What Is Something That Was Common In Your Childhood But Is Rare Now?

True friends, honesty, long last marriages, children having outdoor activities by themselves, manners thought in school.

People use to spend time together instead of spending it in front of TV's and computers and not even to talk about mobile phones.  I hate when Im busy with someone and their phone rings or you are in a restaurant and you have to listen to someone chatting away on the phone, I never answer mine until Im done with the people then i will phoned back.  You never use to see overweight children unless they had a medical problem and if you were overweight due to eating then everyone would make quite a big thing about it.  Why were there never overweight kids because they were active doing sport, playing outside, riding their bicycles and walk kilometers to go to town or do things, now the kids sit and play video games, Tv games, computers and sit with earphones connected to their mobile phones, oh and don't forget about all the food they dump into their bodies while doing this.

Families use to spend time in nature and it was a big thing when someone got divorced because it just didn't happen.  Why do people get divorced nowadays because they don't talk, they don't spend time together.

The most important one to me is the fact that we had respect for other people.  We listened to our parents and our teachers and if we didn't listen then we got a big fat hiding from your parents and your teachers and you know what, here I am healthy, willing and able and no psychological damage like everyone claims today.  Kids don't have respect for the elderly, parents and any kind of authority, why because you are not aloud to discipline them, you have to talk to them and tell them that they are wrong, since when has a child ever listen to you if you try to talk sense into their heads almost never, that is why the children are the way they are today and just think about this, those very same unruly kids will be the people who is suppose to be the leaders of our countries, think about that.

The whole neighborhoods kids use to get together in the late afternoon and on weekends and played games in the street, now you can't let your child out the gate in fare of your child getting killed by cars, kidnapped or that wrong people start associating with your kids.

We could swim and drink from the rivers now you will die doing so.

It may seem abstract but - Imagination.
I see kids that my friends have, 5 years old and mindlessly watching television, computer etc...
I remember a time not so very long ago (I'm 26) where we went outside. We imagined a storyline and we followed it for hours. There were at best 4 hours of great television on during the weekends and the rest of the time was yours to shape as you wish. I cherish that brief innocence and creativity I had in the time I grew up in.

Dirty diapers.

Manners and respect for adults

Chickenpox

Hobby car building

Drinking water from the hose...coming from the spicket on the house...

Leaving your house unlocked,thieves,shoplifting,crime. Could ride  your bike anywhere and leave it outside without having to lock it up.migration of mexican workers into the state not to mention immigrants from all over the world.seems like we are having a second great migration/immigration from all over the world the last 10 years.honest politicians.stable food and resource prices.seems like every other day we have businesses gouging customers for profit.no government regulation of business.the most rare is to not worry what our own government is going to do to us while covering their own rear ends. Seems like they fix what is affecting them in thier neighborhoods first and then they think about the citizens for whom they work for.very rare to have a politician that actually works for all citizens instead of special interests groups that can have how you say a representative talk to them daily or weekly lobbying for their cause.i guess the rarest thing is to believe your own government actually hears your problem and does anything to fix the problems.i was just watching a pbs special where it has taken a city improvement commission 10 years to decide how to fix a bridge and it still is not done(i figure they get to keep their job the longer they drag out a project) while spending 10's of millions to have meetings going over and over details. And get this they are just now getting to choosing the top 3 plans to get the project started. So i would say it is rare to see a project planned and finished within a governors term in office.now the sad thing is they have 85 million  in grants or infrastructure dollars to do the project and are spending it having meetings on top of meetings for ten years.talk about government waste.they could have hired a company to start the project and planned it and had people working right now in the middle of this recession instead of sitting on their hands to keep their jobs.i could go on but the longer i think about it the more i see how "rare" it is for a government to move on a issue that isn't life threatening to them. : ). Ooooh! They are making me angry and they don't want to make hulk angry. : ))

For some unknown reason when I read the question the first thing that popped into my mind was suicide knobs.  Those were rotating knobs that were attached to the steering wheel of the car so that you could turn corners easily.  They have been done away with because in an accident that had a nasty habit of killing you my impaling you in the chest.  Does anyone remember the light dimmer switch on the floor of the car?  Nickle candy bars have gone the way of the do-do bird.  Speaking of cars...I can remember when you stuck your arm out the window of the car to indicate that you were going to turn.  I remember my roller skates.  They fit onto your shoes and were adjustable to length and width by using a skate key.  The big 33 RPM records and the 45 RPM records and cassette tapes and reel to reel tapes were each (in their time) the big want of every kid.  The rotary dial telephone can now only be found in antique store. I could go on and on....I'm old enough to do that.   :)

Those big blue postal boxes on just
about on every corner.  A&W drive-
ins.  Small markets with the 'country'
feel.  Affordable gas.  Cars that looked
like cars instead of  like roller skates
or face masks on wheels.  People helping
people without having to have a disaster
to hit first.  Lemon aide stands instead
of corner dealers.  Kids earning getting
their money by mowing lawns instead
ripping off S.S. Checks   .

Billy witches!

Polio
No freeways - no need for them - clean air

Everyone understanding English.

The good old days are gone.

Drive-in movies,orange-pineapple ice cream,Trick or treating the neighborhood,

Letting your children play outside & have a little trust that they will be o.k. Eating together as a family at the dining room table or obeying your parents a little or fear their wrath.

Neighborhood moms all looking out for everyone's kids. My mother never worried when I was out of her sight because she knew that the community was her watchful eye and vice versa. Sadly today
no one has the time or will find the time to do this.

Love and affection has gone these days, when compared to my childhood. About peppermints ( I think you people might not be knowing what it is loll), i miss them a lot.

Cookie jars in the stores with cookies in them that you could buy one at a time, 2 for a nickle or 5 for a dime

It is true friends, good manners, peaceful lives and most of all, the games that we played.

Watch cartoons