MEMORIES FOR THOSE OVER THE AGE OF 40 – UNDER 40 YOU WON’T UNDERSTAND
My mum used to cut chicken ,chop eggs and spread butter on bread on the same cutting board with the same knife, admittedly the board was washed after, but we didn’t seem to get food poisoning.
Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in pack coolers, but I can’t remember getting e,coli .
Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake or at the beach instead of a pristine pool.
We all took PE…and risked permanent injury with a pair of Dunlop sandshoes instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors that cost almost as much as a car. I can’t recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now.
We got the cane for doing something wrong at school, they used to call it discipline yet we all grew up to accept the rules and to honor and respect those older than us.
We had 50 kids in our class and we all learned to read and write, do maths and spell almost all the words needed to write a grammatically correct letter.
We all said prayers in school and sang the national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.
I thought I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself
I just can’t imagine how bored we were without computers,Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or digital TV cable stations….We were not.!!
Oh yes.. and where was the antibiotics 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 building sites (I used to play Cowboys and Indians ) and when we got hurt, mum pulled out the 2/6p bottle of iodine and then we got our backside spanked (I also got sent to my room ) Now its a trip to the emergency room, followed by a l0 day dose of antibiotics and then mum calls the lawyer to sue the contractor for leaving a vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.
How on earth did we ever survive.
LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA. I WOULDN’T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING
THEY WERE THE GOOD OLD DAYS !!!….Life’s most simple pleasures are very often the best.
Ritaroberts's Blog 
nutsfortreasure
December 12, 2013 at 1:44 pm
Your world was identical as mine. How I miss the simplicity one thing I am happy for is a computer or I never would have known you, lol I do wish children of the world were as we were though I am still well behaved 🙂 well for the most part 🙂 Have a great weekend Rita
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dorannrule
December 12, 2013 at 1:45 pm
You are perfectly right Rita. Those were definitely the good old days. We kids lived without fear and with a sense of adventure. We looked for fun and surprise around every corner. We were sent out to play all day and didn’t have to come home til we heard Mom/Mum call our names for dinner. No organized, parent supervised sports, no t.v. Ooops! I’m dating myself. Thanks for this lovely post. Dor
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Mark Hubbs
December 12, 2013 at 2:54 pm
The same for me in the American South. I’ll add a couple of things. If there was a bully who said unkind things, we took it in stride and were not “scarred for life” as seems to be the case today. Those who excelled were rewarded and those who neglected their studies did not get a “consulation hug” or some other thing to make them feel special. Lord forbid if someone self esteme is damaged. We were allowed to sing carrols and decorate trees and actually say proudly, out loud, that they were Christmas Trees.
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ritaroberts
December 13, 2013 at 1:08 pm
Hi Mark Thank you for further versions of How did we ever survive. There were certainly some bullies in those days.
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Trapper Gale
December 12, 2013 at 4:20 pm
By current standards, it’s amazing we survived, isn’t it? I remember being sent outside; told to come home when the sun went down. All the kids in the neighborhood played together – baseball, cowboys and indians, cops and robbers, hide and go seek – whatever we could imagine. Now, children sit inside glued to video games or the television for hours, eating fast food. Is it any wonder there is an “obesity epidemic”?
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ritaroberts
December 13, 2013 at 1:03 pm
Thanks I agree about the obesity. Thanks for your comments
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Stephen G. Hipperson
December 12, 2013 at 5:49 pm
And that dropped sweet definitely went somewhere other than the bin – (after a ritualistic wipe on the shirt of course!)
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ritaroberts
December 13, 2013 at 1:04 pm
Thanks for reading Stephen. I Like the bit about the sweet-so true.
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Ancientfoods
December 12, 2013 at 5:56 pm
Thank you, I agree by today’s standards we should have never made it, and yet I wouldn’t trade my childhood experiences for anything. I do like my computers but I find I miss the simplicity( when I was young I never thought I’d be saying that)! Thanks for the great post. A little dirt and a few bacteria made us strong.
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clairecatacouzinos
December 13, 2013 at 5:45 am
Hi Rita, I love reading your posts so I’ve nominated you for The Liebster Award for bloggers. You can check my nomination and how to participate in this award here:
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ritaroberts
December 14, 2013 at 12:05 pm
Thanks Claire, but I find these rules far too long can they be made more short and simple.?
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