People Over 35

[Ga_Boy]

I didn't write this.  My brother-in-law down in Savannah sent it to me.



People over 35 should be dead.

Here's why.

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, or even maybe the early 70's probably shouldn't have survived. Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention the risks we
took hitchhiking.)

As children, we would ride in cars with no seatbelts or air bags.

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

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.

Horrors!

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank coke with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one coke with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.

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 sun set.

No one was able to reach us all day.

NO CELL PHONES!!!!!

Unthinkable!

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms. We had friends! We
went outside and found them. We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt.

We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

They were accidents.

No one was to blame but us.

Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them. 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, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.

Horrors!

Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

Our actions were our own.

Consequences were expected.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of.

They actually sided with the law.

Imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever.

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

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

And you're one of them!

Congratulations!

[shopteacher]

Amen brother.

[redpowerd]

yea, whats going on with the world. i want to someday have a large family but why would i bring my children into this feel-good-do-nothing-let the government sort it out country we live in. i know you must see the reality, teech. schools raise our kids. ill be homeschoolin.
gunna ship them off to teech for shop!

[Frickman]

I've read this somewhere else, but always love seeing it again. We never had organized "play dates." You just went out and played with whoever was there, making up games as you went. I can remember taking my squirrel rifle and a sandwich and be gone all day running the hills at twelve or thirteen years old. Noone knew where you were or when you'd get home until you did. Could you imagine the uproar if an armed junior high kid was running loose around the countryside these days. An old timer was telling me yesterday that he's never seen so many squirrels around. Today's kids don't keep the population in check like we did.

Another fellow who was talking to us said he thinks that today's parents have kids too regimented and programmed from an early age. The kids have very little unstructured free time, they mostly shuttle between school, soccer, dance class, tutoring, etc. I feel that using your imagination and gaining your independence is what has made the previous generations great. I employ young people around the farm part-time and I've found that the majority have been coddled so long they don't know how to think independently or take responsibilty for their actions. They also haven't learned that life isn't always fair or easy. Mom and Dad have done their best to "protect" them from the real world.

[etat]

Wow!, I really enjoyed reading that!

[redpowerd]

armed junior high kid was running loose around the countryside

thats exactly how they would tag it. mabie with some mental illness in there somewheres.


is that a slingshot in yer back pocket, son?

[Frickman]

I remember carrying a good-sized pocket knife everywhere I went from about age 5, including school. In grade school us boys would play mumbly-peg with barlow knives or throw buck knives at stumps. The girls would play hopscotch and jump rope. At recess the teacher would assign us boys jobs like burning trash in the barrel out back. 8 years old and they trusted us with matches and knives. Nowadays they might not even allow the jump ropes. Someone might trip and skin a knee. It sure is a different world we live in today.

[WV_hillbilly]

  I resemble that . It is a sad state of affairs these days for kids overall .  when I grew up we were hardly in the house  there was always something to do outside  like building forts , swinging on grape vines, shooting BBguns, riding bikes or horses , and having road apple battles .  When we were about 10 or 11 we could even take the 22's out with out supervision . About the only rule was to be home for Supper .

I just bought a 50 cc 4 wheeler for my almost 6 yr old .  He's 52 " tall and 70 LBS  and the 4 wheeler is rated for up to 90 Lbs.. One dealer would not sell me one cause he wasn't 6 years old yet .That's rediculous he's been riding an electric one for 3 yrs now . That dealer said if I bought it and something happened before he was 6 He could be held liable and I could get in serious trouble with the court system .  That's what our world has come too .

Another thing that burns me is a family at my sons preschool. Their son isn't allowed to come over to our house to play cause I  own guns . Now mind you they are locked up in a safe . Heck when we was little we knew the guns where in mom and dads bedroom closet . We even knew how to load them and shoot them . GO FIGURE .

[EZ]

When I did something bad, I got the crap beat out of me and I never even thought about turning in my parents.
When my dad drank to much he would get pulled over and the cops would drive him home or follow him home so he made it safe.
EZ

[smwwoody]

Yea my dad bought me my first .22 for going to kindergarten the first day.

[Frank_Pender]

Yep, Frickman, I resemble some of that running around with a gun, myself.  We all carried Red Ryder Daisey BB guns as well as the 22's from time to time.   We even and a few BB gun fights between some of the further away neighborhoods.

In school we would play marbles for keeps and have as many as a couple hundered up in a 5 or 6 foot ring on bare dirt during the noon lunch time.  Can't do that any more because of playing for keeps would be considered theft.  I too, carried a pocket knife all through grade and high school.  I used my a lot in woodshop for fine tuning some types of joints.  Even as an adult I am sure some would consider you an endangerment to society if they knew you carried a knife.

[Duane_Moore]

  :DFrank... I want my Aggie Back.    that was my best marble.  Duck Tails, Widdows Peaks, Wedges, 3/4 length Jackets, Chukka Boots, No Belt loops, Peggers,  Rolled up Tee shirt sleeves, Pall Malls,  You guys were a bunch of Hoods, Probly grew up Smokin, Drinkin, Cussin, Chasin Girls, Chewin Tobacco,  My, My,  Innocent litte me, Duh---Duane

[ScottAR]

Frank, you are more right than you know.  I work in retail, building materials, and carry a medium sized (I think, 3 inch) pocket knife.  Very handy for cutting plastic bands and stretch wrap.   People look at me like I'm rambo or somthing.  
Right tool for the job I say.  I've broken too many little pocket knives and the "safety" knives they give us are so blooming safe they can't cut anything!  Enough rambling...

[Bibbyman]

You guys are wimps.  Need a list for “If you’re over 50.”

Milk came from a cow to your table without being homogenized, pasteurized or government inspects.  It was kept cool in a springhouse.  

Meat was yesterday’s barnyard pet.

Didn’t have to worry about TV being a bad influence because there wasn’t any.  Would have been hard to watch by coal oil lamp anyway.

Riding in the back of a PU on a warm summers day?  How about riding on the back of a 2-ton flatbed log truck with half the deck missin' because it was the “family car” – any time of the year.

How about being 7 and given the key to the only door in school because you were the first one there and someone had to start the old oil furnace. (only had to walk a mile – up hill both ways – in the snow) Regulations later made them put a back door on the school although it was stupid because there was only one small room.

Helped you dad with the bean crop by spraying weedy places with hand pump sprayer filled with DDT.

Ah… Don’t get me started…

[shopteacher]

Well, I could elaborate greatly on the aspect of the demise of youth and a lot has to do with the state of public education. I won't as I might jeopardize my employment as a public school teacher.
  All those things that Frickman and others stated; I can relate to greatly.  Sounds like a rendition of my youth. Hunting after school and Sat. were a favorite. Playing in the creek was another. Building shacks in the wood, hide&go seek, catchers, kick the can.  I could make a video game of that, but seeing as how no killing or maiming takes place I don't think it would be a big seller.
   I carry a buck knife everywhere and have had kids tell me I'm not allowed to have that in school, my response is " In my hand it's a tool like any other, in yours it's a weapon".
   

[Ron Wenrich]

Jeez, you guys had neighbors.  My trusty sidekick was my dog, and we went visiting the older neighbors.  Now, they kick the old folks into retirement villages.

Another thing I was taught was to call my elders either Mr. or Mrs., never by their first name.  That's gone out the window, as well.

What we are teaching the present generation is how to run machines.  Nothing on how they work, or how to build one - that came from inovation of building something from nothing or fixing it after it broke.

[old3dogg]

Ga-boy.
Darn it man ya make me want to be a kid again
Wait a minute.I already am.Im just stuck in a 37 year old body.
Im trying to raise my kids right.So far I havent been sued!

[WV_hillbilly]

  EZ   I got my fair share of those whuppins too . I  never got one I didn't deserve but I missed out on some I should have got .   I was in my early 20's and our family got talkin about spanking . I found out I had been an abused child from those whuppins and didn't even know it back then . I could  have imagined the look on my parents face if I had told them go ahead I'll call the cops . That would have added a couple more wacks is all .  

[redpowerd]

i wanted to mention public education, but couldnt out of respect for old butch

[SwampDonkey]

Been there, and done all that.          

[shopteacher]

redpowerd: don't be belittling Ol Butch with thinking he was inflicked with public education. He's prep school all the way.
     He's even thinking of going to Harrr-vard, then politics. Who knows maybe the White House.

[hiya]

Them were the good old days.
Richard

[Haytrader]

Hey Bib,

Maybe hand sprayin that DDT is what stunted yer growth.

[Ga_Boy]

When I was about five, I walked into the Farmers Mutual Exchange with my Momma and said "Hello Ralph".

My Momma, took to beat'n the #$&*#@$?">|}&^$#! out of me right there on the spot.  Nobody called the Police, I'm sure glad they didn't cause the Police probbly would have cut my momma a green switch for her to use to teach me right.  To this day I don't care how old you are, I say yes sir and no sir.

Have'n to go cut your own switch was the worst.  If it was too dry and broke too soon that only made it worse, cause then she would get the leather belt.  The block I lived on was a mile on each leg and we walked it or rode our bikes around it at least three times a week during the summer.  My first bike was one I built from spare parts.  My closest friend lived about six miles away and we would meet in the middle when we palyed.

My daughter; shes seven; is starting to understand why I cut her a path through the woods to her firends house.  I tell her if you want to play that bad you'll walk, if not, go find something to do.

I do miss being a kid.  I freely admit that I am a Georgia Redneck, that is what I grew up as and still am to this day. I am glad that I have found a bunch of other rednecks from all over this great land that shared similar childhoods and have a love for the outdoors and wood.

[EZ]

Ya I remember the, go get me a switch. The one time my dad told my brother and I to go get a switch and he got a switch and I brought in a log about 4 inch in dia, about 3 foot long. We new dad wanted to laugh but he held it back. The switchin wasnt to bad that day.
EZ

[SwampDonkey]

We never had a switch, just a ear rubbin once in awhile for not finishing eatin supper. One time we spread margarine all over the couch and shoulda had one I 'spose, but we was only 4 or 5.   Then the time we built forts in trees and I made a blunt projectile which was to be fired like an arrow. Well, I fired blindly into a spruce thicket at my brother and well.......the JOS LOIS chocolate cake he was enjoyin didn't get finished being ate. ermm :-/ he survived, no permanent injuries, just some screechin and blat'n.    Then for birthday presents we got new fishin poles and had to try'm out in the stream. There was a newly installed culvert in the stream with loose gravel around it and my brother was standing in front of me. Well, ermm my foot slipped in the gravel and struck his foot. He went out and landed in the pool on his back, glomming, paw'in, and splash'in for shore. The more he cried and snibbled the more dad and I laughed, the angrier he got. He was always fallin in brooks or brush piles when we went fishing, then he gave up on the sport. I gave up on it later in life, too expensive

[CHARLIE]

Tom and I used to use sticks as guns after watching the Saturday Cowboy movie. The whole neighborhood was our playground. Kick the can, hide and seek, Tag, baseball, football, rollerskating, marbles, bow and arrow fights (bows and arrows made from bamboo), BB gun wars, swinging on the big rope swing out of a tree or off the roof of the garage, climbing trees......etc, etc.  When we ran mom threadbare she would tell us to go pick two switches off the surinam cherry bush. Why two?  Two just in case one broke, she would have another.  DanG those things stung! We started fishing real young and would ride our bikes over to the Indian River (salt water) by ourselves to fish all day. We got our first shotguns at 14 and spent many a time shooting at Mourning Doves. Wonderful childhood spent outside because there were no TV until the mid 50s and then it was only on at night.  No computer games.....just playing outside.

[etat]

Did any of yall ever get one of them little steel rings off of the hub of an old wooden wagon wheel, and take a stick of wood with a piece nailed on the bottom cross ways to roll that little steel ring about a million miles!!!  

Or take a small piece of wood and whittle it out with some notches on the top, fasten a propeller on the end and another stick to rub across the notches.  Called it a 'whoopee stick' cause you could yell whoopee and make the propeller start turning in a different direction.  (the trick was the angle that you rubbed the notches)


Or whittle whistles out of a section of cane!!!

When I was about 7 or 8 I went squirrel hunting with grandads ole double barrel.  (I've still got the gun, later in life he gave it to me).  Saw a squirrel up in a big ole pine tree and decided it'd be better to just go ahead and cock both hammers!!   When I pulled one of the triggers, both barrels went off and once.  Turned me for a backflip!!!!!!  

Got my first pocket knife when I was about 6.  Still got a scar where I cut my finger to the bone.  Mother like to had a conniption cause I bandaged it up myself with some old rags and kept playing!!!!  

Rather get out at night and chase fireflies!!!  TV weren't worth watching anyhow.  Mostly watching snow and interference with them rabbit ears!!!  

When we did get an outside antenna so it would come in better I'd get mad cause sometimes it'd say a movie was going to be in COLOR, and Danged if they didn't lie cause it was in black and white!!!!!

I never could make a bow and arrow that shoot an arrow far enough to make it worthwhile before the bow'd give out.
Sure had a lot of fun trying though!!!!  


In 1964 mom and dad built a new house and we had, seriously, RUNNING WATER, AND AN INSIDE TOILET AND FLOORS THAT YOU COULDN'T SEE THE GROUND THROUGH THE CRACKS!!!!!!!!!

[Norm]

When I turned 7 we moved to a new farm that my folks had bought. It was previously owned by a bachelor farmer that had commited suicide. Rumor had it he still haunted the place. Out back a couple of hundred yards was the local rural cemetary, it had the old limestone markers from the civil war still standing. Being I was the youngest of six my brothers and sisters took great fun in fueling all my childhood fears. You know the don't go in the woods after dark or the boogie man will get you, seems tame when you hear of the news now days.

Our nearest neighbor with kids my age were a mile away so most times you had to entertain youself. We had a small creek on the back forty that held a variety of fish, smallmouths, largemouths, catfish, carp and such. My mom was pretty understanding about hunting and fishing, the rule was you caught you cleaned it but she would always cook it up for supper. We had lots of woods were you could hunt with an old bolt action .22 stevens my grandpa had passed down to us kids. At ten I was given a single shot 4-10 shotgun. Learned to shot on the wing with it. Still have it. My dad was pretty harsh so punishment was more than a switch. You made sure to stay out of his way.

The neighbors sons that were my age had an old chevy pickup that we were allowed to drive in the fields. Top speed was probably under 50 so the most you could do was spin it around or get stuck in a mud hole, that wasn't all bad as you had to get the ac-wd tractor to pull it with. Had the hand clutch that we could barely reach or operate and you cranked it to start. Their dad broke a wrist on it when it back-fired on him once.

I didn't realize how poor we where at the time, some of the rich kids at school would give you a hard time cause of the hand me downs we wore but that usually got em a fat lip at recess. Can you imagine doing that now? Probably spend time at the local juvenille detention for it. Took me a lot of years to learn happiness isn't measured in dollars and cents.

[OneWithWood]

I have survived this long because my dad had one simple rule:

You know the difference between right and wrong.  If you get in trouble, don't call me.  You got yourself into it, get yourself out of it.

[isawlogs]

  I beleive that part of the problem with society today is that the children are thought to have the riding helmet on their head ,we on the other hand, where thought to have the helmet inside our head.....
 

[oldsaw-addict]

Another fellow who was talking to us said he thinks that today's parents have kids too regimented and programmed from an early age. The kids have very little unstructured free time, they mostly shuttle between school, soccer, dance class, tutoring, etc. I feel that using your imagination and gaining your independence is what has made the previous generations great. I employ young people around the farm part-time and I've found that the majority have been coddled so long they don't know how to think independently or take responsibilty for their actions. They also haven't learned that life isn't always fair or easy. Mom and Dad have done their best to "protect" them from the real world.

You dont have to tell me that, I've seen it myself all too often, if you want your kids to be normal now you have to practically live in the rural areas where drug dealers and gangs dont go. I lived in a nice small town in my younger years, those were fun times, the only problem was there were no kids around so I learned how to fix cars with my dad in the garage. I'm pretty normal other than having "junique" and being a HIGHLY skilled guy with a wrench. There just isnt enough good old fashioned fun anymore, now its all the terrible "rap" music, drugs, sex, gangs, fights for whatever, crime and pretty much nothing else anymore. I tell ya society is goin down the pipes like a rock off  a cliff, straight DOWN with no stops on the way.I say we just take our kids and move to the country where the influences of druglords and gangs dont exist, then we'll have normal kids that  had fun for a change, not shooting up the kwikie mart for money. the current state of the world says corruption, chaos and insanity are the order of the day for years and years to come. I hope I didnt offend anyone here.

[EZ]

I no where you are coming from Norm. The switch was a, well I guess you were'nt that bad, thing. My dad drank all his life so that should tell all. He was pretty ruff on me and my oldest sister. When I was in my late 20's, me and dad was sitting in a beer joint and I ask him way he was so ruff on me. He didnt answer me so I ask him again and his answer was, WELL YOUR STILL ALIVE, AINT YA. I didnt go any farther than that. The last ten yrs of his life was pretty good for me. Dam I miss him.
EZ

[Patty]

When our boys were very young, we decided it was high time to get them out of the city. We lived in a middle class neighborhood, but you couldn't even let them play in the back yard without watching them. And if you were in the back yard, you better have the front door locked, cause they'd rob your house while you were sitting out back! That was no way to live, and we knew it was definitely no place to raise kids.
We moved to the country and didn't allow the tv to be turned on until after supper, and I made sure I was home for the summers so they could stay home and play all day.Our boys really enjoyed all the animals we had. When we hatched ducklings in an incubator, our youngest son would lead them around to the mud puddles, they followed him all over the place! As the ducks got older, and not so attached to him, he spent his days trying to lasso them. I'm still not sure what his plans were if he ever caught one. We had pet pigs that slept in the doghouse, and the boys would ride them around the yard. Or they would take the dogs to the creek to go swimming.
My point is that parents need to learn that making huge amounts of money to buy the kids neat things isn't the answer, making sure the kids grow up in a healthy environment is the answer. Kinda like the childhoods you guys describe.

[oldsaw-addict]

Patty, You couldnt be any more right, $ is not the solution for making a happy childhood, a good fun and happy/healthy environment is the solution. I wont argue how important a healthy happy environment is for ANY kid under 17 years old. If you want to have stupid acting kids with a rap sheet that takes up 4 whole 7x24' storage units, then by all means live in the middle of the ghetto, BUT if you wanna have good kids that have a bright future free of illegal activities and drugs, come on out to the rural country side like we did. I miss the fresh air and lack of constant traffic on the road, the beuatiful scenery, and the friendly neighbors I had up in maine. If I had the choice, I'd have kept my life as it is, just NEVER moving from the most eastern state one can be in before the ocean.

What all children need is good friends, lots of fresh air to play in, a strong imagination, good parents that actually care about their kids ( these sorts of parents dont exist in my area of FL), a large area to play in, possibly a shooting range to visit, a junker truck to play around in the field with, and most important of ALL the things mentioned above, PROPER DISCIPLINE when needed. Trust me the kids I was in HS with are in DESPARATE need of many serious whoopins from there parents, whats worse is they most likely never even got the proper punishment when they deserved it if they even were punished, at all. It dont help much that the kids were mostly rich kids from a really stuck up neighborhood either, and I was a redneck kid going to school with them, I hated the way they all acted and treated rednecks then, If they was my kids the words of the day would be " I'm gonna open up a can of whoop *** on your rear boy! git back here, I'm talkin to you!"  You guys and myself included all lived in a better era when a parent could give a smack on the face for saying something obscene and not get arrested for simply giving their child some discipline when they needed it. now you can hardly send a kid to timeout without getting arrested for abuse! DanG government had to get into family matters, I wish they'd butt out and let parents do what needs to be done.

I'm sorry if I offended anyone with this post but its just how I feel.

[EZ]

I know my dad love me. One of his famous sayings to me was, I'm not your friend, I'm your teacher.
EZ