TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE
1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who 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-base 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 & 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 O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Play stations, Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, 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 teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
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, 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 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
If YOU are one of them? CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
While you are at it, share it with your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it ?
~
The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:
'With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'

are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'

YES! God is trying to tell us something and he's no longer being subtle about it.

And if you haven't been paying attention, He's telling us to stop asking him for help and get up off our butts and do it ourselves!

Here's something I've never talked about;

I feel funny about saying The Pledge of Allegiance in any form. I know it stems from some mildly twisted and unsubstatiated feelings about religious stuff. I can't help it. It feels like something that I shouldn't have to do or say; It should be something I believe without being asked to say it over and over.

It feels like I am going to be held to some kind of letter of the law / oath. And trying to shake off any vibe of accidentally agreeing to be in a cult, I usually fake it.

Weird, I know. Actually, it's even ridiculous.

I'm working on it.

I think that makes sense CJ. If one had to take their marriage vows every morning it would make them less special. I think saying "I Love You" and "I Love My Country" are enough to make the personal dedication clear. Especially if one demonstrates their conviction with consistent actions that the love is deep, true and lifelong.

I am proud to have survived almost 40 years. My first baby seat was no baby seat at all in a '62 Chevy. It was up to my father to be a good driver for my own survival, not a bunch of safety engineers. I am all for a safer world, but institutional coddling and liability issues have made growing up far less of a learning experience.

Of course, this goes quite a way toward explaining why the kids like things to be extreme dude. Their lack of struggle growing up makes them need a host of pubescent and adult dangers to make up for the lack of concussions, skinned knees and sound discipline in their youth. So, instead of building tree forts at 14, they pack heat.

Every night I say a prayer in the hope that theres a heaven
And every day Im more confused as the saints turn into sinners
All the heroes and legends I knew as a child have fallen to idols of clay
And I feel this empty place inside so afraid that Ive lost my faith

Show me the way, show me the way
Take me tonight to the river
And wash my illusions away
Show me the way

And as I slowly drift to sleep, for a moment dreams are sacred
I close my eyes and know theres peace in a world so filled with hatred
That I wake up each morning and turn on the news to find weve so far to go
And I keep on hoping for a sign, so afraid that I just wont know

Show me the way, show me the way
Take me tonight to the mountain
And take my confusion away

And if I see a light, should I believe
Tell me how will I know

Show me the way, show me the way
Take me tonight to the river
And wash my illusions away
Show me the way, show me the way
Give me the strength and the courage
To believe that Ill get there someday
Show me the way

Every night I say a prayer
In the hope that theres a heaven...

--------------------------------------------

It's all about faith and hope that something better awaits us after we leave our terrestrial bodies behind. It's fine to believe otherwise or not at all but at the end of your days on this plane of existence, what will you have then?

I find it amazing that people will shun God and religion until a major catastrophe or their own individual mortality is facing them and suddenly lets all pray to God. It is suddenly acceptable to display religion during a time of pain and suffering. How many people do you think found religion on flight 1549 when the engines quit?? My plan is to live my life as best I can according to my personal values and religious beliefs, not judge others by them nor try to force them on others, and hope to be judged on that and not that I just went through the motions and went to church on Sundays!

------------------------------------------------


Every person is guilty of all the good they did not do.



Have a Good Night and a Pleasant Tomorrow!

feel funny about saying The Pledge of Allegiance in any form...

CJ, That's the great thing about our country and our freedom, you don't have to!

See. Problem solved.

Don't like/want to say "One Nation Under God" (Or the pledge at all for that matter) then don't.

CJ, this next part isn't aimed at your post.

86% of Americans say they believe in God. It's time we stood up for OUR rights and for the other 14% to sit down and shut up.

I think it's time the two sides just quit fighting each other and let one another believe or not believe.

It is after all, each persons GOD given choice of Free Will!


And Amen to that Brother Bill!

I've almost always felt the same way.

The pledge should be something self evident! If we've got the right, true and just system of government, simple education and the result of it will demand loyalty and some sense to defend and protect it, because it serves us and we are better for having it than not.

And as a kid, I always wondered about the flag bit too. It's perfectly understandable to pledge alligence to the nation, particularly if it works for us as I described above, but the flag?

It's like some kind of goofy "you didn't wear your lapel pin" deal. Just never sat well with me.

DT, Exactly. It's an individual choice.

Either believe or don't it's totally up to you (generic).

It's BECAUSE I believe in God that I don't like saying it. I mean, isn't there all sorts of warnings against this very kind of stuff in the Bible? Doesn't it smack of " False Idol " just a bit?

And Skybill, I find that to be an interesting stat. Well actually, I find the response interesting; I cannot think of ONE, not ONE, religious right that I cannot enjoy currently. I do not find the threat of it being removed from anything or added to anything a legitmate threat that would have ANY effect on me.

Which, in a roundabout way, is kind of my point; Making me say something doesn't make me believe it. I have to believe it for me to, you know, believe it. What? Do I get into Heaven if I say something I don't believe? No. I say and do things every day that has nothing to formally declaring my beliefs. The absence of that has no bearing on what may happen to me when I die.

Agreed?

I think it's time the two sides just quit fighting each other and let one another believe or not believe.

Its not that simple. For one side, its "don't tell me what to believe" and the other side, its "my way or else."

Who wouldn't put up a fight if they were the former?

Only one side needs to knock it off here. But it ain't gonna happen unless God intervenes.

Good thread!

There are just so many things we did that kids don't do today, it's pretty amazing when you add it all up.

...as for the God thing. There is believing, and by all means stand up and exercise your right to do that. All good. I also encourage you to share that in the best way you can; namely, by living your life to the fullest, richest and most perfect way you can.

Just don't tell me what you think God wants me to do, and we are good!

86% of peoople may "hope" a god exists, yet 100% of them can't prove it.

CJ, I seldom discuss this but tonight seems to be the rare occassion. I totally agree with you. If you don't believe something, you say it anyway, then isn't it a lie? And saying or not saying something will not make or break my beliefs.

Hey Skep, not everyone believes that way!

Everyone is entitled to believe what they will as I am entitled to choose not to listen to what anyone says should I not want to listen to something I do not like or contradicts my beliefs!

CJ, agreed. Your beliefs are (at least the ones that matter) are between you and God.

Mr. Prine says it pretty well;

While digesting Reader's Digest
In the back of a dirty book store,
A plastic flag, with gum on the back,
Fell out on the floor.
Well, I picked it up and I ran outside
Slapped it on my window shield,
And if I could see old Betsy Ross
I'd tell her how good I feel.

Chorus:
But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
They're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.

Well, I went to the bank this morning
And the cashier he said to me,
"If you join the Christmas club
We'll give you ten of them flags for free."
Well, I didn't mess around a bit
I took him up on what he said.
And I stuck them stickers all over my car
And one on my wife's forehead.

Repeat Chorus:

Well, I got my window shield so filled
With flags I couldn't see.
So, I ran the car upside a curb
And right into a tree.
By the time they got a doctor down
I was already dead.
And I'll never understand why the man
Standing in the Pearly Gates said...

"But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
We're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more."

Without looking it up, what group and song title is the following:

Let me love you
Take me home to your religion for the night
Let me touch you
Teach me how to see your vision through my eyes
Turn the pages
Tell my story, let me face another day
Safe embraces, I feel it comin' now
My captain's on his way.

Hey, my high power
The world is spinnin', but I'm not afraid
Yeah, give me the power It's the beginnin', the beginnin' of another day.

Yeah

Let me hold you
Take me back into the secrets of my mind
Let me know you
Come and save me Lord
Don't let me cross the line

Hey, my high power
The world is spinnin', but I'm not afraid
Yeah, give me the power It's the beginnin', the beginnin' of another day.

"God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.
Thy will,not mine,shall be done.
Amen."

Ooh, let me love you
Ooh, let me love you

Hey, my Higher Power
The world is spinnin', but I'm not afraid

Yea, my Higher Power
It's the beginning of another day.

Hey, my Higher Power
The world is spinnin', but I'm not afraid

Yeah, my Higher Power
It's the beginnin' of another day.

Hey, my high power
Hey, my high power
Hey, my high power



It's funny how and what one can find to draw strength from. I love digging into song lyrics and finding things like this

I had no idea, so I HAD to Google it.

I won't spoil it for anybody else, but nice! I wouldn't have expected that!

God will never give you more than you can handle!

Sitting here tonight with a good friend who just had the pleasure of experiencing Sinulog sp? in Cebu, Phillipines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinulog_festival

I however have my doubts about faith everyday. But I know after everything that I have experienced in the last year that there is a god. I am humbled and blessed everyday these days without really fully understanding why or how!

Having been born in 1974, I am at the tail end of the demographic group that this thread is about, not all of the statements in the original post apply to me. Nonetheless, I am amazed by how much things have changed in the last 25-30 years since I was a child. Not everything has changed for the better, but things are certainly very different. Some of the examples that I am going to present are probably somewhat extreme, as I lived in Chile until I was 7, and at the time, that country had a lot of third-world aspects to it.

+ I first heard about VCRs from my dad, in 1979. That sounded like the coolest piece of home electronics imaginable and I wished that we would someday own one. It would be several years before I would come face-to-face with one of those wonderful machines (probably at school, after I moved to the US). It would be another ten years before we had a VCR in our own home.

+ Car seats? You have to be kidding! I don't know if cars sold in Chile were even required to have seat belts back then.

+ I have very vague memories of my dad owning a car in the late 1970s. However, before I started kindergarten, my dad sold it, presumably because the family was hard up for money. I have many memories of riding the rickety Concepcion city buses to school with my dad.

+ My mom had a mouthful of silver amalgam fillings, as did most adults thirty years ago. Virutally nobody was worried about getting mercury poisoning from them. I didn't develop any health problems from any stray mercury atoms that I might have encountered while growing in her uterus.

+ Concepcion, the city where I was born and lived until I was seven, only had two television stations, operated by Television Nacional de Chile and Universidad Catolica de Chile. Despite the names, both of these were operated as commercial stations. Sign-on did not occur until about 10 or 11 AM.

+ My dad was opposed to the early 80s video game craze. When I asked him what was wrong with games, he said that "everything in video games is done for you," making the experience not very enriching for the player. I did not own any video games until I bought a Don Pan cartridge for my Tandy Color Computer II in 1986. Two years later, my brother and I pooled some money together and bought a used Atari and a collection of games. Overall, I found video games to be frustrating because I could not develop the hand-eye coordination needed to play them well. In retrospect, I think my dad was right: by playing games, one is learning NOTHING about electronics or computer science and little to nothing about the subject matter of the game.

+ Although both of my parents were against smoking, my mom had some nice glass ashtrays that she would put out when entertaining. Back in the mid 1980s, showing politeness for guests was considered to trump the momentary inconvenience of inhaling a small amount of secondhand smoke or having the house stink for a while. In Chile in the early 1980s, cigarette smoking by adults was considered even more acceptable than in the US: I remember seeing a few cigarette commercials on Chilean TV and even seeing at least one of my teachers smoking in full view of the children.

+ I never wore a bicycle helmet until got back into bicycling when I was in my mid 20s. When I was a kid, I had only one friend who wore a helmet, and that seemed somewhat unusual to me.

+ For a brief time, around the age of 10, I imagined that I would grow up to write books and smoke a lot of cigarettes. I imagined that I would marry a woman who would smoke a lot, too. Shortly thereafter, I saw specimens of cigarette-damaged lung tissue, and it hit me that smoking does more than just turn one's lungs and teeth brown. Some years later, I came to realize that making it as a writer takes more than just sitting behind a typewriter or a computer and writing stuff that sounds cool to you. Thus, I didn't become a chain smoker or an author.

+ When I was 10, I got a headphone radio (advertised as a special promotion on a box of Pop-Tarts) as a Christmas present. I remember that on one occasion, during a car trip, my mom got very annoyed that I would just sit there, looking out the car window and listening to the radio. This puzzled me, as I thought she would be glad that I wasn't making noise or otherwise being annoying. Today, I don't think that any parent would complain about their kid(s) being preoccupied by a video game or a music player during a car trip. On the contrary, SUVs and vans now have rear-seat video displays to keep the rugrats from causing trouble.

+ Throughout my school career, every school that I went to had rules restricting the use of electronic devices, such as radios, cassette players, walkie-talkies, and video games. Some were generous enough to allow their use during lunch and before/after school; others would confiscate them if they were found anywhere on school grounds, at any time. Today, many kids take mobile phones to school, and the parents balk if the schools challenge the students "rights" to do so.

+ When I was in high school, I developed a great deal of pride in my ability to write. I considered the writing of a good essay or science laboratory report to be a utilitarian art. There was no text messaging back then, and I had not yet discovered e-mail. I considered the writing of personal correspondence to a formal affair that required the same amount of attention to detail as composing a school essay or report. I doubt that there are many teenagers alive today who have the same attitude toward the written word.

+ Just before I was old enough to drive, I swore that I would NEVER have a radio with a CD player in my car, as such a fancy radio was bound to be a prime target for theft. I remembered when, in 1981, one of my dad's friends had his digitally tuned cassette stereo stolen from his car.

+ When I was in high school, two items that I wished I had the money to buy were a 35mm camera (I had become disappointed with the quality of cheap 110 film snapshots) and a shortwave radio with a BFO so that I could listen to those crazy HAMs on 80 meters.

+ At no point from childhood through college did I ever imagine that I would be single well into my 30s. I don't think that I even had any concept of what my life or the world would be like today. Nonetheless, here I am.

Ditto on the great thread!

LS: I don't think kids today are looking for extreme thrills necessarily because they are being asked to buckle up. But, I do know that being subjected to danger does make kids more respectful of it. My son was going down the route of being a sk8rboy until he bellyflopped off a ramp, lacerated his spleen and spent a week bedridden at Doernbecker's. Hasn't been back on the board since, which is fine with me.

Alfredo: Great points, all. I'm a Kennedy baby ('63) and the earliest 'cool' thing I remember was when my telephone lineman father brought home (just overnight) a telephone answering machine, which was about the size of a small microwave oven. This might have been '68 or so. We spent the whole evening recording our voices in 30-second snippets and playing them back - amazing! Next coolest thing was the first color TV we got.

Safety with bikes and cars...that is a conflicted subject for me. I teach Driver's Ed, and am very well aware of the need for belts, helmets, car seats, etc. But, my preferred ride is my '67 Dodge, and I prefer to keep my vehicle purchases pre-1980s. And, though I always wear a helmet while riding nowadays, I really miss the feeling of a helmetless ride down a winding hill. I guess I'm just terrible at practicing what I preach.

Here's a little glimpse of what "riding in the back" used to be like.

Skybill wrote:

CJ, That's the great thing about our country and our freedom, you don't have to!

See. Problem solved.

Don't like/want to say "One Nation Under God" (Or the pledge at all for that matter) then don't.

CJ, this next part isn't aimed at your post.

86% of Americans say they believe in God. It's time we stood up for OUR rights and for the other 14% to sit down and shut up?

Do you even realize you contradicted yourself? You spout off about freedom and then turn around and tell those of us who disagree with you to sit down and shut up. That's why I don't trust you conservatives.

LOL!!! @ Aok

Alfredo, thanks a lot for posting up your story. I lived in rural Oregon, and many elements were similar.

later, I'll post up a few ramblings of my own. It was a fun time!

(70's - 80's Gen Xer here)

Sharing the vignettes that I posted above makes me feel like I'm on the fast-track to becoming a Gen-X version of Andy Rooney.

One other thing that I probably should have mentioned about cars in Chile was that they were considered luxury items and the most popular cars were ones that Americans would consider very low budget economy cars or ones that were not available in the US market for a variety of reasons. Examples of cars that I remember were Volkswagen Beetles, a Citroen car that looked like a Beetle, and compact cars made by Renault and Fiat. Shortly after arriving in the US, I met one of my dad's friends who drove a Ford Granada. My impression at the time was, "this is a luxury car!!" At that point in my life, that was the fanciest car that I had ever ridden in. It had a nice paint job and a hood ornament. It was big. The seats were nice and spacious. It had air conditioning. It had a stereo system instead of an AM radio. Cars in Chile generally didn't have these frills.

Two years later, my dad bought a used Ford Fairmont. Again, I was completely impressed by this car, and I asked my mom, "Is this a luxury car?" She replied, "Well, in Chile, this would be considered a luxury car."

Seat belts, Helmets... never saw them when I was a kid!

I still wonder how I survived my first Radio:

http://radioattic.com/item_more.htm?radio=0051262

Mine was (and still is) blue... These little metal radios were of the "hot Chassis" design, with no isolation transformer. One side of the power line was "ground" for the circuit. Since there were no polarized plugs, one had a 50-50 chance of circuit ground being hot! Chassis ground (the metal case) was slightly "isolated" from circuit ground by a small resistor/capacitor network, the failure of either component *could* connect the metal case to the power line. I played my little radio everywhere, including the bathroom, and would change stations while in the tub. Yikes!

The late 50s in Tacoma , Washington...

On Saturdays the whole block was crawling with kids playing with each other, riding bikes or tricycles ( I had a peddle tractor ) , out at the park playing baseball or football. People got out more, interacted more , socializing was the pastime of the mid 20th century, going to drive in movies on Fri. or Sat Night, or to the indoor theater for a cheap matinee on Saturday afternoon with your friends or siblings .

Parents on Saturday out having an afternoon or evening cocktail or a beer IN THE FRONT YARD, while washing the car or mowing the lawn and of course everybody over the age of 18 smoked it seemed. And when the Wonderful World of Disney came on NBC @ 7pm all the kids split like a spilled bag of marbles for the family analog electron gunned CRT Television set to catch tinker bell in black and white .

Alfredo: I, too, was born in '74.

As for riding in cars, my folks had a puke green station wagon with wood paneling. Since I was the youngest, I got allotted the pop-up seat that faced backwards. I still have nightmares about semi-trucks bearing down on me but guess what. I lived.

Almost all those things I did and more. I used to go exploring in the woods around my house. Following deer trails. Even found an island out in this little stream that ran down the side of the hill I lived halfway up. Built fires down on the railroad tracks not big ones but then waited for the train to run it over... good times. Used to T.P. the girls' houses in the neighborhood with whom I had crushes on. Never got caught by the authorities but my mom caught me once and that was the end of that.

Remember seeing a microwave oven for the first time at my friend Paul's house.

"What's that?"

"It's a microwave."

"what's it do?"

"Cooks food fast." with a look on his face expressing "duh, moron."

We bought a BETA vcr... yeah big mistake. It had better sound and picture but it just never caught on here in the states. too bad.

When I got my first computer, an Apple II, I started learning Basic. I got to be pretty good at it until I had to learn the math of it all and then I got turned off. Been playing video games ever since. Not all the time but it's a hobby.

My mom smoked for almost 40 years before quitting. I hated it. But drunkenness makes inhibitions go away and I started smoking when I was 18. Nicotine is probably my favorite drug. And I had a hard time quitting but I did.

We used to have 4th of July parties that the whole neighborhood would attend. The last one I remember was 1983 or so. Kinda sad. But last 4th my French neighbor invited me over to her party and it was a bunch of people I normally would never interact with and I had a good time.

Thanks again for reading through my wall of text. Great thread.

Cascade Park, Early to Mid seventies, playing tag in the rafters of all the new homes under construction, launching bikes on dirt ramps into sewer excavation ditches, throwing lawn darts straight up and trying to get them in the hoop you were just standing in.....Duck and Run!

Hey, I survived!

One thing I've noticed (and it's alluded to in several posts) is that neighborhoods are not as "close" as they used to be.

Growing up we knew all the neighbors and hung out with them. Neighbors lived in their houses for years and years and rarely moved.

I think one reason is that now people change jobs and relocate a lot more often that they did in the 60's and 70's.

Those were good years. A lot slower pace and less hectic schedules.

This is an excellent thread!

And all the kids knew which of the neighbors had a color TV when it was time for Star Trek !

Yep! We didn't get a color TV until 1976!

It was one that I bought at a flea market for $5! An RCA with no vertical deflection. There was one particular 10 watt resistor in that model that was known to go open, so for about a buck I had it fixed!

Growing up in Vancouver, I can tell you one thing -- NOW is sure better than then. Graduating at 16 and jumping across the river opened the world to me. Those days of conformity, bigotry, guns in the closet, votes for Barry Goldwater, forced Church attendance and ultra pro-growth politics (Al Angelo ring a bell anyone?) turned out to be days best forgotten.

Skybill-

Not to be a killjoy but I think you're painting a somewhat rose colored glasses picture of the 60s and 70s. Though there was some things you did mention happening much of it was a front.

I prefer living in these times because at least we are dealing with the hidden family issues that were so prevalent in many homes that made life a living hell for women and children.

As I have talked with my high school friends over the years so many had major life issues going on at home with spousal abuse, incest, and so many other things. What's truly amazing to me is these high school friends have turned out to be amazing parents. They had the resources their parents never did to help raise kids.

I think things are much better now than 20-30 years ago. Although I have some great memories and experiences, right now is so much better.

In the mid-late 1980s, I lived in Altoona, PA, and in the neighborhood where I lived, it was a tradition for parents, children, and teens to go doorstep to doorstep to socialize on warm summer evenings. It was certainly a different culture than anywhere else that I've lived. Moving to the South in 1990 was a very sharp contrast: there, summer evenings were too hot and humid to hang around outside. Almost everybody went indoors, where there was air conditioning, and watched TV.

Speaking of TV-related memories, in 1979, my dad bought a Sony Trinitron with push-button tuning. I think that it had a 19" screen. By Chilean standards, this was a VERY nice TV. Most of the people I knew at the time either had small color sets or older black & white TVs. Reception was via the built-in rabbit ears. Television Nacional de Chile was channel 4 and Universidad Catolica de Chile was channel 5. In most parts of the house, channel 4 produced a clear picture, if the rabbit ears were adjusted correctly. Channel 5 was always snowy. I later discovered that the set had a UHF loop antenna in the back, but this was a useless feature, as there were no UHF stations in Chile back then. By the way, seeing dirty and/or scratched old film prints of cartoons and movies seemed like a very common occurrence on Chilean TV back then, especially on channel 5! I remember watching Bugs Bunny cartoons, dubbed into Spanish, with absolutely execrable picture and sound quality on that station.

I also remember my mom saying, "I don't listen to FM because there aren't many stations there, and I don't listen to shortwave because there's too much interference there." My dad was more of a hi-fi buff, and he would occasionally listen to FM, mainly the classical station that the university he worked for operated. I think that they were at 95.1 (having a portion of the band reserved for non-commercial stations is a United States thing). For the most part, the few FM stations that could be received were translators of Santiago stations, and they played easy listening or similar types of music. One would periodically sound off a bell during the music to discourage piracy. My dad would also listen to shortwave every now and then. I was fascinated by how a portable radio could bring in programs from countries that I had never even heard of before!

Chris, I was just recounting my life in the 60's and early 70's.

Our neighborhood was fairly stable as far as people moving in and out.

Life was at a slower pace then.

I graduated in 1974 from Webster Groves High School just outside St. Louis, MO. For anybody that's old enough to remember, CBS did a documentary in 1966 called "16 In Webster Groves". (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16_In_Webster_Groves)

Webster Groves was a mix of folks. There were wealthy (by those days standards) as well as some folks that would be considered poor. But overall a fairly quiet town.

Anyway, that's just my story!

Skeptical,

I vaguely remember something about Al Angelo. I grew up in Vancouver, Wa in the 60s. I see that he or someone with that name has a general contracting business @ 404 E 15th St. What was the deal with him, I dont quite remember it now.

I lived there again in the early 70s for a few years.

My Mother smoked. She also drove a Ford Maverick. It had seat belts, but nobody wore them. My Mother smoked with the windows up and the unbuckled kids in the back seat.

Ahh, the 70's!

A few weeks ago, I watched a screening of a documentary entitled Single. One of the main themes in this film was that during the course of the last few decades, American culture has been changing very rapidly with regards to attitudes about marriage and expectations of single and married life.

The film said that traditionally, there were socially expected patterns that young people were to follow: couples would pair up in their late teens or early 20s, marry, and start families, typically before reaching the age of 30. At that time, married couples were the pillar of community social interaction. The most attractive properties of a potential mate were related to that person's ability to create a stable home environment; romantic or physical attraction were not of paramount importance.

Today, according to the film, attitudes have changed primarily as a result of women becoming more educated and taking high-paying white collar jobs. The recent development of Internet dating has also accelerated the change in attitudes, as it allows people to interact with a fairly large number of potential mates in a way that was not previously available. For some unspecified reason, married couples today tend to retreat into the home, rather than taking a great deal of interest in socializing.

I posted these descriptions of the film because I think that they are germane to the discussion of family life back then versus now. Back then, the societal expectation of marriage and family led many to stay in unhappy relationships for the sake of avoiding the opprobrium of peers and for the sake of the children. My parents were of that old-school mentality. Today, people have much less tolerance for troubled relationships because the stigmas attached to divorce and single parenting are largely gone. Some might argue that people have become too picky in their selection of mates and in how much challenge (for the lack of a better word) they are willing to tolerate in relationships.

kennewick, You're right. Al Angelo was a developer and builder who was also Mayor of Vancouver. Its been some time now and I've forgotten some details, but it was around this time Vancouver and Clark county started sprawling out of control. The death of downtown Vancouver and the neglect of other areas, most often West Vancouver, occurred with a developer at the helm.

When I came over to Oregon, everything was anti-growth this and land use boundries that. It took me a while to understand what was going on and why it was a good thing having come from Clark county. It didn't take long to see the difference -- in Oregon just outside of Portland one could see preserved farmlands as far as the eye can see, while in Clark county . . . ugh!

Alfredo-

One of the trends these days is that couples are getting married later. I think I read recently that both men and women are waiting until almost 28 to marry on average. However many are waiting until their 30s to marry and start having kids.

I was part of that. I got married at 30, my wife was 27 and we waited 4 1/2 years to have our first child.

Going to my most recent high school reunion 3 years ago found me with many of my classmates grandparents, but also mixed in were people with kids the ages of my kids. Some through a second or third marriage others just waiting like we did.

I've been seeing this same trend in the wedding receptions I DJ. Which is kind of nice because older couples are a bit more relaxed and laid back. Many times they have older kids that are really cool to hang with.