Was it really the ‘good old days’

[Kandor]

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[ASTONITE]

We Were Always Hungry,however Things Have "improved" To The Point Where 5 Year Olds In This Country Are Being Classified As "morbidly Obese" We Seem To Copy The Americas With Everything Eventually, I Personally Wouldn't Go Back To The "good Old Days" If They Paid Me!

 

[Norma S]

I'll tell you what I liked about the "good old days". I could go out and play, not on a computer mind you but outside, and never have to worry about some stranger snatching me off the street, or my friends for that matter, and end up being a story on the news. We could play hide and seek at night because all the neighbors were out on their porches getting a breath of fresh air in the summer and kept an eye on all of us kids. I didn't have to worry about drugs being sold on the street corner or being pressured into having sex at 13. I didn't even know what sex WAS at 13 and I didn't want to!

I felt safe. I walked everywhere because my parents didn't have to drive me everywhere to keep me safe from being kidnapped or worse. My mother, who will be 90 this year never even learned how to drive! I felt innocent in a way the kids do not now.

I knew if I did something wrong I'd be held accountable and that I'd get a beating and that I had no recourse, calling the police or child protection services to claim I was abused. If I ever came home from school and told my parents a teacher punished me they'd tell me I must have deserved it and punished me again for doing something wrong in school. And you know what, all the smacks, the spankings, the punishments etc. were not abuse and they taught me limits, something very important in getting along in life. I deserved the beatings, I assure you, and am no worse off for them!

I learned respect, to respect my elders, to respect my parents and my siblings, to respect the property of others. I learned to be a good person who also knew how to lend a helping hand. I learned social skills because I didn't spend my childhood in front of a computer or a TV.

Did we have all the things we have now? NO! Did we go hungry at times? YES! Did I wear hand me downs and shoes with holes in them? ABSOLUTELY! But none of that killed me. Don't they say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger? I'm a much stronger person for it all.

Oh, BTW, I do have a toilet paper fetish. Being one of 5 children and always having cousins and friends etc. around the house or living with us meant that the toilet paper always ran out quickly and I was on very familiar terms with the Sunday funnies..not for reading either!

Norma

 

[Catkin]

I was fortunate to have a really good childhood no worries, no cares, i was never hit or smacked but deprived if i did something wrong. There was a price to pay the only thing that annoyed me when i got older was, that i had to be in at ten and if i was not, then i had to stay in for a week If i had somewhere special to go or i wanted to see someone secretly i would have to ask if i could come home later, then there was an inquisition, so i did'nt ask very often. but, i respected my parents, something that i think is lacking in some children but not all of them..Cat

 

[brummie nick]

Kandor, what a great post, I agree with all you say, my Dad used to say,"people who talk about the good old days, never lived in um"

Nick

 

[Rupert]

There were good things and I do not want to be reminded of the others. They are of no importance now unless...by dwelling upon them we make them so. In our childhood we had what we had and no one had much. Some kids got a better break and sailed through; others were always behind the eight ball. We can choose now to be positive and move forward. There is no going back, there never has been; it's not there any more. We can look back in our minds eye though and, in doing so, I personally prefer to remember things that lifted my spirits whenever I can. You also have come too far to be haunted by bad memories of the past now.

David below, there is no need for the quote. It costs money that can't be afforded. We all know the reference. Nice sentiments.

 

[David Weaver]

What great memories and how true. What about the rickets and bandy legs? The falling bombs and unexploded bombs while we collected shrapnal. Fogs you could cut with a knife, dog muck at every step you walked. I would like five minutes back then though, just to put my arms around Mum and Dad to say thanks. Kindest regards and thanks, David Weaver.

I often smile at all these postings on the webring, when people go on about the 'Good old days'
Sure, I'm also guilty for saying such things myself.
But the 'Good old days' never really were..it's like that old
saying...'Nostalgia's not like it used to be'
What we do is, we create a warm fuzzy place one step outside of Heaven
which is made up of snowy days, roaring log fires, community spirit, old
time pubs and wonderful sunny days where we played outside from dawn 'til dusk.
And the rest we pretend, never happened or at the very least, we play it
down.
We walked the streets and stayed out all hours, life was safer and better back then, (that's of course if you weren't Christine Derby or Margaret Reynolds, two little girls murdered before their lives had chance to shine)
Most of us spent healthy childhoods, perhaps floored by the odd cold or
bout of flu, we jokingly write about having nits or bedbugs..troublesome
and irritating yes, but life threatening? never.
Yet I can recall how many kids I knew back then with the devestating
effects of Polio on withered limbs and bodies.
I remember a kid in my school going away with TB ...not such 'Good old
days' for them was it?
Remember those old giant leather boot so many wore as they hobbled their way to school?
So commonplace we hardly noticed it..but I bet they did.
Like I've already written, 4 to a bed, covered in army blankets was nothing new either..these days, kids scream blue murder if they have to share a bedroom, never mind a bed.
Remember the long walk outside on a winter morning carrying a brimming Po? or an oil lamp burning through the night to stop the toilet from freezing?
Remember having no bathroom or hot water?
I do..I also remember being slapped silly when I dropped that po once, rest assured, I didn't do it twice..
These days I wander giant hyper markets that sell every product all year round and I don't need to check my wallet wondering if the final bill is going to be something I can't afford, it sure beats running up to your limit of a fiver in the book.
These days people don't die of Scarlet Fever or suffer the appalling dental hygiene we all had to go through as kids..Americans still joke about us you know..so many people of my generation lost half their teeth before they were 40 it's ridiculous..how I've lost only the one wisdom tooth so far is beyond me..
These days?
look around, the kids teeth look store bought..
Regardless of what people say, health care compared to what we had to endure is amazing.
So when you defend the 'Good old days' think of this, would you go back? would you have those homes, hovels and houses again?
I don't mean with the people you shared them with, I man the family you have now...of course you wouldn't, you couldn't survive for starters, not in those cold damp rooms on a restricted diet that left us half malnourished, it's the people that make the 'Good old days' not the homes, never the homes.

 

[Di.Poppitt]

So often someone will write Oh Happy Happy Days, after writing a piece about those time long ago. So the past was happy for some and of course are the good old days, for others the past is better forgotten. For me, it was a mixture of unhappy times, with parents who ought never to have married and good times with my wonderful aunts. The past I like to recall is the slow pace of life, family all around me, a school I loved, and my friends.