I love it when people take things out of context. I had a wonderful childhood and responded that way.

I then read a post that said: no cell phones, no violence, no nudity, no foul language, no screwing on television.

I thought this was odd. It is not the late sixties and seventies that I remember. Hippies alone broke all the "no-nos" mentioned by the poster. I remember it as a time when people were pushing the limits not sitting pristine.

Flying with Dad in his 1938 Aeronca Chief.

There’s been nudity in some form for generations. And ‘screwing’. I only wish there were cell phones to capture it all for historical perspective of course. Insert Creedence Clearwater Revival track here

You got off easy. Jesus was in the class ahead of mine. He used to beat me up and take my lunch money. My friend and savior? To this day I am afraid to walk past a church. Afraid that Jesus will grab me, beat me up and steal my wallet. 🥺🥹😱

That reminded me of a good one. We would catch red ants in one jar and an equal (approximately) number of black ants in another jar.Then we would put them together and a small WAR would start. The black ants were bigger, but the red ants always won.

Ever consider that the person to whom you responded was just a tad older than you?

None of what you described may have happened during "their" childhood...

And did you ever think that the "context" they were using was what was on "regular TV", not the evening news? Did you ever see any of those things on the TV "shows" you watched?

I don't remember many of us "children" watching the Evening News...

The poster may be a bit older than me. Still, I do not believe ANY DECADE was clean and pure. Some just hid it better.

My favorite childhood memory was when my back didn't hurt.

Or, when you could stay up until the wee hours. Now, I go to bed early and get up when I need to wee.

Very true. Example; JFK/Marilyn Monroe. In today’s instant gratification, everybody’s a journalist with a cell phone...world we live in, there’s no place to hide a scandal.

Grew up in Central Connecticut (pop 50,000) 3 movie theaters, penny candy stores, every pharmacy had ice cream and soda fountains. I could roam all over town on Public Transit for 10 cents with transfers. Black and White antenna TV with 4 channels. Milk was delivered to your milk box along with butter and OJ. Everyone had a garden. Good Humor ice cream truck almost daily in summer and Root Beer floats at A&W. Sunday Blue laws…

Can you imagine cell phones back in the old days, oh my!!!!!!

Did anyone mention pay phones?
Calling collect
Or the original Cellular One bag phone for your car
First handheld cell phone with the telescoping GI Joe antenna

Being allowed to go back outside and play after dinner in the summertime.

We had a two party line. The "rich" kids had a separate children's line so the parents would not have to answer the phone for them. Even having an extension phone was rare.

Hotbox
 

Whoa! Hadn't thought of that phrase in many decades! But, that "Base" part was never uttered by our crowd. :-) Bet you played some hotbox, too. How about peggy (sp)? Unsuccessful googling of the latter *did* turn up this interesting site. Scrub baseball - Wikipedia

While baseball related activities were high on the list, it's hard to top digging the worms for bait and then pond and creek fishing with them with your Zebco.

Four feet??
 

Sounds like Kentucky but for those 4' snows. Those worms are indeed scary, yet beautiful and turn into cool, hummingbird-like moths. :-) And, even scarier when parasitized by wasp eggs!

Watermelons
 

Though I still much prefer my watermelons cold. :-) And, Jimmy *did* pay the Minimart back. . .

Bag phone? They came much later.

I had an RCC phone in my car, pre-cellular days ... '79-'80.

When CellOne started in Boston (office was in Waltham), I had a Cellular Phone installed in my car. It was an NEC Phone and everything other than the handset, was mounted in the trunk of my car. The "box" was about the size of 4 briefcases, stacked on top of one another. I think it was 1986-1987. The phone cost $1800, including installation. A princely sum in those days. The CellularOne operation was so small, the staff knew their customers by name.

The first "bag phone" I ever saw or used, was during the Weld-Cellucci campaign in 1990-1991. It looked like a huge pocket-book, with a shoulder strap. We had exactly TWO of them on the campaign. They were close to $3000 if I remember correctly.

Then came the Motorola StarTac and the world changed.

Four month vacation
 

Shoulda reviewed this before trying to tell it a few days ago. :-(
Blocked

Argeo ‘Paul’ Cellucci......good man. RIP

I have one fond memory when I was seven years old. WW11 was recently over. My friend's father took us to the local grocery store where there was a big line. After waiting for an hour he came out with 2 small cartons of butter. It was the first butter I had seen, since there was none available during WW11. You had Oleo Margarine. UHG! Mr. Graves, my friend's father gave me a carton to bring home to my parents. I can still remember how happy they were with me.

Sitting around with friends, family, and neighbors when people actually took the time to talk and share stories. I wish I could remember all they tried to teach us. Oh, and 17 cent gas.

17 cent gas....in today’s world, only to be found in Venezuela!

Mowing the lawn or raking the leaves on Saturday hoping the job would be of sufficient quality of earn $.25 which would provide the $.15 Saturday afternoon children's price movie ticket AND two $.05 treats IF I could also find a couple pennies in my dresser drawer to pay the tax.

Making sand and mud pies with the neighborhood kids in all shapes and sizes, laying them all out on old boxes and boards to dry in the sun, and "running" a pretend "bakery" with cakes "decorated" with leaves, milkweed seeds, etc.

Hoping to get permission to go to the home of a neighborhood friend down the block to see one of the few COLORED TV shows .

Going to the farm land of friends outside town to pick morel mushrooms in the spring, cut them in half, soak in big 5 gallon bucks in salt water over night to get any "insects" out, and then having mom fry them in butter after breading in egg and cracker crumbs.

Riding our bikes to the foot of the river which lay at the end of the main retail street in our small, 28K town, watching the barge traffic, commercial fishermen (before the river was too toxic to provide fishermen with a living and the fresh fish markets disappeared along the river.

The local parades, Christmas, Veteran's Day, 4th of July, and especially the Halloween parade where ALL kids could meet at the local high school athletic field, were organized by age and types of costumes, and then march in the parade where there was a ribbon and a prize of some sort for virtually every one of the hundreds of us (donated by local businesses).

And most of all having what I NOW think of as so much freedom; I didn't back then as an only child of very strict parents !

Oh, and my dad, a local judge, allowing me to go to his office in the courthouse and learn to use his TYPEWRITER !

I think of things on TV programs, sexist things, racist things, dumb things, mocking things, something to "hit" everyone, and we all just laughed, did not take each word in a TV show as some personal assault or insult... we laughed, like it was no different than an live comedy show where the comedian targets every group in the audience from seniors to clergy to teens, people then did not sit there just waiting for an opportunity to jump up and be "insulted". NOW .... that's the name of the game !

Oh so true. When we were young the phrase "words can never hurt me" (and of course, really cruel words like "four eyes" could) were often heard, and kids have always been teased, even bullied, but now, in our "enlightened" society, I think fewer kids just shake it off and much more bullying goes on. It's just too bad more people, adults included, don't make a personal choice to NOT pay attention to insults or real or perceived "slights". We have become VERY "thin skinned" as my dad used to call it. When you have to change your route to school or work so you don't have to pass by something that "offends" you, and schools have to have safe spaces for stressed students who are facing a test or have become upset by some world event, it makes me wonder, could we actually raise an effective military in WW III should we need to ? ?

Could not agree more. We're not teaching our kids coping skills anymore. It's a free for all emotional frenzy.

Oh my gosh, thank you for more memories ! Our small town was just over half the population of yours, but I have all those memories, but with only 2 movie "houses". The pharmacy that had a soda fountain, root beer floats, green "rivers", the ice cream man in his truck, the blind man near the library who sold frozen treats, fresh popcorn in 5, 10 and 25 cent bags, FANTASTIC hot tamales from a steamer and were wrapped in real corn husks ! And the penny candy stores, Charley's and the other was "Schmidt's", I could spend an hour in there with a nickle trying to make a final decision ! Silly wax "lips" that could be chewed almost like gum when done "wearing them", or just a piece of double bubble gum. But then there were those little 1 cent peanut butter candies with a chocolate top, and the long thin strips of red licorice.. could make them last a long time... so many decisions ! Took so little to make kids happy back then ! Life savers, apples, fresh oranges and nuts in their shells in a Christmas stocking and we were over joyed.

He who ignores history is doomed to repeat it.... said a wise man once.

As far as the poster you are referring to, I'm pretty sure it's the 50's that he was recalling. There are, after all, still some of us "pre-1946'ers" living here. It's not all Baby Boomers.

I also recall the 50's socially being a relatively benign age. Seems to me things started going "south" in the 60's.

No Cell Phones!

Oh yeah. First Rock & Roll infected the late 50's, next thing you know, we have the Summer of Love in '67. It was a great time to be an American.

Calling collect with a fake name so your parents would know it was time to pick you up?

I had the Cellular One cell phone mounted on the console between the front seats and the big power supply in the trunk. I think it was '91 or '92...

Little did I know it gave my wife the idea she could call me every night on my drive home "to chat"... That ended "post haste" once the first bill arrived... :shocked:

Agreed... I'm a "later boomer", born in 57. So yes, I was still a kid in the late 60's, early 70's...

But the original boomers were well into their 20's by that time. Hardly "children"...

I remember thinking that when I grew up, if I could make $10,000 a year like my dad did, that I would have it made...

~~~

My only summer on a farm. I was 9 years old. I made a fishing pole out of a longish branch, put a string and a hook on it and went fishing, and swimming in the near by river, with a Labrador called “Tulip”. I caught a fish! Brought it home to my mother who scaled it and made it for dinner. It had eggs and that was the first time I realized fish have eggs. Best dinner I ever had!

Watching Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color on a neighbor's new color TV.

Throw in
 

Walking to Ben Franklin’s 5 and dime to get wax candy or baseball cards. Then going next door to Lawson’s to get a drink.