Congratulations to all us kids born in the 1940's, 50's, 60's and 70's!

[FergieTCat]

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 exciting and great
fun.


We drank water from the garden hose or tap and NOT from a bottle.


We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and
NO ONE actually died from this.


We ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank cordial 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, Nintendo's, X-boxes, No video games at
all, No 99 channels,No Pay TV, No cable, No DVD movies or surround
sound.


It's crazy! We even had


No mobile 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 didn't poke out anyone's eye.


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 your eyes shut
holding a pair of scissors, doesn't it?!

 

[breezy1077]

Never looked at it quite like that before - but you're right! Congrats to us!

 

[loco4dis]

Amen to that! I LOVE it. I worry so for this generation coming up. They are so weak and protected (including, I fear, my own children). They don't think anything's worth fighting for, and they couldn't fight if they needed to anyway because "we just don't hit!" When the power goes out, they fall apart completely. When it's hot, they whine. When it's cold, they whine. If they have to walk further than a city block, well the world has come to an end. I worry. I really do.

 

[Cool-Beans]

Pregnant women can't eat tuna? I didn't know that. I KNOW I ate tuna...there isn't a whole lot I can eat, so I tend to eat the same crap all the time.

Oopsie.

Kids that have never sat in the back of a pick-up while it was moving have missed out on a real pleasure.

 

[Barbossa]

Yep, my mom smoked through all four of her pregnancies, and we all came out fine. I still eat blue cheese. I broke my arm jumping off a fence when I was 5. A helmet would've been a good thing back then, I nearly split my head open several times jumping my bike. And the best thing about being a teenager in the 70's? No bras!

Let's not think that the 60's and 70's were carefree and easy. Some perv tried to pick me up in his car on the way to baseball practice. I was 10, it was 1970. Even back then they taught us what to do when something like that happened: run away and scream "help" at the top of your lungs. I did and it worked.

 

[breezy1077]

Except for the lack of freedom to roam the neighborhood - I try to make my kids childhood similar to mine.

They constantly play outside and have no idea what a video game is.

 

[sdarwkcabemanmy]

I think I remarked how things were a lot different from my own childhood when DS was born.

One of the first toys he ever got was a Farmer In The Dell See-n-Say. Pull the handle and it goes "The cow goes MOO!", etc. I remember thinking how weird it was that it had a HANDLE and not a pull-string the way mine did.

Come to think of it, does any toy have a pullstring these days or are they 'too dangerous'?

Ah yes..the good old days when an ugly, trashy doll meant Barbie not a Bratz girl.

When superheroines wore short skirts and superhero men wore fur underwear. By the POWER OF GREYSKULL I AM HEMAN!

 

[breezy1077]

Ahhhh, the days when folks didn't take themselves so seriously and actually knew how to laugh at themselves.

Now political correctness has everyone getting offended at something or other -

 

[Barbossa]

We actually had a set of lawn darts (aka "Jarts") when we were kids. They were banned not long after we got them. Can't say I disagree with this, we could have put some pretty good holes in each other with those things.

 

[breezy1077]

We actually had a set of lawn darts (aka "Jarts") when we were kids. They were banned not long after we got them. Can't say I disagree with this, we could have put some pretty good holes in each other with those things.

I loved lawn jarts!!!

 

[Barbossa]

Ahhhh, the days when folks didn't take themselves so seriously and actually knew how to laugh at themselves.

Now political correctness has everyone getting offended at something or other -

On the flip side of this, people thought nothing of throwing racial slurs at you in public. I saw this first hand many times. In fact, my parents' marriage (my father is asian, mother caucasian) was illegal in many states in the early 60's. Every era has its best-of-times and worst-of-times, IMO.

 

[Laura]

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

I rode in a van all the way from Ohio to Florida and back TWICE and I don't remember wearing seatbelts.

Did you know? Early Sesame Street shows on DVD have a warning.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/11/18/180249&from=rss
I find that sad.

Pregnant women can't eat tuna? I didn't know that. I KNOW I ate tuna...there isn't a whole lot I can eat, so I tend to eat the same crap all the time.

The long list of things we pregnant women can't eat/drink/breathe/do nowadays is hilarious.

 

[PrincessKsMom]

My uncle tried to spear my boyfriend (now DH) with lawn jarts during a party once. Guess it was the lawn jarts fault for being there - not the beer uncle drank all day! Bad lawn jarts, bad, bad lawn jarts!

 

[Laura]

On the flip side of this, people thought nothing of throwing racial slurs at you in public. I saw this first hand many times. In fact, my parents' marriage (my father is asian, mother caucasian) was illegal in many states in the early 60's. Every era has its best-of-times and worst-of-times, IMO.

Very true!

 

[sdarwkcabemanmy]

Wait a minute....Sesame Street has a warning on it?

What in heck?

Now, I always understood that The Muppet Show was for grown ups because there were some references kids might not have gotten. Heck, the pilot ep was called Sex and Violence, for crying out loud.

 

[Mickeyistheman]

But look at the Civil Rights Movement that came out of that era.

Where is that today? Why don't we have demonstrations like that today to promote peace and equality?

The young people of today are missing that inspiration in my opinion.

 

[ozarkmom]

We were just talking about alot of these things in the office. I especially love thinking about summers when we played outside all day and yeah no problem getting a drink from the water hose.

 

[golfgal]

What's wrong with blue cheese dressing and pregnancy? That's a new one for me.

 

[breezy1077]

Mmmmm....food made with real sugar and pop out of bottles.

 

[sdarwkcabemanmy]

IIRC, Blue Cheese is made by exposing the cheese to a certain kind of mold which creates the unique blue veining. The mold could potentially be harmful to pregnant mothers, therefore NO BLUE CHEESE FOR YOU!

I remember almost crying when the OB/GYN told me no tuna during pregnancy. I eat tuna all the time, almost every day in fact. She also told me that if I could, I should just not eat fish at all during my pregnancy.