TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the
1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!



First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.



Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs 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 infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, 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 koolade made with sugar, 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 movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or 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 walked in and talked to 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!



These generations have 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!



If 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 so much of our lives



for our own good.



And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.

I couldn't have said it better myself Mark. Please send this to all the major newspapers (though I doubt many - if any- will publish it...)

Yeah but my mother always told me that if I kept swallowing the watermelon seeds one would grow out of my ears

Ears?

I was told from somewhere else!

Well - me too but I was trying to be polite

That brought back a lot of memories! I used to do alot crazier stuff than that and survived!

I guess the problem is the current generation can not survive under those conditions. What a bunch of cry babies the boomers have wraught on the world.

Maybe it is the current world economy and no one to be in fear of. We know who the enemy is and it is us.

Too many people with too little to employ their time in a constructive manner.

Mark,

Thanks for the flood of great memories!

I did pass this on to family & friends.

To the extent as we possibly can, while remaining inside the law (seatbelts, helmets, etc), our 7 year old is growing up as closely to how her father and I did.

If we haven't had rain in a while she turns on the hose and makes her own mudpuddles. She doesn't climb the trees that overhang the creek anymore, not since she found one of her kittens, that she used to climb up the tree to get, dead in the creek. But she climbs other trees.

She can't go off finding friends because we live on a busy road and her nearest friend is about a mile down the road, but all she has to do is ask and one parent or another will drop a child off at the other house.

Homework gets done before playtime, and privelges are removed for bad behavior.

It can and is being done. I'm fortunate that I know live somewhere that people have many of the same ideas and values I do when it comes to raising a child. And my husband and I are both quite a bit older than most of the parents of our daughter's friend.