...was ok then, but most people would be mortified if you did it now?

It seems like things have changed a lot since we were kids that some things that were the "norm" then have been found that shouldn't be done now!

For example, as I was cooking dinner tonight I was dredging some pork to saute and remembered my mom always kept a container of flour, salt & pepper up in her cabinets in the kitchen. We ate a lot of fried food growing up and she would flour chicken, steaks, pork chops, or whatever and then put that container of flour back up in the cabinet to use again and again. Also, we didn't have air conditioning, so it could be 100 degrees in the summer. I guess we had stomachs of iron because we never got sick!

So, what did your parents do that would not be considered acceptable or safe now?

Lisa

__________________
"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

How about vacations in the family station wagon with our "beds" set up in the back. Seat belts??? Who wore seat belts??? But those were the best times. We loved our camp out in the back whiile we drove to wherever we were going that year.

__________________
This space for rent

riding in the back of a pick up truck down the road about 50 mph ... loved it! no one got hurt or thrown out of the car!

when I was little (about 4), I would stand up on the front seat and stand behind my Dad's right shoulder--he was my seat belt.

also when I was little, my Dad would hold us in his lap and let us drive (we lived on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere.)

those were the best times.


My Dad, up until a few years ago, would eat:
1) RAW ground burger with sliced onions, salt and pepper on bread

and

2) Lard open faced sandwiches

(yuck and yuckier!)

__________________
SPJRNTGADL!

My mom used to leave us in the car for long periods of time while she shopped or went into the doctor. No way I'd do that now...

My grandma left things on the stove to "cool" before she put them in the refrigerator.
I put everything away right away.
She also left the Easter eggs sitting out on the table for a week.
We never got sick?

oh that's a good one GrannyShirl!! The Easter Eggs!!!

We did the same thing and never got sick either!

__________________
SPJRNTGADL!

From the time I was 6 months old my Mom would put me to bed at night and go back to work with my Dad ... I was alone in a big house.
She would also put me in a laundry basket at put that on the floor board (passenger side) of a VW beetle.
After age 5 I never had anybody go to the doctor or dentist with me. They were all in walking distance.
This was in Europe in the 60s and supposedly custumary ... WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?????

No helmets when bike riding..over homemade ramps

running out the door after school until dinner without ever checking in

__________________


"Never loan your car to someone you have given birth too"

My parents didn't do this, but I had some friends parents who did these things: if you cussed you got your mouth washed out with soap, if you got caught smoking they either made them eat cigarette butts or smoke so many cigarettes they got sick, you got "spanked" with a belt or a switch off the tree and it left marks. Ride in the back of a pickup truck. Yes, we also hunted real eggs at easter egg hunts, they didn't have the plastic ones back then.

riding our bikes all over town till dark .
whiskey on the gums of teetthing babies...shhh I still did this and my kids are 2 and 4.. my friend was mortified..
sleeping with our windows wide open when we were kids.
leaving with out feeling as though we had to lock our house up.

__________________
Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. - Will Rogers

Gosh, we did just about everything listed!

I've thought of a few more!

We rode on a homemade wooden sled behind my grandpas riding mower.

My mom also had a container by the stove that she kept bacon grease in and she used it to cook with. Everytime she made bacon, she'd dump the grease into this container. EEEwwww!

I was also allowed to ride in cars with 15-16 year old teenage drivers. (The thought of that makes me ill at this point - my oldest is 13).

A lot of the time that we were gone from home without checking in we were down by/around/in the creek (and I couldn't swim!)

Lisa

__________________
"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

We always left our keys in our cars and in our snowmobiles. We owned a resort with a bar and had people coming and going all the time, but no one ever took them. Left our cars running while we ran in the store. It was always next to 2 or 3 others that were running too! Now I live in a very small town. Every once in a while there are still cars running in the parking lot of the grocery store here, I love that!
We also tied a sled behind our snowmobile and took rides. We did wear helmets with that though. We weren't totally insane.
My parents even left their walk-in beer cooler for the bar open. Only one time did a neighbor boy take some, then they got a lock for it. We also left all our fishing gear in our boat all the time. I believe the key was in that too!
I walked 6 blocks to kindergarten alone. I can't even imagine letting my DS do that! He is in 1st grade and I don't even let him cross the street alone!
Spreadable butter....ha....butter is always spreadable when is kept in the cupboard! That is where it was always kept at my Grandma and Grandpa's.

You know, it's funny some of this stuff I still do.
I don't lock my car and rarely feel the need to lock my house, I leave my windows open all day and night. I leave my butter sit out at room temp all the time.( I hate hard butter). My grandma always still leaves the hard boiled Easter eggs sit out all day and I eat them. I have NEVER gotten sick from that.
Probably the more I see posted the more I'll see that I still do.

Jen

__________________
Mom to Jake, Zach & Meghan
SJCC STREAKS FOOTBALL!!
CLEVELAND BROWNS FOOTBALL!

Did anyone else get swatted with a flyswatter? And I mean the wire handle part. Summertime our legs always has welps on them! We used to hide the flyswatter from my mom - she kept it ontop of the fridge and we would push it til it fell BEHIND the fridge. When my parents moved there must have been 20 flyswatters behind the fridge! You take a flyswatter to your kid now and DHS will be at your door!

I don't think there's one thing listed I didn't do growing up. Not only riding in the back of trucks but standing up behind the cab and holding on to the top.

Ohh and the flyswatter ouchhhh. I've had that across my legs so many times. lol Although I've also had several hair brushes sail through the air at my head. We hated mom getting dad's leather belt. That dang thing hurt like hell.

__________________
My MySpace Page

To Leave Me FeedBack Click HERE

My brother and I used to sleep in the back of the truck while my parents drove 7hrs to Myrtle Beachh and they would even stop at rest areas and take a nap with us still in the back.

My neighbor and I crossed two busy highways by ourselves when we were about 9yrs old to go to someone elses house to sleigh ride

We used to build fires and throw canned stuff into it just to see how long it took to explode

When I was about 6yrs old our house didn't have a back porch so when you opened the back door you were looking straight down at the basement steps. We used to climb out of the back door all the time. It was about a 20ft drop onto solid concrete so if you slipped you were definitely getting hurt but we done it all the time and nobody ever got hurt.

We used to play games with knives too. I think it was called numbly peg or something like that,

i would have a heart attack if my DD done any of that now!

__________________
"Let me watch my children grow to see what they become
Lord don't let that cold wind blow til I'm too old to die young'

A lot of these are sounding so familiar. One that sticks out in my mind was when I was little and my mom would have to be outside for a long time, she would use a dog harness and attach me to the clothesline. I was safe and could run around the backyard and not get into anytrouble or wander away. I heard her saying one time that people just had a fit about her doing it. Heck I didn't care, all I knew was I got to be outside. Another was the bacon grease that would go back into the canister on the back of the stove. She finally quit doing that a while ago though.

I rode in the back of the pickup truck on top of the tool chest and never had a problem. When I was 11 and 12, my dad started taking me out on back country roads and showing me how to drive. We would take the boat down to the river and he would back the boat off the trailer ramp and I'd pull the truck back up into the parking space. I received quite a few stares from that and some nice compliments.

My mom always used to dye real eggs for me to find in an easter egg hunt on Easter Sundays. Although, after we found them, we made sure the went back in the fridge.

Count me in on the flyswater butt whoopin's. She could spank me with her hand until she was black and blue herself and it wouldn't phase me one bit, but if she got the flyswater out, I was heading to another room, lol. I hid many of those and my dad's ashtrays for a long time. When they remodeled their house somewhat these last couple of years, she makes sure to remind me "what she found" .

Most of these sound so familiar. The bacon grease (still do that today), butter left out, letting food cool on the stove, riding in the back of the truck (such fun!!!!!), hunting for real Easter eggs. Didn't get hit with the fly-swatter though, my mom had the wooden paddle that had a ball and elastic string attached o it and when the string broke that's what she used. The worse one was a plastic one. OUCH! We always kept our doors unlocked and window open. Of course we lived on a farm and at that time there was hardly anyone around us. My mom also thought nothing of leaving me out in the playpen while she did suff inside. I also had my guard dog to watch me. A big, gentle St. Bernard. Wouldn't hurt a fly, but watch out if you went after me.

I still do the grease can, but keep it in the fridge. What my Mom did that I always thought was gross was she had a deep fryer for homemade french fries and left it filled with grease/lard for months on end. Just popped it in the cabinet until next time. I think she changed it when it got "dirty". I always thought that was gross, and if I fried foods, which I don't, I wouldn't do that one.

I also don't mind leaving butter on the counter for a day or so.... and let things cool on the counter before refridgerating them (I actually thought that was recommended).

Here's a very gross one: my mom used to put her chewed gum on the handle of the electric can opener while she was eating....sometimes it would sit there for a few days. EWWWWW..... I guess that's how frugal we were growing up - to feel the need to save a stick of gum.

Similar to the sled on the tractor...we used to pile a ton of cousins on a tractor tire innertube and whip around the fields from a long rope on the back of snowmobiles.

What a great topic!! I hope it makes each of us think about how we could relax a little in our day-to-day and not be so darned stressed and fearful of everything....

We used to sleep in the back of the station wagon while we drove on vacation. I also rode with my cousin in the back of the pick up (did have a cap on it) the whole way up north. I also used to take off with my friends bike riding after school until dinner (they never knew where we were). When we were in 6th grade they took us to Boblo Island (theme park). We were allowed to wander around all day unsupervised (only had our buddy with us). What were they thinking?

__________________
I've never lied to you. I've always told you some version the of truth.

When I was a kid, seat belts were not standard equipment (I was in 6th grade when they were starting to become standard). There were 8 kids in my family. We did not have a station wagon just a regular car.
My grandparents lived about 200 miles away which was a 4 hour drive. The 3 oldest (I was one of them)kids sat in the back seat. Each one of us held a younger sibling on our laps. My brother sat in the front seat between my parents( he was always getting in trouble). My mother always held the baby on her lap.
I think my sister was 5 or 6 before she sat in the back seat. This was the one time we would do together. Rarely did we go places together. My dad used the car to get to work and get groceries.

My dad who is 80 lived on a farm. When he was 10, he said he would take sticks of dynomite to blow up tree stumps to clear the land for farming.

My grandfather who would be 100 and something left home when he was 14. He became a lumberjack in the woods of Wisconsin.

My mom did the same thing except when it got "dirty" she would fry a potato with the skin on and swore that cleaned it - what was gross was we'd then eat the "dirty" potato with all the crap from the grease fried into it!!!

My mom also kept her butter out. She wouldn't pay extra for the tubs, so she'd buy the sticks and put them in a butter tub on the table - and, like I said, we didnt' have air conditioning!

One thing she did that I still do is thaw meat on the counter all day. I know you're not supposed to, but I've always done it and we've never been sick!

This brings back so many memories!!

Lisa

__________________
"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

Oh yeahhhh......I thaw meat on the counter too!

My MIL still leaves her butter on the counter, they live in Upstate NY. Being a city girl from South Fla, this totally freaked me out and still does! I can't imagine leaving something like that, that should be under refrigeration OUT on the counter for days or until its gone....UCK!!!! There's a reason that they sell it in the chilled section of the store! LOL

__________________
This space for rent

When my BF was in school, gym class was seperated by gender. When they went swimming, all the boys went in naked, no suits-no discussion. Get in the pool or the teacher would throw you in!

I think this went on until at least middle school! He graduated back in the 60's, and still hates to wear clothes!

__________________
"It's not about how much baggage you have, it's about whether or not you can carry your own baggage with grace and dignity."

I wonder if the butter out all the time is a regional thing. I was born and raised in Florida and we never did that. But my MIL who is from up north can't understand why I get so grossed out by it she does it all the time.

Lets see for me. Riding in the back of a pickup truck was alot of fun. Even more fun was when we weren't going to far being able to sit on the tailgate of the truck and ride.

My great grandmother used to switch me with these little tiny branches she would pull off of trees. If I heard my first and middle name being called at the sametime I knew I was in trouble.

I used to get up in the mornings pack a lunch, saddle my horse and go riding all day. I would stop at a friends house and get her and we would take the horses swimming in the lakes or ride all in the forest alone when it started getting dark we knew it was time to head home. I remember the local stores had hitching posts to tie our horses up so we could go in and grab a soda and candy.

My great grandmother also did the bacon greese thing.

My parents didn't mind if I got completely dirty from head to toe and stayed that way all day. Now a days as soon as a kids hands get dirty they start screaming. We knew to wash our hands before we ate and after we used the restroom but that was it.

Im sure I can think of more but I just woke up and my brain isnt working yet.

My mom used to leave out the Easter eggs for weeks too.We also never got sick.
Riding without seatbelts.
Dad letting me steer the wheel while driving now and then.
Dad letting me have sips of his beer.Yummy
Freedom to do and go whereever I wanted,just be home for supper.They never had to worry about me not comming home at night because most of the other kids had to go home when the street lights came on so there was nobody left to play with.
We were allowed to play with matches in a coffee can.
Was also allowed to sleep overnight at bfs house and have bfs in my room.They never checked on me.They pretty much trusted me and I did stay a virgin till married.
Thats all I can think of right now.

Dang - this thread makes me so melancholy!

Bring back THE GOOD OLE DAYS!!!

What a fun post, OP! Thanks!

Last summer I took my family to the small town in MN that I was raised in for a wedding. I had been telling my kids for weeks about all of my fun childhood places that we would visit.

One was a small river that had a "natural water slide." As kids, we used to ride out bikes there almost daily in the summer. It was so neat!

Well, I got there with the kids and started shaking! I was horrified that we ever climbed up and slid down those rocks. I still can't believe that my parents let us do that, let alone unsupervised!

My grandmother always had a glass jar of bacon grease sitting in the middle of her stovetop. I thought it was gross as a kid just because I didn't want black specks on my fried eggs!

Umm, about the butter . . . is this really bad? I always keep a stick of butter in the cupboard, in a covered dish. My SIL was visiting from FL last fall and she commented on this. Before that, I'd never even considered that this was odd! Maybe it is a regional thing.

Just last weekend my mother was telling us about the boys in her school swimming naked during gym class. The girls had class after them, but would sneak peaks!

My 15 yr od DS was laughing the other day about taking the trash out after dark just a couple of years ago and being terrified. I told him that we rode our bikes all over town, alone, after dark all the time when I was a kid. Not that I would ever allow my kids to do that, but the point was that I don't ever remember being scared!

This makes me wonder what I'm doing now that my kids will look back on and be horrified!

Oh, I thought of another one - speaking of taking the trash out - starting at about age 11 or 12, I had to burn the trash in a barrel - it was a chore - forget playing with matches. Had to be careful on windy days, the pieces of paper that were hot would burn you if they blew on you or if you were like me - I'd go chasing them and try to catch them!

Now when we camp, I watch my kids, but do let them play in the campfire with their "torches"!

Lisa

__________________
"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

Another one is we were allowed to climb anthing we wanted,trees ,roofs,whatever.Tree climbing was a big thing.We lived in trees.Today you get charged with child endangering for letting your kid climb or even letting them leave the yard!

Oh gosh - on the trash thing - the first house that I actually remember living in was in East Grand Rapids, Michigan and we had an incinerator in the basement. We burned our trash in it. I can't remember ever seeing one of those in a single family home since....

Wire flyswatters
Riding standing in the back of the truck
Sitting in my mom's lap driving then advancing to her in the passengers seat and then alone
no seatbelts
staying in the car alone while they ran in
Rifles leaning in the corner of the living room and KNOWING that it was not a toy and leave it alone
belts
grease in a can


I'm in my 30's and oldest almost 14, wonder what kinda life my grandkids and great grandkids will have if it changed this much in that amount of time

__________________
Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at:
http://bookcrossing.com

My other favorites
www.paperbackswap.com
www.wheresgeorge.com
www.geocaching.com

I had to laugh,being from France.
my parents would put me in a mose's basket in the trunk of their car(the top inside was open) ,cause no more room in the back seat.,too many kids!!!!)
they wwould alos put me under the table while they played cards until the wee hour
going to the supermarket at the age of 7 by myself and get a 6-pack of beer for my parents(they never had alcohol in the house,but when friends would show up they would send me to get some!!!!)
drinking hot wine at the age of 4 or 5,cause it was cold(best remedy my grandafther had!!!!sure we slept like babies after that!!!!)
seatbelts? what are those....
rode 3 miles on my bike everyday to go to teh beach without a bike helmet.and it started when I was 5 years old.I would go with my sister and brothers (3,5 and 8 years older than I was!!!)

Oh - I forgot ... I have a picture of myself when I was 3 years old with an inflatable ring around my belly. My Grandma put it around me and told me not to take it off until I got back home. My friend (she was already 4!) and I went to the lake like that - a 1/2 hour walk. All the kids were there, I can't remember anybody ever getting hurt!

I also got warm beer when I was getting sick (it was in Germany after all )

I am not as old as some but I remember my mom & dad leaving me alone for hours/over night from a youngish age (I didn't like it though)

I also remember being hit with the flyswatter... blech!

Not only did we not wear seat belts we jumped around and climbed over the seats and in the back of the pickup we ran around like idiots.
We were smoked around, we were beaten with wooden spoons and belts, we had soap rubbed against our teeth and mouth for swearing.
When my sister was so skinny and would not eat my Mom would give her an aperatif ( a liquer to stimulate the appetite).
We stayed out until 9 pm no cell phones Mom only knew we were in the neighborhood playing with everyone else.
We grew up in a suburb of San Francisco and we rode the bus downtown alone. We made out with 23 yr olds when we were 14 they would go to jail today.
Teachers smoked at school and I went to school in the 60s and 70s the students were allowed to smoke on campus also.
That's about all I can think of right now.

__________________
The political system is broke and it's a joke.

My mom said she use to put me in a clothes basket to drive me around when I was a baby.

She said her mother would leave food out on the table all day long and just cover it up and they would eat leftovers for dinner.

I use to go out walking in the woods by myself and mushroom hunting by myself when I was 12 or 13. I would never let my kids do this. I use to take 2 mile walks by myself out in the middle of nowhere.

I use to jump ramps with no helmet or anything.

I started driving my parents car when I was 11 yrs old down to my grandparents house, just down the road and I was always by myself. I wouldn't even let my dd that is 12 drive next door!! LOL

I use to sit outside in the dark by myself until late hours looking at the stars on the hood of the car or in a lawn chair in the middle of the yard and listen to coyotes. Of course I was making wishes on those stars.

I forgot all about that. We had a "smoking tree" were everyone, teachers and students, went to smoke.

__________________
My MySpace Page

To Leave Me FeedBack Click HERE

oh ya I remember when I was in elementary we had a techers smoking room right next to my kindegarten class. We rode in the back of pickups & thought that was so fun.

__________________
mom of 3 greats girls

My high school too! I was telling somebody that the other day. We actually had a desginated area called the "smoking lounge". I guess they figured that they had to give us a place to smoke rather than having us sneak off campus to smoke.

__________________
This space for rent

There are still schools here that have smoking lounges outside!

For kids??? Wow

__________________
I found Jesus! He was behind the couch!

What did your parents do that was ok then, but most people would be mortified if you did it now?

Well, with graduations coming up, I'd have to say, let us have graduation parties with beer! I remember when I graduated from high school, I had a graduation party and my parents bought a keg for me and my friends. And they weren't the only parents to do so! About five other kid's parent's also did this. We didn't drive, but we went from house to house on foot. I can't even imagine it! People slept over at our house and my parents made sure that the kids who did drive handed over their keys when they came into the house...but still! This was back in 1981 and no one gave it a second thought. I can't imagine buying alcohol for minors these days! What were they thinking? It's insane! ~Lisa

It's illegal for kids under the age of 18 to buy cigarettes, but they can smoke in school?

__________________
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

Thinking back, I can't believe my mom knew about my fake id highschool senior year. I used to go to bars with my older sister and her friends on the weekends sometimes. It wasn't that uncommon to have a fake id back then as learner permits were still paper with no picture (early 80's). Sometimes I wonder what my mom was thinking. I guess we're just a little wiser today.

__________________
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

Another thing that I thought of is 4th of July. Fireworks were for kids, not adults. We'd all be at some realtives house having a BBQ and a bag of fireworks and a couple of lighters would just be handed over to a group of kids! I don't think the adults even paid attention. I cannot imagine doing this with my kids (but they sure would be jealous if they knew it was this way for me!)!

oh gosh these things are cracking me up

I used to walk down to the neighborhood bakery and buy packs of cigarettes for my parents' dinner guests once in awhile, if anyone at a dinner party mentioned they ran out of cigarettes I would beg mom/dad to allow me to go use the vending machine to buy a pack for them. because it was fun to put $ in the machine. my parents were not smokers and these days wouldn't be caught dead letting anyone smoke in their house.. but 30 years ago it was acceptable for guests to have a cigarette inside. lol. i also loved candy cigarettes, which i think are banned now.

we were the first people in our area to get seat belts. dad paid someone at a car shop to install them in our car and the car repair guy was slow getting it done because he said no one else ever placed an order for a seatbelt nor had he heard of these newfangled things..

my dh when he was a baby, was the youngest of several kids and their house was very crowded.
In the pix they showed me, from when he was a baby...well if they are indoors he's inside a dresser drawer that is hanging open...really!!! in the pictures outdoors, he's inside a suitcase...also hanging open.

mil also once said my dh used to bang his head against the crib headboard all the time when he was a baby. so what did they do? they cut a huge hole out of it because they were afraid he was gonna hurt his head banging it on the wood (i am not sure why they were not worried about a huge hole in the side of the crib, or the baby falling thru it or getting stuck in it) i saw a pic of an old wood crib with a big gaping hole tho.

had a relative born on a farm who would always eat raw hamburger meat, even complained about the dog wanting it and saying that was for her and not the dog.

My gm did the bacon grease thing ewww
I would skateboard...jumps with ramps, without pads or helmets..I would get pretty beat up but no broke bones lol
And when I was little and did anything wrong my stepdad would say go get the belt and I would get my butt/legs tore up , I'm sure now it would be considered abuse.


Christine

__________________
TLJ ~ Women United in Spirit