Nice thread. Always amazes me how folks on the Right, every 4 years, like clockwork, get all fussed about Socialism and Voter Fraud. Neither exist to any extent in this country, and if it happens both sides dabble in it.
We have taken quite a few lumps lately, but in its essence the America I grew up in is the America we still have today. Details change, but not the people.
I grew up in the 70s, and when I think of those times I do remember how simple life used to be compared to today. But I was a child, its supposed to be like that if your childhood is halfway decent. Grownups have the complicated times, not kids.
Yeah, it was fun to ride in the bed of a pickup, but it probably wasn’t a smart thing to do.
Yeah, it was fun to stay out all day and come home when the street lights turned on. But our generation was molested and exploited heavily because of it. Kids back then didn’t know who to tell because it was a Priest, a teacher, a neighbor or a relative who did it. I am glad kids today know its not okay, and for parents to know where they are. I think it goes a bit too far, but it is better than the alternative.
I was a shy, fat kid who was bullied back in the day. Bad bullying that bordered on horrific. It stained my whole concept of trying to belong and trying to interact with people. It led to a lot of problems in my 20s that I had to overcome. I am glad that bullying is no longer accepted either, or racist/homophobic jokes, or sexist attitudes.
I watched an episode of “Three’s Company” recently and was amazed by what we found funny back in the day. When Jack pretended to be gay and was the object of Roper’s scorn. When the girls were constantly belittled, objectified and mocked, called stupid.
Maybe, even as a poor white fat kid, I still felt I wasn’t the bottom of the rung. Maybe that is why I found all of this stuff funny. I don’t honestly know.
The one thing I think we got right, though, was failure. We were allowed to fail, we were allowed to get bad grades. A 4.0 average was perfect, not this current nonsense. Parents believed the teachers, the neighbors and the coaches when they had something critical to say about us. And we were punished when we screwed up. My parents were both beaten badly as kids so they didn’t hit us as a rule, maybe a swat on the backside. But we knew when we screwed up, that is for sure.
And one thing that still kills me when I watch HGTV, there was no “Playroom” or “Bonus Room” for the kids, we used the basement and we picked up our toys and put them away when we were done with them. And we didn’t have many toys in the first place.