LUVTruck.com

Black and White
(Under age 40? You won't understand.)

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 ice-pack 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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FIAA: Color Guard

''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."

Yep as I recall our mother referred to this as "Monkey Blood" stopped us immediately from crying or acting scared or milking the attention from the incident....I think her Idea was brilliant. We thought it was cool. If we got hurt go get Mom she'll put monkey blood on it. However back a couple of hundred years ago she would've been burned at the stake for being a witch.

I can also remember (just barely) but my great grandfather using his mule and plow. Showing me how to dig potatoes up, selecting the corn that was ready to be picked, milking cows and goats.....then loading up stuff he grew in the truck then going and sitting all day on the side of the road selling it for his and my grandmothers living. That farm was down in Brazoria Tx. (Kids today think milk comes from the store)

Your right we didn't have Video Games then, I spent time on that farm learning how to shoot a rifle. Coaxing crawdad's out of they're holes with a piece of string with bacon tied to it. And got real good at it too. lol

You could look into the front door of that old house (with no A/C, but just 2 box fans) and see straight through it and right out the back door without even taking one step inside. Yep now my youngest brother, well I think some of his first memories are "Masters of the Unviverse" Pac Man and The Empire Stirkes back"etc. etc.

Dang this thread made me stop what I was doing and take a stroll down memory lane.....lol

those were the good times there, not a care in the world. now a day i wouldn't let my children do what i use to do, leave the house in the morning to go and run in the woods all day and come home when the street light was coming on. a much simpler time but it was not that long ago.

Hey now Iam only 29 but I still remember a COUPLE of those!!

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Money can't buy happiness, but it can buy horsepower...and that's kind of the same thing...

Yep...and we road our bikes with no protective gear or training wheels...you just learned the hard way not to fall off.

Roller skates were metal and clamped to your regular shoes...and a skateboard was an old board with your skates nailed to it.

And padding was what flat-chest skinny girls did to their bras with toilet tissue....lol

If two guys ever got in a beef about something...they just went behind the gym after school and duked it out. And if either one pulled a weapon, the whole damn crowd that was surrounding them would have kicked the living crap out of him for being such a low-life.

The boys couldn't wear a shirt without a collar, or have any facial hair or their hair too long at school, short pants weren't allowed, and they had to have street shoes and socks on at all times except in Gym class. (Anybody here besides me remember "wing-tips"?)

Girls had to wear long dresses or skirts, couldn't wear pants, and had to wear dark colored blouses with mandatory bras, and sensible street shoes. (Anybody besides me here remember "poodle skirts" and "saddle shoes"?)

Cussing resulted in your mother washing your mouth out with a bar of soap...and my grandmother used to make us go cut our own switch from her old weeping willow tree....lol

Acting up while traveling in the car got your mom to reach back and slap you senseless while she was driving down the road...and we rode around with out seat belts or sometimes in the open back of a pickup truck...even on the freeway.

And you never spoke in class without raising your hand, and if you got out of line...you got swats from the teacher or the principal, and then got your butt spanked when you got home.

Parents of the other kids and any other adult were always called mister, missus, or miss...and please, thank you, yes ma'am, yes sir was absolutely required.

You always washed up and combed your hair before sitting down at the table, elbows weren't allowed on the table, and "please pass the...." and "thank you" was how you got anything to eat. Violating those rules of etiquette or chewing with your mouth open, eating with your fingers, or not cleaning up your plate would have quickly got your Dad's belt wrapped around your butt.

Play time was always after chores and homework was done and you had changed out of your school clothes...and you had better be on your own porch before the street lights were on.

Hide and Seek, Kick The Can, or Tag were the boy games...and girls all played Hopscotch or Jumprope.

Yep - those were simpler times indeed...

Mom had this snap her fingers, and you better quit. Ever get whacked on your butt or leg with a wet dish rag? It would get the point across. God forbid if you messed up and had to wait for Dad to get home and bust your butt.

I missed picking cotton. My brother in law, 10 years older didn't. No a/c for us either. Box fans in the windows was our cooling.

Doctor told my MIL kids need to eat a little dirt. Kind of like a chicken needs it.You did get your butt whipped in the store. No one had to worry about CPS coming after anyone.

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75 Luv, 350 V8, TH350, Camaro rearend. New 1975 Luv Step side. Stock for now.
Grandmaster of the "Shade Tree" way.. I can't see the yard for all the cars. Come on down and we will sit on the porch and watch the grass grow.

My sisters and I would put the back seats down, ( the rear was the backwards one) in my mom's '69 Chevy Caprice station wagon, and roll all around when mom or dad would make turns or stop and go at lights.

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OK, I'm over it. Where's the beer?

Not to mention the long trips my brother and I spent riding in the rear window dash.

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FIAA: Color Guard

Cool post. I'm 32, but can relate to some of those things.

Here in CA, they stopped letting people ride in the back of a pickup in 1994.

Yes I remember life before computers, nintendos, and cell phones. =)

Can you remember before VCR's? What about 8 track players guys? And the 45's I had an 8 track player in my 63 Chevy PU in high school. And a "Am Radio" before that.

Then I heard about the 8 track/Cassette adapter and couldn't wait to get one. Man that was high tech stuff when that came out. Now my car stereo's face will detach and plug into my laptop and hold 1 gig of music. I don't even have to carry my CD'S around anymore Next thing you know they'll be beaming us up somewhere.

And I agree this did turn out to be a cool topic!!!! Good

Mom and Dad taking the kids to the drive in movie. We had to get the pj's on first. I guess we didn't make it through the movie. No ratings then. Some of the movies were in Black & White too.

Folks could leave us at the movie theater for a movie. Give us pocket money and money to call home when the movie was over.

Putt Putt golf, trampoline's, pool tables and pinball games all at one place. We could stay most of Saturday there.

No took anyone from any of those places. All your friends and older brotherr friends would kick their ass. Just too many of us.

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75 Luv, 350 V8, TH350, Camaro rearend. New 1975 Luv Step side. Stock for now.
Grandmaster of the "Shade Tree" way.. I can't see the yard for all the cars. Come on down and we will sit on the porch and watch the grass grow.

We had one of the BETA players right before VCRs. My grand parents had 8 Tracks in their cars. I though they were Atari catridges. LOL

I think that records are better than 8 tracks & Cassete tapes. =)
When sold new, did Luv's come with 8 Tracks?

A few more...

Radio Shack had THE computer for the masses ... TRS80

SSP cars ... rip-cord cars that would burn your fingers like a mother if you grabbed it wrong after pulling the cord. The masters could rip, drop and beat you without so much as a yelp.

Gumby & Pokey, Bugs & Daffy, Hall of Justice, Banana Splits, HR Puff'n Stuff, and an invisible Snuffle-up-a-gus on Sesame Street...

Cox Radio controlled anything...

Toughskins...

Batting Cages...

Sneaking out of bed on Saturday night to see why the adults were all so excited about that new Saturday Night Live show...

Witnessing the FIRST video on the (then) outrageously cool MTv, and VHS'ing and trading episode's of HeadBanger's ball ...

Inventing BMX racing with a clapped out Schwinn Stingray ...

Gas powered, chain drive, mini-bikes with a clutch that would usually catch your pants, and an exhaust that would leave war wounds on your bare legs...

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"If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves" - Thomas Edison

My my best friend had a 4 track player. I still have a old home stereo that has a 8-track player in it.

We would try to pull in W.L.S. Ch'cog' go. AM carried a lot farther than FM. We would get the AM radio skip at night. Took a couple of fine tuning fingers on the knob.

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75 Luv, 350 V8, TH350, Camaro rearend. New 1975 Luv Step side. Stock for now.
Grandmaster of the "Shade Tree" way.. I can't see the yard for all the cars. Come on down and we will sit on the porch and watch the grass grow.