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Loved to ride bikes through the DDT fog sprayed by those olive drab government trucks for mosquito control.
Shooting 22s in the claybanks. Following rabbit tracks in the new fallen snow carrying my 43# Hoty pro hunter recurve bow. Riding my bike 15 miles to fish Farrington lake dam. Father Brozowski putting the fire out on Mark P's surplice while he was trying to light the top candles over St Joseph's statue. Returning discarded bottles to the Acme and getting money in return. Running 3 blocks to Wolf Ave along an upheaved slate sidewalk to be the first 4th grade boy to win the chance to carry the bookbag of one of the Sisters of St Joseph back to school. Having to explain to your mother why you got holes torn in your new blue serge school pants. Filling the 62 vette up with expensive 27 cents a gallon American unleaded hightest. Sunoco 260. Buying gas at the sign of the flying red horse. Street racing in my budddy's 61 fuely vette and buying 65 cents worth of gas in New Brunswick at a station on Albany st right over the bridge. Taking my bow and arrows on the school bus for archery team practice. Hunting diver ducks in Raritan Bay off Perth Amboy beach in the old sneak box during a January blizzard. Cutting cattails and drying them on the garage roof to be burned on summmer nights for fun and mosquito control. Waiting for the "red ball" to be raised at Roosvelt Park so we could ice skate. The best place to trap for black muskrats is now an entrance ramp onto rt 287. The best place to catch crayfish is a condo parking lot.
I think this post is illustrative of why we've become a debt-ridden society in this country. Our parents didn't lavish us with gifts, but they were more free with their time than today. Nowadays dropping kids off at a day care center at 6:45 in the morning, because two incomes are necessary nowadays to make the SUV payments, and all the accessories, like a cell phone that makes pancakes and gives you a back massage every 15 minutes. Parents didn't saddle themselves with debt, in part, because credit wasn't so freely available, but in most part, because they the discipline to say 'no'. So they break out the platinum credit card and shovel themselves into the hole deeper. A lot of it is exterior, for show, hence Calico's reference to treating a birthday party for their kid as an equivalent of a diplomat arriving at the U.N. building. (Just like the Corvettes, the yachts, etc) It's ego gratification on steroids.
I say, put the kid outside, let give them a stick, or a shovel, some inanimate object, and let them have at it with their imagination. As parents, we are learning. Our kids are 6 and 5, and there will be at maximum, 4 gifts per kid under the tree this Christmas. These kids don't want the plastic crap made in Guangdong, they want nurturing, parenting. My son and I will be hiking up the Organ Mountains this Saturday, it will take about 4 hours round trip, with an 1800 foot vertical gain. I think he is going to be more prone to remember that hike he took with his dad in 20 years than he is playing Xbox.
Absolutely Mike! I am constantly having this fight with my wife. Yes my son is the center of my world but he does NOT need some new something every week. He does not need a 200 person Birthday party when he turns 2 next week. He does not need $80-$100 outfits that hes only going to wear for 4-6 months max. He does not need $20 haircuts every other month. We do not need to record EVERY episode of Backyadigans, Bob the Builder, Seseame Street, or Yo Gabba Gabba so he can watch TV all day long.
Besides, being broke today is very different from beng broke back in the day. Today your considered broke if you only have a 32" flat screen or your driving a car more than 2-3 years old. When I was a kid, broke meant only having a 13" black and white TV with rabbit ears and a pair of pliers to change the channel. Eating speghetti or rice and beans every day for a week till the next paycheck comes through. Not having a phone at all. Waiting on long lines every week to get bread milk and cheese. Wearing the same little outfit 2 years in a row for class pictures even tho it was too small. Walking to Pathmark (6 blocks away) and everyone carrying bags all the way home. Everyone pitched in, everyone carried their own weight, everyone helped each other cause we were family. None of this spoiled brat crap that is WAYYY to prevalent in todays kids.
I've recently become very proud, instead of ashamed, of being the only family member w/o a big ol flat screen wall mounted tv. Are they nice? Yeah. Would I like one? Sure. Do I NEED one? NO. My little 32" box still works just fine.... thank you.
I'm sick of all the bells and whistles that became "necessities" in our society. 99% of them were NEVER necessities. We are teaching our children that THINGS are so much more important than PEOPLE.
It seems there are a lot of guys on this board w/ wives who don't get it. I have the opposite issue. I WISH I could get my DH to SEE that THINGS are not what it's about....
It's nice to know that a lot of you had great childhoods with parents that cared for you. Not all of us did.
My husband and I both had parents very typical of those born in the late 40's and early 50's from our areas. Completely self centered. The world revolved around them because that's how it was when they were growing up. Our grandparents' worlds revolved around our parents and our parents just never wanted to give up on that practice for themselves. The kids did not come first.
Anyway, my best times were being with my grandparents, as a little kid playing kickball in the neighborhood and from about 3rd-4th grade on, playing softball. I had a glove that my grandfather bought me and that was it. No bat, no cleats, no sliding shorts, helmet, batting gloves, etc. Just my glove on the handle bar of my bicycle and that was it.
Rob - give your child the boxes from the toys for this year's gift and the toys next year. It's such a money saver and little ones just LOVE boxes - go figure. This always amazed me with my daughters when they were small...
Au contraire.... I had the most heinous father you could imagine. My Mom was a good Mom, but she did the best she could with what she had under the circumstances.
My point is, that no matter what - even if your parents were the worst - when we pull out our memories for a dust off, we remember something like kickball, or a teacher who made you a special birthday card, or something that did not involve a mega expensive item or vacation.
the summers stick out in my mind. playing in other kids yards, cutting the roses on the side of my house and selling them to the neighbors for candy money.
chasing behind the mosquito truck on our bikes. no wonder i twitch now, lol. waiting for the sound of the ice cream truck and running inside as fast as you could to ask for money, pleeeaaaaseeeeeee!
going to mirror lake beach club and taking the test in that gross lake to get your deep water badge. watching my dad playing volleyball and meeting friends i've had for life there.
we didn't have a lot of money but there were few things we needed. no phones, electronic games, ipods. we were lucky to have a transistor radio and the big treat was a phone line of your own and a princess phone.
wish times were as simple now as it was then.
YOU ARE RIGHT. My nephew is on his FOURTH IPOD. I asked what is wrong with the FIRST three? Nothing, but this one is newer faster cooler. Excuse my French - but F THAT. I'm not going down that road w/ my kids.
IMO I think we were just more creative as kids. I remember having cherry tomato fights in my grand fathers garden. (Did you ever get beamed with one,they really sting) We use to build forts that took days but felt so good when it was completed. We would build the biggest skate board ramps out of what ever we could find in the garage. We use to sell lemonade on the street corner in front of the post office and made lots of money. We use to go digging for clams down at the beach. Ah those were the days.
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ah the smell of DDT in the morning!
