Posted on 06/08/2004 2:03:27 PM PDT by al baby
People over 35 should be dead.
Here's why ...
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.
And you're one of them!
Congratulations!
Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good !!!!!
People under 30 are WIMPS !
My friends and I built large model sailing ships with little cannons on them and sent them out to battle with each other! Once the lighter failed on my ship "Old Ironsides" and I went out to get my ship to fix it and the other vessel gave by backside a broadside! I had to have my mother dig buckshot out of my tailend. I lost the battle but had wounds to show for it. Never happen today.
What kind of fond memories will MY kids have??!
A long time ago, back in Killeen, TX, my friends and I played a painful game. No matter what you were doing, when ever you got the urge, you would call out "dirt clod fight." At that signal everyone scattered and grabbed as much of whatever they could off the ground and started throwing it at whomever was closest.
I don't remember those friend's names or faces, but I remember the sting of rock hard Texas dirt that hadn't seen rain for months.
It's amazing how long forgotten memories bubble up into your consciousness.
Anyone remember the old wooden "merry-go-rounds" in the playgrounds? The little kids would be on them having a good time and then the big kids would come and get them going at warp speed. A few tiny ones went flying off and cracked their heads. No more merry-go-rounds.
My brother and I used to catch lightening bugs and keep them in a jar with holes poked in the lid. PETA would probably have us arrested for cruelty to animals if we did that now.
Remember playgrounds with hard tar or cement ? Remember monkey bars and seesaws ?
I did the same thing with a butter knife; I remember sticking it in but after that......
"We got shot with rocksalt-filled shotgun shells"
stealing watermelon were we?
"Smear the queer" was epic! We used to have huge games going at school, with like 20 guys. It was a coup to play with the older boys, the 5th and 6th graders when I was 4th grader. That meant you were cool. If you could get up after 10 guys dog-piled you, you were in.
And the mosquito truck driver never had a problem with it.
'How about chased the mosquito sprayer on our bikes! LOL'
I remember that too! Snorting pure DDT! I don't think a mosquito has survived biting me since.
I had a tree house 60 feet up, used to climb up after school and take naps up there in the swaying treetop.
I once visited friends that owned a mobile home. They were trying to get the electric hooked up correctly, but it was not grounded properly. I sat on the metal step, thinking my denim jeans would protect me, and my legs were jumping out of control. If I'd used my hands....
I fell out of a tree and landed on my Big Giant Head. Shoulda broke my neck, but just a slight cut on my ear.
We used to do VIOLENT dodgeball games in the school gym. Get yer Big Giant Head whacked up against the brick wall, you were hurtin'!
Tackle football from first grade on....
I should be dead!
My two year old son is following in his dad's footsteps. Two or three weeks ago he pulled the "hold-up stick" out of the window and got his Little Giant Head slammed and pinned in the window! DOH! Like father like son.
Well, at least you're better off than Bill Clinton's mom. Her crap turned into progeny.
That's a GREAT one! Very accurate. I got one just like that in email about 5 months ago. I put it in my drafts
folder. It's'a keeper!
Those bugs never lived thru the morning though...and they'd leave a glow trail if you smeared them across the sidewalk.
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