Things growing up have fallen by the wayside

[JoeWras]

First week of gym, the teacher had the Freshman playing the Sophomores.

It was a right of passage. The Sophomores cleaned the Frosh's clock, even toying with them .

Welcome to High School. You aren't as good as you think.

Part of it was because the school had unusual special dodge ball rules that experienced players learned to take advantage of. It was all good. Next year we killed the Freshmen.

 

[GenXguy]

WLS Chicago(land)!

Oh yeah, I remember listening WLS and DJs like Larry Lujack and John Records Landecker back in the 70's and 80's time frame. There are clips on youtube I have listened to - there's something depressing about listening to it now, though. lol

 

[Koolau]

Oh yeah, I remember listening WLS and DJs like Larry Lujack and John Records Landecker back in the 70's and 80's time frame. There are clips on youtube I have listened to - there's something depressing about listening to it now, though. lol

I listened in 1960 as WLS switched from The Prairie Farmer Station to WLS Music Radio, The Rock of Chicago, etc. etc.

Ah, yes, Larry Lujack. The Green-Eyed-Soul-Brother-of-the-Corn-Belt, Super Jock, Ol' Uncle Lar, Lawrence of Chicago.

I miss those days. YMMV

 

[Gumby]

I listened in 1960 as WLS switched from The Prairie Farmer Station to WLS Music Radio, The Rock of Chicago, etc. etc.

Ah, yes, Larry Lujack. The Green-Eyed-Soul-Brother-of-the-Corn-Belt, Super Jock, Ol' Uncle Lar, Lawrence of Chicago.

I miss those days. YMMV

I lived in Chicago for my first three years of high school, and WLS was the radio station. Moved to St. Louis in 1976 and switched to KSHE.

 

[Koolau]

I lived in Chicago for my first three years of high school, and WLS was the radio station. Moved to St. Louis in 1976 and switched to KSHE.

I ended up purchasing all 3 albums of "Animal Stories" by Larry Lujack and Tommy Edwards (Little Snot-Nosed Tommy). The albums are the collected "works" of Uncle Lar and Little Tommy doing their Animal Stories every day on WLS. Unique stuff. A modest example follows.

 

[Ronstar]

^hilarious! Thanks for posting and reminding me of those guys. Listened to them for many years.

 

[GenXguy]

I ended up purchasing all 3 albums of "Animal Stories" by Larry Lujack and Tommy Edwards (Little Snot-Nosed Tommy). The albums are the collected "works" of Uncle Lar and Little Tommy doing their Animal Stories every day on WLS. Unique stuff. A modest example follows.

LOL I almost mentioned Animal Stories and Little Snot-Nosed Tommy in my earlier post. We used to listen to it on the radio in school. Good memories.

 

[Act2]

Anyone else remember Diver Dan and Baron Barracuda?

 

[skyking1]

Throwing things at each other, in general.
We were in a rural bedroom community, and our collective parents did not allow things like BB gun wars, but we had some outrageous dirt clod wars. Those gave way to crabapple fights later.
The fruits were about 3/4" ~ 1" and hard. If you had a gun for an arm they would splat and leave a mark, but they always left a welt too.

 

[street]

Generations of children learned to read with Dick, Jane, Sally, Puff, and Spot. I remember them in school, and I learned how to read with those books.

I don't believe they are used anymore but I could be wrong. There are other characters with more current ideas of books for the young now.

 

[Venturer]

Radio stations WLS could be picked up only at night here in N Jawja but we had "Jet fly WFLI" with Johnny Jett in Chattanooga Tn. Then in the mid to late 70's I drove an over the road tractor trailer and would listen to a radio station out of New Orleans I think it was WWL am station. Country music to keep them wheels rolling. Good memories!

 

[38Chevy454]

Another of the big sole frequency radio stations is 700 WLW out of Cincinnati. High power transmission and at night could/can be heard many states away. Still a big powerhouse station, mostly talk radio and sports (Reds baseball and Bengals football) now.

 

[Montecfo]

Generations of children learned to read with Dick, Jane, Sally, Puff, and Spot. I remember them in school, and I learned how to read with those books.

I don't believe they are used anymore but I could be wrong. There are other characters with more current ideas of books for the young now.

One of my coaches in 9th grade used to say that as soon as we learned to play up to our potential, it would be..."Like Ned in the 1st grade".

We did not know what that meant, but checking with some older people, I guess Ned was a first grade reader?

He had some other, more colorful sayings also.

 

[JoeWras]

Radio stations WLS could be picked up only at night here in N Jawja but we had "Jet fly WFLI" with Johnny Jett in Chattanooga Tn. Then in the mid to late 70's I drove an over the road tractor trailer and would listen to a radio station out of New Orleans I think it was WWL am station. Country music to keep them wheels rolling. Good memories!

The concept of clear channel AM still exists, but with all our dimmers, LEDs and gadgets, it is getting harder and harder to listen to AM.

 

[EarlyandLate]

Did anyone else get Highlights magazine?

 

[W2R]

Did anyone else get Highlights magazine?

Loved it! They had it in the waiting room at my dentist's office.

 

[Dtail]

Loved it! They had it in the waiting room at my dentist's office.

Same here. Liked searching for the hidden objects.

 

[EarlyandLate]

Loved it! They had it in the waiting room at my dentist's office.

Somehow, we had discounted subscriptions through school. I don't remember the details. But I would go through every page of each issue.

 

[Free To Canoe]

Generations of children learned to read with Dick, Jane, Sally, Puff, and Spot. I remember them in school, and I learned how to read with those books.

I don't believe they are used anymore but I could be wrong. There are other characters with more current ideas of books for the young now.

Loved almost every post in this thread. Don't know which to respond to.

See Spot run. Run spot, run!

 

[steelyman]

Loved it! They had it in the waiting room at my dentist's office. [emoji3]

That was my first thought: Dentists!

I don’t remember a thing about the magazine, though.

 

[Koolau]

Did anyone else get Highlights magazine?

We got "Weekly Reader" at school.

For some reason I recall one issue in 5th grade ca 1957. There was an article about (in today's words) an emerging China. The focus to us kids (IIRC) was kids in China singing a song about their country. I remember these words as if it were yesterday:

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah,
outstrip Britain in 15 years...

A lot has changed in 65 years. YMMV

 

[6miths]

Throwing things at each other, in general.
We were in a rural bedroom community, and our collective parents did not allow things like BB gun wars, but we had some outrageous dirt clod wars. Those gave way to crabapple fights later.
The fruits were about 3/4" ~ 1" and hard. If you had a gun for an arm they would splat and leave a mark, but they always left a welt too.

Totally. And throwing sticks in the lake or river and then 'bombing' them with rocks. Or firecrackers if they were in season.

 

[Pointby2]

We called it "skitching" also. But we didn't do it wearing skates. We had a friend tow us behind his car while we were using an upside down car hood as a sled.

We just called it grabbing bumpers, IIRC. And we didn't wear the skates while riding. We weren't crazy!

 

[Pointby2]

I used to love dodge ball. I used to hang out in the back until close to the end. We used those hard rubber balls. Gym coach didn't care if we killed each other.

Fast forward to my son playing dodge ball in his after-school daycare in the early 2000's. I used to show up early to pick him up and watch. He had a cannon of an arm. But, he never won. Nobody won. About 2/3rds of the way through the game the daycare teacher would yell "jailbreak!" and everybody that was out would be allowed back in.

Ha, we used to play tackle "pull it" during recess. Everyone lined up on one side of the field and one person in the middle yelled "pull it" and then had to try and tackle the runners as they went across. Those that were tackled had to join the tackler in the middle. Repeat until only one person was left standing.

Can't imagine that being allowed at school today!

Loved dodge ball too!

 

[Rocket Man]

My neighborhood group never had BB gun wars, although I did have a friend in high school that was blind in one eye from a BB gun war when he was in grade school. He could have been the inspiration for “A Christmas Story”. However, we were known to have some pretty dangerous snowball fights after a wet snow. We would pack those snowballs until they turned into ice balls. They hurt when you got hit! Thankfully, no one was ever seriously hurt. On another note, I wanted a Schwinn Sting Ray more than anything when I was 9 or 10 years old. Us boys in the neighborhood would walk or ride our bikes to the town Schwinn Shop and just drool over all the different models and colors of Sting Rays!