Under 40, You won't understand (kids, how to, check, school)

[Northwoods Voyager]

I have a box full of the War Rations books and unused stamps for various items. these came from my inlaw's farm. Not many unused tho'. I used to collect and use the green stamps. Many little things for our home came from using those stamps.

[brokencrayola]

Originally Posted by zonababe

Another thing I miss are "S & H Green Stamps" or "Plaid Stamps" The supermarkets would give you stamps along with your change. You'd affix the stamps into a special book they gave you. You could redeem merchandise with your books at a "stamp store". I think we bought lawn furniture. Sometimes the powder laundry detergents would contain a drinking glass inside the box. Also gas stations would give away glasses. As a kid I always asked for "Welches Grape Jelly" The empty jar had cartoon characters printed on them. I always liked "The Flintstones" glasses!

I used to collect S & H Green Stamps. I never got tons of them though. Small green stamps that you licked and put in your book. They then had a catalogue where you could get this or that for so many books of stamps (you had to pay the tax in cash). They had stamp stores, as mentioned, where you could go look at the things you could get and decide and bring your items home. I know I got a small red plaid throw blanket and I can't rmember the second item. It was fun though.

[Barbara McCondra]

Wow. At age 66 I know all that you speak of. Glad you told it to those who missed it.

Originally Posted by BrianG

Black and White (Under age 40? You
won't understand.) You could hardly
see for all the snow, Spread the rabbit ars as
far as they go.Pull a chair up to the TV set,
"Good Night, David.Good Night, Chet."
My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the
same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we
didn't seem to get food poisoning.
My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to
eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in
wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice-pack coolers, but I
can't remember getting e.coli. Almost all of us
would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a
pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.
The term cell phone would have conjured up a
phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.
We all took gym,not PE ... and risked
permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in
gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air
cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can't recall any
injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how
much safer we are now.
Flunking gym was not an option . even for stupid kids! I guess
PE must be much harder than gym.Speaking of school,we all said prayers and sang the
national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught
all sorts of negative attention.
We must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic
health system we had then Remember school nurses? Ours wore a
hat and every thing.I thought
that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed
to be proud of myself.I just
can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station,
Nintendo,X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations..
Oh yeah ... and where was the Benadryl and
sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been
killed! We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction
sites,and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle
of Mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting
like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked.
Now it's a trip to the emergency room,
followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and
then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a
horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.
We didn't act up at the neighbor's house
either because if we did, we got our butt spanked there and then
we got butt spanked again when we got home.
I recall my friend from next door coming over and doing his
tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off. Little did his Mom know that
she could have owned our house. Instead, she picked him up and
swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run
amuck.To top it off, not a
single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a
dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known that?
We needed to get into group therapy and anger
management classes? We were obviously so duped by so many
societal ills that we didn't even notice that the entire country
wasn't taking Prozac! How did we ever survive?
LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA, AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T;
I amSORRY FOR WHAT YOU MISSED. I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING.

simple pleasures are very often the best.

Author Unknown

[SifuPhil]

Excellent posts!

Getting up early on a Saturday to watch cartoons...walking across the street to my best friend's house to hang out all day doing nothing...spending an hour in the local store with only 25 cents in my pocket, trying to figure out all the things I could get...my father's Pontiac with the glowing Indian head hood ornament - we'd know it was him coming to pick us up at night...going to the outdoor mall in Yonkers, NY, spending a few hours walking from store to store in the rain...comic books that cost only 10 or 15 cents, unless it was a "special" issue and that was a quarter...building plastic models with Testor's glue...buying chemicals, glassware and preserved critters from the hobby shop to use in my basement "laboratory"...catching lightning bugs in Mason jars...HO-scale slot cars by Aurora...the only air conditioner in the house was in the "parlor", and rarely used...roller skates that clamped onto your PF Flyers...laughing and making great plans with friends in school, instead of plotting and fighting...girls were still a mystery.

[poconoproud]

I'm under 40...I don't understand!

[Mainer61]

We would take a quarter to the corner market and buy a popsicle (preferably purple or red), a soda and a bag of chips. Then we'd walk back and eat in our barn. We played outside until supper...then back out until dark. Red Rover, Tag, Hide and Seek, Giant Steps, Old Man Light My Pipe, Statues. After that, I'd have a bath and maybe some popcorn, and go to bed. Things have changed.

[SifuPhil]

Originally Posted by poconoproud

I'm under 40...I don't understand!

That's OK, dear - just go back to the kiddie's table and finish your num-nums.

[poconoproud]

I don't wanna go to the kiddie table! I'm almost 40! I'll be good, I swear!

[Mainer61]

Now, see, if you were over 40, you'd get a spanking for that little tantrum.

[SifuPhil]

Originally Posted by Mainer61

Now, see, if you were over 40, you'd get a spanking for that little tantrum.

Yeah - kids these days...*sigh*