# When my generation were young
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [March 20, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158 "2014-03-20T16:04:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2014, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/61 "2014-03-21T18:56:20Z")
> [@Leaffan](#):
>
> I was going to keep this list going and can’t even think of what to add!
We stayed out in bars until all hours, then drove home and no one thought twice about it!
---
### Author:  [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2014, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/62 "2014-03-21T20:13:25Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#):
>
> We stayed out in bars until all hours, then drove home and no one thought twice about it!
No.
**IvoryTowerDenizen** said “I wonder what glurgy lists this generation of kids will make up…”
That’s the list I was talking about continuing.
---
### Author:  [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2014, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/63 "2014-03-21T20:22:37Z")
> [@Bonner100](#):
>
> TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s!!
>
> First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
>
> They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.
>
> Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our stomachs in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
>
> We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to even mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
>
> As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.
>
> Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
>
> We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
>
> We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
>
> We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren’t overweight because, WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
>
> We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
>
> No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
>
> We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem ourselves, without employing a Management Consultant.
>
> We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD’s, no surround-sound or CD’s, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms…
> WE HAD FRIENDS and we actually went outside and found them!
>
> We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
>
> We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did NOT live in us forever.
>
> We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out very many eyes.
>
> We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
>
> Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team.
> Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
>
> The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
>
> These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
>
> The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
>
> If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS!
>
> You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.
Your post is the reason why I hate Facebook so much.
---
### Author:  [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2014, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/64 "2014-03-21T20:39:46Z")
Did you really have to recopy the whole damn thing, you could have just said “The OP is the reason why I hate Facebook so much.”.
---
### Author:  [@Find\_Friends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Find_Friends)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2014, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/65 "2014-03-21T20:40:36Z")
> [@Eutychus](#):
>
> Wow … that’s just a glurgey here as it is on the other 1056 websites it’s been pasted on.
Wow… It’s the first time I’ve come across it, but you’re right. It seems to be spammed all over the web.
---
### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/66 "2014-03-21T20:58:28Z")
we knew that “generation” is a singular noun and wouldn’t have been caught dead using “were” in that sentence.
On a mildly unrelated note, I have to wonder why we don’t get glurge-bombed here every damn day of the week. Maybe it’s our vigilant and heroic moderators, but it seems like this place could degenerate into some kind of cross between Facebook and [Snopes.com](http://Snopes.com)’s excellent glurge gallery, except posted in (apparent) earnest.
---
### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2014, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/67 "2014-03-21T21:00:41Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#):
>
> Did you really have to recopy the whole damn thing, you could have just said “The OP is the reason why I hate Facebook so much.”.
Yeah.
I actually flashed back to AOL: “Me too!” at the top of a huge chain of top-posted drivel and angst.
---
### Author:  [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2014, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/68 "2014-03-21T21:49:11Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#):
>
> > [@Ryan\_Liam](#):
> >
> > > [@Bonner100](#):
> > >
> > > TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s!!
> > >
> > > First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
> > >
> > > They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.
> > >
> > > Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our stomachs in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
> > >
> > > We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to even mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
> > >
> > > As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.
> > >
> > > Riding in the back of a pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
> > >
> > > We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
> > >
> > > We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
> > >
> > > We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren’t overweight because, WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
> > >
> > > We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
> > >
> > > No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
> > >
> > > We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem ourselves, without employing a Management Consultant.
> > >
> > > We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD’s, no surround-sound or CD’s, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms…
> > > WE HAD FRIENDS and we actually went outside and found them!
> > >
> > > We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
> > >
> > > We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did NOT live in us forever.
> > >
> > > We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out very many eyes.
> > >
> > > We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
> > >
> > > Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team.
> > > Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
> > >
> > > The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
> > >
> > > These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
> > >
> > > The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
> > >
> > > If YOU are one of them, CONGRATULATIONS!
> > >
> > > You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.
> >
> > Your post is the reason why I hate Facebook so much.
>
> Did you really have to recopy the whole damn thing, you could have just said “The OP is the reason why I hate Facebook so much.”.
+1
---
### Author:  [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)
#### Post date: [March 21, 2014, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/69 "2014-03-21T23:34:41Z")
Fark has a post re. Dad who accompanied his Daughter to _Spring Break_.
Yes, the one in Florida.
I think we have a new definition of “helicopter parent”.
At least the Philosophy PhD wrote her own bit of entitled demands. Will this twit write the same for his kids?
I live in an older suburb with schools for all ages in the immediate area. I know we have kids in the neighborhood because I see them coming home from school.
I rarely see them or hear them - the smaller ones seem to be allowed to ride their bikes a few doors down, but only if a parent is outside to monitor.
I have never heard a mother calling a kid to come home for dinner. Our moms had wonderfully-developed lungs.
---
### Author:  [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2014, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/70 "2014-03-22T00:18:30Z")
Earlier today I was directed to [this article](http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/03/hey-parents-leave-those-kids-alone/358631/) from The Atlantic about overprotected kids. It was one of the most interesting things I’ve read in a while.
---
### Author:  [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2014, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/71 "2014-03-22T00:48:23Z")
> [@monstro](#):
>
> Maia lives in a society where it’s cool for a girl to be a Game of Thrones geek that’s into roller derby and photography and science. She’s not the type who wants to hang out at the mall and go cruising for “boys”, like the “cool kids” used to do back in my day. She’s free to be herself in 2014…and so are the gay kids. For their sake, I would never go back to the 70s.
Amen, **monstro** , _THAT_ is inspiring.
---
### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2014, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/72 "2014-03-22T01:57:13Z")
“A lot of us guys in the 2010s took testosterone shots . . . and only some of us got heart attacks, strokes, or dropped dead from them.”
---
### Author:  [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2014, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/73 "2014-03-22T04:01:57Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#):
>
> It’s timeless. Now will always suck, and back then only gets better.
Nostalgia just ain’t what it used to be.
---
### Author:  [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)
#### Post date: [March 22, 2014, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/74 "2014-03-22T12:31:45Z")
This OP made exactly two posts and hasn’t been back since. I think we can assume that he/she’s no longer interested in fighting our ignorance, nor in having his/hers fought.
---
### Author:  [@scratch\_llll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch_llll)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2014, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/75 "2014-03-23T06:44:01Z")
Back in my day we commented on the OP status and nobody called us on it.
---
### Author:  [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2014, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/76 "2014-03-23T07:19:45Z")
Has anyone seen a hopscotch board in chalk? In the last 5 years?
When was the last wild tethered ball sighted in the US? How many lawyers were hovering over it?
Do girls still play with jacks? Jump rope?
I know marbles are all but extinct - how about baseballs?
Things change, but replacing a few close friends with a dozen(s) with whom you do little but exchange texts is probably not healthy.
Nor is obesity due to sitting on butt engrossed in yet another video screen.
On the plus side, I’ll be dead soon enough so I won’t be around to see the consequences of current trends.
---
### Author:  [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2014, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/77 "2014-03-23T07:41:16Z")
Has anyone seen a hopscotch board in chalk? In the last 5 years?
When was the last wild tethered ball sighted in the US? How many lawyers were hovering over it?
Do girls still play with jacks? Jump rope?
I know marbles are all but extinct - how about baseballs?
Things change, but replacing a few close friends with a dozen(s) with whom you do little but exchange texts is probably not healthy.
Nor is obesity due to sitting on butt engrossed in yet another video screen.
On the plus side, I’ll be dead soon enough so I won’t be around to see the consequences of current trends.
---
### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2014, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/78 "2014-03-23T08:05:19Z")
> [@usedtobe](#):
>
> Has anyone seen a hopscotch board in chalk? In the last 5 years?
Yes. They’re all over the school yard in the warmer months. I hop them whenever I see them, much to the embarrassment of my children.
> [@](#):
>
> When was the last wild tethered ball sighted in the US? How many lawyers were hovering over it?
Never seen one. Ever. I’ll be 40 in November. I think that one’s been gone for two generations now.
> [@](#):
>
> Do girls still play with jacks? Jump rope?
Yes and yes, but not as often as they engage in imaginative play and crafting/building play, at least among my daughter’s peer group.
> [@](#):
>
> I know marbles are all but extinct - how about baseballs?
My generation had nothing to to with marbles, either. Baseballs seem to be alive and well every time I walk in the park by me with half a dozen baseball fields, but hackey sacks, soccer balls and frisbees are more in favor at our kids’ schools because they keep 'em moving, not standing around waiting for something to happen.
Really, while things have changed, they haven’t changed quite as much as these glurge pieces would have one think. Just because you haven’t seen a hopscotch in years doesn’t mean they aren’t out there; it means we segregate children from non-parent adults just as much today as we ever did. I don’t think my father saw many hopscotch boards in his adult life, either. Today’s difference is that the parents of young kids are segregated on the children’s side of the divide instead of with all the other adults. Parents today are expected to share time with their children and to be their companions and playmates for many more hours out of the day than when my generation were kids.
---
### Author:  [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2014, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/79 "2014-03-23T11:54:36Z")
> [@Askthepizzaguy](#):
>
> You’ve had generations where they resolved conflicts by charging directly into machine gun fire over and over again, eventually learning that perhaps they should dig a hole to hide in, and not charge directly into the flying death projectiles. And that’s how we learned that imperialism was dead and people should govern themselves.
It was World War II that heralded the end of the Age of Imperialism, not World War I (which wasn’t nearly as much people blindly charging into machine-gun fire as popular culture would have you believe). The whole reason Imperialism worked (to paraphrase Hilair Belloc) was because Whitey had machine-guns and the fuzzy-wuzzies didn’t.
---
### Author:  [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2014, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/80 "2014-03-23T12:43:00Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#):
>
> I wonder what glurgy lists this generation of kids will make up…
When I was young, you know what? We’d play REAL video games, on a screen! None of this Virtual Reality goggle stuff. It was fenced in by a black border, and we were HAPPY!
And none of us had those Google glass things. When we got a text from a friend, we’d have to use our HANDS to pull the phone out of our pocket and wait for it to turn on so we could read the text! And that made us PATIENT and gave us one of the most creative, intelligent generations, dammit!
When we crashed our cars at 2am, the things didn’t go into reverse and steer us out of the way! Crashes build CHARACTER.
And don’t even start me on this ‘bottled air’ stuff. Pollutants, shmullutants.
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