# 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:** 18
**Page:** 5
### Author:  [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2014, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/81 "2014-03-23T13:38:09Z")
Nice!
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### Author:  [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2014, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/82 "2014-03-23T20:51:54Z")
When I went to school we skipped over the alcohol and drugs section in our health book because, other than a sneaked six-pack now and then by the naughty kids, there were virtually no drug and alcohol problems among us. đ
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### Author:  [@Ryan\_Liam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ryan_Liam)
#### Post date: [March 23, 2014, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/83 "2014-03-23T21:15:47Z")
> [@Kimballkid](#):
>
> Did you really have to recopy the whole damn thing, you could have just said âThe OP is the reason why I hate Facebook so much.â.
I did it because it reiterates how annoying they are. đ
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### Author:  [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2014, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/84 "2014-03-24T14:57:33Z")
> [@Ryan\_Liam](#):
>
> I did it because it reiterates how annoying they are. đ
This
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### Author:  [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2014, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/85 "2014-03-24T17:07:59Z")
> [@usedtobe](#):
>
> 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, Iâll be dead soon enough so I wonât be around to see the consequences of current trends.
Yes, in my driveway in the Summers. My daughter is 14, so five years would have been pretty much the end of it. I did just play hopscotch with my 2nd grade Sunday School class - but we had to use masking tape since it was indoors in January.
Tetherball - there is still one at my kidâs elementary school
Jacks - yep. Several sets floating around the house since when my daughter was little. Jump rope - of course! They âteachâ it in gym for those kids who havenât been exposed to it, but most of the kids I know jump rope without lessons from a PE teacher.
Marbles - dozens in our house.
Baseball. Absolutely, my son just made the freshman high school team - 30 kids tried out - which is almost 20% of the boys in his class - only 15 made it. So not only do they play baseball, they play it in numbers that prevent everyone from playing for the high school team.
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### Author:  [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)
#### Post date: [March 24, 2014, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/86 "2014-03-24T22:49:20Z")
Bless **WhyNot** and **Dangerosa** , and all the parents who still use the hopscotch boards!
Preferably in front of the kids _and_ kidâs friendsâŚ
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### Author:  [@Bam\_Boo\_Gut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bam_Boo_Gut)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2014, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/87 "2014-03-25T18:48:00Z")
Well, Iâd like to think I still have a few marbles left!
Sorry to think kids today wonât have the advantage of sleeping on horsehair mattresses like my asthmatic brother.
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### Author:  [@Antinor01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antinor01)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/88 "2014-03-25T19:19:45Z")
> [@Bonner100](#):
>
> They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didnât get tested for diabetes.
>
> 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.
Thanks! Except one tiny little thing. My Dad, one of those children of the 40âs, should have been taking better care of himself including early testing for diabetes. His was so bad he had neuropathy in his chest and his doctor said he probably had numerous heart attacks that he didnât know about. One of which finally killed him in his mid 60âs.
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### Author:  [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/89 "2014-03-25T22:05:39Z")
> [@Slippery\_Sid](#):
>
> Donât forget the tight circumcisions. Now they leave more of the nerve-containing mucous skin
Helluva username/post content combo, there.
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### Author:  [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2014, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/90 "2014-03-26T02:41:10Z")
Yeah, well I noticed you didnât mention lawn darts or lobotomies.
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### Author:  [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2014, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/91 "2014-03-26T20:26:46Z")
Isnât one the cause of the other?
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### Author:  [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2014, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/92 "2014-03-26T20:47:47Z")
Whatâs up with people thinking teatherball is gone? I can think of a half dozen within a mile of my house, 2 of which reside in a brand new park.
And my kids go through chalk like itâs fucking⌠chalk. Or something.
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### Author:  [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2014, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/93 "2014-03-26T20:51:54Z")
> [@Itself](#):
>
> âMy generational cohort had a perfect childhood, because we possessed a combination of freedom, gumption, and orneriness that kids today sorely lack, what with their Myspaces and pogs and celebrities I donât like. We knew how to raise children properly. We didnât actually _do_ it, which is why Iâm complaining about the current generation, but my point still stands: Seat belts and polio vaccines are terrible, and smoking and drinking while pregnant have been medically proven to be healthier for you than exercise.â
đ
As for the OP: Whatâs wrong with being tested for diabetes when youâre pregnant? Why would anyone have an issue with that?
And as for kids being shoved out the door and allowed to run free all day, I certainly never did that, and canât think of anyone else who did, either.
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2014, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/94 "2014-03-26T22:40:36Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#):
>
> Whatâs up with people thinking teatherball is gone?
Regional differences, I guess. Although I did finally remember seeing one, once somewhere, when I was in college, I think. I literally stared at it for several minutes trying to figure out what it was. I thought it was some kind of flagpole or something, but it was very out of place for a flagpole and lacked the functional rigging of a flagpole and was rather too short. Finally I dredged up the memory of tetherball from some book or another and realized thatâs what it was. đ
[But you can still buy them](http://www.rakuten.com/prod/champion-sports-tetherball-set/217326211.html?listingId=201526565&scid=pla_google_AthleticStuff&adid=18183&gclid=CMSy85uisb0CFcU-MgodKHUAgw), so clearly my lack of familiarity with them is an aberration, not the singular reality.
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### Author:  [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2014, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/95 "2014-03-26T23:13:43Z")
> [@Labrador\_Deceiver](#):
>
> Whatâs up with people thinking teatherball is gone? I can think of a half dozen within a mile of my houseâŚ
Where do you live?
Tethered ball is a game in which the idea is to hit the ball in such a way as to make it fly up and over your opponentâs head - and often, the other kid catches it in his face.
If girls are now playing it as much as boys, well, another cheer for gender neutrality!
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### Author:  [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2014, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/96 "2014-03-31T17:34:56Z")
[quote=âAccidental\_Martyr, post:42, topic:684158â]
This is the one I was thinking of:
[/QUOTE]
And, amusingly, Bucky Covington was born in November, 1977. I found his song even more annoying than Tim McGrawâs âBack Whenâ:
Tim is almost exactly one year younger than I am (1966 v. 1967), but he's "missing" all sorts of things that I don't remember at all. Though a few of the things he mentions may simply be regional differences - I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, he grew up in the South East.
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### Author:  [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)
#### Post date: [March 31, 2014, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/97 "2014-03-31T17:54:51Z")
> [@Askthepizzaguy](#):
>
> Iâve got a few minutes, so Iâll offer a blow-by-blow rebuttal to the latest drive-by poster who joined in the last 24 hours, here to shower us with nuggets of wisdom they got from a chain email.
>
> [Spoiler]And those that did not, didnât get the opportunity to tell us about it.And later died due to untreated undiagnosed diabetes.And those babies which died arenât here to tell us about how it made them tougher.And the kids that got into that medicine and poisoned themselves arenât here to tell us about the good ole days.And those who suffered massive brain trauma and died, or who were kidnapped, raped, and tortured, and put in some psychopathâs basement dungeon, arenât here to tell us of their wonderful experiences.And those who died in car accidents with no safety devices are certainly glad they didnât have such protections.Made being rear-ended by a drunk driver a wonderful five second airborne experience ending with sudden and permanent unconsciousness.And in some communities where the groundwater was tainted by the local chemical company having an accident, some people developed cancer and died. They are not here to tell us the heroic tale.In your group, no one died. In another, someone had meningitis, and gave it to someone else, who died of meningitis.Except, of course, the kids who were kidnapped and were eventually found in several heavy duty plastic bags on the side of the road. But itâs cool because at least they got some exercise and fresh air while they could. Now, kids have cell phones and might actually be able to call for help if they see one of their friends being abducted. Gives these kids a fighting chance against predators. But youâre right, the old way was better.
> Ah yes, the wisdom of letting people get injured and die before spending any time thinking about safety. Itâs a good thing your generation had so many kids, thatâs what species have to do when so many of their kids end up dying. The unusual aspect about this is usually the young are killed by predators, not their own stupidity.Now we can locate more people to be friends with, ones that actually share our interests. And we can do things which are more mentally stimulating than hoop ân stick. Which stimulates our brains and gets us thinking critically and solving problems logically, and planning ahead. And learn about things which are part of a bigger world, with more information easily accessible to all, rather than our only source of wisdom being uncle frank who believes the CIA is stealing his brain waves.Good thing broken necks are injuries that heal themselves fully over time.Weâre bragging about eating worms and dirt, as opposed to playing on a Playstation? Maybe you guys needed something thatâs a lot more fun than eating dirt, but lacked the intelligence to think of anything better. Why is your generation considered so great again? Thatâs good. It only counts as sound advice if everyoneâs eyes got poked out. And such things never happen today. Wow, learn something new every day. Again, so different from today. And violent crime rates have actually decreased since your time. They are just reported more due to a little thing called the internet. So has literally every generation. Except mine has a higher rate of not dying due to our own stupidity. The past 20 years have been a much faster explosion than the previous 30. Largely due to information reaching the public at large through the internet, and the stupidities of the past being exposed for what they are, and people learning not to repeat their parentsâ mistakes. We donât blame them, after all, they were practically cave men who ate dirt and worms and gave each other hepatitis. They did the best with the poor tools they had, and their unenlightened brains struggling to comprehend. If you happened to die due to negligence, ignorance, apathy, or just a general lack of common sense or a basic amount of scientific knowledge, tough luck. And while weâre at it, letâs take some time to remember all the lives that were so foolishly squandered due to taking unnecessary and stupid risks, and general ignorance, and remember that the moral of the story is that society advances by learning from and correcting the mistakes of the past. Thanks for trying, anyway. Your generation only exists because at some point, someone decided that we shouldnât drink out of the same water that sick people shit in. You are a marginal improvement over medieval thinking. Enough of you survived to reproduce, and that is how natural selection works. Being dumb, yet lucky enough to not die in situations where you probably should have.
>
> Intelligence means surviving by design rather than luck.[/Spoiler]
>
> I challenge you to rebut.
>
> I wish you a lucky day, it appears you need it.
>
> TL;DR?
>
> This guy already covered it pretty well [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=17214543&postcount=24).
You are wrong. OP is right.
I challenge you to rebut.
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### Author:  [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)
#### Post date: [April 1, 2014, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-my-generation-were-young/684158/98 "2014-04-01T01:35:38Z")
Give it up, guys, the dude is gone.
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