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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. Our dads swung us around holding onto our hands. 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 and children, we
would ride in cars with no car seats, no
booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes. 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 them 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, went barefooted, 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 had mutts with names like Sarge, Mike, Butch, Lady.
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!
We read comic books and the funny papers and went to public schools. And yet, these
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. We invented television, color motion pictures, cell phones,
and computers. We opened up space, sent
the first man to the moon and found a way to wipe out polio. We had freedom,
failure, success and responsibility, and
we learned how to deal with it all.
If YOU are one of these generations, 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 swine
flu and terrorist attacks. Are
we sure this is a good time to
take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'
(I wish I had written this! A friend emailed it to me the other day. The author was not given so I can not give him or her the credit they deserve.)
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