Times have changed. I'm 65 when I was in high school, there was a dump about a1/2 mile from the school. Some of us would bring our 22s to school, put them in our lockers and after school go over to the dump and shoot rats (the 4 legged furry kind) and other things. Must have been a miracle we didn't shoot anyone in school, or maybe we just never thought about it.
Any "older" members still recall the time when smoking was acceptable indoors?
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I hate it when people say I'm still young, but you guys are proving them right 
I remember coming back home from school one afternoon and my father had bought the Coleco Vision. I played with it for quite a while, but I don't remember my parents needing to take me away from it by force: the games were so basic one would grow tired of it after an hour or two. There were only so many games to go with it, too.
Nintendo could keep us stuck to the screen longer, but we'd have to change games at most every 3 hours.
Nowadays one could get lost in a game for days and weeks, forgetting to eat, drink, pee. sleep and go to work. I think some people even forget to breathe...
I remember coming back home from school one afternoon and my father had bought the Coleco Vision. I played with it for quite a while, but I don't remember my parents needing to take me away from it by force: the games were so basic one would grow tired of it after an hour or two. There were only so many games to go with it, too.
Nintendo could keep us stuck to the screen longer, but we'd have to change games at most every 3 hours.
Nowadays one could get lost in a game for days and weeks, forgetting to eat, drink, pee. sleep and go to work. I think some people even forget to breathe...
Another amazing childhood adventure we survived:
During the summer months, every Friday was swimming lessons. Only problem was, not every little town had a pool and our closest one was 15 miles in another town. As luck would have it, there was a really nice retired farmer with a grain truck with a heavy chain between the sides midway up. We all loaded in the back, girls in front of the chain and boys in the back, and he would take us to and from the pool taking back roads all the way. Not sure if all that dust we inhaled was worse then second hand smoke, but we lived through it. When I got a bit older, maybe 9 or 10, I would ride my bike the 15 miles just to go swimming. Sure beat going down to the creek that was small, filthy, and filled with crawdads and leaches.
During the summer months, every Friday was swimming lessons. Only problem was, not every little town had a pool and our closest one was 15 miles in another town. As luck would have it, there was a really nice retired farmer with a grain truck with a heavy chain between the sides midway up. We all loaded in the back, girls in front of the chain and boys in the back, and he would take us to and from the pool taking back roads all the way. Not sure if all that dust we inhaled was worse then second hand smoke, but we lived through it. When I got a bit older, maybe 9 or 10, I would ride my bike the 15 miles just to go swimming. Sure beat going down to the creek that was small, filthy, and filled with crawdads and leaches.
I used to get my catfish bait by wadin thru the shallows at the river's edge and then pullin the leeches off my legs and stomach.
That was some prize bait cause they would stay on the hook good. Also knocked down plenty of wasp nests and got the larvae out. I learned to swim at six years old when my Dad took me out into the middle of the river and let me go so I'd have to swim back to the bank 
I used to, because that was the environment I grew up in. But my son turned out to have a nasty case of chronic bronchitis and was missing so much school due to breathing problems, I had no choice but to take it outside; he was 9 at the time, so for the next 9 yrs, I never smoked in the house -- and even when he moved out, although i considered taking my smoking back indoors, I decided not to, for 2 excellent reasons: my husband is a non-smoker, and I also grew to be able to actually smell what stale cigarette smoke really smelled like -- if I was in the car for a long time, and thus smoking, when I'd get home I'm have to change my clothes or the smell offended ME! Once you know what a smoke-free house smells like, even if you're a smoker yourself, you still don't want that odor in everything that you own, all your clothes and furniture and drapes and carpet. Even my hair stayed cleaner and fresher longer, by smoking only outdoors. I'm sure this made it a GREAT deal easier for me when I finally got rid of the cigs last year when I started vaping.
Andria
I'll tell you something funny.
When I was maybe 8 I belonged to a Y camp and we went swimming in a city pool but we weren't allowed to wear bathing suits because that was "un-masculine."
When I was maybe 8 I belonged to a Y camp and we went swimming in a city pool but we weren't allowed to wear bathing suits because that was "un-masculine."
Just found this ... and it's all true!
Being a child in the 60s and70s was awesome!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
God, that makes me so nostalgic -- if the streetlights came on and I wasn't in, within 5 minutes I'd hear my mom bellowing for me.
I used the same time-teller for my son, and he was fairly prompt... mostly. Sometimes I sit and ponder the days of yore when to get cash, you had to either go to the bank or have a friendly grocer or liquor-store owner willing to cash a check for you. When needing to make a phone call, when you were out, meant finding a payphone -- and they took DIMES. When a dollar's worth of gas would last a few days. And shopping? The mall of course. You could mail order from Sears or those places in the backs of magazines, but it took forever -- 6-8 weeks, and nobody got frantic, and nobody checked tracking, because there wasn't any; you got it when you got it, and were grateful it didn't take any longer. And listening to music meant either turning on the radio or delving into your RECORD collection, and if you were lucky, there weren't any scratches that required bumps to the tone-arm or a nickel balanced on it.
Andria
Yea. It was just called swimming. I seem to recall something about it being easier on the pool filters and maintenance or something.
"Skinny dipping" was more fun, since it usually meant swimming naked with mixed company. It's still fun!
ETA: Oh, yea. In public pools there were ashtrays on all tables and cigarette butts in the pool filters.
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Man! I miss GAS WARS!
When I first started driving, there was a gas station with a huge, permanent neon sign that was simply the price of the gas. When you said "I'm going to 28.9", everybody knew what and where you meant. So much for fluctuating gas prices.
Although it wasn't ages ago, a pretty good true story I witnessed: A small town with a chain quick stop and two independent locally owned stations. The two local station owners noticed that the manager of the chain would drive by their stations early every morning to check their gas prices and immediately change the chain's price a few cents less. Soon frustrated and tiring of this practice, they agreed to get up early one morning and set their signs at a ridiculously low price, watched,, and waited. Sure enough, the chain manager cruised by and then headed for work. The owners quickly got in their tanker trucks and headed to the chain station. As soon as the price on the sign was changed (to a price cheaper then they were able to buy their gas wholesale) and the chain opened, one pulled up on each side of the two pump island and began filling their tankers which would have drained the chain's underground tanks. The manager seeing what was going on quickly shut off the pumps and the standoff began. The owners refused to leave and demanded their gas, the manager refusing, and the sheriff summoned. I had to go to work, so not sure how long this lansted, but heard the issue was whether by law the chain could restrict the purchase of gas to the tanks used to provide gas to that vehicle's engine. They eventually came to some kind of agreement and the quick stop then posted a sign stating that only the vehicle tanks could be filled. I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't some kind of law before, some kind of law was enacted to prevent future occurrences.
When I first started driving, there was a gas station with a huge, permanent neon sign that was simply the price of the gas. When you said "I'm going to 28.9", everybody knew what and where you meant. So much for fluctuating gas prices.
Although it wasn't ages ago, a pretty good true story I witnessed: A small town with a chain quick stop and two independent locally owned stations. The two local station owners noticed that the manager of the chain would drive by their stations early every morning to check their gas prices and immediately change the chain's price a few cents less. Soon frustrated and tiring of this practice, they agreed to get up early one morning and set their signs at a ridiculously low price, watched,, and waited. Sure enough, the chain manager cruised by and then headed for work. The owners quickly got in their tanker trucks and headed to the chain station. As soon as the price on the sign was changed (to a price cheaper then they were able to buy their gas wholesale) and the chain opened, one pulled up on each side of the two pump island and began filling their tankers which would have drained the chain's underground tanks. The manager seeing what was going on quickly shut off the pumps and the standoff began. The owners refused to leave and demanded their gas, the manager refusing, and the sheriff summoned. I had to go to work, so not sure how long this lansted, but heard the issue was whether by law the chain could restrict the purchase of gas to the tanks used to provide gas to that vehicle's engine. They eventually came to some kind of agreement and the quick stop then posted a sign stating that only the vehicle tanks could be filled. I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't some kind of law before, some kind of law was enacted to prevent future occurrences.
I remember getting free things from the back of cereal boxes. Send in x amount of box tops and a couple of bucks.
Forgetting all about them and then being surprised when they finally arrived. Talk about snail mail! It took forever because you had to save up the correct amount of box tops, then mail them, then wait while they process the order and ship the item out to you.
Do they still have those sea monkey things? I never got one of those but always wondered if they actually were real...
Forgetting all about them and then being surprised when they finally arrived. Talk about snail mail! It took forever because you had to save up the correct amount of box tops, then mail them, then wait while they process the order and ship the item out to you.
Do they still have those sea monkey things? I never got one of those but always wondered if they actually were real...
Yes, they still have sea monkeys.
And thanks to new technology, I have one of these:
And thanks to new technology, I have one of these:
We use to crank a 45 rpm record to 33 and vice versa just for laughs and entertainment. I use to love my little transistor radio and went to sleep listening to music as long as the 9v battery held out. I had 3 "transistor sisters"God, that makes me so nostalgic -- if the streetlights came on and I wasn't in, within 5 minutes I'd hear my mom bellowing for me.
Sometimes I sit and ponder the days of yore when to get cash, you had to either go to the bank or have a friendly grocer or liquor-store owner willing to cash a check for you. When needing to make a phone call, when you were out, meant finding a payphone -- and they took DIMES. When a dollar's worth of gas would last a few days. And shopping? The mall of course. You could mail order from Sears or those places in the backs of magazines, but it took forever -- 6-8 weeks, and nobody got frantic, and nobody checked tracking, because there wasn't any; you got it when you got it, and were grateful it didn't take any longer. And listening to music meant either turning on the radio or delving into your RECORD collection, and if you were lucky, there weren't any scratches that required bumps to the tone-arm or a nickel balanced on it.
Andria
too
We use to crank a 45 rpm record to 33 and vice versa just for laughs and entertainment. I use to love my little transistor radio and went to sleep listening to music as long as the 9v battery held out. I had 3 "transistor sisters"
Anytime I get antsy because tracking is showing NOTHING, I try to remind myself of the old "6-8 weeks" and realize that it'll probably get here way before that.
Andria
I remember mcdonalds having foil ashtrays next to the drink machine and ketchup for smokers.
There are still some restaurants you can smoke in down here, but they are few and far between. I remember sitting at Waffle House in high school till early hours smoking.
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Also as a 90's kid in Texas, I remember before the open container laws, my dad would have a beer on road trips, just one.
And I remember riding in the front of my mom's jimmy, her arm was the airbag.
There are still some restaurants you can smoke in down here, but they are few and far between. I remember sitting at Waffle House in high school till early hours smoking.
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Also as a 90's kid in Texas, I remember before the open container laws, my dad would have a beer on road trips, just one.
And I remember riding in the front of my mom's jimmy, her arm was the airbag.
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I remember Mom sendin me to the store with fifty cents and I'd come back with a pack of cigarettes, 2 drinks and 5 candy bars.
You can't do that now,
too many security cameras.
You can't do that now,
too many security cameras.
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