Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire CHILDREN OF THE TOUGH GENERATION

How many remember having to turn that damned crank seemingly forever, adding more ice and rock salt as you cranked and cranked and cranked?

Then you could get a lick of ice cream off the dasher.

L.W.

Now I know what y'all are talkin' about. The paddle. Never heard it called a dasher. Was looking at my White Mountain the other day. Good bit of salt there with it.

Born in '51 so I'm technically outside of the '30s and early '40s group here. I did, however, grow up in a small east-central Nebraska town in the '50s and early '60s where we were always 5 to 10 years behind a good bit of the rest of the country. I grew up in a large family with the attitudes and experiences T LEE outlined in his initial post. I didn't go through ALL of it but I feel I had a pretty close experience. My Dad was born in '31 and was the eldest of 9 kids who all grew up in a poor family (at least by today's standards). I have heard many, many stories and accounts of the times. We made it to retirement thanks to their wisdom and guidance . . . I, too, fear for our grandkids' future.

TV, I would be about 4 or 5, my uncle still living with Granny and Grandpa bought them a an early TV. I don't think we even had a local TV station, the third largest city in Canada. I got to see a snowy picture of wrestling from a station just across the border. We moved out of the city, and had a house on a hill , we could pickup Seattle , ABC and NBC , the CBS station was just across the border and by then we had the Canadian CBC. We were the first house on the block to get a TV ! My other granny would come out every Sunday to watch Maverick . They couldn't pick up Seattle.

'69 here.

I have respect for the good ones. Before, now, future. Individuals.

Rene is right though.

Depression Era, WWII era.
Did they ask for the challenge?
See it, and want it?

No!

Simply did what people do. Live through it, adapt and do the best they can.

My kids? Well I'm not worried about the generation, they will get by.
Some will OD. Some will design drugs to save lives.
Some will live in a basement, others will advance productivity.

The generational thing is like racism.
One can point out sterotypes. Accurate, fair ones.
But, the man standing in fronton you is a unique being.


The greatest Generation? They went through some crap..
Also, had a bunch of wife beating, criminal no goods.
Like anyother.

Here's a similar version of the OP that my mother sent me this morning about those of us born between '25 and '55.


TO ALL THE
KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE
1930's, 40's, and 50's !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank - While they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then, after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs
Covered with bright colored
Lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets,
And, when we rode our bikes,
We had baseball caps,
Not helmets, on our heads.


As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.


Riding in the back of a pick- up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.


We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter, and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar.
And we weren't overweight.
WHY?
Because we were always outside playing...that's why!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.


No one was able to reach us all day .. .
And, we were OKAY.


We would spend hours building
Our go-carts out of scraps and
then ride them down the hill,

Only to find out that we forgot about brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned To Solve the problem.


We did not
Have Play Stations, Nintendo
and X-boxes. There were
No video games,
No 150 channels on cable,
No video movies
Or DVDs,
No surround-sound or CDs,
No cell phones,
No personal computers,
No Internet and
No chat rooms.
WE HAD FRIENDS
And we went
Outside and found them!

We fell out of
trees, got cut,
Broke bones and
Lost teeth,
And there were
No lawsuits
From those accidents.

We would get
Spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles, or just a bare hand,
And no one would call child services to report abuse.

We ate worms,
And mud pies
Made from dirt,
And
The worms did
Not live in us forever.

We were given
BB guns for our 10th birthdays,
22 rifles for our 12th, rode horses,
made up games with sticks and
tennis balls, and

-although we were
Told it would happen- we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes
Or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell,
or just Walked in and talked to them.

Little League had
tryouts
And not everyone
Made the team.
Those who didn't
Had to learn
To deal with
Disappointment.

Imagine that!!


The idea of a parent
Bailing us out
If we broke the law
was unheard of ...
They actually sided with the law!


These generations have
Produced some of the best risk-takers,
Problem solvers, and
Inventors ever.

The past 60 to 85 years
Have seen an explosion
of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom,
Failure, success and responsibility,
and we learned

Ho w to deal with it all.

If YOU are One of those born
Between 1925-1955, CONGRATULATIONS!

I grew up in Boise. We lived in the NW part of town near the foothills. A lot of my friends had horses and on a nice Saturday, we'd saddle up and head up in the hills. We'd ride all day and nobody every said anything more than 'Where ya been?' our of curiosity. Sometimes we go as far as Bogus Basin ski area. That was an all day trip.

Cranked a LOT, but it was worth it!

From about 1944 to 1947 we lived in a small apartment house owned by my uncle. The building also held a neon sign business that he owned. There was a swampy woods and stream behind the building, and they dumped scrap from the business there. We kids would break the neon tubes to get the mercury and play with it, and no doubt it was in the stream too, and probably the fish we caught.

I seem to have survived the experience, but that doesn't prove that mercury isn't dangerous. We survived most of the experiences mentioned, but that doesn't mean they were a good idea. Several of them I wouldn't repeat, or expose today's kids to.

We seem to have forgotten that with most things, balance is the best approach.

Paul

1976 here so just an observer on the sidelines for this thread. I’m thankful we were rural and my parents (both 1952 models) kept life simple for us and I was able to experience a lot of what’s being discussed.

I did want to say that we just got a manual ice cream maker last week and have two batches under our belt. My kids (7,5,3, & 1) were amazed watching ice cream come into being. And my 7yo got a little insight into the work that it takes when you don’t just go to Meijer and buy everything.

Just wait until they see it on a cart hooked to a hit and miss engine!

Today's kids don't have to deal with polio, smallpox, and other diseases that were so deadly when I was a kid in the 50's. Why? Because of VACCINES, those deadly, profit and politically driven drops of stuff they put in your body to keep you from catching that stuff.

You speak the truth Sir.

I remember the Three Stooges on TV.

I dont think i layed any of it.

Haha

You all voted for LBJ too.....


thanks ? (sarcasm)

Was only 19 in 1960 but voted Straight Republican in '64, Have voted Straight Republican ever since and never missed an election!

Not me Soummer. I was 15 in '64.

Dayom, stuff changed real quick back then. Lived in Luling, Texas then.

Two years later I was living in Refugio, Texas. Hunting my buds grandmothers ranch, killing deer with a bow and arrow or SShot breakover Savage 30-30 with a dovetail mounted 22 Weaver scope, hopping Austwell Wildlife Refuge or OConnor Ranch fences and dodging helicopters and freaking UFOs.

Split paper Texas DL with razor cutout and switched numbers when I lost my billfold while out one night parking and got drunk and lucky.

Came home from work one summer evening a few days later and Mom said the sheriff had come by. He asked her if she had a 21 year old son with my name and she said yes. He gave her my billfold and left.

Crap. She didnt know I knew Sheriff Hodges.

GOD bless America, again.

Here's that 30-30 off hand neck shot 22 inch 11 point buck, Slum. It had run up on me chasing a hot doe. He had a smile on his face until he saw me. He turned and ran out into a high grass South Texas coastal marsh and stopped to look at me. Only thing above the high grass was his upper neck, head and rack. I said a prayer, wobbled around and touched one off at the white throat patch.

PTL, he fell dead.