How did we ever survive?

[allheart55 Cindy E]

(Under the age of 45? You probably won't understand.)

 

You could hardly see television for all the 'snow'.

 

 

Spread the 'rabbit ears' as far as they go.

 

 

 

Me 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 $99 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.

 

 

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 jerk. It was a neighborhood run a muck.

 

 

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?

[Tony D]

Yeah, I remember all that. I think we turned out pretty good.

[N3]

When i was a kid i'd watch the girls doing double dutch jump rope with two pieces of rope. Hop scotch. Ball & jacks. Miss mary mack. Pin the tail on the donkey. Ball game called "Spud". RINGALARIO/ RINGALIEVO. Good humor ice cream on a stick from the truck was 15 cents. The doctor made house calls & carried his black bag. 25 cents for a transit bus ride, 20 cents if you were a student with a pass. Some pharmacies had breakfast/lunch counters with spinning seats. The male waiter/server at the "fountain" was called a "soda jerk" & he wore a white apron & a white hat. Coca cola was stirred in a cone shaped cup & placed in a metal holder. I loved the real old time milk shakes, malteds & sundaes. We would call the pharmacist (chemist), "Doc". Cherico cough syrup with codeine was the standard cough suppressant at that time. The local ma & pa grocery stores would sell soda in a red horizontal freezer with ice cold water in it. 35 cents for a quart of soda. Would get money back when you returned the bottles. At the deli pickles were floating in wooden kegs. Delicious thick crusty rye & pumpernickel bread. S&H green stamps or Plaid stamps were given to you after you made a purchase from certain stores. My most unpleasant memories were dentists. At that time their electric drills had a pulley system instead of the present day air/water cooled system. The grinding sensation would drive me mad! Also three inch long needles! ARGGHH!!!! Edited February 15, 2016 by N3

[AWS]

I remember all of those N3. Good times for sure.

[Bill M.]

Except the dentist part!

[allheart55 Cindy E]

I remember fondly most of them, N3.:D

I agree with you about the dentist part, Bill.:eek:

[N3]

I have no education or experience in dentistry or other aspects of medicine. I will only charge $5 per tooth extraction for any member of this forum. I will get to the root of your problem. Take advantage of this offer! Limited time only. Edited February 15, 2016 by N3

[allheart55 Cindy E]

Thanks anyway, N3 but I'll have to pass. :help:

[Mommalina]

I have no education or experience in dentistry or other aspects of medicine. I will only charge $5 per tooth extraction for any member of this forum. I will get to the root of your problem. Take advantage of this offer! Limited time only.

 

 

In my day (probably late 1930's to 1940 or so), we got free home-based dental care

- my father got out his tool box and yanked out the problem tooth, or he tied one end

of fishing line to the tooth and the other end to a door knob. He'd then open and slam

the door shut! I kid you not!

 

I also remember Dr Russo making house calls, bi-lingual (Italian/English) confessions

and sermons at our local Catholic church, and produce sold by a roaming vendor from

a cart pulled by a horse (the housewives enjoyed haggling about quality and price).

 

That's what life was like in an Italian "ghetto" during the Great Depression. We kids

did not know we were poor until we attended a huge high school serving many other

neighborhoods.

[allheart55 Cindy E]

I remember as a kid, having a family doctor that used to make house calls.

I even remember his name, Dr. Browndorf.

He came out to the house one Saturday after I stepped on a rusty nail.

He gave me a tetanus shot and cleaned and bandaged my foot.

[DSTM]

I lived through that era as well. You needed to be tough.

Us kids all had the door knob treatment with our first teeth. There wasn't a lot of money around just after the war.

I remember our bread was delivered once a week by horse and sulky, also there used to be a guy in a horse pulled wagon that used to come round twice a year selling all sorts of things needed in the house, clothes linen the lot.

Remember my Mum using the huge copper pot to boil the clothes and the old glass wash board.

They were hard times but we were happy as kids. I didn't get my first pair of shoes till seven years old.

All children going to my school used to have bare feet.The soles of our feet were so tough running over thorns and prickles never used to bother us. My toy (singular) was an old clock to play with.

If I mucked up in those days, which was all the time, LOL I got belted with a leather strap hanging behind the door.

No psychology used in those days on us kids.

Edited February 16, 2016 by DSTM

[Mommalina]

Dougie, I remember the leather strap also, but for some reason

my dad never used it on me -- only on my two brothers who, if

it were today, would be in jail. They riled my father even more

by hiding the leather strap. They turned out fine, however, but

never administered physical punishment to their own kids.

[starbuck]

I remember having the job of 'stabbing' the sausages before they were cooked (fresh from the butchers) .... and pinching one and eating it raw. :)

That was my payment

Never seemed to do any harm.