How Old Is Grandma???
 

Received this in an email today,

HOW OLD IS GRANDMA???

One evening, a grandson was talking to his grandmother about current
events. The grandson asked his grandmother what she thought about the
shootings at schools, the computer age, and just things in general.

The Grandma replied, "Well, let me think a minute, I was born before
television, penicillin, polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, contact lenses,
Frisbees and the pill.

There were no credit cards, laser beams or ballpoint pens. Man had not
invented pantyhose, air conditioners, dishwashers, clothes dryers, and the
clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air and man had yet to walk on
the moon.

Your Grandfather and I got married first and then lived together. Every
family had a father and a mother. Until I was 25, I called every man older
than I, "Sir"- - and after I turned 25, I still called policemen and every
man with a title, "Sir".

We were before gay-rights, computer dating, dual careers, day-care
centers,


and group therapy. The Ten Commandments, good judgment, and common sense
governed our lives

We were taught to know the difference between right and wrong and to stand
up and take responsibility for our actions.

Serving your country was a privilege; living in this country was a bigger
privilege.

We thought fast food was what people ate during Lent. Having a meaningful
relationship meant getting along with your cousins.

Draft dodgers were people who closed their front doors when the evening
breeze started. Time-sharing meant time the family spent together in the
evenings and weekends - not purchasing condominiums.

We never heard of FM radios, tape decks, CDs, electric typewriters,
yogurt, or guys wearing earrings. We listened to the Big Bands, Jack
Benny, and the President's speeches on our radios. And I don't ever
remember any kid blowing his brains out listening to Tommy Dorsey.

If you saw anything with 'Made in Japan' on it, it was junk.

The term 'making out' referred to how you did on your school exam. Pizza
Hut, McDonald's, and instant coffee were unheard of. We had 5&10-cent
stores where you could actually buy things for 5 and 10 cents. Ice-cream
cones, phone calls, rides on a streetcar, and a Pepsi were all a nickel.

And if you didn't want to splurge, you could spend your nickel on enough
stamps to mail one letter and two postcards. You could buy a new Chevy
Coupe for $600, but who could afford one? Too bad because, gas was 11
cents a gallon.

In my day, "grass" was mowed, "coke" was a cold drink, "pot" was something
your mother cooked in, and "rock music" was your grandmother's lullaby.

"Aids" were helpers in the Principal's office, "chip" meant a piece of
wood, "hardware" was found in a hardware store and software" wasn't even a
word.

And we were the last generation to actually believe that a lady needed a
husband to have a baby. No wonder people call us "old and confused" and
say there is a generation gap.

And how old do you think grandma is???



Read on to see -- pretty scary if you think about it and pretty sad at the
same time. This is something to think about. How time has changed...




Grandma is 58 (born 1946)

How could so much go wrong in such a short time?

Guess it all depends out your definition of "Wrong".

Interesting perspective though.

In grandma's day, cocaine was part of the Coke recipe, Laudenum was sold over the counter as cough syrup, children as young as 8 worked in horrible conditions in factories, women didn't have the right to vote, racial equality was a joke.

Yup, nothing but sunshine, apple pie, and butterflies.

I might be wrong but for a person born in 1946 I believe that the only true statement you made would be the racial equality. For me the part I like was about taking responsibility and showing respect for others, these values seem to have been diluted over the years.

Sorry, I missed the last line there, thought it was earlier.

Anyway, I don't buy that everyone was "taking responsibility" and "showing respect" more in those days, at least voluntarily. If you examine history, I don't think that the fundamentals of human nature have changed over the years. Certainly things were much more hush hush back then.

My grandfather was born in 1893. He worked in Omaha Nebraska in the winter of 1911 shucking corn for a dollar a day. With part of the money he made that winter he bought a motorcycle and rode it from there to Hays Kansas. Or rather pushed half the way because gas was hard to come by and there were few roads for motor vehicles. I have a picture of him when he got home that day after 20 some days on his journey. He served in WW1 as a teleographer several miles behind the front lines in France. My grandmother spent one of the years he was gone as a school teacher in a 1 room school miles from any town. They got snowed in at one point and spent several days trapped inside before one of the kids parents came with a team of horses and helped dig them out. The good old days.

Re: How Old Is Grandma???
 

Sorry, but that piece is just a bunch of whimsical hooey. Here's a few I found just by plugging in the article in question and "+invented" in Google.

Frozen food, 1923

Ball point pen patented in 1888

Electron scanning tube (TV tube) patented 1930; electron transmission to such was first done in 1927

First credit card in 1950

Pantyhose, 1939

Dishwasher, 1886

Air conditioner patented 1911 (11 years after discovery)

TV was invented in the 20's. Xerox was around before 46. Frozen foods certainly. Ball point pends were around for WWII. A/C was definitely around and dishwashers and clothes dryers.

If she was born in 1946, and was married at 18, then she was about my parents age and she would have become sexually active right around the time the Pill was around (1965).

Befor Daycare? no way! Dual Careers? Most working class families were always 2 familty earners with the Grandmother raising children.

FM Radio invented in the 40's. Tape was around in the 1950's. If she was born in 1946, she watched TV during the Golden Age. She grew up with Rock and Roll. And making out was, ummm making out.

Drugs. They were around. Just not talked about...Reefer madness was a 1930's movie.

Just my opinion. I don't think things have necessarily gotten worse, I would just say different. The 20th century was a time of change and rapid change. We went from not being able to fly to traveling in space. We went from limited medicines to a vast array of drive thru pharmacies. During the 50s on TV, husband and wife didin't sleep in the same bed, today we not only have the same bed but we have the whole neighborhood in the same bed. The world changed and so did human beings and the limits with what we are willing to accept. People were prejudice and everyone in the world suffered in one way or another whether it was the Jews in WWII, the Palestinans after that, the Japanese from the Atomic Bomb, the Americans from racial inequality, Vietnam etc. The list as you know goes on and on but we have changing times and the best we can do is adapt, hence evolution with respect to the survival of the fittest. We cannot hold grudges against history but we should be able to learn from it so as not to repeat our mistakes.

why do they reinforce the croch of pantyhose, when its the knees and ankles that run??

If you have the right kind of girl...

Control top? Protection?

It seems to me that it's always better to have a reinforced crotch, on general principle.

Thanks Widebody for posting the dates on various inventions. I knew air conditioning was in use early in the century.
My Dad (1903 - 1997) once told me "Anyone who talks about the Good Old Days, wasn't there." His dad died of pneumonia in 1912. Antibiotics didn't come along for almost three decades. A trip of 55 miles, in Jan. 1930, by horse and sleigh, took him from 6 AM to 9PM. Technological changes have been prolific during the last century, but people haven't changed that much.
Les

Who wrote that? Is it a poem? There wasn't much research put into this piece was there? She's born in 1946 and listening to Jack Benny? She'd be a teenager in the early sixties. The Beatles were around.
Never heard of "pot" or "coke"? she obviously didn't read or have any friends. Oh well. I'm done ranting.

I agree. The years are way off.