"Back in the day..."

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

@Sally I think the saving grace of that song is that he is definitely saying 'No!'...

 

@daveb & @Midland Tyke, I'm always disappointed in my photos...they never show the beauty that attracted me to taking the shot.

Cat Stevens is a legend @Moonchaser, his work is so poignant and relevant to the bigger picture.

I've recently shouted 'Get off my lawn!' to someone who was ripping it up with their 4WD... @daveb

[Tanwen]

We had no idea what earth looked like (other than sort of round-ish), there hadn't been any pictures from the previous trips into space. Even air travel was still a relative novelty (at least on this side of the pond) it would be like trying to explain tv to someone who'd never seen it

 

[Tyke]

I suppose I grew up with "The Sky at Night" (the legendary Patrick Moore) and an astronomy loving older brother. So I'd seen pictures of planets in books and artists' impressions of how we might look.

 

Or maybe I'm just dead in the heart.....

[daveb]

I wouldn't say we had no idea what it looked like, but artists' depictions aren't the same as the real thing. Now, with Pluto, we really didn't know what it looked like. Even the non-Earth planets and asteroids have revealed some surprises when probes with various kinds of equipment for detection and observation visited close by those bodies. To me it's all fascinating and awe-inspiring (but doesn't make me feel small, or make me feel afraid or anything).  

[daveb]

It's a great big wonderful universe and there's lots to explore!  

[will123]

On 9/6/2017 at 2:21 AM, Moonchaser said:

Haha, well we really did play outside and walk to school. But we watched a lot of TV too.

Exactly and they wonder why childhood obesity is on the rise. Nobody got a ride to school because the father had the only car to drive to work.

[will123]

On 9/6/2017 at 9:23 PM, daveb said:

 

 

 

Now get off my lawn while I braid my my ear hairs! 

[Moonchaser]

1 hour ago, will123 said:

Exactly and they wonder why childhood obesity is on the rise. Nobody got a ride to school because the father had the only car to drive to work.

My parents both drove to work. But my dad worked in construction, so sometimes if it rained, he couldn't work, so he'd pick us up after school, so we didn't have to get wet. But yes, those walks to and from school were pretty good exercise, and we played outside. It's funny though, I never thought of that as exercise, and I still hate the idea of exercise for the sake of exercise. Why does it become such a negative for some of us, that idea of exercise? It's a mystery to me.

 

[Snao Cone]

I walked to school, and it was vital to developing a social life in middle school. I walked in a group of anywhere from three to eight kids. We took our time, chatting along the way and sometimes stopping by parks or convenience stores to hang around and chat. It was a 15 minute walk to get to school, but sometimes it would take me two hours to get home because I was hanging out with friends. I'm very glad I wasn't driven everywhere, or hovered over. 

[argar]

Hmm, I walked to school as well, but it was a solo activity.

 

I enjoyed the space where it was just me and my thoughts.

 

Heck, I still enjoy walking alone for the same reason.

 

Although it is not as effortless as it used to be. Lol

[Gloomy]

I started walking to and from school alone when I was 6, but at the time the block I lived on was literally right next to the school. The playground at my school was actually on the other side of the fence in my backyard.

 

My mom sometimes drove me to school during the later years when we lived further away from the school, though.

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

Everyone used to think I was a bad mum because I got my daughter out of her pushchair as soon as she could walk a decent distance, but it paid off, she runs marathons now and the only diet she's on is there to help her keep the weight on! I'm so jealous! I wish all that walking had worked out the same for me....

[Muledeer]

5 hours ago, Gloomy said:

I started walking to and from school alone when I was 6, but at the time the block I lived on was literally right next to the school. The playground at my school was actually on the other side of the fence in my backyard.

 

My mom sometimes drove me to school during the later years when we lived further away from the school, though.

I remember my mom sending me off to kindergarten, on the first day, by myself, to walk to school.  She stood at the front door and cried as I left.  My parents practiced walking to the school with me before the first day of class.  That was in 1968.    

[daveb]

I walked to school, too, but never lived very far from school. I used to check out a book from my grade school library and read it while I walked home from grade school.  

[flagsforhippos]

My mom used to drive me to school despite it being a three minute walk from my house - to stop me bunking off, I suppose.

[will123]

2 hours ago, Muledeer said:

I remember my mom sending me off to kindergarten, on the first day, by myself, to walk to school.  She stood at the front door and cried as I left.  My parents practiced walking to the school with me before the first day of class.  That was in 1968.    

I started kindergarden in the fall of '66. My mother walked the half a mile with me the first day. There were two older girls across the street, so I usually walked with them after that.

[Skycaptain]

First seven years walked to school, it was only half a mile. Secondary school was by train, or after we moved house, bus as it was in a different town altogether. 

 

I think it's a sign of becoming an adult that what was once play becomes exercise , then "hard work" 

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

Haha! My sentiments about exercise as well @Skycaptain.

[Snao Cone]

I walked 45 minutes to work (each way, give days a week) for a couple of years. I live much much closer to my current job, so I don't get as much exercise.

[daveb]

I was probably in my best shape when I worked a physically demanding job and also biked 7-8 miles each way to work, as well as a couple miles 1 or 2 evenings a week to school. In those days I could eat anything I wanted and stay skinny, of course. That was in my 20s. Those days are long gone!  

[Semisweet]

On November 19, 2017 at 9:52 PM, daveb said:

The difference between imagining how something would be or even knowing how it would be and actually being there (or getting actual photos for the first time ever) seems pretty wide to me. For example, even just from my own travels, I never knew how green a place could be in terms of the vegetation, growing up in southern California.

Growing up in the urban U.S. northeast, I assumed from what I'd seen of most rivers and northern coastal beaches that bodies of water were supposed to be brown. Not till I went as a young adult to the Caribbean did I realize that most are blue or green.

 

Re: walking to and from school -- I did so without adult accompaniment from an early age (it was about a 10-minute walk). Today in the U.S., letting your second grader walk alone to school might be considered child abuse. 

[Snao Cone]

 

On 26/11/2017 at 12:48 PM, daveb said:

I was probably in my best shape when I worked a physically demanding job and also biked 7-8 miles each way to work, as well as a couple miles 1 or 2 evenings a week to school. In those days I could eat anything I wanted and stay skinny, of course. That was in my 20s. Those days are long gone!  

I have never been skinny, so I don't feel nostalgic for such days.

[daveb]

I weighed about 10 stone in those days (I remember that because I weighed myself on some scales in the UK back then while traveling). (about 40 lbs less than I weigh now)

[Sally]

On 11/26/2017 at 12:09 PM, Semisweet said:

Today in the U.S., letting your second grader walk alone to school might be considered child abuse. 

It actually is in some areas.  I remember reading a story several years ago about a parent who was charged with child endangerment for allowing her two children, about 7 and 9, to walk to a local park alone.  

[Skycaptain]

5 hours ago, Sally said:

It actually is in some areas.  I remember reading a story several years ago about a parent who was charged with child endangerment for allowing her two children, about 7 and 9, to walk to a local park alone.  

Please don't give the chattering classes over here ideas 

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

Seconded @Skycaptain...

[Guest Jetsun Milarepa]

I hear that Sleeping Beauty is getting a rough time from the snowflakes now as well. Unless that's fake news I've been taken in by.

[tadkitty]

I had the joy of explaining film photography to my nieces that are all under 10. 

[coyote55]

Recently gave my teenage cousin a crash course in MS-DOS, so he could run an emulator that would play old, 8-bit computer games. That was fun, but definitely weird.

[will123]

On 11/27/2017 at 9:37 PM, Sally said:

It actually is in some areas.  I remember reading a story several years ago about a parent who was charged with child endangerment for allowing her two children, about 7 and 9, to walk to a local park alone.  

Utter nonsense!

 

I remember when this was in the news:

 

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/20/living/feat-md-free-range-parents-under-attack/index.html

 

When I was in Grade 1 ('67 or '68) we watched an ancient B&W film about not talking to strangers, etc. My S-I-L was going on as if child molesters were some recent development (See Dr. Phil, Oprah, modern MSM). I got ticked off at her opinion that bad people are behind every tree and hedgerow. For those that grew up in the 'old days' TV news was what the local affiliate carried. Now we hear about tragedy around the world, non stop.

 

"Girls Molested in San Diego"

 

"Boy Kidnapped in Dallas"

 

"Siblings Missing in Calgary"