Things we didn't do growing up.
I was born into a standard 50s family with 1 Mom, 1 Dad, 1 Sister and Me. Just the way all the TV families were constructed. However, Mom and Dad built their house and spent a lot of weekends working on it. As a result, there were a lot of standard family things that we didn't do:
We didn't go on vacations.
We didn't go to movies.
We didn't go out to eat.
I think the first movie I saw that was not on TV was "The Shaggy Dog" at the Airway Drive-In on the Rock Road in St. Ann. Perhaps this is why I love to watch movies so much when I have free time. I don't know why we didn't go on vacations... some weekends we'd go to my Aunt Wilma's farm, or Uncle Roy's in Belleville (he had a color TV and I could watch Bullwinkle). Of course, there were a lot fewer places for a family of 4 to go out to eat in the early 60s, so maybe that was a factor. Also, my Dad passed away when I was 11, and the standard family got broken up. Maybe we would have done that stuff in my teen years.
What did we do?
We played games.
We watched television.
I remember my Mom and Dad playing Canasta with friends on a regular basis. This was the game I saw on the table when I was tall enough to see what was on the table. Our family was really close due to all that time at home together, and that certainly wasn't a bad thing. Of course, to this day, I dearly love games and television, so I'm happy with the final result.
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television
7 comments:
Right there with you. We never went on a single vacation when I was a kid. Nor did we go out or go to movies. I don't believe that as a family we EVER went to McDonald's or Pizza Hut. We would occassionally go to a restaurant that my parents knew the owners so that doesn't really count.
Unfortunately, my parents weren't game players. They both worked from home (to some extent) so when they were home, they worked. I discovered games when I discovered Risk. That started me down the twisted path I reside today.
I guess my family was also pretty "standard 50s", at least until my next brother was born when I was just shy of 7 (followed by the youngest 4 years later). My folks weren't working on the house, but my father owned and ran a gas station and garage, which at that time meant he worked late evenings and most weekends.
Movies were a rare treat. The earliest I can recall was "The Parent Trap" -- with Hayley Mills as the twins, not the other one! -- which I also saw at a drive-in, with my mother. Unlike you, I couldn't say what the drive-in was called.
Very occasionally, we'd get to go to a movie in the nearest city, which was about 10 miles away. Back then we didn't drive 10 miles at the drop of a hat. There were two movie theaters I remember, the Ritz and the Empire. These were the huge old movie houses with balconies, the kind which have largely disappeared over the years. I remember seeing "101 Dalmations" and "Lady and the Tramp" at the Empire.
We never went on vacations. I don't think I knew what a vacation was. Running a small-town gas station in the 50s was totally incompatible with taking vacations.
Now my folks actually did go out to eat relatively often, though only at inexpensive places that were sort of the 50s local versions of Friendly's. Pretty rare for us kids to get to go, though.
And we didn't go to fast food places like McDonalds because, well, there weren't any. I literally never heard of McDonalds until I was 16. Maybe there was one in the city by then, but I wasn't aware of it.
We watched TV, and read. My mother was an inveterate reader, and we all had well-used library cards and subscriptions to as many as two dozen magazines. We had a few board games (Monopoly, LIFE) and card games (Old Maid and the like), but my folks weren't the type to play them with us kids.
Chuck,
Drop me a line.
Jasper1972@hotmail.com
Jerry Darcy
Somebody call Scully and Molder
I don't believe that as a family we EVER went to McDonald's or Pizza Hut. We would occassionally go to a restaurant that my parents knew the owners so that doesn't really count.
Fast food versus real food in a place where you got preferential treatment... sounds like you had the better deal!
Hmm, I don't know if I should really post my views of my childhood here, considering it's my dad's blog, but hey, what the hell...
We did go to McDonalds, we did see some movies, and, comparatively, I don't think we spent that much time together as a family.
But, that would come from the change in times, moreso than anything. Given the circumstances, with both parents working much of the time, I think our family spent more time together than most families did.
I remember a lot of disclusion when I was very young, something which I understand fully now, but probably led quite a bit to my rampant peevishness about my age. I never understood, at that age, why I couldn't play in the Strat-O-Matic league. I guess I still don't, aside from the fact that it'd annoy all the other players to have a kid playing...
As I grew older, our family became a lot more cohesive, as I became more introversive, ironically enough. With CCG's becoming a bigger part of the home life, there was rarely a weeknight where dad and I wouldn't sit down and play a game of something, whether ir was the weekly roleplaying night (which was Tuesday or Wednesday, the night having switched at some point), going up to Star Clipper/GCH&S with the 'rents on Friday night, Monday night Jyhad, or whatever else. Gaming, as has been said quite a bit before, is an excellent method for bringing a family together.
As an aside, I have commented on this before. Most of my friends here hate their parents, or at least dislike them. To some degree, I can understand their foibles, but at the same time, it disgusts me. Jaryd and Tyler's parents are a little out there, but not too bad, and the way Gene treats his grandmother is atrocious.
Kids very quickly develop a chip on their shoulders about parents parenting. I have the same chip, when I do something wrong, I don't want to be told I did it wrong. I messed up and I know it. Fortunately, I have parents who realize that, and who are willing to set aside the parenting in order to help solve the problem, rather than simply continue to say, as ECW fans would put it, "you fucked up."
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