CHAT WE ARE A GENERATION THAT WILL NEVER COME BACK

[Melodi]

We were also the last generation to hear the old people say things like I often paraphrase from my elderly riding instructor:

"My generation went from riding in a horse-drawn wagon to church and lived to see a man walk on the moon! Aint no generation been like it before, and their ain't ever going to be on again neither."

She then went on to talk about how now everyone drives around in cars and thinks nothing of jumping on an airplane, whereas, in her youth, The Motor Car was a toy for rich people and planes the territory for young yahoos.

So while we were a unique generation, one of the last, along with the older millennials, like Nightwolf, to be free to run outside, city or country; some of the last to play board games or have the TV turned off at midnight; our Silent Parents and we were also the Bridge Generation between a World Lit By Fire and Powered by Horses and one Powered run on Petrol and Electricity, with a brief "Gas Age" in between.

I met many people in my teens who came to the US via Elis Island. My favorite was a Jewish married couple that somehow washed up in a nursing home in Jackson, Mississippi. In great old age, the mobile husband would chat with me and tell me stories his now-nonverbal wife could no longer share with him. The one I will never forget was how they both arrived on the docks of New York at age 13. He said, "We looked at each other, both alone, and there was no Yenta, so we had to be each other's Yenta."

There was an entire book in just that one sentence.

They say every time an elderly person dies. A library is lost; now it is the time for many of us to start recording our libraries because each generation is its own special generation.

 

[Dennis Olson]

 

[PghPanther]

Almost every generation can make their own unique claims.

Our generation referred to here (I was born in 1954 smack in the middle of the Baby Boomers considered from 46' through 64') was filled with great and horrible times alike.

Sometime ago, I did a study based on what is going on now and the future of the US and humanity in general and came to the conclusion that the best time to have been born in all of human history would have been 1940 and in the United States of American.

The reasoning is you would have missed most drafts for war from either being too young or too old and yet have enjoyed all the technology and comforts the world had to offer including medicine and the digital age. By now if you are still alive you would be 83 years old and ready to get out of what is soon to be a hell hole for humanity.

That stated, I will say this about our generation growing up in the 60s / 70s.

We are without a doubt the last generation that could live the American dream of home ownership and raising a family through a single income wage earner.

That time is gone forever and replaced by the uncertainly of a human population that is consuming the Earths resources like an exponentially growing bacteria in a petri dish of saline solution which is bringing us to a crossroads to what Western society, freedom and consumption means these days.

The movie American Graffiti seems to be a watershed moment in the generational history of America. Working on the premise in the summer of 1963 it captured the tail end crazy rock and roll times of the late 50s ("ahh rock and roll has been going down hill ever since Buddy Holly died") and the cusp of the beginning of what was to what was to come with the Kennedy/MLK assassinations, Vietnam war draft, the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, Civil rights protests, College campus hippy counterculture movement, Kent State shootings and the moon landing in 1969.

I just finished reading a book about the Apollo 8 mission. It was the first mission where any humans had left Earth orbit to journey to another celestial body being the moon. During that mission we saw the first ever picture of the Earth as a complete planet in an "Earth rise" morning for the astronauts. A brilliant blue marble floating lonely in the void of darkness. Perhaps one of the most profound pictures ever take. That happened in 1968 a particularly violent and volatile year in 20th century US history. During that year Time Magazine was going to print their man of the year as "dissenting protestors" but upon the completion of the risky Apollo 8 mission they made the 3 astronauts the "man of the year". The book itself had a more profound ending stating of the 1,000s of letters the astronauts received in praise and thanks for that journey. One letter struck them all, it just simply said, "Thanks for saving 1968".

If you could take WW2 out of the equation, I would have loved to have been a teen during the 1940s with the styles back then and the big bands ruling the dance floor along with girls wearing tight waisted pants and/or in garter belts, stockings and dresses (Hubba! Hubba! as they would have said in that time).

I think within our generation, by the time the hippy look took over in the late 60s early 70s it was just too messy.

Anyway, that film's depiction of the summer of 1963 just haunts me of what was to what will be from those times. For me in 1963 I was 9 years old and just in wonder of it all like anyone would be at that age.

Moving forward, with the great reset, worldwide socialism, gender fluidity and transhumanism?

Well lets just say brave new world is ugly for anyone believing in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and perhaps our generation might have been the very last to experience it in blissful ignorance of what is to come.

 

[223shootersc]

Went to the movie with a quarter and got admission a drink and some popcorn on Saturday!
Drove a farm truck to town at age 13 for sodas for those bailing hay
Worked in a Peach shed for farm wage at age 12
Started chewing tobacco in Little league

 

[Kritter]

I lived in a Levitt home in a NJ suburb. We had a sledding hill that would shoot us right out onto the street, and we'd take turns watching for cars for each other. We played in the street a lot, everything from Red Light Green Light to Stickball, and cars would come up slowly and let us get out of the way, and the driver would smile and wave as they passed. We had a creek in our backyard, and even as a small child I would slide down its dirt walls and play in the muddy water. We also played in the woods a lot - my mom was always checking me for tics. My dad loved to sit in the yard at night with the radio on and the bug coils going and we'd look at the stars, and he'd let me look at the moon through his binoculars.

We had it rough following the boomers though. 'Generation Jones' kids, anyone born from like '61-'64 got really screwed as far as employment and wages because the market was SUPER saturated with boomers. Minimum wage didn't raise for us for decades, and apartments and goods rose in price because supply and demand wasn't in our favor and the Jersey shore was hella expensive to begin with. The gas crisis hit and gas prices rose right when we got our drivers licenses. So many kids from my graduating class committed suicide it's not funny. Great childhood but our 20s were rough as hell. :/

 

[Doughboy42]

We said "Sir" and "Ma'am".
We waved at the police and they waved back at us.
We took our cased shotguns to school in the Fall, left them with the Principal and then picked them up to take to the "Hunter Safety Class" after school.
Mowing lawns in the summer and shoveling snow in the winter for spending money.
Tossing the football or playing catch with Dad after dinner.
Fresh baked cookies waiting for us when we got home from school.
Saying our prayers each night at bed time. (Still do.)
Church on Sunday mornings and Sunday dinner after.

 

[privatemom]

This is the BEST thread. Thanks for the memories!! Now I'm going to be nostalgic for the rest of the day.

 

[Carl2]

We were blessed in many things that are absent from today's society. However, societal deterioration began to be phased in via the government schools circa 1960, when the "School Mathematics Study Group" came out with "The New Math" which made mathematics difficult to understand. A large portion of my teachers preached Marxism in disguise. Two of my male teachers were fired after being convicted of "lewd conduct," i.e. anonymous sex with other males in public restrooms. It is pleasing to see how the home schooling movement has progressed.

 

[CaryC]

Going to the movies every Saturday.

The matinee rode my bike. Went back a few years ago and that old theater is/was still there.

 

[nomifyle]

In the very early 60's my sister and I would ride the bus to the movie theatre on Saturdays for the Saturday matinees. This was in Bossier City, LA, it has turned out to be a very dangerous place to live and across the Red River in Shreveport it is much worse.

 

[CaryC]

Schwinn Stingray
Sneaking 4 extra people, in the trunk of a '58 Chevy, into the local drive-in
Spending the weekend at the local lake, with my 3 brothers and friends
Ski-ing in the overflowing ditches being pulled behind a Cushman
Putting nickels on the railroad tracks in front of the house, and having to search for them after the train flattened them
Walking to and from school (3 blocks) in all weather (north Texas)
Sock Hops after the football games
Buying clothes and rations and things at the local Army-Navy Surplus Store

Most of my friends were slightly younger than me and got those Stingray's, I got a Schwinn 10 Speed. Saved my allowance, and bottle returns and birthday money and bought it. 63.00 in 1964.

Northshore RR was across the street and put pennies on the track. It's also where all us boys would play baseball, and lose balls in the swampy area. Then find them months later all water logged, while looking for one we just lost.

Walk or bike to the local community pool, in June and freeze with blue lips and everything, nothing was heated. No parents dropping off. Same in winter, the library had a lagoon in a horseshoe shape, that we ice skated on.

Skinned knees was normal, and then didn't want mom to know cuz she would want to doctor it.

And there were a few times I wondered if I'd ever have kids after my foot slipped off the pedal on my bike.

Walked to school everyday, 9 blocks. If it was 10 I could have rode the bus. Walked rain, snow, sunshine, riots, it didn't matter, walked.

 

[summerthyme]

We didn't think anything of a group of preteens roaming around the empty patch of woods all day, without the slightest adult supervision. I used to ride my horse around the backroads for 30 miles in a weekend, completely alone and feeling utterly safe.

A friend and I rode bicycles 18 miles to our then-empty farm property and camped alone overnight, cooking on a campfire, then rode home the next day... we were 12!

(But that trip, we were cased or stalked by a creepy guy who drove past us three times on a very empty state road... when he was heading back the third time, we got spooked enough to ride up the driveway of a house and act like we lived there... no one was home, but we left out bikes in front and went around the back and had. He drove by once more, then disappeared. We hung around for about 20 more minutes then continued the last 11 miles without incident. It was SAFER then, but no era has ever been completely *safe*. It *was* a much more innocent era, though... at nearly 13, we had NO clue what he might have wanted with us)

Fortunately, our kids grew up in the 1980s-90s with a ton of freedom in our very rural area. And our granddaughters are having the same type childhood... although we'd never dream of letting them ride bikes alone off the property, much less ride to the store or movie theater at 8, without an adult!

Summerthyme

 

[bassgirl]

Drive-in movies.
High handle bars and Banana seat bikes.
Your brother or sister sitting on those high handle bars with their feet sticking down by the spokes.
Canal bank parties (California Central Valley thing)
10 Kegger parties
Cruising Main Street every Weekend. Finding the party that half of Main Street went to after midnight.
Ramping bikes over your friends. And no one died, I don’t think we even squished the unlucky last person further from the ramp.
Dirt bikes.
Playing outside after dark. As long as you checked in every once in awhile or stayed on your own street.
60-70’s Best Rock bands ever, andgoing to their concerts.

 

[Old Gray Mare]

An multigenerational neighborhood softball game in the pasture.
A ball past the railroad tracks was a foul
If someone hit the pony with the ball - automatic homerun.
No one ever hit the pony.
Helping a friend look for a lost calf in a snow storm. Parents didn't worry.
Swimming in a farm pond in summer
Dances at the firehall and school gym
Sadie Hawkins Dance at High School
Driving the "farm truck" on back country roads for a year without a license
Making wild blue berry jam from berries I'd picked
Going for a nice walk in the woods alone with a 12 gauge over my arm and calling it hunting.
Having Dad teaching me how to use power tools, change a tire, hoses, belts and use and maintain a wooden boat safely
Roller skating at the school gym
Swiping my brother's john boat for a joy ride
Galloping bare back on my horse
Going flying with Dad
Learning to drive a tractor

 

[L.A.B.]

We were blessed in many things that are absent from today's society. However, societal deterioration began to be phased in via the government schools circa 1960, when the "School Mathematics Study Group" came out with "The New Math" which made mathematics difficult to understand. A large portion of my teachers preached Marxism in disguise. Two of my male teachers were fired after being convicted of "lewd conduct," i.e. anonymous sex with other males in public restrooms. It is pleasing to see how the home schooling movement has progressed.

Yeah the new math… I sort of checked out on that as my attention was diverted by two of the most beautiful young ladies in our Senior class.

“What are you working on L.A.B.?”

My split’s on the mile for Fridays track meet. Or gaming how the track coach ‘should’ employ myself or Henry, CA high schools fastest quarter miler, 3rd in the nation in 1976 against other rival near equivalents in race events.

I recall race day jitters, and the tedious ten-to-the-power of WTH ? new-math lecturing only made it worse.

I did not like the anticipation of the start of the race. It wasn’t the starting gun, it was the effort to get past uncertainty. Once the crack of the gun echoed, I loved it. The first strides of sensing competition all around me. My first deep breath while running was like shifting gears unleashing joy.

Real competition. My favorite race I was outclassed by two half milers from a local school. It was a 3rd place for me where the three of us distanced ourselves from the pack, and were within two strides of each other.

Life was h e l l @ home, and running was the cure. I was no Forrest Gump. 10 K & under, one fun run at 18 miles to body surf and run back home. I was no Louie Zamperini. I kick myself in the @$$ for not meeting that man! I bet he didn’t have to get pre-race jitters with “new-math” interrupting his pre-race calculus… er, I mean calculations.

When I stall out now (this moment) to contemplate my early adult construct. The new math seemed to play into that equation. Had that bridle set upon me, it would have put me onto an entirely different vector in this life.

A proclivity to never give up. (Fighting for Peace within). To keep moving. A boring Asian math teacher. Oversized lung capacity. Wow! This post went long winded. LOL!

 

[Dennis Olson]

Started chewing tobacco in Little league

Dude, that’s not something to brag about.

 

[parsonswife]

I have always been so grateful to be born in this era and in this country. All over the world, children are sold into slavery, turned into. Child soldiers. Child marriage My parents grew up in the Great Depression and great poverty, and before that there were all the child labor laws that weren't in effect yet. The children just worked so hard. Even in biblical times. Children given up or sold to pay off debts.

God has been so gracious to us. And I just pray for our kids and grandkids.

 

[Blacknarwhal]

We didn't think anything of a group of preteens roaming around the empty patch of woods all day, without the slightest adult supervision. I used to ride my horse around the backroads for 30 miles in a weekend, completely alone and feeling utterly safe.

That could go a mite far, though. I remember living in a trailer park in town for a while. There was a group of kids who freely roamed the street, and I mean "kids". These were like five and six year olds. I remember seeing one in diapers.

My mom called them the Apple Dumpling Gang. It was a pretty unnerving sight, and most of us stayed indoors when that happened. Of course, I had a fine time pedaling my bike around on paved streets. One part of the square near my house featured a dirt track, partially downhill with plenty of ruts. You got on that, you'd go bumping downhill at high speeds, which as any kid will tell you, is a dandy time.

 

[SlipperySlope]

Having dinner at the table every night starting with grace and ending by asking,"may I be excused?"
Heating your transistor radio batteries to get just a little more use out of them.
Being told by all adults to clean your plate because there were hungry children in India/China.
Washing, waxing and decorating your bike Remember playing cards in your spokes? What pride in ownership.
You were the remote control and in my case the antenna turner since we lived far from the tv station.
You got a whole new outfit for Easter and would try it on many times before using.
Knew better than to ever say you were bored.
Glue the green stamps in your books so your family could get a treat.
Pedal your bike to the little store to get milk, bread or cigs for your Mom.
Dream for hours of all the goodies in the Sears Christmas catalog My sister would deface it by circling evertthing she wanted. I told her it would be easier to circle what she didn't want.

 

[bluemoon]

The freedom that has been lost is so profound. As a little girl of 6 and 7 in Tulsa, OK my parents had one car. A 1957 chevy station wagon. My Dad took the car to work. They wanted me to go to the YMCA to take swimming lessons. I was the oldest of 4 by that time and Mom could not take me. I rode the public bus by myself on Saturdays to get to and from the YMCA. No way can you let a little girl do that now. It was a wonderful time to grow up.

 

[summerthyme]

That could go a mite far, though. I remember living in a trailer park in town for a while. There was a group of kids who freely roamed the street, and I mean "kids". These were like five and six year olds. I remember seeing one in diapers.

My mom called them the Apple Dumpling Gang. It was a pretty unnerving sight, and most of us stayed indoors when that happened. Of course, I had a fine time pedaling my bike around on paved streets. One part of the square near my house featured a dirt track, partially downhill with plenty of ruts. You got on that, you'd go bumping downhill at high speeds, which as any kid will tell you, is a dandy time.

It was a mostly Catholic neighborhood with big families... 5 to 9 kids. They were literally kicked out of the house right after breakfast (older ones charged with watching the littles... once out of diapers, they were considered big enough!) and not allowed back until supper.

My parents installed a bathroom in their garage mostly so the neighborhood kids had a place to go! They also served as an informal emergency way station... my mom would patch up kids who fell off their bikes, etc.

But I helped save a 3 year old when I was 10... he fell into a 6 foot deep pit (no idea why it was there) full of water in the woods. A 12 year old jumped in and held his head above water, while I laid on the edge and lifted him out. I still remember the adrenaline rush.. it was the first time I'd experienced anything like it. The other half dozen kids in the group had scattered to try to find adult help, but we knew it would be too late.

I don't remember it changing anything about the level of supervision, though!

Summerthyme

 

[Elza]

Story about generational differences by Ronald Reagan

View: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/eDHku6BdymM

 

[Texican]

Walked to school everyday, 9 blocks. If it was 10 I could have rode the bus. Walked rain, snow, sunshine, riots, it didn't matter, walked.

I was in the 5th grade and lived 1.9 miles from the elementary school and had to walk it every school day regardless of weather. My sis was in Jr High which was over 2 miles away and got to ride the bus.

One good thing about the walk home was an A&W drive inn on the way home where I would get a large drink for 30 cents back in 1963. It would last till nearly home.

Texican....

 

[Dozdoats]

They won't miss us till we're gone.

When I was a kid, there was a dance floor/bandstand at Gulf Shores called The Hangout. They had an A&W stand. Been a fan ever since.

Hangout Music Festival - Event Page

Experience live music and good times at the Hangout Music Festival. Get tickets to this three-day event happening right here in Gulf Shores.

www.gulfshores.com

 

[Groucho]

Times were different back then. I worked for a custom man who had a hay baler and would have the crew bale hay for other farmers. Tough work, but it paid .25 an hour which in 1960 was good money for a 13 year old. 10 hours of work was 2.50. At the end of the first haying time, I could buy a new pair of Red Ball Jets (high top tennis shoes) and jeans and have money left over for balsa wood planes and Blend which was a sweet orange drink. At the end of the second haying time, I had "fair money" which I spent at the county fair.

Between haying times, the boss was clearing land and had to blow a huge stump out of the ground. We couldn't dig/cut it out. The owner knew I could drive a clutch so sent me into town with his truck to the hardware store with a note. I picked up a half case of dynamite, fuse and caps to blow the stump. The owner gave me the goods, told me not to put the blasting caps in with the dynamite, and sent me on my way.

We blew that stump out! Nobody thought anything about sending a 13 year old into town driving a split windshield pick up to get dynamite. There was work to be done. No joke, that's how life was in rural Ohio. We all worked and worked hard. The "kids" were expected to pull their weight. When we played, we had fun and didn't bust things up.

My great joy was putting my glove on the handle bar of my bike and cruising around looking for a pick up game of baseball on a hot summer day. I usually found one and would spend the afternoon being Rocky Colavito.

.22 rifles and shotguns were put in the principal's office until the end of school when the guys would pick them up and go hunting. It was no big deal. Nobody did anything stupid because their parents would have beaten them senseless. They'd wish the cops would get them.

 

[Dennis Olson]

I got my first 10-speed bike at age 12. It was a metallic candy-red Schwinn. Of course made in the US, though back then I never thought about it. I was so proud of that bike. I had such fun with it. Had it for many years.

 

[West]

I was building mountain bikes before they had mountain bikes.

I used beach cruisers for the frame and used many other BMX parts to build one the first mountain bikes before they was mass produced. In 1980 to 1984.

Just like my father who built military Harley Davidson into street bikes and was one of the first to "Bobtail" the rear finder as well as build sissy bars in the 1950s.

My father: note the bob tail on the bike. That was my father's and others idea.
But also know he traded that Harley for a 32 Ford coupe he hot roded out.

He told me he had a total $500 invested in both rides, but many hours of labor not lost!

 

[Old Gray Mare]

Drank water from the hose
Didn't ware seat belts because cars didn't have them
Drank water from well pumps that probably were never tested
Dammed streams caught frogs for fun
Knew how to dial a phone with a phone dial
A party line wasn't a political thing
Road in the back of pickup trucks
Bought or sold lemon aid from a kid's stand
White gloves were a thing
Plinked cans off fence posts
Milk was delivered to a metal box on the front porch
The cream froze on the top of bottle in winter
No helicopter parents
Parents weren't friends they were parents
Penny candy at the board walk
Going fishing on opening day with friends and siblings not parents
Nickelodeons didn't have anything to do with TV
Air shows
No ski breaks and ski poles were made of metal
Skis were sized by holding your hand over your head
Learning to pick up a blue crab the right way
If you got pinched by the crab it was your fault for holding it wrong
Being given your first knife by your parents was a right of passage

 

[Scrapman]

My generation

 

[Wolfcreek Farm]

We didn't think anything of a group of preteens roaming around the empty patch of woods all day, without the slightest adult supervision. I used to ride my horse around the backroads for 30 miles in a weekend, completely alone and feeling utterly safe.

A friend and I rode bicycles 18 miles to our then-empty farm property and camped alone overnight, cooking on a campfire, then rode home the next day... we were 12!

(But that trip, we were cased or stalked by a creepy guy who drove past us three times on a very empty state road... when he was heading back the third time, we got spooked enough to ride up the driveway of a house and act like we lived there... no one was home, but we left out bikes in front and went around the back and had. He drove by once more, then disappeared. We hung around for about 20 more minutes then continued the last 11 miles without incident. It was SAFER then, but no era has ever been completely *safe*. It *was* a much more innocent era, though... at nearly 13, we had NO clue what he might have wanted with us)

Fortunately, our kids grew up in the 1980s-90s with a ton of freedom in our very rural area. And our granddaughters are having the same type childhood... although we'd never dream of letting them ride bikes alone off the property, much less ride to the store or movie theater at 8, without an adult!

Summerthyme

Sounds alot like my childhood growing up in Western Pennsylvania....camping in Kerr's woods north of New Wilmington, PA................riding our bikes out of town to swim in the local creeks...........working for local farmers..putting up hay.......great times....don't think they will ever be back, though our two grand daughters and their parents live behind us on our farm.......a lot of free education with animals and gardens.....even a pond to swim in........,just saying...the Old Guy who lives in da woods.

 

[CaryC]

Dude, that’s not something to brag about.

Dude you got to be kidding me? That is great, and it just shows he knew what they were doing at the Big games. Big league players would have so much to chew it would stick out over the plate. LOL

My best bud starting smoking at 12, I started as a sophomore in HS. What would that be? 15? LOL

Started chewing in Little League. That was someone to look up to. Especially if he wasn't retching out his guts. Some of us who did retch out their guts just used wads of chewing gum that would choke a cow. So long as you kept your mouth shut and spit every once in a while, no one knew, or so we thought.

BTW I was 7 when I first tried Levi Garrett Sweet Snuff. You remember it came in a brown bottle, with a cork top, it was the dry powder kind. I asked my grandmaw for some, (she killed all kinds of bugs when she spit, it was so cool) and she looked at my dad, and dad said go ahead. I remember it well we were sitting on the back screened in breezeway at their old log cabin.

So she took the top off her carry can, and poured out a little, in the top, and handed it to me. I pulled my lip out and just as I was pouring it in, I inhaled. Pulled all that light power snuff in, and couched and choked my head off. Everybody but me laughed. Never wanted any more of that nasty stuff.

But Red Man Chewing tobacco is a totally different category of tobacco. Red Man was a loose leaf form of chewing tobacco. One summer we were working for a construction company, I drove a Sheep Foot roller, at 17, and my friend also 17 drove a Pan. Man it was hot that summer, I worked all summer without a shirt, I looked like a Redman. I ran out of Red Man. He chewed Day's Work a compressed plug, so I asked him for a small cut. He cut me off a little and man it made me sick, and never asked again. I think that was his plan.

 

[Dennis Olson]

Dude you got to be kidding me? That is great, and it just shows he knew what they were doing at the Big games. Big league players would have so much to chew it would stick out over the plate. LOL

My best bud starting smoking at 12, I started as a sophomore in HS. What would that be? 15? LOL

Started chewing in Little League. That was someone to look up to.

You can’t be serious. If you are, you need to see a therapist. There is nothing “cool” or glamorous about smoking, and particularly about “chaw,” which is the single most disgusting habit in the history of mankind.

Grow up.

 

[West]

I only started chewing the wintergreen long cut at 16 because still hunting big game while smoking in the dry woods was dangerous and stinky.

As long as it was wintergreen it worked and no brand name. How ever at least Skoal has a warning now, stopped chewing and smoking, only lost one tooth so far....

(Image removed - Dennis)

 

[Dennis Olson]

When I was in the Air Force around age 20 or so, I was riding my motorcycle with my gf out in the rural areas of Arkansas. Stopped to refuel. The “attendant” was a GoB in his early 40’s or so. He was a’spittin that “backy juice” all over the place. At one point he smiled. All his teeth were little brown nubs. That incident put instant flight to any thought of ever doing that shit.

My parents went through two cartons of cigarettes a week. When they were waking up in the morning, the first 20 minutes of their day was spent coughing and hacking the guck out of their blackened lungs. The sound was quite distinctive. That put flight to ever considering smoking.

You guys all do you. Engage in whatever self-destructive behavior you want. I honestly don’t care. But don’t use this forum to advertise product or glamorize your actions. (I’m serious about that.)

Image removed above.

 

[crossbowboy]

I was weird in those days too, but if you wanted to find "something special" that nobody else could get - I was your guy.

(I can say that now, due to expiry of statute of limitations. Lol.)

But yeah, it was a simpler time.

And I miss it too.
Love y'all.

 

[CaryC]

You can’t be serious. If you are, you need to see a therapist. There is nothing “cool” or glamorous about smoking, and particularly about “chaw,” which is the single most disgusting habit in the history of mankind.

Grow up.

We were talking about being children weren't we?

 

[Dennis Olson]

We were talking about being children weren't we?

WE were . Evidently YOU were not.

 

[CaryC]

WE were . Evidently YOU were not.

What don't you understand about me being 7 years old?

 

[Old Gray Mare]

My generation

I remember my uncles, WWII combat vets sneaking us a sip of Millers at family picnics when Mom wasn't watching.

 

[summerthyme]

I always thought chewing tobacco was the grossest habit ever. But when a handsome young farmer we knew slowly died of a horrible oral cancer at 22 (-diagnosed when he was 19... he started chewing at 17) it made me wonder why ANYone would consider trying the stuff. I actually "shock therapied" (I know, not a word!) our Amish hired hand when he showed up with some chew when he was 17. I told him Alan's story, and showed him some pictures on the'net of people who had their entire jaw removed, etc, trying to stay alive.

He never chewed again!

Summerthyme