!
Black and White TV
(Under age 40? You won't understand.)
You could hardly see for all the snow,
Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go.
Pull a chair up to the TV set,
'Good Night, David.
Good Night, Chet.'
My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.
My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter and I used to eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice pack coolers, but I can't remember getting e.coli.
Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the river instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.
The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.
We all took gym, not PE...and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now.
Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.
Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.
We must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.
I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.
I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.
Oh yeah... and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed!
We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked.
Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.
We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either; because if we did we got our butt spanked there and then we got our butt spanked again when we got home.
I recall Freddie Holiday from down the street coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off.
Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house (no lawsuits back then).
Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck.
To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family.
How could we possibly have known that?
We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes.
We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac!
How did we ever survive?
I hear ya loud and clear!! Times sure have changed! Everybody's excuse is Bi-Polar now LOL. I know when I was a kid and I acted Bi-Polar, I got the belt and I wasn't Bi-Polar anymore LOL!!
Quote from: Crappiepro on February 26, 2012, 08:39:39 AM
I hear ya loud and clear!! Times sure have changed! Everybody's excuse is Bi-Polar now LOL. I know when I was a kid and I acted Bi-Polar, I got the belt and I wasn't Bi-Polar anymore LOL!!
Not to mention kids in school acting up or daydreaming, go get a swat from the principle and it straigtened you right out, no attention problems after that, now most kids are A.D.H.D and given drugs to control their behaviour
when I was little belt control was most effective and thankful everyday that it was used when necessary. it has showed to be a success in my case.
Im 35 and can remember that. I feel the same way.
What ever saved us from ourselves. The times, they are a changin'...
not to mention hand me downs,one pair of shoes a year(who needed shoes in the summer),and in the winter you didn't just turn the thermometer up,had to tote the fire wood in and keep a fire all night.and i cant begin to recall how many times i got my back side wore out by the neighbor,mom would just thank them then give me some more, sure was tough then(what i wouldn't give to go back)
get in trouble at school the teacher or principle would whoop your @$$. Mama finds out you get some more. And it wasn't a spanking eather.
AMEN
This post brings back fond memories and some painful ones as well!
:smiley-patriotic-flagwaver-an
No offense but it your mom really was that unsanitary in the kitchen you really are pretty lucky you survived
Quote from: Brent on February 26, 2012, 01:31:15 PM
No offense but it your mom really was that unsanitary in the kitchen you really are pretty lucky you survived
Do you always believe everything you read?The tooth fairy will pay you a visit no doubt!
Quote from: Sherrell on February 26, 2012, 04:01:55 PM
Quote from: Brent on February 26, 2012, 01:31:15 PM
No offense but it your mom really was that unsanitary in the kitchen you really are pretty lucky you survived
Do you always believe everything you read?The tooth fairy will pay you a visit no doubt!
In that case, why would you make up a horrible story like that about your mom and then put it on the internet?
It was forwarded from someone to me..please use your head for something other than a hat rack.
Leave my mother out of this HOSS!!!
Like I said in my first post no offense. No need for the insults and the internet tough guy stuff there's an abundance of those anyway without you deciding you need to be one.
I remember going to my grandparent's house....they had no running water, heated with fire places, no TV or radio. Did have electricy and had strings running from one overhead light bulb to another where you could reach them laying in bed.
Used bed pans to go to the bathroom at night...or go to the outhouse and that was rough on freezing cold night.
We would sit in front of the fireplace in old home made chairs and stare at the fire for entertainment on cold winter night.
Only milk was straight from the cow and I hated it. Remember my grandmother chuning butter and hand cranking that old ice cream maker for half the morning.
Gathering up eggs to take to town and sell. We made forts with the bales of hay in the hay loft, tried to stay on the yrling calves, had corn Cobb fights, go out at night and shoot rabbits that were everywhere back then and then take them to town and sell them for 50 cents apiece.
One of my grand parents had a rooster that I hated and it would chase me everytime I went out back. One day I'd had enough and took one of them big old cooking forks out there and was going to kill it. That thing jumped on me and whipped my butt. I wasn't but about 4 or 5 I think.
Could go on and on....that was the good old days for me.
Quote from: Brent on February 26, 2012, 09:12:32 PM
Like I said in my first post no offense. No need for the insults and the internet tough guy stuff there's an abundance of those anyway without you deciding you need to be one.
Just like when a individual brings up a mans mother who has passed.he does it in person not behind a keyboard.YOU can proceed Sir with the final word...the floor will be all yours! ;).
Actually you brought up your mother when you said she used to cut up chicken and then stick the knife in the mayonnaise jar. I just took you at your word and said you were lucky to have survived that. If the guy that sent that to you is telling the truth he's lucky to have survived that. I can't imagine how you would take that as a slight at your mom.
Now back to the real world; I'm very sorry your mother has passed and I hope you got to enjoy the time you had to spend with her. I'm still fortunate enough to have mine and I thank the LORD daily for her and the rest of my family. Good luck to you this season.