Let's face it, our world is changing right before our eyes. The lives we took for granted just a year ago are no longer sacred or no longer exist - let alone the lives we lived half a century ago.American car manufacturers, banks and companies that have been part of our lives since we were kids are either gone or going. The dream of owning a home has become more a fantasy than a dream, the security of our childhood is a thing of the past along with the idea of retiring with a gold watch from a company that you worked at for fifty years. Heck, the idea of just retiring may be a thing of the past.
We live in uncertain times and in uncertain times we tend to look back at the past with fond memories and a nostalgia for "the good old days". At my age (and on this blog) I tend to do that anyway, but today I want to take another direction. Today I want to take a look at the past and point out a few things that weren't so great - things that I don't remember so fondly from my childhood. So, with my tongue firmly in cheek and my twisted and scarred psyche firmly out front, I give you the things that aided in abetted in making me who I am today:
- The drab and clunky fifties fashions - talk about fugly - you rarely saw any fun colors, skirts hit just below the knee (a horrid hemline for most women's legs), there was a lot of plaid in my wardrobe and I hate plaid.
- The sixties weren't exactly an elegant era for fashion either - gogo boots, mini skirts (not great for those of us with calf-less legs), hip-huggers (thank God I had no hips in those days), long stringy hair, granny glasses - give me the beautiful fashions of the thirties and forties any day!
- I am also not fond of the seventies looks either - what were we thinking with those frizzy perms, hot pants and those horrid white leisure suits?
- The hairstyles of the fifties through seventies. Okay, I harp on this I know, but look at the photo and tell me if that is not a dorky haircut! And to get it that dorky I had to suffer through sleeping with bobby pins poking my head all night, every night. Let's not even go into the long straight hair of the sixties or the home perms of the seventies - with thin, fine hair like mine "bad hair day" was pretty much my entire youth's mantra.
- The only real "fast food" was McDonalds. Okay, this is not purely a "bad" thing about the past but I do love the fact that I can have a taco, Chinese and even Greek fast food by driving my car up to a window. At least I have a choice in my junk food now, lol.
- I got picked on by my older brother and sister. I doubt that's changed much in today's world - I'm sure older kids still terrorize their younger siblings - but it was still something that I'm sure warped my tender little psyche and made me the Normal Challenged weirdo that I am today, lol.
- Teachers. Teachers when I was growing up were drab old fuddy duddies who looked down their nose through little half glasses at you with a stern countenance, whacked you with rulers, made you stand in a corner, embarrassed you in front of all the other kids, made you stay after school on beautiful sunny days and made you write things like "I will not draw funny pictures of my teacher" over and over and over and over again. Of course, maybe the fact that I was an insolent little smart-ass of a bratty kid had something to do with that but still! I didn't like a teacher until I hit college and then they weren't just teachers, they were "professors" - and some were even cute!
- I loved most of my toys back then but when I look at the cool stuff kids can have today I'm jealous! I would love a hot pink Barbie car that actually has an "engine" - one you don't have to peddle. (BTW, I never even got a peddle car when I was a kid and I always wanted one of those.) And I love the cool computer games that did not exist when I was a kid - don't tell me that you wouldn't love a Wii even now. This is sort of less a dislike about then as it is a "I wish I could have had one of those then".
- And what about girl's baseball, soccer and even football? There was no such thing as a girl's baseball team when I was a kid. I was a tomboy and I envied my brother (remember Butthead?) getting to dress up in a real baseball uniform and playing in Little League.
- The ugly eyeglass designs of the fifties and early sixties. Just look at those horn-rimmed horrors in the photo above - I lived with "four eyes" all through my school career because I didn't get contacts until I bought them myself at twenty years old.
- "Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice, Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails" What I'm referring to here is the roles that little girls were shoved, spindled and mutilated into. Even then I rebelled against being forced to be "girly", treated differently because I was a girl and being relegated to society's idea of female behavior, female occupations and female lifestyles. I never saw a woman cop, a woman firefighter or a woman pilot. If I wanted to work I was told I could teach, type or toe the line! Balderdash!
- Family car vacations - I refer you to paragraph 3/4 of this post "Route 66 - Here's Yer Sign: Burma Shave"
- Babysitting. I earned money by babysitting - fifty cents an hour. Leaky, dripping, smelly, screaming little rug rats were the bane of my youthful existence from age 13 - 16. I don't have any kids and now you know why.
The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun!
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