The Not-So-Good Old Days
How many of those "Good Old Days" emails do you get? I get at least one a week. Time has a way of deleting the bad memories and enhancing the good ones. If you'll be honest with yourself, I'll bet you will agree that the "good old days" weren't what they were cracked up to be. Some people had a tendency to be a little crude and insensitive, but Lord knows that wasn't us, now was it? Well, maybe...let me give you some examples.
Back in the day, if you weren't "normal" you were "retarded". There weren't any syndromes or disorders, you were either okay or "retarded", period. If you were normal, you could do what you wanted. If you were "retarded", you either stayed at home, went to school up to about the third grade then stayed home or got sent to an institution. That pretty much sucked. Today's "slow" would have been considered "retarded", as well. Believe it or not, really poor personal hygiene could put you in the "retarded" group.
There was another catch to getting in the "normal" group. You couldn't be "crippled". The term "crippled" covered a lot of territory. I knew one girl that lost the lower half of one arm in a washing machine. As a result she was "crippled". She had a hard time doing stuff like playing on the swings or monkey bars, so she needed to go sit down so she wouldn't get hurt. Very, very few ever made an attempt to accommodate the "crippled". If you were on crutches, you were destined to be a spectator...from home. I think that was the idea. If you didn't make it easy for "cripples" to get around, then you didn't have to deal with them or even look at them. For instance, how hard is it to make a wheelchair ramp? No public buildings had them when I was growing up.
We did have a special category that didn't fit in either the "crippled" or "retarded" group. Those were the ones that had a normal brain and no outward sign of any defect, but had some mysterious health problem. We were told not to play rough with them. One kid I grew up with had a hole in his heart. We had to be "easy" with him. He could hit us, but we couldn't hit him. There was another kid in the seventh grade that was a hemophiliac. He would dance at recess and the high school boys would throw coins at him. That is until somebody hit him in the head with a nickel and he nearly died.
"Fat" was a category unto itself. "Fat" kids would hurt you playing football because their best athletic talent was "piling on". Interestingly enough, "fat" kids got chosen early when picking sides. Nobody wanted to get tackled by a "fat" kid, so you wanted them on your team. But "Fat" kids would get tired and out of breath then go sit under a tree or something which left you a man short. And another thing, "fat" kids were fat because they ate too much. That was the only possible reason we knew. If the entire family was fat, then, obviously, they all ate too much. I remember a friend of mine gave a "fat" girl a pair of gigantic panties as a gag gift one Christmas. His mother bought them for him. I wonder if they look back today and laugh about it?
We didn't have gay people back then. We had sissies and mean girls. There was no explanation why some boys were sissies, they just were. It meant they weren't tough and didn't like girls when they grew up. As for the mean girls, they were just mean and unattractive. That was the whole reason they acted like they did. Nobody ever mentioned sex, so that didn't factor into the equation.
We look back and think, "Man, those were the good old days. Chocolate milk was three cents, a Coke costs a nickel, kids said yes ma'am and no ma'am, nobody was gay. Yep, we had it made!" Think about that the next time you forward one of those "we were so great back in the day" emails. I'm not saying don't send them, I'm just thinking that it might not have been great for everybody on your mailing list.
Back in the day, if you weren't "normal" you were "retarded". There weren't any syndromes or disorders, you were either okay or "retarded", period. If you were normal, you could do what you wanted. If you were "retarded", you either stayed at home, went to school up to about the third grade then stayed home or got sent to an institution. That pretty much sucked. Today's "slow" would have been considered "retarded", as well. Believe it or not, really poor personal hygiene could put you in the "retarded" group.
There was another catch to getting in the "normal" group. You couldn't be "crippled". The term "crippled" covered a lot of territory. I knew one girl that lost the lower half of one arm in a washing machine. As a result she was "crippled". She had a hard time doing stuff like playing on the swings or monkey bars, so she needed to go sit down so she wouldn't get hurt. Very, very few ever made an attempt to accommodate the "crippled". If you were on crutches, you were destined to be a spectator...from home. I think that was the idea. If you didn't make it easy for "cripples" to get around, then you didn't have to deal with them or even look at them. For instance, how hard is it to make a wheelchair ramp? No public buildings had them when I was growing up.
We did have a special category that didn't fit in either the "crippled" or "retarded" group. Those were the ones that had a normal brain and no outward sign of any defect, but had some mysterious health problem. We were told not to play rough with them. One kid I grew up with had a hole in his heart. We had to be "easy" with him. He could hit us, but we couldn't hit him. There was another kid in the seventh grade that was a hemophiliac. He would dance at recess and the high school boys would throw coins at him. That is until somebody hit him in the head with a nickel and he nearly died.
"Fat" was a category unto itself. "Fat" kids would hurt you playing football because their best athletic talent was "piling on". Interestingly enough, "fat" kids got chosen early when picking sides. Nobody wanted to get tackled by a "fat" kid, so you wanted them on your team. But "Fat" kids would get tired and out of breath then go sit under a tree or something which left you a man short. And another thing, "fat" kids were fat because they ate too much. That was the only possible reason we knew. If the entire family was fat, then, obviously, they all ate too much. I remember a friend of mine gave a "fat" girl a pair of gigantic panties as a gag gift one Christmas. His mother bought them for him. I wonder if they look back today and laugh about it?
We didn't have gay people back then. We had sissies and mean girls. There was no explanation why some boys were sissies, they just were. It meant they weren't tough and didn't like girls when they grew up. As for the mean girls, they were just mean and unattractive. That was the whole reason they acted like they did. Nobody ever mentioned sex, so that didn't factor into the equation.
We look back and think, "Man, those were the good old days. Chocolate milk was three cents, a Coke costs a nickel, kids said yes ma'am and no ma'am, nobody was gay. Yep, we had it made!" Think about that the next time you forward one of those "we were so great back in the day" emails. I'm not saying don't send them, I'm just thinking that it might not have been great for everybody on your mailing list.
I need to point out that while political correctness was born out of human decency it has since mutated into something vile. Originally brought about to smooth callous statements made by non-thinking individuals, today every I-want-something-for-nothing-deadbeat has hitched their wagon to it and it has blossomed into nothing more than the RIGHT to be offended. Years ago, referring to disabled individuals as "crippled" wasn't intended to be mean spirited. In fact, I have a 1945 edition of the "Boy Scout Handbook" that outlines a list of good deeds which by todays standards is politically incorrect. Included is "carrying books for a crippled boy" and several other statements about "cripples". I'm sure you'll agree that if someone that is truly disadvantaged by something not of their own making feels insulted when you call them "crippled", "deaf and dumb", or "retarded", we should be more sensitive.
The problem arises when you CHOOSE to be in a certain group and then act offended by the statements of people that choose NOT to be in that group. For instance, if you get your entire face tattooed to look like Bozo you don't have the right to be offended by people staring and calling you a clown. If you are an atheist and claim to be offended by Christians praying, remember the knife cuts both ways. They can be offended by you NOT praying. Sensitivity and tolerance are not difficult qualities to cultivate. In America, we reiterate our desire for liberty and justice every time we recite the pledge of allegiance. If you make us stop saying it, we might forget. And you wouldn't want that, would you?
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