I grew up in Ocala, Florida, and never thought I was raised by lower/middle income parents during a time when most 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 with real sugar. We ate bologna sandwiches, or even tuna (which was in a can not a pouch), PB&J & grilled cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, pot pies, mostly homemade meals consisting of meat, potatoes, vegetable, bread & butter, and homemade dessert.
We ate lots of grits, grits and butter, grits, and gravy, with hot homemade buttermilk biscuits
I grew up during a time when boys mowed lawns, pulled weeds, girls babysit, and helped neighbors with chores to be able to earn our own money. We grew up learning how to work and work hard because nothing was free. I grew up waiting until after Christmas white sales in January to get (a) gift.
We went outside a lot to play~Kick the Can, hopscotch, swim at the auditorium, cardboard box slides down the bridge on 200, ride bikes, hang in a cool place and talk for hours with friends & played hide and seek, every one in the neighborhood showed their skills on roller skates in the streets not a rink.. We drank tap water from the water hose outside… Bottled water was unheard of. If we had a RC Cola-it was in a glass bottle … and we didn’t break the bottle when finished; because we turned the bottles in for cash …in the summer we collected bottle caps that gave us a chance to go to the movie theater. Families prayed together, learned to read together in the best book ever written, The “Holy Bible” we had to go to church, we had to sing even if we could not hold a tune in a bucket, Neighbors looked out for each other, we played, we fought, and made up. Everyone lived to laugh at how stupid we were to fight in the first place. Everybody went home alive.
We watched TV shows like Good Times, The Jefferson’s, Bonanza, Different Strokes, Full House, Leave It To Beaver, Gilligan’s Island, Happy Days, Bewitch, The Brady Bunch, The Rifleman, Looney Tunes, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Sanford and Son, Dukes of Hazard, WWF Wrestling, and I Love Lucy. After school, we came home and did homework first and chores second before going outside or having friends over. We would ride our bikes for hours. We had to tell our parents where we were going, who we were going with, and be home when the street lights came on! We chased our brothers on our bikes to see what they were doing.
I LEARNED from my parents instead of disrespecting them and treating them as if they knew absolutely nothing. What they said was LAW, and you did not question it, and you had better know it!!!
In school, I was policed by my uncles and aunts, who often worked at those schools. They were our security; they were policemen for my mom. We prayed to God and said the Pledge of Allegiance, we stood for the National Anthem and listened to our teachers.
We watched what we said around our elders because we knew if we DISRESPECTED any grown-up, we would get our behinds whipped, lips busted, teeth knocked out, lol. it wasn’t called abuse; it was called discipline! We held doors, carried groceries, and gave up our seats for an older person without being asked. You didn’t hear curse words on the radio in songs or TV, and if you cursed and got caught, you had a bar of soap stuck in your mouth.
“Please, thank you, yes, no thank you, yes ma’am, no ma’am, yes sir, and no sir were part of our daily vocabulary!
I grew up to respect God, the nation, and the flag. I had to learn the prayer Jesus taught his disciples; I had to learn the 10 commandments. I had to “remember my creator in my youth. I had to learn Psalms 23. I am grateful to God that I made it through bruised but not broken, strong but weak. I was ready for life because I watched life happen. I was always taught to be a lady. My big sister and brother were my parents and I am good now.
Re-post, if you’re thankful for your childhood, I will never forget where I came from and only wish children nowadays had half the chance at the fun and respect for real life that I grew up with!!
Lord, help your children who are falling by the wayside. They often do not get to reach 18; it was 21 in my time of growing up. Because of our obeying our parents, we lived to make things right with God.
Amen