When I was a kid.......

[ecaridad]

Originally Posted by CowanStern

I was willing and eager to listen to people who had lived through history tell me about it. And learn from their mistakes. This is an attitude that I don't see among the younger generation today, and it is that that alarms me.

I disagree with you. Please forgive me but we're talking about young people who don't have a nightly nightmare to look at every night on T.V. In the 60's and 70's the're are always news stories about VietNam. The wars in iraq and Afganistan there is also news coverage but not like there were during the Viet Nam era ,with the daily urgency in the News (With capital N E W S).. Every day "today ____ soldiers died in ____" Every day was a big news day. Perhaps I'm watching/listening to the wrong station but I don't hear the urgency in todays news bout todays war.
Then there is generational gap. many of us who lived in those days had parents or other family memebers who had served in WWII. The knowledge drilled to us every day (remember the T.V. shows "Combat?", "Attack", "War in the Pacific" and others) made us intimate with any war news.
then there is the Draft. Everyone had to sign up and any one could be chosen to serve. Who serves now? Only those who want to serve -for what ever reason. The fact that any one could be called up made us all hypersensitive to the News.
Shall I even mention the antiwar movement? -the anti establishment, the lacksidasical approach to service to the nation, shall I go on?
Compare that to the contrasting situation today. And remember that those individuals, who despised the establishment in those days, are the parents and grandparents of todays generation.
Yes todays generation is not "aware" of history. a generation that was not taught (at home) to take history as a serious subject you are accusing of being lacksidasical. Uhm?
then there is the rise of technology Lets face it what was the most complex technology of our day? -T.V.? I still remember going to the 7-11 with a bag of tubes to check if they were good. My God you could even buy replacement tubes at the same 7-11. Now lets try and have a/any student up to 24 repair a solid state T.V -not to speak of repairing an IPod.
yes todays students are different but I'm not so quick to blame the individual students as much as the time and all it involves.

[ecaridad]

Originally Posted by CowanStern

I was willing and eager to listen to people who had lived through history tell me about it. And learn from their mistakes. This is an attitude that I don't see among the younger generation today, and it is that that alarms me.

By the way I really disagree that the todays students don't want to listen to the people who lived through it. Not many people talk about their experiences and those who are willing to talk well those experiences are so different from their lives today that I don't know how they can believe it.

[dizzybint]

I was born in 1947.. in fact I was born on Queen Elizabeths 21st birthday... oh what a difference I see in the world now.. especially kids and what games they play... We didnt have TVs , so we tended to make our own games and entertainment a lot.. where I lived was old tenements with what they called closes, so we would play chases in and out these small alleyways screaming and hiding up the stairs. one game was kick the can. where we would get old food cans out the middens and pile them up. then one person was what we called HET. that was the one who had to come and find us. the cans all got kicked over and he or she had to pile them up again whle the rest hid... was a great game.... then we had whips and peeries, a cheap wooden top with a wee whip we spun out and whipped to keep it goin.. ropes too were a great way of getting exercise and having fun. two cawed the ropes and the rest lined up and waiting their turn.. to jump in... old metal wheeled roller skates were great fun too, tied on with your mums old nylons , or some old banger of a bike we all shared, no one had much money but we had much more fun than all the spoiled kids know with all their video games and computers... shame what their missing..

[ecaridad]

I's funny how little culture and location has to play with games. I grew up in the caribeean and I played many of the same games and more. Chinese sticks, statues, made kites and "fought" with them, fought with tops, played war (knights angainst the Moors, revolutionaries against the spanish, Spanish agains the English pirates -you name it but no cowboys and indians), raced with one bicycle, even rotting fruit became a weapon used much like snowballs). It took a lot of imagination to play those games. NOt so much imagination to play todays zombie killing or medal of honor/war videos. well its the kids today who are losing.

[VelcroQueen]

When I was a child, we had a radio that stood taller than I did -- a tall "blonde-finished" radio. I would lie upon a braided rug on the tan linoleum in front of that radio and listen for "Red Sails in the Sunset" to come on, as it always did at sunset. I got a look at the back of that radio, and it had tall tubes with an orange glow. I looked for the tiny people in that exquisitely-lit room -- the ones who sang "How Much is that Doggy in the Window" and "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," the ones who told the news, and the one who informed us about Old Dutch Scouring Powder. But by the time I got down there and peeked in, they had already run from my giant peeping eye.

Our radio was wonderful entertainment. Arthur Godfrey in the morning. I liked Godfrey, his slow conversations with the "stars" who sang, and his wonderful pianist. During the day, Mother would listen to the soap operas and cry. At night, we heard mysteries and comedies -- that is if I was not still sitting in the kitchen, in the dark, over an uneaten plate of lima beans and ham hocks.

At that time, we had a wringer washer I was warned to stay away from, because if my hands got in the wrong place, I was warned, my fingers would be caught in the wringer, and it would draw my whole hand and arm through, breaking everything. I found that the best use for it was for me to throw my lima beans and collard greens behind. Sure, I would get a beating the next morning, but that was not as bad as having to eat them.

Back to scouring powder, we used a different one in our home: Pow Wow. My sister got an idea from that product. If one of us was in trouble with Mother, we would warn one another by whispering "Pow wow." That way, we were more prepared to face The Great Judgment. And The Great Judgment Morning was what would arrive in the mornings after Mother found my discarded lima beans behing that washer.

We used Colgate Tooth Powder. I was taught to sprinkle it into one hand, get my toothbrush wet, dip it into the tooth powder, and brush my teeth up and down, up and down.


Ah, but back to The Great Judgment Morning, there was a song a man would sing in the church we attended. He would singing and cry, and all the ladies would dab their eyes with their hankies, while the men kept a stiff upper lip.

It is public domain now, but it was written by Bertram H. Shadduck

I dreamed that the great judgment morning
Had dawned, and the trumpet had blown;
I dreamed that the nations had gathered
To judgment before the white throne;
From the throne came a bright, shining angel,
And he stood on the land and the sea,
And he swore with his hand raised to Heaven,
That time was no longer to be.

Refrain:
And, oh, what a weeping and wailing,
As the lost were told of their fate;
They cried for the rocks and the mountains,
They prayed, but their prayer was too late.

The rich man was there, but his money
Had melted and vanished away;
A pauper he stood in the judgment,
His debts were too heavy to pay;
The great man was there, but his greatness,
When death came, was left far behind!
The angel that opened the records,
Not a trace of his greatness could find.
The widow was there with the orphans,
God heard and remembered their cries;

Refrain:
And, oh, what a weeping and wailing,
As the lost were told of their fate;
They cried for the rocks and the mountains,
They prayed, but their prayer was too late.

No sorrow in heaven forever,
God wiped all the tears from their eyes;
The gambler was there and the drunkard,
And the man that had sold them the drink,
With the people who gave him the license,
Together in hell they did sink.
The moral man came to the judgment,
But self-righteous rags would not do;

Refrain:
And, oh, what a weeping and wailing,
As the lost were told of their fate;
They cried for the rocks and the mountains,
They prayed, but their prayer was too late.

The men who had crucified Jesus
Had passed off as moral men, too;
The soul that had put off salvation,
“Not tonight; I’ll get saved by and by,
No time now to think of religion!”
At last they had found time to die.

Refrain:
And, oh, what a weeping and wailing,
As the lost were told of their fate;
They cried for the rocks and the mountains,
They prayed, but their prayer was too late.

Ah, church. Sunday school, young people's meeting, and the evening service on Sundays, evenning service on Wednesday and Friday nights, and Saturday morning prayer meeting. And attendance was NOT optional: be there or beware!