HOW DID WE SURVIVE?

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[Andy from Beaverton]

HOW DID WE SURVIVE?

Looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have:

As children we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a
special treat.

Our baby cribs were painted with bright colored lead based paint, we often
chewed on the crib, ingesting the paint.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets,

When we rode our bikes we had no helmets.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride 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 streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day.

We played dodgeball and sometimes the ball would really hurt.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda, but we were never
over weight; we were always outside playing.

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.

That generation produced some of the greatest risk-takers and problem
solvers.

We had the freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned
how to deal with it all.

[Andy from Beaverton]

I never found who actually first wrote this, but Bill Gray and Dave Clayton have taken credit. I know this has been passed around in the e-mail for a while, but it really makes you wonder why big brother is even around. Also, why are the foods that are bad for your health also fattening?

[dalereed]

"Our baby cribs were painted with bright colored lead based paint, we often
chewed on the crib, ingesting the paint"

Considering the large amounts of lead that I have consumed in my lifetime, the fact that some of the most briliant people of the 19th and early 20th century drank all their water from pure lead pipes, food came packaged in lead foil, we chewed lead foil for chewing gum, used lead for bodywork before bondo and breathed the sandings, etc., etc. I am of the opinion that the "experts", under government funding, proved that lead damaged the brain by only testing dumb kids!

[The Toll]

Reminds me a little of this George Carlin skit where he goes off about "germs". The funniest line is when he points out the insanity of rubbing someones arm down with iodine before you give them a lethal injection. Hilarious.

[LiteKeeper]

I love it!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

One of the great minds of the 20th Century, Russ Lavine, once asked, "I wonder how we got along so well without all these thinkers and planners?"

[Paulus Invictus]

We were also ignored by parents who were too busy scratching around for food and other necessities to pay much attention to us. While they were so engaged, we were out there testing nature with hikes in truly dangerous areas, fishing on creeks that were heavily favored by grizzlies, braving really cold, below zero weather while dressed lightly in poor clothing and shoes, eating a whole lot of cheese sandwiches we made ourselves and riding our bikes (our early versions of mountain bikes) on the worst trails ever seen.

We also were injured many times in falls, fights, and in biking, skiing and skating accidents, none of which injuries got any attention from parents or medical people.

How did we survive? Beats me!

[LiteKeeper]

I remember never even thinking of locking the doors of our house, and walking in and out of our neighbors' houses.

And I remember our playmates parents scolding us if we did something wrong, and being scared to death my father would find out!

[Slyfox]

Let's face it, our freedoms are being curbed in the name of protecting us from ourselves.

Although, I gotta say, it is really nice to serve jury duty and not come home smelling like a dirty ashtray.

[arly]

Great Post! and so true.

[RicocheT]

Good post! I did all of these acts which the mama-state now "protects" us from by lawsuits and regulations.

I played with mercury and spilled it in my room many times. I had a .22 at age 12 yet did not assassinate my classmates. I used the empty .22 shells as noise makers by filling them with match heads and hitting them with a hammer yet wasn't blinded by a brass fragment. On winter lone walks I crossed icy marshes and heard the ice snap and crack under my feet yet never drowned. The first thing I did with my new chemistry set was make gunpowder.

Hard to figure how I lived into my 50s, but now the Democrats will take care of me in my old age so I can stop thinking or being concerned about anything but myself.

[Paradox]

Considering the large amounts of lead that I have consumed in my lifetime,

I remember when I was 14, I accidentally broke open one of those large thermometers, and collected the mercury into a glass jar. I played with that stuff everyday until it sort of dissapeared, little by little...

So far, no ill-effects that I can attribute to the mercury. My first born son is perfectly normal, as far as I can tell. We'll see if the next one has two heads or something..

[VOA]

bump

[headsonpikes]

It looks as if everyone on this thread is fully aware of the non-empirical basis of most 'progressive', 'protective' legislation.

Teach your kids to disrespect wrongful authority.

[Phantom Lord]

Our mothers drank coffee, alcohol, and smoked!

Now, pregnant women get a book of banned substances and activities bigger than an unabriged dictionary!

[dalereed]

When I was a kid I wouldn't go to the dentist unless I was promised a vial of mercury to play with, which I did throughout my childhood.

[Irene Adler]

I played with mercury many times when I was a kid. My dad was a pharmacist who occasionally got some in the course of business (don't know how) also dry ice once in awhile which I played with. My dad always told me not to handle the mercury as it could poison through the skin and to avoid touching the dry ice as well.

One of the most fun things I ever did as a kid was to ride on the running board of an old truck and hang onto the open window frame as we traveled on dirt roads with essentially no traffic. It was great fun, and I would let a kid or grandkid of my own do it today in the right circumstances (ditto riding in the back of a truck which is also fun).

One time a bunch of families went out to buy fresh Xmas trees with a big truck to bring them all home in, and the kids got to ride back home nestled in the trees in the back of the truck. I can smell the pine scent to this day. Wonderful fun!

[ladyinred]

Well, I wasn't ignored by my parents. My Mom was at home, she made our sandwiches, and we didn't come home to an empty house after school!
That being said, this article is so true, and it makes me sad to know that children now won't have these memories.
They are living in a nanny world where freedom doesn't mean the same thing to them as it did to us. They sit in front of TV's watching videos instead of playing cowboys and indians outside using small twigs from trees as the horses! That is one reason they are getting fat!

[Irene Adler]

We also sat around in a circle and cracked rocks with a hammer to see the insides. Shards flew. Dad insisted we wear sunglasses or regular glasses if we were going to do that. Of course that was nowhere near complete protection.

[fourdeuce82d]

How did we survive? Beats me!

I agree with the original poster, and with you, that we (or at least some of us) have become hypersensitive to risk, but I would suggest that regarding car seats/seat belts at least, many of us didn't. I'd be very interested to know what the number of child/infant deaths per million miles of driving were then versus today. I can think of four or five kids/teenagers from my cohort (b. 1962) that died in wrecks- ejected from the car, broken neck when the car rolled down an embankment, etc.

[lodwick]

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