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DanChamberlain
Posts: 3,395 Senior Member
Memory Lane
DanChamberlain
Posts: 3,395 Senior Member
Grand Dad had an actual, honest to goodness "Smoke House" on his farm. Even when it wasn't in use, walking by it made me hungry!
In elementary school, we got milk in little 1 pint glass bottles, chilled and sweating. You'd rip off the foil top and drink from a straw, or if you were adventurous and the teachers didn't see you, you'd slug it right from the bottle. Milk hasn't tasted the same since.
Speaking of milk, every house had a metal cooler on their porch. They'd put money in it with an order for milk, butter and eggs. The "Milk Man" would come by and leave the ordered goods, and change from the purchase. No one stole the money or the food.
Kids would bring their guns to school to work on the stocks in wood shop.
We had snowball fights and kids occasionally got hurt and we'd still have snowball fights because snowball fights are a part of growing up and so is getting hurt.
If a kid was a real hellion, a teacher could kick his butt and not get fired. That teachers occasionally kicked kids butts helped them grow up.
When the coach told you to run laps, you did it. Not because you liked it, but because you had parents that instilled respect in you and the coach was an extension of your parent's authority.
I heard a phrase used the other day that was so out of place in today's world that I actually felt a bit astonished. I was at a restaurant and the table next to me had a man and three teen-aged boys. Each boy ordered in turn. Each of them started with: "May I have..." I bought them their meals.
In elementary school, we got milk in little 1 pint glass bottles, chilled and sweating. You'd rip off the foil top and drink from a straw, or if you were adventurous and the teachers didn't see you, you'd slug it right from the bottle. Milk hasn't tasted the same since.
Speaking of milk, every house had a metal cooler on their porch. They'd put money in it with an order for milk, butter and eggs. The "Milk Man" would come by and leave the ordered goods, and change from the purchase. No one stole the money or the food.
Kids would bring their guns to school to work on the stocks in wood shop.
We had snowball fights and kids occasionally got hurt and we'd still have snowball fights because snowball fights are a part of growing up and so is getting hurt.
If a kid was a real hellion, a teacher could kick his butt and not get fired. That teachers occasionally kicked kids butts helped them grow up.
When the coach told you to run laps, you did it. Not because you liked it, but because you had parents that instilled respect in you and the coach was an extension of your parent's authority.
I heard a phrase used the other day that was so out of place in today's world that I actually felt a bit astonished. I was at a restaurant and the table next to me had a man and three teen-aged boys. Each boy ordered in turn. Each of them started with: "May I have..." I bought them their meals.
It's a source of great pride for me, that when my name is googled, one finds book titles and not mug shots. Daniel C. Chamberlain
Replies
And if the coach chased everybody around the football field while running laps, kicking the slackers in the butt and calling them ****, the dad's all thought it was hilarious.
Our milk, at school, came in half-pint waxed cartons with a 'punch-out' hole for the straw, and cost $0.04 - we had our "lunch money" and our "milk money," altogether about 30-40 cents, and if you lost it or forgot it or couldn't afford it, you worked in the cafeteria to pay for it. The food was horrible, except for the rolls and strawberry jello, but you didn't have to eat it.
And we had a soccer ball (one for the whole school) at recess, but of course, nobody in Texas knew how to play it. So, it was basically just a gang-fight where 50 kids just continuously charged the ball and kicked anything that got close to it. Every school had a nurse, and they used gallons of Mercurochrome and Merthiolate.
And when your buddy's parents picked you up because you were spending the night, your dad told them they had permission to spank you if you didn't mind your manners.
Life member of the American Legion, the VFW, the NRA and the Masonic Lodge, retired LEO