This is dedicated to those Born 1930-1969!
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 we rode our bikes without helmets. We rode 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 kitchen fawcett or a garden hose. We drank one Coke 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. Why? Because, WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING! We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back home when the streetlights came on.
And, heaven forbid, no one was able to reach us all day on our non-existent cell phones. And we still survived.
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 learned to plan ahead.
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 , CD's or Ipods, no cell phones!, no personal computers , no Internet or ! chat rooms.......
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! Like real social networks.
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms in apples and dirt, and the worms did not live inside 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 and played with them!
Little League, football and cheerleaders 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! And God help you if you got in trouble at school with a teacher or the principal. Trouble was waiting again for you at home.
These unprotected 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.
Why? Because we had personal freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO survive IT ALL!
If YOU are one of these survivors . . CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want to share this with others who have had the same 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 and that happiness does not come in a package with a bar code on it.
Oh, yeah, I remember all of the above. Those were the days. I even once broke my tailbone when I was skating up and down the sidewalk and mis-timed a critical jump over an especially large crack. No helmets, no knee pads, nada. As I recall, I didn't even get any sympathy from my parents.
ReplyDeleteSo how to explain why I sterilized everything my son came into contact with for the first year of his life? Looking back on that time, I now realize I was a little bit nuts. Of course, the first time he was turned loose in the back yard, he promptly picked up a fistful of dirt and ate it. I distinctly remember sighing rather loudly and shrugging my shoulders in the direction of my husband, as he stood there giving me the "I told you so" look.
When you think about it, it is sad that kids don't get to do some of these things anymore. I can't remember the last time I looked out and actually saw the neighborhood kids out playing. You had to tie us down to keep us in the house and call our FULL names at least three times to get us back in the house at night.
Thanks for the memories!