07/11/2023
Yup! Same here.
I grew up in Dennison , Tuscarawas County Ohio, and was raised in this area during a time when most everyone treated each other with respect. We didn't eat a lot of fast food because it was considered a treat, not a food group. We drank Kool-Aid and ice tea made from water that came from our kitchen sink. We ate bologna sandwiches, or even tuna (which was in a can not a pouch), PB&J & grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, pot pies, but mostly home made meals consisting of mainly meat, potatoes, vegetable, bread & butter and homemade dessert.
We took our lunches to school in a brown paper bag or lunch boxes.
We grew up during a time when we would gather glass bottles to take to the store and use the deposit money to buy penny candy. (You could buy a candy bar for a quarter or 50 cents and one piece of candy only cost a penny and We even got a brown paper bag to put the candy in). You could get a lot for just 25 cents. We hiked the hills..
We also mowed lawns, did the dishes, fed the dog & helped our dads in the summer. We went outside a lot to play games, run with siblings and friends & played hide and seek, kick the can, jump rope, hopscotch, Red Rover, red light, Mother May I, wiffle ball, baseball, basket ball, dodge ball football, We drank tap water or from the hose outside.
We ate hot and cold cereal. Or peanutbutter toast and hot chocolate at the breakfast table before going to school. We watched TV as a family: Gunsmoke, Gilligan's Island, Wonderful World of Disney, Bonanza, Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. After school, we came home and did homework and chores and watched some cartoons on Saturday morning. WE cleaned our own bedrooms, brought our dirty clothes down to be washed .
If you were bad in school, you got in trouble there and when you got home you got in trouble again because your parents already knew. Paddling was allowed in school and you behaved yourself and talk until the lightning bugs came out or the street lights came on. We would make lanterns with the lightning bugs and pick 4 leaf clovers.
You LEARNED from your parents instead of disrespecting them and treating them as if they knew nothing. What they said was the gospel.
If someone had a fight, that's what it was a fist fight and you were back to being friends afterwards or the bullying pretty much ceased. Kids that were around guns were taught how to properly use them and to respect them and never thought of taking them.
We ate around the dinner table and talked to each other as a family unit. We ate the meal our mothers made or we went hungry until the next meal (there was no exceptions!) We said the Pledge of Allegiance, stood for the National Anthem (We also knew all the words to our National Anthem) & listened to our teachers.
We watched what we said around our elders because we knew If we DISRESPECTED any grown up we would get our behinds whipped, it wasn't called abuse, it was called discipline! We held doors, carried groceries and gave up our seat without being asked.
You didn't hear curse words on the radio in songs or TV, and if you cursed and got caught you had a bar of soap stuck in your mouth and had to stand in the corner for quite some time. Our dads’ voices scared us enough, that we obeyed, and moms’ threat to "tell your father when he got home from work" shaped us up quite fast!
AND WE SURVIVED AND KNEW RESPECT!
Wouldn't it be nice if it were possible to get back to this way of life? It's possible, keep working. I know I'm paying it forward to my own children. Thank you mom & dad for giving us great memories and teaching us to give respect to all, especially family. :)
I would love to have this world back for our children 💗
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