When was granny born?

[BikeWriter]

One evening, a grandson was talking to his grandmother about current events. The grandson asked his grandmother what she thought about the shootings at schools, the computer age, and just things in general.

The Grandma replied, "Well, let me think a minute, I was born before television, polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, contact lenses, Frisbees and the pill. There were no credit cards, laser beams or ball-point pens. Man had not invented pantyhose, air conditioners, dishwashers, clothes dryers, and the clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air and man had yet to walk on the moon.

"Your Grandfather and I got married first and then lived together. Every family had a father and a mother.

"Until I was 25, I called every man older than I, 'Sir' -- and after I turned 25, I still called policemen and every man with a title, 'Sir'. We were before gay-rights, computer-dating, dual careers, day-care centers, and group therapy. Our lives were governed by the Ten Commandments, good judgment, and common sense. We were taught to know the difference between right and wrong and to stand up and take responsibility for our actions.

"Serving your country was a privilege; living in this country was a bigger privilege.

"We thought fast food was what people ate during Lent. Having a meaningful relationship meant getting along with your cousins. Draft dodgers were people who closed their front doors when the evening breeze started.

"Time-sharing meant time the family spent together in the evenings and weekends -- not purchasing condominiums. We never heard of FM radios, tape decks, CDs, electric typewriters, yogurt, or guys wearing earrings.

"We listened to the Big Bands, Jack Benny, and the President's speeches on our radios. And I don't ever remember any kid blowing his brains out listening to Elvis. If you saw anything with 'Made in Japan' on it, it was junk. The term 'making out' referred to how you did on your school exam. Pizza Hut, McDonald's, and instant coffee were unheard of.

"We had 5&10-cent stores where you could actually buy things for 5 and 10 cents. Ice-cream cones, phone calls, rides on a streetcar, and a Pepsi were all a nickel. And if you didn't want to splurge, you could spend your nickel on enough stamps to mail one letter and two postcards. You could buy a new Chevy Coupe for $600, but who could afford one? Too bad because, gas was 11 cents a gallon.

"In my day, 'grass' was mowed, 'coke' was a cold drink, 'pot' was something your mother cooked in, and 'rock music' was your grandmother's lullaby. 'Aids' were helpers in the Principal's office, 'chip' meant a piece of wood, 'hardware' was found in a hardware store and 'software' wasn't even a word. And we were the last generation to actually believe that a lady needed a husband to have a baby. No wonder people call us old and confused and say there is a generation gap."

And how old do you think grandma is? Read on to see.

Pretty scary, if you think about it, and pretty sad at the same time. This is something to think about. How time has changed...

Grandma was born 1945!

How could so much go wrong in such a short time?

[achtung_circus]

1. And everyone was happy,

there were no problems at all.

If you believe this kife call me, oceanfront property half price.

[BikeWriter]

4. Many of us were happier than we are now.

[achtung_circus]

10. Rose coloured glasses.

There's lotsa about the present that I don't like, but what the OP talks about was a fantasy.

[Cleita]

13. Hey, I would have killed for a computer or even one

of those little hand held electronic calculators back when I was in school. All we had were slide rules. If I had a computer I would have made a killing at the papers I typed for the moronic boys, who didn't feel they needed to know how to type because they would have secretaries one day. I still did all right with the old Smith Corona.

[alittlelark]

21. That is sad for you. Conservatives feel much the same way.

They can only look back... they are incapable of lookinng towards the future for hope.

[alittlelark]

2. Uh, yeah... this is the "American Dream' fantasy that we are all taught

and did not exist - at least in the way Hollywood and pipe dreamers see it.

[Rowdyboy]

3. God how I long for the days before the polio vaccine!

Screw air-conditioners! Screw computers! I wanna live in 1951!

:sarcasm:

[REP]

5. My Grandmother, Born in 1896, Was Hipper than this Biddy

Then again, my grandmother was college educated. And an FDR Democrat!

[hickman1937]

14. My Grandmother was born in 1893, and never looked back.

When I was 14, she kept telling me that I had to get with the times. I was so shocked at her attitudes, but bragged to my friends about her. Mimi, where ever you are, Thanks.

[Left Is Write]

6. I hate to quibble with Granny, but

electric typewriters most certainly did exist well before 1945, as did clothes dryers.

[Cleita]

7. I was born in 1940 and granny forgot a few things.

This little picket fence life benefitted mostly white men with jobs and their families. If this white guy died, or if there was a divorce, his wife was pretty much on her own with kids, looking forward to earning 60 cents to the dollar a man earned, which sent her scrambling for a new husband. Any man willing would do, which led to some pretty unhappy arrangements behind those picket fences.

There was war and WWII was a war GI's could be proud to have served in. They were hailed as heroes when they returned and rightly so. Korea was the beginning of the bad wars. I went to college with Korean war vets under the GI bill and what they called shell shock then first started manifesting itself. It became more intense in Vietnam and actually got a name then as some kind of stress disorder. It happened again in Desert Storm and I hate to think what mental horrors we are breeding in Iraq now. This is the result of ugly wars.

In black families, the women were the major bread winners, not the men. Segregation kept them in bad neighborhoods and in bad jobs. We did have decent schools across the board for the most part that everyone's children benefitted from. Most of that is gone in higher education and now they are working their way down to destroying the rest of the public school system.

There were things in the fifties we should rethink about bringing back, but it wasn't the utopia amnesiac seniors would like you always to believe.

[WMliberal]

9. I was thinking the same thing

Very selective view of the 20's-40's

[hickman1937]

8. Ah, the good old days when a man could beat the wife and kids

and it was his own business, people had boils on their butts from poorly understood hygiene, children died from ear infections, 50yr olds were missing most of their teeth, and a lady needed a husband to have a baby or she got thrown out of her respectable household, and left to fend for herself, or if she had loving parents, she got shipped off to an institution for unmarried ladies, and the baby was forcibaly taken from her at birth. A widow had the choice of marrying the first man that would have her, no matter what his intentions toward her children, or giving up her kid's and finding a subsistence job, which was all that was open to someone stupid enough not to have a husband. Gee whiz I wish I had a time machine to take me back. Ooow, special bonus, my daughter would be called a bastard at school since I wasn't married when I had her. My heart bleeds that she missed that special experience.

[Cleita]

11. Don't forget that it was okay for the husband to go shoot pool

and drink beer with his friends, but his wife had to stay home with the kids. Gee maybe he would stay with them an hour when you had to go vist your mom in the nursing home but you'd better not be a minute over that hour. Oh the whining after how hard he works to put food on the table and he has to come home and be a father too?

[hickman1937]

17. You know what the saddest thing was, in my family?

My mother hated having to spend extended periods of time with the children, and hated housework. My Dad loved spending time with the kids, and saw housework as an ongoing system of organizing, delegating according to ability(for the kids)and rewarding a job well done. My Mother loved working as a bookkeeper, and my Dad hated being a lawyer although he was very good at it(at least according to Ford MoCo). In this day and age he would have been home with the kids, and put her through school to become an accountant.

[CRK7376]

12. I used to read

an almost identical statment to my US History 11th graders, but it was dated 1935 or 1937....great stuff....My Grandmother was born in 1907, died in 1978 and my Grandfater was born in 1889, he died in 1962...my I'm still here and in my late 40s......Life is good!!!!

[Bouncy Ball]

15. Do you really believe that things were so rosy and wonderful

back then, BikeWriter?

I can tell you for my gender it was not. Had I been born in 1945, the idea of me going to college would have pretty much been out of the question (as it was for my mother).

When my mother DARED to get a job as a bank teller, my dad was so mad, he went up there, had a little chat with her boss and got her fired! They came out of her boss's office smiling and shaking hands, just a "gentleman's agreement." See, my dad was a good man, but he thought my mom should be home cooking dinner and washing his skivvies. And this was BEFORE they had kids.

All was not so great.

[MrScorpio]

16. And If I had dated any white women,

I would have been strung up in a tree

[greeneyedpookie]

18. Mine was

born in 1931, same with my grandfather. Both have passed. Do not know on my father's side, since he was adopted out of Germany to the states back in 1955.

My grandparents were in this generation. Much has been lost, yet in this generation, there is so much to gain.

GEP

:bounce:

[Floogeldy]

19. My grandma is so old, her mother ordered heroin from the Sears catalog

B-)

[alittlelark]

20. Bike Writer where did you go?

Post and dash?

[ChoralScholar]

22. Sounds a whole lot like this country song

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/timmcgraw/backwhen.html

"Back when a hoe was a hoe
Coke was a coke
And crack's what you were doing
When you were cracking jokes
Back when a screw was a screw
The wind was all that blew
And when you said I'm down with that
Well it meant you had the flu
I miss back when"