PEOPLE OVER FORTY SHOULD BE DEAD

EMail | 1/17/2004 | W. Toeppe

[BSunday]

Bump for one of the best FR threads ever.

[sinclair]

building houses from cardboard boxes

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.

[BSunday]

It does my heart good to watch my kids playing these days. We are by no means rich, but those kids sure do have imaginations. Whenever anything arrives at the house in a cardboard box they say "Can I have that" and invariably it is transformed into something only a kid could have made out of it. You should see their room. It's amazing the decor you can get our of a few bucks worth of little green army men, cardboard, and a magic marker.

[Paul C. Jesup]

This is not what I think we should be worried about.

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.

[BSunday]

I'm not against bicycle helmets, car seats, etc. but I AM against the government trying to be my kids parents. The governments job in those cases is to educate, not legislate.

[JesseHousman]

I think it's great that some have again picked up and revitalized this thread.

[BlueLancer]

"Playing war for hours--in the woods--with realistic looking plastic tommy guns and rifles."

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.

[BlueLancer]

"My brother had all the super-hero comic books ..."

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

[BlueLancer]

See #288 ... great minds think alike ...

[BlueLancer]

"?(Question Mark) and the Mysterions, I think. Wonder where they got that name?"

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.

[bk1000]

I, too, grew up in those days, and they were great. What makes me angry whenever I read something like this is this: If it was so great back then, why have we raised our children so differently? I remember being sternly diciplined for something I had done, and would whimper to myself: "Snif..when I have kids I sure won't be so mean to them!..Snif". Now I appreciate that dicipline, but I sure didn't at the time. Why do we do things so differently now? Don't let the kid have the cellphone, video game, or Abercrombie slut-wear. Be a 'mean' parent instead of trying to be your kid's 'buddy'. They'll thank you when they're grown. (just a rant. I have no kids of my own, and use of the word 'you' does not refer to anyone in particular.)

[SamAdams76]

One thing that really annoys me about bringing up kids today is the oversupervision that goes on. It's as if that parents never want to be separated from their children. For example, I have been involved in Little League sports with my kids for years now. The vast majority of parents are there for not only every single game but for every minute of every practice. I mean, the kids are there at practice just getting instruction from their coaches, fielding grounders and running around the bases and stuff like that. And you got these parents with their videocameras documenting every moment. At PRACTICE!

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.

[TC Rider]

We played with toy guns and didn't become serial killers.

We collected mercury from broken thermometers to play with and didn't poison ourselves.

We swam unsupervised in ponds and streams without a lifeguard.

A cut requiring stitches was a badge of honor, not a cause of litigation.

[JesseHousman]

...why have we raised our children so differently?

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.

[JesseHousman]

....and we didn't worry about perverted homosexuals who today prey upon youngsters and want to be their scoutmasters. There was virtually no pornography and entertainment on the radio and television was wholesome family fare.

[Hot Tabasco]

I never went blind! (However I do wear extremely thick bi-focals)

[nutmeg]

That's odd... I just saw this article on another thread last night with a different title: People over 35 should be dead.

[Hot Tabasco]

That was then..when there was but one TV station available

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....

[crz]

Dam...this was a post from a while ago...WLUC Marquette.