TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE

[brnidokiegurl 0]

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-base paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.

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 truck 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, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight. WHY?

Because we were always outside, playing...that's why!

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 and X-boxes. There were no video games, 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 and no 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 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.

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

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it ?

~

The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:

"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"

[Gaby&Talbert 1]

amen!

Maybe we need a terrorist attack and a major depression to put us back about 50 years. Maybe next year when OPEC changes to the Euro and the dollar is in the toilet we will experience what our parents and grand parents went through. Life will be about survival instead of how much stuff can I get. People wont worry about who said or did something that isn't politically correct. People wont sue everyone else for stupid reasons.

[Savanphil 3]

Wow, those were the good ol' days. I was born in 80, so I guess I don't quite fit the criteria I still remember a lot of this stuff. Singing *If I could turn back the hands of time*

[raymaga 25]

Boy, can I ever relate!!! That's EXACTLY how I grew up in the 50's.

What I want to know is.... What's up with every parent driving their kids to school and picking them up? Whatever happened to kids walking to and from school, not only for exercise, but to learn a little responsibility and independence??????

[Gaby&Talbert 1]

Boy, can I ever relate!!! That's EXACTLY how I grew up in the 50's.

What I want to know is.... What's up with every parent driving their kids to school and picking them up? Whatever happened to kids walking to and from school, not only for exercise, but to learn a little responsibility and independence??????

I agree on this and what about riding the bus! My parents never picked me up or took me to school. I had 5 older siblings and they never took me to school or picked me up either when they could drive.

[Alex & Rachel 78]

The funny thing is, it's these grown-up kids who have formed the current legislations and drove their 80s/90s/00s kids to school.

So what does that say? 'Congratulations 80s-00s kids! Your parents were braver and luckier than you. Perhaps you should have disobeyed all of the safety rules and regulations your parents enforced so that you could demonstrate similar bravery and luck!'

[Alex & Rachel 78]

For the record; there is nothing wrong with some of those laws. Try telling someone born with foetal alcohol syndrome how 'lucky' they are that their mother wasn't warned against consuming large quantities of alcohol during pregnancy! Or someone with a cracked skull how brave they were for not wearing a cycle helmet.

The rest is at the parents' discretion. I'm an 80s child and my mother walked us to school every day until we were old enough to walk ourselves alone. No one is telling a parent that a kid needs to have a console or TV in their room, either. We certainly weren't allowed one. Oh, and the implication that today's kids don't have friends? Charming!

[sara..... 371]

yesterday my mom took us on a little road trip and showed us where she grew up the house everything and talked about the past of what it was like there showed us the river her and a couple of her friends tried to float down on in the winter time where they would ride their bikes........what we saw was amazing ..........a life where ur parents didnt worry if u were not back unless it had turned dark.....being able to ride a bike all day and ride for miles and nobody had to worry.........she kind of laughed and said back then they thought their parents were so mean cuz of all things they could not do but now that she looks back on it they had more freedom in their life than any one of us kids ever had.......so what ur talking about i dont know about other than what my mom showed us yesterday we all asked her if there was any chance we could move back to where she grew up she said sure but the freedom she had would still not be there cuz times have changed.........all of u were lucky i think

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Yep – we’ve all heard how “Kids today are so effed up”. Forgive me while I laugh myself silly…

Needless to say I’m not convinced – and I don’t think looking at the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s through the rose-tinted shades of nostalgia really adds much to the argument. Sure lets blame laywers and politicians for the fact that we now have to suffer child-proof pill bottles (the horror!), mothers shouldn’t smoke and drink while they’re pregnant (the impertinence), or that kids should be able to ride in the back of a car without a seat belt (the outrage!). I mean its not like people back then had any say over what politicians actually did is it...

In short, lets ignore the responsibility that the finger-pointing elements of the “older” generations have for the way things are now and seem keen to divorce themselves from culpability. They were/are running things after all… Indeed lets ignore the fact that the public has benefitted greatly from scientific advances and that any mother worth her salt back in the 50’s would have likely been horrified if she knew that smoking and drinking during pregnancy would increase the risk of still-birth and birth defects. But then again… people were “harder” back then. A little thing like a miscarriage wouldn’t stop a 50’s mom-to-be from jumping right back in the saddle.

Yep – those sure were the days: DDT, race riots and Vietnam. Halcyon days indeed.

Edited July 1, 2008 by Number 6

[AlHayatZween 2]

i love this one...

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

but you know what makes me sad...

is that my mom worked only part-time till i was old enough to go to kindergarten, and then she went back to work at night. i wonder if i'll be able to afford to do that when/if inchallah i have children... will i be able [to afford] to spend that much time with them ?? things are so different now.........

[amiquechu 0]

amen!

Maybe we need a terrorist attack and a major depression to put us back about 50 years. Maybe next year when OPEC changes to the Euro and the dollar is in the toilet we will experience what our parents and grand parents went through. Life will be about survival instead of how much stuff can I get. People wont worry about who said or did something that isn't politically correct. People wont sue everyone else for stupid reasons.

Ahhhhhhhh, that would be great. If it takes a depression to get us there, I say bring it on.

[Aymerlu 3]

Ahhh....the 70s

[Gaby&Talbert 1]

For the record; there is nothing wrong with some of those laws. Try telling someone born with foetal alcohol syndrome how 'lucky' they are that their mother wasn't warned against consuming large quantities of alcohol during pregnancy! Or someone with a cracked skull how brave they were for not wearing a cycle helmet.

The rest is at the parents' discretion. I'm an 80s child and my mother walked us to school every day until we were old enough to walk ourselves alone. No one is telling a parent that a kid needs to have a console or TV in their room, either. We certainly weren't allowed one. Oh, and the implication that today's kids don't have friends? Charming!

Kids didn't get fetal alcohol syndrome from moms who had a few drinks every now and then while pregnant. A drunk is a drunk then the same as now.

Parents should protect their children but we have gone so overboard with making laws agaist parents who 30 years ago would be considered good parents.

[doodlebugg 10]

My mom told me the other day how when she lived in Chicago and had my brother who was 2 and my sister who was a newborn, she'd take him out in back of their appt building and TIE HIM TO A TREE and then go upstairs and tend to my oldest sister.

When I asked why on earth she did that she just *looked* at me and asked what was she supposed to do since he was wanting to be outside and running around. No wonder my family is so effed up.

eta: she also used to send us outside at like 10am and demand that we not come back in the house until the streetlights came on unless we had to go to the bathroom!!!

Edited July 1, 2008 by bridget

[AlHayatZween 2]

hahahaha! Bridget, your mom wasn't playin around!