Everyone was conditioned to throw their arms in front of the youngun's in a hard stop.
We got a pair of shoes in the fall for school and that was it. Most of the time our toes were poking out by winter.
Only one girl in school wore a pair of overalls to school. Every other girl wore dresses. I had two, both made from feedsacks as were all our dishtowels.
Grandmother quilted all the scraps of our old clothes which kept us warm during the long winter nights.
We ate from the garden, woods, or creeks from gardening fishing, or hunting, foraging.
Children played outside and didn't sit inside playing video games or watching TV and of course there was no texting.
We ate because we were hungry and the choice was eat or don't eat. No one got special meals because they didn't like the meal.
Desserts was for holidays. A birthday cake was the only other dessert time.
I remember watching the turtles a bit when they first hit our screens, gosh it was a long time ago…
Kids' TV shows have changed hugely over the years as well. We watched these cute shows when I grew up, nowadays it's all violence. Except the BBC's kids' channel still shows some really cute things.
Har! I remember a friend of mine talking about a party she went to at a Sci Fi con where, after a considerable amount of alcohol was consumed, they started trying to top each other's ideas of the silliest superhero. Thunderbunny was born that night, as well as Samurai Panda and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
There was no air conditioning in schools. We had windows-open them in hot weather and close them in cold weather. Girls wore dresses. I was in high school when girls were finally allowed to wear pants.
Boy, those quilts were heavy, too! But with little heat & insulation in those houses, you just laid there and didn't move out of the warm spot your body had. Feed bags were golden.
Sugar wasn't available like now so, yes, desserts were few. Cooked fruit pie sometimes, occasional cake....jelly was usually limited & not sweet like now. These things were special &/or company fare. Mostly you ate what was available, often repeatedly. If hunting was good, you got meat. No grocery stores like now and those general stores were limited.
Sure no McD's around!!!
Speaking of which......I lived just a couple miles from one of first ones. 25 cent hamburgers & rare to "eat out". I was about 10 or 11, I think.
Since 1984, I have eaten at McDonalds just once. It was around 2010 or 11. I was so disappointed in the Big Mac...small, dry, tastless (that I loved in HS...could eat 2, large fries and a coke), I haven't been back since.