Just recieved this in an e-mail - I miss being a Kid in the old days!


CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE

1940s, 50s, 60s and 70s !!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured 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 children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always great fun.

We drank water from the garden hosepipe 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 cakes, white bread and real butter and drank pop with sugar in it, 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, Nintendos, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no text messaging, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet 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 played with worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

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

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Local teams 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!

This generation has 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!

And 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 our lives for our own good.
and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

that's the stuff I've been thinking of when sterilizing bottles and pacifiers for my kids for the past 4 years ...

PREDOMINANT said:

This almost brought tears to my eyes , because i have so many fond memories as a kid in the 70's some good some bad, but hey for me the 70's were a magical time to be alive and if i had to go back and do it again,i would.

I was born in the very late 60's a 'homebirth' in a tenement flat whole families living in one room kinda thing.....

They dropped me on my head.....

Ahhh.... those were the days.....

i was born in 74, we stayed outside and did all those things (but we couldn't go to far off the usual blocks ). it was as if we couldn't breathe if we stayed in the house in front of the tv i hated when it was time to come in. i wanted to stay out forever!

heybaby said:

Same here, and my son is the same way too. Always wants out to play and always gets soooo upset when it's time to come in.

Yeah, the good old days of freedom and fun...

The world hasn't become more dangerous since then, it's just that people have become more scared of it.

JustErin said:

i thought for sure that i was gonna miss something

That was basically my childhood.

Falling out of trees, playing shooting games with real bb guns, and jumping off the roof.

Also, I remember my mom had friends and spies everywhere. I would get home and my mom would say, "Where you been?"

She knew.

Steadwood said:

jami0mckay said:

I'm serious... it's all true

Awesome article!

I used to actually play tackle football on the street. We didn't care and somehow we didn't get hurt.

I used to make ramps out of old pieces of wood leaning against cinder blocks, and then ride my bike off of it like some mini Evil stinkin' Knievel...would only go about 2 feet in the air and maybe fly 4 feet forward, then land hard and bounce my privates off of the banana seat of my Schwinn, then tumble onto the sidewalk and into the bushes, scraping my elbow and shoulder as I did. I'd swear I flew 50 feet thru the air and looked at the scars on my elbow and shoulder as proof of my bravery.

In short, I was an idiot lol ...

My hubbie grew up on a farm in Pennsylvania. His dad would hoist him up, with a rope and pulley, to paint the silo when he was a kid.....

retina said:

I was born in 79 and my folks were very permissive. I had a Ghostbusters Proton Pack and would go around to all the houses on the street saying that I saw ghosts in their attic windows, and that I'd get rid of them for a couple popsicles!

BUt you know what's ironic, is that the same generation of people have fucked up being a kid for THEIR kids. All this emphasis on safety and cleanliness all the time...
[Edited 11/15/07 10:35am]

Yay!!! 1970 here If you think about it, we are pretty lucky

And one of the worst "crimes" we would commit would be to ring someone's doorbell and run away or crank call people.

No one got shot.

I just made the list. 1979 y'all!!!! I was able to go out and play but Mom had to keep an eye on me since we lived in the projects and it was NYC in the 1980's. But I'm glad I was born when I was.

1sexymf said:

oooh we did that all the time


well my dad used to smoke weed and listen to his records while we played in the summer. he'd give us a little bit of beer (without my mother knowing ) it was fun

heybaby said:

my dad used to smoke weed in the basement with his friends and listen to records, but we didn't get any beer, lol.

Also, the most banging electronic thing to have was an Atari system. I think the most violent game was Donkey Kong. We didn't car jack people, murder and maim them, pick up prostitutes, then beat them and take their money.
[Edited 11/15/07 11:25am]

yeah I got this same e mail like 5 months ago

Great article..

It was fun times, safe times.

we're all gonna be 40 stone phaliodmide geniuses who'll walk on Mars. I'd trade that in for scabby knees and loitering. Rose-tinted specs make you blind.

yup .. Parents also beat their kids with belts and it was lawful. that's what's wrong with this generation.. they need butt kickings .. old school.

Flowerz said:

Time-outs and negotiating doesn't seem to be working.

This Kids are Soft now a days. They are all "Bubble Babies". I know you all remember that movie "The Boy in The Bubble" What ever happened to Natural Selection/ survival of the fitness, the weak ones get weeded out. These kids aren't allowed to do anything fun now a days. Everything is soooo dangerous if you watch the news.

These Kids need to toughen up. Kids like Erin grew up eating lead paint in the 70's and look at her, she is ok.
[Edited 11/15/07 12:06pm]

We need to bring back the old fashion "Ass Whoopin" That would straighten these damn kids out!

Kids born after that think things are handed to them, that they do not have to work hard for it. That is what worries me, their inability to fight.

Steadwood said:

Steadwood..thank you. You gave me my laugh for the day!