Black & White TV‏

[moose 57]

Black and White (Under age 40? You won't understand.)

You could hardly see for all the snow,

Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go.

Pull a chair up to the TV set,

'Good Night, David.

Good Night, Chet.'

My 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 seem to get food poisoning.

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter and I used to eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice pack coolers, but I can't remember 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 high top 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.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.

We must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.

I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.

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 our 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. It was a neighborhood run amuck.

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?

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!

[The Machine]

It's funny how similar life experiences are all over the world ..... now I am under 40 by about a decade and I remember experiencing most of that ........ and I can tell you my kids will too .

[FlintNPebbles]

Oh yes....I look back and wonder how I made it to adulthood! Of course I do think about some things and REALLY wonder that I made it. My dad had a CB antenna on the roof of his pickup. We would drive to the nearest town (13 miles away) while standing up in the back of the pickup and holding on to that antenna....of course dad only went 40mph

When I was 11 and older, I would ride my pony out to the hills and be gone from sunrise to sunset all summer long. No one ever said anything. Now if my kids are not where they are supposed to be all sorts of terrible thoughts cross my mind.

The good ol' days!! There are definitely some things that have changed for the better...but some things (like getting medals for just participating) that are ridiculous!

[krome2ez]

Bactine fixed every thing. Scrapes, sunburn, and bug bites.

Walked to school rain, snow or shine.

Very few school fights. Never a school shooting.

Kick-ball and Dodge-ball were not concidered danerous.

We kept score.

We knew how fun it was to win, and how important it was to lose with grace and dignity.

We respected our elders and would never sass them.

It was ok to drink water straight from the hose.

Played outside all day. Didn't matter where, as long as home before dark.

Those were the days.

[Tiffany23]

I don't get it, why would you want to watch snow on TV...you have 223 channels to choose from and that is what you want to watch?

Just kidding, I grew up on military bases all over the world and all we had was American Forces Network...which was actually very good. And no commericals...well kind of... lots of propaganda ( like no smoking, no drinking and driving), and lots of patrotic messages. When we visited my grandparents and I'd see "real" American TV, I couldn't believe how almost every other commerical was about food.

I also remember the first time I went to an American Civilian Movie Theater, I immediately stood up when the lights were dimmed for the playing of the Stars and Stripes but everyone ended up looking at me. I couldn't believe they didn't do that...and to this day, I'm rather sad that they don't.

Anyway...great post!

[RodandStaff]

Some memories are worth savoring! Don't forget the 20 mile walk to school... up hill both ways, barefoot, in the snow!

Seriously though... in Northern Wisconsin where I spent most of my youth.. one day in Jr. High School it was -25 below, and they didn't cancel school unless it was -30 or colder. Back then they didn't factor in the wind chill... and that day it was -75! We didn't have the luxury of a ride to school... but it was only a mile or so to school ... buses only picked up country kids in those days, city kids had to walk. I walked to school only to find most parents kept their kids out of school, and several teachers couldn't get in. I spent an hour on the heat register "thawing out"! We didn't get much school work done that day ... but I still have stories to tell! Ohhh... the good ol days! And yes... I still have all my fingers and toes.... no frost bite here!

[krome2ez]

The one bad memory though was my mom made me use old bread bags on my feet when wearing boots during the winter.

I know it was to keep my feet dry, but seeing wonder bread stick out the tops of my boots was embarrasing.

[tyron]

You ate raw hamburgers? Wow!

[dog53]

+1 No your right they will not understand. Whats important is that we do

[RodandStaff]

The one bad memory though was my mom made me use old bread bags on my feet when wearing boots during the winter.

I know it was to keep my feet dry, but seeing wonder bread stick out the tops of my boots was embarrasing.

Think of it this way... without those little plastic bags your feet might have rotted off... and then where would you be?

And from my experience... parents don't seem to mind embarrassing their children, it's like some innate force within them wants to get even with their own childhood! Hmmmm... guess that explains why I don't let my kids buy designer cloths!