[Hiram]

I remember when I was 18.... life was so simple back then....

Yep, and my computer looked like this.

[dennisnewark]

Mine @ 18.  They don't make joysticks like they used to.

[Hoogleboogle]

That mouse looks so ergonomically contoured.

[gOOber]

Many of us who were raised in the 1950s, '60s and '70s are survivors. We were tiny daredevils: sun-blasted, pocket-knife-carrying, bottom-spanked, cow eaters. We ran the streets armed with BB guns, boxing gloves and bottle rockets, wholly unprotected by bike helmets, sunscreen or Amber Alerts. Our houses were filled with the blue cigarette smoke of our hard liquor-**94** parents and we believed it wasn’t supper without a mountain of red meat.


[url][http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31670059/ns/health-kids_and_parenting//url]

[Palomine]

Many of us who were raised in the 1950s, '60s and '70s are survivors. We were tiny daredevils: sun-blasted, pocket-knife-carrying, bottom-spanked, cow eaters. We ran the streets armed with BB guns, boxing gloves and bottle rockets, wholly unprotected by bike helmets, sunscreen or Amber Alerts. Our houses were filled with the blue cigarette smoke of our hard liquor-**94** parents and we believed it wasn’t supper without a mountain of red meat.


[url][http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31670059/ns/health-kids_and_parenting//url]

True enough. As a k1d, I was such a fan of fireworks that frankly it's a miracle that I still have all my fingers.

[pedonbio]

Many of us who were raised in the 1950s, '60s and '70s are survivors. We were tiny daredevils: sun-blasted, pocket-knife-carrying, bottom-spanked, cow eaters. We ran the streets armed with BB guns, boxing gloves and bottle rockets, wholly unprotected by bike helmets, sunscreen or Amber Alerts. Our houses were filled with the blue cigarette smoke of our hard liquor-**94** parents and we believed it wasn’t supper without a mountain of red meat.


[url][http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31670059/ns/health-kids_and_parenting//url]

You know, gOOber, it is very, very common for people to say that someone "ran around like a chicken with its head cut off." I know what that looks like, and I'd bet a dollar you do, too. I also bet if you asked your average school class if anyone has seen a chicken's head cut off, you wouldn't see many hands.

[gOOber]

You know, gOOber, it is very, very common for people to say that someone "ran around like a chicken with its head cut off." I know what that looks like, and I'd bet a dollar you do, too. I also bet if you asked your average school class if anyone has seen a chicken's head cut off, you wouldn't see many hands.

Yep, when I wuz a youngun, our chicken meat wuz alive when we bought it.

[Hiram]

Yep, when I wuz a youngun, our chicken meat wuz alive when we bought it.

And you were some of the lucky ones! In our house all we had to eat was dead squirrel.

Ah, but they were good times...

Kids today don't know they're born.

[Hiram]

Many of us who were raised in the 1950s, '60s and '70s are survivors. We were tiny daredevils: sun-blasted, pocket-knife-carrying, bottom-spanked, cow eaters. We ran the streets armed with BB guns, boxing gloves and bottle rockets, wholly unprotected by bike helmets, sunscreen or Amber Alerts. Our houses were filled with the blue cigarette smoke of our hard liquor-**94** parents and we believed it wasn’t supper without a mountain of red meat.

You're making me feel nostalgic.

[gOOber]

True enough. As a k1d, I was such a fan of fireworks that frankly it's a miracle that I still have all my fingers.

I used to put a firecracker in a spent 30-30 shell and hold it as the firecracker went off.

[SwitcherX]

from the link Goober posted:

And Tim Palla, a 46-year-old pastor, spent his childhood just north of Pittsburgh where he got just one vaccination, gobbled wild berries and mushrooms, drank from the ditch, and chewed road tar like gum.

Bad idea, man, bad idea.  I say that from personal experience. 

[rtpoe]

We were all busy learning that the World Can Hurt You.

Lose a finger once to a firecracker, and you won't lose another one.

Seriously, we learned to deal with the little pains and hurts and boo-boos that playing outside unsupervised and without safety equipment would get you. Today, we've got "helicopter parents" who hover over their little darlings and charge in to attack whenever Precious doesn't get what they "deserve", because they are "Special!!!" and college grads who believe that their boss should thank them personally just because they showed up for work.

[solvegas]

I hear todays k1ds are not allowed to play dodge ball, teetertoters, swings and all the playground stuff of my youth. They might get hurt. Well, how else are you going to learn if you don't fuck up once in a while ? Life ain't easy. The sooner you learn this fact the better.

[Zorro]

Many of us who were raised in the 1950s, '60s and '70s are survivors. We were tiny daredevils: sun-blasted, pocket-knife-carrying, bottom-spanked, cow eaters. We ran the streets armed with BB guns, boxing gloves and bottle rockets, wholly unprotected by bike helmets, sunscreen or Amber Alerts. Our houses were filled with the blue cigarette smoke of our hard liquor-**94** parents and we believed it wasn’t supper without a mountain of red meat.


[url][http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31670059/ns/health-kids_and_parenting//url]

My mom would send me to "Helen's", which was a neighborhood convenience store, to buy her a pack of cigarettes. She would give me like a quarter to get myself some candy and a coke too. Of course at that time both of my parents smoked so it wasn't too long that I started picking up the habit. Why? Well in the late 50's all the cool older guys smoked!

I would go out in the morning and be told to go out and play. Sometimes I wouldn't be back home for hours. Later on when I started running the streets of Pittsburgh was the only times they started to worry. Especially when I started earning by being a thief and conning people out of their money.

Then at age 12 we moved out of Pittsburgh.

Now we are in to the 60's. Which at the beginning of that decade it was just an extension of the 50's but now we were in a rural area. No more city streets either.

I think of those times now and then and wonder what it would be like if kids the same things I did back then. Their parents would be wrecks and/or terrified.

[gOOber]

It may sound crazy, but in the old days a fella had to be 18 to get his hands on prurient materials — either that or have an easily bribable older brother. Or a friend with such a brother. Or a dad with an obvious stash. Not that I know anything about such matters.