We licked
the beaters and didn't have anyone telling us we were going to
become deathly ill from eating batter with raw eggs in it! At Easter time, we had our dyed Easter eggs in a nest on the counter and they sat out at room temperature for the
week after Easter. We would peel one whenever
we felt like it. I Can't Believe We Made It"!
If you lived as a child in the
40's, 50's, 60's or 70's. Looking back, it's hard to believe that
we have lived as long as we have... 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.
Our baby cribs were covered with
bright colored lead-based paint.
We had no childproof lids on
medicine bottles, doors, cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we
had no helmets. Not to mention hitchhiking to town as a young kid!
We drank water from the garden
hose and not from a bottle. Horrors.
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
streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell
phones. Unthinkable.
We played dodge ball and
sometimes the ball would really hurt. We got cut, broke bones and
broke 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 ate cupcakes, bread and
butter, and drank sugar soda but we were never overweight ... we
were always outside playing games, we shared grape soda with four
friends, from one bottle and no one died from this.
We did not have Play stations,
Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, video games at all, 99 channels on cable,
videotape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, Personal
Computers, Internet chat rooms ... we had friends. We went outside
and found them.
We rode bikes or walked to a
friend's home and knocked on the door, or rung the bell and just
walked in and talked to them. Imagine such a thing. Without asking
a parent! By our-selves! Out there in the cold, cruel world!
Without a guardian. How did we do it? 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.
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. No one to hide behind. 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, problem solvers and inventors, ever. The
past 50 years has 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. 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.
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