briggs and Stratton is made of. All I needed was a piece of a coat hanger, a machine screw, and move this spring over here instead of here ect. ect........Well for some of you that may not know, the governer on a small engine holds the throttle wide open when the engine is not running, and at idle when it is. I did not know this. So when I started this thing, the governer pulled the throttle wide open immediately and the cart took off spinning tires and all. Remember now, it is a pull start, so I'm not in it! I just stood there in horror and watched it scream across the driveway and head dead center for my dads motorhome. At first I thought it was going to fit under because of it height, but the steering wheel caught the drain for the holding tank. I then watched about 15 gallons of my family's human waste drain on the seat of my cart while it's spinning tires, now stuck under the motorhome. I went over and shut it off and went in and told my mom. She said "You better let me teel your dad about this". To this day my dad still reminds I owe him $500 for his holding tank.:D

Quote from my mother:

"Don't make me take off my shoe!!!"

Mom would hand out the physical punishments while Dad would just yell (bellow).
Mom used Dads clothes brush for spankings. It had a spring steel core, wrapped with leather and stiff natural bristles on one side. She'd start with the flat leather side to tenderize then flip it over and use the bristles for a lasting sting effect.:eek: :eek:
I hated that brush!!! Tried hiding it several times, which got me in more trouble than anything else. :mad:

Raypanic, ours was "Get the belt!!!!":eek:

So ya really think things are bad today??? Remember this...30 years from now THESE will be the good old days:eek:

how about chasing a fifth of yukon jack with a 2 liter of coke on the way to the non alchohol rock club ( 80's trend for highschool hangouts)

( we called them Pre alchohol nights);)

now THAT was just plain stupid. boy were we lucky.


we used to take a back road loop to "finish it off"
one time we stopped at the railroad tracks in my buddies full cam 1970 400 pontiac firebird formula ( pull me over red) and a cop stops facing us at the same tracks. lumpity lumpity lumpity lumpity we creap away with our foreheads just sweating.....

like I say. that was just plain stupid. :rolleyes:

speaking of gocarts,
I did the same thing with the throttle. briggs would never start at idle so i would hook the throttle cable over the butterfly bracket to open the throtle "some", well the dang thing fired up at 3/4 throttle and took off across the parking lot to hit a telephone pole and broke a front tie rod. I was heartbroken. I was only 10 you know!!!!

and the time the engine mount (which rides over the axle with two bearings allowing the axle to pass through) lost the front hold down bolt. the engine/mount pivoted about the axle under the torque and proceeded to pull the cable to full throttle. WITH ME ON BOARD. I could not reach the kill switch or the choke!!! the engine was laying back 90 degrees, blowin oil out the exhuast!!!.. I slalomed wildly down our subdivision road, screaming !!, till I finally spun out in the neighbors yard, and finally killed the engine.


oh, and the time I was sprinkling at my dad's golf course ( best summer job ever!!!) We would take frieds out with us at night to ride along as we moved sprinklers.
Well we ( me and bobby Johns) are fly'in down this hill in a toro truckster. I yelled the imfamous....."watch this" and hit the brakes and pulled the wheel.

Well this machine had 33" diameter tall rear tires with tread, unlike the cushman with low profile golfcard tires that LOVED to spin around in the wet grass.

we went a$$ over teakettle and the thing ended upside down on top of me, blowin white smoke out the exhaust. I was Pinned!!!. when Bobby finally stopped laughing, he tipped it over and i escaped. THOUGHT WE WERE GONNA NEED THE JAWS OF LIFE!!!!.

we bent the steering wheel somewhat round again and went on with our business.


oh , and the time I was about 10 and took a golf cart down the second biggest hill on the course . It's 6:30 am, I'm doing my first $2.00 a day job, picking up trash at the tees, well it was wet grass :D :D

so i hit the brakes and do a 30 degree pitch and slide all the way down the hill only to finally do a 180 and get thrown. well the golf cart decides to roll backward (ever so slighly faster that adrenaline can make my 10 year old legs run) and back into the pond. and sink

blub blub blub

it was a real long walk back to the clubhouse to see dad :rolleyes:

cart came out of the pond with seaweed hangin from the frame. wish i had a picture.

I did go on to race gocarts at age 28...hmmmmmmmmm
and i still have my original Margay racing cart I mentioned with that same briggs engine. I actually tried to start it this weekend with my 4 year old. same trick, hooked the throttle cable on the butterfly bracket. did n't start..........

will we ever learn...........

Anyone remember this little ditty.......

"You just wait until you father gets home." :(:(:(

That used to be the longest two hours of my life..........

Today, its "when your father, mother, or primary care giver comes to pick you up I will have to give them a full report of your activities."

I often think about this subject. Remember when:

Honesty, respect, morels, consideration and conscience were expected
Please and thank you was the norm
McDonalds was a treat
If you wanted extras,work!
Car, earn it!
Phone calls were limited
Curfews were honored
Don't swear,lie,or steel from your parents
When Dad just had to look at you
You could go on and on with this, All your points are valid
WE SURVIVED!!!!!

I found out yesterday that you shouldn't handle a new baby with acrylic nails, they carry fungus! Was in the hair & nail business for 28 years, handled my daughter as well as others.
THEY SURVIVED!!!!!

With Determination, Imagination, Trial & Error we figured it out
AND SURVIVED!!!!!



Marie


















































I could go on and on, Every one here is right

Clint Eastwood said it best in a movie (I forgot the name of it, so help me out here......He was getting chewed out by a gereral in a war era movie because his (Eastwood's) soldiers just took over an area/hill.

"General sir, my men overcame and adapted..........
THEY IMPROVISED"!

It all has to do with family values we had a full time Mother also.

I would never have even thought of back talking to my Father or worse yet a Grandparent!

And there was no 1-800 abuse you got “Discipline” at home or in School!

Trigger locks?? What’s that! You just did not touch the Old Mans guns Period any idiot knew that.

When I grew up we all had BB Guns (no one got hurt) at 11 years old Boy Scouts! Then at 12 First Gun with Instruction a .22 Bolt action single shot Rifle, At 14 year’s The Biggie The Prized Restricted Drivers License and a Motor Scooter, Then you knew you made it !




:)

"improvise, adapt and overcome!"