Friday, July 14, 2017
Readng The Comments On Blog Posts Can Lead To Things Like This:
Borrowed from ACE's Place because it's worth sharing:
How many of these points can you share? So much of this sounds so familiar..... although I was
6 at the time.
"Grizzledcoastie" wrote:
438 When I was 8 during the summer back in the summer of 1968, we'd swim in the bayou, fish all day, live in the woods near my home playing guns (liberals of today would have kittens), football (no helmets or pads), basketball and baseball. We caught crawfish and our dads would boil them in a huge picnic with the corn and potatoes. We'd wave to the shrimp boats and the party boats headed to the Gulf and they'd blow their horns to us on the bank.
I never really watched a lot of TV and never had a reason to do so. I did chores, such as clipping the beautiful hedges that surrounded our parcel like a living fence and mowing the grass under our giant live oak tree with an old push mower. I started mowing the grass when I was 8 and I got an allowance
My parents had a big, screened in porch that overlooked the bayou and we'd have sleepouts on it. We'd sneak outside and look at the massive amount stars overhead.
We'd walk alone to the gas station on the corner and spend some of our allowances on classic candy and Barq's or Cokes in a glass bottle. The summers on the Gulf Coast were hot as hell, but it wasn't because of "global warming/climate change/whatever they'll call it tomorrow." It's the South. It's hot in the summer. Either you deal with it or you don't.
We'd flirt with the neighborhood girls and steal kisses and have little relationships. That's how I met my wife for the first time and we started dating in high school.
The only rules were you had to come inside for lunch and supper and playtime ended when the sun went down.
If someone got hurt, we got an adult. It was no big deal. One time, a friend of mine broke his arm and his Dad took him to the hospital, which was 24 miles away in the city. There was no nanny state going after him for "abuse." His attitude, like all of our parents, were "boys will be boys."
Vietnam was raging, but it was so distant. It wasn't until a boy from up the street died that it became a real thing for me. There were very few black kids in our town, so civil rights was also a distant thing for me.
I sold that house after my parents passed on and I do tear up when I think of it. My Dad never spoke of his time in Korea and not that I blamed him. All I knew was he had a Bronze Star that I happened on one day. I showed it to him and he gently said to put that away and never speak of it ever again. When I read the award after his death, I never realized that my Dad had the courage of a lion.
Now kids can't be kids. They have live in hermetically sealed bubbles. We wonder why there is a childhood obesity epidemic (everything to the nanny staters is an "epidemic") when we won't let kids have their independence and play as kids were meant to do. We don't let "boys be boys." We have to drug them with Ritalin so they won't leave their seats and be active. I was busy as a child, but my teachers accepted that as part of "boys being boys." You want to know why we have man buns and skinny, feminized hipsters and there's your answer right there.
We don't let them learn at their pace and by methods guaranteed to help them. And we wonder why more women are attending college, not that is a good thing since they come out propagandized by the feminist movement into hating men and delaying childbirth or not even having kids.
Our elites denigrate flyover country and blue collar workers, at least until they need a plumber to unclog their pipes or a roofer to plug holes in their leaking roof.
I'm sorry about rambling here, but there's so much in this society that makes me so depressed for the world I hand over to my children and now my grandchild. We need to continue to belittle this bunk from these perennial, freedom-hating busybodies and give our children a chance to have the rich childhoods that ultimately prepare them to be the great future citizens our nation needs them to be.
I too was born in 60.
ReplyDeleteAnd i feel exactly the same.
It broke me, but i putmy kids through a private highschool, because 1-8 gradw was more indoctrination than i wanted already.
No college. They are "red pilled", and free thinkers. I allowed them the samefreedoms and responsibilities that was given to me.
They are now 22 and 24.
What i see around me, has me deeply concerned for the future - very sad.
Holy crap. It must be kind of a reunion day. I was not only born in 1960 as well, but my first name is Tim. I remember in the summers here in MI, we used to all do our chores and then get on the phone to get enough of the guys together and tell what time to meet at the school baseball field for sandlot baseball games. Then, later in high school, as summer wore on, we would get together at the school to start running and playing football to get in shape for the fall season. We didn't have coaches telling us to get in shape, we did it on our own. Of course, I also identify with pretty much all of the things talked about here, except for the part of coming inside at dusk. We had to be in the neighborhood, but we spent a lot of time outside, in the small village that I am from, watching fireflies, or camping out in back yards, or just sitting and talking with the neighborhood friends. In high school, during summer, we also did this, often including female friends as well. This innocent flirting and talking was preparing us for when we were older and marrying, as a sort of precursor to relationships, and learning acceptable behavior. Not sexual, but what was considered polite and kind, which is the kind of men that the women of my day were interested in. Not the kind that it seems like women seek today, by a long shot. I miss a lot about those times, but I think that the biggest thing that I miss is the simplicity. I still have the friends from high school. When you only have around 80 in your class, it isn't hard to stay friends, even if it is long distance.
DeleteHeh, I'm 10 years older than you guys but was still able to have fun. We had moved down to Louisiana for a few years when I was in 3rd grade - quite a change from WI. When the area flooded we were playing around in the water and some old dude came paddling by in a canoe, "Ya'll know what gators and cottonmouth are?" Until that point we did not. :P
ReplyDeleteLater, a friend and I were exploring the woods and stumbled over what I assume now was a still. Shotgun blasts, and pellets ripping through the trees - over our heads - sent us running.
Good times.
oops, younger, I meant 10 years younger.
DeleteI was born in 1938...guess that makes me a real old timer. But I remember what it was like as a kid...GRAND!! Yup, took off to the beach or met with other kids and did kid things. We climbed trees, played games at the playground, swung on swings until they almost went over the bar, lol. Got home at supper time or called from friends house to say we would be late and could we stay for dinner at a friends. We actually learned American History and how to add and subtract. Teachers were not unionized and they smacked us if we were rowdy. If a kid got too fidgety, he was sent to the principals office or made to stand out in the hall or in the corner facing the wall. We were free range kids and said Hello Mrs. Jones and if we cussed, any adult could smack us for doing so. We learned to respect our elders...even if we snickered behind their backs where they couldn't hear us. Life was good.
ReplyDeleteHey Irish;
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the early mid 70's and I can relate to a lot of what that commenter posted on. I curse the nanny staters, my son has more technology that I did but he doesn't have the fun of childhood that I did. I rode in the back of a pickup truck since I was little and kids today can't do that for example. Childhood for my son ain't as much fun for my son as it was for me. Back then, we could ride our bikes anywhere and stay out until dusk, and now that is considered "Abuse". I truly fear for our society.
Same exact thing in Medford, Oregon back then, only a lot drier, and everybody's big brother went to Nam.
ReplyDeleteI read Ace on a daily basis and always read the comments at any website. You can run across some great stuff in the comments section. That being said a lot of this applies in a way. I grew up and live in Canada. As a kid I did a lot more with less.
ReplyDeleteI was born in 1951. Lots of similarities. My dad also had a Bronze Star, from WWII, and also refused to talk about it. Got through college and ROTC just after Vietnam ended. My daughter, now 27, went to state schools, but we talked most nights about her lessons, when she got into middle school. Smart kid; she would sometimes tell us about mistakes her teachers made, but was too slick to tell the teachers. I have trouble putting up with fools, both my wife and our daughter fake that much better than I ever could.
ReplyDeleteI was born in 1950 and grew up in central Illinois in a suburb of Peoria. I remember being a kid exactly as described. The idea of being stuck in the house was something nobody wanted-even with TV (3 channels).
ReplyDeleteMy daughter, now 35, declared she didn't want to waste 4-6 years in glorified high school. She wanted to join the Navy. She went through the nuclear program for 2 years and then 4 years and 2 combat tours on a carrier.
She has a great job with spectacular benefits now. I am surprised more parents don't look at the military as an option. At the very least they will learn discipline and teamwork and many will have employable technical skills when their enlistment is up.