My Life in the 50's & 60's
 

I grew up in Wisconsin, but never thought I was raised by low income parents during a time when most everyone treated each other with respect. We didn't eat a lot of fast food because it was considered a treat, not a food group.
We drank Kool-Aid made from water that came from our kitchen sink with real sugar.
We ate bologna sandwiches, or even tuna (which was in a can not a pouch), PB&J & grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, pot pies, but mostly homemade meals consisting of mainly dough, meat, potatoes, vegetable, bread & butter, and homemade dessert.
We grew up during a time when we mowed lawns, pulled weeds, babysat, helped neighbors with chores to be able to earn our own money. We went outside a lot to play games, ride bikes, red rover, dodge ball, run with siblings, and friends & played hide and seek. We drank tap water from the water hose outside... bottled water was unheard of. If we had a coke -it was in a glass bottle ... and we didn’t break the bottle when finished …
We watched TV shows like Bonanza, Leave It To Beaver, Gilligan's Island, Happy Days, Bewitched, The Brady Bunch, Little House On The Prairie, and I Love Lucy. After school, we came home, and did homework, and chores before going outside or having friends over. We would ride our bikes for hours. We had to tell our parents where we were going, who we were going with, and what time we'd be back.
You LEARNED from your parents instead of disrespecting them, and treating them as if they knew absolutely nothing. What they said was LAW, and you did not question it, and you had better know it!!!
When the sun was starting to set you had better be home. In school we said the Pledge of Allegiance, we stood for the National Anthem, and listened to our teachers.
We watched what we said around our elders because we knew if we DISRESPECTED any grown-up we would get our behinds whipped, it wasn't called abuse, it was called discipline! We held doors, carried groceries, and gave up our seat for an older person without being asked.
You didn't hear curse words on the radio in songs or TV, and if you cursed and got caught you had a bar of soap stuck in your mouth, and had to stand in the corner. “Please, Thank you, yes please no thank you yes ma'am no ma'am yes sir, and no sir were part of our daily vocabulary!
You grew up to respect the Nation, and the flag.

Re-post if you're thankful for your childhood, and will never forget where you came from & the time you came from!

Well said. I am a little younger than you and grew up a little further south ( In Atlanta, Ga) . I still say yes sir and ma’am to most everyone. No one would let their kids go off on a bike (like we did) in this day and time

My family moved from NJ to Albuquerque, NM in 1945 when I was three so I do not remember anything about NJ. Thankfully my parents took a few snapshots of my brother and me there. I remember not having a car for the first few years. We took the bus. We had gas rationing for a while as well as food (I think meat) rationing. I also remember sticking stamps in a book for savings bonds. 11/11 was still Armistice Day. Polio was a HUGE problem until the vaccines came out. No penicillin, kids got boils, ringworm and such. We all had chicken pox, red measles and mumps. My mother did not believe in vitamin pills and only a few were available anyway. She cooked almost everything from scratch as that was all we could afford. Looking back that was a good thing! My parents never had more than one car that they bought used and we definitely had less money than 80% of my childhood friends' families.

I did feel SAFE as a child and rode my bike everywhere I wanted to go after I finally got a bike.

And we wrote thank you notes.

A-parent-ly a lot of people from our generation did not pay it forward.

:boom:

I didn’t get my first pair of shoes until I was 10 and I wore them our real fast walking back to look at my tracks.😂

I walked uphill both ways in the snow to go to school in S. Florida.

Yup! Same here. Different country but similar upbringing. Except since I am a female my father would look at my skirt when I sat down and he would say, “Your knees are showing”. Same dad who took my 5 year old self on country roads on his motorcycle. Same dad who had me play goal in soccer (I was an only child those days). Happy days!

sounds like my upbringing....welcome to TV

Interesting post. Parents worked very hard taking care of me and my three sisters.

Not much money but who knew?

By the way glen miller played
 

Those were the days my friend
those were the days.
Time to get back to my powerball, lotto, mega millions selections
so i can dream my livin la vida loca.

Our view of the outside world was from our favorite Saturday evening TV family show Ozzie and Harriet. Somehow mysteriously we the same generation hits puberty and were now watching the number 1 family show on Sunday evening - All In The Family. "Those were the days".

Well said! Thanks

I also grew up in Wisconsin… except on a farm, so you can add into the mix milking cows, fieldwork and barn chores. It was a great life. Everything you said I could identify with so well. What part of Wisconsin? Chilton and Sheboygan area here.

Those were the best years 55-60. We had the first TV in our hood in Fargo,ND. Makes me feel like a bad parent with things the way they are now. Gratitude is an attitude..