I Can't Believe We Made It!

[pritchke]

Make of this what you will but I remember they were good days.

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's or even the early 80's, probably shouldn't have survived.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.

We had no childproof lids or locks 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 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 shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.

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 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 did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all (maybe Coleco Vision!), 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 played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt.

We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out any eyes.

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.

Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade. Horrors!

Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.

The idea of parents bailing us out if we got in trouble in school or broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the school or the law. Imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventors, ever.

We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility -- and we learned how to deal with it.

And you're one of them!
Congratulations.

Exactly why I dismiss out of hand any doomsayer, alarmist nut job these days [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Night Stalker]

Oddly enough, these nut job doomsayers are from the generations that survived these so called horrors that they try to stamp out - their memories must be faulty. Maybe it was the water from the hose! [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Timber Loftis]

Great post. Personally, I really miss our live ammo BB-gun wars. Talk about remembering to duck.

[Larry_OHF]

The problem is that kids these days are weaker than we were...and need more help to survive. We are the remnants of the super-human. Nothing could kill us.

[Stormymystic]

hey you forgot bottle rocket wars...rubs nose in memory of forgetting to run...
and you also forgot long walks on the railroad tracks, the club houses, the finding an old abandoned house the "GHOST" stories, the Camping and roasting marshmellows and your best friend "Red" the neighborhood mutt

[ 06-11-2003, 01:08 PM: Message edited by: Stormymystic ]

[Timber Loftis]

Bottle Rocket Wars!!! Who can forget what a good bazooka a nice PVC pipe makes!!

How is it that I never broke any bones?? [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img]

[Night Stalker]

Two things that should not be put with in 5 miles of eachother:
boys .......... construction sites!

Instant play ground! And all the supplies you could ever want for tree houses, ramps, half-pipes .....

How we never managed to kill our selfves I don't know. [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img] No broken bones either. I did blow my knee skiing when I was 19 but that don't count.

Timber [img]smile.gif[/img] Those live fire BB gun wars were a blast...amazing that none of us got really hurt....can still recall that delay just after you hear the impact on your leg...then the agonizingly slow crawl of the burning intense pain as it shoots up your leg [img]smile.gif[/img] We always wore heavy jackets so usually didn't have a lot of hurting torso shots.

Or we would use the lady finger fire crackers as artillery rounds on our little plastic army men and would set themup in fortifications and try to pick them off with bb guns [img]smile.gif[/img] .....

Construction sites and Strip Mines [img]smile.gif[/img] two places just begging little boys to get hurt in [img]smile.gif[/img] ...ahhhh good times.

[dafan]

congratulations to all of you who survived