BBassett

Well, it's obvious that no one should argue with you.

JohnDThompson 

My Dad was a Chemistry professor, so I had access to many things.

Bob Ross

This is just begging for a "take a little off the top" joke!

BBassett

OOOhhh that was bad!

CliffordK

When I was a kid...

We had to sew our bicycle tires together with needle and thread, and glue them to the wheels.

fivefootnine

When I was a kid I went outside to play. I tore BIKES apart and made new one's!

leob1

I had one of those too, yep I was the coolest kid in the neighborhood(for a while).

We would also leave the house in the morning, come back for lunch, go back out till dinner time. We did what we did. During the school year, we went out after school. Many winter nights I walked home from the park with the frozen pond, in the dark.
No seat belts until the '70s, we would drive my dad nuts jumping from the front to the back seat, while he was trying to drive. Cars were bigger back then.

Gerryattrick

When I was a kid my teacher knocked me unconscious by hitting me on the back of the head with a bible when I was talking in morning assembly.

He never did it again after my father had a quiet word with him after school.

Some things have improved since those days, thank goodness.

BBassett

Improved? Maybe in some ways, but I would like to see teachers have total control in their classrooms, and they don't. They are stuck between unruly kids and school policies designed to mitigate legal responsibility when a teacher does what is necessary to remain in control. If a parent isn't raising a human being the teacher needs the "tools" to do what is required to set them straight. Sounds like you got the short end of the stick, maybe he should have just used a paddle or cane on your butt instead. But I bet every other kid in the class learned a lesson that day.

Bob Ross

When I was in fourth grade my teacher hit me in the xxxxx with a wooden paddleball racquet because I hadn't done my homework.

I'm 8 years old. For whatever reason, I had neglected to do my homework assignment. And so this guy grabs his Howie Hammer model wooden paddleball racquet from the bottom drawer of his desk, and he marches me out into the hall, and tells me to face the lockers so I can get whacked in the ass. Defiantly I say "No!" So he says "Okay, have it your way" and he smacks me in the xxxx with a full-on backhand swing.

Let that sink in for a second. He hit me in the xxxx with a wooden paddleball racquet ...because I hadn't done my homework.

No wonder I f**king hate people.

Wileyone 

When I was a Kid...

We used to beat up on Kids that rode schwinns.

BBassett

HEY! I Hate people too! At least when they start to group up. But dude, I have to ask... did you do your homework the next day? A strategically placed psycho in someone's life can be an amazing motivator. Ask Elton John.

Maelochs

yeah ... I am opposed to spankings because there are better ways to motivate some kids and no better way to turn some kids into complete monsters.

Survive a few spankings and then it is like, "Yeah ... you got nothing else?"

I guess they work sometimes .... didn't do squat to help me.

BBassett

When I was a kid I got spanked with a thin leather belt and never once thought about saying something to someone.

BBassett

When I was a kid I got toys for Christmas and Birthdays that could injure, maim, or even kill the user or anyone unlucky enough to be standing nearby. I still own my Yard Darts in the original box. Ever hear of Ker-Knockers? Toy from the 60s or 70s? Got a set for Christmas. If you watch the vid. below you will see/hear how the balls stop almost every time you get them going. Listen close, a soft thud or wack. The ball coming in contact with your arm or hand. NBD right? When you 1st start learning how to do it the balls are moving slow. That's the whole idea! To make them move as fast as you can possibly make them move before they hit you in the arm or hand. The weird thing is that with the balls always the same distance away from your fingers they will hit you mainly in one spot, over and over and over again. For me, it was in the Ulna about 3" up from my left wrist. By the time I went to bed on Christmas night I had a bruise the size of a pool ball. My dad's spot was on the back of his right hand, he was smarter than I was, meaning, his bruise wasn't as bad as mine was on New Years Night, but I could get them going way faster than he could. That same New Years Night the rope broke in the middle of an alcohol imbibing family party while I was trying to impress everyone and beaned my Aunt on the forehead with a clear little red ball, hard enough that she looked like she was growing a horn for the next week. She never really looked at me the same way after that. A few years later I broke that same arm in the exact spot those Ker-Knockers wounded me that holiday season. Sledding accident on a super steep hill in Olympia, WA. When I say sledding accident I mean a sled with two people on it ran over my arm. Could the Clackers have been to blame? Loosened the lid a little, so to speak? Hummmmmmmmmmmm. I wonder.... Oh, yeah, dangerous kids toys. Ever see what you can do with a few boxes of simple Caps and a Pin? Ah, my BB Gun... BB gun, schmebe gun, we would go camping (I was 7) and my dad would hand me a 22 rifle and about a 100 rounds and tell me not to shoot myself. But that's another story.

grayEZrider

I went to a no indoor plumbing single room schoolhouse in Wis. 1st Jr High year I spent the summer on a paper route to buy my first bike (SS Columbia) on credit at $2 a week that covered nearly the whole town of 20,000. That led to my two addictions. Bicycles and Twinkies. At 19 (12 month visit to Vietnam) it took over two weeks to send or receive a hand written letter. And the newest high-tech from NASA was Tang. That was a powdered orange drink we used to make "G I screwdrivers". 6 oz. of vodka and a teaspoon of Tang!
And I remember my best friend from high school (who showed up in-country three days before I left) was suspended from school for two days for bringing a Bowmar Brain (four--yes only 4 function, +-x and divide) calculator into a classroom.

better days now.
But I still have both addictions.

BBassett

When I was a kid I hung real lead tinsel on the Christmas tree.

Machka 

When I was a kid, women were still strongly encouraged to wear uncomfortable clothes (pantyhose, anyone?) and there were silly dress codes (no white after labour day?)

So thankful that now, for the most part, anything goes!

Gerryattrick

They did. That a teacher who hit a nine year old kid on the head was a bully who could not control kids without violence, and who stopped after being confronted by someone his own size.

There's appropriate punishment and there's bullying.

Talking in class and assembly never stopped. It never will as long as kids are kids and not automatons. You can't beat it out of them.

BBassett

Sorry that it has stuck with you for so long. He obviously went too far with you. But I would rather a teacher be an authoritarian and control the environment then hear about teachers being bullied and even beaten because parents have raised self-indulgent pampered narcissistic little animals.

Gerryattrick

It has stuck with me and don't get me wrong, I frequently had corporal punishment at school with the cane for being naughty. That was expected back in those days and neither I nor my father had issues with that. But he often went too far with me and other kids (knocks to the head are never acceptable) and complaints from parents to the head were excused with "oh, Mr Lawrence had a bad time in the war (this was mid 50s) and it still affects him". He was never bullied or beaten by parents, but luckily I had a father who had a strong sense of right and wrong and told him what he thought of his behaviour. Mr Lawrence gave up teaching a year or so later. Behaviour of pupils didn't worsen.

Authoritarian and controlling are one thing but you can be that, and respected, without resorting to violence if you are a good teacher.

Biker395 

Pantyhose ... why did anyone ever think they were an improvement?

The dress code I remember is:

Girls could not wear pants ... it had to be a dress ... and no more than an inch above their knee.

Boys could not have their shirt untucked. I got sent to the VP's office for that one.

Doc_Wui

When I was a kid in 1956, my 8 year's birthday gift was a 24" roadmaster bike (red) and it cost about what my father earned in a week.

Huh. It's only today that I realize my younger brother (a year younger) never got a bike until he was 13. No wonder we always fought.

DiabloScott

In Iowa, when it got *really* cold, the girls could wear tights under their dresses, but not instead of dresses.

The boys had to wear a shirt with a collar, and long pants.

Maelochs

There are times a sharp smack can get a kid's attention ... let him know "This is Real---play-time is over."

If you need to hit the kid every couple days, you need a new tactic.