When I read this story, written by someone else who is unknown, it brought back so many memories of my own childhood and teen years. Even the years that Roy and I were raising our two sons. Life wasn’t all sunshine and roses back then but it was so very different than what I see in many families these days. My heart grows sad when seeing how far families and some of our country have grown away from the life we enjoyed growing up.
I was raised during a time when most everyone treated each other with respect. We didn’t eat a lot of fast food because it was considered a treat, and not a basic food group. We drank Kool-Aid or iced Tea made from water that came from our kitchen tap. We ate bologna sandwiches and peanut butter sandwiches, but mostly we ate homemade meals consisting of meat, potatoes, beans, & vegetables.
We ate breakfast at the table before going to school.
We had no cable TV or remote control, Dad used Me as the remote. We had just a few channels that you had to manually turn a large knob on the TV to switch channels, no microwave, or cell phones. and no computers. We watched TV as a family. Gunsmoke, Gilligan’s Island, Wonderful World of Disney, Bonanza, Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, Little House on the Prairie and Love Boat.
After school, we came home and did homework and watched the Brady Bunch, did some chores and watched some cartoons, American Bandstand on Saturday morning, or listened to Casey Kasem’s American Top 40 on the radio.
Our fun was finishing chores and dinner so we could go outside to go to play with the neighborhood kids. We were inside at dark for bath and bedtime!
If we were bad in school, you got in trouble first there. When we got home, we got in trouble again (because your parents already knew). Paddling was allowed in school and you behaved yourself or else.
We LEARNED FROM our parents and grandparents instead of disrespecting them and treating them as if they knew nothing. What they said was the gospel. We were told to go play and we stayed out of our parent’s hair as we were told that children should be seen and not heard.
If someone had a fight, that’s what it was – a fistfight and you were back to being friends a few days later and the bullying pretty much ceased. Kids that were around guns were taught how to properly use them and to respect them and never thought of taking a life.
We ate around the dinner table and talked to each other as a family unit. We said the Pledge of Allegiance, stood for the National Anthem and we listened to our teachers.
We watched what we said around our elders because we knew If we DISRESPECTED any grown-up we would get our butts whipped. It wasn’t called abuse, it was called discipline!
We held open doors, carried groceries and gave up our seat without being asked. “Please, Thank you, Yes M’am and Yes, Sir” were part of our daily vocabulary!
We didn’t hear curse words on the radio in songs or TV, and if you cursed and got caught you had a bar of soap stuck in your mouth and had to stand in the corner for quite some time.
We grew up with good, God-loving families.
Life seemed easier with less stress when we were kids. It seems that we complicate life when we become adults.
Thank You to our parents for showing us how to adapt to change and take responsibility seriously.
Wouldn’t it be nice if it were possible to get back to this way of life? If this brought back cherished memories you are Blesssed!
Can I get an Amen? Getting back to these things with our families and friend can be part of what “Making American Great Again” is about.
Ya’ll have a Blessed Week!
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Some Things I Learned About Dementia
BECAUSE HE LIVES 