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i don't know, but omg i am remembering gangs of us riding our bikes back and forth through the "mosquito man's" toxic cloud. We were as excited to see him coming as the ice cream man...."it's the mosquito man!!" wonder what damage we did to ourselves, and if that has anything to do with my forgetting what i've come into the room for now?:d
As I said, I'm the youngest of 3. As the smallest I learned early that you gotta fight for things at times. I was in a lot of fights in school (probably another reason I was sent to a residential program) Only thing is, I faced physical abuse by some of the people at the residential. Being abused can make a person angry. One time when I was 14 my Dad yelled at me for something or other; I yelled back. He got his belt and came at me. I screamed at him, "YOU GONNA DO MORE HARM TO ME? DON'T YOU THINK I'VE BEEN HURT ENOUGH???" He froze, then turned around. My own family was always good, but I'd been knocked around a few times by ppl who were supposed "caregivers". This is probably why I became a CPS worker. I hear about a child being abused, I will go through a wall to save him/her!
I have mixed feelings from my childhood. I was the youngest child, the youngest grandchild by far and obviously the youngest cousin and nephew as well. So I had an army of people available to take care of me.
My grandmothers doted on me and would spoil me rotten. They would play with my hair and sing me to sleep and made me every food I asked for. I remember not having any trouble at school and my grandfather taking me to the airport to watch the planes, which I liked. I also loved the days when I went swimming (since the age of 4) and I love water to this day.
I remember having to come up with a million ideas to keep myself entertained because there was no one else to play with me.
On the other hand, the domestic environment was terrible due to my parents marriage.
Remember before cars had AC and most grownups smoked? As the parentals flicked the ashes out the window, they would fly back onto us kids in the back seat. I also remember the metal ashtrays in cars which had a sharp clicking sound when you closed them.
Absolutely delicious.
They disappeared in the early 70s.
I tried to replicate brownie bars by ordering orange sherbet with chocolate jimmies
But no go.
I remember being able to play outside with all the neighborhood kids without my parents having to worry about us being abducted. We had a certain range that we could play within, and we ran around playing games until dusk when our parents called us in. There was no problem with overweight children back then. We got so much exercise that sometimes my mother would make us come in and read or play inside for an hour or so if it was very hot or we looked flushed from running around.
You know you still don't have to worry much about your children being abducted nowadays. It really is a rare thing, and it did actually happen sometimes back in the good ol days too. My neighborhood growing up was similar to your description...I remember there was a rumor of a guy in the neighborhood we were supposed to watch out for(the man in the blue van we called him - no confirmed sightings but many unconfirmed) but we were taught from a young age how to respond to strangers so nobody really worried. I live in a similar neighborhood now as well and I let my older child(7) run around the neighborhood with kids and come back at dusk and I don't really worry about abduction. It could happen, I'm not completely blind to the danger, but I don't think it's any more likely now than it was when I was growing up.
You know you still don't have to worry much about your children being abducted nowadays. It really is a rare thing, and it did actually happen sometimes back in the good ol days too. My neighborhood growing up was similar to your description...I remember there was a rumor of a guy in the neighborhood we were supposed to watch out for(the man in the blue van we called him - no confirmed sightings but many unconfirmed) but we were taught from a young age how to respond to strangers so nobody really worried. I live in a similar neighborhood now as well and I let my older child(7) run around the neighborhood with kids and come back at dusk and I don't really worry about abduction. It could happen, I'm not completely blind to the danger, but I don't think it's any more likely now than it was when I was growing up.
you may be right, due to technology, we probably hear about it more.
My most vivid memory from childhood would probably be the time period where it was the norm for me to come home and alternate playing Final Fantasy with my Dad. I remember he used to go through a 6 pack of Heineken every day after work, and I'd always have to give up the controller to run downstairs to get him another.
My most vivid memory from childhood would probably be the time period where it was the norm for me to come home and alternate playing Final Fantasy with my Dad. I remember he used to go through a 6 pack of Heineken every day after work, and I'd always have to give up the controller to run downstairs to get him another.
Fun times
A lotta beer.
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