The Way It Was

Life really was better in many ways back in the 1940's.  I was born in 1940 and spent my childhood enjoying a lot of freedom that children today don't have.  I could be outside playing all day far out of the sight of my grandmother who took care of me because there was very little danger of a bad person grabbing me and hurting me.  Yes, we had pedophiles even in those days but they kept better control of themselves because, if they did harm a child, they'd get the crap kicked out of them by street justice before the police ever arrested them.

It was so much safer for a little child to play out on the street in those days that it's hard to understand when and how it all went wrong.  Maybe then we had more stay at home mothers who watched out for all the children in the neighborhood...and chastised them when necessary, too.  

We played unorganized sports in vacant lots.  There were no interfering parents forcing us to wear team shirts and follow team rules.  We had our own rules and that's how we learned to play the games.  It was fun.  And when it wasn't fun we went somewhere else to play.  You never saw parents fighting over how their child didn't get enough times up at bat or enough time on the ice.  No parent was around and we liked it that way.  It was safe for us to be on our own.  When did that end?

It was common practice for children to play out on the streets until dark when we were called home by our parents.  I'll bet our parents liked having that time away from their children, too.  Nowadays it is fearful to have your children out of your sight.  You have to know where they are at all times.  No-one is free of supervision anymore and that's the way it has to be because there are too many predators on the streets.  How did this happen?

Immigrants moved into the neighborhood and we sort of laughed at their accents at first but grew to enjoy the different delicacies we were given by our new friends.  In no time at all, we paid no attention to what country our new friends had come from.  They were as Canadian as the rest of us.  Immigrants held on to some of their home country customs but being Canadian came first.  

Most people graduated from high school and immediately entered the job market because university or college tuition were out of their reach.  Jobs were plentiful in those days.  My family was low income but both my mother and my grandfather had full time jobs.  I knew no-one who was on welfare.

No, it wasn't all good but it was safer for children.  We were taught values for the most part that would stay with us for the rest of our lives.  We were taught respect.  We were taught to work for what we wanted to achieve.  In school we were taught how to cook, sew, and do repairs.  Granted, it was very sexist then and only the girls did the cooking and sewing but that's not so terrible.  The boys who were interested learned to cook at home but not many were interested in sewing.  Good fathers taught their daughters how to do repairs.  It all came out pretty good in the end.

We learned to do math in our heads instead of needing a calculator.  Try handing the change to a young cashier today after they've rung in your purchase.  It's sad how many look at you blankly and say they can't do that.  Now I do have to say my genius greatgrandson, Nolan, can do math in his head but I don't know whether someone taught him or he taught himself.  It's a skill he'll benefit from for the rest of his life.

Fewer families owned cars in those days so we walked a lot.  I'm assuming that meant we were healthier for the activity.  If there was a gym anywhere around I think it was for boxers.  Think of how many family gyms we have now because our busy lives don't allow much time for physical activity.  Some people have such long commutes to and from work that they have no spare time at all.  So sad.

Now here I am using a computer that I'd hate to live without and that is one of the greatest inventions of the modern world...but I'd give it up if my greatgrandsons could play out on the street without fear of being hurt or killed by the bad guys.  Would I want to go back to the innocence of the 1940's?  Maybe.