Growing Up

Someone asked the other day, What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?"

"We didn't have fast food when I was growing up," i informed him.
"All we had was food slow."

"C'mon, seriously, Where did you eat?"

"It was a place called 'at home." I explained!
"Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we all sat down together at the kitchen table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it."

By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't ell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.

But here are some other things I could have told him about my childhood if I figured his system could have handled it.

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, wore Levis, set foot on a golf course, traveled out of the country or had a credit card. My parents never drove me to school. I walked or took the school bus.

I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds and only had one speed, (slow).

We didn't have a television in our house until I was 19. It was, of course. black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God and then the test pattern went on until it came back on at 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.

I never had a telephone in my room. the only phone was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home...But milk was. (So was Ice for the refrigerator.)!

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers. They had to deliver them seven days a week and had to get up at 6 a.m. or earlier. every morning.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies.

There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for every one to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive.

If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share the memories with your children or grandchildren. Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.

Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

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I didn't write this but I added a few little details of my own. It is pretty close to what I grew up with.
Lynn