*****
CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE
1920s, 30s 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s!!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us and lived in houses full of asbestos.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese & tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.
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 or shoes, not to mention, the risks we took on those home made ski jumps.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
A trip to the beach on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the stream and NOT from a bottle.
There was no fast foods, fish and chips, no pizza shops, McDonalds, KFC, Subway or Taco joints.
Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm and only opened for a few hours on weekends but not on Sunday, somehow we didn't starve to death!
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at the corner store and buy bubble gum, candy and some firecrackers to blow up things with.
We ate biscuits, white bread and real butter and drank soft drinks 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 mobile phones - no one was able to reach us all day.
And we were always 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. We built tree houses and dens and played in streams with matchbox cars and toy soldiers and cowboys and Indians.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on Cable, no video tape or DVD movies, no surround sound, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms .....we listened to plays on the radio while sitting around the fire. No central heating!
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
Pre late 1950s we had NO TV, and no Fridges - imagine that!
And linolium on the bedroom floors - no carpets!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no
Lawsuits from these accidents.
Only girls had pierced ears!
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We got BB guns for our birthdays and even got to shoot Dad's rifle once or twice.
Some of us drank milk from cows that had eaten grass covered in nuclear fallout from the atomic testing.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them from the street!
Mom didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends meet!
Mom and Dad didn't need Brandy, Whiskey, or whatever when they came in from work! A glass of lemonade, ice tea, or cornbread and milk was enough.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
Our teachers used to give SWATS with big paddles and bully's always ruled the playground at school.
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 70 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.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
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