I was always waiting for the Sergeant Rock and Easy Company, or Sergeant Fury and his Howling Commandoes, or my favorite one ...
The Haunted Tank
Posted on 01/17/2004 6:28:26 AM PST by 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!
We used to make complete sets of armor out of cardboard and play at being "Knights" including helmets and breast plates. Got poked quite often with pointy sticks. It sure was fun.
What we should be worried about is because of today's regulators, bureaucrats and taxes, I doubt anyone (including myself) who is under 25 is going to live to see 40.
Boy, you sure were lucky ... having realistic-looking plastic guns.
We used that good all-around multi-purpose tool ... the baseball bat.
Tucked under your arm, it was a submachine gun.
Held at the shoulder, it was a sniper's rifle.
Placed on top of the shoulder, it was a bazooka.
In the heat of action, it was sometimes hard to keep track of what was what ... it went from being a tommygun to being a rifle to being a bazooka during the same firefight.
I was always waiting for the Sergeant Rock and Easy Company, or Sergeant Fury and his Howling Commandoes, or my favorite one ...
The Haunted Tank
Wasn't there a TV show on at that time ... one of those marionette ones ... "Fireball XL5" or one similar to "Thunderbirds", that had villains that were called "Mysterions" or "Mysterons" or something like that?
Anyway, that's where I always thought they got that name from.
I just drop my kids off at practice and come back when it's over. One time it rained and practice ended early. My son was the only one there when I came to pick him up and the coaches stayed with him. I felt like a child abuser even though my son was 12 years old and perfectly capable of waiting there by himself. In fact, he could have walked home, as the practice field is only about a mile away from the house.
Our children were raised exactly as we were raised.
The result: adults who married others as conservative as they are who have children that we, as grandparents, can be proud of!
Unfortunately for the nation and for American culture, a large percentage have used the television set as a pacifier and park their children in front of this "thing" to suck up the culture of MTV, et al.
They buy them playstations and gameboys and make certain their tv lineup can include HBO so that the minds full of mush can feast on garbage.
Mothers slog at work all day while the infants are deposited at day care. When they get home at night they are tired and irritible. No time for Uncle Wiggly. Dad slouches off to the couch and can't be bothered.
Parents look at their children as they would their Mercedes or Jaguars. They will find out what they have wrought when these Ritalin- crazed youngsters grow up.
I never went blind! (However I do wear extremely thick bi-focals)
Johnny on the Spot? Deputy Don show out of Traverse City? (I was there on my birthday so damn far back I don't remember exactly when) I think the only station available up there in northern MI was out of Traverse City....
Dam...this was a post from a while ago...WLUC Marquette.
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