# What was life like when you were a kid?



## NCcarguy (Jan 12, 2011)

The "things kids born in 2011 won't know" topic made me think of things the way they were when I was a kid growing up. I thought I would share a few, and see if some of you would as well.

My dad was a captain on the Raleigh police department...I think his badge number was either 12 or 13 if that tells you anything. My life was very much like an episode of Andy Griffith, which I think is STILL one of the better shows ever on TV. The road we lived on was gravel until I was probably 5-6, when my dad called a buddy of his with DOT and they came out and paved it. We had one vehicle in our family for the longest time, until my dad bought an old Studibaker pickup truck and rebuilt the engine. I can still remember going to get some wood to cut for the fireplace, and riding along and being able to see the road below my feet through the rust holes on the floor. There were 4 of us kids in the house, so when it got to be dinner time....you didn't DARE take something you weren't going to eat!! After I was about 12, many of my summers were spent living with my grandmother and helping my uncle and cousin on the tobacco farm. The first few years I was in the field priming, which is one nasty job, but later on they bought a harvestor, so I moved to the bulk barns to hang racks. We didn't use the winch like most farmers did, me and my uncle just manhandled them to the barn.

After the work was done, we all would go to Grandma's house for a late lunch, then grab the fishing poles and be off to catch fish.....I would love to be able to go back to that simple time in life!


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## jmbeck (Jan 12, 2011)

From birth to age 2, I looked for things to chew on.

From age 3 to age 6, I looked for things to kick.

From age 7 to age 12, I looked for things to shoot.

From age 12 on, I looked for things to....well, I looked for the ladies.


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## Supe (Jan 12, 2011)

Two letters, three words sum up my entire childhood:

TV and Hot Pockets.


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## snickerd3 (Jan 12, 2011)

growing up in the Chicago burbs we didn't have the woods to play in but we playing in the yard until lunchtime, then went right back out. My parents front yard was the largest on the block, a pie shaped parcel of land on a curve in the road. 3 Trees and the corner of the flower garden formed a perfect diamond for kickball games. The sugar maple was home plate, the corner of the flower bed was 1st, the magnolia tree(later the sunken area where the magnolia used to be) was 2nd, and the birch tree (later the sunken area where the birch tree usedto be) was 3rd. There was even a homerun fence at the back. (chain link fence separating the neighbors lawn from ours). I later road my bike into the fence post of said fence. I scrapped up my knee real bad from that. The bike lost half a reflector and the fence wasn't phased one bit.


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## FusionWhite (Jan 12, 2011)

Like Sapper I grew up as an Army brat living in Germany (12 years total). After that it was typical small/medium town life.

To sum it up: Average.


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## Road Guy (Jan 12, 2011)

it sucked, only child, parents were poor teachers who whined alot, like the teachers today


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## Capt Worley PE (Jan 12, 2011)

Grew up on a farm, 250 acres of woods and fields. Walked a mile to the pool every day during the summer. No AC in my Grandmothers house, but it stayed cool enough in there. Probably would whine and complain about it now adays.

Water from a well, septic tank, oil heat. No cable TV, no video games.


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## NCcarguy (Jan 12, 2011)

Sappers post reminded me....We had a black and white TV until I was about 12 I think....3 channels. ABC, CBS and on good days NBC. We didn't have AC until I was about 16. I got to the point that I spent many nights laying on the floor in front of a fan my parents would put in a hallway that seperated the rooms.

Grandma's house didn't have AC either, but for some reason never seemed to be miserably hot???

Went to the beach maybe 3 times before I was 21....got blistered EACH time from lack of knowledge about sunscreen!


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## NCcarguy (Jan 12, 2011)

another favorite memory....in 1977 my family went on our FIRST and ONLY family vacation! My dad bought a brand new 1977 Thunderbird, and the salesman suggested that he take a road trip to break it in...so, ALL 6 of us piled into that 2 door car and went to the mountains. It was about a 5 hour drive. Got there LATE on Saturday, so we couldn't really see any mountains, checked into ONE hotel room, where once again I slept on the floor, then got up the next morning and drove back home.

I'm serious too....that was it.


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## Capt Worley PE (Jan 12, 2011)

We camped a lot. Had a Nimrod pop up trailer, and a TON of Coleman camping gear. I don't recall ever staying at a hotel.

I truly believe the remote control is causing a decline in birth rates. I would swear my parents had me and my sister to turn the channels and adjust the antenna.

Oh, and to mow the yard.


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## NCcarguy (Jan 12, 2011)

^ lol.....I can actually remember cutting the grass with a push mower when I was too small to push it from the top bar. I would stand in the middle of the handle and push from the middle bar, while pulling from the top bar.


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## snickerd3 (Jan 12, 2011)

we would go to a Holidome for the weekend maybe once a year for vacation. We didn't have a really family vacation until I was in 3rd or 4th grade when we took a disney cruise, using inheritance $.


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## Master slacker (Jan 12, 2011)

Up until about age 8 or 10, my summers were spent with the neighborhood kids doing what neighborhood kids do.

I started swimming year 'round at 8. The majority of my childhood after that was spent in the pool training, not for recreation. Except for trips to Disney World at age 2 and 8, my family's vacations were spent at swim meets. We went to some pretty neat places (for me, at least) - San Jose, Colorado Springs, U of Minnesota, Kentucky, UNC, Long Island, Orlando, etc...


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## snickerd3 (Jan 12, 2011)

we would spend 1-2 weeks at my aunts house each summer. She worked for the park district so we got free swim lessons.


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## Supe (Jan 12, 2011)

When I was 18 I went to evil medical school. At age 25 I took up tap dancing. I wanted to be a quadruple threat...


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## Capt Worley PE (Jan 12, 2011)

NCcarguy said:


> ^ lol.....I can actually remember cutting the grass with a push mower when I was too small to push it from the top bar. I would stand in the middle of the handle and push from the middle bar, while pulling from the top bar.


Dad had an L Model Graveley. The beast dragged me around the yard every Saturday and two days during the week every summer from the time I was 11 to the time i was 22. Then I left home.

And Dad bought riding mower.


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## NCcarguy (Jan 12, 2011)

16 posts before the topic was derailed. Not bad I suppose....but no one has YET to mention BOOBIES!


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## cableguy (Jan 12, 2011)

I too was an on-the-bike off-to-the-woods kid. A big Saturday (when I was 10-12) was trekking across a neighboring field, down the railroad tracks (probably 2 miles) to the 7-11. A Big'Un microwave hamburger. This was Food of the Gods when I was 11. Wash it down with an RC.

I walked to/from school, or rode my bike - probably 1 1/2 miles - just about every warmish day as a kid. In Jr high, I walked home 3 miles daily (no bus, as I lived out of district). Where I live now, there's no way I'd let my kids walk to school - traffic is just too crazy on my small country roads (elementary, middle, and high school are all next to each other - so high school kids are driving on the roads that the kids would have to walk along.... no way!). I was in band, and even rode the bike with my trumpet no sweat (started band in 4th grade).

I discovered computers in 8th grade (circa 1983), working on the junior high mainframe. We'd stay after school, writing programs in BASIC. Bought my VIC-20 shortly thereafter. I was a mall rat in 1984, I'd walk around to every BASIC compiling computer (like the TI99-4A etc) I could find and write:

10 PRINT "EAT A BOOGER ";

20 GOTO 10

Run

I bombed precalculus in 1986, and hated math. Swore I didn't need it. 2 years later, I changed my tune a bit. 

I also mowed our 1/2 acre lot with a push mower Jacobsen. Dad never has owned a rider.

Me, I own a 48" SCAG. 3/4 acre in 45 minutes.  I don't let my son run it though. He'd kill the dog and knock down the fence with it...


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## Dleg (Jan 13, 2011)

I don't remember much until I was about three, when Mom kicked me out of the bed and told me to dig my own cave. She gave me a mammoth femur to help, but what really helped was the cold and dark, and the circling saber tooth tigers. I was pretty motivated and got my cave dug pretty fast.

Dad taught me to make fire when I was maybe 5. Up until then, I just borrowed a little from him, or darted out into the numerous thunderstorms to grab hot coals from the lightning strikes.

I killed my first T-rex at age 8. It took me several tries, and really I didn't have any luck until I finally tamed my mammoth, and could ride him into battle. Before that, the best I could manage was a a few lost spears and a hell of lot of running away and hiding under tree roots.

But those were good times..... good times.


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## MA_PE (Jan 13, 2011)

Monty Python's Flying Circus -

"Four Yorkshiremen"

[ from the album Live At Drury Lane, 1974 ]

The Players:

Michael Palin - First Yorkshireman;

Graham Chapman - Second Yorkshireman;

Terry Jones - Third Yorkshireman;

Eric Idle - Fourth Yorkshireman;

The Scene:

Four well-dressed men are sitting together at a vacation resort.

'Farewell to Thee' is played in the background on Hawaiian guitar.

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:

Aye, very passable, that, very passable bit of risotto.

SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:

Nothing like a good glass of Château de Chasselas, eh, Josiah?

THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:

You're right there, Obadiah.

FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:

Who'd have thought thirty year ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Château de Chasselas, eh?

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:

In them days we was glad to have the price of a cup o' tea.

SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:

A cup o' cold tea.

FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:

Without milk or sugar.

THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:

Or tea.

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:

In a cracked cup, an' all.

FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:

Oh, we never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.

SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:

The best we could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.

THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:

But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:

Because we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness, son".

FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:

Aye, 'e was right.

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:

Aye, 'e was.

FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:

I was happier then and I had nothin'. We used to live in this tiny old house with great big holes in the roof.

SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:

House! You were lucky to live in a house! We used to live in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling.

THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:

Eh, you were lucky to have a room! We used to have to live in t' corridor!

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:

Oh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor! Would ha' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woke up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House? Huh.

FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:

Well, when I say 'house' it was only a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it was a house to us.

SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:

We were evicted from our 'ole in the ground; we 'ad to go and live in a lake.

THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:

You were lucky to have a lake! There were a hundred and fifty of us living in t' shoebox in t' middle o' road.

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:

Cardboard box?

THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:

Aye.

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:

You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt.

SECOND YORKSHIREMAN:

Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!

THIRD YORKSHIREMAN:

Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to 'ave to get up out of shoebox at twelve o'clock at night and lick road clean wit' tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two wit' bread knife.

FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN:

Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN:

And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you.

ALL:

They won't!


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## TouchDown (Jan 13, 2011)

Grew up on a farm, closest neighbor was about a mile away. Went to a small rural school, most years our class size was between 8 and 10. I was an awkward kid, but since our school was so small, there really weren't many cliques.

My most vivid memories were:

Going to my grandparents place where they milked cows, and in wintertime, when the potbelly stove was almost red - it was blistering hot in the milk barn... we'd crack open walnuts by smacking them with a hammer on the concrete floor, then dip them in rock salt that grandpa had for the cows.

We had a ton of work dogs, my responsibility was to feed them and keep them in water. In one barn the roof leaked and it was near the bag of food. One time, I assumed that after a rain, the water must have dripped in and made a "clump" of food in the bag, so I took an old coffee can that I used for a scoop and tried to bust up the clump. After banging the clump with the can 5 or 6 times, I realized it was hissing back at me. I had just been banging this can on the head of a opossum and he was pissed.

At about 11 or 12, I was allowed to drive the tractor (could reach the petals if I stood up) and began raking hay. I got the tractor that didn't have a cab, so blistering heat, bumble bees, and the smell of diesel fumes is still fresh in my head.

Since my grandparent's farm was about 2 miles North, and my Uncle's was about 4 miles East, we all helped each other, we'd have Sunday Dinner (or lunch for you city folk) where we all got together and had a big meal every week. Played with my older cousins which were horrible influences.

I got glasses in the 5th grade and let out my inner nerd. I was good at basic school, but didn't really start "learning" until I got into college. I got contacts in 10th grade, just in time to really get interested in girls and get a car. My first car was a 1976 Mercury Monarch. That POS went through a starter about every 4 months.

My older brother moved to Colorado, so that's where we did summer vacations about every other year. I remember looking up to him and hoping I could be that "cool" someday. Still do.

We weren't near a pool, but I'd run through the sprinkler in the yard in the summer, or go jump in the pond every once in a while. I didn't learn to swim until I was a teenager, and my future ex BIL threw me in and told me to swim. I hate that bastard for doing that, I barely made it back (in my mind).

We got 3 channels on the TV, and I watched a lot of TV when I could. Saturday mornings, i was pretty stuck there until mid morning most of the time. Never had a video game, except for a hand me down pong unit that plugged into the UHF/VHF connector. Although I did have a hand held football game (it was a green plastic thing about 6" wide, by 6" long and about 1" thick) where it had red dots that bleeped at you as you tried to "run" past defenders. I went though many 9V batteries on that thing when we would go on vacations.

I had a few comics, like Spiderman and Daredevil.

I had a pretty decent childhood, other than being awkward and self conscious like I think most people go through, I was glad to get away and go to college.

I look back now at some of the stuff we did when I was growing up and I wonder how I survived...


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## goodal (Jan 13, 2011)

A child of the 80's, my "old times" aren't that old. We (myself, brother and sister) grew up 30 minutes from anything. We had a small convenience store and a gas station 5 minutes away but "town" was at least 30 miles away in any direction my whole life. When we weren't bouncing on the trampoline, we explored the woods every second of every day during the summer until i got to be about 11-12. Found half a fox once. We thought that was really something. We loved basketball and nintendo (the original).

We were blessed to be able to go to private schools for all but 3 years (when my mom homeschooled us). So my classes were never very large. My HS graduating class consisted of 4 (including me). I graduated with 3 of the people that were in my kindergarten graduation. Did I mention we liked baskletball. Although we never got very good, we played all the time and thought about it more than that. I played on every team that would have me through HS. We collected basketball cards, during the worst era for that, during the 90's. I recently looked up the nicer ones and the are still worth about $0.02. Rode motorcycles and ATV's pretty heavy during 13-16yr range.

My first car as a 1980 V6 Buick Regal that I thought was the bomb (it wasn't). Second car was a 1991 Toyota Celica that I would love to have back for old times sake.

Dad always worked odd hours so time with him was special when it happened. We took a 2 week trip out west one summer and saw some of the cool stuff (grand canyon, petrifide forest, continental divide, etc.). We had a 6 month stint in Germany, that ive written about here before, that was incredible. Since I was 4-5, I have lived within 2 miles of the place I first called home. I wouldn't have it any other way.


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## NCcarguy (Jan 13, 2011)

I love those stories!!! I hope more people participate on this. I'm just trying to imagine what my girlfriends kids would be able to say, and sadly enough I don't think they have that much good to talk about.


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## FLBuff PE (Jan 13, 2011)

I'm a city kid. Grew up within walking distance of a lake and a river. The lake had a sandbar that I discovered, and would often times swim out to and hang out. I was also an avid tree climber. There's a small park across the street from my childhood home (where my parents still live), and there was an awesome tree for climbing. I was devastated when they tore it down. My house was also about 30 minutes from anything, including the beach. I think I spent at least one day a week during my senior year in high school at the beach. Some of my fondest memories with my dad involve going deep-sea fishing, flying remote control airplanes that we (read: he) built, and him teaching me to drive. I would also take out a rubber dingy in the lake I mentioned, getting at least as close as DK has to some gators. Exciting times!


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## maryannette (Jan 13, 2011)

Grew up in a family with 8 children. Moved from Delaware to North Carolina when I was 6. Every summer for many years after that, we put everybody in the car and rode 8 hours to visit family for a week or two. In the beginning, we just got stuffed into whatever full-size car we had. Later, we had station wagons. There was only one stop - about halfway to get gas and use restrooms. Anything else had to be taken care of mobile.

In a large family, there were times when money was tight. I don't remember ever thinking that we were poor, but I'm sure that we were at "poverty" level at times. I guess we had a different image of "poor".

Doctors still made house calls. REALLY!

We had a drug store soda shop that would add cherry flavor to your Coke. (That was before Cherry Coke came in a can.)

We used to walk to the town park and play on the playground swings and slide.

There were summers when the local movie theater had Saturday matinees for kids. You could get in free with tickets from local merchants. We got free tickets and took snacks and drinks in hidden in a big purse.


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## NCcarguy (Jan 14, 2011)

Mary.....can you even IMAGINE putting all those kids in a car and traveling that far now? I'll also bet NO ONE was wearing a seat belt? For a while when I was a kid my parents had a business that delivered TV's and Appliances, and the delivery van was a ford van with a 302 engine and a 3 speed manual transmission on the column and NO AC!! the back was just an empty shell...metal floors. We would sometimes all pile in that and go places. The kids would just be rolling all over the back of that thing. lol


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## chaosiscash (Jan 14, 2011)

When I was about 11 or 12 (early 90's), my family of 5 loaded up in a Ford Tempo and drove from SC to Bar Harbor, ME and back, with several stops in the northeast along the way (Boston, NYC, Providence, etc). While not the same as a huge family taking long trips in a wagon, it still felt like a pretty tight fit (for me especially, as I was the youngest, and therefore, stuck in the middle most of the time). Now, when my sister and her family of 4 go to the beach for a week, they need a full size SUV and enclosed trailer. :true:


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Jan 14, 2011)

^I went to Bar Harbor and Acadia last year and was fairly underwhelmed. The town itself is basically any New England touristy port town, and Acadia is nice, but a glorified state park. How that place is a national park compared to some of the others is mind boggling.


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## snickerd3 (Jan 14, 2011)

VTEnviro said:


> ^I went to Bar Harbor and Acadia last year and was fairly underwhelmed. The town itself is basically any New England touristy port town, and Acadia is nice, but a glorified state park. How that place is a national park compared to some of the others is mind boggling.


it had a better PR person on the committee naming national parks


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## MA_PE (Jan 14, 2011)

When we were kids, the kids all piled onto the back of the family wagon. It was a special treat when the wagon actually had a third seat back there.

seat belts??? what were they?


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## Capt Worley PE (Jan 14, 2011)

I used to lie Snoopy style on the back of the front seat. Also used to lie in the back window shelf or sit on the fold down armrest. We used to fight ocer who sat on the armrest, because we pretended it was a throne.

We could fit two of us in the backety-back (behind the rear seats) of our Bug.

I remember my child seat. It looked like a porrly put together lawn chair with a thin layer of quilted fabric on it. Today's child seats look like g-seats from the Apollo progra,


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## FLBuff PE (Jan 14, 2011)

As an only child, I didn't have to fight over where to sit, what I got to eat, etc. My mom and dad were big on going to a part of the country, renting a car and driving. We did this for Sedona, AZ up through Flagstaff and into the Grand Canyon, Portland up to Seattle, and Yellowstone and Teton. In Teton, you can rent little outboard motor boats. We (my parents and I) did that when I was about 12 or 13. I got a huge thrill out of it when my dad let me control the motor; he showed me how to get the boat up on a plane, then he and my mom would get in the bow to redudce the air resistance...we really got that thing flying! I took my wife there for our first anniversary. We stayed at Jackson Hole (found a great deal), did a drive through one day at Yellowstone (we had both been there before), and then another day at Teton, basically doing what my parents and I did. I am looking forward to doing that with mini-Buff when she gets older.


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## NCcarguy (Jan 14, 2011)

^^ That's pretty cool. I really don't remember anything from growing up that I would be able to do with kids today....

I HAVE eaten at a Char-grill restaurant in Raleigh, and an Amedios, both are places my parents went to either when they were dating, or shortly after I was born, and both are still open today.


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## Flyer_PE (Jan 14, 2011)

Capt Worley PE said:


> I used to lie Snoopy style on the back of the front seat. Also used to lie in the back window shelf or sit on the fold down armrest. We used to fight ocer who sat on the armrest, because we pretended it was a throne.
> We could fit two of us in the backety-back (behind the rear seats) of our Bug.
> 
> I remember my child seat. It looked like a porrly put together lawn chair with a thin layer of quilted fabric on it. Today's child seats look like g-seats from the Apollo progra,


We had an old style Chevy van. My dad bolted my car seat to the top of the engine cover (Right between the two front seats). I think he would be arrested in most states for doing something like that these days.

Anybody else have memories of riding down the highway sitting in the back of a pick-up truck?


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## Capt Worley PE (Jan 14, 2011)

Flyer_PE said:


> Anybody else have memories of riding down the highway sitting in the back of a pick-up truck?


Yep. Even sat atop the wheelwells on numerous occasions.

That was so commonplace when I grew up (out in the country and everyone had farms/pickups) that I was completely surprised when my nephew told me he wasn't allowed to ride in the back of my truck. In fact, it was against the law.

Thank you mommy government.


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## OSUguy98 (Jan 14, 2011)

we used to drive somewhere each summer... I think I've been to just about every state east of the Mississippi and have never flown.... the vehicle of choice '83-'92 was a brown Chevy Cavalier wagon... we'd load that thing up with so much crap that it looked like a airplane with a tail wheel rolling down the runway without wings... even with all 4 of us pile in, I'd bet the rear bumper was no more than 6 inches off the ground... The earliest trip I can remember is going to Disney World when I was 8, well, maybe Niagara Falls when I was 7...

As for home life, it was pretty fun... I grew up in a town of about 1200 (still live there, population is around 950-1000 now)... we lived on a dead end street, which was next to another dead end street, concrete road, on the side of a side... we'd sled ride down the road in the winter and ride our big wheels (and later our bikes) down them... basketball, baseball, swimming in one of the 3 or 4 pools in the neighborhood, and riding our bikes in the woods were the normal daily routines... at night, we'd play spotlight until someone yelled at us to stop chasing each other through their yard... always fun... we'd camp out in each others yards and stay up until 5 or 6 AM telling ghost stories and sneaking to the houses of the girls in the neighborhood and tossing pebbles at the window to get them to sneak out.... never worked... we'd always end up waking up the parents....


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## XOXOXO (Jan 14, 2011)

Life sucked as a kid. I'm much happier as a grumpy old woman with access to lots of booze.

And I can say all the curse words I want to...


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## Exengineer (Jan 14, 2011)

Kids of the 1960s had it so much better than today's kids. Summer baseball leagues, school recreation programs, bicycling and a lot more physical activity than you see now. Add to that a better standard of living then with just one income earner and it's no wonder so many kids now are on Ritalin and other behavior modification drugs. Expectations were higher then and were more achievable. Back then an education actually meant something and led to a better life. Now, not so much. My dad is 84 and says the U.S. is almost unrecognizable from what it used to be, and not in a good way. That's at least one thing we can agree on.


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## MA_PE (Jan 15, 2011)

POed Mommy said:


> Life sucked as a kid. I'm much happier as a grumpy old woman with access to lots of booze. And I can say all the curse words I want to...


So you were always POed, it did not just happen when you became a Mommy? :dunno:


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## Master slacker (Jan 15, 2011)

Flyer_PE said:


> We had an old style Chevy van. My dad bolted my car seat to the top of the engine cover (Right between the two front seats). I think he would be arrested in most states for doing something like that these days.
> Anybody else have memories of riding down the highway sitting in the back of a pick-up truck?


That totally reminds me of the van we had when I was a young'un. Mom and dad bought the van the day before I was born. It was a cargo van (two front seats, nothing behind that) with a black, orange, silver paint job (from the bottom up). Dad customized the entire interior with shag-like carpet, two bench seats against the walls, and a table between them.All that could be converted into a bed, too. Between that and the front seat was a counter and a camper port-o-can (behind drapes and walls. Wood paneling lined the walls. On the counter we had a small sink and the old 13'ish inch B&amp;W TV and... get this... the Atari!

I used to kneel down in the front, basically on top of the engine cover. I can still remember kneeling there for so long on trips that my knees had the carpet impressions for a looooooong time after getting up. I miss that van.


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## MA_PE (Jan 16, 2011)

Master slacker said:


> Flyer_PE said:
> 
> 
> > We had an old style Chevy van. My dad bolted my car seat to the top of the engine cover (Right between the two front seats). I think he would be arrested in most states for doing something like that these days.
> ...


Was it a Ford "Cruising Van"? In the 70's, 80's Ford sold a van that was "customized" from the factory with paint and mag wheels on the outside but left to the purchaser to finish the inside.


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## Master slacker (Jan 17, 2011)

Looked damn close to that. Except it didn't have any porthole windows and the stripe never angled. We also don't buy Fords.


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Jan 18, 2011)

> We stayed at Jackson Hole (found a great deal), did a drive through one day at Yellowstone (we had both been there before), and then another day at Teton, basically doing what my parents and I did. I am looking forward to doing that with mini-Buff when she gets older.


I absolutely love that area. I got married right in the park, and we are thinking of going back for a week next year to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. Instead of doing the whole wedding and hanging out with relatives, I'm hoping we can just camp and hike and bike and raft and all that good outdoorsy stuff there.

If you go back you should take in the Jackson Hole Rodeo. We had front row seats on the "50 yard line" and it was a lot of fun.


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## FLBuff PE (Jan 18, 2011)

VTEnviro said:


> > We stayed at Jackson Hole (found a great deal), did a drive through one day at Yellowstone (we had both been there before), and then another day at Teton, basically doing what my parents and I did. I am looking forward to doing that with mini-Buff when she gets older.
> 
> 
> I absolutely love that area. I got married right in the park, and we are thinking of going back for a week next year to celebrate our 5 year anniversary. Instead of doing the whole wedding and hanging out with relatives, I'm hoping we can just camp and hike and bike and raft and all that good outdoorsy stuff there.
> ...


I've never been to a rodeo, but have a few that occur during the summer months here on a weekly basis. I think I might take mini-Buff to some of them this coming summer and see how she likes them.


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Jan 18, 2011)

It was a lot of fun, and obviously not something you see in the northeast.

I did pass on the Montana Testicle Festival though. Which, while I'm no fan of the Rocky Mtn Oysters, I am sad I missed because I learned after the fact that there were wet t-shirt contests and oil wrestling.


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## Master slacker (Jan 18, 2011)

VTEnviro said:


> It was a lot of fun, and obviously not something you see in the northeast.
> I did pass on the *Montana Testicle Festival *though. Which, while I'm no fan of the Rocky Mtn Oysters, I am sad I missed because I learned after the fact that there were *wet t-shirt contests *and oil wrestling.


Considering the name of the festival and all, are you sure that it wasn't a wet boxer contest?


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Jan 18, 2011)

^Before you go buying tickets and get all disappointed that it wasn't...

http://www.testyfesty.com/


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## Master slacker (Jan 18, 2011)

That website is blocked at work. Is that considered a cock block?


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## MA_PE (Jan 18, 2011)

VTEnviro said:


> It was a lot of fun, and obviously not something you see in the northeast.
> I did pass on the Montana Testicle Festival though. Which, while I'm no fan of the Rocky Mtn Oysters, I am sad I missed because I learned after the fact that there were wet t-shirt contests and oil wrestling.


Not necessarily true. They used to have a rodeo show at the Allepo Shriner's Auditorium here in Wakefield MA. We took the kids a couple of times. One time a horse through the cowboy and the guys hand got caught in the reins and the horse dragged him for a couple of laps around the place untilthey managed to stop him. The anouncer said he'd been doing the show for ~20 years and never saw anything that bad. The cowboy lived but his hand/arm got pretty messed up.

I am not aware of any testicle festivals around here though.


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## snickerd3 (Jan 18, 2011)

Our dr office rotates well baby visits between the dr and the nurse pract. Today was the nurse pract. She started reading me the riot act about giving minisnick 2% instead of whole milk. I just let her rant. Yes fats are good for brain development but with the amount of milk minisnick drinks in a day, he gets the same amount of fat as if he were to drink the recommended amounts of whole. The fat is not different. how did we all manage to be come smart people drinking 2% milk.


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Jan 18, 2011)

^ I don't know about that. Been to P'Town lately?

As for the rodeo, I've been to one twice. Loved it both times. Apprently, the major league rodeo circuit, the name escapes me, has a big event at Madison Square Garden every year. My parents used to go. They thought it was interesting to walk into a trendy midtown bar and see guys in Wranglers and boots.


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## Capt Worley PE (Jan 18, 2011)

snickerd3 said:


> how did we all manage to be come smart people drinking 2% milk.


I never had low fat milk until I was 25 or so, and thought it tasted like polluted water. I can drink it now.


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## snickerd3 (Jan 18, 2011)

Capt Worley PE said:


> snickerd3 said:
> 
> 
> > how did we all manage to be come smart people drinking 2% milk.
> ...


i guess it is all perspective, lowfat milk to me is 1%.


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## Capt Worley PE (Jan 18, 2011)

snickerd3 said:


> Capt Worley PE said:
> 
> 
> > snickerd3 said:
> ...


We buy skim, and I really don't drink it just by itself all that much. I have gotten used to it enough that regular milk feels extremely filling.


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## DVINNY (Jan 18, 2011)

My wife always buys 2% and my kids go through about a gallon a day.

I prefer good ole' fashioned HOMOGENIZED VITAMAN D MILK, but have to settle for 2% since that's what's always in the fridge.


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## Flyer_PE (Jan 18, 2011)

I grew up on a farm. The only processing that milk ever had was a trip through a strainer and off to the 33oF cooler. The first step of opening a new gallon was to scoop the cream off the top. To me, even the milk with the heart-stopper red cap is pretty much cloudy water.


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## Supe (Jan 18, 2011)

VTEnviro said:


> ^ I don't know about that. Been to P'Town lately?
> As for the rodeo, I've been to one twice. Loved it both times. Apprently, the major league rodeo circuit, the name escapes me, has a big event at Madison Square Garden every year. My parents used to go. They thought it was interesting to walk into a trendy midtown bar and see guys in Wranglers and boots.



If you like the rodeo up there, you'd LOVE it in Houston. BBQ cook-off on Saturday (some of the best BBQ in all of TX comes out, hundreds and hundreds of booths/tents), and some of the best bullriders to boot!


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## RIP - VTEnviro (Jan 18, 2011)

I probably would. I think that stuff is fun.

As for milk, most of the time we've been drinking soy or almond milk lately. I like the chocolate Silk and the vanilla almond milk, it feels like you are drinking something naughty but it's good for you.

As for the regular moo juice, we always had 1 or 2% growing up, but my wife grew up on skim and despises the other stuff. I didn't care much one way or the other, so we get skim.


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## snickerd3 (Jan 18, 2011)

me 2% since I started drinking cow's milk

Mr snick 2% until he was a teen then switched to skim because he likes the taste better


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