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 !
I think it did cull the herd. We seem to have far fewer nut cases and whiners.
Gosh, when I count up all the times I fell down concrete stairs, tried to climb a solid wood bookcase (that fell over on me), fell of the top bunk on my head, ran headfirst into a parked Buick while peddling my tricycle, and pulled the iron down onto my head, I should definitely be dead.
And this was before I was 3.
Hmm. That could explain alot... Mom?
Our favorite stop on Halloween was the house that had home made doughnuts and candy.
Yep, did that. And climbed trees, and walked across the tops of fences... and accepted donuts from the neighbor at Halloween... and rode my bicycle in the street after dark... and hitchhiked for fun...
Yep, I'm dead.
Dirt clod fights? Heck we just used rocks. Or put rocks in snowballs. Or whacked other kids with sticks.
Oh wait, I'm under 35. I must be a wimp. Never mind.
We called it “mail box”, and the slightly better game was “five minute date”.
Usually when crossing a fresh plowed field <(•¿•)>
1 - "This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. "
"Thought this was a good light read. Especialy in light of recent events"
Excellent post - I think there is a lot more wisdom in this than your comment suggests.
lol
Some station wagons had the back seat facing to the rear, remember those?
We had horses, too. Played out in the pasture with them like they were toys. Rode them without any gear much of the time. Fell off a few times, but got back on.
Last day of school, I took off my shoes and except for church on Sundays & Wednesday nights, I didn't were shoes. (Boy! Did my feet feel it, too!)
Swam in dirty old ponds, etc. never got hurt, never got infected cuts after the dirt was ground in.
Everyone played outside until long after dark. Mom's voices could be heard calling kids in to go to bed.
My first 2 or 3 yrs. of school, I walked almost 4 miles, twice a day, many times I was alone and no one ever bothered me and I was never afraid. (Moms didn't have cars.)
30 - "Loved those dirt clod fights"
I remember the bright red clay mudballs in Virginia, and how beautiful they looked when thrown at shiny cars, particularly shiny black cars, and they didn't hurt at all. Until I got home, and saw one in front of my house, and then the paddeling really hurt, and I didn't think they were so pretty after that.
36 - "'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 knew there must be some reasons mosquitoes don't like to bite me. (really true - they swarm and bite everyone else but not me).
We used to put rocks in snowballs, too. Also used to throw dog poop at each other - pick it up with a stick and fling it at each other (this was before the pooper scooper laws in NY).
I used to bike without a helmet for LONG distances. Biked from the south shore to the north shore of Long Island on a 3 speed with no helmet when I was about 12 years old. There was a park I wanted to go to there, and I couldn't drive yet!
We used to set nail polish remover on fire in the upstairs bathroom sink, just to watch it burn.
My sister and I were BAD girls, but we had fun!
LQ
I was a little smarter than that, I found an electric switch that had a couple of 6inch wire leads coming out of it . Stuck the wire leads into the wall outlet then flipped the switch on/off real quick , folks couldn't figure out why the kept blowing fuses on all the different circuits in the house. :^)
Oh boy! I remember the stick flinging. Did you ever freeze a snowball in your freezer and threaten to bring it out during a snowball fight? My mom was none too pleased when she found one wedged behind the ice cube trays. I think that was sometime in July (I had forgotten about it). Sadly she tossed in the sink otherwise it REALLY would have gotten a reaction from the neighborhood 'gang'.
We used to raid the medicine chest and try to crush up pills and mix it up with Pepto to try to kill ants. We thought we were coming up with some poison, but I think they just drowned in the thick pepto.
We also used to 'borrow' my mom's hairspray and do the flame thrower thing with the ants. For some reason ants were a favorite target of my brothers and I.
I too used to bike forever and a day w/o a helmt. heck there was an old abandonded skateboard park down the hill from my house. There were stagnant pools of water, the furnance and stove from the concession stand sitting in the middle, graffitti everywhere, rusty nails, etc. We would take our bikes and do jumps around all the debris. Not sure mom knew about that place.
LOL, I did this too! Made arrows out of twigs and rose thorns, the bow out of a branch and a cut rubber band tacked to each end, and I dipped the tips of the thorns in a concoction I made out of the neighbors nightshade berries. Fortunately it wasn't a real effective weapon (thorns would break off when the arrow hit something).
Then my grandfather made the mistake of buying me a plunger-tipped bow and arrow set. I promptly took the plungers off, taped nails to the end of the arrow, and booby-trapped the door of my room with it.
LQ
LOL, yep, we used to freeze snowballs but due to the defrost cycle on the freezer they'd end up just like a flat "ice frisbee" by July. We threw it anyway ::laughing::
LQ
76 - "I was warned about hitch hiking (I am a girl). %;9)"
LOL - around my home, that was not a problem back in the young days, girls or boys. However, about 15 years ago, I went back home, and it suddenly started to pour down rain, and I picked up this girl, hitch-hiking, thinking it was like the old days. And when I asked how far she was going, she responded with 'how much do you want to pay?'.
I still remember that, and was very chagrinned for being so 'innocent' about my home town, after coming home after all those years.
When I was about 3 or 4 years old and riding in the car with my dad, I used to like to walk around the back seat area and jump on the seats. In order to keep me still, he made me stand behind him and put my hands on his shoulders. Of course, I chattered a mile a minute into the poor man's ear, but he preferred that to watching me bounce all over the place. :)
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