First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
They took aspirin (and gave it to us), 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 Playstations, 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 yelled for 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!
All this was probably possible for my generation because the grownups were too busy fighting and winning a war against terror -- WWII. They concentrated on it, sacrificed for it and it never occurred to them to whine like babies and cowards and Cindy Sheehan.
Let's face it -- they were a better generation than we -- a generation who .
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
1 comment:
Your generation? Are you forgetting Vietnam? Your comment about Cindy Sheehan is ridiculous. She doesn't believe in the campaign against Iraq, and because of our great country's constitution, she has the right to say so and assemble on behalf of those beliefs. Protesting is not whining, and if you'd ever protested anything in your life instead of just doing what people tell you to do, you'd know that it takes great courage to stand up against the crowd despite everyone mocking you. Just try to put the shoe on the other foot, would you?
Post a Comment