Things our kids will never do...

Richard S. wrote:1. Stopping off at the Mom and Pop candy store right next to the school to buy penny candy.There are no more stores like this, our town had 3 or four.

23. Tag at recess... can't do that now.. WTF.

Two that I'll comment on......

Used to go to Zerns Farmers Market in Gilbertsville, PA when I was a kid and I would head straight for the penny candy booths - swedish fish were my favorite. We always headed there right before school started in the Fall to get me a pair of sneakers to last the school year. I know there was a bad fire there a few years back, I wonder if they rebuilt it in any form? Any Berks County locals know??

I remember playing tag at recess in second grade and accidentally grabbing a classmates shirt as he ran by. The buttons popped right off his shirt and we both started blubbering about how we were in big trouble. I thought I was going to get whacked for grabbing it and he thought he was going to get whacked for having his good shirt ruined. Our teacher walked him and me to her house a couple blocks away where she sewed the buttons back on his shirt. She mentioned something along the line that since it was fixed nobody had to be in trouble for anything. And as far as I know she never told his parents or mine so neither of us got in trouble at home (you can bet we didn't say anything!). No other teacher ever took her place as my favorite!

Zern's is alive and well (in Montgomery county.) It's not the same as it was in the 70's, 80's. There used to be a guy who sat in the middle intersection with a pair of squinty-eyed glasses, which used flesh colored woman's legs for the arms. He liked to stare at you when you walked by. Another woman had eyeglass frames shaped like a cat's whiskers. Those two were there forever. You had the genuine military surplus stores where you could get some real bargains, like at Auction City, across the street. Too bad the son took over and ran it into the ground.

It's still a place to get bargain fruit and veggies. Also, quality nuts. The cashews are cheap. Alot of the old stands were replaced by junk tables, straight off the ship. There must be a seaport nearby.

I'm a little surprised to hear that Zern's is still around and the land hadn't been used for a strip mall. I definitely remember the guy with the glasses. I used to watch the animal auctions (after I hit the penny candy booth) while my parents walked around the booths. These days, I can't imagine leaving a 9 or 10 yo kid unattended like that, but we would split up when we walked in the place and meet after an hour or so.

This will date me but how many remember nickle Lifesavers? I remember when their commercial was "still only a nickle" I bought a roll of wintergreen the other day one buck including tax

Cyber36 wrote:How about driving a gas powered vehicle & having a decent paying job..........

How about having a job, any job and being able to afford to own a house.

Steve.N wrote:

Cyber36 wrote:How about driving a gas powered vehicle & having a decent paying job..........

How about having a job, any job and being able to afford to own a house.

Yeah, no sh*t. My wife and I both work and we're still scratching our asses to pay the monthly bills. Seems like there is always more month than money.

Richard S. wrote:These are some of the things I remember doing as a kid and others about small town life in general. With the exception of a few such as seatbelts most are a turn for worse. I was born in 71 so I caught the glorious end of these days in my youth, glad I did.

1. Stopping off at the Mom and Pop candy store right next to the school to buy penny candy.There are no more stores like this, our town had 3 or four.

I have a book called "Whatever Happened to Penny Candy", the lesson being, the price of candy didn't go UP, the value of a penny went DOWN.

Richard S. wrote:11. Sitting in the front seat of the car with no seat belt. Who knew better then.

How about lying on the package tray in the rear window.

Richard S. wrote:13. Riding my bike everywhere at very young age with no helmet. They didn't have any helmets then and traffic wasn't anything like it is now.

I still can't believe I make my kids wear a helmet. Heck, I can't believe it's a LAW!

Richard S. wrote:18. The big stainless steel sliding board at the park, the jungle gym and other "dangerous" obstacles. Replaced by a bunch of plastic *censored* that isn't anything more than a maze.

That slide was a skillet by the end of the year!

Richard S. wrote:19. Going to the big hill at Fox Hill country club in the winter to go sleigh riding which was used for generations for this purpose. If you were really brave you could try "suicide hill". The golf Course has been fenced off and they don't allow it anymore for insurance reasons.

We used to slide at the police station. Until years later, someone hit a tree and ruptured their spleen(?) and died.

Richard S. wrote:20. Walking down the street in my early teens with my BB gun to the river bank, if a kid did this now someone would probably call the swat team and he'd be sent to a mental hospital for evaluation. BB gun fights... ouch that hurt.

There used to be a gang of us. BB guns and compound bows. Not enough of us had BB guns, but my dad worked at Bostich so we had a house full of staple guns! Ever been hit in the eye by a flying staple?!

Richard S. wrote:23. Tag at recess... can't do that now.. WTF.

I remember "Muckle". It was basically, trip, push, tackle the poor slob with the football. Get the ball, run around as long as your could/dared, then toss it randomly. Who ever caught it was "it".

Goto bed in the winter, with the room temp down around freezing. Dad liked to save fuel oil. Wake up in the morning, and the glass of water on my night stand was frozen solid, with 3/4" of ice on every window INSIDE the house. I always wished for a 2nd blanket for xmas. Now we can easily keep our house at 75F with the wood stove and the coal stove AND wall insulation. My kids will never know what it was like to goto bed, being able to see your own breath until you fell asleep.

How about being able to take your shot gun or .22 rifle, without the firing pin to school shop class, bluing the barrel in metal shop and refinishing the wood stock in wood shop, for a grade!!! It wasn't that long ago in the 80's we did that kind of stuff in high school!

We had respect life and for other people, we said yes sir and no mam, were afraid of our fathers kicking our butts, had respect for our elders, school teachers, principals.

We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-aid made with real sugar and we weren't over weight... Why? Because we were outside always playing!!! That is why!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on... and no one was able to reach us all day... and we were Okay, without any cell phones.

We drank water from the garden hose and not a bottle. Would look forward to be able to buy and drink a soda pop in a 7oz. glass bottle from our choir allowance, if we got all of the work done and our grades were good enough.

We didn't have Play Stations, Nintendo's, X-boxes and no video games to play at home, no zillion channels on TV, no movies or DVD's, no surround sound, personal computers, cell phones, picture phones, Blackberry's, Ipods, no internet or chat rooms. Heck, the kids today don't even know what a card catalog is, let alone how to count change back from a dollar bill!!

When wanting to play sports, we had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out because we broke the law was unheard of. Our parents sided with the law!

We made toys from sticks and balls, played Cowboys and Indians, shot the whole town up with cap guns, made firecrackers from scraping the black powder from our roll caps, we all had a Swiss army knife with us everywhere we went and never had to worry about caring a concealed weapon without a permit anywhere we went.

I could go on and on! Times sure have changed and not for the better! Our kids will never know the freedoms we had when growing up and it sure is a shame!

They will work there whole life and will Never see a S.S. check when they retire

One artifact that has disappeared is a heavy glass plate with a shallow depression in the middle. This was in all stationary or candy stores. Money paid in was bounced off this plate and if it did not ring true it was bounced right back to you. A twenty five cent piece was worth more than a dollar is now and there were plenty of counterfeit coins around. Even nickels. Today we might say a statement rings true or false, but then it referred to money. A box of 22 shells was 50 cents, a penny apiece.

Richard

As a kid I had a paper route & sunday mornings I would put a pile of papers, a cigar box with some change in it & a stone for weight so the papers didn`t blow away on the front stoop of a Isleys store. I always came out ahead because some would leave small tips but I never lost money, try doing that today.

Out paper"boy" won't be getting any tips, dude can't find the front porch and it's huge. It's at the point now we're ready to cancel it.

This is in the 50's~ How about going over to the Sears store as a 14 year old kid and paying the man $26 dollars for your first 22 rifle.That was the tubular magazine model. This was brought about by two paper routes [96 dailys and 54 sundays].No parents help required but they knew everything about it for certain.

The blocks between Western Ave and Hudson Ave, and Partridge St. and Hamilton St. in Albany were our playground. We would ride our Stingray bikes at top speed down the sidewalk and cut left to a hump in somebody's back yard and get airborne. There was a big field a few blocks away where we would fly kites all day long. Mrs. Mulhern would send me and Mikey to the gas station with a glass one gallon wine jug and a quarter, for the lawnmower.
Me and Charlie Canning were allowed to take the city bus to McKeown's Grove in the summer. I remember sitting all the way in the back seat and my legs not even close to touching the floor. We must have been 8. McKeown's Grove was a little private lake with a slide, a dock. Absolute heaven for a little city kid, and no hamburger ever tasted better than from the concession stand. ( No swimming until you digest your food 1/2 hour!)
Everybody knew everybody in that neighborhood.
Over at LaSalle School there was woods and a hill leading to a ball field. If I saw that hill today it would probably be 15' high and 20' long, in the winter it was the most thrilling sleigh ride you could imagine. We would go sleigh riding at the Municipal Golf Course too; ten times more thrilling, and a cup of hot chocolate at the clubhouse was all a kid could want!