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PEOPLE OVER FORTY SHOULD BE DEAD
EMail
| 1/17/2004
| W. Toeppe
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!
TOPICS: Editorial; Government; Miscellaneous; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: bureaucracy; childhood; government; lifeinusa; nostalgia; overregulation; youvegotmail
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Comment #61 Removed by Moderator
To: Empireoftheatom48
who of you had a lead soldier mold in which you could create an army of lead soldiers. I'm 74 and have not expired from the lead. Yes, I remember, but we have progressed. I can remember when face guards were considered cowardly in football. Also, no water during the game. Kinda stupid huh?
62
posted on
01/17/2004 7:46:58 AM PST
by
drdemars
(Each moment I live a healthy life)
To: AppyPappy
Dang, that looks EXACTLY like the creek on the property where my family and I lived before we moved.
63
posted on
01/17/2004 7:47:35 AM PST
by
4mycountry
("No! Bad doggie! Don't eat dead people!")
To: Psycho_Runner
"Butts up" went something like this - 2 or more players, preferably 4 or more, 1 tennis ball, and a wall (the higher the better). The ball was placed in play by a player throwing it against the wall. Another player would catch the ball in one hand as it came back, and was also allowed to let it bounce first. If the player attempting to catch the ball dropped it or bobbled it, he would have to make a run for the wall. Meanwhile, another player would attempt to pick up the dropped ball and throw it against the wall. If the player who dropped the ball made it to the wall before the ball, he was safe. If the ball hit the wall first, then he had one strike against him. After three strikes you would have to go to the wall and assume what I can best describe as the "protect yourself from a dog attack" position, with your head towards the wall, on your hands and knees, and your butt facing the rest of the players, who would line up and get a free throw at you. Hence the name "butts up". I hope the DU'ers never hear of this game lest they die of an apoplectic fit. Then again...
64
posted on
01/17/2004 7:50:36 AM PST
by
BSunday
(My wife is the greatest)
To: 4mycountry
Is your dad a doctor?
65
posted on
01/17/2004 7:52:12 AM PST
by
AppyPappy
(If You're Not A Part Of The Solution, There's Good Money To Be Made In Prolonging The Problem.)
To: Baynative
I'm glad you enjoyed it, and thanks for reminding me to update it. There are too many under construction signs there. You should've seen the Halloween Safety page I had up. It was hilarious.
66
posted on
01/17/2004 7:52:24 AM PST
by
BSunday
(My wife is the greatest)
To: JesseHousman
Wow, this e-mail describes my childhood and neighborhood to a T.
67
posted on
01/17/2004 7:53:15 AM PST
by
Dane
To: JesseHousman
I am going to weigh in on this. I was a kid in the 40s and everything that has been said here was true in the 40s. We left the house in the morning and then touched base around noon for a sandwich. Back out we went until dark. We use to swim in an abandoned stone quarry hole and I remember one day there were some baby pink pigs that evidently died and the farmer just threw them in the quarry, we could see them laying on the bottom. We just moved down a little and went on swimming. (hey, it was a hot day)
We use to chew tar, yes tar off the road that bubbled up because of the heat from the sun. Did ya ever cut a limb off of a birch tree and eat the bark off? We did it. I could go on and on but some probably heard all of them. One thing I will say, when I started 7th grade my parents bought a dairy farm. My brother and I milked our 5 cows every morning before getting ready for school (pretty sure we smelled a little like the barn but we were popular so it didn't matter, I guess.We milked the same 5 cows in the evening also.
Oh yea, every morning Mom had at least 3 kinds of meat and we had eggs and pudin and scrapple. My Dad's favorite was buckwheat pancakes and we use to "dunk" the bites in the grease that was in the big ole iron skillet that the meat was fried in. My brother and I are in our 70s and both are healthy, not on any drugs and no health problems. We have the good Lord to thank for that as well as a lot of good luck.
I am not telling this to brag, just to say that something is wrong in this day and age that so many people are dependent on drugs and have so many health problems.
Oh yea, I forgot to mention, we worked our little butts off during the spring,summer and fall. From early morning until late evening. One last thing, I remember one of the happiest days of my life, one day when we got off of the school bus, the DeLavel milk machine man was installing a milking machine in the barn. No more hand milking at our place. whoopee!
68
posted on
01/17/2004 7:56:42 AM PST
by
depenzz
To: AppyPappy
No. He's the facilities/maintenence manager for
Camp Summit in Argyle, TX.
Maybe your creek and my creek are twins or something. :p
69
posted on
01/17/2004 8:01:08 AM PST
by
4mycountry
("No! Bad doggie! Don't eat dead people!")
To: Dane
Describes mine too!
I remember all our neighbors really loved the kids especially the "Old Folks" they would come out and sit in front of there house and watch all the kids play, summer was like a never ending block party on our street.
Now where I live the neighbors pretty much suck! GOD forbid a child rides there bike on there newly manicured lawn or if a kid makes to much noise Definetly not Kid Friendly!
(Pretty Sad I talk to freepers more than my own next door neighbor!)
My brothers and his friends started a band in the garage, DRUMS GUITARS! NOISE no-one complained no-one. accept my parents :-)
70
posted on
01/17/2004 8:03:24 AM PST
by
missyme
To: BSunday
You're wise to keep them out of public schools run by wussy school administrators with asinine zero-tolerance policies that could turn them into juvenile delinquents if they looked cross-eyed at anybody.
Public school isn't the place for normal, healthy boys today.
71
posted on
01/17/2004 8:06:38 AM PST
by
ladylib
To: JesseHousman
This is one of the best posts I've seen (and bookmarked) here. Thanks.
72
posted on
01/17/2004 8:13:32 AM PST
by
Crawdad
(I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no class.)
To: JesseHousman
...and our Dads taught us to shoot pop cans with .22s and Ruffed Grouse with the 20 gauge (and not to shoot randomly without a definate target).
73
posted on
01/17/2004 8:16:59 AM PST
by
Cpu
To: John W
The Greatest Generation gave the Baby-Boomers 'Father Knows Best" and "Leave it to Beaver." The Baby-Boomers gave the Generation-Xers "The Simpsons" and "Jerry Springer."
To: Crawdad
Blame it all on the invention of shrinks in the late 50s and early 60s!
75
posted on
01/17/2004 8:21:02 AM PST
by
dalereed
(,)
To: Gabz
I was down that way last fall. You people are lucky, it sure is beautiful down there. Of course in the country up here, I can target shoot right in back of my house.
76
posted on
01/17/2004 8:21:43 AM PST
by
brooklin
Comment #77 Removed by Moderator
To: AppyPappy
This is my son playing in a creek on our property. HEY! I know that spot. You live right up the lane from me, don'cha?
My son knows every inch of the woods around us. He had a friend of his over, and the kid was tying day-glo plastic ribbon on all the trees. My son asked him what the heck he was doing, and the kid said he was marking a path so he could find his way out of the woods.
My boy thought getting lost was a novelty that only happened in adventure stories. I made him wear a whistle around his neck every time he went out until he was 10, but he never had to use it. I finally gave that idea up when I ran out three times in ten minutes, only to find he liked the noise it made.
To: drdemars
In the 50's we had rubber/plastic green army men to shoot at with BB guns while the older kids had BB gun wars where they wore old winter jackets and actually shot at each other. (My parents didn't let me join, but the older kids' parents ended the wars soon after they began.) I did spend some time soldering up brass tubes (and breathing the lead fumes) to make slot car frames and got to play with the mercury from broken thermometers though. In addition we had cliffs to climb, caves and swamps to explore, steep hills with big trees to sled and toboggan down, miles to ride on bikes all without any supervision other than to be home for dinner.
Now I find that I had a deprived childhood because my parents wouldn't buy me my own supercomputer. So now to (over) compensate I have more computer power in the "lab" than all of the Foutune 500 combined likely had in, say, 1958. :-) A second childhood is a good thing too.
79
posted on
01/17/2004 8:23:22 AM PST
by
Paladin2
To: JesseHousman
They could never have anticipated the "Best of Mature MILF 3" boxed DVD set and uttered such nonsense.
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