way back when

This week, I wanted to make spaghetti for dinner one night (Mark doesn't even like spaghetti but I do!).  I was going to make it simple - Healthy Harvest 100% whole wheat noodles and Laura's Lean ground beef and Prego.  While I was getting ready for work, I put the hamburger in the sink WITH FULL INTENTIONS of putting it back in the fridge BEORE I left for work . . . BUT I forgot.  I texted Mark during the day and he said, "the house is cool.  it will be fine."  I got home and the plastic on top of the meat was kind of puffed up but I thought to myself, "maybe it is ok."  I peeled that plastic film back and immediately threw the meat away - it smelled horrible!  I can't believe I forgot to put it up!!

This hamburger event started me thinking about things we USED to do that we can't do anymore.   When I was young - even when I was a teenager and a young adult - we thawed our meat in the kitchen sink all the time . . .and cooked it when we got home . . .and ate it . . . and I don't think we got sick (I would remember that because remember I have that issue with throw up!)  I can't imagine we would have cooked it if it smelled bad . . .so what has changed?  Is meat different now?  Maybe there is more E Coli (we probably had never heard of E Coli back then!!)

So what else could I do then, that I can't do now?  I had a bike much like the one below and I rode all around a 3 block radius without a helmet.  We rode our bikes all day long!  (I also had a cat named Missy who loved to ride around town in the basket!!)

I've always loved being outside in the sun and I'm sure my skin shows that misuse.  My parents were actually ahead of the times because they covered us in coppertone and we went to the beach in the morning and later in the afternoon -- never in the middle of the day.  There was no sunscreen back then - only sunTAN lotion.  The bottle looked like this one (without a 4!)  I still love the smell of coppertone and it is my sunSCREEN of choice.

Most families didn't use any lotion. Our family was blessed with skin that would tan but I remember all three girls who lived across the street from us getting actual blisters.  When I was a teenager we mixed baby oil and iodine together and used it to get an even better tan.  That actually freaks me out now!!

This freaks me out even more . . .we had a "candy man."  NO KIDDING!  There was a man who had a disability and he had a tricked out golf cart.  The back was fitted out with wooden bin type things and he had boxes of candy - candy bars of all kinds; peanut butter candy; sweet tarts; and I can't remember what else.

He drove through the neighborhoods ringing a little bell and all the kids ran out to his vehicle and bought nickel and dime and quarter candy . . .and he put it in a little paper sack.  Isn't that wild?  I can't believe our parents weren't freaked out by this guy.  I wonder if he was someone's relative.  I don't remember my parents acting like they knew him.  I don't remember ever being afraid but there were always a bunch of us -- there were 17 kids on our one block at one time.  We played kickball and baseball (with a tennis ball) and roamed from house to house during the summer.  (that was a huge swing thought - from peanut butter candy to kickball!)

I grew up in a small town - a mostly blue collar neighborhood - my dad was an engineer (the driver) of a train for a railroad.  We walked to school most of the time (a mile to the middle school!), we walked to the library, we walked to the drugstore for a coca cola (sprite, coke, whatever).  I rarely feel old but thinking about all those things seems like a million years ago.

What do you remember from your childhood that is totally different today?