Little Italy. Every summer, from about age 10-14 I would stay there for a week or 2. He and I went everywhere alone. Subway, bus, all parts of town. MSG had a bowling alley back then that we would go to. The Ferry, Museum of Natural History, by ourselves.
RE: Love it!! Great post Greg. In the '70s, not only did we not use Â
helmets on bicycles, we routinely did stunts in the street. ALONE! With no parents! Or parents watching us have fun and enjoying it.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
Yeah, I remember clearly one summer I was a human scab from wiping out on my bike too many times thinking I was Evil Kenevil
Playing outside all day in the summer until the streetlights came on and your dad bellowed (seriously you could hear it a mile away) out the back door for you to come home...not only normal, it was EXPECTED of you.
I never would've thought that that world would disappear. I'm just glad I was a part of it while it still existed.
My parents probably treated me the same way their parents treated them, and so on and so forth.
Times have changed.
I will never allow, in this day and age, my children to do what I was allowed to do because I legitimately fear for their safety.
Not disagreeing, but I can distinctly remember my grandfather and father waxing nostalgically about how great things were when they were kids and how different they were when I was a kid.
So that was my initial point. Sure things are different now, but I was saying that the older generations said the same about our generation.
Of course... But when you look at the big picture... There weren't as many differences between the 50's and the 80's as there are between the 80's and the 2000's, you know? Yeah, behavior and little things here and there...
But the technology explosion of the 90's I'd compare to the Industrial Revolution. The internet was a major turning point in mankind. It is all encompassing. It changed the way we live completely.
RE: RE: Love it!! Great post Greg. In the '70s, not only did we not use Â
helmets on bicycles, we routinely did stunts in the street. ALONE! With no parents! Or parents watching us have fun and enjoying it.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
Yeah, I remember clearly one summer I was a human scab from wiping out on my bike too many times thinking I was Evil Kenevil
I have a slightly chipped front tooth as a souvenir. And my bottom lip healed a little funny on the inside. Ruined my career as a trumpet player before it started. Like Ralph Kramden, I could never hit that high note again.
I am 30 and my generation is the last one that is going to remember what life was like before cell phones and the internet. Kind of weird to think about. I grew up calling friends houses if I wanted to get in touch with them, I never had a cell phone in high school and didn't have a computer until like 6th or 7th grade.
I have a younger brother who grew up in a completely different world than I did and we're only 8 years apart.
Our neighborhood still has a number of original owners (from the 80s) so there aren't too many kids. My sons bus stop only has 3 kids (for about 20-25 houses). There are some younger couples that have younger kids so I imagine we will see more soon.
Some of the residents of my town still recall the Megan Kanka murder with tears, so I guess there is some hesitation about free-roaming kids from people that were around during that time.
I'd probably be OK with my oldest son playing outside by himself (he is 7), but not the 5 and 2 year old.
the good old days! I can remember going with my Dad to the bank early on Sat morning so he'd have cash for the weekend and dealing with the long lines. No calculators in School...let alone phones. The old station wagon with the extra pop up seats in the way back. Tang, Space Food Sticks (or whatever they were called, peanut butter rocked). Event TV that you couldn't record...Wizard of Oz every Thanksgiving, various Xmas shows. Early morning TV during the week if you were home "sick" from school...Zoom, New Zoo Review, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Fractured Fairytales....good times!
1970s[edit]
January 5, 1970: Washington, DC, Tyrone Perry, 15, was shot to death at Hine Junior High School.[178]
May 4, 1970: Kent, Ohio, During protests of the Vietnam War on the college Campus of Kent State University, Armed National Guard Soldiers opened fire on unarmed students killing four people.[179]
May 15, 1970: Jackson, Mississippi, One student was killed and twelve others injured when police open fired on students gathered to protest the military presence in Cambodia
[180]* February 2, 1971: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Teacher Samson L. Freedman, 56, was shot to death as he left Morris E. Leeds School, by Kevin Simmons, 14. Freedman had suspended Simmons earlier in the day for cursing in the hallway.[181]
November 8, 1971: Grove, Oklahoma, School custodian, Jim "James" Underwood brought a .22 caliber revolver to school hidden in a brown paper bag. School principal, T. J. Melton, 49, was shot in the left shoulder, left ear and in the top of his head, according to published reports. He died around 9 a.m. and Underwood was charged the next day with first-degree murder.[182]
November 11, 1971: Spokane, Washington, Former MIT student Larry J. Harmon, 21, entered St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church on the Gonzaga University campus armed with a .22 caliber rifle. Harmon killed the caretaker, 68-year-old Hilary Kunz, and upon emerging from the church, wounded four more people before police officers shot and killed him. Harmon was described by his father as a religious fanatic who believed that he had seen the devil and that Christ was an imposter.[183]
January 5, 1972: Washington, DC, Fifth-grade teacher Margaret Brooks, 57, was shot to death in front of her students by her estranged husband James A. Brooks.[184]
February 26, 1973: Richmond, Virginia, Wayne Phillips, 17, was shot to death when he was caught between two youths who were fighting in the hallway of Armstrong High School.[185]
October 1, 1973: Elmwood Park, Illinois, Elmwood Park Community High School student Cynthia Schulze was shot and killed in the hallway between classes by student William Rossi, with whom she was probably not acquainted. Rossi then ran out of the school and shot himself to death in an alley nearby.[186]
January 17, 1974: Chicago, Illinois, Elementary school principal Rudolph Jezek, Jr., 52, was shot to death in his office by Steven Guy, 14, a former student said to be angry at being transferred from the school to a social adjustment center.[187]
March 22, 1974: Brownstown, Indiana, Jessie Blevins, 48, athletic director at Brownstown Central High School, was shot to death in the school parking lot by a 17-year-old student.[188]
December 30, 1974: Olean, New York, Regents scholar Anthony Barbaro, 17, armed with a rifle and shotgun, kills three adults and wounds 11 others at his high school, which was closed for the Christmas holiday. Barbaro was reportedly a loner who kept a diary describing several "battle plans" for his attack on the school.[189][190]
February 18, 1975: Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York, Marist College student Shelley Lynn Sperling was shot and killed by a scorned suitor, Louis o. Acevedo, in the Marist College cafeteria.[191]
March 18, 1975: Sumner High School, St. Louis, Missouri, 16-year-old Stephen Goods, a bystander, is shot and killed during a fight between other teens.[192]
September 11, 1975: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S. Grant High School student Randy Truitt was shot and killed by James Briggs at the school, leaving several others injured.[193]
February 12, 1976: Detroit, Michigan, Intruders shot five Murray-Wright High School students after an apparent dispute over one of the intruders girlfriends.[194]
June 12, 1976: California State University, Custodian Edward Charles Allaway, 37, opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle in the library on the California State University, Fullerton campus killing 7, and wounding 2.[citation needed]
November 10, 1976: Detroit, Michigan, Second grade teacher Bettye McCaster, 45, was shot to death in front of her 29 students at Burt Elementary School, by her estranged husband, Al Lewis.[195]
April 7, 1977: Whitharral, Texas, High School principal M. O. Tripp was shot to death on the front steps of the school by Ricardo Lopez, 17.[196]
February 9, 1978: St. Albans, West Virginia, A 15-year-old student was shot and killed by another student at Hayes Junior High School.[citation needed]
February 22, 1978: Lansing, Michigan, After being taunted for his beliefs, a 15-year-old self-proclaimed Nazi, killed one student and wounded a second with a Luger pistol at Everett High School.[190]
April 26, 1978: Dallas, Texas, Woodrow Porter, 38, who was a janitor at Paul Dunbar Elementary School, was shot to death by the 56-year-old grandmother of an 8-year-old that was allegedly spanked by Porter earlier.[197]
May 18, 1978: Austin, Texas, John Daniel Christian, 13, son of Lyndon B. Johnson's former press secretary George Christian, shot to death his English teacher, Wilbur Grayson, 29, with his father's .22 caliber rifle in front of approximately 30 classmates. John Christian was arrested and charged but was not prosecuted. He spent two years in a mental hospital. He is now a practicing attorney in Austin, Texas.[198]
January 29, 1979: San Diego, California, Brenda Spencer opened fire on Grover Cleveland Elementary School from the window of her home across the street, killing two adults and wounding nine others, eight of whom were children.[199] The shootings inspired the song I Don't Like Mondays.
I didn't want it to turn in to one of those... "Back in my day things were this way" and somebody comes in and argues "nothing's changed, happened the same then as it does now, you're just older"...
Which was kind of starting to happen a little bit here. Pissing match was just a overly strong term I used for it.
My personal opinion is that while there may be a few remaining similarities, the reality of the world we live in now is nothing like the world back then. They are in fact, very, very different. Regardless of one's own nostalgic feelings over their childhood and/or the upcoming generation. And that's okay.
Inevitably, when somebody starts one of these threads, this is the course it tends to head off on, despite not being in the spirit of the op. So anyways, back to the 70's.
Anyway this 70's topic brings back memories of playing war in the woods ,Being dropped of at Adventure land for the day with out any parent going to Sunrise mall with friends to the movies an game rooms ,White castle ,Playing wiffle ball, Stick ball,Street/RollerHockey I could go on,BUT todays World is a different place,I must admit I don't let my 16 an 9 year olds have the freedom that I had growing up in the 70's to late 80's .Just to many F up people in this world today.One thing i wish we had back then was cell phones ,so at 5' O' clock my parents new where i was.
Wikipedia lists 24 school shooting incidents in this country during the 1970s.
Link - ( New Window )
Another great '70s (and '80s)thing was National Lampoon Magazine. Do you remember the "Mass Murderer Trading Cards" that were designed just like TOPPS baseball cards? Probably had most of these shootings
When I was growing up I hated sitting in the sun because I'd burn so easily. One of my friends used to bake in the sun and call me Casper because I was so pale.
I bet that friend is wishing they had followed my lead, especially after having several skin cancer scares.
the one thing I do wish I had back as a kid was a safety helmet when I rode my bike. I actually took a nasty spill off my bike once--thankfully I didn't suffer a head injury, but when I think back to how close I came, I was damn lucky to walk away with just some bad scrapes and cuts and nothing more.
Also kids of the 70s actually got outside and played more, getting more exercise. today it's too tempting for kids to sit indoors playing video games all day. So I would think kids of the 70s were in better physical condition back then, but I'm just guessing.
Hell, even in the late 70s and 80s when video games were becoming huge Â
We still played outside a Hell of a lot more than sitting inside playing video games. That's what you did when it was raining or it was too dark to play outside.
(BMX not a motorized one). My friends and I were racing around the block and really getting physical. I ended up flipping over my bike. When I walked it back with my shoulder and knee bleeding, my father didn't even notice me. He was just pissed the front reflector was broken on my first day out. I still have a scar on my shoulder from that scrape.
and "half-field" baseball games. You could play for hours with three guys per side.
Yes. Played all day
I hate those as a kid, but loved them when I got older. I was usually the only lefty and either because of the number of kids or the way the schoolyard was configured, the right side was usually foul or an out. So I was forced to hit the other way. It served me well as I got older and played baseball in HS.
That's why I always loved and related to Mattingly's story of learning to go the other way because of his backyard wiffleball games with his brothers. Paul O'Neill had a similar story.
the bases, hits would be determined by distance. A cleanly fielded ball was an out. So, past the tree was a single, the mailbox a double, etc. We used to do it on really hot days sometimes.
I think the biggest difference today from when I was a kid in the 80s is smoking. I remember I actually got "smoking permission" from my parents when I went away to prep school *as a freshman*. I mean, think about that... I would never give my kids permission to smoke. But it wasn't that long ago that smoking was totally okay.
I also remember coming back to NYC on breaks from school and going to the deli and buying beer. I mean, WTF? No one ever thought twice about selling beer and cigarettes to kids.
On the other hand, I certainly wasn't ever exposed to the really troubling things I read about today. You know, like, the football team hazing (we did it but wasn't like some of the crap you read about) and the treatment of girls didn't seem nearly as indecent as the things I read about today. Or the bullying kids into suicide. We didn't have any of that.
Like most of my friends, I turned out pretty well and eventually joined the establishment.
that was the great thing, we would just make up games depending on how Â
many players we had. I remember we made up this offense/defense practice game for street hockey that we called starts. 3 guys were enough. The goalie played all. the other 2 played against each other. Each got 5 possessions, or "starts". A "start" ended if there was a goal or the goalie made a save. We'd play for hours in the cold. Sometimes we'd do it 2 on 1, or 3 on 2. Kids just don't do that kind of thing today.
Victor = We played baseball with distances instead of bases sometimes, but I think that was bigger in the 40s and 50s.
I played a lot of stickball though, where hits were based on which floor your batted ball hit. If the pitcher caught it off the wall before it hit the ground it was an out.
My mom smoked, but I sure as shit would have been grounded and probably beaten by my dad if I got caught smoking. Thankfully, I never even tried smoking and still haven't to this day. It's OK, my lungs are probably ravaged by years of second hand smoke fro my mother.
RE: Love it!! Great post Greg. In the '70s, not only did we not use Â
helmets on bicycles, we routinely did stunts in the street. ALONE! With no parents! Or parents watching us have fun and enjoying it.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
Hey Victor, I remember getting picked up hitchhiking on Hudson Avenue (on the way to the Smithhaven Mall) when I was in 4th grade by my former 3rd grade teacher. She was in the passenger seat of a Camaro (her boyfriend was driving) and wearing hot pants and a halter top. It was a memory that stuck with me.
were more likely to sell us malt liquor than regular beer. So, we had a lot of 40s. Then wine coolers came out when I was in JHS or HS. Those, it seemed, anybody could by without question.
RE: RE: Love it!! Great post Greg. In the '70s, not only did we not use Â
helmets on bicycles, we routinely did stunts in the street. ALONE! With no parents! Or parents watching us have fun and enjoying it.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
Hey Victor, I remember getting picked up hitchhiking on Hudson Avenue (on the way to the Smithhaven Mall) when I was in 4th grade by my former 3rd grade teacher. She was in the passenger seat of a Camaro (her boyfriend was driving) and wearing hot pants and a halter top. It was a memory that stuck with me.
No shit!! She would get fired and/or arrested today.
We used to walk through the woods on Old Nichols Road and come out on Moriches Road just past the Lake Grove School on the way to the Mall.
Who was the teacher? I had Mrs. Novick at Wenonah Elem in 3rd grade. She was a hag. I don't remember any hot 3rd grade teachers. Do you remember Mrs. Potter? Right out of central casting. Big old broad. Carried a whistle on the playground.
Do you remember the gym teacher Mr. Maloney? He lives near my brother, they ride bikes together sometimes, had some beers with him last summer.
smoking areas at the high school. Places where all the smokers went between classes and smoked a quick cigarette. We had a courtyard that was wall to wall between classes. Very surreal in retrospect when you think about all the 14 year old kids smoking as their teachers walked by.
I think her name was Miss Reichert or Schneider (or something like that). My second grade teacher was Miss Scharelli (sp?). I remember the name, Mr. Maloney, as the gym teacher, but I don't have a visual image in my head of him. I was only in Wenonah from 2nd to 4th grade and then we moved. We moved a lot, but we always stayed in Sachem District. After Wenonah, I went to Gatelot Avenue school, then Hiawatha, and then Grundy Avenue School.
The structured activities for kids of today, I get Â
We're orders of magnitude more knowledgeable about brain development today than we were even 10 years ago - never mind 30 or 40 years ago. This is especially true of early brain development.
Moreover, today's U.S. is far more competitive than it was 30 or 40 years ago. Back then, it would never occur to anyone that their kids would have to compete with peers from the rest of the world.
The combination of those two factors makes it understandable that parents currently go to these lengths to make sure their kids don't get left behind in a society and work force that decreasingly resembles the old middle class where you could slack your way through life and still be comfortable.
Stuff like the maniacal supervision of kids and ridiculous obsession with helmets, I agree, are going overboard.
I think her name was Miss Reichert or Schneider (or something like that). My second grade teacher was Miss Scharelli (sp?). I remember the name, Mr. Maloney, as the gym teacher, but I don't have a visual image in my head of him. I was only in Wenonah from 2nd to 4th grade and then we moved. We moved a lot, but we always stayed in Sachem District. After Wenonah, I went to Gatelot Avenue school, then Hiawatha, and then Grundy Avenue School.
Wow you made the run of the district. 2nd Grade was Mrs. Pasarelli? I had had her too.
smoking areas at the high school. Places where all the smokers went between classes and smoked a quick cigarette. We had a courtyard that was wall to wall between classes. Very surreal in retrospect when you think about all the 14 year old kids smoking as their teachers walked by.
Totally surreal in retrospect. We had place behind the school chapel called "the smoking shack". There was much mischief that went on in that structure.
"This poor kid is about to get rammed in the nuts by a goat.... Â
...and the nearby adult isn’t the least bit concerned."
OMG...ROFLMAOWTIME!!!!
That scene in MadMen, when Sally is running around with a dry cleaning plastic bag over her head, and her mother Betty is smoking a cigarette in the background, while on the phone, with absolutely not one single fuck to give....
But by the time I hit high school in 1990, that had long since been outlawed. Still, I remember flipping through old '70s yearbooks in the school library once and being amazed at all the pictures of guys openly smoking and drinking beers.
smoking areas at the high school. Places where all the smokers went between classes and smoked a quick cigarette. We had a courtyard that was wall to wall between classes. Very surreal in retrospect when you think about all the 14 year old kids smoking as their teachers walked by.
We had the same thing in our school. Times are certainly much different now.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
Yeah, I remember clearly one summer I was a human scab from wiping out on my bike too many times thinking I was Evil Kenevil
I never would've thought that that world would disappear. I'm just glad I was a part of it while it still existed.
Quote:
My parents probably treated me the same way their parents treated them, and so on and so forth.
Times have changed.
I will never allow, in this day and age, my children to do what I was allowed to do because I legitimately fear for their safety.
Not disagreeing, but I can distinctly remember my grandfather and father waxing nostalgically about how great things were when they were kids and how different they were when I was a kid.
So that was my initial point. Sure things are different now, but I was saying that the older generations said the same about our generation.
Of course... But when you look at the big picture... There weren't as many differences between the 50's and the 80's as there are between the 80's and the 2000's, you know? Yeah, behavior and little things here and there...
But the technology explosion of the 90's I'd compare to the Industrial Revolution. The internet was a major turning point in mankind. It is all encompassing. It changed the way we live completely.
Quote:
helmets on bicycles, we routinely did stunts in the street. ALONE! With no parents! Or parents watching us have fun and enjoying it.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
Yeah, I remember clearly one summer I was a human scab from wiping out on my bike too many times thinking I was Evil Kenevil
I have a slightly chipped front tooth as a souvenir. And my bottom lip healed a little funny on the inside. Ruined my career as a trumpet player before it started. Like Ralph Kramden, I could never hit that high note again.
I have a younger brother who grew up in a completely different world than I did and we're only 8 years apart.
Some of the residents of my town still recall the Megan Kanka murder with tears, so I guess there is some hesitation about free-roaming kids from people that were around during that time.
I'd probably be OK with my oldest son playing outside by himself (he is 7), but not the 5 and 2 year old.
1970s[edit]
January 5, 1970: Washington, DC, Tyrone Perry, 15, was shot to death at Hine Junior High School.[178]
May 4, 1970: Kent, Ohio, During protests of the Vietnam War on the college Campus of Kent State University, Armed National Guard Soldiers opened fire on unarmed students killing four people.[179]
May 15, 1970: Jackson, Mississippi, One student was killed and twelve others injured when police open fired on students gathered to protest the military presence in Cambodia
[180]* February 2, 1971: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Teacher Samson L. Freedman, 56, was shot to death as he left Morris E. Leeds School, by Kevin Simmons, 14. Freedman had suspended Simmons earlier in the day for cursing in the hallway.[181]
November 8, 1971: Grove, Oklahoma, School custodian, Jim "James" Underwood brought a .22 caliber revolver to school hidden in a brown paper bag. School principal, T. J. Melton, 49, was shot in the left shoulder, left ear and in the top of his head, according to published reports. He died around 9 a.m. and Underwood was charged the next day with first-degree murder.[182]
November 11, 1971: Spokane, Washington, Former MIT student Larry J. Harmon, 21, entered St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church on the Gonzaga University campus armed with a .22 caliber rifle. Harmon killed the caretaker, 68-year-old Hilary Kunz, and upon emerging from the church, wounded four more people before police officers shot and killed him. Harmon was described by his father as a religious fanatic who believed that he had seen the devil and that Christ was an imposter.[183]
January 5, 1972: Washington, DC, Fifth-grade teacher Margaret Brooks, 57, was shot to death in front of her students by her estranged husband James A. Brooks.[184]
February 26, 1973: Richmond, Virginia, Wayne Phillips, 17, was shot to death when he was caught between two youths who were fighting in the hallway of Armstrong High School.[185]
October 1, 1973: Elmwood Park, Illinois, Elmwood Park Community High School student Cynthia Schulze was shot and killed in the hallway between classes by student William Rossi, with whom she was probably not acquainted. Rossi then ran out of the school and shot himself to death in an alley nearby.[186]
January 17, 1974: Chicago, Illinois, Elementary school principal Rudolph Jezek, Jr., 52, was shot to death in his office by Steven Guy, 14, a former student said to be angry at being transferred from the school to a social adjustment center.[187]
March 22, 1974: Brownstown, Indiana, Jessie Blevins, 48, athletic director at Brownstown Central High School, was shot to death in the school parking lot by a 17-year-old student.[188]
December 30, 1974: Olean, New York, Regents scholar Anthony Barbaro, 17, armed with a rifle and shotgun, kills three adults and wounds 11 others at his high school, which was closed for the Christmas holiday. Barbaro was reportedly a loner who kept a diary describing several "battle plans" for his attack on the school.[189][190]
February 18, 1975: Marist College, Poughkeepsie, New York, Marist College student Shelley Lynn Sperling was shot and killed by a scorned suitor, Louis o. Acevedo, in the Marist College cafeteria.[191]
March 18, 1975: Sumner High School, St. Louis, Missouri, 16-year-old Stephen Goods, a bystander, is shot and killed during a fight between other teens.[192]
September 11, 1975: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, U.S. Grant High School student Randy Truitt was shot and killed by James Briggs at the school, leaving several others injured.[193]
February 12, 1976: Detroit, Michigan, Intruders shot five Murray-Wright High School students after an apparent dispute over one of the intruders girlfriends.[194]
June 12, 1976: California State University, Custodian Edward Charles Allaway, 37, opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle in the library on the California State University, Fullerton campus killing 7, and wounding 2.[citation needed]
November 10, 1976: Detroit, Michigan, Second grade teacher Bettye McCaster, 45, was shot to death in front of her 29 students at Burt Elementary School, by her estranged husband, Al Lewis.[195]
April 7, 1977: Whitharral, Texas, High School principal M. O. Tripp was shot to death on the front steps of the school by Ricardo Lopez, 17.[196]
February 9, 1978: St. Albans, West Virginia, A 15-year-old student was shot and killed by another student at Hayes Junior High School.[citation needed]
February 22, 1978: Lansing, Michigan, After being taunted for his beliefs, a 15-year-old self-proclaimed Nazi, killed one student and wounded a second with a Luger pistol at Everett High School.[190]
April 26, 1978: Dallas, Texas, Woodrow Porter, 38, who was a janitor at Paul Dunbar Elementary School, was shot to death by the 56-year-old grandmother of an 8-year-old that was allegedly spanked by Porter earlier.[197]
May 18, 1978: Austin, Texas, John Daniel Christian, 13, son of Lyndon B. Johnson's former press secretary George Christian, shot to death his English teacher, Wilbur Grayson, 29, with his father's .22 caliber rifle in front of approximately 30 classmates. John Christian was arrested and charged but was not prosecuted. He spent two years in a mental hospital. He is now a practicing attorney in Austin, Texas.[198]
January 29, 1979: San Diego, California, Brenda Spencer opened fire on Grover Cleveland Elementary School from the window of her home across the street, killing two adults and wounding nine others, eight of whom were children.[199] The shootings inspired the song I Don't Like Mondays.
Link - ( New Window )
But whatever, like I said, not a pissing match.
But whatever, like I said, not a pissing match.
I was just answering a question. I don't see why the term "pissing match" would even come up, unless I missed something in another post
Which was kind of starting to happen a little bit here. Pissing match was just a overly strong term I used for it.
My personal opinion is that while there may be a few remaining similarities, the reality of the world we live in now is nothing like the world back then. They are in fact, very, very different. Regardless of one's own nostalgic feelings over their childhood and/or the upcoming generation. And that's okay.
Inevitably, when somebody starts one of these threads, this is the course it tends to head off on, despite not being in the spirit of the op. So anyways, back to the 70's.
Wikipedia lists 24 school shooting incidents in this country during the 1970s.
Link - ( New Window )
Quote:
in the 70s?
Wikipedia lists 24 school shooting incidents in this country during the 1970s.
Link - ( New Window )
Another great '70s (and '80s)thing was National Lampoon Magazine. Do you remember the "Mass Murderer Trading Cards" that were designed just like TOPPS baseball cards? Probably had most of these shootings
Yes. Played all day
I bet that friend is wishing they had followed my lead, especially after having several skin cancer scares.
the one thing I do wish I had back as a kid was a safety helmet when I rode my bike. I actually took a nasty spill off my bike once--thankfully I didn't suffer a head injury, but when I think back to how close I came, I was damn lucky to walk away with just some bad scrapes and cuts and nothing more.
Also kids of the 70s actually got outside and played more, getting more exercise. today it's too tempting for kids to sit indoors playing video games all day. So I would think kids of the 70s were in better physical condition back then, but I'm just guessing.
Quote:
and "half-field" baseball games. You could play for hours with three guys per side.
Yes. Played all day
That's why I always loved and related to Mattingly's story of learning to go the other way because of his backyard wiffleball games with his brothers. Paul O'Neill had a similar story.
Quote:
and "half-field" baseball games. You could play for hours with three guys per side.
Yes. Played all day
And ghost runners!
or Cowboys and Indians
us too
I also remember coming back to NYC on breaks from school and going to the deli and buying beer. I mean, WTF? No one ever thought twice about selling beer and cigarettes to kids.
On the other hand, I certainly wasn't ever exposed to the really troubling things I read about today. You know, like, the football team hazing (we did it but wasn't like some of the crap you read about) and the treatment of girls didn't seem nearly as indecent as the things I read about today. Or the bullying kids into suicide. We didn't have any of that.
Like most of my friends, I turned out pretty well and eventually joined the establishment.
Plus using wooden clothes pins to attach cards to our bicycle wheels.
Plus using wooden clothes pins to attach cards to our bicycle wheels.
Yep. Did lots of that too.
I played a lot of stickball though, where hits were based on which floor your batted ball hit. If the pitcher caught it off the wall before it hit the ground it was an out.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
Hey Victor, I remember getting picked up hitchhiking on Hudson Avenue (on the way to the Smithhaven Mall) when I was in 4th grade by my former 3rd grade teacher. She was in the passenger seat of a Camaro (her boyfriend was driving) and wearing hot pants and a halter top. It was a memory that stuck with me.
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helmets on bicycles, we routinely did stunts in the street. ALONE! With no parents! Or parents watching us have fun and enjoying it.
During the Evel Kneival era, we would make a ramp out of cinder blocks and a 2x4 and do jumps in the street. We'd get arrested for allowing our kids to do that today.
Hey Victor, I remember getting picked up hitchhiking on Hudson Avenue (on the way to the Smithhaven Mall) when I was in 4th grade by my former 3rd grade teacher. She was in the passenger seat of a Camaro (her boyfriend was driving) and wearing hot pants and a halter top. It was a memory that stuck with me.
No shit!! She would get fired and/or arrested today.
We used to walk through the woods on Old Nichols Road and come out on Moriches Road just past the Lake Grove School on the way to the Mall.
Who was the teacher? I had Mrs. Novick at Wenonah Elem in 3rd grade. She was a hag. I don't remember any hot 3rd grade teachers. Do you remember Mrs. Potter? Right out of central casting. Big old broad. Carried a whistle on the playground.
Do you remember the gym teacher Mr. Maloney? He lives near my brother, they ride bikes together sometimes, had some beers with him last summer.
Moreover, today's U.S. is far more competitive than it was 30 or 40 years ago. Back then, it would never occur to anyone that their kids would have to compete with peers from the rest of the world.
The combination of those two factors makes it understandable that parents currently go to these lengths to make sure their kids don't get left behind in a society and work force that decreasingly resembles the old middle class where you could slack your way through life and still be comfortable.
Stuff like the maniacal supervision of kids and ridiculous obsession with helmets, I agree, are going overboard.
Wow you made the run of the district. 2nd Grade was Mrs. Pasarelli? I had had her too.
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2nd Grade was Mrs. Pasarelli? I had had her too.
That must be her. Dark haired, attractive, very curvacious?
Yes that's her.
Totally surreal in retrospect. We had place behind the school chapel called "the smoking shack". There was much mischief that went on in that structure.
OMG...ROFLMAOWTIME!!!!
That scene in MadMen, when Sally is running around with a dry cleaning plastic bag over her head, and her mother Betty is smoking a cigarette in the background, while on the phone, with absolutely not one single fuck to give....
NOSTALGIA!!!
We had the same thing in our school. Times are certainly much different now.