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Tue 24 Oct, 2006 04:52 am
I know this is a little schmaltzy, but so much of it seemed true for me that I wanted to share it. I don't know who wrote it - it is from an e-mail at work...
Here's to when the world was half sane!!
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN 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
carried us.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
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, not to mention, the risks we took
hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no 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 soda pop 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 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
99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell
phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet 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 yelled for 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!
This generation has 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!
And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!
Many of us are seeking to recover from those days.
Why, thank you, snood.
I feel delighted honoured to be in such wonderful company!
Here's to us all!
Like it snood!
Don't give a toss if it's schmaltzy.
x
... I meant to say I was "delighted and honoured"....
But Dot jumped in before I could fix it!
But, when you think about it, what fantastic freedom! Playing in the street with all the other kids till dinnertime .... away from mum & dad for hours & hours & hours .... with absolutely zilch awareness of "stranger danger"!
I know - I used to stay at the park playing basketball until after dark.
We were all Army brats, and used to take our father's old pup tents and "sleep over" - in each other's back yards.
kids don't ride bikes with the same abandon and glee as I remember doing it -
I really got some good memories kick started with this piece....
I think the bulk of it was written by corporate lobbyists who didn't like the fact that they their products (cigarettes, alcohol, lead paint, pre-seat belt cars etc.) had to be regulated and thus cut into their companies profits.
Sorry to be such a poopity head, but many children in our generation were hurt by some of these products and it sort of takes the humor away from it for me.
What the hell was that? Did anyone see that? Green Witch just ran in here and threw a damp towel over the thread and then bolted.
Why the hell would she do that?
I never bolt, I just sauntered away.
With a malicious grin on your face.
Not malicious- well maybe with a little smirk of liberal superiority. I was just surprised that Snood would post this Republican sounding dribble, I usually agree with his posts.
Thanks for the post, Snood. I heard that on the radio about a year ago, and I think it makes a very good point.
Common sense seems to be missing from everyday life these days.
Green Witch wrote:Not malicious- well maybe with a little smirk of liberal superiority. I was just surprised that Snood would post this Republican sounding dribble, I usually agree with his posts.
Everything ain't left or right, dear.
Anyone wanna have some Chex Mix and play Chinese Checkers?
If you have some milk, I have a giant bag of puffed wheat.
I think we should go over to Mrs. Palmer's and see if she has any of those freaky popsicles she makes with Jello powder in the mix
How did we ever survive?
Haven't things changed???
{For The 50's Gang}
My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.
My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat it raw sometimes, too.
Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in icepack coolers, but I can't remember getting e. coli.
Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.
The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.
We all took gym, not PE... and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries, but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now. Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.
Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention. We must have had horribly damaged psyches.
What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.
I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.
I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.
Oh yeah... and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed!
We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of Mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked. Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose (at $49/bottle) of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.
We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either because if we did, we got our butt spanked there and then we got butt spanked again when we got home.
I recall Donny Reynolds from next-door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off. Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house. Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck.
To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known that? We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac!
How did we ever survive?
We didn't call them dysfunctional, we called them weird.
(and kids still do that)
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