Posted on 09/03/2007 7:22:59 AM PDT by Racehorse
Many of you may have seen the following reflection many, many times. I had not. It brought back many pleasant memories of growing up "American." So, for those who have not read it, I share it with a whimsically nostalgic wink and smile:
TO ALL THE KID S WHO SURVIVED 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 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, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.
As infants &children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, 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 Kool-aid made with sugar, 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 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CDs, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or 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 fro m 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 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 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!
If YOU are one of them, 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 bi rd flu and terrorist a ttacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"
For those that prefer to think that God is not watching over us...go ahead and delete this.
For the rest of us...pass this ON!
Still, that email rather accurately described the world I was born into.
I miss lawn darts and bottle rocket fights on the 4th of July!
Mark
If we read this are we getting stuck with “cookie” tracking info for telemarketers and spammers to validate active e-mail accounts for their own purposes?
How were you all able to survive without the millions of illegal aliens doing the jobs Americans would not do?
My scorn for lawyers posing as environmentalists is based on a childhood of studying the habits of crawdads in the creek and other lessons of being outside.
oy.
Indeed, it worked well. Somewhere along the line, we got 'liberated' - even in the age of time-saving devices, fathers now are away from their family longer and mothers work more.
Children, then in their future, can wonder how they grew up by plugging into dozens of games for their fingers, hundreds of tunes for their ears, puzzled what marriage was for and wonder how people described things without the "F" bomb.
Kids back then were tougher and less protected by the needless regulations and safety precautions imposed on kids today, but they’re also the generation that invented the hippie culture, started the drug culture, turned the Democratic party into a flaming liberal force, protested Vietnam, and are indoctrinating current kids in schools today and who have come up with all these abundant nanny-state rules that have prevented kids from growing up the way you did.
.....and the life expectancy of all these people is under 75 years.
Yes. This is what you get when we sacrifice our ideals in order to “live better”. All you get in the end is just lotsa stuff and no real life.
Well said!
ping
While my ex was still on my health insurance plan, my new wife became pregnant. After about 4 months, my new wife was enrolled in my health plan and we made an appointment for pre-natal care.
The admitting nurse was horrified that my wife had not been taking pre-natal vitamins for the past 4 months.
Needless to say, I was outraged at HER outrage and proceeded to administer a scathing lecture on the trillions of babies born throughout history before civilization even knew what the hell a vitamin was...
we used to go outside at night and play "kick the can" or better yet, catch lightning bugs and put them in jars ...( they always died by the next morning)
Tip of the hat and thanx for the link!
Nothing goes so well with nostalgia as music, song and pictures!
R.
Ping
bttt
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