OT: I survived

[Guest guest]

How did we survive? According to today's

regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were

kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, 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 seat

belts 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 shared one soft drink with

four friends, from one bottle, and no one

actually died from this.

 

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 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 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 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 fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and

teeth,and there were no lawsuits from these

accidents.

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

 

=====

Cheryl Smith

A Heavenly Body

204 Muldoon Road

Anchorage AK 99504

 

 

 

New Photos - easier uploading and sharing.

 

[Guest guest]

, Cheryl Smith

<female_tigress> wrote:

> How did we survive?

 

This brought back some childhood memories! I particularly like > 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.

 

ROFL! (I remember my brother's concussion from crashing his homemade,

brakeless go-cart down the hill--on a paved road.)

 

A child's life sure has changed. But, you know, we created today's

kids. They weren't hatched from alien eggs or something. :-)

Linda A.