Re-posting from an email I received a while ago from my dad, it's been around the internet block a few times so here is a refresher if you've read it before, if not then consider it my Sunday gift to you!
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-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 & 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 koolade 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, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, 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 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
And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?!
7 comments:
You know I sometimes wonder if kids who are born today with all these food allergies and intolerances is because we are so OVERprotective these days. And for sure there is a major problem with childhood obesity.
Yes, I was one of them. It was so wondering being a kid in the 50's and thereafter. My dad was born in 1923 and I recently told him that he has seen more inventions then my kids will ever see! I use to jump off of the billboard signs!
We would be gone all day, hiking and playing in the woods. Today is so different and it is really sad that the kids can't experience what I did. GREAT POST!
I love this...now going to look for my scissors and hitting the treadmill. :)
I ran the streets as a kid. Today, my kids run the driveway !!!
it seemed safer back then, now its not safe to be gone outside like that, the woods arent safe, the neighborhoods arent even safe. kids get abducted walking home from a friends house, school, or right out of their beds! its ferkin crazy out there. but yes, i was one of them back then. in my small town we didnt even lock our doors. crime was speeding or shoplifting. its unbelievable how it is today!
good post!
c
hows the kids?
Brilliant. My other half and I are often commenting on how things are so different these days. We think should be we be fortunate enough to have children - they will be ones (or one) with active imaginations and putting those imaginations to work. No sitting in front of the TV or computer or gaming system.
By the way, I ran with scissors once or twice, nothing ever happened to anyone. ;o)
C - that's the main point. There is _no_ evidence to suggest that our children live in a more dangerous/unsafe society than the one we grew up in. We just live in a more media-exposed hysterical society. The world is the same, it's the lense that we are looking through that is changing. People are just more aware of the dangers of the world.
Just breathe - your father may have seen more 'industrial' inventions, but I think it unlikely that your kids will see less actual inventions. Remember people in the early 20th century proclaiming that everything had been invented. With luck our children will see things like 'cheap, green and renewable' power, eradication of global food shortages (trying not to be cynical), pollution free high-speed travel etc take a read through Science or Nature magazine for a glimpse of the future :)
This post annoyed me because it's so 'when I were a lad, things were better'. I grew up in the 70s - everything was brown, beige and orange. TV was shit, computer games were shit, entertainment was throwing a brick at your mate's head after climbing a tree for 4 hours. If we were lucky we might have found a bottle to smash or the off-license might have sold us some Thunderbird. We went out because there was sod all to do at home.
If kids stay at home and vegetate, it's partly because it's convenient for their parents to have electronic baby-sitters (I have been guilty of this). In the UK it's also because all the healthy open spaces have been turned into car parks. Here in Quebec I see plenty of kids mountain biking, skating, skiing, snowboarding etc They also have games consoles at home, yet strike a good balance between them.
I still think growing up in the 70's and 80's was the best but yeah, cellphones and innernets would have been reaaaally awesome ;-)
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