First, you survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, your baby cots were covered with bright colored lead-based paints. You had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when you rode your bikes, you had no helmets, not to mention, the risks you took hitchhiking ..
As children, you would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always great fun.
You drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. You shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. You ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank pop with sugar in it, but you weren't overweight because...... YOU WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
You 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 you all day. And you were OK. You would spend hours building your go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out you forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, you learned to solve the problem .
You 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 mobile phones, no text messaging, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........YOU HAD FRIENDS and you went outside and found them!
You fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents you played with worms(well most boys did) and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
You made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although you were told it would happen, you did not poke out any eyes. You rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Local teams 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 you out if you 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. You had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and you learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! And 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 our lives for our own good. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
You played “Army” with toy guns, and never got kicked out of school for it. You played dodgeball and “tackle ball” on the playground at recess, and survived.
When I was a kid I made it a point NOT TO wear any shoes from the last day of school to the first day of the next year.
Originally I did it because we were poor and my old shoes had worn out on the last day of school- but then I just got to liking it. And I played in the woods and road my bike all barefoot.
We also made it a point to leave the house first thing in the AM and not come home until the street lights came on- spending all day in the woods. It was the most awesome part of my childhood
I fished in rivers and lakes and didn’t need a permit, had a lemonade stand and didn’t need a permit, shot my bb gun in the backyard and didn’t need a permit and burned the family garbage in the can in the backyard and didn’t need a permit,...
ping yer lists
I grew up in San Diego. We rode our bikes all day all over the place. We rode our bikes all the way out to Mirimar just to watch the jets land (just because we were in love with airplanes. Still are). We rode our bikes to the beach. We rode our bikes to the zoo (kids were free back then). We rode our bikes clear out to the old San Diego River dam the friars had built just to catch crawdads and hauled them all the way home. We played war in and around the canyons near our homes (we had some awesome forts!). And yep, we just had to be home for dinner. Then we went outside and played hide and go seek until our moms called us.
Sounds like you city kids had it pretty easy. We rural kids actually had to do chores! We learned fast to avoid to Holstein bull as he would run over you. We headed for the river without life jackets or life guards. I learned you cannot outrun 300 hungry sheep while dragging 2- 5 gallon buckets of feed. Was given a shotgun and told to bring home some supper at 7 yrs old. Went to school populated by mean nuns who carried yard sticks and used them accordingly. (I’m sure they went to a Chuck Norris yardstick school) Had to walk home 2 miles because the road was too muddy for a car and bring the milk cows home with you through the east pasture. Learned how to run fast to beat an angry sow to the fence. We were even allowed to carry sharp knives when butchering and plucking a chicken!
I agree. How did we survive?
I grew up on the south side of Chicago. our big summertime game was kitty corner. 4 street corners. Kind of like musical chair with street corner curbs for chairs. I don’t think I ever heard my parents yell - watch out for cars.
I can still remember my father cutting the seat belts out of the car whenever he brought a new car home. He hated clutter and always thought the seat belts just got in the way of things. I still remember his 8-tracks too. Always the same ones including Johnny Cash, Wanda Jackson and Boots Randolph (Yakety-Sax).
We played tackle football in the same field. Gear? Yeah, we had a football, that was all the specialized gear we had.
BB guns, matches, woods, and creeks, and forts/treehouses... Bicycle ramps and jumps... Yeah, between us we broke a few bones, dislocated a couple of things, fair number of stitches... But we all survived.
We grew up together, we liked and respected one another. We recognized that while we were all "equal" we were not all "equal" and there wasn't always an equal outcome. We weren't all winners all the time, we weren't all losers all the time. We learned that even if you worked hard, practiced, tried your best...Tommy S. was always going to be bigger and stronger than you, and if he tackled you in Jerry W.'s backyard playing football it was going to hurt. No matter how hard we tried, none of us were ever going to throw a ball as well as Dave B. We didn't all get trophies or ribbons at the end of the games. We got teased for bone-headed mistakes, we got congratulated on great catches. We learned true self-esteem, that which is earned. We learned to take care of each other - even when we were the reason Mark H. was holding a rag on a bloody arm, or you were helping Mike M. limp home.
I think kids are really missing something by not having these kinds of shared experiences.
My nomination for Post of the Year.
Kudos.
Hi knarf, I hope you are well. Thank you for posting this.
I like the slug line about being from a generation of risk-takers,problem solvers, and inventors. I’ve often thought that as a society we would be well served to return to our childlike qualities of curiosity and forgiveness. Somehow when we attain 14-15 we forfeit our risk taking, creative, team approach (among many others).
I’ll never forget playing baseball with my friends while barefoot. I’d never heard of Shoeless Joe. But when Billy stepped on my toes (he had shoes on) and I bit his nose drawing blood, everything was settled. He stayed one of my best friends.
Gwjack
We earned money doing yard work or paper routes and bought chemistry sets with ingredients that would cause liberals today to have apoplectic fits. There were kits with motors and such that taught circuitry and basic electronics. In seventh grade, we had wood shop with planers, bandsaws, drill presses, curing ovens and various malodorous finishes that were...strong. Metal shop had arc welders, oxyacetylene torches, lathes, brakes and presses and even cast aluminum in molds we prepared.
We learned by watching and attained proficiency through hands-on practice, and had fun doing it.
We grew up in a better time, in an America unchained. Wouldn't change a thing...
I drew such scenes of mayhem and death in the borders of my school work that I’d be jailed for life in today’s government indoctrination camps. As it was I got early release for bad behavior. Wait a minute?
We Older Americans have enjoyed a time and space on this planet that may someday be viewed as the apex of human achievement, (potential) happiness, ease of existence and wealth. Those who have deigned to complain about life are either ignorant of history and/or genetically predisposed to be miserable.
That said, watching our self-imposed decline is indeed sad. The Left has worked persistently to drum up class warfare and social angst in its effort to destroy Liberty and then rule with an iron fist. As results worsen due to their efforts they continue to blame the right for the worsening results...and get away with it due to the Left’s control over “education” (indoctrination) and “the media”.
Happiness occurs between the ears.
“We live in interesting times”.
“Keep your powder dry”.
It is a good time to be old.
We carried pocket knives to school so we could play mumbly peg in the school yard. Nobody complained or got upset. Kids in high school would have .22 rifles in their cars to go squirrel hunting after school
Us country boys had work to do.
I grew up knowing how good milk tasted straight from your cow that you milked.
How good real butter tasted, especially when you helped churn it.
How to prepare, sow and harvest your own garden. And no one worried about the sevin dust you used to control pests.
I learned how to sucker tobacco back when it was done by hand. I also learned that the smallest fella was top man when hanging tobacco in the barn, and that it wasn’t good to be “that guy”.
I learned how good fresh spring water tastes from a rusty can on a hot day.
Watermelon picked and put in the spring before the dew came off was colder and sweeter than anything that came from a refrigerator.
I learned how refreshing a soak in the creek was after a day spent baling hay.
I learned it didn’t matter how hot I got, I better not let the horses get too hot.
I learned a damned mule will only do what the damned mule wants to do.
I learned that a corn cob and turpentine applied to the damned mules rear end *will* motivate the damned mule to move, but it may take the rest of the day to find the damned mule.
I learned it’s best to unhook the plow before applying corn cob and turpentine to the damned mules rear end.
I learned my city cousins were spoiled by that conditioned air, idgits couldn’t take any heat a’tall.
I learned my mama and daddy were fountains of knowledge and my great uncle lagged only behind the Father, Son and Holy Spirit when it came to most matters.
I learned work came before play and God came before anything.
I learned the Bible is the best guide to life and living ever known to man.
I learned everything I would ever need to get me through life by the time I was 5.