It Was A Different Time

I always find it interesting that people try to attach today's values to my childhood posts. Back in the seventies things were done differently. People gave their kids "whippins" and that is just the way it was. There was no trying to reason with a child who was misbehaving, mom or dad just busted their ass. When kids lost a game there was nobody there telling them "hey, you are all winners in your own way". We were told "well if you want to win, you have to practice harder." And you know what? Practicing harder worked alot of the time.

We knew if we went in a store and threw a "screaming candy fit" that there would be severe repercussions when we got back to the car. We sure didn't get a piece of candy for doing it. If mom and dad decided to order the family a pizza they didn't order "just cheese or pepperoni" because "Johnny" didn't like anything else. "Johnny" was told to "pick the onions off!" Parents sure didn't drive from drive thru to drive thru (there was no such thing back then!) for each member of the family. We all went to the same restaurant and ordered whatever was on the menu. Actually parents ordered whatever they wanted and you ordered the "child appropriate" foods that were cheaper. If we would have tried to order the most expensive stuff on the menu that I have watched so many kids do "just to see if they could mostly" we would have just been told "NO."

It was a different time with different ways of doing things. You can't apply today's values to yesterday's memories. I'm not saying everything was right, it wasn't. But things weren't done to be deliberately mean they were done to teach you how children should behave and because "that is how MY mom and dad did it". Of course as kids we all swore that when we grew up things would be different. And in alot of cases they are.

I remember talking to my niece once about being paddled in school. She said, "You mean they actually physically laid their hands on you!" Hell yeah they did, and if my mom would find out about it we would be whipped again when we got home. It wasn't just my mom and dad either. It was that was with everbody's mom and dad. So if I post a childhood memory that includes a "whippin" I am not looking for sympathy, I am just remembering things how they were.