I've been thinking of some things that lots of kids today have never done, things that I did when I was a little girl back in the dark ages. So, here's what I came up with.
1. Using an outhouse. That's like a permanent port-a-potty. You sit over a hole cut into a wooden top and do your business. You might use toilet paper, but then again, you might have old catalogues and newspapers instead. Yes, I have used one before. Gross.
2. Milking a cow by hand. Yeah, I know the cow isn't real, but you get the idea how it was done.
3. Sleeping with the windows open because the house had no air conditioner. We got one when I was sixteen.
4. I missed forty days my senior year, but nobody said anything because I had a straight A average. I routinely cut on Tuesday because my boyfriend had Tuesdays off, and we always went somewhere. Did my parents know? Yep, they knew. FYI, I made a 100 on my final math exam, and I exempted the rest of them. I graduated with honors and gave a speech at graduation. (Please don't try this today. As a teacher, I can promise you it doesn't work that way now.)
5. Getting a driver's license when you were barely a teenager. I got mine at fourteen. So scary!
So, talk to me. Tell me how things are different for you.
When I was little we used an outhouse and a chamber pot. We had an old ringer washer and hung clothes out on the line to dry. I guess the biggest changes is of course technology. You had to go to the corner phone booth to make a call when you were out and about. We had three channels on the television using rabbit ears and aluminum foil even then. Mornings consisted of cartoons and cereal. I miss the innocence of my youth. You felt safer then. There were murders but few and far between. I miss walking in the grass with no shoes, eating snow cream and playing after dark chasing lightening bugs. Kids today have computers and other technology to keep them from playing outside in most places.
ReplyDeleteLetina Bowen Kelly
We did all of that too, Letina. Personally, except for the outhouse, I think we had it better as kids.
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