quote:

Originally posted by 12131:

Let's see your ooooold stuff.

1959 Christmas presents.

Brother Dan 6 me 5

[/url]

Q,
Miss? Not entirely. They were simpler times for sure but there were challenges as well.

I'm wearing the Dixie Cup hat. Figure these were taken in the late '50s when I was a pre-teen. My younger brother is also in these pictures. The 22' Flying Dutchman was built at our house. I itched all summer from the fiberglass cloth we laid on the hull.




My first car.

Born in 1951 so I was raised in the best of times. Only 20 years difference between me and my parents so they were kids raising kids, just me and my younger (by 7 years) sister.

My dad was a free spirited entrepreneur and once I was about 12 I was his right hand man. I grew up fast with a huge amount of freedom and a good bit of responsibility. Would not change a thing but once was enough.

There was a time all I cared about was my sand pile and my dog. Grew up in an area where I had more area to roam than my mom would let me. Moved into town when I was 5.

I’d go back to being a kid for a weekend if I could.

Sleep in. Eat sugerary cereal for breakfast while watching cartoons. Play with friends now gone. Spend time with mom and dad who have long since passed. Spend time with other family also long since passed. Play with my first dog that even today all these decades later I still think about. A weekend without a care in the world.

Then come back to the true freedom and independence of adulthood as another member posted (not to mention my wife)

Put me in the category of not really. I absolutely miss the times but if I could zoom back to a single age, it wouldn’t be 7. Now 21 you could get my interest up. I do miss the old days though. Having a bedtime and cleaning my plate just because I could do without.

Sand lot tackle football, pick up baseball with invisible base runners and kick the can until dark! Those were the days !.

My high school class voted me "most likely to do twenty to life". I did 24 years as a cop dealing with other peoples' kids and soap operas, with several years as a chief playing the game with a city council trying to balance demands, expectations, and budget constraints.

Some mornings I have fond memories of living on a farm as a kid, chasing rabbits along the creek with a .22 single-shot. Then I remember how cold it was as the sun came up, and the hours of chores every morning and evening, sharing a bedroom with two older brothers, finally getting indoor plumbing in the house instead of chamber pots and the outhouse, the miracles of the Rural Electrification Program, and the first time I saw a television. Sputnik, nuclear war drills in schools (duck and cover!), President Eisenhower, the JFK assassination. All the Way with LBJ, a draft notice, Army basic training, Vietnam.

Then I was old enough to vote, and old enough to order a beer. By then I had 2 kids and a mortgage to pay every month, and there was always some month left after the end of the money.

Tough choices: youth, innocence, mindless fun and endless dreams or arthritis, doctor appointments, morning and evening medications.

Tough choices.

I miss parts of it. We moved every couple of years as my dad climbed the corporate ladder so I never made any long term friends.

What I do miss is the rock bands I played in while in high school. Playing live music in schools, bars, strip joints and anywhere else that would hire us was an absolute gas. Wisconsin was very liberal on their beer laws. Even though 18 was legal, 16 was generally close enough if you were in the band.

This was the best of times to live and play rock music.

Mike - once a decent lead guitar.

I do not miss being a kid. I was a shy and awkward kid. I do miss the time period. I would like to go back for a day, shop at the long gone neighborhood stores, have a conversation with my late dad, etc.—you know, like that Twilight Zone episode "Walking Distance" where Gig Young travels back to his childhood small town in the past. But, I sure wouldn't want to be a kid again.

Here's me and my first "girlfriend" from elementary school circa 1979.




I got to meet up with her in 2018 when we turned, gasp, 50! I hadn't seen her since then.

I had a fun childhood for the most part growing up in the 70s & 80s. I started dating my wife sophomore year in high school and we will celebrate 30 years of marriage later this year. Like most have said, I miss the simpler times of not being connected 24/7. I miss when the commies were the enemy outside our border and not the misguided fools inside our border. I miss having real leaders like Ronald Reagan with the dignity and infectious love he seemed to have for our country. I raised two Gen Z kids 25 & 22 and I wouldn’t trade my childhood for theirs. So, I would not want to be a kid again in this day and age.

I'll happily take back all those childhood years, except for school. Let's leave that out this time around.

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:

quote:

Originally posted by Anush:

quote:

Dad went to the US for military officer training

Was he at Ft Benning in 1967?

Don't know what named military installation it was, but not Benning, since he trained in Indianapolis, where the late Senator Richard Lugar was mayor at the time. Still has the Honorary Citizen of Indianapolis Certificate that Lugar gave him hanging on the wall.

Had to be Ft. Benjamin Harrison, I know we had alot of foreign miltary service members going to school there when I was there.

I'd go back to my time in Africa as a lad.

That was before I learned what racism is and means. That I learned here in Virginia.

Nope. By the age of 5 I realized with no parents around, I would have to more or less raise myself. Had a full time job at 10. And it’s been all uphill since.

As it was tough at times I don't miss childhood per se, but I seem to understand much of what I do now in retirement is to be the child that was left inside. Now I'd say it like this, I do miss my youth.

I would have had a different answer 20 years ago when there was only time to raise the family and provide for it.

"Life would be infinitely happier if we could only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen." Mark Twain

I think I have forgotten much of the bad things about being a kid. Worrying about school grades, awkwardness with girls, being one of the smaller (and the youngest) kids in my class, etc.

In general, I look fondly on my childhood. Being young and innocent to the world was a fun adventure!

Of course if I knew then what I know now, it would be completely different and probably not better.

Today, out of the blue, my friend of nearly 60 years sent me a class photo from 5th grade, April 1968. We’re on the top row. I’m the one wearing glasses. I had a happy childhood but I didn’t like school much (I had a lot of more interesting things to do) and I’m glad I got through with it.

I miss the endless energy and not hurting after doing physical stuff.

Riding my bike all day or playing in the woods.

I was a very active kid as most were back in the 70's-80's. I am still fairly active but stuff hurts now.

Some of my childhood and teen years I don't miss. What I DO miss, however, are the "simpler times" of my childhood. This world is F---ED up now, but I remain optimistic 98.999% of the time in my own little bubble and try to not let it bother me or dominate my thoughts.