Someone asked the other day, “What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?” “We didn't have fast food when I was growing up, I informed him.” All the food was slow.”
“C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?” “It was a place called 'at home’,” I explained. “Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.” By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table. But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it :
Some parents NEVER owned their own house, never wore Levis, never set foot on a golf course, never traveled out of the country or had a credit card. In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck. Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.
My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer. I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow)
We didn't have a television in our house until I was 15.It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.
I was 14 before I tasted my first pizza; it was called 'pizza pie. When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too. It's still the best pizza I ever had.
I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the hall way and it was on a party line. Before you could use it, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know (or did know) weren't already using the line. (We listened in sometimes!) An operator came on and asked you what number you were calling! She also recognized your voice and asked about your family.
Pizzas were not delivered to our home, but milk was. So was bread.
Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive.
Growing up today is a lot different, isn’t it?
4 comments:
Well said, JE. Those were the days.
Terry
Jimmie, I could certainly identify with a lot of those remembrances. We never had a color TV until I was in my late teens and working and bought a 3-inch color model. No phone in my room, no cell phones. Dinner was at home around the table with parents and brother and we never went out to eat. Those were the good ole days for sure.
In all fairness, my parents did take us out to eat periodically, not often, but as a treat. Two of Dad's best friends owned eating establishments. One owned a Root Beer Drive In, with car hops (all of with whom my brother and I went to school) and the other friend owned a restaurant, which specialized in homemade pies. Their old fashioned sugar cream pie was the best. (And I own a copy of the recipe.)
So true. Seldom went out to eat. Didn't know what pizza was. One station b&w tv when we did finally get a tv. No charge cards. Bread and milk delivered. Rented.
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