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Opinionated Ranter - The Adventures of Being Awesome...

 
I am but a man trying to live the dream. This is how I see the world...

YESTERDAY

I received this in my mail this morning. It sure is worth a read. Enjoy.

Black and White
You could hardly see for all the snow,

Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go.

Pull a chair up to the TV set,

"Good Night, David. Good Night, Chet."

My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in icepack coolers, but I can't remember getting e.coli


Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.

The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.

We all took gym, not PE.. and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in gym)
instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now.

Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.

We must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.


I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.

Oh yeah... and where was the Benadryl 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 construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of Mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked.

Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.

We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either because if we did, we got our butt spanked there and then we got butt spanked again when we got home.

I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off. Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house. Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck.

To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known that?

We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac! How did we ever survive?

LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA, AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T- SORRY FOR WHAT YOU MISSED. I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING

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Comments
10 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]
1. August 3rd 2007 @ 14:47. S.L. Bradish Says:
That really tells it like it is, Youranter! I remember those days very well. People were responsible for their own behavior, even kids! Excuses were a waste of time. Lessons in life abounded and we weren't protected from them. Getting an award was something special and earned, not just handed out for reasons of creating "self esteem." Do I miss those days? Hell yes! Can we ever get back to them? I doubt it... dammitt...
2. August 3rd 2007 @ 19:24. youranter Says:
We'll never see them again, SL. Society has become too liberalized to make people take responsibility for their own actions.
3. August 3rd 2007 @ 20:29. S.L. Bradish Says:
The "scapre goat" world we live in these days is a pain in the "everywhere", isn't it? The famous "buck" doesn't seem to stop anywhere... least of all in the governments! Whwere's Harry Truman when you need him??
4. August 3rd 2007 @ 22:57. D. Armenta Says:
Loved this one, Ranter.

With the exception of my Mum never spreading mayonnaise on the cutting board [ ; D ] that was my childhood too.

What I want to know is, how could our generation--who never treated a cut or scrape or bug bite or sting (I still don't) drank gallons of water right out of the garden hose, and viewed helmets as something only total wussies would wear--how could our generation raise such a generation of --well, total wussies? It's our fault!

Well, it's not my fault 'cause I never wanted kids. Had I had kids, I would have raised them as I was raised. I'd also probably have been arrested by now for child endangerment.

What happened in the translation there? Anyone know?
5. August 4th 2007 @ 07:10. youranter Says:
I'm not sure, SL, but we sure could use someone to stand up and say, "Oh shit! That's my fault. Let me make it right." instead of, " If I sue enough people, I'll get money from one of them anyway."
6. August 4th 2007 @ 07:15. youranter Says:
Yeah, D., those were the days I remember too. I have to shake my head today when I see people having to go for parenting classes, parents giving their kids a 'time out' instead of a smack on the ass, teachers being unable to discipline their students, etc., etc., etc. How we ever survived without all the modern 'goodies' still baffles me, but at least we took responsibility for our actions and learned some respect along the way.
7. August 4th 2007 @ 19:36. Nickoftime's Sanity Corner Says:
Ranter,

ahhh, these were the good old days eh? Our school nurse wore the entire outfit too, hat, white shoes and everything...

LOL

But looking back, (way back for me lol) I can't remember any of us kids getting e-coli or ptomaine or botulism on any occasion...

If young people today saw the way our parents used to prepare a Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey back then, they would all have heart attacks!

*Snicker*

Great trip down Memory Lane buddy...

Take care my friend,

Nick
8. August 5th 2007 @ 10:55. youranter Says:
We always had goose for Christmas, but it was stuffed just the way a turkey is. And when dinner was over, the leftovers went in the fridge with the stuffing still inside the goose. My family and every other family I knew did the same thing and we all survived. You're absolutely right Nick, the kids of today would be horrified at the way we lived. Glad you enjoyed this one. It's nice to remember once in a while, isn't it?
9. August 11th 2007 @ 22:57. Nickoftime's Sanity Corner Says:
Ranter,

they ARE horrified at the way we lived!

Lmfao!

But then, lots of people choke to death every year eatin granola too, so go figure...

*Snicker*

Take care,

Nick
10. August 12th 2007 @ 11:26. youranter Says:
Nick, isn't granola cattle feed without the transfats? I'll stick to caramel corn and give the viewing audience a heart attack every time I have a mouthful, lol.
Thanks for commenting, buddy.

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