The Good ol' Days

[FiLtH]

  Reading the Roast Beef post reminded me of a conversation I had the other day with my wife. Back when I was 6 or 7 years old my town was still very small. Everyone knew eachother. Usually once a week my mother would have to do some errands and we'd stop at a little gas station/store...before they were called convenience(sp) stores.

   I would go inside while she put gas in the car. An old guy named Walter worked there, she'd say "Walter, Im going to run a few errands, and tell me to be good, and I'd goto the comic book rack. Right beside it was the ice cream freezer. A big old one that would put off alot of heat, and whirred a bit loud. There was a little
spot Id squeeze into between the freezer and the comic rack and Id eat eat cream and read SGt Rock, and the spooky ones, can't remember the name of it now, kinda like creepshow. Id probably be there an hour or so
then my mom would come back, tally up the stuff I ate...USUALLY buy a couple comics I read (usually read more than I bought) and say seeya to Walter.

    Can you imagine in todays world, dropping your kid off at a 7-11 and trusting the person to keep an eye on your son while you did errands? Im so glad I grew up when I did.

[lazs2]

Playing with all the jap kids in the neighborhood whos parents hardly spoke english.. we didn't realize they had been in internment camps.. didn't think that not that long ago.. the parents who were now friendly were shooting at people just like em.   Everyone got along in that almost rural neighborhood in what used to be los  angles.

we would ride out bikes or walk to the farmers resevoir while carrying our rifles or shotguns or even a 22 pistol strapped on our hip and the cops would drive by and maybe slow and stop and say "you aren't carrying those guns loaded are you?"  we would tell him no and he would say be careful and have fun and drive off.

We would take our rifles to school to be taught by an NRA instructor..

We had boxing in school.   If you weren't scared.. you weren't human.. but you didn't show it.  somehow.. not showing all your fears and such was a good thing..  probly still is to a great extent.



unraveling the mysteries of girls and booze..

great times.

course, here in the states at least..  all times are great times.. depends what we make of em.

lazs

[CptTrips]

LoL.  My dad used to send me down the street to the 7-11 with money to get him a pack of smokes.  I could keep the change to get me a slurpee and candy.

Can you imagine an 8 yr old trying to buy a pack of smokes today.  There'd be ATF swat teams, black helicopters, mass hystaria!  

Wab

[Ripsnort]

Personally, I think the 1960's so called "revolution" changed America, in a negative way. I think the "Peace, love and dope" generation has screwed up America, and we're in the mess we are today socially because of it. There were very few "good things" that came out of this generation, like Civil Rights, but I can't think of many more than that.

[Rich46yo]

I grew up in the big city. But in many ways it was like a small town. My mom used to send me to the corner store to buy smokes and all it took was a note written by her, "we used the same note time after time". We had a drive in theatre nearby, a lot of mom and pop stores on the strip, and very little trouble. We used to leave our doors unlocked. What really changed things was a guy names Richard Speck hacking up a bunch of nurses in 1966 and the riots of '68.

My old man always had guns around the house. He raised me as a shooter and hunter, most of all a bowhunter. It never occurred to me to mess with them cause A, he would take me shooting anytime, and B, I'd catch the belt so bad for it I wouldnt be able to sit for a week. Putting the strap to your kids rear end when he did wrong was a simple, ingenious, and effective technique. I went to a Catholic school and the nuns would beat you bloody if you were a trouble maker or back sassed your elders.

And we fist fought. We fist fought all the time. Nobody every got kicked out of school for it. Even if someone picked on a kid smaller then they were an older kid would probably smack the snot out of them. Hitting a girl never even occurred to you cause if you did the Devil would grab you by the ankles and drag you down to hell.  

We played organized football, basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, hockey, and I boxed. Sunday was the big TV day, and about the only one. Wild Kingdom and Walt Disney came on Sunday.

Boy...times have really changed haven't they?

[wrongwayric]

Grew up in a town of 200 people. Ride my bike down the street or run around town and not have to worry about child molesters. Being spanked by my neighbor for stealing apples. Could you imagine him doing that to a kid today? All my mom and dad said was that i got of lightly.

[Ripsnort]

I grew up on a 160 acre "hobby" farm (Dad worked it on the week-ends, and us kids worked it 7 days a week!) The nearest neighbor was a 1/2 mile away. We rode our bikes everywhere with no worries. (Fond memories of a convenience store 5 miles away just as the one Filth speaks of...a dollar would get you a full brown bag of goodies!)

During Halloween, our "neighbors" used to all bake their treats for the kids.

Dad used to let me take the Ford Tractor (identical to this one ) down to the "4 corners" over a mile away pulling a trailer full of freshly picked sweet corn. I'd sell it (alone at that corner) for 3 dozen a dollar. That used to be my cash cow in the August timeframe. I started driving that tractor alone, on a public road, at age 10. The sheriffs didn't care, every farm kid drove tractors then...

We had 21 guns just leaning in a closet at home, ammo on a shelf above...since I can remember walking.  Dad taught us about gun safety and had us clean the guns starting at about age 5 or 6. They were never a "mystery" to us, and we knew we'd get spanked if we took them out without his permission, so we never did! What a concept!


Picture below is of our old barn I'd play in as a kid. We had hay bales going to the roof, and used to make hay forts. There is a small window at the top of that barn that I jumped out of with a home made parachute made from sheets and twine, onto stacked hay below and dam near killed myself. 

Oh how I miss this place. Dad still lives on 40 acres in a new house on the old farm, but sold this barn and the house along with a 2nd house and 120 acres.  Life was simple back then. Shooting .22's from the porch, riding horses, driving the tractors, snomobiling anytime we wanted to in the late 60's.....

[Hornet33]

I grew up in Altus OK. I was 4 years old when we moved there from California in 1976. I left for good when I joined the Coast Guard in 1992.

Great place to be a kid during that time. I would ride my bike all over town, and never have to worry about anything. My friends and I would ride out to the AFB on Friday afternoons and go see my dad out at his squadron. If he wasn't busy he would take us out on the flight line and give us tours of the C-5's. Sometimes we got to go into the flight sims and play around.

My best friend Steve, his dad was the deputy sheriff. The crew I ran around with, we knew all the police officers in town by name, and they new us and our parents. We would go out and do stupid stuff and the cops would let us off with a warning.

The City Resevoir was a mile from my house, so we spent allot of time sitting on the bank fishing for perch and blue gill. The local BMX track was on the south side of town and I lived there from 6th grade until I was a junior in high school.

Friday nights for the 13-16 crowd was the skating rink from 7PM-12PM

BB gun wars with the only pump the gun twice rule. I used a red rider lever action because it had a higher rate of fire

Going camping with my friends in high school for the weekend. Getting someones older brother to buy us a couple of cases of beer.

$5 in gas would let me cruise all weekend in my truck.

Having a shotgun hanging in the back window of my truck in the high school parking lot was no big thing, everyone had one.

Getting into a fight was just that, a fight. We used our fists, the winner won, and the losser lost. Everyone knew it, and a couple of days later it was ancient history.

Those were the days. Kids today have no idea how much they are missing out on.

[BGBMAW]

ahh the 1 pump rule..

suprised non eof lost an eye..lolol

[ROX]

It's amazing how close we all had it.  Rip's parachute story was HILARIOUS!

It was nothing to ride your bike 3 miles to the "penny candy store" with a few quarters in your pocket and come home with a bag full of kiddie crack.  Remember "The Monkees" trading cards and banana flavored gum?  How about "Green Berets" trading cards & gum?

I do remember when gas was 29.9 cents a gallon. 

Did anyone else have the "Man From UNCLE" sharpshooter rifle?



ROX

[AKIron]

Ain't "progress" grand.

[ink]

these stories sound great!!

but mine is sooooooooo   different

i grew up in a small city, by time i was 11 i was in juvenile jail for runaway, i guess i didn't like my dad punching me in the face,
or putting me in the corner on my knees with rice or corn on floor, holding books out, or paint cans in out stretched arms, dropping them got me the punch 

i stayed there (except for being AWOL a couple times) until i was 17 from there i went to prison, i got out at 22,
if you can even imagine the hatred i had in my heart,  no most probably never will be able to.
 
   so no i guess i don't have the good 'ol days
but God is making up for it!!! with a wife of 15 years, 6 beautiful, healthy, smart, kids!!
my life now, will be the Good ;ol days when im old.

[lazs2]

hell.. I had a good home life but I still left when I was 17..  didn't even see the inside of a jail till later and then never more than 3 days at a time or so...

Knew a few abused kids growing up... my cousins for one..  there was still good times.

lazs

[Hungry]

After dealing with my local village to get permiting for some work at the house and being completely frustrated by the rules regulations and nit picking fee's I had this strange thought on the way home.

I imagined that I was sitting on a hill watching a train go by and thinking "The next thing you know their going to put a town there."

My ma's uncles and grandfather were all mule skinners and horse breakers in Colorado in the late 1800's early 1900's I wonder if they ever had the same thoughts.

[Slash27]

BB gun wars with the only pump the gun twice rule. I used a red rider lever action because it had a higher rate of fire

Going camping with my friends in high school for the weekend. Getting someones older brother to buy us a couple of cases of beer.

$5 in gas would let me cruise all weekend in my truck.

Having a shotgun hanging in the back window of my truck in the high school parking lot was no big thing, everyone had one.

Getting into a fight was just that, a fight. We used our fists, the winner won, and the losser lost. Everyone knew it, and a couple of days later it was ancient history.

Those were the days. Kids today have no idea how much they are missing out on.

That brought back some memories. That "two pump" rule always seemed to go out the window rather quikly.