"Wow, have times changed"

Thank heavens!

Actually thinking that the weekend rental isn't a bad idea. I keep thinking I could get rid of the minivan, and when we move kids in and out of dorms and apartments just get an Enterprise, but then things like yesterday happen when DS came home, and went back with an air conditioner, tv stand, and pillows. Hard to take on the train, won't fit in the Civic coupe. Really don't want to see if a large vehicle is available last minute.

Back when we had 2 trucks, we would rent a fuel conscious car for weekend travels. We could rent a Toyota for an entire week for 147.00, and use only 2 tanks of gas....

I was watching Leave It To Beaver yesterday, and thinking the same thing.....

This reminds me of a local teen dance show in the 60's my brother was on a few times. A few years ago I was able to purchase a CD of it. The host would do skits in between the dancing. We all winced as we watched him don a sombrero, fake mustache and proceed to speak English with a fake Mexican accent.......along the lines of Mickey Rooney playing the exaggerated Mr. Yunioshi in Breakfast At Tiffany's. Just so startling to watch things like this now.

Springroz...... you don't wear pearls when vacuuming?

When I was sitting with my book club this weekend, we realized that none of us had had the 8 to 12 children that we would normally have had had times not changed....

Well, thank all that is good and holy that times have changed - and may they continue to do so for the better!

I'd be an outcast in "the olden days" without a doubt. This childless tattooed breadwinner is grateful for the current times in which she gets to take up space on the planet. Vintage things appeal to me, but many of the attitudes and customs I find repugnant. Yesterday's "values"? No thanks.

And look at the wonderful accolades to the great basketball coach Pat Summitt today. In the late 60s, I remember discouraging words about girls playing sports because athletics could damage our reproductive organs.

Well, there might be a few things that we can reminisce and think were 'better' in the old days, but I for one am thankful for the changes we have today. How enlightened we have become & we have so many great choices in our lives, thankfully!

The one thing that bugs me and that I see that is awful is that some kids don't know how to play outside. Really, they don't know how because they haven't been taught how to do so and are allowed to sit inside and play their electronic games or watch TV all day.

I'm not giving up my dishwasher ever but I still don't have a cell phone.

I remember graduating from university in 1976 with my business degree and I was interviewing for a job and was told "If you were my daughter I would tell you to go back and become a teacher or a nurse because that's where you belong." I stood up and told him that I was glad I wasn't his daughter and left.

I like to think that I and those other women in my grad class, are the reason that I have a niece who is now a lawyer, one is a paramedic, one sells operating room equipment and my son's GF is a CPA. .

And then there was the time my advisor told me that he wanted to give me a prestigious engineering scholarship, but he had given it to a woman the previous year and was told that he could never give it to a woman again.

This year, half the entering class are women. I like the change.

We've come along way but definitely not far enough for 2016.

Wow, Blfenton, your interviewer was a jerk. I graduated in '75 and never got a reaction like that. However, I did work with some pretty horrid guys who harrassed female coworkers, and I know that hasn't changed!

I occasionally catch an old show, and am amazed that EVERYONE smoked cigarettes.

Blfenton, that attitude sounds like the 50's, not the 70's! Did he tell you not to worry your pretty little head, just find a man and make sandwiches?

Outside, I'm so thankful that my kids love to play outside and we are fortunate that we live by the water, so they can fish, swim, crab, kayak, etc if they want. But most of the time, they are just happy running around outside with the kids across the street. And they play a lot of basketball and lacrosse by themselves when the neighbors aren't around. Right now my younger two are at the pool. They do have their moments indoors - my 15 y/o has been watching a TON of soccer since there are two Cups right now - one in Europe and one for N/S America. None of my kids are video game addicts (possibly because we resisted getting any gaming systems until they were much older and well established playing sports and doing outside activities).

One thing that I personally see is that it is often hard to find kids who are home during the day anymore in the summer. Most around here have dual working parents so their kids are in camps all day every day. I'm a SAHM so sometimes it is hard to find kids for my younger kids to play with. They do go to a couple of camps but not every day all summer. When I sometimes go to the pool with them, I'm amazed at how empty it is during the week b/c so many of the kids are off at day camps. I almost always have to find friends (nonmembers) to go with them, whereas when I was a kid, I'd walk to the pool and know that I'd have at least a handful of friends to hang out with when I got there.

bpathome - interesting experience for you. Once I found a job my co-workers were mainly men as were my clients and I was never harassed and never felt as if I was being put-down or ignored. That acceptance attitude came from the top. I like to think attitudes are improving but it sure is a slow process. The class of the business school that I went to is now more than 50% women as is the Law school and the Medical School.

American Pickers was on the other night. They came across a cigarette ad. They then aired a clip of an old commercial telling women taking a toke on a cigarette would keep them from eating and getting fat. Yes much has changed, it us just unfortunate women haven't used this empowerment well. Being a SAHM should be a badge of honor. What could be more important that molding the next generations? Most of my students are the mess they are due to lack of one on one time with their parents. Yes we have come along way..but the price has been our children.

I was just having a conversation with my niece about women in the service. When I was a junior in HS, in 1978, I wanted to join the Navy after HS. I had a female cousin who'd joined the Marines, but I was rudely informed women were not allowed to serve on the ships. Why join the Navy if I couldn't be on a ship?! Learned my cousin was in adminstration, basically a secretary!

I also got in a lot of trouble with 'home ec', sewing classes and typing classes, because I refused to follow the rules-who made toast in the oven? Old Royal manual typewriters? (my Dad had an IBM Selectric in his home office). I wanted to take 'shop' classes! But was told that girls could not do that. My Jr. year of HS we finally had co-ed PE but we were not allowed to play competetively-only on co-ed teams, and then only things like tennis or volleyball. Sheesh, I'm really feeling old!

arcy, I wouldn't necessarily say it's SAHM but rather the breakdown of the traditional family structure that's more the issue. We now have 41% of children born outside of wedlock vs. 5% in 1960 and fewer than half of children living in traditional family structure (with mom & dad in first marriage) vs. 73% in 1960.

From Pew Research

neetsiepie - you reminded me. I wanted to take shop classes as well and the only one I was allowed to take was Drafting because there weren't any machines in drafting that I might wreck. I took the drafting class just to irritate them. Turns out I really enjoyed it though.

When I was a teenager (back in the 70s) I went to a local grocery store wanting to get a summer job as a bagger/stock person. I was told they only hired boys for that position - if I wanted to work there for the summer I could apply for a cashier job. I didn't want to be a cashier!

Donna

Reading msmeow's post above reminds me that progress has been made.

As a child DD shadowed her Dad whenever he was working on a home project. She was born loving the smell of lumber ;)

When she went off to college & her friends got PT jobs at the Mall for the discounts on clothing, DD opted to work at Home Depot. When we visited her she often had a tiling or woodworking project going in the house she shared with 3 other students.

After college she taught preschool, which she loved, but found it hard to make ends meet. She began moonlighting at a family-owned building supply store & lumberyard and eventually worked there full time till she married. She'd been a 3 season athlete and I knew she was strong and coordinated, but It would still blow my mind to see her at work unloading trucks and driving the forklift!

All that experience has come in handy since she & her DH moved into their fixer upper. She and he just remodeled their entire kitchen.

Times have changed since girls were told they couldn't bag groceries!

I'm glad there is less stigma to single parenting, though. But at least people don't feel they "have to get married" or are pushed into marriages by their families because they are having a child.

Like IdaClaire, I like vintage clothes and decorating but I don't want to go back to times where women and minority groups had zero rights.

I like being in a diverse environment at my job and now it feels kind of odd when it's not.