A Different World – Bucky Covington
We were born to mothers who smoked and drank Not mine
Our cribs were covered in lead based paint Probably
No child proof lids no seat belts in cars yep
Rode bikes with no helmets and still here we are, still here we are exactly
We got daddy’s belt when we misbehaved got our own belt from mom when we needed it too
Had three TV channels you got up to change Dad said he didn’t need a remote if he had me.
No video games and no satellite Saw my first satellite TV in probably 1983, had pong from radioshack, colecovision, Atari 2600
All we had were friends and they were outside, playin’ outside Never even saw the inside of one of my best friend’s houses. There was no MyBook or FaceSpace or Tweety Bird or whatever, no cellular telephones, no such thing as texting, There was not even Blogger. I remember my uncle had an 8086 computer and it was “Boss”.
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It was a different life
When we were boys and girls
Not just a different time
It was a different world we played cowboys and Indians or Army where the Russians were always the enemy, we used toy guns that were exact replicas of the real thing, no stupid orange parts… Everyone knew that the Indians were not really our enemies, but we all knew that you could not trust a “Commie” at all; the thought that we would end up with similar policies (not that we would have understood the words) would have been about as bizarre as alien invasion (Green not Brown)
School always started the same every day
The pledge of allegiance then someone would pray led over the intercom everyone had to stand up and do it, even foreigners and non christians (not that there were many of either)
Not every kid made the team when they tried I rarely did
We got disappointed and that was all right, we turned out all right Dad said I was young, and I would overcome it.
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Bridge
No bottled water, we drank from a garden hose Still Do!
And every Sunday, all the stores were closed BLUE LAWS!
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It was a different world
Bucky Covington, A Different World Lyrics
What happened to us? Apparently the childhoods and values taught to much of those in power now were markedly different from mine. Calling someone a Commie or a Socialist when I was kid was almost as bad as calling their parentage into question. We were all red blooded Americans. Loved our country, knew it was not perfect but it was the best there was.
I remember the Secretary of Agriculture of Missouri back in the 80’s was from my home town, I went to school with his kid. When Glasnost and Perestroika were just getting rolling good there were some Soviets who came to our town and surrounding area to learn about our farming methods. They spoke at my school, we were all sorta intrigued and yet a little scared maybe, but we were respectful to them. They were absolutely amazed at the types of crops we could grow, the sophistication of the equipment we used, and the yields per acre that we were achieving. They were even impressed with our Jr. High Gymnasium! Of course, I am not sure that anyone told them that the Bootheel of Missouri is some of the most expensive farmland in the nation. It is a small area but it is extremely valuable land. So they may have thought that the whole state or the whole Midwest was like that, I do not know. Long story short we could tell they were amazed at everything they saw and I remember we discussed it in class and talked about how Capitalism was better in every way to their system… APPARENTLY this was not a conversation taking place in other places a couple decades previously.
