Posted on 09/06/2023 9:11:54 AM PDT by jcon40
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930’s, 40’s and50’s !!
First, we survived being born to mothers who may have 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, 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.
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, 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 street lights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day and, we were OKAY.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, Only to find out that we forgot about brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not Have Play Stations, Nintendo and X-boxes. There were No video games, No 150 channels on cable, No video movies Or DVDs, No surround-sound or CDs, 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, Broke bones and Lost teeth, And there were No lawsuits From those accidents.
We would get Spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles, or just a bare hand, And no one would call child services to report abuse.
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, 22 rifles for our 12th, rode horses, 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!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventors ever.
The past 60 to 85 years have seen an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it ?
~~~~~~~
The quote of-the month by Jay Leno:
"With hurricanes, tornadoes, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of Coronavirus and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"
We mixed chemicals in a real chemistry set and got satisfying smoke clouds, set off M80s and cherry bombs, started model airplane engines with wood props by hand, and went on boy scout campouts where we fired .22 rifles for hours.
We built plastic model kits using real nasty toluene based glue - and peeled it off our fingers afterward.
We carried our share of the family chores, including cooking, cleaning and ironing and when we bought our first car, we paid for it with our paper route money.
Then, when the next war came into view, we volunteered to go and fight because our dads and our uncles had done it before.
Remember iron lungs, measles and mumps? Those were good times
.
Cleaning woman Clara Clifford discovered your clean copper clackers, kept in a closet, were copped by Claude Cooper the kleptomaniac from Cleveland. Now is that about it?
Swinging on the swing till it reached it highest point and then jumping off.
—> Then, when the next war came into view, we volunteered to go and fight because our dads and our uncles had done it before.
Wow, good comment !
Remember getting polio shot. Actually have Jonas Salk’s autograph on the wall of my study.
Yup! Thems was duh ‘50’s leading to the ‘y0’s with all those Mattel items that used those “greenie stick em caps”. All those G.I.Joe, Major Steve Canyon jet fighter goodies, and REMCO helicopters and tanks that shot bullets.
We didn’t have signs warning us not to dive off a bride into a stream 5 inches deep either...
Remember when glass thermometers broke and instead of calling the hazmat team and shutting things down, we played with the mercury that spilled out into little balls, and we touched the mercury balls with our hands!!
...I can't figure out why my grandkids are such mutants."
I’m from Jacksonville, FL originally. I the summer we would all be out in the street playing kick ball about dusk and the air tanker would fly overhead at tree top level spraying DDT. We just ran up on the front porch til most of it settled then right back out on the street. Sometimes they would just send the fog truck around spraying it everywhere.
We walked to school, me…two miles. One winter day I walked to school and it was closed because of snow. It was a Lutheran school, public school was open. I met another kid who walked there too. We decided to go sledding. Did that for a few hours and then went home.
hubby and i just shake our heads at the bubble wrapped kids in our neighborhood. There’s a family with 3 boys who don’t have bike helmets- gasp! I always think “Good for them”
we have a yoga -latte mommy who has asked the neighbors to drive slower than the speed limit so she does not have to watch her kids- her words not mine.
Yup - and I remember making rocket fuel in our high school chemistry class and launching the rockets afterward from a vacant lot nearby, with an occasional mislaunch where the rocket blew up just after launch or worse, tipped over and headed for somebody’s house.
boo hoo. what a bunch of snowflakes.
Mine's nearly identical to yours. Remember Fizzies?
“Yeah the 60s saw some changes but most of what was mentioned was still going on then.”
68 and 69 were more like the dark seventies, but mostly everything was great. Overall society was changing for the worse, but it was still a heckuva time to be a kid.
If we got sick or sunburned or experienced some other childhood injury that needed a bit of pain relief, we were given an aspirin!
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