It was a Different World

I've heard this song a thousand times before, but hearing it today was different because my mind wasn't clogged with a million other things. Yeah I'm from that era when being a kid 30 some years ago...it was a different world. This song makes me want to be a kid again, and live in that world...back when things were different. This song fits...



How different were things when you were a kid?








[edit on 4/2/2008 by jensouth31]

Oh wow, I almost cried thinking back on those days. (good tears...)

I have no idea who that is singing, but he's a lot younger than me or you Jen.
And I'm at least 6 years older than you.

Yes, it was a different world.

Every boy in my class carried a pocket knife, and you know, I never heard of one single stabbing while going to school.

We learned to shoot as kids, and no, even though it was common to see a boy with a gun on the week-end we all still survived and have both our eyes.

Our friends would bang on the door and ask if we could come out and play.
We made adventures and went exploring. We built tree forts and tunneled to China.

Mom was home when we ran from school for lunch, and a hot meal was waiting on the table. She'd scold us if we ate too slow because we couldn't be late for the bell.

When the school system banned the strap and the teacher wasn't allowed to hit you, (about 1970), my father walked down to the school and told the Principle that he could hit us any time he needed to.
And if you did get punished at school you got it worse at home.

Times have changed. :shk:

Aw Geez Jenny Girl, we all have little triggers that remind us of our childhood.
Somethings we keep around us daily, and others we see , hear, or smell, from time to time.It's amazing how the human brain can store memories from when you were a child, that can be triggered by the same smell, or a photograph, or a song.

My best memories were sitting by the river in my backyard.Watching the boats go by.Listening to the birds singing.On the hot days you could sit in the shade under one of the two huge pine trees we had.In the autumn there were pine needles and pine cones, and I would rake them up and jump in them just like leaves. I practically lived on my bike, and I rode it everywhere, alone.To the park, to my friends houses.I was almost always having tea and cookies with one or more of the older ladies on my street.I would help them with their gardens in return.Great..now I'm Craving sugar cookies...:shk:
My Saturday mornings were always in front of the TV..cartoon heaven.And lots of junk food, to which my doctor could never figure out why I never gained weight, and my dentist was getting annoyed because he never had to give me any fillings. Lucky me.
As for music..Oh gosh, I grew up with Beach Boys, Kenny Rogers, Dr.Hook,
Rush, Van Halen...so many others.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane Jen.

Yep that’s a great reminder of being a kid when I was young,


really I was outdoors more than I was in, I climbed trees, helped build tree houses with my brother, built a boat and ran away to be pirates (up the river) loll,

Spent ages making wooden blocks in the garden to be like Bruce lee,

Played knocking on peoples doors and running away, and made the best mud pies ever,

Had a club house and dreamed of adventures like the "Navigator"

Saturdays meant going swimming, heading to the park and jumping in little waterfalls head first,

Our dad’s wheelbarrow was like the coolest thing to get dragged around in loll

Christmas was magical! Getting toys you could have only dreamed about, Back then we did not get lots of toys all year round, so it was all about that Christmas day,

Its does make me sad to not see the children today living in the adventures we did,
I worry what its effect will be,

Ah, such great memories, jensouth31. Gotta love Bucky (the guy singing). Oh, things were so simple then. We would go outside as soon as we could and not come in until we were hungry. We used to spend days making entire countries in our driveway with rocks and matchbox cars (I had two brothers, lots of matchbox cars) and noone would be allowed to park in the driveway for days. Walking down to the corner store was such a treat, let alone buying an actual soft drink. Our neighborhood was next to a graveyard, we would spend our nights playing 'ghost in the graveyard' and would make frequent visits to the 'discarded' flower pile to make boquets for our mom who never once let it bother her that we were giving her old flowers from the grave sites, weird I know.

My sister and I each have teenage girls who seem to shut down as soon as they hear the words "when I was young..." because that would mean that they would actually have to take the cell phones away from their ears long enough to listen and their immediate response is ...we know, you only had four channels and a party line phone. And that is a huge struggle right now for us, and maybe it is too much for us to expect them to appreciate where we came from so that they may somehow understand why we make some of the (less-popular) decisions that we do.

And oh, the music. Such great music. Kansas, Boston, REO Speedwagon, Journey, just to name a few more. And my parents actually liked our music and became big fans....go figure. So my sister and I try very hard to appreciate, even a little, our kid's music....having a hard time with that, not even sure that you can call it music. Singers with screaming anger issues, but we are trying.

Ok, gonna go get me a coke and my REO cd.

reply to post by AccessDenied


Always nice to meet another Rush fan!!!! Pre-1980 is the best, best, best!

"Sweet Memories"....a great Rush song.

You guys are awesome. I love hearing stories like these, and I too worry about kids today...do they even dream anymore & yearn for the same kind of adventures we all had when we were little?

When I was a kid, that's back when grandma's & grandpa's were still grandparent...OH- the fun we had on my grandpa's farm. Everyday was a complete and fullfilling adventure, from waking up early hearing my grandpa shooting at coyotes because they were after his chickens & the big upset that caused....looking for missing hen's & their baby chicks to climbing trees and building forts.

We lived on our bikes too, complete with banana seats My grandma used to make us doll house out of cardboard boxes and then she would cut pictures out of the the old Wards catalog and glue them inside our doll houses & that's how our doll houses were furnished. We lived on pure imagination back then because we had too. I remember my grandma giving us each a handful of salt & telling us if we could get close enough to a bird to throw a pinch of salt on his tail, then he wouldn't be able to fly anymore and we could catch him. The hours we spent trying to catch us a bird

We had Sunday afternoon drives too far out of the way places to get an ice cream sundae & eventually if the drive was long enough us kids would start fighting & then my mother would come over the backseat after us trying to smack us. That's when cars had another dash and window in the back of the car and you could climb up in that dash to get out of arm's reach of angry mom's who were trying to slap you! And a Sunday drive wasn't complete without my mom promising to get the belt after all of us when we got home, and my dad would always say...you girls run to daddy...I'll protect you Ok that's enough for now, but I could write a book....my memeories go on, and on.

Originally posted by jensouth31
You guys are awesome. I love hearing stories like these, and I too worry about kids today...do they even dream anymore & yearn for the same kind of adventures we all had when we were little?

It's funny because our youngest two children have a great imagination and could play all day like we use to without a tv, computer or cell phone. They love looking at old pictures and hearing our stories. Maybe we tried too hard with our older girls.

...us kids would start fighting & then my mother would come over the backseat after us trying to smack us. That's when cars had another dash and window in the back of the car and you could climb up in that dash to get out of arm's reach of angry mom's who were trying to slap you!

That is too funny, we had the same escape plan!!

reply to post by hsur2112


It was a great escape plan, because all the while mom was trying to smack us...she had one hand on the wheel and was driving at the same time Now if she stopped the car dead in the middle of the road...then we knew we were in big trouble...there was no escape plan for that!

edit* type o

[edit on 4/3/2008 by jensouth31]

We used to run out the back door if mom got mad and hide in this 10 foot deep ditch in our back yard where she couldn't see us and would never find us...ever. Until we realized when we got older that it was only a tiny dip in the yard, less than a foot deep and perfectly visible from the kitchen window. We thought we were so sneaky. :bnghd:

My dad almost never spanked us unless we did something in a public place to embarrass him...it was mostly my mom that punished us. My dad is a funny guy and he would always whisper tips in our ear how to make a spanking not hurt so bad, and those tips ranged from putting a hard bound book in the seat of our pants to a box of kotex to pad the impact

my dad would beat me whenever i deserved it. even in public. not beat really but he would smack me upside the head. today there would be 15 photos taken on camera phones and twenty seven 911 calls if the same thing happened.
today stinks.

My mom was one of those "never followed through" kinds of mom. I miss her. She would ground us and then be so tired of us kids arguing the grounding never lasted for more than an hour. Or she would ground us 'to the outside'. I loved those groundings! My dad liked to 'play, not punish'...he hated confrontation. He would come home, put Neil Diamond on the player and everyone's bad day always got better. Ok, I know, that sounds really sappy. :bash:

My mom was harsh when it came to the groundings. No television, no phone calls, no friends, and we were not allowed to step one foot off the property, we couldn't even get the mail from the box. Being grounded usually came with a rigid schedule of dreaded chores, like weeding all the flower beds, prepping the garden plot & or plowing it with the tiller, stacking firewood, cleaning the refrigerator and oh so many fun things to do

I mourn the loss of that world as well, but it is of our own making.
WE are the reason things have changed, we need to blame ourselves.


WE are the generation that created the FEAR.
WE expanded the media, expanded the influence.
WE create stories of fear, hate, and evil and feed it to our children in every medium possible.

WE changed laws, added regulations, and restrictions.
WE scream SEX every 15 seconds and SEX offender every 30
WE fear the boogeyman on every corner.

WE have destroyed our children’s innocence with early sex ed, early "lifestyle" ed.
WE have destroyed our children’s innocence with erectial dysfunction commericials.
WE have destroyed our children’s innocence with increased violence on TV and movies they watch.
WE have destroyed our children’s outlook on life with our partisan political outlook.
WE have destroyed our children’s self worth by telling them everyone is equal and everyone is special
(meaning.. no one is special)
WE have destroyed our children’s ambitions by taking away individual accomplishment and letting everyone "win"

WE let our kids play video games
WE let them go on the net, waste time on MySpace.
WE taught our kids that being on a computer is just as good as being on your bike.

WE taught our children it is not OK to speak your mind.
We have conditioned our kids that absolutely everything is dangerous.

Your probably polluting your child’s mind right now and you don’t even know it.



I am ashamed of myself and of you.


I mourn the loss of that world, for my children.

reply to post by gormly


Geez Gormly, did you have to go and do that? Not everyone is to blame for what's been done.

Originally posted by gormly
I am ashamed of myself and of you.

You may speak for yourself, please. I am not ashamed of myself at all. I am a great mom with great kids who love life. I pity those that get lost in such paranoia that they can't see the awesome things that this world has to offer. It's not a perfect world, not always great, sometimes pretty crappy, but I refuse to let my children dwell in the unpleasantness.

I mourn the loss of that world, for my children.

I miss that world too, I wish things were as they use to be. But it is up to me, personally speaking, to incorporate that 'world' and all of the things that made it special to me into the world which I raise my children in.

Let's get back to some happy thoughts of our childhood days, after all this is BTS, not ATS

Thanks hs...I'm with you on that one!

Originally posted by jensouth31
Let's get back to some happy thoughts of our childhood days, after all this is BTS, not ATS

Tall (glass) bottles of Pepsi (even though now I like coke better) and Captain Crunch cereal watching "Land of the Lost" on Saturday mornings.

I loved Land of the Lost. I'm a sucker for the old shows, I love TV LAND...they don't make shows like they used too.

Remember Sunday nights when a Disney movie would be the special feature on one of the local channels? A movie like Swiss Family Robinson, that could really send a kid off to sleep with dreams of an adventure like that! Disney doesn't make movies like they used to.