To Those Born 1930-1979:
Read to the bottom for quote of the month by Jay Leno, if you don't read anything else. Very well-stated to all the kids who survived the 1930s, '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s:
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate bleu cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
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 infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
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. And we were O.K.
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 did not have Playstations, Nintendos, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVDs, no surround-sound or CDs, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms.......WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house 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. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, 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!
If YOU are one of them…CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"
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5 comments:
I beg to differ.....just a tiny bit! My son was born in 1975, and Nintendo and Atari were VERY BIG in his upbringing. In fact, old mom here got pretty damned good at Donkey Kong (doesn't look just quite right) and the Mario Brothers. PacMan was just nerve racking and I think Centipede also (something like that). The rest was perfect. On a more serious note, I vividly remember when my son completely flew head first over the handle bars of his bike landing on top of his head on the concrete street. I was certain he would be brain damaged. Took him to the emergency room where they told me to "keep him awake" and watch the pupils of his eyes. In fact, was so worried, I took him to another clinic just to get a second opinion and was told the EXACT same thing. I was terrified. To this day, I am wondering if THAT is what made him the way is. Geez I wish we had helmets back then! And to add "Does anyone remember all the neighborhood kids riding their bikes right behind the DDT fogger on the city truck that sprayed for mosquitos in the summertime?" Man....we may all die from cancer from the now outlawed DDT...but we sure weren't eaten alive by mosquitos and no one had heard of West Nile virus back then. And the car wreck I caused....again, no safety car seat for my son! It is just a miracle that my son SURVIVED ME! Love the column A and/or S. Cindy
Pacman nerve racking?? Try playing some of today's video games - them things can give you a heart attack. lolol With the centipede, I was never able to get that ball-action right! (I'm sure my ex husband would say the same thing, but that's not the point)
6-Toes,
I think Jay meant by surviving the '70s those of us who actually were growing up in the '70s, not toddling. Anyway, you're right -- your boy was lucky to survive you! I had no idea!
I never got much into the video games -- I was way too busy monopolizing the pinball machines. It's true -- I even won a trophy for it in college, to my mother's everlasting despair. ("Why couldn't you have taken up something respectable and lady-like like bowling or something?" The woman obviously never saw me bowl, and in 1979, I vowed that no one else ever would, either. I decreed that if I felt the need to be publicly humiliated, I could find better ways to do it.) Anyway, I had more fun being a whizbang pinballer, because if I had really wanted to, I could have hustled a small fortune, since most guys I encountered tended to think that eye/hand coordination and reflexes were supposed to be attached to a part of the anatomy with which I was not cursed. "You play pretty good...for a gurrrrl." Gimme a break! I haven't played in ages, because the double-decker machines are more than my tired old eyes can manage, but I still have my trophy (of course, since it's the only one I ever won for anything!).
Ahh, Solaris, don't get me started on what ex-husbands would say! Granted, I could go on at length about what mine would say about darn near anything, but as to what yours would say, well, I'd put his trust level in the same category as mine -- if he says "hello", it's probably a lie. (Who, me? Jaded? Nah!)
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