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Randy Anchikoski's avatar

I grew up with lawn darts and recall trying to throw them vertically as high as I could. It was only when I threw them into the high sun that I ran because I couldn't see where they were coming down. In the 70s and 80s when I was in school, the teachers were amazing. They rarely had to be authoritative because the parents did that. I certainly did not want the school calling my parents. Even when I was throwing up at school I hated the idea that my parents would be called and involved. I felt safe and despite being bullied a bit--which helped me grow up and gain strength in many ways--it was not a bad experience. By high school things were changing, but I kept my head low and did OK--no meds!

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Wyatt's avatar

Perhaps the common thread of people who read Gato is that we all grew up this way and became self-governing.

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Integrity and Karma's avatar

All y'all who were 'latch key kids' rise your paws! * raises mine*

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Dr Jen | Syringa Wellness's avatar

Babysat 3 kids under age 5 (unrelated to me) for a week, including overnight, when I was 17 then did it again when I was 18. Excellent birth control.

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Tonetta's avatar

Oh too funny. My experience too! Babysat my nephew at 14 and no sooner had mom and dad left or he started crying! 4 months old. Not to be stopped. Cured me once and for all.

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INGRID C DURDEN's avatar

had a stay at home mom

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Vanda Salvini's avatar

My mom worked for a few years on and off in the 60's but mostly stayed at home too. She and my dad agreed on that, 1. to raise me the way they wanted 2. my dad worked hard and long hours and someone had to do everything at home.

We were truly blessed.

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Masqueesha's avatar

I grew up in the latch key generation, but I worked for the family business 6 days a week and worked our farm on Sundays. Throw school on top of that. I bitched about it 24/7, but I wouldn't change a thing.

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MyCovidBubble's avatar

Paws up. Everyone I grew up with was a latch key, too.

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Vanda Salvini's avatar

My parents 1st house, built in the early 1900's, had a milk box. This was basically a window big enough for a gallon of milk and maybe eggs. There was a small, not too thick wooden door on both inside and outside.

On a few occasions, when we all left the house without a key and since I was a small skinny kid, it was me who was always hoisted up to crawl in to the house via the milk box and open the door.

Gee, I could have grown up to be a cat burglar!

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Blue Electric Storm's avatar

So sad!!

I was asking around the cul-de-sac of families for someone to be guardian of my eight year old ..(.daughter, boys, calm down, females know they aren't full grown at eight....) for two hours after school.

That's when a real dingbat woman said to me: "Oh, just leave her the key. Don't you know? That's how we raise kids now, it's called "latchkey kids".

Thirty-five years later and I'm still.....??????? WTF?

Yep. The "tell a vision" had propagandized that as a ...wait for it... a"trend".

And that's all they had to do to make it real. Fucking Disneyland unreality. At least I know why near every kid now is so familiar with sexual abuse.........as well as every other kind of trash

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Yup. And I had two younger brothers to take care off. And laundry and meals.

I was well prepared for college...lol...

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John Tancsik's avatar

I was left home unsupervised for 8-10 hours per day from the time I was 9 years old. With my sister who was 18 months younger.

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Exactly. Not sure when you grew up, but for me it was the 70's and I can't think of a better way to have lived life as a kid.

FREE RANGE to learn basic skills of life.

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MyCovidBubble's avatar

70s kid here. The best times of my life. Riding bikes all day, walking a mile to school with all the neighborhood kids, playing in the creeks, playing tag outside after dinner in the summer. I even had a hippie teacher that would let me bring my dog with me to school. He stayed in the classroom all day every day and everyone loved it!

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Renee Marie's avatar

Me too!

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Steghorn21's avatar

I had both arms ripped off by a combine-harvester at the age of 7. Hey, but in those days, we just walked that kind of thing off. :)

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Randy Anchikoski's avatar

Darned rights! You just gritted your teeth when you went through the threshing drum : )

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Steghorn21's avatar

Yep. And if we didn't cry, we got a cup of gravel for breakfast as a reward! :)

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Blue Electric Storm's avatar

thanks for taking it to the limit.....yuk yuk yuk....I wish every dumb insecure male could watch a 24 hr. rerun of himself drooling, pissing and shitting himself, and completely crying and dependent on his creator.

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Steghorn21's avatar

I've had hangovers like that too, Blue! :)

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Muh Momma...:)

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Tricky Dicky's avatar

Our Little League umpire actually did have both arms ripped off at the elbow by industrial rollers. He was beloved and returned to call balls and strikes with his new hooks.

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Integrity and Karma's avatar

Omg. I'm so sorry.

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Steghorn21's avatar

Don't worry, I and K, I was just joking! I totally agree with everyone here about how we were a bit tougher in those days. However, when people start bringing up these "Back in my day!" stories, I can't help thinking of that old Monty Python sketch were the old geezers are trying to out do each stories about how terrible their childhoods were.

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Integrity and Karma's avatar

Ps- in elementary school we lived just within the mile for which one was made to walk to school where I grew up backing the 70s. Yes...I really did have to walk to school in the snow, uphill both ways. ЁЯШВЁЯдг . ( honest! But...they weren't huge hills...)

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Steghorn21's avatar

I used to do about 3 miles but it was pretty flat. Kept me nice and fit!

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Integrity and Karma's avatar

Oh....whew! ...I also award you bo us points for using one of the more obscure MP skits as a referent.

( my husband thinks Monty Python is ' low-brow humor'... is it no wonder we're permanently separated? ЁЯдг)

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Benj's avatar

He didn't deserve you.

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Steghorn21's avatar

MP wasn't to everyone's tastes, but they sure nailed a lot of the craziness of our world. And it's only gotten worse since.

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Happiness: AViewpoint!'s avatar

Yeah like in my day I walked 5 miles uphill both ways in my pyjamas.........

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Steghorn21's avatar

You wore pyjamas? Jeez, no wonder the nation went downhilll. We had to carry a ten-ton weight and our parents strewed broken glass along the path! :))

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Patrick Quaine's avatar

тАЬI lived in a cardboard box in the middle of the roadтАжтАЭ. I just used that line on my kid last night. That is one of my favorite Monty Python bits.

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Steghorn21's avatar

We used to get up before we went to bed!

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Integrity and Karma's avatar

Raise you children with Monty Python. It is the way.

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Felix's avatar

... and evidently, our numbers grow ever so statistically fewer compared to the rest of the herd.

Where does it end?

Don't know.

But the survivors will be the ones who "walk it off".

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Steghorn21's avatar

I get depressed too about the sheepish majority. When the heck do they wake up? What do the globalists have to do to them before they get it? However, it's important to remember that it's always a bloody-minded minority who change things in society. Maybe the French Revolution isn't a positive example, but in 1789, there were 27m French people - yet it only took 1000 of them to overthrow the Bastille.

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Felix's avatar

I think it's always, universally the pattern - a "bloody-minded" minority that change the status quo.

As for the sheeple - more than a few are simply cowards. Exhibiting that most detestable trait of hoping someone else bears the brunt while they escape special notice. Not lifting a finger to right a wrong lest they too be targeted for "special treatment" (like our J6ers). IOWs, they value "security" more than freedom, calculating relative risk/reward.

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Steghorn21's avatar

True, and afterwards they'll say, "Of course I never believed in the vaccines/Putin was Hitler/Trump was a Russian asset....."

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Polly Styrene's avatar

You may have something there

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AngrySenior's avatar

Agree. In Junior High (former term for Middle School) mean girls tried to bully me. After telling Grandma after school, her response was, "well, what are YOU going to do about it?" and the next day I did - in class - let the girls know they were off-base with their taunts. Never got bullied again. In fact, they wanted to be "friends" and I said no. That age is just horrific to go through.

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Randy Anchikoski's avatar

It's a dog eat dog world. When I was 11 I was in a fight with the "bad kid" because he hated that I kept scoring on him in hockey. I wound up pounding on him, then felt so awful afterwards that I cried in the boy's bathroom. I wasn't sad that I beat him up, I was sad that others were cheering me on and congratulating me afterwards. However, right after lunch the teacher put us on the same group task and, from opposite sides of the table we both looked up and laughed at each other. All was well. No harm and I disregarded the sheep that couldn't do the fighting themselves.

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Exactly and a lot of this prattling nonsense would just take care of itself if boys were allowed to be boys.

Some of my better friends are guys who I had a little fist to cuffs with.

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CindyArizona's avatar

That worked for lots of us girls, also. Pick the biggest mean girl and knock the crap out of her. Of course, it helped that I was almost six feet tall by the time I was 13 years old. Not too many of the girls would risk it but I had to put a few boys in their place.

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Ha. I could've benefited from a friend like you.

If not, I might have been scared of you. I was a late bloomer. Ended up at 6 foot , but I was 5'4" entering junior year of high school. Grew 6 inches in a year and then another 2 freshman/sophomore in college.

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CindyArizona's avatar

LOL, I had a lot of boy friends who, being much shorter than me, depended on me to take up for them until they had their growth spurts in high school! They then took over the role of protector. Interestingly, several of us, me included, became police officers and firefighters as adults. Still protecting the underdogs. IтАЩve been retired now since 2007 and boy has the profession changed. Sadly.

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Porge's avatar

Yup,that's how it usually works out! Same here Ryan

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Steghorn21's avatar

Great story!

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Good on you!

Unfortunately for boys sometimes you had to throw the first punch before the bully understood you.

If you really wanted them to understand then hit the biggest one first.

I recently had to tell my 12 year old boy that. Damn the consequences.

If not, the bullying only gets worse.

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Steghorn21's avatar

Girls at that age can be some of the nastiest creatures on the planet. Most grow out of it to be nice young ladies.

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Jim Watkins's avatar

Lawn Darts, LOL, canтАЩt believe we survived our childhood playing with those things! Not to mention playing тАЬwarтАЭ with our BB guns (pre airsoft days) - terrible idea - please donтАЩt try thatтАж IтАЩve still got a scar on my forehead right above my eyes. Yes, my friends and I were pretty stupid, but boy did we have fun on those long summer breaks!

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MyCovidBubble's avatar

And don't forget playing with fireworks like cherry bombs!

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Jim Watkins's avatar

Yep - been there, done that too - winging bottle rockets at each other! Fun times indeed!

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Yup. You only had to point it the wrong way once to figure out how to make sure you had it the right way

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Lol. Exactly.

My favorite was lighting one just as one of my buddies was teeing off on the golf course...or anytime for that matter.

Fire! FIRE!

Those were the days.

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Bandit's avatar

We still have our Jarts (lawn darts).

"Long Summer breaks." Now they get, what, 3 weeks for Summer break? It's absolutely ridiculous!

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NoOne's avatar

Yeah teachers have to have 20 in service days DURING the school year instead of doing it in the summertime like our teachers did 40 years ago. Getting soft in the ones educating our kids and sh!t rolls downhill to the kids.

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Agree

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Jim Watkins's avatar

Yep - good ole Jarts! :)

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Steghorn21's avatar

And the helicopter parents send them off on Japanese Maths camps.

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Bandit's avatar

Yeah, like being perfect isn't stress enough.

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Randy Anchikoski's avatar

You too??? We used to take wax and heat it up in our fingers and put it in our pellet guns and shoot it at each other. Boy, that hurt. Never watched "A Christmas Story" until adulthood, sadly--"You'll shoot your eye out, kid!"

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Oh my little brother took one in the eyelid when he was 12.

It was only at that point my mom confiscated the pellet and bb guns.

.....temporarily

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SadieJay's avatar

My little brother hit me in the ass with a BB gun when I was riding my bike. My dad got a hold of him, made him walk out to the firing line and turn around. He was shitting his pants as dad pretended to aim and got ready to fire. He never did, but the lesson was learned. Eddie the Eagle couldn't have done a better job. Haha!! Gotta love the 70's.

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Steghorn21's avatar

BB guns were for losers! We used to make bow and arrows out of sticks and catapults out of metal coathangers. Those were the days!

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Rikard's avatar

Did you ever use the inner tyres from bikes, and the big sturdy cardboard tubes they used to have maps rolled up on in school?

Makes a mean tube-catapult, when combined with lead shot.

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Jim Watkins's avatar

ThatтАЩs hilarious! Awesome dad! Thanks for the laugh!

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

LOLOLOL.

That is classic

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Randy Anchikoski's avatar

hahahaha - glad he's ok (I assume)

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

He's all good and tough as nails now

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Ryan Gardner's avatar

Right?! Lol. How else were we supposed to keep score?!

We even went so far as building POW "prisons"

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Country Roads '72's avatar

I'm a middle-aged very respectable looking lady and a few years ago my when I broke my ankle the doctor asked me why I had a BB in my foot. I laughed about it pretty hard bc of the memories of my childhood flooded back. The young doctor looked horrified at my reaction.

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Bandit's avatar

I would think, nowadays the "old" doctors would look horrified, too. It seems no one does anything out of the ordinary, or gets hurt.

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Country Roads '72's avatar

I don't know if I agree with you on older doctors being so shocked. They spent time experiencing things, too and Buttercups are not generally becoming doctors. ЁЯЩВ

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Steghorn21's avatar

I don't think the teachers are "well-intentioned". Most them are extreme Left and fully buy into the BS they teach.

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SimulationCommander's avatar

When meeting my friends' parents, my mother would always tell them (within earshot) that they had permission to beat me silly if I did something dumb.

Then I'd get beat again at home for embarrassing the family.

This was a very effective strategy.

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Jeff's avatar

I remember a time as a young USMC officer when we would play drunken lawn darts and try to hit each other with them. Fortunately we were drunk and had bad aim. IтАЩm guessing that is no longer a thing.

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