Remember When (Sentimental Journey or Good Riddance?)

[GeoffC]

I remember when life was good;
The sun shone, the cherries in the bowl were ripe and ready to eat.
I remember when we had no dark clouds looming ahead;
We had our whole life to look forward to.

Now .... sod it ....
It's just NOT FAIR....

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by Lady Blue

Are you speaking from experience, Sir?

In the period between "Special" and "Challenged" (Circa 1965-75), the word "Gifted" was...umm...repositioned to replace the word "Special". The old (the once and future) usage was ignored, along with the people the old usage referred to. And yes, I speak from experience...

[Lady Blue]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

I remember when life was good;
The sun shone, the cherries in the bowl were ripe and ready to eat.
I remember when we had no dark clouds looming ahead;
We had our whole life to look forward to.

Now .... sod it ....
It's just NOT FAIR....

How true.

I remember riding bikes, climbing trees, jumping rope, playing softball, dodgeball, hopscotch, tag, all manner of outdoor games, without protective gear. How did we ever survive?

I remember, leaving the house in the morning, not returning until dark, and nary a concern that your picture would end up on a milk carton.

I remember when "Neighborhood Watch" didn't have a name or an organizational status. It was just a given, mutually understood and practiced.

[Lady Blue]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

In the period between "Special" and "Challenged" (Circa 1965-75), the word "Gifted" was...umm...repositioned to replace the word "Special". The old (the once and future) usage was ignored, along with the people the old usage referred to. And yes, I speak from experience...

So as not to be misunderstood by anyone who may not have read through the last several posts, or you yourself Sir, my post regarding you speaking from experience was in response to what you said the sensitivity session consisted of. It had nothing to do with the subject of "Special," "Gifted" or "Challenged." That was brought up in a separate post by dreams. They were 2 mutually exclusive posts.

No harm, no foul.

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by Lady Blue

[/COLOR]

So as not to be misunderstood by anyone who may not have read through the last several posts, or you yourself Sir, my post regarding you speaking from experience was in response to what you said the sensitivity session consisted of. It had nothing to do with the subject of "Special," "Gifted" or "Challenged." That was brought up in a separate post by dreams. They were 2 mutually exclusive posts.

No harm, no foul.

My apologies for mangling....

[Lady Blue]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

My apologies for mangling....

Feel free to mangle anytime SIR.

[dreams]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

I remember when life was good;
The sun shone, the cherries in the bowl were ripe and ready to eat.
I remember when we had no dark clouds looming ahead;
We had our whole life to look forward to.

Now .... sod it ....
It's just NOT FAIR....

I'd just like to say.....

Then on other days....

[dreams]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

You left out "gifted". I was at the receiving end of the other end of the scale when the "Gifted" was popular. It wasn't pretty....

Do forgive me, Sir. I didn't leave it out or mean disrespect but basically ignored it as it has no meaning to me. They are labels others use and their meanings change.

I grew up with an extended family that included just about everything. We never thought anything of it. Now-a-days if you had to "PC" label family members it would include (assume the quotes. please): mentally challenged, musical savant, gifted, visually challenged, etc.. They were never "different" until entering the school system and were labeled. Those same family members are now: 2 doctors, 1 lawyer (Harvard), 1 priest, 1 vet, 2 nurses, 3 pharmacists, 2 band members, 1 teacher, etc.

So much for "the system" labels, huh?

Originally Posted by Lady Blue

.....

I remember, leaving the house in the morning, not returning until dark, and nary a concern that your picture would end up on a milk carton.

I remember when "Neighborhood Watch" didn't have a name or an organizational status. It was just a given, mutually understood and practiced.

So true. Usually some mom would yell out the front door that so-and-so's mom was looking for them and it was time to go home or you were seen doing something and by the time you got home whatever you did or said was already known by your mom

I remember walking barefoot everywhere, sharing the same coke, and drinking from hoses

[Lady Blue]

Originally Posted by dreams

So true. Usually some mom would yell out the front door that so-and-so's mom was looking for them and it was time to go home or you were seen doing something and by the time you got home whatever you did or said was already known by your mom

I remember walking barefoot everywhere, sharing the same coke, and drinking from hoses

Exactly.

And Elementary School (we called it Grammar School,) each classroom had AT LEAST 35 kids (now they say that 25 are too many.) You sat in the same room all day with the same teacher who taught ALL the subjects. There was no gymnasium (the playground outside was the gymnasium), no cafeteria (you ate your brown bag lunch in the classroom), no auditorium, no “Social Promotions.” When you were promoted to the next grade level, there was no doubt that you EARNED it.

Teachers could discipline unruly kids. Students always showed teachers the utmost respect. Civility and manners were demanded at all times. You were corrected any time the word ain’t, a double negative, or other rules of proper grammar were broken. Bullying a classmate was NEVER tolerated.

It was like that through the 7th grade in our town. What a simple old-fashioned concept. But it worked. I love the way that worked.

[Lady Blue]

How about this one:

Life BEFORE my first dishwasher - Washing dishes by hand in the kitchen sink.

Life AFTER my first dishwasher (post 1991) - Washing dishes by hand in the kitchen sink, BEFORE I LOAD THEM IN THE DISHWASHER.

[dreams]

Originally Posted by Lady Blue

How about this one:

Life BEFORE my first dishwasher - Washing dishes by hand in the kitchen sink.

Life AFTER my first dishwasher (post 1991) - Washing dishes by hand in the kitchen sink, BEFORE I LOAD THEM IN THE DISHWASHER.

I was just thinking about that this morning at 2 AM as I was suctioning up the overflow water from my dishwasher. The kitchen floor was covered in sudsy water! I think I may go back to hand-washing dishes to save on the water bill. (so much for the new-improved dishwasher with the just-passed warranty )

Free TV... We thought it was a joke and how were they going to make people pay for what was already free? The standing joke was that everyone would have a box on the TV that you put quarters in just to watch a program... kind of like bus stations and vibrating hotel room beds...

[Greg Anos]

Just think, these will be somebody else's remember when days in 20, 30 or more years from now....

[dreams]

Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward

Just think, these will be somebody else's remember when days in 20, 30 or more years from now....

Spooky.


how about..... first computer? Radio Shack, hookup to a small B&W TV, and a cassette tape. Type in DOS as you read it from a computer magazine to get a program to run. I hated when I made an error and ended up in an endless loop!

[DixieGal]

Originally Posted by dreams

Spooky.


how about..... first computer? Radio Shack, hookup to a small B&W TV, and a cassette tape. Type in DOS as you read it from a computer magazine to get a program to run. I hated when I made an error and ended up in an endless loop!

We had that cassette-driven Compaq computer/TV combo when we married. Then we got a fancy 1-piece (keyboard, CPU, and monitor all in one piece of equipment) Tandy. It was sooooo fast, because it had 2 floppy drives. No hard drives, the OS and all were on floppies. You stuck them into the slots and turned on the power to "boot up."

When we were camping last weekend, Tim and I kept marveling about how wonderful the kids in the campground were. They were riding bikes and trikes, playing without electronics, and get this -- we even watched two pre-adolescent boys walking down the trail, trading punches on the arm like little boys are supposed to do, when one of the boys hit a little too hard -- now here is the amazing part -- the kid rubbed his arm, told his friend to quit it, and then went on happily along the trail. No parents jumped in to protect the kid, nobody was rushed to the ER, and neither kid was victimized. It was so refreshing to see them later down by the creek with a couple of sticks, just poking at something. They were playing outdoors, without hovering adults, solved their own problems, and neither will end up in therapy in 20 yrs because of the trauma of having played a little too rough.

I miss seeing kids playing outdoors. On the street where I grew up, there were 2 groups of kids: us and the older kids. Our instructions each morning from mom were to stay on our street and be home when the streetlights came on. So my age group would play on the swingsets and with dolls and stuff, or else we would ride our banana-seated high-handlebarred bikes up the street where the older kids were (junior high kids). They wouldn't let us play with them, but sometimes they would let us sit quietly on the grass and watch them play. Wow! On those days, we felt so grown up and proud because they let us watch!

[pshrynk]

Life BEFORE my first divorce - miserable
Life AFTER my first divorce - happy but broke
Life AFTER she remarried - Happy and not broke