To All Of The Kids Who Survived the .....

BrendaCloutier

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 carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored 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 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 soda 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 Play stations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, 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 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!

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?!

Lady Lee

Brenda Hope you don't mind but I reformatted that for you to make it easier to read. Then I saw you might have been trying to do that too. I had to copy and paste it into WordPad and then back here because the edit window refused to let me do it

avishai

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays,

10th, hell, i had one when I was 7 or 8! Most of us had at least a .22 by the time we were 10.And i had a pocket knife, and if i forgot and left matches or the knife in my pocket, and took it to school, I told the teacher, gave it to her and got 'em back at the end of the day IN GRADE SCHOOL, no one freaked out!! By the time I was 8 I was also in charge of the burn barrel in our back yard, pulling nails out of random boards (my parents restored houses) etc., I worked my ass off, but it was fine.

Now, lawn darts are a different story.... who ever invented those was HIGH!!!!

ChrisVance

Boy, did that bring back memories. Thanks!

orangefatcat

Brenda how true that is. And yes it brings back many memories of happier days in my life.

One of the most favourite things I liked doing was build carts and going down hills with them. I never had a bb gun as my mom said it was too dangerous you could blind someone.

It put a real smile on my face and I copied and pasted to my notebook and then to a file in my doucuments.

I think that I am going to pass this on to some of my close friends.

Thanks again for the memories.

luv, Orangefatcat

Bryan

What about all that warm pond water we drank with the little squiggly things floating around?

Bryan

Have You Seen My Mother

juni

Hi Brenda!

Thanks too for taking us down memory lane. Isn't that the truth? How did we survive? And how did our kids survive? My oldest is 37 and youngest 28. Does anyone else here remember pop beads - girls made necklaces out of them, they came in different light colors, and you could CHEW on them when you were bored?

Yep. Kids then knew how to play imaginary games. Do kids now play hide and seek at night? Ride bikes to the nearest creek and pick up all kinds of gross creatures?

I quit!

It is amazing any of us survived without lawyers and the goverment to protect us.

BrendaCloutier

LadyLee, thank you for reformatting.

Y'all are welcome for the memories! I got that one from my bro-in-law.

The lack of legislating common sense is one of many reasons I like Mexico so much!

I didn't have a bbgun, but I had 2 beautiful silver with fake pearl handled cap guns I inherited from my brother complete with holster! I didn't like pop-beads, too... simple (sorry) I was into making my own silver and copper jewelry in my dad's basement when I was 10-12. Hand and power tools were kewl!

My dad built me a "go cart" with my help. I remember thinking I should rig a sail to it one evening as the wind was pushing me down the sidewalk. That night we had a huge storm... the Columbus Day Storm of 1962(?)

chrissy

lol. yes brenda, I love it. oh the memories...wonderbread, tang, slip n' slide, pink floyd playing in another room...

I may have been born in the late 70's, but I paid close attention.

...instead of running around the house singing cutesy spongebob squarepants songs, or sesame street rhymes, I ran around singing..."we don't need no ed-u-cation."

To All Of The Kids Who Survived the .....

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