primitives discuss childhood joys

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1018773306

Oh my.

dixiegrrrrl (41,319 posts)   Sat Jun 20, 2015, 03:07 PM

25 Things We Did As Kids That Would Get Someone Arrested Today
 
1. Riding in the back of an open pick-up truck with a bunch of other kids
2. Leaving the house after breakfast and not returning until the streetlights came on, at which point, you raced home, ASAP so you didn’t get in trouble
3. Eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the school cafeteria
4. Riding your bike without a helmet
5. Riding your bike with a buddy on the handlebars, and neither of you wearing helmets
6. Drinking water from the hose in the yard
7.Swimming in creeks, rivers, ponds, and lakes (or what they now call *cough* “wild swimming“)
8.Climbing trees (One park cut the lower branches from a tree on the playground in case some stalwart child dared to climb them)
9.Having snowball fights (and accidentally hitting someone you shouldn’t)
10.Sledding without enough protective equipment to play a game in the NFL
11.Carrying a pocket knife to school (or having a fishing tackle box with sharp things on school property)
12.Camping
13.Throwing rocks at snakes in the river
14.Playing politically incorrect games like Cowboys and Indians
15. Playing Cops and Robbers with *gasp* toy guns
16.Pretending to shoot each other with sticks we imagined were guns
17.Shooting an actual gun or a bow (with *gasp* sharp arrows) at a can on a log, accompanied by our parents who gave us pointers to improve our aim. Heck, there was even a marksmanship club at my high school
18.Saying the words “gun” or “bang” or “pow pow” (there actually a freakin’ CODE about “playing with invisible guns”)
19.Working for your pocket money well before your teen years
20.Taking that money to the store and buying as much penny candy as you could afford, then eating it in one sitting
21.Eating pop rocks candy and drinking soda, just to prove we were exempt from that urban legend that said our stomachs would explode
22.Getting so dirty that your mom washed you off with the hose in the yard before letting you come into the house to have a shower
23.Writing lines for being a jerk at school, either on the board or on paper
24.Playing “dangerous” games like dodgeball, kickball, tag, whiffle ball, and red rover
(The Health Department of New York issued a warning about the “significant risk of injury” from these games)
25.Walking to school alone 

Long thread, so only a few primitive comments, selected at random:

malthaussen (6,864 posts)    Sun Jun 21, 2015, 09:52 AM

36. Well, my father used to take me into the bar while he got drunk in the afternoon...
 
... could say I've hated ginger ale ever since.

But that's hardly nostalgic. 

Manifestor_of_Light (19,576 posts)    Sun Jun 21, 2015, 05:21 AM

30. This looks like thinly disguised Libertarian Bullshit.
 
The message this seems to be saying is "We didn't have helmets and seat belts but we lived through it because we are TOUGH!!! Mean old government regulations and mean old personal injury lawsuits ruined our fun!!! WAAHHH!!

Typical libertarian whining disguised as nostalgia for good old days that weren't really that good.
Death rates and injury rates have fallen dramatically for children since then due to accidents.

I get really sick of these posts about the good old days because I did not have it good.

There were no caves to explore where I lived on coastal prairie with postwar suburbia built on it. There weren't any rocks. The dirt was black clay that soaked up water and held it. I was not thrown out of the house to play. My parents were jailers. I had no allowance and no "pocket money". Never went to a "candy store". Don't remember ever seeing a candy store. No money to buy vinyl records with. I couldn't work when I was in school because I was too tired all the time from going to school and practicing music. I slept a lot because I was very busy as well as ill.

The other kids tried to literally kill me at red rover by tripping me so I would fall on my face, full body slam. It's a wonder i didn't get serious concussions. I was a lot smaller than the kids who tried to kill me that way, or bounced basketballs off my head in PE when the probably lesbian teacher wasn't looking. I absolutely hated PE because of the six foot tall stupid female bullies. I still hate sports. The other kids decided not to interact with me and the teacher would have to step in and participate with me.

I didn't fulfill the fantasy of growing up and getting huge and strong and beating up the bullies. I never learned to fight, and knew if I tried to fight I would probably be seriously injured, and outweighed. I'm still a small person with small bones.

I never tried booze or cigarettes or illegal drugs as a minor. My parents smoked when I was little and I have them to thank for scar tissue in my lungs from second hand smoke. I had a lot of sinus infections and allergies from the general filth level in the house as well. Blew my nose constantly at school. The other kids got annoyed and yelled at me but nobody bothered to take me to the doctor and do anything about it. I don't think they had allergists back then. Didn't sneak off and do anything I was ashamed of. I went to school and studied like I was expected to.

I have forgotten large chunks of my childhood because it was not fun.

A whole lot fewer kids are injured and dying from childhood accidents now thanks to helmets, seat belts, car seats, and personal injury lawsuits against makers of dangerous toys such as lawn darts. And yes, I am a lawyer.

I think a lot of this is rosy nostalgia that is not realistic.

bigmonkey (1,619 posts)    Sun Jun 21, 2015, 12:22 PM

46. It's realistic, but the sample is skewed.
 
I grew up in the 60s, and virtually all of that stuff was "normal" in my life. I have a lot of sympathy with people who are fighting against the tendency to suffocate childhood with safety.

But, I always have to remind myself that the small, but real, minority of kids who died from the stuff I obviously survived never get to speak up, and that those who were horribly injured have a very faint voice in the conversation.

Wild fun can turn bad, and just because it didn't for me or for someone else doesn't change that. The world can be a dangerous place. As someone I read recently said, "The human body is the result of 3.8 billion years of destructive testing." 

raccoon (23,674 posts)    Sun Jun 21, 2015, 06:57 AM

32. Being driven around in a car by a parent who was drunk. Being
 
driven by said parent to store to buy them more booze.

Not exactly the "good old days." 

[BannedFromDU]

     Wow, Manifestor_of_Light looks like a real barrel of monkeys.

[Zathras]

     Wow, Manifestor_of_Light looks like a real barrel of monkeys.

Yeah, a whining pussified barrel of monkeys.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Manly-fister-of-light continues making sure everybody knows how much life sucks:

Manifestor_of_Light (19,576 posts)

73. Yes, Orrex.

The subtext is, "I'm tough and I survived all that reckless stuff! You're a wimp!"

This libertarian bullshit is very much like, "I got spanked, or got the shit beaten out of me for minor things, and I'm just fine with it. In fact, if you want your kids to be good, go ahead and beat them up. I'm a healthy adult, so it's fine."

I've gotten a couple of concussions in car wrecks. I didn't die from the car wrecks, because they had 3 point seat belts in Japanese cars in the late 1970s. Otherwise, I would be dead. Not wearing a seat belt would have only proven that I was too stupid to wear a seat belt in the first place, and I would be DEAD. Straight through the windshield in a head-on collision.

I refused to do anything in P.E. that would cause a jammed finger or a broken bone because I was a musician and the idea of breaking a finger or spraining a wrist was horrible to me. If I had been unable to play music, my whole world would have practically shut down. Classical music was the only thing that gave me hope in my shitty restricted childhood.

I don't think broken bones, or scratches etc. prove anything except that you were probably not smart enough to avoid things that caused major injuries. I've never broken any bones. I was once a very active bicyclist and wore a helmet. This was when ten-speeds started to get popular in the 1970s.

Arugula Labia joins in:

Arugula Latte (47,445 posts)

78. Yep. Self-congratulatory stuff like this keeps circulating on Facebook and elsewhere.
 
It's really pretty sad. Lots of kids survived things like helmet-less bike accidents and seatbelt-less car accidents, but many did not. Stupid "look-how-awesome-and-tough-we were!" crap like this is so disrespectful. If you survived a 50s/60s/70s childhood (as I did, taking many helmetless spills from horses) without being maimed or killed it was due to dumb luck, not your own inherent pluck and superiority. ... I wonder if the people who keep posting stuff like this would put their own child on a bike in traffic without a helmet. I know I never would.

If you say you had fun when others didn't you need to check your child privilege!

[Carl]

In other words you freaks have been mentally stunted effed up losers and crybabies for decades.
I got picked on and made fun of for being a poor farm boy as much as anyone and it sucked.

I let it be part of what has made my life successful.
You useless pieces of shit chose to let it define you.
Your stupidity.

[thundley4]

The DUmmies have to deny the list because it is their laws and rules that have put an end to most of them. ****tards.

[Texacon]

What a bunch of miserable people.

KC

[diesel driver]

Let's see.  I grew up on a dairy farm.  Before the age of 10, I could:
Drive anything on the farm, including silage trucks and our 100hp Farmall 806.  At 8, I drove this tractor with a 5-bottom plow and plowed our large field out from the house, BY MYSELF.  By 10, I had been operating some type of farm equipment for 4-5 years.

Knew how to use an electric welder and a gas torch.

Knew how to do electrical wiring.

Knew how to do plumbing, including "sweating" copper pipe joints.

Knew how to rebuild gasoline and diesel engines, including setting the diesel injection pump timing, and knew how to purge air from a diesel fuel system.

Knew how to change engine, transmission, and hydraulic oil and filters.

I didn't only rode in the back of a pickup truck, I DROVE the pickup truck!

Could assist my dad and the vet with anything medical concerning an animal, big or small.

Rode my bike on a gravel road, barefooted, short pants, no helmet.  (Got the scars to prove it!)

By 15, I got a motorcycle for Christmas.  Rode it in the snow, in sub-freezing temps, towing my little brothers on a sled with it.

Knew how to operate, maintain, adjust, and repair a combine.

Designed and built a "control center" to handle the entire farm feeding operation from a central location.

Had my pesticide applicator license.  Knew how to figure flow rates and application rates of herbicides.

Knew how to figure seeding rates for planting crops, and how much fertilizer to apply according to soil analysis.

Did ALL of this before 1980, and had a BLAST!

DUmmies only know how to be miserable.  I couldn't live like that.

[Delmar]

I killed me a bear when I was only three.

[Ptarmigan]

They had joy??????????? 

[jtyangel]

In other words you freaks have been mentally stunted effed up losers and crybabies for decades.
I got picked on and made fun of for being a poor farm boy as much as anyone and it sucked.

I let it be part of what has made my life successful.
You useless pieces of shit chose to let it define you.
Your stupidity.

Yep will do you one better. My parents had no faith in me at all and I struggle still with that lasting self image however despite that I have excelled and I have allowed my children to have the wings and encouragement I didnt. I still get down sometime but damn manifester seems to have decided who he is is essentially the sum of his shitty childhood. Doesn't seem to get he could have taken all that parental control and bullying and turned it around as fuel for a successful and full life. Pitiful.

[BlueStateSaint]

I killed me a bear when I was only three.

Lemme guess . . . You were "raised in the woods so you knew every tree," right?

[Carl]

They had joy??????????? 

They had fun,they had seasons in the sun. 

[franksolich]

7.Swimming in creeks, rivers, ponds, and lakes (or what they now call *cough* “wild swimming“)

Because of the "cough cough" notation by the primitive, I nadined "wild swimming."  It's a term I've never heard before, and thought perhaps it might be something naughty.

Apparently it's just swimming in a river, creek, pond, or lake, nothing more than that.

I'm sure that wherever there's a river, creek, pond, or lake, swimming's still done today without anyone getting arrested.

[Texacon]

I still get down sometime but damn manifester seems to have decided who he is is essentially the sum of his shitty childhood.

Not only that, but he feels that due to his shitty childhood HE should be the one who gets to be the decider of how others should live their life or BY GOD, HE'LL SUE YOU!!!

KC

[JohnnyReb]

Let's see.  I grew up on a dairy farm.  Before the age of 10, I could:
Drive anything on the farm, including silage trucks and our 100hp Farmall 806.  At 8, I drove this tractor with a 5-bottom plow and plowed our large field out from the house, BY MYSELF.  By 10, I had been operating some type of farm equipment for 4-5 years.

Knew how to use an electric welder and a gas torch. Yes

Knew how to do electrical wiring. Simple AC stuff and about all DC.

Knew how to do plumbing, including "sweating" copper pipe joints. I'm afraid I was just allowed to thread galvanized pipe
Knew how to rebuild gasoline and diesel engines, including setting the diesel injection pump timing, and knew how to purge air from a diesel fuel system. I could hot-rod the hell out of those international gas start/diesel engines
Knew how to change engine, transmission, and hydraulic oil and filters. Yes

I didn't only rode in the back of a pickup truck, I DROVE the pickup truck! Got license at 14 but was driving and backing trailer truck before then
Could assist my dad and the vet with anything medical concerning an animal, big or small. Up to my armpits in a cows rear delivering calves....puking and laughing at the same time.
Rode my bike on a gravel road, barefooted, short pants, no helmet.  (Got the scars to prove it!) and a broke arm
By 15, I got a motorcycle for Christmas.  Rode it in the snow, in sub-freezing temps, towing my little brothers on a sled with it. Seldom snowed here
Knew how to operate, maintain, adjust, and repair a combine. Only tied sacks on an old Allis Chalmers one dad sold it by time I was 10

Designed and built a "control center" to handle the entire farm feeding operation from a central location. I was "THE FEED SYSTEM"

Had my pesticide applicator license.  Knew how to figure flow rates and application rates of herbicides. None of that
Knew how to figure seeding rates for planting crops, and how much fertilizer to apply according to soil analysis. yes

Did ALL of this before 1980, and had a BLAST! 1950's and 60's
DUmmies only know how to be miserable.  I couldn't live like that. Yes

....and I knew a lot of other things. I wish I could have brought my son up just like I was brought up. I

[jtyangel]

Not only that, but he feels that due to his shitty childhood HE should be the one who gets to be the decider of how others should live their life or BY GOD, HE'LL SUE YOU!!!

KC

Well yeah. Apparently it's his aim to spread his self professed miserable upbringing to all. What a miserable human being who is the master of his continued misery and seems to want to project it to everyone else because he won't move on from it. I take it his parents are passed or alienated so the next best thing to punish is everyone else.

[Karin]

Don't you just feel like throttling him/her?  I wonder if this specimen is male or female.  What a ****ing piece of work. 

[franksolich]

Don't you just feel like throttling him/her?  I wonder if this specimen is male or female.  What a ****ing piece of work.

I think she's female, based upon this:

I absolutely hated PE because of the six foot tall stupid female bullies.

That is, unless she was a guy mistakenly in women's physical education classes.

[diesel driver]

....and I knew a lot of other things. I wish I could have brought my son up just like I was brought up. I

Mine know a lot, but perhaps a fraction of what I knew.  BTW, I forgot, I would help my dad and uncle on an International "sacker" combine.  I would put the empty sacks on and trip the diverter, Dad would release the sacks and tie them. 

I don't care what direction you were going with that combine (I believe you could do a complete circle), the wind was ALWAYS blowing the chaf right into your face! 

[Carl]

Mine know a lot, but perhaps a fraction of what I knew.  BTW, I forgot, I would help my dad and uncle on an International "sacker" combine.  I would put the empty sacks on and trip the diverter, Dad would release the sacks and tie them. 

I don't care what direction you were going with that combine (I believe you could do a complete circle), the wind was ALWAYS blowing the chaf right into your face!

My father got to ride the bagger on the John Deere combine his brother had.
I think it was the only thing I ever heard him complain about.

[catsmtrods]

Not getting picked for a sports team as a teenager. That has to be a dummie memory!

[freedumb2003b]

Not getting picked for a sports team as a teenager. That has to be a dummie memory!

Sadly, no.

[BlueStateSaint]

Sadly, no.

Same here.  I overcame, by just going on.

[Fourwinds]

Man, what miserable people. One of them just wanted to share some old nostalgic joy, and they just straight up take a shit on it. "Boo hoo, my daddy was a drunk. FEEL SORRY FOR ME!!!" Good grief dude.