Amazing! We made it!

[j]

an oldy but goody:

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-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bike s, 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 computer! s, 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?!

[O Town]

Definitly an oldy but a goody. I love it!!!

[Lindaloo]

Yep, the zero tolerance needs to be looked at again. Heck, I even survived the 80's!

[j]

I can relate to the Go Kart thing. The neighborhood gang -- we had us a minibike with no brakes. Notice I said "we". Back in the day, it was not uncommon for a few friends to share something like this. We would work for hours, with little knowledge, tweaking the engine for maximum speed. Then we would fly around the neighborhood. Our feet were our brakes.

THe only time we were inside the house was to eat or sleep, or if we were on restriction.

Ahhhh the good ole days.

[george_r_1961]

Well since I was born in 1961 I think I witnessed the transition from the "old way" to the "new way". I live an a neighborhood with alot of kids; the only time I see them is when they walk thru my yard in the afternoon from the bus stop. Rarely do I see them out playing. On non school days I remember leaving home on my bike in the morning and rarely coming home before 4pm. Id eat lunch at McD's alot from the money i earned cutting grass and doing other odd jobs. On warm summer nites the streets would be teeming with kids, and we knew to get out of the way when we saw a car coming. We respected our parents or we got our arses kicked..period. No social workers or cops to save us from a red rear. We respected our teachers whether we wanted to or not or we were paddled with the "board of education" Adults were always addressed as "Sir" or Ma'am" or by the appropriate title and surname. NEVER did a child call any adult by the first name and when I became older it was VERY difficult for me to adapt not doing this as times changed. Your boss was always addressed in a similar manner. Even if u were an adult.

We were kids. We didnt always follow the rules. But we had RESPECT. I know alot of good teens now; the ones I work with are good kids. Unfortunately the number of bad kids seems to be growing. I think bringing back the old values that many of us old times were raised with just might turn some of the bad ones around and keep others from going bad at all.

Rant over

[Aslkahuna]

One thing I do notice is that it's been years since a teenager came around to my house and asked if I need my lawn mowed or anything. Given my aches and pains, I would take him or her up on the offer in a flash and pay them well.

Steve

[george_r_1961]

One thing I do notice is that it's been years since a teenager came around to my house and asked if I need my lawn mowed or anything. Given my aches and pains, I would take him or her up on the offer in a flash and pay them well.

Steve

Steve now its OLDER folks trying to supplement their retirement or social security that do this.

[brunota2003]

One thing I do notice is that it's been years since a teenager came around to my house and asked if I need my lawn mowed or anything. Given my aches and pains, I would take him or her up on the offer in a flash and pay them well.

Steve

Hey...If I was there I would mow your lawn...but your all the way across the country...

[Miss Mary]

Each one - so true.

George - you said it perfectly. Respect, we had respect for everyone, well except for maybe your bratty brother.....LOL

I remember playing outside all day long. Or going from one friend's house to another. You rarely called first, you just showed up. And you didn't even ring the bell. If their windows were open, you simply yelled Oh....Jimmy. That was it. If he was home, he came running.

Our mothers wore aprons all day long. They were doing their housework - my mom had specific chores for each weekday. We had chores too but our mom's were glad to get us out of the house, so they could clean. We'd play Scrabble, after dinner, as a family - all of us! Even the dog was under the kitchen table, hoping you drop a treat.

Yikes - I sound so old now! LOL

[Lindaloo]

Yeah when kids do something wrong these days everybody wants to blame the parents.

[Ptarmigan]

Amazing how things change. When I was a kid, I was a kid of the late 1980s and early 1990s that's when a lot of changes occurred. People today are more risk adverse than in the 1980s.

[MGC]

Well, since I am a child of the 50's I'll chirp in. Our house when I grew up was like Leave it to Beaver or Father Knows Best. My Mom didn't work outside the house. She took care of us kids and my Dad. I never saw her in pants. She wore a dress at home all the time. Dad wore a hat, one of those Fedora's that made him look like a gangster. We would all sit at the table for dinner and after we finished us kids got to do the dishes. The dishwasher consisted of my hands. One of us would wash the other dry and the third would put the dishes away. We had devised an assembly line so we could finish up so we could get outside to play. We only had one TV, a B&W one that I swear took 30 minutes to warm up. Of course living in a big city like New Orleans we had 4 channels. Of course we had to mostly watch what Dad wanted to watch. Laurence Welk. Seemed like Laurence Welk was on every night. We had one car. I would never trade my childhood back in the late 50's and early 60's for one today. Sure all the high tech stuff is great but we learned to make stuff to play with out of junk and had fun doing it.......MGC

[vbhoutex]

Well, since I am a child of the 50's I'll chirp in. Our house when I grew up was like Leave it to Beaver or Father Knows Best. My Mom didn't work outside the house. She took care of us kids and my Dad. I never saw her in pants. She wore a dress at home all the time. Dad wore a hat, one of those Fedora's that made him look like a gangster. We would all sit at the table for dinner and after we finished us kids got to do the dishes. The dishwasher consisted of my hands. One of us would wash the other dry and the third would put the dishes away. We had devised an assembly line so we could finish up so we could get outside to play. We only had one TV, a B&W one that I swear took 30 minutes to warm up. Of course living in a big city like New Orleans we had 4 channels. Of course we had to mostly watch what Dad wanted to watch. Laurence Welk. Seemed like Laurence Welk was on every night. We had one car. I would never trade my childhood back in the late 50's and early 60's for one today. Sure all the high tech stuff is great but we learned to make stuff to play with out of junk and had fun doing it.......MGC

The memories are sweet. I love all the technology we have available to us now, but would never trade the idyllic childhood I had for one today!!!

[Miss Mary]

Well, since I am a child of the 50's I'll chirp in. Our house when I grew up was like Leave it to Beaver or Father Knows Best. My Mom didn't work outside the house. She took care of us kids and my Dad. I never saw her in pants. She wore a dress at home all the time. Dad wore a hat, one of those Fedora's that made him look like a gangster. We would all sit at the table for dinner and after we finished us kids got to do the dishes. The dishwasher consisted of my hands. One of us would wash the other dry and the third would put the dishes away. We had devised an assembly line so we could finish up so we could get outside to play. We only had one TV, a B&W one that I swear took 30 minutes to warm up. Of course living in a big city like New Orleans we had 4 channels. Of course we had to mostly watch what Dad wanted to watch. Laurence Welk. Seemed like Laurence Welk was on every night. We had one car. I would never trade my childhood back in the late 50's and early 60's for one today. Sure all the high tech stuff is great but we learned to make stuff to play with out of junk and had fun doing it.......MGC

You just painted a Norman Rockwell picture of my childhood!

My mom did wear pants though.....LOL We didn't have an automatic DW growing up either. And the dishes did not drip dry in the rack for long. You were expected to wash, dry and them put them away! I think our mom's back then wanted a spotlessly clean kitchen when she looked in. So she could check that chore off her list (in her head I might add, I didn't see my mom using paper and pen, she was just busy, always cleaning!).

I just thought of something - do you recall anyone getting sick from E-coli back then? Or just a mild case of food poisoning? I don't! Maybe our kitchens are not as clean as our mom's were? I don't know where I'm going with this but that thought just popped in my head. Of course we also had a garden. We didn't always rely upon store bought produce.

Our Muntz TV took a while to warm up too. Didn't the picture widen or something when it was warming up? I seem to remember a tiny square that got bigger and bigger.

Thanks for the glimpse into my past MGC.

Mary

[j]

Of course we had to mostly watch what Dad wanted to watch.

Good one!! Same thing at my house, and never was there a complaint, you didn't dare. Heck...my Dad even fell asleep while watching TV, and I can remember on a couple of occasions, thinking I could change the channel while he was snoring. Bad idea. He'd snort, eyes would pop open, and back that channel went to gunsmoke or whatever it was he was "watching". In the 70's, when the "Big Bad Bruins" were my passion, my Mom bought a 2nd TV. It was a black and white, with rabbit ears and a loop UHF antenna. You had to hold the antenna and turn and manipulate it in hopes of seeing the puck! It was put down in the basement, and that is where I could catch a game, assuming of course I had done everything I was supposed to have done that day, including homework, chores, etc.. I loved my Dad, and never had an ill feeling toward him. I had respect beyond description. He worked hard, he earned his right to be master of that house. But did he act like the Master?? NO...we made him the Master.

There was one air conditioner in the house (late 70's)and it was in my parents bedroom. Did we want one? Sure we did, but the fan in the window was what we got and we were grateful for that.

Oh..there's so much more,,,but somebody else's turn

[Pburgh]

MGC, are we related?? That sounds like my house as I was growing up. I can remember when my Dad worked night turn in the mill. You couldn't unplug your telephone then or turn it off ---- so, Mom would cover the phone with pillows and blankets and we would tiptoe around the house and whisper so we wouldn't disturb Dad as he slept during the day. Mom would tape a note to the outside door so that visitors wouldn't knock on the door or ring the doorbell.

One day we happened to look at the note very closely it read "DO NOT RAPE OR RING, MAN SLEEPING!!!!" Well needless to say no one had rapped or raped!!!lol