The America I grew up in, that I want back

[Jerchap2]

Hoosier native Red Skelton, in 1969, on the meaning of the Pledge of Allegiance:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=577594088928426

 

[Jerchap2]

Four minutes worth your time.

 

[femurphy77]

It's sad, the number of people that A) don't even know the words, and B) would find something offensive in that video!

Not that it would do any good but that vid should be required viewing in every school grade every year.

 

[cobber]

Nice find, thanks. I grew up in the late 60s and even then 'progressivism' was starting to chase this kind of thinking from public life.

 

[Pinchaser]

Not going to happen. So much has changed so quickly....those under age 35 have never truly experienced what America was supposed to be even one day in their lifetime. As Margaret Mitchell wrote, you can only read about it now in books. It is a time that is gone with the wind. If you're old-enough, be glad for the memories of what was. It's all that's left.

 

[Scorpio]

It is certainly a pity that the Pledge of Allegiance, a recitation suitable for all patriotic Americans from all walks of life, was turned into what it is today. A wedge between Americans of different beliefs, foisted upon children in schools by cowards whose insecurity mandates forced homage to their own beliefs. People who use the word "freedom" without knowing its true meaning.

I like the original Pledge much better. At least the word "indivisible" had some meaning back then. How we ever won World War II without forced homage on our paper money and in our Pledges is one of the great mysteries of the universe, I suppose.

 

[Mark 1911]

I was 12 years old then. My whole family used to watch that show together, and I remember seeing that particular show! We all watched Red every week, he was humble and genuine, and he had had a gift for touching the hearts of many people. I agree with Red. The two added states were a gift, an improvement, the two added words were not so much forced homage as an expression of gratitude of a nation who had survived a very perilous period in our history, who perhaps had a deeper appreciation for unity, and true liberty.

Very cool. Thanks for sharing that and Happy 4th of July!

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Loved Red Skelton. I had the pleasure of seeing him perform at Emmens in Muncie back in the 1980's.

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Also, I wonder sometimes if each and every one of us has an incremental bit of blame for the erosion of this nation. And I wonder if the things that manifest in bigger ways, that we all see on the news and often in the streets didn't get their start in a million little things that all of us (of a certain age) either didn't do that we should have or did do that we shouldn't have.

Does any one of us really get very far in life without thinking about the things that we wish we'd done differently. And don't you think that all those little things that the millions of us did or didn't do add up to something?

 

[Ketchup]

Long gone. I even find myself loosing faith in this Nation.

 

[Jludo]

So if we are young enough to not have lived in a great America is that an excuse to be cynical?
They need to add the specifier 'Americans' at the end of the pledge.

 

[MisterChester]

I am in my mid-twenties, so the only thing about the "real" America that I can remember is gas being under 2 dollars a gallon.

 

[Miketodd]

Not going to happen. So much has changed so quickly....those under age 35 have never truly experienced what America was supposed to be even one day in their lifetime. As Margaret Mitchell wrote, you can only read about it now in books. It is a time that is gone with the wind. If you're old-enough, be glad for the memories of what was. It's all that's left.

Thats not entirely true. I am only 27 and I grew up riding my bike with the neighborhood kids, playing outside until the street lights came on, going down to the corner store to buy candy with money we got from recycling cans and bottles. I might have had more modern things than back in Reds day, but I grew up watching his reruns with my family, and whistling Andy Griffith's theme song. Hell, my first car was a '55 Dodge Dart 270 with a slant 6 engine.
Not all of us "Young" folks are ignorant to the "Old" America. In fact, I was showing my 4 year old this video today and I was tearing up watching it for the 1000th time.

 

[Jerchap2]

Thats not entirely true. I am only 27 and I grew up riding my bike with the neighborhood kids, playing outside until the street lights came on, going down to the corner store to buy candy with money we got from recycling cans and bottles. I might have had more modern things than back in Reds day, but I grew up watching his reruns with my family, and whistling Andy Griffith's theme song. Hell, my first car was a '55 Dodge Dart 270 with a slant 6 engine.
Not all of us "Young" folks are ignorant to the "Old" America. In fact, I was showing my 4 year old this video today and I was tearing up watching it for the 1000th time.

Thanks for speaking up. I disagree with those who stereotype ANY generation. I know a lot of 20- or 30-somethings who understand and embrace conservative values. It depends to a large extent what values the parents held and instilled, and there are also faith and common sense elements involved. Don't let the liberal media set the narrative, as we so often allow them to do.

 

[jamil]

If "Old America" is dead, who killed it? What, exactly, has died? Traditions? Values? Morality? Frankly, I'm glad some parts of Old America is gone. I wasn't fond of the race riots of the 60s and early 70s, or blue laws; grocery stores being closed on Sundays was a PITA.

But if Traditions, values, or morality are forgotten, it's because we haven't passed them to our posterity, and to a willing posterity. Our schools are partly to blame for that but diligent parents can overcome a re-education system.

Stuff happens, society evolves, or devolves, depending where you reside on the scale of societal preferences. As I lament the passing of the social etiquette of my time, I can't help but notice the similarity with my dad's laments. Not as much in content, but in tone. The America of our parents was not the same America as their parents'. In other words, I try not to be just another cynical old man stuck on a different flavor of times past; muscle cars and rock&roll music.

What's acceptable, socially, comes and goes, but the one thing I can legitimately lament is the demise of individualism and the corresponding personal liberty. Maybe this also sounds too much like my dad, but I'm tired of tight-jeans wearing sissies telling me that I'm a horrible person because I think people should earn their own way through life.

Of course another timeless value is stay the **** off my lawn!

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

I remember the good old days walking along White River on the south side of Muncie back in the early 70's, wondering what the heck was that greenish-blue stuff coming out of a pipe and flowing into the river (now I know it was metal plating waste). And there was no wondering what that nasty foul-smelling stuff was coming out of the pipe from Rayhes meat packing.

Yep, those were the days.....

 

[Pinchaser]

Thats not entirely true. I am only 27 and I grew up riding my bike with the neighborhood kids, playing outside until the street lights came on, going down to the corner store to buy candy with money we got from recycling cans and bottles. I might have had more modern things than back in Reds day, but I grew up watching his reruns with my family, and whistling Andy Griffith's theme song. Hell, my first car was a '55 Dodge Dart 270 with a slant 6 engine.
Not all of us "Young" folks are ignorant to the "Old" America. In fact, I was showing my 4 year old this video today and I was tearing up watching it for the 1000th time.

Regardless of your background, and your enthusiasm for traditional values, the world in which you have lived, every day of our life, has been a result of the liberal's attempt to destroy our way of life. You may think you embrace the values of old, and maybe you do, but the world in which you hope to live those values is no longer America. It is gone.

 

[Scorpio]

Regardless of your background, and your enthusiasm for traditional values, the world in which you have lived, every day of our life, has been a result of the liberal's attempt to destroy our way of life. You may think you embrace the values of old, and maybe you do, but the world in which you hope to live those values is no longer America. It is gone.

Which values can you not live today that you could have lived in the "old" days?

 

[BigBoxaJunk]

Regardless of your background, and your enthusiasm for traditional values, the world in which you have lived, every day of our life, has been a result of the liberal's attempt to destroy our way of life. You may think you embrace the values of old, and maybe you do, but the world in which you hope to live those values is no longer America. It is gone.

What was that Twain said: "Choose your grudges carefully, and hold them for life"?

 

[Jarhead77]

Study. Work hard. Make something of yourself. That used to mean something. We are being robbed of that. The harder I work, the less I get for it and I'm getting tired.