A Taste of The Good Old Days

Sometimes do you just long for the “good old days?” There are a number of small treatises like this that convey a taste of what it used to be like. Times were simpler, and quite possibly more satisfying.

"I grew up in eastern Pennsylvania, but never thought I was raised by low-income parents during a time when most everyone treated each other with respect. We didn't eat a lot of fast food because it was considered a treat, not a food group. We drank Kool-Aid made from water that came from our kitchen sink, with real sugar. We ate bologna sandwiches, or even tuna (which was in a can not a pouch), PB&J & grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, pot pies, but mostly homemade meals consisting of mainly dough, meat, potatoes, vegetable, bread & butter, and homemade dessert.

"We grew up during a time when we mowed lawns, pulled weeds, babysat, and helped neighbors with chores to be able to earn our own money. We went outside a lot to play games, ride bikes, red rover, dodge ball, run with siblings, and friends, and played hide and seek. We drank tap water from the water hose outside - bottled water was unheard of. If we had a Coke, it was in a glass bottle, and we took the empties back to the store for a 5-cent deposit.

"We watched TV shows like Bonanza, Leave It To Beaver, Gilligan's Island, Happy Days, Bewitched, The Brady Bunch, Little House On The Prairie, and I Love Lucy. After school, we came home, and did homework and chores before going outside or having friends over. We would ride our bikes for hours. We had to tell our parents where we were going, who we were going with, and what time we'd be back.

"You LEARNED from your parents, instead of disrespecting them and treating them as if they knew absolutely nothing. What they said was LAW, and you did not question it, and you had better know it!!!

"When the sun was starting to set you had better be home. In school we said the Pledge of Allegiance, we stood for the National Anthem, and we listened to our teachers.

"We watched what we said around our elders because we knew if we DISRESPECTED any grown-up we would get our behinds whipped; it wasn't called abuse, it was called discipline! We held doors, carried groceries, and gave up our seat for an older person without being asked. You didn't hear curse words on the radio, in songs, or on TV, and if you cursed and got caught you had a bar of soap stuck in your mouth or had to stand in the corner. “Please, Thank you, yes please, no thank you, yes ma'am, no ma'am, yes sir, and no sir" were part of our daily vocabulary!

“We grew up to respect the Nation, the flag, and the President, NO MATTER who it was or what party they were from.”

Not everything was good, or necessarily healthy, and attitudes are always changing.

God bless America, and the good values that helped make it great.