Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Do you remember???

Taken from an email from my mom:

Black and White

(Under age 40? You won't understand.)

You could hardly see for all the snow,
Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go.
Pull a chair up to the TV set,
"Good Night, David. Good Night, Chet."

Depending on the channel you tuned,
You got Rob and Laura - or Ward and June.
It felt so good. It felt so right.
Life looked better in black and white.

I Love Lucy, The Real McCoys,
Dennis the Menace, the Cleaver boys,
Rawhide, Gunsmoke, Wagon Train,
Superman, Jimmy and Lois Lane.

Father Knows Best, Patty Duke,
Rin Tin Tin and Lassie too,
Donna Reed on Thursday night! --
Life looked better in black and white.

I wanna go back to black and white.
Everything always turned out right.
Simple people, simple lives...
Good guys always won the fights.

Now nothing is the way it seems,
In living color on the TV screen.
Too many murders, too many fights,
I wanna go back to black and white.

In God they trusted, alone in bed, they slept,
A promise made was a promise kept.
They never cussed or broke their vows.
They'd never make the network now.

But if I could, I'd rather be
In a TV town in '53.
It felt so good. It felt so right.
Life looked better in black and white.

I'd trade all the channels on the satellite,
If I could just turn back the clock tonight
To when everybody knew wrong from right.
Life was better in black and white!
___________________________________________________
This was found on the blogger world - I got it from a lady who's blog is here.

We were born in the 40's,50's,60's,70's.
We survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing and didn't get tested for diabetes.

After that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, knee pads, elbow pads, butt pads etc.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no internet or internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live in us forever.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Cheerleaders and little league had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't, had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all!

If YOU are one of them! CONGRATULATIONS!
You had the good luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers, and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It wasn't/isn't just the lawyers and government (although they certainly are a large part of the cause/problem) - but it's also the whacko/perverts who use to be held at bay by laws, jails, judges, regular folks who knew right from wrong. When pretty much of the country shared the same values. Immigrants that moved here adopted our values, our language, our way of life. Now that's a bad thing - go figure.

I lived in the times you mentioned, and I remember talking to my dad and I think I liked the times he lived in even better. He talked about fishing in streams with safety pins and white bread and catching fish. He talked about camping in wilderness and not having to worry about using butane stoves, because 'damn it' you made a camp fire. Yes, I learned many of those things and I can handle myself, but idiots have made many of these things illegal or null and void.

Sigh.

Panthergirl said...

Ah, PCdoc... love ya, man, but I don't agree that the 50s and 60s were the "good ol' days"... at least not for women and minorities and kids. I've seen this particular thing a bunch of times and I'm working on my "counterpoint". :) Hey thanks for signing up on BlogClicker!

jazz said...

Hi Les, thanks for participating in my blog!

I'm a HUGE fan of the 50s and 60s. Great music, fashion and rich culture.

You know, my great grandma is a heavy smoker and yet lived to a ripe age of 90. My grandpa is now 80 and still sturdy as a bull. Amazing...

PCDoc said...

Hey Panthergirl, sorry so long in responding. I believe it is a point of view thing. My very liberal mother would spend hours arguing with you. I am the conservative black sheep in the family - and yet I am very aware that the good old days are here and now.

There is ONE statement that always seems to ring true though.

No matter how much you make - you can always remember the time when you prayed to make the salary you are now starving on!