MORE THAN SEW SO

Do You Remember This?,

Annette Funicello from the Mickey Mouse Club

OMIGOSH! How did we EVER survive? It’s a wonder we all lived to be as old as we are! My family was guilty of all these misdeeds and I can’t believe my parents weren’t thrown in jail for child abuse, for Pete’s Sake!!!

How many of these things do YOU remember???

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 bottom spanked. Now it’s a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $95 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 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.

Until Next Time!

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Filed under: Benadryl, Keds, Mercurochrome, Nat'l Anthem, PA system, PE, Prozac, antibiotics, brown bag lunch, cable TV, cell phone, computers, cross-trainers, dysfunctional family, e.coli, food poisoning, gym, iodine, mom, pager, prayer in school, raw hamburger, video games

17 Responses to “Do You Remember This?,”

1. Sharon, on May 5th, 2009 at 12:08 am Said:

   Love this post! I have no words to add. . . just LOVE this post! My post about Johnny Appleseed shares some of those views. Looks like we are on the same page or at least really close!

   Sharons last blog post..A fly on a wall

2. judy, on May 5th, 2009 at 12:22 am Said:

   Hi Sharon…I’ll have to check out Johnny Appleseed. Glad you enjoyed and thanks for dropping in.

3. Joe, on May 5th, 2009 at 7:48 am Said:

   Really good post. And today, there is such overkill. I remember my friend ran across the street, and got hit by a car. He was fine, and believe it or not, no one got sued, or ticketed.
   He did learn to slow down and look both ways before crossing the street.

   Joes last blog post..Happy Cinco De Mayo

4. Mom, on May 5th, 2009 at 10:29 am Said:

   When I was 6, I would come home from school and let myself into the house to wait for my older siblings to get home – about an hour later. Then we would all do – gasp – CHORES and HOMEWORK – until our parents came home from work.

   Now, the school bus won’t even let kids off the bus unless there is an adult there to meet them.

   Schools used to be safe. Now they are more dangerous than walking the streets alone an night.

   Moms last blog post..Places of Interest

5. Lola, on May 5th, 2009 at 4:10 pm Said:

   It’s a wonder how we ever survived childhood! During summer break us kids disappeared, coming back only for lunch and dinner. Our parents were nowhere in sight and they had no idea where we were. And sometimes if they did know where we were, they would have killed us. There was no such thing as child abductions, or if there were, we hardly ever heard of them.

   I actually did flunk gym, I think it was sophomore year. This fat girl did not want to do Modern Dance, so she just sat out. I learned quickly that it’s not a good idea to do that because the next semester I had to take gym twice a day AND the school was nice enough to schedule it so that they were not back to back. I swear all I did that semester was get dressed and undressed.

   Lolas last blog post..Are You Ready For Mother’s Day? What Are Your Plans?

6. Judy, on May 5th, 2009 at 4:56 pm Said:

   JOE: Frivolous lawsuits are running rampant (ever since that lady burned herself on Mickey D’s coffee…sheesh!…you order coffee, you EXPECT it’s going to be hot! Complain if it’s COLD, not hot for cryin’ out loud!) Nice to see you again!

   MOM: YUP! The minute I dropped my books, I had an hour of piano practice, then homework, then @ 5:30, set the table, 6:15 was dinner so helped Mom finish up supper. Clear the table, do the dishes then back to finish up homework! Saturday was the other “chore” day! Thanks for sharing, Mom.

   Lola: I think we were stronger and more independent because of the childhood we led. AND, better behaved! If you needed a crack on the behind, you GOT one…and knew you had it coming! LOL @ your gym experience. I, on the other hand, was athletic and LOVED gym…would have taken it twice a day, 5 days a week…and Sat. and Sun., if they’d allowed it. LOL Thanks for your comments!

7. Sandy, on May 5th, 2009 at 6:05 pm Said:

   Mi c…k ey….Mou se! LOVED that show and Annette. She was my inspiration, I wanted to grow up just like her. Classy lady.

   I preferred a pool over a lake, no fish and things to bite you in a pool.

   Bee stings, got them all the time. We put mud on them while we were playing to pull the stinger out. We did use alcohol sometimes on stuff that needed to be cleaned out. Bandaides were held for real need.

   Today is Tuesday, you know what means;;;;we’re gonna have guest today, brush out, clean off…words, can’t remember them, something so the welcome mat can be seen. Strike up the band, and wickle your ears, like good mouseketters we gonna…join in folks. Someone must be as old as dirt ….like me

   Sandy

   Sandys last blog post..Muir Woods, California

8. Barbara, on May 5th, 2009 at 6:39 pm Said:

   Oh, the memories we can share. My husband and I both say, We got our share of swats and maybe other people’s too, and we’re no worse for wear.” We must have needed it then, cuz the view is much different now! A fun post…Thanks for sharing!

   Barbaras last blog post..Element #90 – Thorium Energy Update

9. Judy, on May 5th, 2009 at 9:41 pm Said:

   SANDY: All I can say is: M I C…K E Y…M O U S E, MICKEY MOUSE, MICKEY MOUSE…FOREVER LET US HOLD OUR BANNER HIGH, HIGH, HIGH…NOW IT’S TIME TO SAY GOODBYE TO ALL OUR COMPANY, M I C…KEY…M O U S E!

   BARBARA: Hello, my friend. Oh yes, memories…those were the days! It was FUN growing up…nowadays kids are under so much stress to keep up with their peers…such a shame.

10. Suzanne, on May 5th, 2009 at 11:33 pm Said:

    I wouldn’t trade it for anything either! It was a wonderful time full of valuable memories!

    I remember taking the bus around town WITHOUT A CELLPHONE even! ……and I was safe!

    Suzannes last blog post..Whatever it takes…..

11. Judy, on May 6th, 2009 at 12:02 am Said:

    Hi Suzanne…I took a bus and went clear downtown which was about 15 miles away…and walked home from the bus stop THROUGH AN ALLEY! No problem. We even played outside AFTER DARK! Those were the days! Nice to see you!

12. waterrose, on May 6th, 2009 at 8:27 pm Said:

    OH I laughed out loud…soooo true. All of those things are what have made us stronger I’m sure.

13. Judy, on May 6th, 2009 at 8:40 pm Said:

    Hi there waterrose…nice to see you again! Yup…if it doesn’t kill you, it will make you stronger! LOL…My grandchildren laughted at it too. They couldn’t believe that we lived our lives like that. Nor, like I told them, that it was fun!!! We had a blast and got our exercise…no TV, no computers, we listened to the radio…the one that sat on the kitchen counter…no iPods…how did we ever make it?

14. Jude, on May 7th, 2009 at 9:59 am Said:

    Back then minors may have gotten ticked at their parents or guardians, but soon got over it now they all want emancipation.

    Judes last blog post..Jury Duty Selection Sucks More Tomorrow

15. Judy, on May 7th, 2009 at 6:11 pm Said:

    Hi Jude…I think kids respected their parents more back then. Their parents, teachers, any kind of authority. Now kids seem to disrespect everyone! It’s a shame. Nice to see you again!

16. philly5113, on May 8th, 2009 at 2:21 pm Said:

    I truly love the post, Do you remember this. I was umhm,umhmm, you know Amen, all through. I even got such a kick over the knife and the cutting board and the lunch bag pieces. I often have those discussions with my kids.
    What happened? What changed? Or were we just blind to the reality of the effects because we didnt have the 21st century communication superhighway?

    Thanks for writing this. I think I will take it up again later myself.

    philly5113s last blog post..PROBLEM: FeedMedic Alert for http://feeds2.feedburner.com/LiveLoveLaughWithPhilly5113

17. judy, on May 8th, 2009 at 3:44 pm Said:

    Yes…unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on how your look at it) I remember them all. Times were good then…VERY good. We had fun and got plenty of exercise! Thanks for coming by.