Growing up right!

I grew up in Winnipeg Manitoba, during a time when almost everyone treated each other with respect.

We didn't eat a lot of fast food because it was considered a treat, not a food group. We drank Kool-Aid made from water that came from our kitchen sink. If you were lucky, you got pop from the store, as a treat. We ate bologna sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, salmon (which was in a can, not a pouch), grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, hamburgers on white bread......but mostly home made meals consisting of mainly meat, potatoes, vegetable, bread & butter and homemade dessert. We took our lunches to school in a brown paper bag, or lunch box.

We grew up during a time when we would gather bottles and cans to take to the store, and use the deposit money to buy 10 cent candy. (You could buy a candy bar for 25 cents). We even got a brown paper bag to put the candy in. You could get a lot for just 50 cents.

We worked in the garden, mowed yards, did chores, and helped our neighbours. We went outside a lot to play games, ride bikes, run with siblings and friends, played hide and seek, jump rope, Red Rover, red light/green light, we played hockey, baseball, basketball, and dodge ball. We drank tap water.... or from the hose outside... bottled water was unheard of. Paying for it wasn't even a thought!

We ate cold cereal at the breakfast table before going to school. We watched TV as a family: Hockey Night in Canada Saturdays, Little House on the Prairie, Get Smart, The Carol Burnett Show, The Wonderful World of Disney and Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner cartoons. After school, we came home and did homework and chores, and watched Gilligan's Island and Flintstones. On Saturday morning we watched cartoons. WE even cleaned our own damn bedrooms.

If you were bad in school, you got in trouble there.....and when you got home you got in trouble again because your parents already knew. You behaved yourself....or else.

You LEARNED from your parents, instead of disrespecting them, and treating them as if they knew nothing.

If someone had a fight, that's what it was..... a fist fight, and you were back to being friends afterwards, the bullying pretty much ceased. Kids that were around guns were taught how to properly use them, and to respect them, and never was there a thought of taking a life.

You had to be close enough to home to hear your Mom yelling, or Dad calling to tell you it’s time to come home for dinner. No cell phones!!! Our ‘cell phone’ was a pay phone down the street. We ate the meal our mothers made. We stood for the National Anthem, and listened to our teachers. We came home when the street lights went on.

We watched what we said around our elders because we knew that If we DISRESPECTED any grown up, we would get in trouble. It wasn't called abuse, it was called discipline! We held doors, carried groceries, and gave up our seat without being asked.

You didn't hear curse words on the radio, in songs or TV, and if you cursed, you had to stand in the corner for quite some time. ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’ were part of our daily vocabulary!

.....AND WE SURVIVED AND KNEW RESPECT!

Re-post if you're thankful for your childhood and will never forget where you came from! Wouldn't it be nice if it were possible to get back to this way of life?