It's like I grew up on another planet

Sometimes, when I talk with my grandson, it’s like I grew up on another planet. Yes, that’s how different the world was lo these many years ago!

My grandson thrives on technology: video games; satellite TV; DVR; smart phones; laptop computers; kindle; iPad; YouTube. He asked me today what my favorite move was when I was his age. And that’s how it began.

First I said that he has possibly seen more movies in his 13 years than I have in my entire life. That may be hyperbole, but not by much. Then I tried to explain.

When I was young I saw movies. At the local theater. On Saturdays. If we did our chores in the morning, my Dad would give us money and we would walk to the theater. Sometimes the whole family might go to the drive in theater. This was a treat.

And TV. There were three channels that were not broadcasting 24 hours a day. At midnight they would “sign off” and show a test pattern until 5 am, at which time the broadcast day would begin with the national anthem. And that was when we had a TV. There were many years when we didn’t even own a TV. And when we did get one, my Dad put it outside. He wouldn’t have one in the house. When we got it we were only allowed so many hours per week and had a sign in sheet to verify.

No videos either. Well, there weren’t any video playing devices for that matter!

As I was telling him some of this, he asked incredulously, “What did you do?”

We played outside. There was nothing to do inside, so we went outside. Besides, our house wasn’t very big. My grandson lives in a house that may be larger than any I ever saw growing up. For that matter, I now live in a house bigger than I ever had in my entire life. In my family, there were 10 of us (8 children) living in a three bedroom house. Alone time? The only chance for that was outside.

I walked to school and from 9th grade on I had to hitchhike to get to school. When we weren’t in school we roamed. We’d leave in the morning and come back for lunch, then wander around in the afternoon and return for supper. After supper we’d play hide and seek until my parents called us home. We played football in the street. We explored the creek. We’d run up to the school grounds and play football there, or baseball. And got into all kinds of trouble. My mother never knew where I was. I am not saying she was a bad mother. Nobody knew where there kids were. I remember the TV campaign that sought to change that, “It’s 10 O’Clock. Do you know where you kids are?” You should’ve seen Halloween – the streets were full of children wandering around begging candy - no parents anywhere to be seen.

What was my mother doing while we were out roaming? Somebody had to be at the house when the police came looking for me! Actually, she was keeping house and taking care of my younger brothers and sisters. But even when they were young and somewhat yard bound, they wandered largely unsupervised. It’s just the way it was in those days.

When I got older I added surfing to my outside activities. And when I was old enough to drive, I asked to borrow the car to go surfing, but I don’t recall telling her where I was going.

My mother ran a pretty regulated home – we ate lunch at noon and supper at 6. Like clockwork. I remember my Dad laying down the law, “I don't care where you are or what you're doing, I want everybody home a half hour before dinner.” That’s all he said, half hour. We all knew that meant 5:30.

As I got older I added reading to my activities list. My Dad had built a book case that took up an entire wall. So cool. Reading was important in our family. I’ve had a library card as long as I can remember. We had a two-volume dictionary. My brother and I would play a game, each would take one volume and take turns randomly looking up a word and asking the other if he knew what it meant. High tech!

That’s what I did when I was young. Electronics and technology? I didn’t have time for them! I did get into a lot of trouble when I was young. Some of it pretty serious. I probably wasn’t the kid you wanted living next door, when I was growing up on that other planet.