How are people 30 and over alive today!?

[stormchazer]

To the survivors:

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.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors?

[bfez1]

I have read this before and all I can say is,
"ain't that the truth." How did we ever survive it???

[JCT777]

Jara - that is so true! Especially regarding the cell phones. I think it is just ridiculous how many kids under the age of 15 have one now.

When I was a kid (up until age 16), we had 2 TV's for the whole house. And one was black and white. Friends of mine have 2 kids - ages 8 and 5. Both have TV's in their bedroom as well as VCR's. And they just bought a DVD player for the 5 year old for Christmas. Unbelievable.

[opera ghost]

I'm only 23.. but I'll still have the ability to say "when *I* was a kid we didn't have computers at all!" (Close enough We got our first computer when I was 10- internet when I was 16)

I remember begging my mom for a pager when I was 16. She told me only drug dealers and loose women used pagers or *god forbid* those evil cell phones.

7 years later she has 2 cell phones of her own- my dad has one and my sister and I have them. (Shae got her's at 17... practically INDECENT!) My first cell phone was one of those that had thier own small briefcase sized holder... at 18 when I started college. I NEVER had my own phone line... or a phone in my room *laughs*

It's strange how much things can change in a short lifetime. I can't imagine how strange it would be to raise a kid from the cradle with so much technology around....

[petal*pusher]

Such a great post! (and our parents probably thought WE had too much!!)

Working with young people every day gives me great opportunity to talk about some of the things in these paragraphs! They cannot believe we had no panty-hose.....or microwave ovens.....or could actually do math WITHOUT a calculator!......p

[ameriwx2003]

Jara.... yes great post and so true!!!!!!:):):I can't remember the last time I have seen kids outside playing sports, war, anything... If you asked them nowdays if they wanted to play football they would say Oh yes.. let me go get the Maddden 2003 CD lol.

[stormraiser]

Uh, who told you my life story? That certainly hits close to home.