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To all the kids who survived the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's. ...
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue 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-base paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.
As infants & 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 truck 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, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight. Why?
Because we were always outside, playing...that's why!
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, Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no 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 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?
Thanks for this. I have quite a few folks to share this with who can relate. As a little kid in the 60's back in Queens I find out about electricity by sticking the ends of a metal scissors into an outlet, and yes those glass milk bottles delivered by the milkman would shatter when you ran down the hallway and slipped on freshly waxed floors. I also had the habit of wanting to stick things in my mouth to the utter frustration of my mom and I just don't know how I survived. I imagine there has to be quite a few folks out there that could share their childhood survival stories which could make this quite an amusing thread.
Like sticking your tonque to the pole in the playground in the middle of winter in front of all your friends. Med-a-vac wasn't called in, you ripped it off leaving some flesh on the pole and that never happened to you again.
Here's a fond memory. I remember going to TSS in the late 70's with my mother, two of her friends and a total of 7 of us children (2 under the age of 1) in a mid-size Chrysler station wagon (not one of those long boats) for school supplies. We sat or laid down anywhere we wanted to, and when we parked and got out of the car it was like a circus car! There was always yelling and screaming. But, boy were those the good ol' days!
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That is so true, nbres. I just remember that we kids were outside from morning until evening, running around in bathing suits all day, swimming without any adults around, jumping off floats and all. The parents were usually having cocktails or something on those warm summer nights and no one knew where we kids were and NONE of us were ever injured (well, a few boys broke their arms jumping out of trees) and we all survived & were pretty healthy . You're right, hardly anyone was overweight back then.
Grew up in the 60's and 70's on LI and here's the crazy stuff we'd do.
Let's see, in the there were BB gun fights in the woods though we were smart enough to wear swim goggles.
Bottle rocket wars and roman candle duels in the streets.
Backyard boxing matches.
Going to the town dump, roaming the trash and scavenging for stuff for whatever project we were trying to build. Added bonus was finding old Playboys, radios, furniture and other things that would find their way into one of our club houses or forts.
Making our bikes into choppers by cutting the front forks off of one bike and hammering them over the forks of our bikes. Sometimes they'd fall off pitching you over the handle bars.
As teens building motorbikes by bolting an old lawn mower engine onto the frame of a stingray. The speed control was usually done by manipulating the throttle with one hand while steering with the other. Brakes were optional.
Building elaborate underground tunnels in the woods and flimsy tree forts on the tops of pine trees.
Jumping out the windows or off the roof of a split that was under construction into a big pile of sand.
Trying to swim Southard Pond.
Riding our bikes everywhere.
There was more and somehow we made it through childhood OK if with a few scars.
We got out butts whipped when we misbehaved. There was no "timeout".
It was do as you're told lest you get "knocked out"
There was no Maury Povich teen to parent communication
"Whatever..."
"Oh well..."
"She (my mother) needs to mind her business."
"I can do what I wanna do."
If we even DREAMED of talking to our mothers like that we had better wake up and apologize.
We had "blood sisters". (We actually cut ourselves in the backyard with sharp-edged debris, joined blood and took our oath with no concern for life-threatening disease.)
Even as teens, we were outside ripping and running, got dirty as hell and didn't care about ruining designer clothes or messing up our hair or breaking acrylic nails.
Those were the days, my friend!
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