Post for old farts (if under 35 do not read)

[roy_miami]

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This post is dumb, I did most of this stuff and I'm 23, get over yourselves.

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I'm sure kids today do this stuff too. Its just they do it for an hour every 3 weeks instead of 8 hours everyday.

All of the popular watering holes from when I was a kid are virtual ghost towns today. We organized some kind of a pick up road-hockey/baseball/basketball game almost everyday. Thats a rarity these days. As for Halloween-my windows haven't been soaped in years.

Anybody else pick strawberries as a kid? I got 15 cents a box. I quit to pick blueberries for 25 cents box. I wasn't the brightest kid in the world...

[bottomset]

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I currently coach soccer (Rec league Youth Soccer), Here are the current rules for u-16 on down

1) You have to have practice twice a week.
2) Players have to play in the Saturday game, whether they came to practice or not.
3) All kids must play the same amount over the course of the season
4) All kids must play all positions (at least once)

I do more paper work than coaching, trying to get all kids to play all position and heaven for bid, if Johnny plays 1 more period than Jimmy, at the end of the year. So much for trying to coach strategy, or playing a kid in a position that he likes to play and is comfortable in that position. Drives me nuts

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wow

that sucks

[Blarg]

I picked mangos and sold them by the side of the road.

Agreed that doing something once in a while, like leaving the house, isn't the same as having everyone's lifestyle be pretty much outdoors, especially during the summer.

This applies to adults, too. Things like sports leagues and community clubs and associations used to be much more popular than they are these days. And, so did just getting off your butt and leaving the house. Even if you did have kids. Heck, you dragged 'em along with.

[BigSoonerFan]

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We used to ride to little league games, the grocery store, etc. in the bed of the pickup truck. If We Were Good! Riding in the front was a punishment. We used to sit in folding chairs back there sometimes.

If you were playing at the neighbor's house and got caught misbehaving, the neighbor's dad would slug you. No questions asked.

Pocket knives in school and guns on a rack in the parking lot were pretty commonplace. It was part of life in the country. I carried a small knife everywhere until I had to get rid of it at an airport after 9/11.

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Yeah, we're all a bunch of sissies now. I happen to have known:

(1) A kid who died falling off the back of a pickup truck.
(2) A kid who had his arm torn off when he dangled it out the window and the car turned over. ( A few years ago someone in town died when they hung their arm out the window, drove too close to the median wall and was pulled out of the car and crushed)

There are reasons we're paranoid about things these days. I try to be "cautious" with my kids, but without them knowing most of the time.

[Blarg]

I definitely don't remember anyone ever encouraging their kids to dangle their arms out the window. Then again, I've seen it done a thousand times and never seen harm come from it.

[dvsfun1]

I come from waaaay back. 1949.
Some of my favorite memories:

Going to the bay beaches.The parents would turn us loose with about 100 other kids while they drank and played the slots. Back then it wasn't unusual for the adults to send the kids to the bar to buy the beer and we'd get to keep one for ourselves.
We were like 7 or 8. There was an all night joint where everyone went; and left the kids out in the car till about 4 am. As soon as they were out of sight, we'd all come out and play.
We spent most of our time in the woods, digging caves, sitting 40 ft up a tree, or playing on the railroad trestle.
Sometimes when we were bored, we'd climb up on a phone pole and walk the cables for miles.

Somewhere around '61 we got this brainstorm to nail half a metal roller skate to each end of a piece of two by four. We didn't have helmets,pads or any of that stuff. Hell, you couldn't even steer the damn thing.
Parents wouldn't see us for 10-12 hrs at a time and didn't have a cow over it.
I don't remember much trouble, but if there ever was any, you could count on anybody, adults if necessary, stepping in and kicking ass. That's the way things were done.
And , yes, there were just as many perverts out there then as there are now; but we had common sense. If we were hit on, we would just deal with it and get over it.

[TheDudeAbides]

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I come from waaaay back. 1949.
Some of my favorite memories:

Going to the bay beaches.The parents would turn us loose with about 100 other kids while they drank and played the slots. Back then it wasn't unusual for the adults to send the kids to the bar to buy the beer and we'd get to keep one for ourselves.
We were like 7 or 8. There was an all night joint where everyone went; and left the kids out in the car till about 4 am. As soon as they were out of sight, we'd all come out and play.
We spent most of our time in the woods, digging caves, sitting 40 ft up a tree, or playing on the railroad trestle.
Sometimes when we were bored, we'd climb up on a phone pole and walk the cables for miles.

Somewhere around '61 we got this brainstorm to nail half a metal roller skate to each end of a piece of two by four. We didn't have helmets,pads or any of that stuff. Hell, you couldn't even steer the damn thing.
Parents wouldn't see us for 10-12 hrs at a time and didn't have a cow over it.
I don't remember much trouble, but if there ever was any, you could count on anybody, adults if necessary, stepping in and kicking ass. That's the way things were done.
And , yes, there were just as many perverts out there then as there are now; but we had common sense. If we were hit on, we would just deal with it and get over it.

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You should post more often. That was a really good read.

[Blarg]

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I don't remember much trouble, but if there ever was any, you could count on anybody, adults if necessary, stepping in and kicking ass. That's the way things were done.


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Yup, no need for lawyers. People handled their kids and handled their problems, without the need for the intervention of the law or any of its costly babysitters. And if kids messed up, their parents didn't try to turn it around and make them the victim or find someone who could help them make a buck out of it. Standards for behavior actually existed; they're pretty much a complete joke now. You just do whatever you think you can get away with, don't give a crap what your kids do or take any blame for it, and let the lawyers figure it out. Both kids and parents are pussies.