HOW DID WE SURVIVE?

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[gcruse]

I just saw this printed in the Amarillo newspaper today.
Quelle coincidence! Thanks for posting these words of wisdom.

[thrcanbonly1]

Thanks, C.S. Lewis is one of my favorite authors.

[LeftIsSinister]

I guess I'm a Gen-Xer. Just over half of those things were true for my childhood--for example, all our cars had seatbelts, and people were just starting to wig out over lead paint.

Sometimes I feel like I grew up in a "transition period." Knowing what I do now, I can look back on the things that happened and see how leftist garbage started taking over. It's easy to think that the world was "good" when I started school and turned "bad" just after I finished.

But, my generation is not special. It's all relative (as much as I hate that phrase, I'll use it). An older version of this list might include something like "we went years without vaccinations" or "we tried every quack drug that appeared on the shelves." A future version of this list might include "we drove our own cars instead of having auto-pilot" or "we ate all the Big Macs we wanted!"

The message of losing freedoms to the "nanny state" is pretty clear regardless of time period, however, I guess the big question is, do we need more laws and regulations or can we educate and trust people to do the right thing?

I take the view that most people are very selfish, lazy, and stupid, unless highly motivated. How DO you deal with those people unless there is some "bite" (i.e., law and the enforcement of it)? On the other hand, maybe if the state wasn't so overbearing, people would be more motivated.

Ugh, my brain hurts, and now I'm just rambling... back to work...

[dakine]

Hitching-bumpers!...We did that down the residential streets, one nut I know did it in a 35-MPH road, hilarious!

[Zon]

Nice quote.

"...but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."

Paying the executioner to flog us more and think up ever new ways to flog us. Is it possible that the Robber Barons weren't the supposed "evil" men that the do-gooders portrayed them to be? I think so.

[dakine]

Also, we ALL played Evel Knievel, Ouch!

[HardStarboard]

>>>Where are the street kids today? Sitting on their backsides in front of a computer screen?<<<

And where are you and I today....

Sitting on our backsides in front of a computer screen.

[thrcanbonly1]

I agree, it was the so called "Robber Barons" who built this country.

[CDHart]

I remember in 1971 we had an old truck with the sides built up. We'd put 10-15 people in the back, including kids, and go to the motorcycle races in Florida. The truck had a front end problem and you had to wait to see which way it was going to go and then countersteer, rather than just steering it. It's a wonder we didn't kill ourselves. But we had a good time. Today they'd put us in jail, probably.

Carolyn

[Paulus Invictus]

Oh, but we had grief counselors! My dad and stepmom gave my Bro and me all the grief we could handle. When I was nearly electrocuted to death and ended up with a severely burned hand, she told me take an aspirin and lie down. Good grief!

[Paulus Invictus]

I agree that seat belts are a great life saver. They saved me and I have them on all the time.

[fourdeuce82d]

Saw your response, and went back and read some of the other posts...things I did- at 11, constructed molotov cocktails out of gasoline/stryafoam and threw them into the street in front of cars..(far enough away that the drivers could stop)managed to light myself on fire one time...snuck back into the house naked in my underpants after ditching myu trousers.. played BB gun "tag"..burnt sulfer in a shed with my friends, and competed to see who could breathe the fumes the longest...at 14, made fuel/air bombs out of garbage bags and a well-carbeureted oxy/acetylene mix...at 16 went body surfing naked on top of dad's company car while my friend drove...went scuba diving with a mask, tank, and cinder block for a weight belt (at night, drunk)

If I have a kid, and he does anything like that, I will beat him until my dad's arm hurts....Funny, I always, even as a teen, belted up- I guess if you're gonna take risks, they at least ought to be intersting.