I think I know why they called them "The good old days"

[Ed, Ego and Superego]

The weird thing about my childhood in the then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was that from 1965 to 1980, there was a civil war going on ~ I came along in 1967 and thus lived through thirteen years of war. Thankfully my parents survived unscathed but I know that, despite the war, my childhood was a good one. I learnt to take care of myself at an early age and continue to do that these days.

I had a friend who had a similar background, though she was younger than you by a few years, her brother I think was close in age.  She grew up in Zimabwe about the same time frame.  I heard similar stories, but not as extreme.
-Ed

[ER]

Man this thread is so dead-on right. Who ever would've thought that a TV network would have to urge kids to "play an hour a day" as Nick Jr is doing. It's sad.

Children today are overprotected and the media creates hysteria by making lurid headline news out of every horrible abduction of a minor out there. If we let the media's sensationalizing get to us, we'd think there was a pervert behind every tree. When I was a kid we'd ride bikes all summer and most of the rest of the year. We got out, we did things, we actually played, and it was great. We rode sleds in winter, swam in summer, played more sets of tennis than I could count, we explored the woods, had lemonade stands, walked dogs and raked leaves for pocket money, and I swear, no one I knew my age back then was overweight. Now children just stay in all the time and every toy, game, activity seems so sanitized and ultra-safe, and based on the experiences I've seen in the younger generation, obesity is a true problem.

I think I posted in here long ago about the time when I was in college and there was a snow day, and I went to my friend's house, and her younger brother and his buds were huddled around the TV playing some Nintendo snowboarding game, instead of getting out there and actually snowboarding themselves. And what will that generation's children be like? Dismal.

It's sad. You know, it really is.

[ghouck]

When my son was little, like kindergarten age, about the time he started going over to friend's houses regularly, I hada talk with him about kids playing with guns. Being Alaska, they're everywhere, something like 8 guns per person in the state. Anyways, keep in mind that I was working in a shipyard, after 7-1/2 years in the Army: My son has heard swearing before.
Anyways, my talk with him was basically that if he was with other kids and one of those kids got out a gun, he was to tell them to "Put the F-ing gun away", and get the heck out of there. I made it a point that he was to use the F-work, not only so the kid with the gun would get a better idea of the gravity of the situation, but also that when talking to me son, HE understood the gravity of the situation. He'd been in trouble for saying things he shouldn't before, but he understood that the whole gun safety thing was infinitely more important than what a person says. He understood 100%

So, he's at school a few months later, and the school was having some safety assembly, and they were asked what they would do if their friends were playing with a gun. He told them that I had told him to tell them to put the gun down, and punctuated it with "and my dad said I HAD to use the F-word!". Of course, I got a call from the school that day. . . I laugh when I think about that.

[Poogie]

Disinfectants......pretty soon kids will be suiting up in spacesuits so they don't inhale a particle of dust. Everything they touch will have disinfectant on it, they'll have to be sprayed with it before they leave or enter any building or bubble covered park. I'm so sick of hearing about disinfectants!!!!!!!
I have 3 older brothers and I did what they did, came home filthy from head to toe and guess what...I'm still alive and hardly ever get sick....ok, I feel better now.   

[asimpson2006]

Disinfectants......pretty soon kids will be suiting up in spacesuits so they don't inhale a particle of dust. Everything they touch will have disinfectant on it, they'll have to be sprayed with it before they leave or enter any building or bubble covered park. I'm so sick of hearing about disinfectants!!!!!!!
I have 3 older brothers and I did what they did, came home filthy from head to toe and guess what...I'm still alive and hardly ever get sick....ok, I feel better now.   

Now I would disinfect something before any of my future kids would touch if something that I would not want them getting their hands on (Blood, urine, feces things of that nature.) otherwise, I wouldn't.  My sister used to ask me before she would let me hold one of my nephews "Are you dirty"? and I would say no, she would get a fit about it  I'm sorry I don't have time to change into clean suit every time I enter the house.  Of course when she would ask me this I was working as a training butcher so I sometimes had blood on me but it would have been on my boots and pants and I don't hold my nephews with my pants or my boots.

The other things that gets me with her is this whole "organic thing"  That's all she feeds her kids, organic juice, organic yogurt, organic what ever.  Hell, when I was younger I almost never had organic food and I turned out fine, with of course some cysts here and there lately but otherwise in fine health.


 

[Newt]

Disinfectants......pretty soon kids will be suiting up in spacesuits so they don't inhale a particle of dust. Everything they touch will have disinfectant on it, they'll have to be sprayed with it before they leave or enter any building or bubble covered park. I'm so sick of hearing about disinfectants!!!!!!!
I have 3 older brothers and I did what they did, came home filthy from head to toe and guess what...I'm still alive and hardly ever get sick....ok, I feel better now.   

This sort of thing looks especially silly in light of  recent studies that found country kids have a far lower incidence of asthma than city kids.  It was suggested that *exposure* to 'dirt' made the country kids healthier in the long run.  Which, as I recall, is what my grandparents claimed all along: something about having to "eat your pound of dirt".

[ghouck]

Mooning: When I was a kid we spent an inordinate time mooning people. I had it down so I would stand up on my bike and yank down my shorts in the back with one hand. We would go out at night and stand by the road and moon people driving by and run through the woods if they stopped. I would almost every day get off the bus, run into my yard, and moon the bus as it leaves. That was BEFORE we were old enough or had watched Hollywood Knights six dozen times.

Once in a while I hear about some kid getting into buku trouble over mooning, and I've not heard my kid of his friends talk about it, , seems it is a pastime that's fading away. I'm going to make it a point to moon someone, , , OUTDOORS, this weekend. I suggest you all do the same.

The good old days = when "drive-by" meant mooning people from a moving car.

[Patient7]

I'm going to make it a point to moon someone, , , OUTDOORS, this weekend.

You do live in Alaska right? 

[dean]

Most of the people who are talking about the good ol' days are most likely in the generation of those who are making the rules making it harder to have fun these days...

Kind of ironic isn't it! 

[ghouck]

I'm going to make it a point to moon someone, , , OUTDOORS, this weekend.

You do live in Alaska right? 

. . Yes. .

[ghouck]

Most of the people who are talking about the good ol' days are most likely in the generation of those who are making the rules making it harder to have fun these days...

Kind of ironic isn't it! 

You really think so? I always thought the under 40 crowd hadn't made it to powerful enough positions, or those that had haven't been in them long enough to make any real changes. I do see a big difference in MY parent's attitudes as they get older. 20 years ago they would have laughed over being mooned, heck my stepdad did it on a regular basis. Now they don't find it funny. I hope I never lose my sense of humor. . .

[dean]

I hope I never lose my sense of humor. . .

Amen to that.


So mooned anyone yet?

[ghouck]

Not yet, but it's only 5:20 in the evening. The night is still VERY young.

[dean]

Not yet, but it's only 5:20 in the evening. The night is still VERY young.

    

Side note, last night [saturday night] saw someone urinating on the street.  Not even on a bush or down a laneway or something, but on the footpath for all his glory to be seen.  Classy lad. 

[Dennis]

These are, at least for the youngsters among us, going to be "The Good Old Days".