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Title: Gotta Be Over 40 to Understand
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Published: Jun 9, 2006
Author: unkonwn
Post Date: 2006-06-09 13:05:30 by Jethro Tull
Keywords: None
Views: 3493
Comments: 232
Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't get food poisoning. My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat a bite raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper, in a brown paper bag, not in icepack coolers, but I can't remember anybody getting e.coli. Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then. The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system. We all took gym, not PE... and risked permanent injury with a pair of hightop Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built-in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened, because they tell us how much safer we are now.... Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym. What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything, and she could even give you an aspirin for a headache or fever. I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself. Oh yeah..and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed! We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of Mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked! Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat. We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either, because if we did, we got our butt spanked there, and then we got butt spanked again when we got home. I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off. Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house. Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a "dysfunctional family". How could we possibly have known that we needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac! How did we ever survive?
Poster Comment: LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA, AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T---- SORRY FOR WHAT YOU MISSED. I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING
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#122. To: rowdee (#109)
A quote from my fathers mom at a gas station. They'd just paid ~14 cents a gallon... Mimi (the grandma name for her): Where's my S&H green stamps? Attendant: Lady, there ain't no green stamps today, we're having a gas war... I used to colect Green Stamps. Got a tackle box and lures with them. That was the "hottest thing since sliced bread" :-)
"To wield onself -- to use oneself as a tool in one's own hand -- and so to make or break that which no one else can build or ruin -- THAT is the greatest pleasure known to man! To one who has felt the chisel in his hand and set free the angel prisoned in the marble block, or to one who has felt sword in hand and set homeless the soul that a moment before lived in the body of his mortal enemy -- to those both come alike the taste of that rare food spread only for demons or for gods." -- Gordon R. Dickson, "Soldier Ask Not"
It is, but using it deny's the state tax revenue so it's dyed for motor fuel and called "#2 fuel oil" for home heating oil...
"To wield onself -- to use oneself as a tool in one's own hand -- and so to make or break that which no one else can build or ruin -- THAT is the greatest pleasure known to man! To one who has felt the chisel in his hand and set free the angel prisoned in the marble block, or to one who has felt sword in hand and set homeless the soul that a moment before lived in the body of his mortal enemy -- to those both come alike the taste of that rare food spread only for demons or for gods." -- Gordon R. Dickson, "Soldier Ask Not"
you're so astute. ;)
LOL!
Ha !!! My mother's books were the size of a phone book. I remember tagging along to the supermarket with the stamps falling out all over. Didn't they get steak knives or something??
Two Million got you steak knives, three billion a nine dollar toaster. Most got lost, what a scam.
Used to be a parent could send a kid to the store with a note to buy cigarettes and I think beer. Cigarettes, for sure......
Oh gawd............yes! S&H Green Stamps!!! LOL................and weren't there some called Blue and Gold, or maybe that was a 'local' thang! I can remember wetting the backs of the stamps and filling in the books! And the catalog with the 'good stuff' you could redeem them for.
I ain't over 40 and I know some of this stuff. =0)
I bought cigarettes when I was 14 or so, and looked it. They didn't care. I acted old enough to be trusted with a lighter... We're not better off now that they're forced to care at threat of fine/imprisonment, or ruinous lawsuit. That just leaves the path clear for freaks with an agenda.
Quit bogarting that peace, Herbert!
"To wield onself -- to use oneself as a tool in one's own hand -- and so to make or break that which no one else can build or ruin -- THAT is the greatest pleasure known to man! To one who has felt the chisel in his hand and set free the angel prisoned in the marble block, or to one who has felt sword in hand and set homeless the soul that a moment before lived in the body of his mortal enemy -- to those both come alike the taste of that rare food spread only for demons or for gods." -- Gordon R. Dickson, "Soldier Ask Not"
Had to laugh at the back and forth conversation grandma and the attendant had. Reminded me of a conversation I overheard my parents having....conversation being the key word. They had just been to the grocery store and came home. Had gone with my dad's old white pickup truck. The bed was full of brown paper bags. Us kids were helping haul the 'loot' in and I overheard my Mom talking about highway robbery and this mess costing $15!! We never lived high on the hog, but my Mom could cook a pigs ear and you'd think you were eating filet mignon! Give her the ingredients and she could cook with the best. Good home-style cooking, and lots of it. Even in bad times we never knew it because what she cooked was always so filling and seemed so rewarding. I look back on so many of those growing up years now and see that we were dirt poor many of those years. But we never knew it! I can remember one year at the annual canned good drive at our elementary school Mom insisting we each take a can of food to the school harvest basket. There weren't many choices--a can of this soup or a can of that veggie--but we did our part to help the poorer among us have a nice Thanksgiving dinner. One evening, there was a knock at the door. My dad opened the door. There was a basket of food with a small turkey sitting on the top with a Happy Thanksgiving card from the school harvest basket! To this day, none of us can figure out 'how' they knew times were rough. Coulda been observant teachers....or Gods angels looking out for us.
S & H bought up all their competitors...with savings stamps. Economists stumped, film at eleven.
Quit bogarting that peace, Herbert!
What a neat picture! A visual treasure!
LOLOL.
Wow!!! What a neat pic. Nice gene pool you got going (g)
awwww..that's so neat.
St Thomas Aquinas, Brooklyn, NY
I'm putting together one of them old- timey mini bikes that used to be $129 in the Montgomey Wards catalog. Probably considered a WMD now.
Nice looking old building, JT>............is it still there, or has it given way to 'progress'?
TAlking about building from kits............ Did you know you could buy house kits from Sears back a good many years ago? The folks who bought my ranch had (quite a while ago) bought a ranch in Oregon that the home had been built from one such kit. IIRC, it was something like 900 sq. ft., and they raised their 3 kids there!
Is that limp or imp?
That's still there Dee. My HS, a short distance away, was a victim of cultural diversity the year after I graduated in '67.
Sheesh, who can afford to heat a 900 sq. ft. house nowadays? ;)
What's next...one of those Sears catalog houses?
um..you tell me :P
Is that um or hum?
See #147.
That strikes another memory chord. Family reunion time... Pickled eggs, pan fried chicken, barbeque, home brewed wines and liquor (actually, "likker" from the side of the family that it came from!), and PIE CASES! Aunt Nettie would bring up a case with an ornately decorated door that held about 5 or 6 pies. In that case resided heaven. Rhubarb, wild blueberry, wild cherry, peach, mincemeat, and other pies. The highlight of the days eatin' along with some ice cream churned right then and there. And the sitting around in the front yard of the cabin as the sun set, the rumble of thunder in the distance with attendant heat lightning, and setting off some fireworks ('cause it happens around the 4th), and watching the fireflies come out, and hearing the whiporwil [sp?] (Whip-poor-will) chirp out it's lone call and the horned owl hoot... Yea, we really move up in the world when we give up the local modest job and strike out for far away lands and riches...
"To wield onself -- to use oneself as a tool in one's own hand -- and so to make or break that which no one else can build or ruin -- THAT is the greatest pleasure known to man! To one who has felt the chisel in his hand and set free the angel prisoned in the marble block, or to one who has felt sword in hand and set homeless the soul that a moment before lived in the body of his mortal enemy -- to those both come alike the taste of that rare food spread only for demons or for gods." -- Gordon R. Dickson, "Soldier Ask Not"
I remember Dee. More than a few still standing in PA. IIRC, the total cost was in the area of $500 or so.
I was seriously thinking about hitting swap meets or ebay to find a servicable Schwinn Manta Ray. That was the dragster style bike built on frame designed for 24" wheels. I had a new cheapie bicycle for a while, scared the hell out of me riding it, not enough castor. They'd sell a million of them easy if they brought back the Orange Crate
Quit bogarting that peace, Herbert!
One evening, there was a knock at the door. My dad opened the door. There was a basket of food with a small turkey sitting on the top with a Happy Thanksgiving card from the school harvest basket! To this day, none of us can figure out 'how' they knew times were rough. Coulda been observant teachers....or Gods angels looking out for us. Beautiful. Same here.
That's a beauty! I had a 16" Schwinn, the smallest bike on the block. I painted it coral pink with silver flames, but it had only normal handlebars.
No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare. – James Madison
Oh for those family picnics and family reunions. Back in *hmmm, er, cough cough* 1952, we all met in OK at my dad's parents place for a family reunion. Once all the sets of families were there (Dad had 9 bros and sisters) were there, we planned a day to go to Lake Texhoma to fish and play in the water. Once we made it back to one of the aunts and uncles places, we had the big back yard--and I mean big--chow down. We had something like 5 ice cream freezers going, and the chicken house had to have been denuded, and the tater patch done likewise!! Whew! We ate til it ouched, and then in no time at all, it was time for that home made ice cream. I remember strawberry and peach and chocklate and vanilla--don't recall the other one. The farm ladies sure knew how to make a breakfast. Biscuits to kill for! I do remember asking if my Mom could make the milk gravy because she was the BEST at that!
When I built my house in 1980, the total cost was about $14,000. I had to hire contractors to help me with the foundation and the roof, explaining the high cost. The sticker price of the new 1980 Chevy Z28 I bought was well under $8,000. Don't remember exactly what I paid for it.
I hope you, unlike many of my friends, were smart enough to paint outside.
Quit bogarting that peace, Herbert!
I believe it was 'mobility', that wondrous thing, that did just about the most damage in breaking down families. Not the immediate family, but all the closeness of extended families like aunts and uncles, or cousins, great aunts, etc. I know for myself that I was never close to the OK and TX relatives, my Dad's side, as I was with my Mom's, who had all moved to California. And that's a shame. Two years ago I got to spend time with one of my TX aunts, and geeze how I wish we'd always lived closer. She's a dear, dear person.
Looking back - what a poor trade-off it is. Is it possible to go back?
I may be off on this, when I was seven, I believe i was brought to the lake as they made it into a damm. Would have been bout '64. I may getting this confused with a big dam in OK. At the pan termination of Arkansas,Oklahoma.
Comments (163 - 232) not displayed.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestI can remember gas wars when gas that was usually selling for 15 or 16 cents a gallon would get all the way down to something like 8 or 9 cents a gallon.
#123. To: lodwick (#117)
Yep. It should be 25-35% below gasoline prices...in a honest market.
#124. To: Hmmmmm (#120)
Somehow it seems that it was easier to get consent then from Mom or Dad than it is now from your Uncle Sam.
#125. To: SKYDRIFTER (#121)
I guess I shouldn't mention monitoring the Russian nuclear fallout with a geiger counter
#126. To: SKYDRIFTER (#121)
#127. To: Axenolith (#122)
S&H green stamps
#128. To: Jethro Tull (#127)
Didn't they get steak knives or something??
#129. To: Indrid Cold (#119)
#130. To: Axenolith (#122)
#131. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
#132. To: rowdee (#129)
#133. To: Jethro Tull (#0)
Grandparents on Pop's side at the POW Ball in 1947...
#134. To: Axenolith (#122)
#135. To: rowdee, Axenolith (#130)
S&H Green Stamps!!! LOL................and weren't there some called Blue and Gold, or maybe that was a 'local' thang!
#136. To: Axenolith (#133)
#137. To: Dakmar (#135)
#138. To: Axenolith (#133)
#139. To: Axenolith (#133)
#140. To: christine, mehitable, Catholic school survivors (#39)
#141. To: Dakmar (#132)
between being stumbled over or being kicked.
#142. To: Jethro Tull (#140)
#143. To: Esso (#141)
#144. To: Jethro Tull (#140)
#145. To: christine (#144)
#146. To: rowdee (#142)
#147. To: rowdee (#143)
between being stumbled over or being kicked.
#148. To: Esso (#141)
I'm putting together one of them old- timey mini bikes that used to be $129 in the Montgomey Wards catalog.
#149. To: Jethro Tull (#145)
#150. To: christine (#149)
#151. To: Jethro Tull (#148)
between being stumbled over or being kicked.
#152. To: rowdee (#134)
We never lived high on the hog, but my Mom could cook a pigs ear and you'd think you were eating filet mignon!
#153. To: rowdee, Esso (#143)
#154. To: Esso (#141)
#155. To: rowdee (#134)
I look back on so many of those growing up years now and see that we were dirt poor many of those years. But we never knew it! I can remember one year at the annual canned good drive at our elementary school Mom insisting we each take a can of food to the school harvest basket. There weren't many choices--a can of this soup or a can of that veggie--but we did our part to help the poorer among us have a nice Thanksgiving dinner.
#156. To: Dakmar (#154)
#157. To: Axenolith (#152)
#158. To: Jethro Tull (#153)
IIRC, the total cost was in the area of $500 or so.
between being stumbled over or being kicked.
#159. To: robin (#156)
#160. To: Axenolith (#152)
#161. To: Axenolith (#152)
Yea, we really move up in the world when we give up the local modest job and strike out for far away lands and riches...
#162. To: rowdee (#157)
we planned a day to go to Lake Texhoma to fish and play
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