Post by Bevo on Jan 2, 2020 0:53:11 GMT
Hey guys... I've been a bit a dick lately. Nothing wrong, really.... just been in kind of a personal funk. But, I feel like I owe all of you an apology. Sorry, if I've been harsh... especially to "shitheads" :-) In repentance, here's a little gift for the board.
When we left the old website, I wasn't able to copy very many of the old posts... there wasn't much time. But, I did mange to copy a post I made about 1969. This post, and all the replies, were posted in 2009. 10 years ago. Although, at that time, it was around June of 2009.
I'll first post my original posting, and the replies... although, the name are not on the replies... I just copied them by number, working VERY quickly. I THINK I know who they all are.
After that, I'm going to post a few new recollections about the change from 1969 to 1970. They were formative years for me. I hope you enjoy.
1969
As I am rapidly approaching my 50th year of life, I decided to write a little reminder of what life was like in 1969, when I was 10, and some of the changes seen since:
Of course, there was no internet, no video games (although Atari ‘Pong’ hit our house somewhere near this time), telephones were attached to the wall, by a long cord if you were lucky. We had one television in our house, a brand new color TV, I’d guess about 25” size… as the youngest in the house, I was the “remote” control. Living near Houston gave us access to 4 TV stations: (ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS). I don’t recall whether we’d added our first UHS channel yet or not… I don’t think so.
National or world news came only from the lips of Walter Cronkite, or printed in the morning paper… which I diligently read every day. If Walter didn’t say it, it wasn’t important.
Only NASA had computers… we didn’t even have calculators yet, although there were starting to be reports of some. I was still being taught to use a slide-rule in school.
Speaking of school…. At my school, in southeast Texas, we had no air-conditioning in the classrooms; only in the library. Hmnn? Maybe that’s why I developed such a love for reading?? We had open windows and fans. And, oh yes… in 1969 we had one very novel thing: our first black students in our classroom. We added three in my class. I became pretty good friends with one boy, Julian Diggs, and my mother created a bit of a stir in our neighborhood when she invited him to our house for my birthday party. My recollection of the event was, “it was no big deal”….but, the grown-ups seemed to be in a tizzy about it.
My Dad had a good job, for a high school graduate, working as a Supervisor in a chemical plant. Mom stayed home to run the household. With my sister, the four of us lived in a ~ 1200 ft2 frame house, with one car. I believe, 1969 is the year we finally got two cars, as we drove to Houston to buy a 1969 Pontiac Bonneville… wow, what a boat of a car. It was about 30 feet long, probably weighed 5000 lbs, and got just under 16 MPG. The “great new feature” on it was: Power steering and brakes! No airbags, no traction control, no anti-lock brakes, no independent suspension… none of the things we take for granted in cars these days.
Oh… driving to Houston? That was a 1 hour trip along a dangerous two-lane highway with stop lights in several small towns. Today, it’s a 30 minute non-stop cruise at high speed along an alternately 2,3, and 4 lane highway.
We had no micro-wave. Gasoline cost 19.9 cents per gallon. Our brand new lawn mower had a self-propelled feature on the front wheels and none of the annoying “safety features” we have today. That was sweet! Bicycles had one speed… maybe 3 if you were lucky.
Our town had one movie theater that changed films about once every 3 weeks. For entertainment, my parents would go to friend’s houses to drink coffee, talk, maybe play cards. Sometimes, they came to our house. Either way, that meant all of us kids had to spend the time “playing together”. Not coincidentally, my parents seemed to visit more frequently with the families who’s kids played together well.
In politics, virtually every elected official in Texas, and indeed, most of the South, was a Democrat. In 1969, the country was still sort of in shock after the tragic election year of 1968. I think, many people were doubting the “greatness” of the county at that time… The accomplishment of the moon-landing and the stress-release of Woodstock helped solidify the historic significance of both
“Made in Japan” was synonymous with “Junk”. Although, some new Sony radios were being sold that were pretty cool. China was a completely closed Communist society.
Chemical plants at that time routinely dumped toxic waste into open “magic” pits. People worked on their own cars, changed their own oil, and poured the used oil along fence-line to kill grass. There was lead in paint, lead in gasoline, and asbestos in damn near everything… even the ceiling tiles at the school. At night, the chemical plants near us spewed so much black smoke, it sometimes obscured the screen at the drive-in movie. Fish were dying due to water pollution. Mosquito populations were exploding due to DDT bans and tar balls often covered the beach. Today, the beach is clean, the air is clean and the fish population is thriving. Sadly, the mosquitoes are thriving as well.
A double bypass heart surgery took 24 hours, and the chances of survival were about 50/50. We had X-ray’s for diagnostics… that’s it. We had a choice of two doctors.. one was an alcoholic, the other cursed like a sailor. Music was played on vinyl LP’s… and, single 45’s cost a dollar. ALL tennis rackets were wooden. As were all golf drivers… all the irons and putters were blades. We had one crappy golf course within 40 miles. Today, in the same area, there are six.
The AMAZING Mets won the World Series with a little help from a local rookie, Nolan Ryan. We got to watch some of the series on TV in my Phys Ed class… on a Black & White tv. . Joe Willy predicted, and then won Super Bowl III. The roman numerals were a lot simpler then. Rusty Staub was my favorite Astro, and the Dome was the ONLY covered stadium in the world.
Young boys were “hyper”, no one had ADHD. Old people got “dementia’, not Alzheimer’s. And, Halloween was a kid’s dream…. Candy by the bagful from people you never met, with no worries. Coca Cola came in ONE flavor… a glass coke bottle would fetch you a nickel at the store… and, that nickel could buy a candy bar, or 5 pieces of “penny candy”. All of my free time was spent playing football, basketball, or baseball with the neighbors… or reading… or, riding my bike. That’s pretty much it.
The world today is so vastly different, it’s hard to comprehend. Some changes haven’t been all that great, but… on the whole, I like today. What will 2050 look like? Well considering the difference in life between 1929 and 1969 and 2009, I think 2049 will be Grand!
REPLY 1: (I think NCT wrote this)
Great post. I'm just a little younger. In LaGrange, we had cable tv from as early as I can remember (I was born in '66), but we had only eight channels (two from each major network (one Atlanta, one Columbus) plus PBS plus WTCG, an Atlanta independent run by Turner Communications Group that eventually became WTBS.
For kicks, find somebody in their 20s and tell them we used to use shampoo out of glass bottles and toothpaste out of metal tubes. Even in the '60s and '70s, plastic hadn't made its way into every part of our lives.
In 1971, Dad bought a specially ordered 1972 Chevelle station wagon from the local dealer. It was a "mid-sized" car, but giant by today's standards. When it arrived, it wasn't exactly what he ordered, and rather than take a deal on it, he said he'd wait to get what he'd ordered. That station wagon didn't have power locks and windows (although I think they were already available), because, according to Dad, that was "just something else to go wrong". It did, however, have an 8-track tape player. I remember hearing everything from Bill Cosby to Frank Sinatra to the Beatles to Elvis Presley on that stereo.
We had two telephones in the house, both of which had to be leased from Southern Bell. They were, of course, rotary dial. Up until I was about 12 or 13 or so, you had to dial only five digits for local calls. Every 7-digit number in town started with 882- or 884-, so you could just skip the 88 (which was the exchange TUxedo, btw). We added a third telephone, but we had to sneak it past the phone company by splicing it in ourselves. It couldn't ring.
It was a huge, huge deal when Columbus, GA (about 50 miles away) got a big FM radio station that played pop and rock music. Up until then, FM was absolutely not what you'd want to listen to. All the good music, if it could be found at all, would be exclusively on AM stations.
Fresh produce was available only when it was in season locally. There were no fruits and vegetables from South America or Africa or Europe or the Middle East. If you wanted oranges in the spring, you bought frozen concentrated orange juice. If you wanted grean beans in the middle of winter, you pulled down a Mason jar that your grandmother put up the previous year.
Speaking of produce, my great-uncle owned an orange orchard just outside of Lakeland, FL. Every year for Christmas, we'd get a couple of huge boxes of oranges, grapefruit, and kumquats. That came to an end when the FL and/or US Department of Agriculture made it illegal to transport produce across state lines before they'd been through some kind of inspection or processing. The orchard came to an end altogether when increasing frosts and skyrocketing central Florida real estate prices made keeping the orchard impractical. He lived a modest farmer's life but died a very rich man.
The tallest building in Atlanta was the Hyatt with the "flying saucer" on top, the first highrise hotel built around an open atrium. Today, the only US buildings taller than the Bank of America tower (the C&S building when construction started) are in Chicago and New York.
REPLY 2: (Definitely, DOC)
________________________________________
Thanks for the memories, Bevo. Here is what i recall from that year and in several instances our stories are somewhat familiar.
First, January 1, 1969 - I had just turned 10 in October, Ohio State is playing USC in the Rose Bowl although I was pretty much oblivious to it; I know when I woke up that morning I wasn't filled with the anticipation of the game. All I know is I heard my dad yelling in the living room so I went in to see what all the comotions was about. He was really in to the game and I kept asking him questions; what's so big about this game, which team is from Ohio - the one wearing white or black jerseys, who is OJ Simpson, what's the Heisman Trophy - finally my dad said, if you're so damn interested why don't you shut, sit there and watch the game. I did and I've been a Buckeye fan ever since - I was hooked. And it was one of the true connections I would have with my dad - we loved watching Ohio State football together and when I was a student there I'd get someone who wasn't a football fan to buy tickets for my dad to attend.
In April of '69 I was in a high school production of Bye, Bye Birdie. My sister was a sophomore at the school and they needed a younger boy to play the little brother of Kim McAffee who was selected to go on a date with teen throb, Conrad Birdie - my sister volunteered me. I had a great time. I was treated like a king by all the high school girls and my sister actually got quite jealous of me because I had a bigger role than she did. Many of my class mates had brothers or sisters at the high school and they saw me in the play - I actually got to be somewhat of a celebrity. I was actually enjoying the attention and then I learned we were moving.
I'm from a large family - I had 7 brothers and sisters. The youngest of the family was born in June of '69 so we moved to a bigger house that summer. I obviously wasn't too excited about the move and it took me a while to get adjusted. I moved from an all white school where I had a lot of friends to a very urban school. By the time I was in high school the ratio was 75% black, 25% white. I have to say the biggest lesson I learned during my high school years was that racism is ugly - I was one of 5 white kids on our football team and seeing the way my teammates were treated when we would play teams from white communities really opened my eyes to how cruel and mean people can be.
Back to '69, of course I recall the moon landing - everyone huddled around our black and white TV watching the snowy images of man walking on the moon. My dad was an ironworker and he never took vacations. Vacations for us kids was spending a week in Lima, Ohio with our grandmother and we loved it. I don't think I ever left the state of Ohio until the summer I graduated from high school. We had 2 cars but one of them was always breaking down. No air conditioning in the house. I shared a room with my two brothers. We sat down every night as a family for dinner and you had to eat every bite on your plate. My mom was a stay-at-hom mom, and she always put great meals on the table. We never had left overs because we would eat until everything was gone.
As the new kid in my 6th grade class, I got my butt kicked after school for about the first week until I finally decided to fight back, broke a kids nose in the process, and that was the end of that.
We lived 4 houses away from a city park and everyday was spent at the park playing whatever was in season; baseball, football or basketball. We had a lot of kids in our neighborhood and our games were epic. In the summer we'd be at the park from 9 am to 9 pm only taking breaks to go home and eat. We had to be home when the street light across the street from our house came on. Do you ever drive by a park today and see kids playing pick-up baseball games? I know I don't.
We rode our bikes everywhere - mine was one of those with a banana seat and monkey handle bars, as Bevo said it only had one speed. I played little league baseball and the park was about 4 miles away - I'd ride my bike there everyday. (I wouldn't let my kids ride their bike to the grocery store which is about 1 mile from our house!) A couple years later I got a ten speed which cost me a whopping $115 which I saved up from my paper route. Yep, papers were delivered by kids - I had a morning route so I'd get up at 4 am, be done by 5:30 am and go back to bed until about 7:30.
It was a simple time. Kids didn't play the same sport year round, there wasn't AAU and all the crap that we have today. Parents didn't live their lives vicariously through their children. And you had to be active to entertain yourself - we didn't have XBox, N64 and all that stuff. We had to make up our own games like Track, Tape ball and things like that.
Thanks for making me think back to those days of 1969. It was quite a transitional year for me - I became a Buckeye fan and I was exposed to an entirely different culture of living which truly helped shape me into the person i am today.
Reply 3: (Not sure... although, I DID get the book and read it... Maybe, HYH, but.... his grammar was usually better)
________________________________________
i am 53 , so my recollections are very similar... was jsut thinking about how all these fearful histrionics in t he media seem so overdone..and how mega-creature comforts of today have somehow robbed this yougn generation of something... my fondest recall is that i hooked up with buddies for baseball, football or basketball every day after school...every day!-- growing up in sopranos country of new jersey, we had no grass fields and played football, baseball ( with hard rubber ball). basketball and even hockey in sneakers( with a tennis ball) in the street. we were 'warned" to play at the other end of the block when the mobsters congregated- replete with retrospecticively recalled armed bodyguards outside the house- at mr parisi's house on fridays... the recollections are still very pure...super bowl III traumatized me for 20 years....i was a huge fan of the gemini and mercury astronauts..you were a rford family or a gm family...occsioanl chryslers aorund...which signiifed having money...caddy;s reserved dfor the elites....and i always would think the local college basketball teams ( e.g. st peters, columbia, LIU, manhattan) were just as good as the ucla's, kentucky's etc...off on a tangent..sorry...BEVO--- THE 1969 TEXAS- ARKANSAS GAME WAS ONE OF THE GREATEAEST EVER.. RECOEMMENDATION FOR YOU: GET THE BOOK" HORNS , HOGS AND NIXONS COMING " BY TERRY FREI..A SIMPLY SUPERB READ ON THAT TEXAS MAGICAL SEASON ( JAMES STREET, COTTON SPEYRER, THE FREDDIE STEINMARK STORY)AND THAT GAME IN PARTICULAR....
Reply 4: (Thank, Hen)
Thanks Bevo -very nice.................1969 changed my life forever when I got the opportunity to tour scenic Vietnam after getting a draft letter from Nixon in 68.
Reply 5
Nice post Bevo. I remember 1969 like that also. Summers were great and there always seemed to be a game of some kind going on with me and my friends, either sports or board, or we just played. And where I grew up in NC (and still in the same house now), we had 2 movie houses and we went to the lake and vacationed at the beach. I saw the moon landing live. And in the fall, every Friday night we went to see the local high school team play football. And being 10, they were the same players as the ones on TV Sunday.
Good times remembered and great number of changes since then, good and bad.
When we left the old website, I wasn't able to copy very many of the old posts... there wasn't much time. But, I did mange to copy a post I made about 1969. This post, and all the replies, were posted in 2009. 10 years ago. Although, at that time, it was around June of 2009.
I'll first post my original posting, and the replies... although, the name are not on the replies... I just copied them by number, working VERY quickly. I THINK I know who they all are.
After that, I'm going to post a few new recollections about the change from 1969 to 1970. They were formative years for me. I hope you enjoy.
1969
As I am rapidly approaching my 50th year of life, I decided to write a little reminder of what life was like in 1969, when I was 10, and some of the changes seen since:
Of course, there was no internet, no video games (although Atari ‘Pong’ hit our house somewhere near this time), telephones were attached to the wall, by a long cord if you were lucky. We had one television in our house, a brand new color TV, I’d guess about 25” size… as the youngest in the house, I was the “remote” control. Living near Houston gave us access to 4 TV stations: (ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS). I don’t recall whether we’d added our first UHS channel yet or not… I don’t think so.
National or world news came only from the lips of Walter Cronkite, or printed in the morning paper… which I diligently read every day. If Walter didn’t say it, it wasn’t important.
Only NASA had computers… we didn’t even have calculators yet, although there were starting to be reports of some. I was still being taught to use a slide-rule in school.
Speaking of school…. At my school, in southeast Texas, we had no air-conditioning in the classrooms; only in the library. Hmnn? Maybe that’s why I developed such a love for reading?? We had open windows and fans. And, oh yes… in 1969 we had one very novel thing: our first black students in our classroom. We added three in my class. I became pretty good friends with one boy, Julian Diggs, and my mother created a bit of a stir in our neighborhood when she invited him to our house for my birthday party. My recollection of the event was, “it was no big deal”….but, the grown-ups seemed to be in a tizzy about it.
My Dad had a good job, for a high school graduate, working as a Supervisor in a chemical plant. Mom stayed home to run the household. With my sister, the four of us lived in a ~ 1200 ft2 frame house, with one car. I believe, 1969 is the year we finally got two cars, as we drove to Houston to buy a 1969 Pontiac Bonneville… wow, what a boat of a car. It was about 30 feet long, probably weighed 5000 lbs, and got just under 16 MPG. The “great new feature” on it was: Power steering and brakes! No airbags, no traction control, no anti-lock brakes, no independent suspension… none of the things we take for granted in cars these days.
Oh… driving to Houston? That was a 1 hour trip along a dangerous two-lane highway with stop lights in several small towns. Today, it’s a 30 minute non-stop cruise at high speed along an alternately 2,3, and 4 lane highway.
We had no micro-wave. Gasoline cost 19.9 cents per gallon. Our brand new lawn mower had a self-propelled feature on the front wheels and none of the annoying “safety features” we have today. That was sweet! Bicycles had one speed… maybe 3 if you were lucky.
Our town had one movie theater that changed films about once every 3 weeks. For entertainment, my parents would go to friend’s houses to drink coffee, talk, maybe play cards. Sometimes, they came to our house. Either way, that meant all of us kids had to spend the time “playing together”. Not coincidentally, my parents seemed to visit more frequently with the families who’s kids played together well.
In politics, virtually every elected official in Texas, and indeed, most of the South, was a Democrat. In 1969, the country was still sort of in shock after the tragic election year of 1968. I think, many people were doubting the “greatness” of the county at that time… The accomplishment of the moon-landing and the stress-release of Woodstock helped solidify the historic significance of both
“Made in Japan” was synonymous with “Junk”. Although, some new Sony radios were being sold that were pretty cool. China was a completely closed Communist society.
Chemical plants at that time routinely dumped toxic waste into open “magic” pits. People worked on their own cars, changed their own oil, and poured the used oil along fence-line to kill grass. There was lead in paint, lead in gasoline, and asbestos in damn near everything… even the ceiling tiles at the school. At night, the chemical plants near us spewed so much black smoke, it sometimes obscured the screen at the drive-in movie. Fish were dying due to water pollution. Mosquito populations were exploding due to DDT bans and tar balls often covered the beach. Today, the beach is clean, the air is clean and the fish population is thriving. Sadly, the mosquitoes are thriving as well.
A double bypass heart surgery took 24 hours, and the chances of survival were about 50/50. We had X-ray’s for diagnostics… that’s it. We had a choice of two doctors.. one was an alcoholic, the other cursed like a sailor. Music was played on vinyl LP’s… and, single 45’s cost a dollar. ALL tennis rackets were wooden. As were all golf drivers… all the irons and putters were blades. We had one crappy golf course within 40 miles. Today, in the same area, there are six.
The AMAZING Mets won the World Series with a little help from a local rookie, Nolan Ryan. We got to watch some of the series on TV in my Phys Ed class… on a Black & White tv. . Joe Willy predicted, and then won Super Bowl III. The roman numerals were a lot simpler then. Rusty Staub was my favorite Astro, and the Dome was the ONLY covered stadium in the world.
Young boys were “hyper”, no one had ADHD. Old people got “dementia’, not Alzheimer’s. And, Halloween was a kid’s dream…. Candy by the bagful from people you never met, with no worries. Coca Cola came in ONE flavor… a glass coke bottle would fetch you a nickel at the store… and, that nickel could buy a candy bar, or 5 pieces of “penny candy”. All of my free time was spent playing football, basketball, or baseball with the neighbors… or reading… or, riding my bike. That’s pretty much it.
The world today is so vastly different, it’s hard to comprehend. Some changes haven’t been all that great, but… on the whole, I like today. What will 2050 look like? Well considering the difference in life between 1929 and 1969 and 2009, I think 2049 will be Grand!
REPLY 1: (I think NCT wrote this)
Great post. I'm just a little younger. In LaGrange, we had cable tv from as early as I can remember (I was born in '66), but we had only eight channels (two from each major network (one Atlanta, one Columbus) plus PBS plus WTCG, an Atlanta independent run by Turner Communications Group that eventually became WTBS.
For kicks, find somebody in their 20s and tell them we used to use shampoo out of glass bottles and toothpaste out of metal tubes. Even in the '60s and '70s, plastic hadn't made its way into every part of our lives.
In 1971, Dad bought a specially ordered 1972 Chevelle station wagon from the local dealer. It was a "mid-sized" car, but giant by today's standards. When it arrived, it wasn't exactly what he ordered, and rather than take a deal on it, he said he'd wait to get what he'd ordered. That station wagon didn't have power locks and windows (although I think they were already available), because, according to Dad, that was "just something else to go wrong". It did, however, have an 8-track tape player. I remember hearing everything from Bill Cosby to Frank Sinatra to the Beatles to Elvis Presley on that stereo.
We had two telephones in the house, both of which had to be leased from Southern Bell. They were, of course, rotary dial. Up until I was about 12 or 13 or so, you had to dial only five digits for local calls. Every 7-digit number in town started with 882- or 884-, so you could just skip the 88 (which was the exchange TUxedo, btw). We added a third telephone, but we had to sneak it past the phone company by splicing it in ourselves. It couldn't ring.
It was a huge, huge deal when Columbus, GA (about 50 miles away) got a big FM radio station that played pop and rock music. Up until then, FM was absolutely not what you'd want to listen to. All the good music, if it could be found at all, would be exclusively on AM stations.
Fresh produce was available only when it was in season locally. There were no fruits and vegetables from South America or Africa or Europe or the Middle East. If you wanted oranges in the spring, you bought frozen concentrated orange juice. If you wanted grean beans in the middle of winter, you pulled down a Mason jar that your grandmother put up the previous year.
Speaking of produce, my great-uncle owned an orange orchard just outside of Lakeland, FL. Every year for Christmas, we'd get a couple of huge boxes of oranges, grapefruit, and kumquats. That came to an end when the FL and/or US Department of Agriculture made it illegal to transport produce across state lines before they'd been through some kind of inspection or processing. The orchard came to an end altogether when increasing frosts and skyrocketing central Florida real estate prices made keeping the orchard impractical. He lived a modest farmer's life but died a very rich man.
The tallest building in Atlanta was the Hyatt with the "flying saucer" on top, the first highrise hotel built around an open atrium. Today, the only US buildings taller than the Bank of America tower (the C&S building when construction started) are in Chicago and New York.
REPLY 2: (Definitely, DOC)
________________________________________
Thanks for the memories, Bevo. Here is what i recall from that year and in several instances our stories are somewhat familiar.
First, January 1, 1969 - I had just turned 10 in October, Ohio State is playing USC in the Rose Bowl although I was pretty much oblivious to it; I know when I woke up that morning I wasn't filled with the anticipation of the game. All I know is I heard my dad yelling in the living room so I went in to see what all the comotions was about. He was really in to the game and I kept asking him questions; what's so big about this game, which team is from Ohio - the one wearing white or black jerseys, who is OJ Simpson, what's the Heisman Trophy - finally my dad said, if you're so damn interested why don't you shut, sit there and watch the game. I did and I've been a Buckeye fan ever since - I was hooked. And it was one of the true connections I would have with my dad - we loved watching Ohio State football together and when I was a student there I'd get someone who wasn't a football fan to buy tickets for my dad to attend.
In April of '69 I was in a high school production of Bye, Bye Birdie. My sister was a sophomore at the school and they needed a younger boy to play the little brother of Kim McAffee who was selected to go on a date with teen throb, Conrad Birdie - my sister volunteered me. I had a great time. I was treated like a king by all the high school girls and my sister actually got quite jealous of me because I had a bigger role than she did. Many of my class mates had brothers or sisters at the high school and they saw me in the play - I actually got to be somewhat of a celebrity. I was actually enjoying the attention and then I learned we were moving.
I'm from a large family - I had 7 brothers and sisters. The youngest of the family was born in June of '69 so we moved to a bigger house that summer. I obviously wasn't too excited about the move and it took me a while to get adjusted. I moved from an all white school where I had a lot of friends to a very urban school. By the time I was in high school the ratio was 75% black, 25% white. I have to say the biggest lesson I learned during my high school years was that racism is ugly - I was one of 5 white kids on our football team and seeing the way my teammates were treated when we would play teams from white communities really opened my eyes to how cruel and mean people can be.
Back to '69, of course I recall the moon landing - everyone huddled around our black and white TV watching the snowy images of man walking on the moon. My dad was an ironworker and he never took vacations. Vacations for us kids was spending a week in Lima, Ohio with our grandmother and we loved it. I don't think I ever left the state of Ohio until the summer I graduated from high school. We had 2 cars but one of them was always breaking down. No air conditioning in the house. I shared a room with my two brothers. We sat down every night as a family for dinner and you had to eat every bite on your plate. My mom was a stay-at-hom mom, and she always put great meals on the table. We never had left overs because we would eat until everything was gone.
As the new kid in my 6th grade class, I got my butt kicked after school for about the first week until I finally decided to fight back, broke a kids nose in the process, and that was the end of that.
We lived 4 houses away from a city park and everyday was spent at the park playing whatever was in season; baseball, football or basketball. We had a lot of kids in our neighborhood and our games were epic. In the summer we'd be at the park from 9 am to 9 pm only taking breaks to go home and eat. We had to be home when the street light across the street from our house came on. Do you ever drive by a park today and see kids playing pick-up baseball games? I know I don't.
We rode our bikes everywhere - mine was one of those with a banana seat and monkey handle bars, as Bevo said it only had one speed. I played little league baseball and the park was about 4 miles away - I'd ride my bike there everyday. (I wouldn't let my kids ride their bike to the grocery store which is about 1 mile from our house!) A couple years later I got a ten speed which cost me a whopping $115 which I saved up from my paper route. Yep, papers were delivered by kids - I had a morning route so I'd get up at 4 am, be done by 5:30 am and go back to bed until about 7:30.
It was a simple time. Kids didn't play the same sport year round, there wasn't AAU and all the crap that we have today. Parents didn't live their lives vicariously through their children. And you had to be active to entertain yourself - we didn't have XBox, N64 and all that stuff. We had to make up our own games like Track, Tape ball and things like that.
Thanks for making me think back to those days of 1969. It was quite a transitional year for me - I became a Buckeye fan and I was exposed to an entirely different culture of living which truly helped shape me into the person i am today.
Reply 3: (Not sure... although, I DID get the book and read it... Maybe, HYH, but.... his grammar was usually better)
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i am 53 , so my recollections are very similar... was jsut thinking about how all these fearful histrionics in t he media seem so overdone..and how mega-creature comforts of today have somehow robbed this yougn generation of something... my fondest recall is that i hooked up with buddies for baseball, football or basketball every day after school...every day!-- growing up in sopranos country of new jersey, we had no grass fields and played football, baseball ( with hard rubber ball). basketball and even hockey in sneakers( with a tennis ball) in the street. we were 'warned" to play at the other end of the block when the mobsters congregated- replete with retrospecticively recalled armed bodyguards outside the house- at mr parisi's house on fridays... the recollections are still very pure...super bowl III traumatized me for 20 years....i was a huge fan of the gemini and mercury astronauts..you were a rford family or a gm family...occsioanl chryslers aorund...which signiifed having money...caddy;s reserved dfor the elites....and i always would think the local college basketball teams ( e.g. st peters, columbia, LIU, manhattan) were just as good as the ucla's, kentucky's etc...off on a tangent..sorry...BEVO--- THE 1969 TEXAS- ARKANSAS GAME WAS ONE OF THE GREATEAEST EVER.. RECOEMMENDATION FOR YOU: GET THE BOOK" HORNS , HOGS AND NIXONS COMING " BY TERRY FREI..A SIMPLY SUPERB READ ON THAT TEXAS MAGICAL SEASON ( JAMES STREET, COTTON SPEYRER, THE FREDDIE STEINMARK STORY)AND THAT GAME IN PARTICULAR....
Reply 4: (Thank, Hen)
Thanks Bevo -very nice.................1969 changed my life forever when I got the opportunity to tour scenic Vietnam after getting a draft letter from Nixon in 68.
Reply 5
Nice post Bevo. I remember 1969 like that also. Summers were great and there always seemed to be a game of some kind going on with me and my friends, either sports or board, or we just played. And where I grew up in NC (and still in the same house now), we had 2 movie houses and we went to the lake and vacationed at the beach. I saw the moon landing live. And in the fall, every Friday night we went to see the local high school team play football. And being 10, they were the same players as the ones on TV Sunday.
Good times remembered and great number of changes since then, good and bad.