Monday, May 23rd 2005

[Donk70]

Nothing for lunch yet. I'll probably grab a bite on my way to work this afternoon.

Simpler times, that's what I miss. I was talking to a few friends last week and I mentioned that times were alot simpler when I was 7 and the biggest decision I had was grape or cherry Kool Aid.

Remember playing outside during the summer catching fireflies and having to be made to come inside? Remember starting at 8am in the morning and going till 8pm at night, non stop with all the rest of the neighborhood kids? Remember neighborhood baseball/football games where there were 25 kids to each side, and all were on field at the same time? Remember the times when it rained outside and staying inside was a slow and tedious death to you?


I don't think todays kids know what its like to be a kid. They have video games, dvd's, vcr's, cable TV's and computers. It's not that there is anything wrong with those items, it's just that kids are missing out on what we had when we were younger.

If there was a way to go back, I would.

[Dancing Bear]

you are right Donk ! They were simple times for us I walked 4 miles of country roads in Kansas just to go to town. I was in 4th grade older brother in 5th. and Mom wasn't worried about me. Now I would be scared to even suggest that a young child be allowed to take that trip. Today both kids would end up on the national news.Halloween is just about gone thanks to some sick individuals kids cant trust anything they get. Shut in kids, video games aren't the total fault, just a partial salvation for kids. What we had when we were young has been taken away from the kids.Parents live in fear for their children every day. At least the good ones do.

[Big Al]

jumpers for goal posts, sliding tackles in the rain. 25 a-side was quality! murder (no rules) football. camping up the hills. sliding back down the wet grass on workmans plastic bags. no mobiles phones. your mum standing waiting for you when you were an hour late. 7 weeks of summer holidays. tarzan rope swings over the river. penny sweeties. grazing your knee.

the smell of tarmac when the rain begins. :)


happy days

[Big Al]

todays lunch was - rough scottish oatcakes with seriously strong cheddar

[JGraham]

...actually getting a real punishment when you screwed up.


Lunch: The other half of my Wegmans sub from yesterday and a cup of coffee.

[redmax61]

Coupla dogs.

[NJ-Nick]

just some pretzels and a pepsi one...saving room for pasta tonite !!!

[Aldwyn]

Grilled cheese with bacon.


I agree that kids dont know what they are missing out on.

But I bet if ask if you ask today's kids about it, they will tell you that WE missed out on all the cool stuff they have!

Peace,
Aldwyn

[Baba]

Chick -fil - A for lunch, total fast food junk.

I miss simpler times too. One thing that I hate to see is kids riding around on these powered scooters, we had mopeds when we were younger, but they were costly (not every family had one), and we rode those things called bicycles, had fun doing it, and actually got exercise doing it. Imagine that?

[Elgreco]

Zatarain's Jambalaya with chicken and Emeril brand Andouille sausage. Nice and spicy! (good with shrimp too)

[Garrett]

Damn those power scooters! I saw a kid on one of those yesterday and immediately claimed none of my (future) kids are gonna have one of those. That's just lazy. Kids are young and in shape, they can pedal or push dammit!

I miss playing with toy guns. I had this awesome water gun that looked just like an Uzi. My brother had a bazooka. It made exploding noises and everything. We used to run around with our friends in the woods playing war. But that was about 15 years ago. Try that now and the kids are likely to get shot by a cop. Hard to believe how things can change.

Oh yeah, having pitas today with ham, lettuce and cheese.

[jas]

JGraham - you inspired me to have a Wegman's ham sandwich yesterday.

Today I had a very salty hot dog of which half went to the Starving Family Dog Foundation.

Regarding play time, I've often thought that I'd be an empty-headed 300 pounder if we had had the internet and electronic baseball games back then. Why would anyone ever leave their screen? I barely do now.

After I got home from school, everyone in the neighborhood would know I was home because they'd hear the rubber ball bouncing against the wall as I started my 5 hours of reps taking ground balls, throwing them to Wes Fairly at first (because I, of course, was Maury Wills!).

My boys had to do all these organized sports where once a year they'd actually have a ground ball hit to them and, thinking it was a rabbit or a giant worm, would let it go through their legs. Then they'd go home and watch TV.

Our grandkids will be aghast and disbelieving when we tell them there was no simstim in our day. That we actually touched each other and stuck body parts in one another instead of putting on the goggles and slotting a chip.

-John

[Dan Desy]

Famous Dave's puilled chicken sandwich with shack fries...

I hear you Don, those were the days. Most kids today get bored after half an hour outside... I miss the freedom and adventure we had!

[DanHund]

Ham & Cheese Hot Pockets.


Sigh. We have to practically unplug the TV to get the kids to go play outside.

[Big Mike]

Sack lunch today, sandwich (Ham and Turkey) Yogurt, fruit and a few veggies.


I miss them days too. Didn't do fire flies, but caght frogs in the local creek, things like that. No worries, no cares. Mom and Dad took care of the needs, Dad was a policeman, so you couldn't feel MORE safe at home. Grandma's on the weekends. Good stuff. Riding the tractors with my Step Grandpa on thier "farm" picking fresh corn, squash, etc. Working the levers on the loader and dozer. Back when a bag of hotwheels was the coolest thing ever. <sigh>

[TRandy16]

Little League baseball...played in a realistic-looking ballpark at the Naval Amphibious Base in Norfolk, Va.,... with a real wooden fence, and dugouts, and a real electric scoreboard, and lights for playing at night...they even had advertising on the outfield fence...and a flag pole in center field...my Mom would be in the stands screaming her head off for me to hit another home run. :D

Back in those days I couldn't wait to "grow up"....

What the hell was I thinking?



Oh yeah...Smithfield Ham sandwich with Gulden's Spicy Brown Mustard on whole wheat, chips, couple of Vienna Fingers cookies (Ok...Ok...five of them...)...and a Yoplait Harvest Peach yogurt for a snack later on.

[Sherpa]

Gazpacho, roast beef, mashed potatos and caramelized onions (lunch at my in-laws today ;)), red wine and coffee.

What I most miss from my youth were the endless afternoons playing baseball and tennis when in the U.S. ( I lived in Switzerland from age 9 to 14, so football/soccer ruled during those years). Either way, we were riding at least a couple of miles a day, playing sports all day long on weekends and afternoons after school, and didn't know or care about politics, economic cycles, parenting, etc... Ignorant bliss, except for the mosquitos while playing first base in little league.

We've been doing our best to raise our kids in the countryside, but even in relaxed Spain things aren't as innocent and safe as I remember them being at that age in the U.S. and Europe. Our kids still play a lot of sports and hike around in their spare time, but we keep in touch via cellphone just in case. On the other hand, video games are banned and have never really been an issue except with our 14-year old son during a few months last year.

He has since discovered girls are different, so the GameBoy got dumped to establish a more grown-up facade to potential girlfriends.

Which one is safer I don't know :eek:

[Elgreco]

I miss "real" chemistry sets with dangerous chemicals.

http://www.theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/Images/ChemcraftSet.t.JPG

Ouija boards. Great fun contacting dead relatives!

http://www.milkandhoneyinc.com/Images/Kits/Oija.jpg

Being able to build working crossbows in woodshop at school! (really!)

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/medidart/images/crossbow_display.jpg

[johnreardon]

Bit late, but I had ham in a baguette for lunch.

Don, the days you speak about have unfortunately long gone. I remember we used to play Cowboys and Indians, riding real horses, shooting real bows and arrows and air rifles. We had lots of open fields and kids would fall off the old cart horses and break arms. I had an arrow shot at me and it stuck in the fleshy bit above my eyebrow. I remember my friends mother fainting when she saw me with blood all over my face and an arrow appearing to stick out of my eye. God those were the days. No chance of coming back with the PC brigade around.

[irwcustom]

I made jerk spiced chicken salad sandwiches on Hovis brown bread (4 off). Ate them by 10:00. (Asdas own brand 'Shreddies and milk for breaky) One of those mirracle friendly bacteria yoghurt drinks, a Marathon ..now know as a Snickers bar to comply with the US, 2 Costa Rican bananas, two eastern European apples, 3 cups of coffee and plenty of Chiltern hills spring water.


Large curry for dinner ...oh sorry just lunch wasn't it:)

I remember lots of great things that kids miss out on today - our wonderful TV programs, making action man slide from my bedroom window down to the armoured tank and making him parachute etc, making 'carties':dude: ..superb go - carts made from an old pram ..death traps really, peg guns made from wood and pegs and rubber bands, my first open air gig - a roof top performance like on Let it be ..or so I thought at the time, hours and hours of tennis, football ..cricket!!! Being school javelin champion and one of the fastest runners in the school - but not knowing the two shots of the starting pistol meant that it was a false start and running the full 100 meters on my own in front of the whole school:o on sports day. Cellotaping 8 ball point pens together so I could write my lines out in an 8th of the time. Making an igloo in the snow.

Things ain't wot they used to be!

[Dan Desy]

You know, I'm seeing a theme here... We did all those dangerous things when we were kids, didn't we? We pulled some really crazy and dumb, dangerous crap.
So the big difference with kids today and in our days, is in the good old days, I guess the really stupid kids died pulling some of that sh!t. So the idiot contents was way diluted. Today, society and parents (thank goodness) are way too safety aware, which guarantess that no kids get left behind. Not even the really stupid ones. So we can safely say that the young generation today is more stupid than in our days.

Also, since they'er not allowed to do anything really dangerous, I suppose they must resort to virtual dumbass danger. Thus, the current video game craze...

[jas]

Cellotaping 8 ball point pens together so I could write my lines out in an 8th of the time.

Mentalist Harry Kahne used to put a piece of chalk in each hand, one on each foot and one in his mouth and be able to write five different words simultaneously.

And there was a woman in Europe who attached chalk to each of her 10 fingers and wrote out sentences in different languages at the same time.

Keep at it, Darren!

-John

[Elgreco]

Remember Wrist-Rockets?

http://melchiormenzel.de/slingshot_trumark_ws1.jpg

[irwcustom]

Mentalist Harry Kahne used to put a piece of chalk in each hand, one on each foot and one in his mouth and be able to write five different words simultaneously.

And there was a woman in Europe who attached chalk to each of her 10 fingers and wrote out sentences in different languages at the same time.

Keep at it, Darren!

-John Incredible! I have yet to use that particular invention since the day I upset 'Bush Brown' the French teacher. I'm sure it will come in handy one day. The wife often says "Why do you need so many guitars:confused: ..you can only play one at a time" ..hmmm... maybe a little cellotape, a piece of wood containing 3 or more picks and... voila! ...an orchestra of axes.

[DanHund]

Remember Wrist-Rockets?

http://melchiormenzel.de/slingshot_trumark_ws1.jpg


OH YEAH :dude:

[irwcustom]

Remember Wrist-Rockets?

We had 'Black widows' over here! I had a good supply of ball bearings for mine - pretty accurate and lethal! Vinegar bombs were another dangerous pursuit. 1 glass bottle with screw cap, about 50ml of vinegar, pour in 1/2 tsp of bicarbonate of soda ..screw the cap down and run like the clappers! Kids eh!

http://www.surplusandoutdoors.com/ishop/images/877/BLACK-WIDOW-NEW.jpg

[Elgreco]

One year I got this for Christmas, I used it to try to hypnotize girls and make them have sex with me! (It didn't work!:mad: )

http://www.stuckinthe70s.com/images/KreskinESPBox.jpg