Do you remember riding your bike along the streets of your suburb and hanging out with your friends until you heard your mother ringing the bell that signaled dinnertime?
Do you remember taking your 20 cents pocket money to the milk-bar and buying peppermint creams, paddle-pops or redskins and feeling like the richest kid in the world?
Do you remember walking to your friends’ house and knocking on the door to ask their parents if they could come out to play?
Do you remember putting your roller-skates, terry-toweling wristbands and shorts and knitted legwarmers on and roller-dancing to ABBA and/or Olivia Newton-John songs?
Do you remember listening to 2SM’s Father Jim’s talkback radio on Sunday nights when you were supposed to be sleeping?
Do you remember when a take-away meal was a “The Lot” hamburger (with egg and beetroot) from the above-mentioned local milk-bar?
Do you remember when the whole family sat in front of the one and only telly on Sunday nights to watch “Countdown” and then “Bill Collins’ Golden Years of Hollywood” or “Walt Disney”?
(I know the above list is VERY Australian, but I’m sure you can all get the gist)
I wonder what our kids will remember...
Mine can’t ride their bikes along our streets.... way too many cars.
Mine can’t buy their favourite things with their $5 pocket money as DS games cost about $80 a pop.
Mine can’t have a play-date without pre-planning and parental phone calls and checks.
Mine would dress up and roller-blade an avatar on a video game, but wouldn’t be caught dead doing it in real life.
Mine listen to tunes on their iPod after lights out.
Mine are torn for choice on our rare take-away dinners. But wouldn’t be interested in anything as healthy as a “The Lot” hamburger.
Mine disagree about what programmes to watch as a family and therefore would rather watch a DVD in their own bedroom.
I wonder what their kids will remember....
Saturday, November 15, 2008
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13 comments:
LOL - that was a trip down my memory lane I remember the 20c worth of hot chips eaten from the hole in top of the paper.
Playing cricket or soccer in the middle of the street...with the boys and MR Whippy.
Walt Disney - loved it and I miss it.
I agree what will our kids remember ?
LOL whah I want to edit my comment ... I didn't play with my Whippy at all (not till I was an adult).
Oh yes I remember all those things except Father Jim's talkback because that was before the radio programs went national!
I remember when 20c worth of caramel butters and 20c worth of cobbers required TWO lolly bags.
We have been extremely blessed over the past three years that we've had neighbours with little boys PL's age. He has done the 'come out to play' thing just like the 'olden days' by shouting over the fence or just popping next door. We adults have even borrowed cups of sugar/can openers/an extra apple from each other. It's been fantastic.
Unfortunately have been forced to move (happens next week) and PL is devastated. So am I.
edit :I excluded the "they" in they have been forced to move.
Trish.... LOL! Thanks for the laugh!
Lani, the best thing about Father Jim's talkback show was that it was about people's problems. It really taught me about empathy from a young age.
M... we could do it when we lived in Rozelle, as we had friends about 4 houses away and lived on a quiet street. But we simply can't do it here.
Glad YOU'RE not being forced to move!
xx
From an American childhood in the 70's
- Yes, on riding my bike, but no dinner bell, just my mom yelling!
-I don't know what a milk bar is, but I was easily rich on $1 at the candy store up the road.
- Walking to friend's houses - yes.
- Roller skates, wristbands, shorts and Olivia Newton-John - YES!
- No father Jim. I was reading books by flashlight in bed though.
-Hamburger with egg and beetroot is completely foreign, I can't even imagine that!
- Whole family = me and my mom. One TV, different shows, but we were there.
It makes me sad and want to move back to FL where life is a lot more simple than it is here in L.A. Or maybe to the woods somewhere, in the middle of nowhere.
Yes, I remember exciting trips to the Fish and Chip shop (on our own) to get 3 potato scallops for 30c!
Those were the days....
Ah yes. So different for our kids. I've been trying to get my kids to have disco's to Olivia. They just don't get it. I still love the soundtrack to Xanadu. Is that wrong?
Oh Kat. Me too. If I could take my kids away from living 5 km's away from the centre of Sydney..... to "the bush" as we say in Australia.... or to a quieter city, I would. LA is completely in a different class of "hype" and busy-ness than Sydney though. I can't imagine raising kids there. Oh, and a milk-bar is like a drug-store.
Guera.... potato scallops for 10cents! I remember those!! Yum.
Ali... you are completely normal. No intervention required.
xxx
Well I am older than you and grew up in Hawaii, which is as different to the mainland U.S. as it is to Australia. We ran roughshod through the neighborhood, playing games of tag, both night and day, that ran through all the unfenced backyards. We went glass ball hunting on the beach at 2:00 a.m. A small group of children whose parents did not feel the need to go along for protection. We were left alone in cars while our mothers went shoping. I rode my bicycle miles to the local shopping area to get a candy bar for 5 cents and see a movie for 25 cents. No one complained about children sitting in front of TVs (which we didn't even have when I was very young). We were outside playing or going to the beach to swim. My mom did complain about me because I spent so much time reading. But looking back, I still spent much more time actively playing than children do today. Everything was left to our imagination and anything was possible. Here in Californina, children now do the play date thing and have activities that require their parents to drive them all around town. They watch DVDs and play video games. Parents would never allow them to play in the field or woods behind their house for fear they would be snatched. Truly a different world.
For me it was a rosy apple after spending the day at the local public pool. A rosy apple was a fat round lolly pop which was red and green - had them on the way home. My how times are changing - but that's progress and the kids of today will have other memories instead but hopefully be as nostalgic about them when they get to our age. That's half the fun isn't it? J xox
those were the days my friends ...
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