Are We Better Off Now?

I remember as a kid always being outside whenever I had the chance to. I never stepped foot in the hourse unless it was to get something to drink. It seems these says that most kids tend to stay inside. Playing games or on the computer granted society has made it hard for kids to have some place to play. There was a skateboard park out by an airstrip the city closed t down & the only one left is the one on base. How are the kids who skate supposed to get to it? The city tears the only public place they have to skate & then complians when they skate elsewhere.

I know this is a bit off topic sorry...

yep, when I was a kid our Dr. made house calls too. And when we would get alittle too wild at night my mother would give us peragoric, which is opium based, to quite us down a bit.
And we'd walk all over the place for miles and our parents would think nothing of it, and when we went to visit our Aunt in Maryland we would take out their little rowboat and go out in the harbor, and we were all under ten, my God, now that I look back, were lucky we survived.
Now you can't even get the Dr. to call you back on the phone.

I think back then, all the adults watched out for you. I know that to be true because if I did something stupid my mom knew it within minutes. I suspect it had been that way for a hundred years or more. All were mostly family and community oriented.

I remember paregoric. We used it when my oldest two children were getting their first teeth. It relieved their (?) discomfort.

As a child we would walk to a pond (swamp) about a half mile away in a little woods. It was about 6 feet deep in the deepest place. None of us could swim. We survived but, if someone didn't, no one would have been sued. My cousin and I probably got into more things than any other kids I knew. Sometime I will post the tale of my cousin and my feeble and brief foray into falconry at ages 7 and 8. It could be posted under either comedy or tragedy! We survived! All of the above is closer to 100 years ago than today.

Just getting a doctor to see you in a reasonable time is a chore here.

Slàinte,    

Patch  

I think back then, all the adults watched out for you. I know that to be true because if I did something stupid my mom knew it within minutes. I suspect it had been that way for a hundred years or more. All were mostly family and community oriented.

I remember paregoric. We used it when my oldest two children were getting their first teeth. It relieved their (?) discomfort.

As a child we would walk to a pond (swamp) about a half mile away in a little woods. It was about 6 feet deep in the deepest place. None of us could swim. We survived but, if someone didn't, no one would have been sued. My cousin and I probably got into more things than any other kids I knew. Sometime I will post the tale of my cousin and my feeble and brief foray into falconry at ages 7 and 8. It could be posted under either comedy or tragedy! We survived! All of the above is closer to 100 years ago than today.

Just getting a doctor to see you in a reasonable time is a chore here.

Slàinte,    

Patch  

Tell us about your feeble attempt at falconry, you have peeked my interest, I love a good story, I have many, many stories of me making a fool of myself.
And you know, I have a bottle of paregoric that the Dr. gave my husband, "which he cant take", so, maybe someday I"ll reminisce and take a swig of it and bring back my childhood.

Ok,

My cousin and I were avid comic book readers. One of us read about hunting with falcons in one of the comics. We were familiar with hawks from our frequent nature outings. During one of our spring forays we spotted a huge nest near the top of a rather large tree. This was about the farthest corner of the farm also. We were certain there had to be baby hunting falcons in the nest. Maybe enough that we could sell some for a profit. Anyway it was obvious since I was a foot taller, and heavier also, that I couldn't climb onto the smaller limbs near the nest. I furnished the shirt to carry the babies down in and boosted my cousin to the lowest limb. I watched intently as he made his way up the tree. At about 12-14 feet an ugly featherless heat poked over the edge of the nest and "puked" on my cousin. Of course he reacted (initially with curse words) That caused me to panic and I quickly looked to see if any one had heard as Grandfather wouldn't tolerate swearing. As I looked back up the Vulture gave him a second "shot". and with that my cousin jumped. I remember him bouncing off of several limbs on the way down. He laid on the ground screaming and though I wasn't a medical genius it was obvious his leg was crooked. Again, probably from a comic book I had read about splints. I found a substantial piece of limb (which I would later regret) and with my belt, my shirt and a pocket knife to cut the shirt enough to tear it, I splinted his leg as best I understood. It is a wonder it didn't cause permanent injury. All the while my cousin is screaming like a fire engine. I got his arms over my shoulders and off we went to the house, with him still screaming constantly. Grandfather met us about half way and I remember him saying a few words we were not allowed. I barely kept up. When we got to the house Grandfather cut the splint off and while Grandmother was calling the Doctor, he used the splint on me "since I was the oldest". I rode in the back seat Grandfather's "48" Mercury with my cousin, still screaming". There was no room to sit down but as I recall that wasn't an issue.

I do not remember that we had any further interest in falconry.

Slàinte,    

Patch  

I think back then, all the adults watched out for you. I know that to be true because if I did something stupid my mom knew it within minutes. I suspect it had been that way for a hundred years or more. All were mostly family and community oriented.

I remember paregoric. We used it when my oldest two children were getting their first teeth. It relieved their (?) discomfort.

As a child we would walk to a pond (swamp) about a half mile away in a little woods. It was about 6 feet deep in the deepest place. None of us could swim. We survived but, if someone didn't, no one would have been sued. My cousin and I probably got into more things than any other kids I knew. Sometime I will post the tale of my cousin and my feeble and brief foray into falconry at ages 7 and 8. It could be posted under either comedy or tragedy! We survived! All of the above is closer to 100 years ago than today.

Just getting a doctor to see you in a reasonable time is a chore here.

Slàinte,    

Patch  

Tell us about your feeble attempt at falconry, you have peeked my interest, I love a good story, I have many, many stories of me making a fool of myself.
And you know, I have a bottle of paregoric that the Dr. gave my husband, "which he cant take", so, maybe someday I"ll reminisce and take a swig of it and bring back my childhood.

As I recall Paragoric tasted terrible (from when my oldest were little)

Slàinte,    

Patch  

Yep, sounds like stuff my sister and I would do, like when we ended up in the cheasapeke bay in a rowboat.And you know, when we get together, we still do stuff like that.Thank you for your story Patch.

This might be an idea for it's own topic!

Slàinte,    

Patch  

Good Idea!!

My wife & I have been house hunting off & on for a bit nothing to serious just, trying to get an idea of whats out there. We ran across this house that was bulit around the dining room. The room was smack in the middle of the house, I forget how old the house was but it was intresting to see & if for no other reason I liked the house because of that one thing. If I ever bulid a house I think thats what I would do it puts focus on the family.

In my small community you would have thusands to look at.

Slàinte,    

Patch   

I think family is something that we have got away from more then anything in the past 200-300 years. No one has time for anyone else these days.

Yes, we have. When my parents passed away It left me as the family "elder", a role I am not good at. I recall we talked about all of the cousins getting together. We didn't quite get it accomplished when one was in a serious auto accident and the other died of a a ruptured aneurism. Since we have been better about it.

Slàinte,    

Patch   

I agree. To me family is very important but it seems nowadays I stand alone. I have two great daughters, one lives right across the street from me and the other 10 mins. away and I hardly see them there lives are so busy. Sometimes it hurts.

Camac.

I have to wonder at times if it's a choice not to make time for your family. It seems all this technology has taken over what used to be family time. The kids run off to thier rooms & get on-line the parents seem to do the same. It's like an excuse to get away from reality & whats most important to you. Like I said before we do not have kids at this time but we have talked about we & we do not want to make the same mistakes as our parents did.