PEOPLE OVER FORTY SHOULD BE DEAD

EMail | 1/17/2004 | W. Toeppe

[JesseHousman]

People Over 40 Should Be Dead

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, or even maybe the early 70's probably shouldn't have survived.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. 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 children, we would ride in cars with no seatbelts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors! We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode 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 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.

NO CELL PHONES!!!!! Unthinkable!

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms! . We had friends! We went outside and found them. We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt. We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it. We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home 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. Some students weren't! as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade. Horrors! Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and 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.

How fortunate we were to grow up as kids before lawyers and burgeoning government regulated our lives, for our own good. How sorry I am for what those years of meddling have done to our children and grandchildren and even sorrier that we all allowed the government and politicians to get away with it!

[missyme]

Is that like PF Flyers and eating Good and Plenty???:-)

Amazingly so we would eat fried Bologna Samdwiches, RC Colas and hotess cupcakes and we were skinny as twigs!

Playing hard is the key...

[brooklin]

Yeah, but I think that it would be the scrapple that would kill ya.

[SeeRushToldU_So]

We knew better than to play tackle football on gravel. I guess we were wussess.

We started out as tag in the street, sometimes it ended up as tackle. The grass on my yard never recovered from the footbll games in the late 60's or early 70's.

[LWalk18]

I retired in 1996 and remember the first week of my retirement like it was yesterday. I would wait for 2:30 for all the neighborhood kids to come home from school but it never happened,not one child in sight. I was stunned----they were all in after school care or some type of organized activity and there were never any kids out on the street playing kick ball or that type of game.

I was just thinking about your point as I reading this thread. I am definitely under 40, but in comparing my childhood to my parents I think that the number of mothers who worked outside the home factors into why there are no children playing outside after school. Both parents are at work so a neighborhood is virtually devoid of adults from 2:30-5:00, when most kids come home from schools. Kids are either put in daycare or come home alone, remaining inside.

[LisaMalia]

I loved jumping off of those swings! Also jumped off a few playground "merry-go-rounds" when it was going full speed. Talk about a head rush!

I walked around with scraped knees and elbows most of the time, but that was ok, cause Mom would get out the trusty Mercurochrome. That nasty orange stuff....wonder if they still make it?

[Mamzelle]

I was thinking, too, about how I got up on Saturday and wandered all day in the woods until dark--and nobody thought to send the cops--

[BSunday]

Congratulations! Tell her all the Freepers say great job!

[missyme]

It was also cool as a kid and take I think your 89 cents and buy the latest and greatest "45" of the Guess Who: AMERICAN WOMAN, SHARE THE LAND, NO SUGAR TONIGHT, just loved that group!

[LisaMalia]

Amazingly so we would eat fried Bologna Samdwiches

I loved those! My mom could actually make gravy out of fried bologna...delicious.

Our soft drinks consisted mainly of koolaid, because it was only a nickel a package. It was a major treat if you would get the occasional glass of Pepsi. We kids would savor every sip...:)

[LisaMalia]

I had a big collection of 45s. Mostly the Monkees, I had a mad crush on Davy Jones. I remember just living for the night their TV show was on.
I saw a rerun awhile back, and couldn't believe how hokey that show was. I sure did love it at the time though!

[Riley]

That's it! PF Flyers.

Picnics at Samuel Taylor park. Trying to dig a hole to China. Listening to sonic booms in the sky. Going out to play while it was raining- the creeks would be gushing, we'd come back covered in mud from head to toe and get hosed off before being allowed into the house. Buckeye fights. All manner of 'forts'. Staying up late while on a sleepover to watch "Creature Features". My friend's go-cart, with a Briggs and Stratton lawnmower engine in it and a broken steering wheel. Trick or Treating as Mechanised Goblins off of my friends fathers station wagon tailgate- we each got shopping bags worth of candy. Flying kites. Trying to find lost kites. Looking for firecrackers on the fifth of July, up and down Butterfield Road. Long hikes in the hills of Marin, looking for spent rifle casings, which make pretty good whistles. The smell of a candle scorching the inside of a pumpkin.

[GrandMoM]

Hi, just bumping for later!

[missyme]

NO Joke! (Mercurochrome) we had tons of it! and it worked just fine.... Put a little on maybe a band-aid and it's out the door again! Kids are awaiting for us!

So glad we had the opportunity to be part of that generation.!

[Squantos]

Ping for your take and contribution......:o)

[missyme]

I know I sure wish I had all my 45's! Davey Jones he was cute but of course I was one of those David Cassidy fans!

I also like that one guy from that show "Here Come the Brides" remember that and "Love American Style"

[Riley]

Oh yeah, and getting up early to watch an Apollo launch.

[missyme]

You know what was also pretty cool is that when I got my first lunch pail, I think it was Fred Flintstone or Pollyana it was great cause when you opened it up during lunch period you never knew what great things your mom put in it, and of course we got ORANGE,ORANGE Kool-aid in my thermus.

[missyme]

Or maybe Magilla Gorilla...LOL Saturday Cartoons were the best!

[Riley]

Oh man, that's right! I had a "Cowboy in Africa" lunch pail, with Chuck Connors on it.

Daktari. Rat Patrol. The FBI. The Wild, Wild West. Hogan's Heroes. Waiting a week for the next episode of 'Star Trek'. Not TNG, not Voyager. Just regular Star Trek. F-Troop. Getting to go to Disneyland, back when Walt still ran the place, and being *absoluely convinced* that I'd just ridden in a real submarine. 'Playland at the Beach' in San Francisco.

[HighWheeler]

Sorry to give you the bad news Lisa:

http://www.mercurochrome.org/