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  • Remember When

    A post by Sharilyn in another thread jogged some memories and rather than hijack that thread..........

    I remember growing up in the 40's and 50's when life seemed a lot more simple. Maybe it wasn't, but it seemed that way.

    I grew up in one of those San Joaquin Valley farming towns similar to Modesto featured in American Grafitti. In fact, my youth was a composite of all the male characters in that movie. Perhaps it is my all time favorite movie because it is so biographical. And yes, I did marry the sweetheart character in that movie.

    I DID grow up in a house with a white picket fence. My younger brother and I both rode our bicycles to school. There were very few cars on the road. Often as a 6 or 7 year old, I would walk around downtown and no one would bother me. The community was about 5 or 6 thousand hard working, church going inhabitants.

    My parents did not have a lot of money. My mother was a stay at home mom and did the wash, did the ironing, did the cooking, and sewed our clothes. When the sons wore holes in the knees of their jeans, my mom would patch them up and we would wear them to school......just like all the other kids. Once a week it was beans and franks for supper, that would be Campbells Pork and Beans with weiners cut up in them. Since we were a Catholic family, Fridays were ALWAYS fish sticks or pancakes for supper. We were required to clean our plates (a bad habit that still sticks with me today) because of all the "starving chinamen." Afternoon snacks were often home made popsicles. Kool Aid was the drink of choice and Jello with canned fruit cocktail in it, a favorite dessert.

    We didn't have a TV, couldn't afford one. But Saturday mornings, it was always Big John and Sparky on the radio. One night a week it was Fibber McGee and Molly or the chilling Whistler or Jack Benny on the radio. My hobbies were either digging "forts" in the soft soil of the agricultural fields or building plastic model airplanes. However, in the evening it was always 2 hours of school homework with my mother providing the guidance. School was 8:30 until 2:30 or 3:00 in the afternoon. Anything but a 100% effort at school was unacceptable.

    And yes, when the future matapule misbehaved, severe corporal punishment was an accepted and expected form of discipline.

    You can never go back to the way things were, nor would I necessarily want to, but I will always be grateful for the memories.

    Anyhting you would like to share?
    Peace, Love, and Local Grindz

    People who form FIRM opinions with so little knowledge only pretend to be open-minded. They select their facts like food from a buffet. David R. Dow

  • #2
    Re: Remember When

    I was about 10 years after you, in S/E LA, with a single parent, and better food..., but otherwise it was much as you recounted for me as well.
    And yes, it was a better time overall in many ways, but I can only fault today's good kids and parents for not having more imagination to make life fun and interesting. We had tons of it. Where did all that go?

    We were lucky to have lived those times, we'll never see them again.
    https://www.facebook.com/Bobby-Ingan...5875444640256/

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    • #3
      Re: Remember When

      It was called the suburbs. When they sprouted up outside the city limits, parents had to start dropping kids off at school instead of walking them because kids had to go to schools in districts where parents worked. Going to the mom and pop stores was gone because of zoning laws, you couldn't put a store within a residential neighborhood.

      Drugs came into our society and life became complicated. Add to that our love of the automobile and suddenly friends and neighbors were gone. Television City became the calling for up and comings and life on the West Coast became a magnet and for some desperation recalled in that song, "Do You Know The Way to San Jose".

      Then some bright guy invented PONG, then the Walkman, and now we got the iPod and we evolved into creatures plugged into our own virtual reality listening to our own beat. We yearn for social connection and the Internet provided that thru forums such as HT and more elaborate social networks like Facebook and My Space. And that wasn't enough so we created virtual lifestyles with the Sims and now with Farmville on FB. We've become so detached with face to face contact unless it's via a webcam.

      Life is complicated now...to me it started with the development of the suburbs.
      Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Remember When

        Originally posted by Ron Whitfield View Post
        more imagination to make life fun and interesting..
        That's the KEY Ron and Craig, IMAGINATION! In my opinion, the developed societies today have lost the inventiveness to develop new ways of critical thinking to solve current and future problems. As Craig says, too much ready made entertainment today that stifles imagination.

        I hope for the best for future generations.
        Peace, Love, and Local Grindz

        People who form FIRM opinions with so little knowledge only pretend to be open-minded. They select their facts like food from a buffet. David R. Dow

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        • #5
          Re: Remember When

          As a child of the 60's i mistakenly believed that a "troop" was 100 men, and
          when the radio would constantly repeat the dead troops in viet nam, i
          wondered how big the world must be that nobody seemed to notice.

          The narratives of mass media are deliberately designed to train a dogmatic,
          zero-sum, violent view of the world; i simply don't listen to it. I cut off
          watching TV back in the 80's and so much imagination returned. What's
          wrong with reality that we have to be in virtual reality? Pong was not as
          good as paddle tennis, but it was cheaper for the corporations than building
          tennis courts. And the corporate media today is just one giant sales pitch
          from end to end - marketing of ten thousand viral narratives that stick in
          ones subconscious concept of self, driving one towards consumer
          monoculture, and never questioning the loss of true diversity that this
          global media state is creating.

          Back before electronic technologies, you had to be in a room with someone
          to hear another human voice. Now the bombardment is ubiquitous.
          And the economic stress of the fed's inflation put everyone's earnings
          in a pinch, and 2 jobs or 3 does not make it easier to be at peace.

          What was humanity thinking when it expanded its population from 3 billions
          when i was born to 6 billions now? Everything has speeded up, from the
          speed children start pretending to be adult, to the speed of music, war
          and global messaging. But the human DNA has not changed at all. We
          need silence, nature, without a cell phone beeping up our butts; i pray
          for future generations as well.

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          • #6
            Re: Remember When

            I grew up during the 80's. I know this seems much too modern for this conversation, but as my friends and I have passed our 10 year reunions and nearing our 30th birthdays, there has been lots of reminiscing.

            I grew up in the suburbs and wanted nothing more than to have a field (with a creek!) nearby to play in and trees to climb. I had an incredible imagination and spent all my spare time outside. The girl next door was my best friend and we would make up the best games. My poor swingset broke from all of our misuses of it- it was a boat, a spaceship, a timemachine, an airplane, a traveling, flying circus. I didn't have a clubhouse, so we spent a lot of time trying to make our own. Some of our attempts were pretty funny, but none of them really worked. We road bikes and skated and made up the most bizarre games. My parents had gone to Hawaii on their 10th anniversary and my mom'd brought back skirts and muu-muus for my older sisters. Those were our dress up clothes!

            Yes, I was driven to school, and yes, I had strict boundaries about where I could play. But I always came up with fun, wacky ideas (like our own TV show called Kids' Advice that we pretended to host). I rarely, if ever, watched TV- we did have an Atari, though. We rarely went out for dinner or anywhere exciting. My parents would take my sisters and I to Open Houses for fun on Sundays. My sisters would fight over the phone at night, and who got to take out the car on dates. My parents didn't take any backtalk or misbehavior.

            I'd say it was definitely a simpler time.

            Can't think of anything creative this time

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            • #7
              Re: Remember When

              I grew up in the 70's and early 80's. We also lived in the suburbs. Dad commuted over the floating bridge (with the bulge) to Seattle, while Mom stayed at home. I was an only child. I remember I would walk to school or ride my bike most of the time, tho my first five years of school it was only a 1/2 mile walk. After I changed elemetery schools, I rode the bus when it rained or snowed, otherwise I rode my bike.

              No one ever hassled me and my mom didn't worry when I would go out & play. My best friend was the boy next door, and when I grew older, I had a big crush on his sister. I had many friends in our neighborhood and we were always playing, investigating, skateboarding, or sledding down our hill. There was a green belt behind our houses which led to many adventures. My dad built a club house behind our house which was very well used for many years as a place of refuge, secret poker games, a make out place and as a place for one of my first....*cough*...encounters with a girl.

              In 1981, my Dad bought an Apple 2+ computer, and sadly, for me, a lot of my playtime outside became playtime inside - yes I was 15 at the time, but my friends in the neighborhood were also around 15 at that time too. Thus begun my weight gain....

              Summers were filled with fun, boating, camping, swimming, sports, even work (worked for dad). It seemed so carefree and simple. We had TV's, 3 total, but we only had 6 tv stations, and we didn't get bored watching just 6.

              Crime, drugs, and the general craziness didn't seem to enter my world until Nancy Reagan spoke at a school where I lived in the 80's. I knew bad stuff was happening around the world, and even in Seattle, but it seldom affected me (tho I was once robbed in Seattle when I was 14 while my dad was at his office a few blocks away). We always had time in the day to do what we wanted.

              People seemed to have more morals too. At least in my sheltered life. People went to church on Sunday's and then had brunch afterwards. The sun always shined (ok, not really, but it seemed that way in my memories) and no one had sex on the 1st date (or the 2nd or 3rd).

              Now I know that crime, drugs & sex were more pervasive than I remember, and as I learned as the years went on about one neighbor screwing another, but that didn't affect my quality of life. I can't imagine raising kids today. Societies rules almost dictate that our kids must lead a sheltered life and as parents we need to prevent them from falling or failing at every turn. My best friend growing up has 2 tweens, there are not allowed to open the door for anyone, even if its family (the kids won't open the door for his mother or father who lives less than a mile away) if their parents are gone.

              I miss the old days.....and the simpler days.
              Expect me when you see me.....

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              • #8
                Re: Remember When

                I grew up in La Jolla in the '50's and '60's. It is now a fabulously rich, fabulously fashionable burb but back then it was a nice little beach town. It had a Mexican neighborhood and a Black neighborhood and a white neighborhood. The rich people lived on the hill, the rest of us lived in "the village". My mother & I had a house half a block from the beach, the cat would go down to the reefs at low tide and go fishing, bringing her catch back home for us to admire. Or share? La Jolla is probably about 99% white and very well to do now.

                Tom Wolfe wrote "The Pump House Gang" about some of the people who grew up near the Windansea surf shack back then, I knew them, some were jerks, some were OK. Turns out one of the straightest arrow straight A students was actually coming to class, 8th grade, stoned on weed in 1962 or so. There was an entire large city block that was a vacant lot where we played as little kids, the only structure was the wreckage of a seaside restaurant that had burned down in the '40's. We stormed over to Heather's house to watch Captain Zoom on LA's channel 2 when it signed on at 4 pm. In the late '50's there was a beatnik coffee house, the Pour House, on LJ Boulevard where beat poets read poetry and the people drank red wine and or coffee long into the night. Turns out LJ always had a gay underground, a house across the alley from my mom and me turned out to be how to put it a gay whore house. There was always plenty of abalone and lobster to eat from the sea. Our 2nd grade teacher opened the door for our class to go to recess once and there was a scorpion in the doorway, holding the class at bay. A mountain lion reputedly cruised through downtown La Jolla as late as the 1960's. My driver training teacher in about 1964 was not too old but he remembered that as a young man you had to ford the San Diego river to drive to La Jolla. My granddad remembered driving from Los Angeles to San Diego before the highways were built, around 1910 or so, on the beach at low tide. You look at how much the world has changed in the 100 years since then and you don't have a clue what it will be like in another 100 years. Maybe a lot better, but maybe a lot worse, too.

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                • #9
                  Lucky you, Kalalau

                  Wow, I'd like to have been able to spend more vaca time in La Jolla, a truly beautiful part of So. Cal, than I did growing up. My mom liked to drive to various parts of Cali to show me it's beauty and interesting stuff as I grew up, and LJ was always an immediate YES! if it came up.
                  https://www.facebook.com/Bobby-Ingan...5875444640256/

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Remember When

                    Originally posted by Ron Whitfield View Post
                    ... but I can only fault today's good kids and parents for not having more imagination to make life fun and interesting. We had tons of it. Where did all that go?
                    We were lucky to have lived those times, we'll never see them again.
                    Originally posted by craigwatanabe View Post
                    Life is complicated now...to me it started with the development of the suburbs.
                    Originally posted by matapule View Post
                    As Craig says, too much ready made entertainment today that stifles imagination.
                    I hope for the best for future generations.
                    Originally posted by ulluullu View Post
                    i pray for future generations as well.
                    Originally posted by surlygirly View Post
                    I'd say it was definitely a simpler time.
                    Originally posted by Manofmayo View Post
                    I miss the old days.....and the simpler days.
                    Originally posted by Kalalau View Post
                    You look at how much the world has changed in the 100 years since then and you don't have a clue what it will be like in another 100 years. Maybe a lot better, but maybe a lot worse, too.
                    What strikes me about these posts is the recurrence of the "Gone is the simple life" subtext.

                    I enjoy reading everyone's memories of when the world was quieter and less crowded and less "complicated".

                    But "better"? Please. When I was growing up in 1960s Pittsburgh I did the best I could with what I had because it's all I knew. Today I can't believe that I was able to put up with it, and I'd like to think that I've been able to overcome my upbringing. For me and my family today, life has never been better than the here & now-- and we've been saying that for over five years.

                    I don't think that today's kids are any less motivated or innovative or creative than we were. I think they have a lot more choices than we did, and they don't always make the "right" ones. But I think that the trend of the world is positive, and that our kids already have better lives than we adults ever will. We can join them in figuring it out for ourselves and maybe even help them, or we can kibitz from the sidelines and get left behind grumbling about how it "used to be".

                    I think that what we see as "changes" is our changing perception of the world. Perhaps the problems that we see "developing" around us were always there. Maybe humanity is getting better at devoting attention to issues that used to be undetectable with previous technology, or could have been overlooked, or were easier to hide. Now we're more aware of them.

                    Maybe what we're all really longing for is the days of blissful ignorance.
                    Youth may be wasted on the young, but retirement is wasted on the old.
                    Live like you're dying, invest like you're immortal.
                    We grow old if we stop playing, but it's never too late to have a happy childhood.
                    Forget about who you were-- discover who you are.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      That's Pittsburg for chrissakes!

                      Bottom line, we are living the best of times and the worst of times.
                      There are so many ways to show how much better things are today. But equally for the opposite.
                      The bad.
                      TV for one, something that everybody relates to and is influenced by. What I grew up with was awesome. I don'y bother having a TV today, and cringe when reading or hearing about almost any of the current crop or most anything from the last 20 years. Cheers was the last great sitcom, and it stood way above the competition then. When Carson retired, so did that form of entertainment. Conan I like/d. Leno/Letterman, they have their rare moments. Craig Fergusen is probably good too.
                      Radio? Sucks. Didn't used to.
                      Movies? The 2nd most influencial medium. This is the only thing America makes today on a large scale, and they all suck! With very few exceptions. Most of the 'actors' are fools.
                      Even the so-called B movies from back in the day were great.
                      Sports? WAY OVERPRICED AND OVERPAID! And now players have garbage attitudes for the most part and usually without the old time efforts. $800 to take a family of 4 to an NFL game?! Drop dead! I still pay attention to the Lakers, nothing else, and pro sports was half my life's blood.
                      Organized sports for the kids? Good luck finding some that aren't over PCed, ruined by jerk parents, or priced beyond reason.
                      Wanna go outdoors for general fun? Where? There are 'no fun' zones everywhere now. Vastly limited opportunities. Nearly everything is restricted, built over, or just NO! Yes, you can still go and sit in a park, but don't lay down or a cop will cite you for 'camping'.
                      Concerts? Better have saved your last paycheck. And what talent can even afford to travel/tour these day's?
                      Just drive around or head off somewhere? Add an extra day for the traffic, and then there's gas prices and the many idiot drivers.
                      Polution has screwed up almost everything, you risk your life doing most anything.
                      Wanna eat/buy the basics? Don't go shopping at any of the major stores unless you've got a sugardaddy. And what you buy probably won't be made in America. Try find a plate lunch for $5. And with Hawaii State cutbacks in health controls, lookout! Need clothes? Better go to a thrift shop.
                      And these are just the simple things in life, no extravagances.

                      The good.
                      Technology has brought about some wonders and cheap prices, only because they are made overseas by cheaply paid workers.
                      Other than that, please help me fill in the blanks...
                      Compared to what we in the 60s envisioned things to be in the year 2000, give me a break!

                      Life is still good, if you know how, keep it simple, and don't have responsibilities or major overhead, or are lucky to be well off which then comes with a whole 'nuther bunch of BS.
                      Last edited by Ron Whitfield; December 7, 2009, 07:30 AM.
                      https://www.facebook.com/Bobby-Ingan...5875444640256/

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Remember When

                        My brother and I grew up in the 60's and 70's. Dad was military, and we lived overseas with no TV or radio until we were in our teens. Our playgrounds were usually open fields on military bases and farm fields around the places we rented. When my husband talks about headlines and popular music and TV from the 60's and early 70's, I usually am not very familiar with the subject.

                        While stationed in southern Italy, we were too busy building forts in the olive fields and eating all the cherries and figs we could hold, and fitting through "Batman Squeeze" alley in Mesagne on the school bus. In Pakistan we were following the gardener around and eating his chapati, running from scorpions and snakes that got in the yard, and chasing frogs out of their mudholes with the water hose. Oh, and Mama sprinkled our sheets with water at night to cool us off to go to sleep; the only air conditioner was in their room. (I did that this summer to my son; that plus his fan made him giggle with the chill and fall asleep comfortably. Sprinkled my own sheets, too. I still have the old aluminum bottle sprinkler.)

                        But today DS has a lot I did not have; I don't remember my parents concerning themselves with broadening my experiences in life. Their only concern was that I do my schoolwork.

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                        • #13
                          Re: Remember When

                          Ignorant Bliss...yep I agree when we were children, we had little clue as to what the rest of the world was doing. Maybe that's a good thing? I think it's important for kids to have a good childhood but balanced with a bit of reality.

                          We can't change the past for ourselves, but we can build a future for our kids so they too can call their childhood, "The Good Old Day's". In fact, these really are their cherished childhood memories we're creating for them right now.

                          My battle cry: It's for the Kids!
                          Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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                          • #14
                            Re: Remember When

                            I think my comment about "simpler" had to do with just being a kid. My parents required me to try my hardest at school- I made straight A's. I had chores to do (my allowance was $2 a week), played soccer and was a Girl Scout. I did a few other things over the years, but did not have 5 extra activites. My parents didn't spend their weekends shuttling me from event to event or game to game. Our high school required community service hours to graduate, and I had more things going on at that age. But my friends and I didn't spend our time stressing out over college applications and extracurricular activites and things. We chose sports and clubs that sounded fun instead of what we thought looked good on a transcript. Everyone I knew got into a good college. It wasn't the competetive sport it is today. Now it seems like kids are being pushed to do too many activites and extra classes and recess is being reduced. Let kids be kids and have fun! Homework is so hard now!

                            I went to private school, but a surprising number of people got used cars when they turned 16- or cheaper end cars. There were a few Corvettes, but not many. I had an Escort. Dooney and Burke purses were in, but I didn't have one and didn't care. I don't remember everyone being super label conscience. We wore Bongo, Guess, Polo, Tommy Hilfiger, etc. Not Prada, Balenciaga, Diane von Furstenberg. No one really talked about money. And I had some friends that were quite well off.

                            Today, it seems like kids are all about labels and money. They have cell phones at 12. They get pedicures at 9, and highlights and massages and credit cards. These are all things I don't think kids and early-aged teens should be doing- these are things for adults. YMMV, of course. Kids are not and should not be mini-adults. What do they have to look forward to, then? Besides bills?

                            And the sense of entitlement? Ugh! As most of my friends are having kids now, I've noticed that ALL baby clothes are emblazoned with "Princess" or "Little Prince" or some crap on the front. And little crowns. No wonder kids thing the world revolves around them...it literally starts from birth! No child of mine will EVER think that she is the princess of the house. Sorry, kid!

                            Can't think of anything creative this time

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                            • #15
                              Re: Remember When

                              Originally posted by surlygirly View Post
                              No child of mine will EVER think that she is the princess of the house. Sorry, kid!
                              Ahh but you assume too soon...maybe it'll be a boy! And what if HE wants to be the princess of the house!! You never know...... **wisps away in the shadows of the dark**
                              Life is what you make of it...so please read the instructions carefully.

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