Back In The Day

The other day my sister and I were talking about books we had as kids. There were 2 specific ones that we remembered. I went online to see if they were still  in print or if I could even find them. I happened across a third one that jolted me back to my childhood. I remember how much I loved that book. I had no reason to buy it except for that. I don’t have any grandchildren (yet) and Dear Son is now in his mid 20’s. So I have no one to read it to. But I had to have it. It’s a little jewel from my past.

Now this got me to thinking about my childhood and how it was “back in the day”. Then I read a linked post that RFTM put up about a lady’s childhood and it just kick-started the idea to write about how things were “in my day”. It’ll probably make me sound like an old geezer, but heck, maybe I am one now. Which is a harsh reality.

So anyway…

back in the day I really did have to walk a half a mile to get to the school bus. It was from 1st grade into junior high up until we got a second car, which was a pickup truck.  Occasionally Mom, sometimes my step-father, would drive me (and later my sister) to the bus stop if the weather was particularly bad. But I remember trudging that half mile through the snow and even the rain numerous times. I was the last one on the route and almost always had to stand up in the aisle for the last 2.5 miles to the school.

NOT the road I had to walk. Similar, except for the mountain.

Which reminds me of

back in the day when I missed the bus after school. I did that twice. Had to walk all the way home twice. That was a 3 mile walk. There wasn’t anyone to pick me up. Thankfully the weather was good both times and I didn’t really mind too much. It just took a while. And

back in the day there were no cell phones. You had to find a land line if you needed to call someone. That meant a pay phone, or if you lived in the country, going to someone’s house & asking to borrow their phone. Oh, and speaking of phones…

back in the day we were on what was called a “party line”. Which means that if  you picked up the receiver and someone on your party line was on the phone, you’d hear them talking to whomever they called.  You’d have to wait until they were done for your turn and you’d have to pick up the phone every so often to see if they were done because there was no other way to know. Which usually annoyed whoever was talking because the phone would click and they’d know you were listening. Also…

back in the day  the phone receiver was connected to the phone by a cord. If you were lucky, it was a long cord. But it was never long enough that you weren’t having a conversation in front of the whole family.

Back in the day the TV had 3 channels and no remote. Later, we got two more channels so that made 5. Woo hoo! Oh and there was only 1 TV for the whole house. So if there was something on that us kids wanted to watch and my stepfather didn’t want to watch… guess what? You were SOL. There were many a sad evening for us. And…

back in the day the ONLY time there were cartoons on the TV was Saturday morning. From about 6 am to 12 noon. If I remember correctly, ALL 3 channels had cartoons  on them! Some of them had TV shows geared towards kids. Of those, Captain Kangaroo was my favorite. Oddly, I still remember seeing the first Micky Mouse cartoon. (Which was released WAY before I was born.) I never liked Felix the Cat cartoons. But anyway, it made Saturday morning a big deal.

The first Mickey Mouse cartoon- “Steamboat Willie” released in 1928.

 

Back in the day we had a record player. You could play 45’s (aka 45 rpm) or 33’s (aka 33 1/3 rpm) on it. 45’s were the smaller disc so we had more of those. That particular record player was old and would randomly shock you every so often when you used it. You never knew when it was going to happen. Great fun. Not.

Ours was something similar to this.

After that

back in the day there were audio cassette players. They used a cassette tape to record on. The cassette player was about the size of a half loaf of bread. I was pretty happy that mine came with a little microphone. You could hold the mic up to the radio and record the song that was playing. It was great.

Back in the day our family lived in the country and if you wanted to go to your friend’s house, you either walked, rode your bike, or luckily for me after I was 10, rode your horse. When I rode my bike to my friend’s house, it was a half mile to get there and we had to go up a really steep hill. Coming back was sketchy because you’d get going too fast downhill and lose your pedals and sometimes it’d throw off your balance and you’d take a header. Into the dirt/gravel/pavement. Sometimes you’d  be going too fast because you waited until the last second to leave when you were suppose to be home before dark. So if you were late a) you were in trouble and b) you were riding your bike downhill in the dark. Not good.

Back in the day we didn’t having riding lawn mowers. We used a push mower and there was about 2 acres to mow with it. We learned to do it late in the day when the temperature had cooled down some. Which brings me to

back in the day when we had to get our chores done before we could do anything fun. That included making our beds, cleaning our rooms, cleaning the bathroom (depending on whose turn it was) and getting the outside chores done. You took care of your animals before you took care of yourself because they depended on you for their very lives. Oh, and

back in the day you finished what was on your plate. And you ate what Mom had made for everyone. It wasn’t a restaurant where you ordered what you liked.  Except on your birthday. That day you got to pick what you wanted for supper, and what kind of cake you’d like for your birthday. That doesn’t mean that Mom didn’t make extra of the stuff you liked on any other day. She did, and I know she made the stuff we liked more often as well. But, if there was eggplant on the plate you had to eat it or sit there until you did. I still remember sitting in front of a bowl of soggy Fruit Loops. Uck! Oh, and if you were naughty in some way, you ate supper in your bedroom.

Soggy Fruit Loops- yuck.

Back in the day we weren’t protected from any hardships or heartbreak. It was all  in the course of life. It happened and we dealt with it. We lived on a farm. Animals got hurt. They died. Some were raised for food. It was a harsh reality but nothing we couldn’t deal with. It made us appreciate things.

Back in the day ribbons and trophies weren’t handed out to everyone just for showing up. The winner earned their trophy and was deserving of it. We understood that they did a better job, tried harder or were just plain better at whatever we were doing. Winning that prize actually meant something to both the winner and the losers. It didn’t mean that just because we lost that we were worthless. It just meant that we had to try harder to earn the prize. We would most generally congratulate the winner and show good sportsmanship. Unless they were gloating. Then we just wanted to kick ’em in the leg. But we didn’t because there would be consequences either when we got home or right there on the spot.

Back in the day we showed respect and common courtesy to our fellow humans. We said “yes ma’am and yes sir” and we didn’t interrupt a conversation but waited to interject. We were not the most important beings on the planet and didn’t expect to have everyone’s undivided attention at all times.

Back in the day we knew we wouldn’t get everything that we asked for either in the store or for Christmas. We did not throw hissy fits in public because if we did there were consequences. There actually were consequences for bad behavior back then.  We knew that when Mom said “no” you might beg a little but there was a limit. We accepted disappointment and we lived through it. It made us appreciate the things that we did get.

Back in the day we got dirty. We got cuts & scrapes and we survived just fine. I don’t know how many times I fell off of my horse. The saddle was too big & heavy for me to put on my mare so I rode bareback most of the time. Riding double meant that if my sister was falling off, she’d pull me off with her. Falling off meant that you dusted yourself off and walked back to the barn. If it hurt, you sat there a little longer. You didn’t go crying back to Mom telling her that you fell off. You saved that for when you were actually hurt. Scrapes & bruises & dirt didn’t keep you from having fun. It’s been a good lesson for dealing with the real problems in life. And for having real fun.