The good old days?

[Skids]

So..... we so often hear the term " The good old days".

Well we used to!

In my younger years;

We got to school - by foot or by bike, no matter the weather, it's called a raincoat.

Got the cane if you furged up at school.

Got belted if you got the cane at school and if you furged up any other time.

We contacted a mate - by riding to his house or, if he had a phone, by goung to the nearest phone box and calling them.

Watched TV - for maybe, 30 minutes a day, Kimba the white lion after school... a sneak peak at Number 96 from the crack in ya bedroom door if you were lucky.

Had to be home for dinner before the street lights came on - had many arvos after school riding home full pelt ftom the mud tracks on the bmx and not quite making it - a pretty lame hiding before putting your clothes in the basket and lighting the braemar.

Mowed the lawn (1/4 acre block) and chopped the wood on the weekends before you went anywhere.

Sat down with the family for dinner every night.

Sunday roast with extended family EVERY Sunday.

Cool drink was only at parties or a special treat.

Same for fast food - there was Hungry Jacks, Kentucky Fried chicken ir fish n chips.

Surfed all day, playing pinnys for a break.... then taking it in turns, calling parents to pick us and our 6 surfboatds up. (Sunday mornings)

Out of 400 3rd years at my school, about 40 went on to 4th year, the rest of us got jobs.

Sitting gobsmacked... watching people play the new, awesome video game called Space Invaders!
We would line up to play!

Going to the Sunday session on a Sundy night.

Looking for a roster station.


Turning 20 and getting your 1st mobile phone.

People used to talk to each other on public transport, cops didn't carry guns, we didn't lock our house or car.

There was no such thing as a king hit.

There was 3 or 4 diffetent beers available at the bottle shop.

Everybody seemed happy.

[KenH]

Skids, you must be about my age (I think that I'm am older though)! All the things you mentioned was like my childhood bar the surfing (I'm from the bush inland).
But I really enjoy these days as well, I do believe though I would struggle growing up in these times and feel sorry for the kids growing up now as there is no privacy anywhere or anytime!
I have 2 grown up boys in there mid 20's and have lots of nieces and nephews at all ages and they have all turned out to be really good kids who also have great friends. I get along and like most young adults and believe that the majority of them are better people than what I was at their age.

[think positive]

gees Skids what about the old farts from the 50's??
-not me im another 60's!!

its quite unnerving though, picking the date on online forms and you have to scroll so far down!!

[think positive]

Skids, you must be about my age (I think that I'm am older though)! All the things you mentioned was like my childhood bar the surfing (I'm from the bush inland).
But I really enjoy these days as well, I do believe though I would struggle growing up in these times and feel sorry for the kids growing up now as there is no privacy anywhere or anytime!
I have 2 grown up boys in there mid 20's and have lots of nieces and nephews at all ages and they have all turned out to be really good kids who also have great friends. I get along and like most young adults and believe that the majority of them are better people than what I was at their age.

i tend to agree with a lot of that.

however there is certainly far too many adolescents out there who havent been brought up with the morals we were, whether smacked into them or by decent patient parenting - there was some horrors at school, but i dont recall anyone getting king hit or attacked with knives and baseball bats. The old thing about kids needing to be bored so they know what to do with free time with out having to be entertained is so true.

And things like online gambling is not helping, tv shows where drug taking is the norm seems to make it more acceptable, (and yes my all time favourite shows are breaking Bad and SOA). Just as Text Talk is dumbing down a whole generation, Adults not expecting a please and thankyou, and indeed not using them themselves, is raising too many spoiled entitled young adults as well.

Ive received positive comments on my kids manners since they were small, and i dont hesitate to pull their friends up if they dont use them! And if i encounter a kid with good manners or an obvious enthusiasm for helping others ill tell them'"thankyou, your parents should be proud of you".

lack of respect, for others and ones self. its sad.

manners, kindness and consideration cost nothing, but maybe a little extra time. the pay back is worth every second of it.

[David]

[think positive]

Good point. I was actually quite shocked at just how small Canberra and the surrounding suburbs is!

[Culprit]

Growing up in Broady (Broadmeadows) in the 60's/70's was a tough road. If you could not fight you had to stay home. It was Aussie V Wogs, Asians owned the Chinese shop and that was it. I was driving my own car at 16 and got dragged in by the Principle about it. The outcome was to stop parking in his spot. It was full on and being in a band that young it was about sex, drugs and rick n roll. I am still here, many friends are not. Is today better, I just say the current generation are just a bunch of soft pussies, same goes with the footballers of today. Other than that, we had less cars on the road and the population of Melbourne would have been lucky to be 2 million. Now it's 5 million so everything is on the up. Crime, Petrol, housing and just the cost of living. Same Same but Different.

[luvdids]

I think there's always good & bad when you look back.

Was it a good thing that we got by without mobile phones? Hard to answer because we survived of course, but do they make life better? Being always contactable? I'm not so sure. But it is better to be able to contact someone without waiting for the one line into the house to be free (I once drove to my Mum's place after trying to call for 30 mins & by the time I got there the phone was STILL engaged!!)

Sunday shopping didn't exist. Is it good that it does now? Probably, since people seem to work longer, but there's no more butchers selling off their leftover meat really cheap on a Saturday afternoon.

I don't however know how we survived having to get up & walk to the tv to change the channel!!!

Yes, there were fewer cars but there was also a much higher road toll.

I can't complain about either (the old days or the current days). But this generation of instant everything are going to struggle IMHO.

[stui magpie]

Growing up in the 60's and 70's NSW bush, I can relate to most of Skids post except the surf. We had the river.

1 black and white TV, got a colour one in 74. It had 3 channels, Albury, Shepparton and the ABC. To change between channels you had to not only get up, walk to the TV and change channels you had to flick a switch on the back to change which arial was connected.

Manual telephone exchange. You wanted to call someone, you cranked the handle on the phone and told the operator which number you wanted or, if you couldn't remember the number, tell them who you wanted and they'd put you through.

All shops shut at midday Saturday until 9am Monday except the milbars. Our milkbar had stocks of canned food for sale for people who missed the supermarket or butcher.

As a kid, you filled in time using your imagination, reading a book or working . We also had a pool room at the milk bar and some days I couldn't be arsed opening it up so I'd leave it locked, crank up the juke box and play pool or pinnies until people outside started banging on the door for me to open.

it was good at the time, I'd probably go insane if I had to live like that now.

[Tannin]

When do we get a poll for normal people instead of just the young ones?

[watt price tully]

When do we get a poll for normal people instead of just the young ones?

Why, do you want to romanticise the past too?

[Tannin]

^ What are you talking about? I am the past!

[HAL]

When do we get a poll for normal people instead of just the young ones?

Why, do you want to romanticise the past too?

Are there any other kind?

[David]

Disappointed that no wag has thought to tick 2010s yet.

[watt price tully]

^ What are you talking about? I am the past!

Yes, you remember it well. This got released last week

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsCyC1dZiN8