How did so many of us make it to adulthood?

Just about everyone on our road when I was growing up was related to us. I remember many times getting in trouble with the cousins and getting a spanking at their house then getting another one when I got home for actually making someone else take the time to spank me to begin with!

As a result I grew up with a knowledge of right and wrong, respect for my elders/authority and a healthy fear of negative actions since they were connected to negative consequences.

But we were also allowed to b

I remember making house outlines with leaves, and packing brown bag lunches when walked to the park that had a creek with a swimming pond and none of us drowned.

Hi, ppl_cheryl63,

Not only were we tougher, we took responsibility for ourselves and our younger siblings.

If we ever got caught doing something we shouldn't, we would accept our punishment and keep quiet about it.

Why?

Because we knew our parents would be so disappointed in us that they would probably punish us even more for 'letting the family down' or simply because we must have deserved it.

When I look around at the children of today I sometimes ask myself "How can they possib

O gosh I remember we had this gutter system to catch rainwater. In the summer when we got really dirty we took baths outside in this big old washtub with rainwater and Octagon soap.

And apart from real food / i remember being allowed ALONE in the kitchen to make sticky toffee and Turkish delight!. That involved lots of boiling sugar / and boiling sugar is HOT. Then you had to drop a bit of it into th water and if it went hard / your toffee was ready to pour into a dish and set.

That, along with the live gas flame would surely not be allowed now and anyway / pure sugar sweets would be FROWNED UPON.

And off course we were sent to play OUTSIDE / along the river by the all

So just maybe, according to Arthur, we were just "tougher". I till remember us picking stuff up of the ground and popping into our mouths with a sassy "God made dirt and dirt don't hurt". We played on monkey bard and fell over several times. We would jump off moving swings. And there was nothing tastier that yanking a tomato straight off the vine and eating it right there.

I won't go into the watered down ketchup and syrup we used. You never through out a ketchup bottle with residue. Tha

I could not have said it better myself Cootsy.
Some of the things we ate... oh my.
If you were out tending garden, just forget washing vegetables before you ate them, we picked them and wiped the dirt off and ate em...a little crunch was not a big deal then.

simpler times-- but then we did not have all the pesticides and the like we do now either...just good healthy dirt. Crops were rotated and nothing went to waste, not even manure - ROFLOL!

You know,

It isn't just the things we played with and the things we did that todays' parents would look ascance at.

Have you ever thought about the food we ate?

My early childhood was spent in abject poverty but my mum could make a small joint of meat feed the family for the whole week.- nothing got wasted. (Remember, also, that our refrigerator, like most of them in those days, was a larder with a large concrete shelf to keep things cool.)

For a start, meals were padded out with sue

I remember rolling down the hill laughing the entire way until my sides would practically burst only to arrive at the bottom a complete dizzy mess and ready to go again.
We had a dog that would chase us down and jump on us at the bottom of the hill to lick our faces, I hated that, so my goal was to be able to hit bottom and get back up before he licked me - ugh! Dog slobber - ewww! But what fun!!!

Good point Fishie. Many parents today are looking for anything and anyone to take the kiddies off their hands. I still remember with the Strange Change Machine. until we could be trusted with it we had adult supervision.

oh and outside was much safer than being indoors - LOL

NO Kidding!!!

ahh the memories of traipsing through the woods in persuit of the elusive make-believe who-knows-what...chasing one another through the yard, just for the sheer pleasure of running! Finding any thing to bang around on the ground, sticks, stones, drawing in the dirt... ahhhh, yes, those were the days eh?

As for today, I think toys have become babysitters... when we were children our parents typically were right there with us either building and baking too or at least close enough

Oops! Typo! Big Wheel. My keys are just about rubbed clean of the letters but I love this keyboard am just being stubborn about replacing it.

That's funny Bout the garden LOL

I used wade thru my parents garden with my dog Lady I love peas but hated the shells So I would eat the peas and pass the shells to Lady Who would oblige me and eat them

The dog and I loved to that as well to the neighbourhood gardens as well We would share tomatoes, rau potatoes

Yup most healthy diets

What the heck is a bog Wheel

Wendy

My grandparent's house was built on the side of a big hill. I remember taking my Bog Wheel up to the top and just rolling down the hill.

I also remember our grape arbor and my granddad's garden. We would steal the grapes off the vine and eat them right there. Also stealing the cucumbers out of the garden when we wanted a snack. So not only did we have the imagination to play, we were much healthier in what we ate too.

Yup I remember the old pots and pans too LOL We also used to sneak Mom's big spoons to be used for making them yummy mud pies She used to get so mad cause every so often she would have to go buy news

Can also remember going sliding on cardboard boxes instead all the fancy stuff they have these days What a riot.

Do you recall the flying saucers. They were round and went the same way Round, round and round till you got to the bottom If the hill was really long man could you ever get some dizzy

I remember the standard phrase around the house was "Go outside and play." I remember all my grandmother's old pots and pans made some awesome mud pies. The cousins and I played ball or just ran around with no purpose. I even had an old non-running Mercury that was "my" car. I justed get in it and pretend to drive all over the place. I wrestled with my uncles wolf and rode our family dog like a horse (He was a Great Dane/Boxer mix). The point was I always could find something to do. Now k

You know what still stuns me is trying to get kids this day and age to go outside and play.

They get bored so fast. It is like they have no idea what to play.

What happened to all the kids games that we used to play even in winter time.

Such as Kick the can, tag, Red Rover, Simon Says, Duck duck goose, and list goes on.

They have no idea what the games are.

This summer we got together witha few neigbourhood adults (2 times a month) and played kids games. We had a blast and all kids though

No they don't. But I'm still trying to figure it out. I mean if you look at the rate of recall on toys today, It almost makes more sense to give them the box instead of the toy.

Oh how true it is

Can't believe all those dangerous survived us as well

How about those Easy bake ovens The ones with the light bulbs I am sure I heard a recall on them a while back cause some kid stuck arm in there and got severe burns.

I mean now really First off she is suppose to bake cookies and cake not arms.
How the heck did she get her arm in there in the first place.
Just utter foolishness if you ask me

Let's take it one step further.

I never in my life bought baby food They were