Does anyone here miss the days of 40's, 50s, 60s, 70s, ....when life was simple, Post your favourite memory..

Sci-ence Fiction, Oooahhh Ooooo, double feature...

LP's. And Galaga. Lots and lots of fuc-ing Galaga.

It was a different world for sure, and a different country.

When I was 4 I ranged about ten blocks and knew everyone. It never occurred to me that anyone would want to hurt me and no one ever did. I never knew what a stranger was and looked at everyone as a potential friend.

By the time I was 7 I was allowed to go wherever I wanted to that I could reach on a bicycle. I had a horse and knew how to take care of it. I could cast a baitcasting rod or a spinning reel. I had my own bolt action rifle and could actually shoot it.

By age 8 i had my own boat and motor and went fishing and swimming alone and with friends my own age in a cypress swamp filled with gators and snakes. My mother worried but my dad always said 'he's got more sense than your brothers".

By age ten we'd moved to upstate New York on the Canadian border near Montreal. I went hunting by myself and with friends any time I wanted to, and walked through the neighborhood to reach the woods with a rifle slung on my back..

By age 11 I was visiting friends on the nearby Mohawk reservation. I was also crossing the Canadian border into Cornwall at the international bridge near Akwesasne on a bicycle and was going through customs. All I needed was a note from my parents and the address of my destinations.

Age 12 I got a snowmobile and rode wherever I wanted down frozen rivers or on public roads .

By age 13 I was working on a farm and cutting and splitting firewood for money and was making more than a lot of adults in the fall and winter. I had my own saws and a hydraulic splitter and drove the family PU truck with no license. The one time I was pulled over by the troopers was because te trailer lights weren't working. I didn't get a ticket or a lecture and they didn't call my parents, taze me, or shoot my dog, they just helped figure out what was wrong with the lights.

I operated all sorts of farm machinery from haybailers and tractors to an automated gutter cleaner and milking machines before I got hair one.

I am sorry to say most 13 year olds these days are less self reliant and had less freedom and responsibly than I did when I was 4, and it is hard for me to imagine a kid of today being able to do any of those things and live more than a few hours.

LOL< Galaga came right after asteroids. Used to get stoned with my friends and go to the bowling ally to play 'troids and fooseball

omg!! aLL OF THR ABOVE!! aN aCTUAL tELEPHONE WITH THE dIAL..MISS THE SOUND IT MADE!! bEING ABLE TO WALK DOWN THE NEIGHBORHOOD AND PLAY WITH FRIENDS TILL 8 OR 9PM AT NIGHT AT RAKING UP LEAVES OFF THE LAWNS AND PUTTING THEM IN HUGE PILES IN THE STREET AND PLAYING IN THEM ..WE WERE ALL 6 TO 10 YEARS OLD..WITHOUT PARENTS!
lIVING IN A NEIGHBORHOOD A COMMUNITY .WHICH MY KIDS HAVE NEVER HAD.

pEOPLE aCTUALLY CARING ABOUT EACH OTHER!!!!!!

I use the phone number from that old party line phone that hung on the wall as a password on one of my accounts (not this one...)

We called the people who tried to life up the receiver really quiet so they could listen in "rubbernecks".

I remember:

Going for day long treks with my brother and cousins in the woods, walking for miles and miles, and our parents not worrying for our safety.

My brother and I laying on our backs in the front yard, watching for shooting stars. We could see the Milky Way then. I hope I live long enought to see it again, the sky is so filled with light pollution.

Playing in the harvested wheat in either the combine bulk tank or in the grain truck, eating fresh wheat, catching grasshoppers and making them "spit tobacco juice'.

Yes, it was a different country.

I was just talking to my brother yesterday about my old '56 Ford Fairlane that could fly. I was living in Tucson at the time, and if you have ever lived there, you know about the big drainage ditches that carry away the monsoon rains. One night I was in a big hurry to get downtown, roaring down a rather dark side street, decided to whip over to the next street. I turned a right on the next street, which turned out to be a drainage ditch about 8 feet deep. The old Ford flew thru the air for quite a ways, maybe close to 20 feet, lit on all four tires and bounced quite a bounce. The springs held, and I drove off up the ditch. That Ford was indestructible.

Try that with a new car, it will shatter and leave you sitting strapped to your seat in a pile of fragments.

I miss solid cars like that.

Watching all in the family on their brown carpet in my aunts apt on avenue j in Brooklyn on their brand new console black and white tv!!

I remember me and my friends being able to walk around at night, hang out at parks at night, just have fun, and not worry about being shot, kidnapped, raped, murdered, etc. I remember looking forward to a phone call, or a card or letter in the mail, not texts and emails. I remember cruising around in high school, meeting people from car to car, not getting shot by a gang member. I remember sitting around the table for dinner and we actually talked together, not everyone looking at or answering their cell phones or finishing quickly to get back to their computers.

I miss the days of good old fashioned cameras, where pictures weren't perfect, where they aged with time and you could "feel" the character when you looked at them. I miss seeing real pictures, not something on a computer or a cell phone or a digital photo frame. I miss seeing the imperfect lighting,the "red eyes", the imperfect angles of a shot, LOL, I miss the "realness" of photos.

1956 I left my 4 year old barefoot prints in fresh big city sidewalk cement that's still there today

1956 I stole 5 bucks from atop my dads dresser and he chased me all over the neighborhood

1956 I dialed zero on the rotary phone and asked the operator for a new mommy cause mommy and daddy were out drinking at the white eagle tavern where every friday we all went and ate fish dinner

1957 I learned to ride a bike.

1957 in kindergarden my teacher made me lay on my nappy blanket during a kids birthday. Later that fucking pig ate my cupcake while everyone was suppose to be napping. I know, cause I lifted my head and saw the bitch shoving the cupcakes her fat ass mouth.

1957 I could walk alone 3 blocks to the movie house and see a show(s) for a quarter. The library was next door to the show house and I hung out their also

1958 I roamed the neighborhood at will committing petty crimes like breaking windows and tipping over garbage cans and stealing from the dime store.

1958 I pissed in a kids boot in the cloak room cause the teacher made me stay in for recess and I had to piss.

1959 I walked 15 blocks to a saturday amtinee show house I got out of the newspaper showing a science fiction movie I just had to see, alone. That was a long walk for a kid of 7 and a half

The time line is approximate since I know I was under 8 when all this was a happening.

1960 I was a naughty little kid who looked for trouble in school. I climbed the auditorium curtains just to see if I could make it to the top which I did.

My friends and I had toy pop guns and pistols we ran around the neighborhood playin cops and robber, cowboys and indians and cops never blinked an eye at us. Now, they shoot you on sight 20 or thirty times cause they are the killers now.

Ya life was so much simpler back then.

This is a fun thread. :o) I remember..

..having four television stations. The only remote control we had was my mom and dad..telling me to get up and turn the station.

..getting on my bike and taking off into the hills a couple of miles away--without mom thinking twice about if I was safe or not.

..getting smacked by a neighbor..for smarting off..THEN telling my mother what I did..which resulted in ANOTHER smack. No one was arrested for child abuse.

..walking to school with a friend, where the only danger was..this funky looking house that we had managed to convince ourselves..housed a witch.

..when $10.00 was a lot of money. Well, to me anyway.

..open campus at my highschool. We designed our own schedules; sometimes came in late; sometimes left early; we decided. Most of us scheduled school around after school jobs.

..street lights on meant time to come in. No one supervised.

..28 cents/gal gas and gas wars

..no technology. No ipads; iphones; notebooks; texting or internet. I had to do my own research at these places called libraries in these things called books. My research may not have been as good, or as fast but..it would be worth the trade off.

..and..a lot of other things. :o)

We would scour the neighborhoods looking for wheels from baby carriages, etc. and put together the parts to make a go-cart. We would always be outside and used our creativity to have fun. We didn't have computers, videos and the like to turn us into fat little robots.

Do you remember Pong? It was like the first video game. It was supposed to be a tennis match and all you did was move the cursor up and down the hit the ball which was a black dot.

Last Edited by geminilion on 11/14/2013 11:10 PM

YES! I remember eating breakfast, doing what chores we had to do, then disappearing until lunch time, then disappearing again until dinner, then disappearing again until it was dark. We just knew when to come back home and our parents rarely had a clue where we were. I always remember hearing my mom say, "be back in time for lunch, dinner, before it's dark," etc. Using our imaginations to play, sitting with friends and actually talking all night, not hanging on to dear life to our cell phones and computers. It was soooo good growing up back then. I'm so glad I did :)

True and they lasted forever.Today a fridge is lucky yo last 7 to 8 years.In the past they were built like tanks and would run 30 years easily.I guess the same could be said for most things even cars.

People took pride in their products, and they were MADE to last - When a person got a new car, it was expected that they'd own it for AT LEAST 10 years, or hang onto it for their kids while the parents got a new car.

I grew up in the 50's and 60's, and remember seeing the Sputnik through a neighbor's telescope. There was a sort of attitude of optimism permeating the country, I think the "Space Race" had a lot to do with it. The feeling was that OF COURSE we would win the Space Race, because we were AMERICA (home of the best people on earth)and nothing seemed impossible to achieve. All of the Astronauts were National Heroes, and EVERYONE (meaning kids, adults lived in their own little world) wanted to be an Astronaut. Or a cowboy.

OMG, soooooo true!!! I tell my kids that my generation, I'm 58, was probably the last one to live that life. They can't believe the amount of freedom I had growing up. Things really were much simpler and happier.

OMG, LOL, I LOVED making "mud pies" and buildings out of mud, walking in the gutter after a rainstorm feeling the water rush past my feet, building forts out of pieces of wood and old sheets, walking the walls of the neighborhood with friends, SIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

1957 muntz color tv came out and my dad got us one and I watched saturday morning cartoons in color.

1958-62 Saturday night we stayed up past midnight and watched the monster movies on late night tv

1966 gas was 15 cent a gallon and diesel was like 10 cent as all the city gas stations had gas wars and tried to under sell their gas for customers.

1950, 1960 Cars were built like tanks and my ma was always smashing em up some how. We got a new car every year. Now, they make em like a coke can that crumples if you lean on them

1962 we moved from the city to the country where I began to be bullied by kids who one day were my friends and if one of them didn't like me that day, they all didn't like me. I took it till I just couldn't anymore so left home at 17 to finish school in a city.

It was during this time it felt like the whole world was coming down on me from being bullied by kids and teachers and principals. I had a teacher in 7th grade one day call me over and grab me by the collar and twist till I passed out.

I ran from the class as everyone laughed and when I tried to report this to the principle he refused to believe me so I ran again and he chased me till he caught me and slapped me around.

All I did was throw a drawing away into the waste basket I made after it was handed back by the teacher, that was all. And I got choked out for that. This teacher did later apologize to me but why did he do this in the first place.

10th grade I had the principle stalk me and he would complain cause my hair was long and he would make walk from school to the barber in the small town where he had called I would be coming over for a hair cut which he paid for.

I left 11th grade by writing a letter to that school principle to send my records to my new school I enrolled myself in for the 12th grade.

So ya, the world was fun, different and suddenly turned dark for me. I should have become a killer but I promised the watchers I wouldn't kill nobody this time around. So far so good.

LOL! My Mom always called them "Passion Pits" and wouldn't let me go to them. I loved spending the night with other girls from my class, we'd ALWAYS go to the drive-in and check out the boys!

Strangely its the people that grew up in this time that are responsible for fucking up the world right now

1960's -

Floating on an innertube under the hot summer sun.
Watching the northern lights (aurora borealis) dance across the night sky.
Exploring everything,finding abandoned gold mines, hermit shacks old buildings.
Monopoly marathons, dancing in the basement.
Building forts.
Monkey trail bike rides.
Hide n' seek with all the kids in the neighbourhood.
Skating.
Tobogganing.

Wow, realize all of the things I loved cost little or no money.

Being unplugged was good.

Nice thread op!

Kids, and adults for that matter;
walking, running, skipping, singing,
biking, triking, waving, smiling,
ice-cream sharing, neighbors caring,
candy-buying, saying "hi"-ing, dropping by-ing,
all around the streets of the town,
day or night, it was alright!

TV had stories, not
cop shows
detective shows
shooting shows
sex shows
putting people down
more shooting and hurting people
more arguing shows
tough guy shows
fighting shows
more hurting people
anger and rage shows
drug shows
you can put the word "songs" instead of "shows"
We had entertainment more often
not degradation.

Let your light shine.
Maybe we can keep our pockets of
alright alive a bit longer.

No big food outlets, more smaller corner stores.. Knew your neighbours and could put the money out for the paper or milk with absolutely no fear of it getting taken. Could walk home from the bus - no fear of being dragged into the bushes. Children played outside kicking a ball on the street.. no adult supervision. Ride your bike everywhere.People actually talked to each other - looking each other in the eyes. No cell phones - Not much money but had everything you needed - not necessarily what you wanted --but really happy with the freedom and safety of life in those times. What has happened.? Too much money..material things dont satisfy..Social media has seemed to encourage secretive evil behaviour. They have just busted another peodophile group.. Most shocking pictures police have ever seen ... It wasnt even in the mind-set when I grew up.. What has happened?

Ummm.....you DO realize that "Little House On The Prairie" was a TV show? And about as true-to-life as "Grizzly Adams"? :0)

I miss the fact that there were only 2 billion people on this planet in 1970. Less than that when I was born in the 50s- life is much harder now that there are 7 billion of us here!gawd help us all....

Lawn darts with my retarded cousin.

we call it Atlantis these days but before the moon tore the crust loose and sent us to the bottom of the world and we had to move . where we hunted dinosaurs at night by rubbing our eyes with belladonna berries and we smoked some giant weed for that giant appetite . we lived in pyramids too where we cut out rooms with lasers we borrows from the visiting ET's (they also picked us up right before the event and then let us back down at what is now giza ). Google Antarctica pyramids and you might remember too the age before " global tipping " . we didn't wear clothes either , our hair was never cut and just fell all around us like cousin IT on the adams family . i dont need no stinking wrongfully written history books to cloud my memories . cant wait to go there again through dimensions . I'm not bound by space and time . mmmmm , i can smell those brontosaur burgers and rapter steaks now through the veil . and cant wait to separate my brides hair to kiss her again . and the stars all looked in different places and we drew different shapes then we do now to sail the shallower seas . many former places are now under water but i had sailed back to what is now Antarctica before the crust moved and we there saw the stars fall and that big moon get caught in the sky just as the ET's picked us up and let us back down , oh i already said that but thinking about the good old days still causes a faction of confusion . after that came the time that religions began to make us forget that awful time of losing our homeland . oh well that dogma shit didn't work to do that .

yeah I was born in the late 70's but my parents were the 70's!. my Dad had that big station wagon with the wood paneling and we did walk to school and stay out all day and the only time we watched TV was at night or saturday mornings. we also went to the drive in and we would get a bucket of KFC and we would watch the double features. my first drive in movie was poltergeist and I was 4! lol.

we never used seat belts, my Mom was my seatbelt in the front seat and we would go to wisconsin for vacation. my Dad called the remote a clicker and we had a beta max machine. I miss those times and my parents. your post made me think of my Mom and Dad they have both passed and things have changed so much. I wonder how they would be if they were still here with these TV's and computers. It would be alien to them. now I want to cry.