My god, that small boy was annoying! This high pitched voice, this bravish gee-I-will-be-a-cop talk all the time. I have noticed that children's roles are played in this manner in many movies from that era. Can anybody guess, if that was really a typical behavior of boys (and girls) at the time? Or were the kids just required to act in this unnatural way for the camera (for whatever reason)?
shareYou betcha. Think of Brandon deWilde in Shane. Or Bobby Driscoll.
shareHENRIMAINE: Some folks just don't get it. AMERICA has changed, the WORLD has changed.
We are no longer innocent, unassuming and kind. The world was like that all around. I was there and I lived it. At least from where I was living, things were pretty mild and darn wonderful. It wasn't "great" for everyone, that's for sure. People had manners and other things that people only laugh at now. But we never knew it was so good, until it was gone.
Sorry you never lived it. We'll never see that time again. As hokey as you might think it was.
Enrique Sanchez
Agree with Enrique, we had consideration for our neighbours, innocence, freedom and manners . All traits long gone. I walked to school (without fear of being kidnapped), rode my bike without a helmet, rode a horse without a helmet, had a swimming pool without a fence, picked berries along the side of the road, drank water out of the tap, played on the street, opened doors for ladies, stood up in the train for adults, didn't see violence on TV, had a mother who stayed home all day to look after the children, etc. Such a shame that is gone forever and kids today will never experience what we had.
shareGosh, Christopher! You almost make me cry for those days again! I remember every single thing you mentioned except riding horses. I only got to do that twice - but you're saying they need helmets for that, too? We didn't even lock our doors until it was time to sleep! We actually just a screen door that remained closed but not locked in the summer days and nights! Dad kept his car running in front of a store, went in, paid the cashier and came back into the car. No sweat!
Nowadays if you open a door or stand up in a bus, you're thought of as quaint or worse: stupid. Gosh, I remember drinking water out of the tap! Especially from our backyard hose. We would wave to neighbors as we walked or skated on the sidewalk. And I certainly walked the eight blocks to school every day after I was in third grade.
Kids today will never see these things that made life so wonderful and MADE US who we are today. So darned sad, if you ask me. And I hear that smaller towns today don't have most of the things anymore either. Oh, what yearning I have for those days. Things changed so much during the 60s and beyond.
Enrique Sanchez
Oh yeah...I hadn't thought about the locks. Our back door had a little latch as the lock only. Didn't get a decent lock on it until long after I'd left. And it had a Dog Door that was always unlocked and swinging (except if we were away for weeks at a time on holiday). Mum got a part time job when I was 15. If she was out and no one was home the house was locked. When I came home from school I crawled through the Dog Door to get inside. We never gave it a thought that a thief or someone else would get in the house. And no, our dog was not a guard dog. We had a little dachsund.
Oh...did you have milk and bread delivered each morning? I don't think they do that now, do they? We had that then without issue. But I wouldn't now. Some loser would probably walk past and stick a needle in the bread or poison the milk or something.
That's funny because everything you mentioned was what my childhood was like and that was in the 90's. I suppose it's more to do with where you live and what kind of family you come from. Not so much the era.
shareWell, those 1950s kids were the "baby boomers" that grew up into beatniks, hippies and yippies a decade later. The kid eventually ended up with long hair, using drugs and dressing psychedelically ten to fifteen years later. And was in 1969 Woodstock!
shareNot all of us. Not even most of us.
share[deleted]
Pidge grew up to become a surgeon in the real world
shareAll the acting was unnatural, adults too.
shareIn the late '50s, I walked the half mile to kindergarten and back by myself every day, and so did all the other kids. We played all day, all over the neighborhood, without parental supervision. When I was ten I, and some other boys, had .22 rifles and our dads would take us out in the country on weekends to shoot tin cans. We rode our bikes all over town without helmets. When we were home and grownups were talking we kept our noise down and didn't interrupt. Bad behavior from children was not tolerated, but at the same time, kids had more freedom. I'd like to be a kid again back then, but not today. I'd probably just get fat sitting around staring at my cell phone all day, playing pointless games.
I still drink tap water. Is that supposed to be bad? In first-world countries, tap water has been proven to be cleaner than bottled water.
I grew up in that era. I would have been 3 years old when this movie was released.My experience would be different from others. It depended on the family you grew up in.
My brother and sisters were a lot older than I was. I was expected to act older and I got my butt paddled when I didn't or at the least I'd be told I was acting like a baby. Most of the time I was expected to know things without being told.
I have made this sound bad but if I was given the choice of going back and reliving it again I'd do it in a heartbeat. I miss the days when things were far mere simple.
Now they medicate...