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Wed 21 Jul, 2004 06:17 am
Quote:According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, or even maybe the early 70's probably shouldn't have survived.
Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.
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 seatbelts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors!
We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode 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 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. NO CELL PHONES!!!!! Unthinkable!
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X- Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.
We had friends! We went outside and found them.
We played Dodgeball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt.
We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?
We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home 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.
Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.
Horrors!
Tests were not adjusted for any reason.
Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided
with the law. Imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and 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're one of them!
Congratulations.
Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.[/[/color]
Love it, Region. We also have better immune systems, too.
i think it was george carlin who said he never gets colds as an adult because as a kid he swam near a sewage plant...
I wish I could remember what comedian observed that his mother never had any trouble getting the kids to take their medicine. She just threw it on the floor.
What a great read Region. Thanks for the blast from the past :-D
Letty wrote:I wish I could remember what comedian observed that his mother never had any trouble getting the kids to take their medicine. She just threw it on the floor.
LOL! Sounds like something Rodney Dangerfield would say.
Heh! Heh!, Montana. Dear old Rodney never did get no respect. My good friend was sooooooo spic and span clean with her first born. She boiled everything, especially his pacifiers. One day when I was visiting, I noticed that she no longer sterilized the pacifiers. I asked when she decided it was not necessary and she replied in her understated way. "When I found him eating stuff from under the radiators."
Quote:We had friends! We went outside and found them.
This one struck me . . . how many times have a i heard a child proclaim their boredom, only to whine a few minutes later when you turn off the tv and tell them you're going to go somewhere and
do something. I am ever grateful to have lived at the dawn of the television age, when there was only one channel, it was not on the air all day, and most of the programming was not targeted at children.
Letty wrote:Heh! Heh!, Montana. Dear old Rodney never did get no respect. My good friend was sooooooo spic and span clean with her first born. She boiled everything, especially his pacifiers. One day when I was visiting, I noticed that she no longer sterilized the pacifiers. I asked when she decided it was not necessary and she replied in her understated way. "When I found him eating stuff from under the radiators."
Hahaha!!! Yup, that would do it.
Oh hell no . . . anxious, callow, foolish youth . . . no thanks . . . youth is not wasted by the young, they're welcome to it, and all the attendant angst.
I personally wouldn't want to go back.
I don't ever recall being bored as a child. The kids in the neighborhood played all kinds of games, and when that wasn't an option, I played alone and loved it, 'cause I made up all kinds of stuff in my mind.
Not only did we play games, but we didn't need any expensive accoutrements. We folded the top of a tin can to make a "potsy". We used a "Spalldeen" and a one cent piece to play "hit the penny". We jumped rope, and roller skated around the block.
Oneof my happiest memories happened when I was about 4. I had an older (6) friend. I had a dollhouse, and she had a book of wallpaper samples. She helped me to "wallpaper" my whole dollhouse. It looked pretty good, if I should say so myself!
Sigh... Why must it fall to me to rain on this parade?
I read an article about this recently, perhaps in the Sunday Globe.
While I agree that life was simpler and we kids had more fun, I wonder how many of us might have lost a child for the simple reason that the crib slats were just wide enough to strangle the child when he rolled over in his sleep? Or who might now have a brain-damaged child because he wasn't wearing a bicycle helmet? Or because he ate too much of that lead paint? These stupid regulations have saved an untold number of lives, so I can't diss them.
I love this thing Region, except for that last line!
I know, I'm no fun...
Suzy, no problem. We're just having some fun here. Actually, though, I do believe that high tech has changed the way we think. Most kids now let others imagine for them, and that's too bad. I saw somewhere that video games are now replacing hollywood, TV, etc.
So true, Letty. My brother has 5 kids, all under age 10. He and his wife work all day long, come home and then spend their entire evening or weekend carting this one to dancing lessons, that one to a gymnastics meet, this one to a baseball game, that one to a play date, etc.
It's great to be so involved in our kids' lives, but these kids have no down time whatsoever. They went to the Jersey shore for a week last summer, not for R&R, but so their oldest daughter could participate in a national dance competition. Not a very relaxing vacation in my opinion.
I can remember being 10 years old and just needing "my space," and going to my bedroom, closing the door (no TV or computer in the room, it was 1968) and reading a good book. I also remember going outside and walking around until I had found enough neighborhood kids to pick up a game of kick ball. Those are great memories!
My kids are in their 20's and I've never seen either of them enjoying a good book. Even people of that generation were way overscheduled and overstimulated. They grew up during the age of the Nintendo, the VCR and professionally catered birthday parties.
It's great that kids have such broad horizons these days, but there should be time to "just be a kid." It's hard though because the world has changed so dramatically.
I know, Suzy. What am I doing on this damn computer. I need to get out and find some kids that want to play kick the can.
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