The Conservative Cave
The Bar => The Lounge => Topic started by: Janice on March 20, 2011, 04:32:31 PM
-
Every call I've gotten for years is just to sell me something or to get me to take a survey so they can sell me something later.
Communications and technology has gotten to where it's all business or begging in one way or the other. Simple human socializing has been left in the dirt in the wake of purposeful communication.
I sure wish I could go back to the days when my parents, grandparents and a few neighbors could drag lawn chairs out on the lawn or veranda on a pleasant summer evening and just shoot the breeze for hours until it was time to turn in. Mom would make lemonade and perhaps serve some cookies she had baked that day and we kids would run ourselves into exhaustion chasing fireflies or playing hide-and-seek while the adults settled all the world's problems. Cell phones weren't even a dream.
I sort of doubt that todays kids could never comprehend how that having less (gadgets, technology, microwaves etc.), could actually be more (appreciation for life's little lessons, common sense).
Just some whimsical thoughts today ...
-
Simpler times, but hopefully they still remain in some of the rural areas.
-
Those were the days. Loved them and all the freedoms we had as kids.
-
I blame air-conditioning and television for this.
In my childhood home, alongside the Platte River of Nebraska, we lived in an enormous house with an enormous front porch. The town was about 3,000 people. For reasons I do not know, and there is no longer anyone around to illuminate me, we never had a television set; thousands and thousands of books, and lots of radios, but no television.
On summer evenings, one or both of my parents would sit down on the steps of this front porch after supper (no chairs; everyone sat on the steps). There were lots and lots of people walking around, driving around. Just about everybody came over to sit on the steps with the parents, chitchatting about everything under the sun. This would go on until after dark, my bedtime. I can't remember when there were less than, oh, 8-10 people every evening.
And then during the winter, every Sunday between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, the parents hosted an "open house;" no specific reason, no invitation, come as one wished to come. It was a good thing that was a big house, and my parents were big on Christmas (more the religious side of it than the Santa Claus junk).
In my adolescent home in the Sandhills of Nebraska, the house was brand-new and air-conditioned. There was a front porch, but who wanted to sit outside on the front porch in the heat? Also, neighbors were few-and-far between, meaning nobody was out and about, especially not simply walking by.
I think air-conditioning and television did it.
-
You may have hit the nail on the head Frank. Even in the 70's when I was in school, we had just the 4 TV channels and no AC. In the summers, I pretty much lived outside, and even spent good portions of the winter weekends outside.
A Different World
Bucky Covington
We were born to mothers who smoked and drank
Our cribs were covered in lead based paint
No child proof lids no seat belts in cars
Rode bikes with no helmets and still here we are, still here we are
We got daddy’s belt when we misbehaved
Had three TV channels you got up to change
No video games and no satellite
All we had were friends and they were outside, playin’ outside
Chorus
It was a different life
When we were boys and girls
Not just a different time
It was a different world
School always started the same every day
The pledge of allegiance then someone would pray
Not every kid made the team when they tried
We got disappointed and that was all right, we turned out all right
Chorus
Bridge
No bottled water, we drank from a garden hose
And every Sunday, all the stores were closed
Chorus
Chorus
It was a different world
-
Remember when Life in was Black and White? (http://objflicks.com/WhenLifewasInBlack&White.htm)
-
I blame air-conditioning and television for this...
I think air-conditioning and television did it.
I'd almost agree with you. However, I would say that A/C and cable TV did it. We had a B&W TV when I was growing up. I still was outside playing as there really wasn't much on during the day except soap operas and game shows. I always relished Sunday evenings with the "Wonderful World of Disney" movies. That was before cable TV became so popular. I know that we never had cable TV until my senior year of high school, when we moved. We still had to get up and change the channel, though because we had a cable box with an old rotary switch.
Even in to Texas summer heat, I was either at the pool or outside doing something.
-
Remember when Life in was Black and White? (http://objflicks.com/WhenLifewasInBlack&White.htm)
Janice, watching your link, it amazes me the number of B&W Westerns we watched. Some of the photos bring back no memory of what the show was but when the theme song was played, AHA, I remember that one.
Back then all had a familiar theme, good trumps over bad and the bad ones allways lost in the end. All the cop shows that that showed that living a life of crime does not pay.
The family shows that portrayed life as an ideal environment and one could over come bully's and keep peace in the family were a bit strange but not to be put down.
Strange world we have now, when it comes to what the kids watch on TV, the computer games etc. living color and the Elm Street movies very real to a 5 year old and the bad guy never gets caught, he keeps coming back in the next movie --As an example---
I can understand why people over 40 yearn for the old time movies that everyone was either a good or bad charactor and the bad came to realise at the end that they had done bad things, regretted it and made amends.
Little from the news or movies have anything to show that the good guys win, bad guys loose.
-
Remember when Life in was Black and White? (http://objflicks.com/WhenLifewasInBlack&White.htm)
My 37 yo daughter is a huge fan of all the old B&Ws. She actually gets disturbed when she sees one that has been colorized.
TV was a privilege then, not a necessity as it seems to be now. I didn't watch much as a child; Bozo, 3 Stooges, Tarzan (I lived for that Saturday afternoon movie!). When color cam around I watch entranced by Wile Coyote, Roadrunner and Bugs, yet didn't grow up violent.
If you aren't used to a/c and TV you don't miss it. At my advanced age I'd miss the a/c like crazy, but I'd live as I can live without TV and Internet. TV made the world a much smaller place and took our attention from our own lives which in the end I feel did us no favors.
I suppose everyone thinks the early years of their generation was simpler. As a child in the 50's and 60's, hitting my 2nd decade in the 70's, the incredible surge in technology during mine was unprecedented. Did it make life better? Parts are debatable. The toll on family values has been immense.
-
My 37 yo daughter is a huge fan of all the old B&Ws. She actually gets disturbed when she sees one that has been colorized.
TV was a privilege then, not a necessity as it seems to be now. I didn't watch much as a child; Bozo, 3 Stooges, Tarzan (I lived for that Saturday afternoon movie!). When color cam around I watch entranced by Wile Coyote, Roadrunner and Bugs, yet didn't grow up violent.
If you aren't used to a/c and TV you don't miss it. At my advanced age I'd miss the a/c like crazy, but I'd live as I can live without TV and Internet. TV made the world a much smaller place and took our attention from our own lives which in the end I feel did us no favors.
I suppose everyone thinks the early years of their generation was simpler. As a child in the 50's and 60's, hitting my 2nd decade in the 70's, the incredible surge in technology during mine was unprecedented. Did it make life better? Parts are debatable. The toll on family values has been immense.
What was the show that the ad came on, " My name is Buster Brown I live in a shoe, here is my dog he lives with me too.??
-
What was the show that the ad came on, " My name is Buster Brown I live in a shoe, here is my dog he lives with me too.??
The Buster Brown Show. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buster_Brown I probably watched it, but was too young to remember any of it. The link says it started in '51 and ran 3 years.
-
The Buster Brown Show. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buster_Brown I probably watched it, but was too young to remember any of it. The link says it started in '51 and ran 3 years.
Holy Cow, I am not old enough to remember all this but sometimes in the late 50's I do remember a show that was perhaps Tarzan and I definitely remember Frogie and his magic Twanger, Buster Brown and his dog but I have no idea about him having a sister, cross dressing or being anything but an ad for the shoes.
This may have been a local show for kids based in Boston, sort of like our Bozo shows and some kind of problem that brought in local kids and adults to show off their talents. I do remember that ---the talent show was so unusual my parents and grandparents would laughed until they cried-----a fore runner of the Bong Show.
-
TV was a privilege then, not a necessity as it seems to be now. I didn't watch much as a child; Bozo, 3 Stooges, Tarzan (I lived for that Saturday afternoon movie!). When color cam around I watch entranced by Wile Coyote, Roadrunner and Bugs, yet didn't grow up violent.
My daughter absolutely loves the really old Tom & Jerry cartoons. They're pretty violent.
-
I think that most of us here are of the last generation that could run around all day in a woods, come home for lunch and run back out again. I don't remember much Saturday TV at all as a kid. After a few cartoons were done, (and we were just allowed a few till the noise started to irritate my mom), out the door we went.
It's sad, and I think it's why so many kids are fat today. And listless and morose.
BTW, I heard on the radio news today that a group of pediatricians are recommending that you keep your kid in a booster seat in the backseat until the AGE OF THIRTEEN!!! You're almost ready to date at that age! Parents, what do you think of this?
-
I agree Karin. I wouldn't trade my childhood for that of today, that is for sure. I think the others are right, regarding the A/C. I would also have to say garage door openers, and homes with the garage in the back. You can come and go without a hello from your neighbor. When my Dad retired, he used to pull out a lawn chair, a cold beer, and go sit in his driveway waiting for the neighbors to come home from work. Everyone would drop by and visit. I loved those days.
-
Karin, you made me recall those days when I stayed outdoors so long my parents had to come looking for me. As soon as homework was done I hit the door. Rain, snow, ice, we went out. The whole neighborhood was that way. If all the parents on our road weren't out around 5 pm shouting for their kids there was something wrong. But, Saturday was cartoon and Tarzan day.
edit to add: I'd like to see some 13 yo in a booster seat. I'd like to see a parent make then stay in one. That's past ridiculous.
-
I checked the blogosphere about the booster seats for teenagers. Anybody who was for it used lots of exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!
-
BTW, I heard on the radio news today that a group of pediatricians are recommending that you keep your kid in a booster seat in the backseat until the AGE OF THIRTEEN!!! You're almost ready to date at that age! Parents, what do you think of this?
Hell....at the age of thirteen I was driving, and at fifteen, I owned my own car.........
doc
-
I remember the party line. You would pick up the phone and your neighbor would be talking. If you tried to listen they would know. I learned to unscrew the mic in the phone before picking it up so I could listen. Nothing ever was as juciy as it would be today! I remember just cutting in to ask if I could use the line. Joan is it alright if I give Tim a call? I won't be long. She would say sure just call me when your done so I can continue my conversation. Those were the days!
-
Once I was done with the cartoons on Saturday, I was out, come in for lunch, maybe and didn't come home until just before the street lights were on. Same with summer, for the most part. I was still a heavy kid.
Ohh, and at thirteen, I was bigger than most adults at the time. Booster seat ?!?!?!?!? YGBSM!!! :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:
-
Hell, kids these days would even know what to do with a rotary phone.
-
Hell, kids these days would even know what to do with a rotary phone land line phone.
FIFY
-
Hell, kids these days would even know what to do with a rotary phone.
My youngest brother is 15 years younger than me and I still don't think he believes me when I tell him it was no problem standing up to change the tv channel - we only got 3 networks most of the time. :-)
-
My youngest brother is 15 years younger than me and I still don't think he believes me when I tell him it was no problem standing up to change the tv channel - we only got 3 networks most of the time. :-)
Part of the time, growing up, I lived in Denison, TX. We had ONE good channel most of the time. Sometimes, if the weather was right, we could pull in some Dallas stations. When we moved to Garland, I thought I was big time because we had five or six decent channels.
-
We had 6-7 over-the-air channels here when I was growing up... four network channels and a couple UHF-types, one of which has been the local Fox station since about 1987. Sometimes I miss rotary phones, station wagons, and life without a remote control and a million other gadgets. We got a couple hours of Saturday-morning cartoons, but they didn't play them all damn day like they do now. During the summer, my mom took us to the library on weekends.
There weren't many other kids in the neighborhood. There was the one family with seven kids that lived across the street (they still live in the same house) but most of them were already in high school when we moved there in 1979. Once in a while, you'd get some new kid that would move into the neighborhood but it seems like they'd be gone just as quick.
-
Did anyone else have to be the kid that got stuck holding the freaking antenna? Oh, I hated that.
-
Did anyone else have to be the kid that got stuck holding the freaking antenna? Oh, I hated that.
We were smarter than that. We used tin foil....... :tongue:
-
We were smarter than that. We used tin foil....... :tongue:
That worked for the indoor antenna but not he one mounted on a pole. It would turn , but only by hand after shinnying up the pole.
-
That worked for the indoor antenna but not he one mounted on a pole. It would turn , but only by hand after shinnying up the pole.
The ELITE people had those remote controlled motors on their TV antenna poles. I remember many a time going out and turning the antenna just a bit to clear up reception. In the Dallas suburbs, rabbit ears were usually enough.
-
I'm a young'n and remember those days. We would be outside until 9:30pm. My parent's and their neighbor's still drag their lawn chairs over to each other's driveways and chat & have a few drinks in the summers. I never see that here, so whenever I go back to visit, it's nice to see again.
I like to read articles on Baby Center. Last night, I came across a post by a mother who wanted to buy her 20 month old son an iPod touch for his birthday. Not even two years old and this mother wanted to throw technology in her son's face. It makes me wonder why kids can't just be kids today? I let my daughter do kid things and have imagination play. She will have plenty of time for technology and learning the in's and out's of it when she's older. No 20 month old needs an i-Anything.
-
I remember my first exposure to computers... I went to a magnet school in the fifth and sixth grades. It was not easy but they did have regular computer courses (and mandatory foreign language classes. Ask me about my German teacher. I think they imported her from East Germany just to torture us.) I mentioned it to my parents a few times... they eventually bought us a computer a couple years later. Personally, I would not let any child of mine have access to the internet until they were at least 13 or 14.
-
BTW, I heard on the radio news today that a group of pediatricians are recommending that you keep your kid in a booster seat in the backseat until the AGE OF THIRTEEN!!! You're almost ready to date at that age! Parents, what do you think of this?
I read that on Yahoo yesterday. My exact thoughts were, "WTF?" So these parent's are going to put their 13 year old in a booster seat while the kid is texting their friends? Yeah... I don't think so.
-
I think the regulations are weight- and age-based. If your child is heavier than XX, then the booster seats are not required past a certain age.
It's still ridiculous.
-
I remember my first exposure to computers... I went to a magnet school in the fifth and sixth grades. It was not easy but they did have regular computer courses (and mandatory foreign language classes. Ask me about my German teacher. I think they imported her from East Germany just to torture us.) I mentioned it to my parents a few times... they eventually bought us a computer a couple years later. Personally, I would not let any child of mine have access to the internet until they were at least 13 or 14.
I started taking typing classes in second grade. We didn't get a family computer until I was 12. No internet was in our home until I was 14.
-
I didn't take a typing glass until high school. It didn't take long to pick up after three or four years of having a computer at home and I'm definitely glad I took the time to learn it.
-
I didn't take a typing glass until high school. It didn't take long to pick up after three or four years of having a computer at home and I'm definitely glad I took the time to learn it.
I think I learned typing in second grade because that's when our school got their first computers. Not sure. But in second grade, it would have been 1989 or 1990. I think.
-
That would have been my second year of high school. They had IBM Selectrics for typing and junky old IBM PCs for "computer" class, which was a waste of my time. I barely did any of the required work and still passed the class with an A because I helped the teacher with all the coursework.
-
Hell, kids these days would even know what to do with a rotary phone.
Funny, my youngest daughter was clueless about them. I had my Grandmother's old wall mount rotary phone from her kitchen put away in the attic. One day I found it up there and installed it on the wall out back in my blacksmith shop. My daughter came in one morning to ask me something and it rang, scared the crap out of her because she had never in her lifetime heard a telephone ring and she didn't know what "that thing on the wall" was.
After that she wanted to try it out and make a call. At first she just stuck a finger into the hole on the dial at the number she wanted as if it was a push button digit, with a little help she got it right finally.
-
We were smarter than that. We used tin foil....... :tongue:
We did too, but one of the hinges was loose, so the antenna would fall over. They didn't fix it, and they didn't replace it. I think they were just being cruel.
-
:rofl:
Some of those old phones are LOUD. I have an old Ma Bell push-button phone at home and there's no way to adjust the bell to decrease the volume. I ended up unplugging it it was so loud.
-
That would have been my second year of high school. They had IBM Selectrics for typing and junky old IBM PCs for "computer" class, which was a waste of my time. I barely did any of the required work and still passed the class with an A because I helped the teacher with all the coursework.
Yup. Same here. I took a BASIC programming class in my last year of Jr. High. We wrote a Pythagorean Theorum program. Saved it on cassette tape. :whatever:
-
:rofl:
Some of those old phones are LOUD. I have an old Ma Bell push-button phone at home and there's no way to adjust the bell to decrease the volume. I ended up unplugging it it was so loud.
Every rotary phone I've ever had had a big fat dial on the bottom that adjusted the ringer. It didn't do great, but it did mute it to some extent.
We did too, but one of the hinges was loose, so the antenna would fall over. They didn't fix it, and they didn't replace it. I think they were just being cruel.
Now that's just dumb because all that needs to be done is tighten a screw most of the time. If not, squeeze it back together with a pair of pliers.
-
Now that's just dumb because all that needs to be done is tighten a screw most of the time. If not, squeeze it back together with a pair of pliers.
I know that now Thor. But when my stepdad said for me to stand up and hold the antenna, that is what I did. I was also channel changer too. :whatever:
-
I know that now Thor. But when my stepdad said for me to stand up and hold the antenna, that is what I did. I was also channel changer too. :whatever:
Yeah, I got to be the resident channel changer as I was growing up. My parents didn't NEED a remote control, they had me!! I don't think that I got my first remote controlled TV until sometime in the early 80s.
-
Yeah, I got to be the resident channel changer as I was growing up. My parents didn't NEED a remote control, they had me!! I don't think that I got my first remote controlled TV until sometime in the early 80s.
Ya know, my parents didn't need a channel changer really. They watched the evening news, maybe a special event like a presidential speech, and sports. That was it. They didn't even really need to set rules around tv because, as kids, we would just imitate that style.
Of course, I realize now that my parents were old-fashioned but it's amazing what that little parental example will do for the kids. None of the kids is a big tv watcher, even to this day (my sister doesn't even own one). If we could get more parents to set little examples . . .
-
From 1965 to 1969 I lived in the east hills of San Jose, Ca. My days were dirt clod fights (the best were the ones you left the grass on so you could really fling it), kite flying, going up the road to the vast horse ranch to check out an old cabin, trips to Alum Rock Park, sliding down the roads (we had steep roads) by freezing balloons filled with water and sitting on them.
My father made a "fort" for me out of some plywood sheets and mounted a 2X4 "machine gun" on the front of it. I spent HOURS "killing" the enemy.
I was too damn busy being a kid to sit on my ass inside the house.
-
. . . sliding down the roads (we had steep roads) by freezing balloons filled with water and sitting on them.
Man, I thought I risked serious injury to the goodies when I was kid but THAT takes the keg!
:-)
-
We used to make race carts out of whatever wood, nails, screws & wheels we could find and ride them down the nearest street with a hill (which was two houses away). Other times, we'd find a grassy hill and some cardboard (the waxed cardboard was best) and ride the card board down the hill. I also recall building a bicycle jump ramp (this was before BMX bikes), riding my bike up the hill for approx 1/2 a mile, and then pedaling as hard as one could to see how far we could jump after we went up the ramp.
Dirt clod fights were common, but we always seemed to have one asshole in the group that would find one with a rock in it.
-
Back in the day when I was on the site Right Society I posted about the time I would go out and play as a kid with the kids next door. They had a thread just like this one and we all remembered how it was back then. There were days I would stay out till 9-9:30 running around till sunset and unless it was our favorit TV show on we would do it all summer long. Most of the time we would be playing war or whatever good guy/bad guy thing you want t ocall it. I had the biggest collection of toy guns in the neighborhood and could have equipped a small thrid world country if thats all they needed. I had everything from pistols to machine guns and of course you can't have a good fight if some of your guns didn't have the requesit spy stuff (Silencers) for when you need to be sneaky.
When we wanted to have a change of pace we would drag out our Hot Wheels and some of my model airplanes and spend the afternoons shoting and dropping bombs on them or we would go to the pool and spend time there. Not once did we even think of someone trying to lure us away or worse. Those three channels on TV we used to get had alot of good shows. Combat,Star Trek, Man From UNCLE, The Dean Martin Show, The Rifleman, The Brady Bunch,Batman,Mission: Impossible, The FBI, and alot more.
-
Man, I thought I risked serious injury to the goodies when I was kid but THAT takes the keg!
:-)
Hey I was 7-8 years old. Wadda ya want?
Oh, we did the cardboard thing too. The best was getting inside a box so you coulden't see where you were going. :yahoo: