Things you do because of how or where you were raised

[o1pickleboy]

The other day I was walking outside barefoot and my girlfriend commented on how hillbilly it was. That got me thinking that I always have done it in summer, especially when I was a kid. That got me thinking that I probably wouldn't go barefoot had I been raised in the city.

So What things do you do because of how or where you raised and you know you wouldn't do if it wasn't a family thing or a location thing?

[Iangould]

Always clear your plate.

Never trust the police.

Never back down from a fight. "If you don't fight, you lose".

If you run out of toilet paper, magazines and newspapers are an acceptable substitute.

Never have more one light on at a time.

The Liberals are low mangy curs and are never to trusted. Never.

The shoe thing - never wore shoes until I was 10. Used to be able to put out matches in the calluses on the soles of my feet and not feel a thing.

[snarkbunny]

The shoe thing - never wore shoes until I was 10. Used to be able to put out matches in the calluses on the soles of my feet and not feel a thing.

They let you go barefoot in school? They never did here in Canada.

[Iangould]

They let you go barefoot in school? .

Until Grade 5, I went to a country school where the majority of the students were part of my extended family (we kept count).

Then my parents sold the farm and moved to suburbia and I had to wear fucking shoes.

I still remember the day a couple of years later when I realized I could no longer walk on asphalt at noon in midsummer without burning my feet.


They never did here in Canada

Yeah well frostbite was never a big problem in Queensland.

[insidemyhead]

I grew up in a chilly, drafty farmhouse with only one heat vent for the entire second level of the house and of course no air conditioning whatsoever.

So, in the winter, when it's up to me, I keep the thermostat low and wear slippers and a hoodie. In the summer, there are ways to keep a house cool short of turning on the central air, and even fairly bad heat can be tolerated with a couple fans.

That said, I love air conditioning. But it's a treat, not something I need.

[snarkbunny]

.
Until Grade 5, I went to a country school where the majority of the students were part of my extended family (we kept count).


I always went to suburban or military base schools, a couple on the isolated bases were small enough to have combined grades, but they were never that casual.


.
Yeah well frostbite was never a big problem in Queensland.

Good thing too, My ears got frostbit when I was nine and they are still extremely sensitive to cold.

[Smoothesuede]

I was raised by the internet.
:confused:

[goof]

I still make my bed every morning. That was something my grandma made us do everyday. If we didn't do it we, would get extra chores in the afternoon.

[jessecuster3]

I have always used an electric can opener, my girlfriend never did. Its been interesting watching her get used to it.

[Iangould]

I always went to suburban or military base schools, a couple on the isolated bases were small enough to have combined grades, but they were never that casual.

We had two grades 1-3 and 4-7.

I remember in grade 1 I'd finish the lesson then listen in to grades 2 & 3.

When I actually did grades 2 & 3 I was bored shitless.

Then I got to grade 4 and it was unfair because they sprang all this new shit on me.

I remember around grade 3 or 4 a substitute teacher gave us an "IQ" test based solely on vocab. I scored a perfect result which supposedly meant a 180+ IQ and he freaked.

Poor bastard didn't know that as a result of smart elder siblings and lax parental supervision (I was the youngest of six) I'd already read 1984, Brave New World, Stranger in a Strange Land, A Clockwork Orange, Barefoot in the Head and A Feast Unknown.

[Iangould]

Not to monopolize the thread but:

One farm but one over from us, lived the Visser family.

One day after dinner someone asked "is this my cup of tea?" and someone else replied "No, it's Johnny Visser's".

This was so funny it became a standard: "whose turn is it to take out the garbage/do the dishes/feed the cat"?

"It's Johnny Visser's"

Approximately 50 years later, Johnny Visser is still taking the rap in Gould and Gould-descendant households.

[Slam_Bradley]

I grew up in a chilly, drafty farmhouse with only one heat vent for the entire second level of the house and of course no air conditioning whatsoever.

So, in the winter, when it's up to me, I keep the thermostat low and wear slippers and a hoodie. In the summer, there are ways to keep a house cool short of turning on the central air, and even fairly bad heat can be tolerated with a couple fans.

That said, I love air conditioning. But it's a treat, not something I need.


Pretty similar here. Our home's heater had one outlet in the living room. And the fireplace was in the living room. It wasn't terribly unusual in January to be able to see your breath in the upstairs bedrooms.

Needless to say I keep the bedroom below 60 if I possibly can.

[i_mmmchocolate]

These come to mind:

I never go to sleep with the TV or radio on in the background.

I always take a shower at night before I get into bed.

I never leave dirty dishes in the sink or the kitchen counters dirty. Ever. This is sort of ingrained in your brain when you're born and raised in New York.

I never developed a taste for soda because it was never in the house. 90% of the time I drink water.

My dad would call snacks, "snackies" when I was a kid, and I still do the same, to this day.

[Sean Walsh]

I treat women with respect.


......apparently that wasn't a widespread thing like I always assumed it to be. O_o

[doolbnoom]

being stubborn- like my mom.
i can be as stubborn as hell.

or is it, i can be as hell as stubborn?
now i'm confused.

[Romero]

For me a big part is what I can't, or don't, do. My two older brothers did a lot of chores and yardwork. By the time my dad got to me, I think he lost patience for showing me how to do things. He felt it was faster just to do it himself. I could watch if I wanted, but it wasn't the same thing.

As a result, I am not very handy around the house and I am terrible at yardwork. Luckily, I live in an apartment.

[Michael P]

.

Until Grade 5, I went to a country school where the majority of the students were part of my extended family (we kept count).

Prom must have been awkward.

As for me, I eat meat because I was raised in Oklahoma.

[Slam_Bradley]

As for me, I eat meat because I was raised in Oklahoma.

My dad was a butcher.

[Puma]

I always carry a Swiss Army knife and I have an emergency bag in every vehicle. It's just what you did growing up in Washington state.

[i_mmmchocolate]

Ah. When I was a kid, my mom would always have us change into our pjs (basically, t-shirt & shorts/long pj bottoms) the second we got back from just about anywhere. School, the supermarket, the park, you name it.

To this day, the second I shut the door to my home, I'm literally rushing to change into whatever pjs I have around.

[jesse_custer]

I'm careful with money because I grew up kinda poor. In somes cases, even if I have money for something, I will not spend if I find it unnecessary.

[RickIsley]

I've found that my cannibalist upbringing is a tough habit to break.

[howyadoin]

Pretty similar here. Our home's heater had one outlet in the living room. And the fireplace was in the living room. It wasn't terribly unusual in January to be able to see your breath in the upstairs bedrooms.

Needless to say I keep the bedroom below 60 if I possibly can.Oh yeah, definitely. The colder, the better.

[Puma]

Similar situation with my family home. My bedroom was in the basement with no heat outlet; to this day it needs to be chilly in the bedroom or I can't sleep.

[The Black Guardian]

Everybody in my family goes barefoot, except me. I leave my shoes on until I go to bed. Despite this, I'm the only one in my family who's had serious injuries to their feet (like nails in the foot, dislocated toes, etc.)... three times, no less. My mom has freaking monkey feet. She goes barefoot constantly, and she can use her feet to do things.

Anyway...

I'm with Ian about cops. It's so bad that I was once looking for my wife's hairbrush in her car one day, and a cop pulled up and asked me what I was doing. I quickly ran into the house without saying a word, making it seem like I was doing something wrong. The few times I've been pulled over (in the distant past), my first instinct is to flee, but I know that's dumb so I don't. But damn, do I really want to. That's probably the main reason I literally never go over the speed limit.

I was raised not to consider a person's ethnicity, religion, nationality, politics, etc. when making friends.

I was raised on coffee.

I was allowed to drink alcohol at 16, so my daughter has. I have faith in her responsibility. Heck, she's more responsible than I was.

[Shawn Hopkins]

I can't watch any kind of televised sports. My dad had no interest in them and my grandfather actively hated them, so I never developed the taste for them.

[Monty_Cristo]

i don't spend much time inside because (growing up) my parents used to put us kids outdoors (early in the morning) until dinner was ready. it's also why i tend to wander around in unfamiliar areas.


and whenever i leave the midwest i search for a good burger joint because of the soy burgers i grew up on.

[Sabrina_Fried]

I absolutely cannot turn in for the night if there are still dirty dishes in the sink. Literally. My day just does not end until the dishes are clean and the sink is empty. It doesn't matter if it is 4am on New Year's day and I am starting to sober up. I just can't do it.

For the first year or so after I moved out, I used to make my bed every morning. Now I don't bother. When I lived at home, my parents used to always crank the heat up to tropical levels in the winter and crank the AC up to arctic levels in the summer. These days I prefer a cooler bedroom year round. In the winter I don't crank the heat as much and use heavier blankets. In the summer I use lighter blankets, or no blanket at all.

As for the whole barefoot thing, I was raised a suburban girl who went to summer camp most summers. As a result, when I go camping and paddling, I have no problem going barefoot around the campsite. But I absolutely will not go barefoot in a city, not even in a backyard and especially not in a city park (and double especially not in any city park where people walk their dogs). I love to wear sandals, and I absolutely adore my Nike Frees, but I just can't go all the way.

[The Black Guardian]

I absolutely cannot turn in for the night if there are still dirty dishes in the sink.
This is me too, but it's not really from my raising. Well, sure, mom always had the dishes done by bedtime, but I never really took note. I'm a huge slob everywhere else in the house, but my kitchen is spotless.

Growing up, I did almost everything with my mom. So today, I'm the primary cook in our house, and I truly don't mind marathon mall shopping with the wife and daughter.

[Tages]

Milk is always in the fridge. To this day when I go to a friend's home and there's no milk I feel oddly uncomfortable.

On dad's side of the family, any kind of pasta in a red sauce is served with peanut butter on toast as a side. Mom's side of the family eats white rice in a bowl with butter, milk and cinnamon.

Sunday means a nice big breakfast, assuming you can afford it.

Scraps go to the dog(s). Don't be cruel.

[Pól Rua]

I love tea.
I, too, spent most of my childhood running around barefoot.
While I'm not a huge fan of sport, I can enjoy Rugby League Football and Cricket (yes, even Test Cricket).

[Paradox]

1. Lord loves a working man.
2. Don't trust whitey.
3. See a doctor and get rid of it.

:wink:

[longdecember]

Good thread. Lived/living many of them out myself.

One of the "current events" things from my youth is the story about how Mark Zuckerberg, founder of facebook, consumes animal products. He has basically adopted a lifestyle where he only consumes meat that he personally kills.

In my youth and still currently, we processed all of our own meat. The large animals we took to the local butcher for slaughter to comply with safety inspection and proper offal removal. And we were on good enough terms that I often participated in that process too. But we cherished every aspect of the luxury that meat provided to us including never hunting an animal we did not eat. My Uncle is basically a subsistence farmer but extremely well educated and told me to read the book called "The Silent scream" which argued that plants have nervous systems too.

The point is Waste not. Want not.

[Athena Bast]

Cheese slice sammiches.

[The Black Guardian]

Scraps go to the dog(s). Don't be cruel.
I'll go one better: For generations, my family has cooked extra servings for their dogs. And I did the same (currently dogless). I can't remember the last time I saw any store-bought dog food, other than TV commercials.

[Michael P]

Yeah, feeding dogs people food isn't actually that great. It can harm their digestive systems. You're actually being kinder feeding them a good brand of dog food.

[T Hedge Coke]

I figure the dog & scraps things depends on the dog and the scraps. A little hush puppies never hurt a dog, but a lot will.

My fiancee lives in an affluent gated community. She's nice enough not to make fun of me more for my obvious paranoia about walking around there.

I can cook anything... into something. Because, if you can't cook it, you can't eat it.

I don't think the cops or the Klan in the vicinity is ever funny. (I know, it's weird, but there are people who think either one of those is giggle-worthy.)

I'll kill dinner, I'll carve it up, but dammit, bring your cat in from the rain. That's just cruel.

I put the toilet seat down. And the lid. And am eternally grateful that it's indoors and flushes.

[sHayden]

1.) Go to work, do your job, and never complain unless there is a serious problem.

And this doesn't apply anymore as I'm married but as a teenager I learned; "You're not an idiot, so if you knock some girl up you deal with it!"

[Guapo Méndez]

-Warm as hell or cold as ice, I shower every morning. There have been mornings when the floor is so cold my feet get stuck when I exit the shower, but that's how I was raised.

-My friends used to give me weird looks when I used my keys to open the padlock on the gate and use the key to open the deadbolt-locked door. We came from Mexico City, dude, leaving your house unlocked at all times is something you don't do (unless you're tired of your furniture and don't mind having it removed without paying for it). I'm never without my keys.

-I remove neck chains (when I wore one), watches and rings when its time to go to sleep. Dad said you could hit your watch on the nightstand when you were asleep or rings could hinder your blood flow, so off they go.

-Since I was the one to wake-up the entire family when I was a kid, I always have 2 ways of waking up every morning: the alarm from the TV and my cellphone (back in the pre-digital days it was an electronic alarm clock with a blaring horn that could make hens stampede like rhinos and an ancient wind-up clock that had barely 10 hours worth of wind-up power).

-I still know my way around a typewritter (the other day I used one and my 6 year old went: "Daddy, who stole the monitor from your laptop?"' cause Mom insisted it would give me an edge in the working world. It did, much earlier than that. I had a very successful business as a typist/seller of term papers.

-When I go out with my wife and her female friends, I treat. Dad said it was the chivalrous thing to do.