Rhonda, I LOVE Wolfman Jack!!!!

WOW!! I do remember out houses and screen doors and playing outside way after dark with oodles of neighborhood kids and growing up with music all around!! I had a swing in a huge oak tree, I made mud pies (and ate some!!) We got one of those AWFUL silver trees and the whole family revolted til Daddy got us another real tree! I remember my Mom asking us kids in September to start making a list for Christmas gifts we wanted. With 7 kids she and Dadddy had to plan ahead. I got a "walking doll" dishes, a nurses kit and a cowboy rig one year!! I have had kids ask me Where do the batteries go? and What does this do? when they see some old fashioned toys . I always tell them there were no batteries and the toy would do anything you imagined it would do!! My own kids always want to hear stories about when I was young (when dinosaurs roamed the earth!!) When I was 7 and 8 years old my dad would take me to my grand mothers house to spend Saturday. She was totally blind, heated her house with an open coal fire and lived in town. I was completely safe because I was raised to respect my grand mother . I asked if I could go ANYWHERE and if I was just gonna play in her yard I knew to let her know that and to come in every so often just to remind her so she would not worry about me!!! I walked to the store played in the woods, and walked home from friends house at 11 as a teenager and was safe!! I could go on and on(and already have) Today is an entirely different world!!

Gosh I wanted so bad to wear pants in the winter!

Alu_Rathbone,
I'm proud of you for getting your GED. I was 33 yrs. old when I got mine but I was fortunate enough to get a good job at 23, where I worked for almost 20 years and also got a couple promotions.
My suggestion would be to write your congressmen and tell them what you've told us. They need to hear your story and those like yours.
Education needs to change. Students need to be taught according to how they learn, it's not a one size fits all. And without a smaller student to teacher ratio it's not going to happen. I can't imagine being a teacher in this day and age, or a student for that matter.
You would make a wonderful teacher having experienced what you have. I hope you are able to follow your dreams and make them come true.
~Deb~

Thank you for sharing that website. I LOVE it!!!

That is something that everyone is trying to change around here, is the classroom size... My brother in laws sister is a bilingual teacher in Chicago, and they are laying on teachers... it's a state wide problem though. We have a campaign going on about it... I went to school with our Town Presidents kids (same as mayor) and he did what he could. I know the year before I left they had started replacing text books, by order of the state. But they still use the old ones since they didn't get enough books... which is sad. More and more parents are getting upset, and the schools drop out rate is at an all time high.

As soon as I found out I recieved my GED I started to apply to college, for me its a priority! lol

I remember when my mom married my step dad Jorge, and we had the wedding reception in our small yard. It was a great party.

Sure do remember most of the things mentioned here, such as Kukla, Fran and Ollie on TV. The TV screen was round. and yes, I also remember the plastic sheet used over the screen. Sometimes the sky was green and the grass was brown but it was exciting. Does anyone remember tablecloths on the kitchen table ? Does anyone still iron ? I think the floodgates have been opened. Nice to dream about our childhood once in awhile.

yep things have sure changed. God bless. Penny

I was born in the 60's and never did I ever feel stressed, ashamed or without, growing up. Life was fun. We always went on family vacations, watched lots of television together, my dad would take my sister and I to the drive-in and we would watch all the Planet of the Ape movies together. We were even allowed to ride in the trunk of the car to the grocery store. My dad was the coolest dad around everyone loved him he was really fun. I so miss those days. I hate that our children haven't been able to experience the life that we had. So much has changed. Sad isn't it?

very sad....what i am so sorry about is the fact that i never spent more time with my 4 grandparents. they had so much to teach us young people. i have a snapshot of my mother in her gymsuit, hilarius. she was born in 1916. fancy that !a lot of people never knew their grands. my husband for one. didn't even remember much about his father who passed at an early age. my husband was 6 yrs. at the time. he was one of 12 children. we were married in 1955 when life was so different. didn't appreciate that at the time. bye for now, lots to do today. boiling water for one thing. a ten foot water pipe burst about 10miles from here and now the water is contaminated...the same time we had our first really hot day and i had company for a BBQ. it is what it is !!

I am very fortunate to have known my grandparents the way I know them. My youngest sister does not know my dads parents at all. They are now in a home, but that is due to being in their 80's, Grandpa has a hard time walking and he fell and hit his head, my grandmother had a couple of strokes and she is not in the right mind at all. She was the kind of woman who did not swear and now she just sits there with her head bent muttering profanities. She doesn't remember who anyone is.

My moms parents were great too. My Grandfather is still alive (well mom's adoptive father, since hers skipped out when she was so young) and my grandmother passed away in 2003. I was really the only grandchild to get to know both sets.

I remember my grandmother watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune every day. I remember watching the Honeymooners reruns with her too.

My dads mom loved to watch the home shopping network, and I was able to get her into Everybody Loves Raymond. She said that Marie reminded her of herself.

My moms dad would work out in the Garden and he was the one who chopped down our cherry tree to make way for my swing set, since he decided that it should be the center point of the back yard. HE had that right, since I think it was he and grandma that bought it for me.

My dads father used to take me to the nature museum, this walking trail called Graw Mill, which used to be a family farm. We used to go to the movies all the time. I remember that he would play Hank Williams and Kenny Rogers. And he would tell me stories about Black Bart. And even though I never heard anything about WWII he did tell me that he was in the Navy in 1944 and I have the photo to prove it.

I really really miss all that! IF it wasn't for my grandparents I probably wouldn't be who I am today. I like things that a lot of kids today do not. I have an appreciation for different cultures, one of my favorites being India (minus all the bad stuff, but every group of people has a bad side) which I plan on visiting in January of 2012 with my school. I listen to old music and new music and I have an absolute love for world music.

I remember that whenever you talked to adults it was always "Yes Mam..No Mam.. Yes Sir..No Sir. You sure don't hear much of that anymore. It's usually a grunt or huhn if you're even acknowledged. One of my favorite memories is all of us neighborhood kids ( 10 to 15 of us) walking 10 miles to a little ice cream store. The biggest decision was ...do I want two single cones for a nickel each or one large cone for a dime. We usually opted for the two cones, eating one in the store and the other on the walk home. We had to eat that last one fast before it melted.

And no A/C. We used those palm fans with the bible verses on them.

Yet another memory of melting the flyswatter on top of the coal stove in the living room thinking we were getting away from being punished. HA!!! My mother would make us go outside and break off a switch from that huge maple tree in the front yard. If she didn't like what we brought in....SHE got her own. We soon learned!!!!

No hair dryers!! My sister and I had hair down past our waists and every Saturday morning in good weather we got our hair washed and just sat on the front steps until it was dry. In cold weather we stood over the floor furnace.

What great memories. It made my day reading all of them. I remember going sledding with my mom's metal pie tins but we had to remember to bring them back. haha and even now and then using a old coal shovel. Which did make for a great sled.

I remember when my father would pile all the snow in the front yard making a "mountain" of snow and my brothers and I would jump into it from the porch railing. FUN !!! Does anyone remember "ration coupons that came in books ". One for milk, one for potatos, one for sugar, etc. Must have been around 1944 or 1945......wooden sleds.....quart glass milk bottles...we got McAdams milk. or the "pony boy" ice cream wagon....got many a splinter from the wood on back of the wagon.

forgot to mention that the cream was on top of the milk. my grandmother saved it for her cereal.

Me too...that was always one of my favorites!! :-(

Ditter

I remember those times well....sigh

Ditter

I remember actually sleeping in our porch swing one night because it was so hot in the upstairs bedrooms.I think I was about 12 or 13......

Ditter

Hmmm Marsye - old fashioned values and you've got that cigarette in your mouth? :lol:

Did anyone rake leaves in the fall. And when they were in the ditch, put some potatoes and lit the leaves? Then, when the fire went out, we would eat the potatoes!

I remember my parents telling me about the rations books. I remember having to shop at certain stores where they gave "green stamps" as a promotion. They could be redemed for usefull household items.

I think about doing that all the time...

That's I was thinking!

Gosh yes, I remember those days too. When in junior high and high school you wore skirts or dresses and you had to wear socks or stockings! I walked to junior high, it was nearly two miles as we didn't fit the mileage for a bus.

I remember getting my first pair of stockings in 8th grade and could wear them to church only! And yes dresses/skirts were the dress for church always!

Going out on a date was a big thing, what to wear, how to fix hair, nails polished and perfume (toilet water really )

Those were the good ole days!

I remember green stamp books and yellow stamp books.. got the stamps from grocery shopping and then turned the books in when full to buy something with them! was a great bargin back then!

Does anyone remember "ration coupons that came in books ". One for milk, one for potatos, one for sugar, etc. Must have been around 1944 or 1945......[/quote]

When my mother passed away in 1985 we found some of those ration books tucked back in a corner of her bureau.