doctors have been complaining for years about backpack weight. now they have something new to complain about. at least wearing the extra weight will give the kids a bit of exercise. glad i grew up in the 50s with jungle gyms and asphaly playgrounds and football, stepball, wallball, and curbball played in the street. oh and leaving the house after breakfast on my bike with a lunch and back by supper.
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s !!
First, some of us survived being born to mothers who did not have an OB-Gyns and smoked and drank while they carried us.
While pregnant, they took cold or cough medicine and didn’t worry about diabetes.
Then after all that trauma, our baby cribs were made of hard wood covered with lead-based paints.
We had no soft cushy cribs that played music, no disposable diapers, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, no kneepads.
As children, we would ride in hot un-airconditioned buses or cars with no airconditioning & no seat belts.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle purchased from 7/11.
We shared one soft drink bottle with four of our friends, and NO ONE actually died from this. Or contracted hepatitis.
We ate food with margarine, drank raw eggs straight from the shell, and drank softdrinks with real sugar in it.
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, and get back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day (No cellphone or beepers ). And yes, we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our wooden wagons & cars or plywood slides out of scraps and then ride down the street, only to find out we forgot the brakes! After hitting the sidewalk or falling into a ditch a few times, we learned to solve the problem ourselves with our bare & dirty hands.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 100 channels on cable, no DVD movies, no surround stereo, no IPOD’s, no cell phones, no computers, no Internet, no chat rooms, no texting and no Friendsters, Facebook or Twitter. ...... ...WE HAD REAL FRIENDS and we went outside to actually talk and play with them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no stupid lawsuits from these accidents. The only ribbing we get is from our friends.
We played marbles and army men in the dirt, washed our hands just a little and ate dirty ice cream & gumballs. We were not afraid of getting germs in our stomachs.
We made up games with sticks and cans and although we were told they were dangerous, we did it anyway.
We walked, rode bikes, or took tricycles to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them to jump out the window!
Junior basketball or baseball teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t pass had to learn to deal with the disappointment. No one cared about childhood depression and damaged self esteem.
That generation of ours has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, creative thinkers and successful professionals ever! They are the CEO’s, Engineers, Scientists, Doctors and Military Generals/Admirals of today.
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had failure, success, and responsibility. We learned from our mistakes the hard way.
You might want to share this with others who’ve had the luck to grow up as real kids. We were lucky indeed.
And if you like, forward it to your kids too, so they will know how brave their parents were.
It kind of makes you wanna go out and climb a tree, doesn’t it?!