chaos7

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

The Good Ol' Days

This is from an email I received from a girlfriend and it really resonated with me. Brought back lots of memories that I will post about later. Reminisce and enjoy...


TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s...

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video tape/DVD movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

2 comments:

jen said...

This is so true. I guess it is up to us to teach our kids how to have real fun. While only a few issues of safety on this list are probably a good thing. (having a car seat for sure, and I am pretty sure the no lead paint is a good deal, it couldn't have tasted good!)
Did you know the school we grew up in are requiring uniforms? A public school. When will it ever end. I hope before our kids turn 18 they will have some freedom left. I heard the other day that there is a group wanting to ban teens from going to the tanning beds b/c a study has shown if you get sunburned under the age of 18 you are more likely to get skin cancer. Hello? Are they going to be banned from going to the beach too? Government intervention, boy does it get me fired up!
Oh, I loved the blog!
jen

Anonymous said...

From a old Friend,

This is so true, my kids don't no how to go outside and play. You sound so happy and your little one is so cute. I would like to talk to you through email. shgaulden@hotmai.com if you wont.

I hope to hear from you.
Stephanie