Posted by:
cruiser on
March 24, 2009 at
9:33AM CST
The post on toilets started a cruise down memory lane for a lot of us.
Old houses are like old cars to this oldfart who thinks older is better.
If you measure a 2×4 in an older home, it measures 2 inches by 4 inches. Measure one in a newer house and they are 1 and a half inches by 3 and a half inches.
My parents bought our place in 1954 when I was just a pup. Back then most houses in the neighborhood didn’t have clothes dryers. After mom finished with the wringer washer she’d haul the laundry out to the clothes lines and hang them to dry. We kids were in charge of getting the poles in place when the lines started sagging.
Then the source of news was the back fence. Neighbors would be outside and if you were out they stopped to chat over the fence. It was kinda like “Cheers” back then because everybody knew your name.My how times change.
TV wasn’t as important as it is today. Kids today watch more TV after school than entire families watched back then. We also ate supper as a family every night. On Sundays most of us went to the church of their choice as a family. That was when we found out we had a drug problem. We were drug to church, drug to visit sick relatives, and drug to visit neighbors.
I was a little too young to remember but it must have been safer back then. Nobody we knew locked their cars or houses at night. And yet I don’t remember hearing of anyone getting robbed, killed, or sexually assaulted in their home. We kids would take off in the morning with no way to contact home in case of trouble, be gone all day, walk all over the city, and we lived to tell about it.
Back then we had the option of a morning or evening newspaper too.
We had three movie theatres, a five-and-dime, a Grants store, and a
lot more neat things to do downtown. I honestly think we were in better shape than kids today because we were so active. Sure we had Iowana, Dairy Queen, and A & W driveins, but we usually walked to get there.
When we bought the place from my folks in 1994 things had changed.
Oh sure, the house was 40 years older, but the dynamics of the old
neighborhood had changed. What was once all owner occupied houses had changed to probably at least half rentals. People don’t seem as eager to know their neighbors anymore, and you rarely see them outside except to mow the lawn or grill some meat. Some might call that progress, but I think it’s a crying shame.
Comments are always welcome.
Yep cruiser, we had it good, and we didn't even know it.People just were not as MEAN back then either.We would be off in the woods for hours, and our folks didn't have to panic, our tummies brought us home eventually.
We'd ride our bikes from Central Davenport over to Fejevary. We'd eat sack lunches over there and spend the day walking the trails that followed the wooded ravines behind the petting zoo. It didn't take twenty bucks to go to the movie either, more like a quarter to get in and a dime for popcorn. The monsters in the films were phony by today's standards but were real enough to get a charge out of us. The slashing and insane brutality came along after I left home for the service. Since we didn't have computers, a rainy day would find us at a board game of some kind: Chinese checkers or Tripoli or the card game Sorry were big. Summer days we'd play softball for hours at the diamonds on the school grounds. I marvel at the incredible changes that have taken place in the US since I was a boy.
We were! Catching lightning bugs in the evening, watching for shooting stars,playing tag, REAL tag.I used to play so hard running around and stuff that sometimes I would get a headache,lol.
It was easy, cause after school we could play, and do what we wanted or needed to.Of course, we didn't have all the after school stuff like they do now.Band practice and basketball practice and softball practice ect, were just not done that much after school.As far as schoolwork, we did that mainly at school, at least in the early grades, didn't drag home as much homework.There was just plain more time to be a kid. My sis-in-law has her kids at home usually ONE night a week, she mostly drags them to after school stuff every evening, or has to pick them up at school after something or other.Home at 7 or 8 after practice, then homework then shower and bed.No time to just be a kid.
marismom, We like ours too, although I think clothes smell fresher when they are hung out to dry.
Penelope, They also have a lot more rules while in school today. In my day if we got in a fight and would shake hands we got sent back to class. Now they get sent home.
Posted by: Watchfulmom on March 25, 2009 4:48PM CST
I remember those clothes line poles and the wringer washers. Still have one out in the garage. Maytag. Ironing with a sprinkle bottle. Nothing like fresh sheets right off the line. Just about dark Mom's hollering for the kids to come in and get baths. Kids dragging their feet not wanting to go in. The miles I put on my bicycle!!! Funny you should mention the old 2x4's. Hubby was just talking about that the other day. He called them real 2x4's lol.
As soon as the street lights came on we had to go inside. As for 2X4's, my beloved buys 4X2's and turns them sideways.
Posted by: Watchfulmom on March 25, 2009 11:24PM CST
What is it with those street lights sweet our parents must have known each other! That was when all the good stuff to do was happening and they'd holler out that the street lights were on get in here.
Im going to have to take pics of my new house and post them in a blog so you can see them cruiser. This house was built in the 1900's and in some spots you can really tell. Apparent ly people just werent as tall as they are now! I can touch the ceilings in the bedrooms and bathroom without a problem! But this house is too cool.
I remember playing all day outside and gettig called in just as the street lights were coming on....
I was in the country, no streetlights. I had to be close to home by the time it got dark, and Mom would just yell for me.But, if the uncles and aunts came with their kids they would sit outside in yardchairs and talk, and we kids would run around the yard, we had a yardlight.
jester, That sounds like a neat house. I know in our house the basement must have been put in by midgets. Everytime I go down there I bang my head.
Penelope, Out in the country was cool too. Without all the city lights you could see a lot more stars at night. The only time I saw more stars was on a Destroyer in the Pacific.
And when I was a boy, they didn't have the fancy barricades with blinking lights to warn against a construction site unfinished in the street. They had these black balls that held kerosene or some kind of oil and that fueled a flame that warned drivers of hazards. They gave off a heavy black smoke that curled out with the flame. Those were the days. The balls looked like the bombs you'd see cartoon villians throw about.
And what red-blooded American boy could walk past such a burning pot without finding a stick to roast over the flame? And back then the neighborhood was the village it takes to raise a kid, so soon enough a neighbor would send you running for home with a good scolding about the dangers of playing with fire.
Leave a Message
Leave a Comment
Request a Friend
