Another Classic.............

[Frank Walsh]

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE
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 were pregnant.

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

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes

Riding in the back of a pick- up truck 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, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight. WHY?

Because we were always outside playing...that's why!

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 them 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 and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no person al computers, no Internet and no 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!

These generations have 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.


If 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 so much of our lives for our own good.

While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.

The quote of the month is by Jay Leno: 'With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?'

For those that prefer to think that God is not watching over us...go ahead and delete this.


For the rest of us...pass this on

[Doug Johnson]

Yep!

I think I did all that. Biggest differance was that I had a .22 at age 10, think I had a BB gun when I was seven or so. Shot lots of sparrows. Never had in-door plumming till I was a Junior in high-school. Quite a differance from now days!

Doug Johnson

[Frank Walsh]

And the term "bailout" was something you did for your deadbeat brother after a wild weekend.

[Ed Spoerl]

Frank,

I was the youngest of 10 and I learned all I wanted and then some about respect, diversity and tolerance within the household. No need for the public schools to teach me about diversity or tolerance; the teachers could actually just focus on reading writing and math! Oh yah and civics!

Amazing how much fun a stick was! But then we had pretty creative imaginations growing up and never seemed to be bored. Of course all the choirs better be done!

My Father had a belt with little Indian beads on it that hurt like hell across the back of the legs, but the thing that was crazy about doing something wrong is that I never did it again! In fact as I would be sitting in my room I was more mad at myself for being so stupid rather than angry at my parents for doing something wrong, not sure how they did that?

I used to play on the pipes in the furnace room like they were monkey bars and remember all the dust from the asbestoses insulation falling in my eyes and mouth. We (6 boys) slept in an unheated attic and would run down stairs on winter mornings and lay beside the baseboard radiators to warm up. It was there that I would chip off trophy size lead paint chips suck on them and spit them at my brothers!

Might explain why I spend thousands of dollars catching a fish I just release anyway?

Ed

[fishwizard]

Although I was born in 1979 I'd like to mention that I identify with the above 100%. Although I did have a Nintendo when I was young, but I spent a lot more time riding my 80cc mini-bike through the nearby park and getting chased out by the cops on a weekly basis. The times I spent entire afternoons playing with a box of strike anywhere matches and a couple gallons of gas were usually interesting. Many G.I. Joes and toy cars met their fate, but somehow I never managed to burn anything down too important.

Many of the things I've learned in this world I've learned because I initially did them wrong, but today too many kids aren't given the chance to learn from their own mistakes. It goes to show that while kids today may do better in school, very few have the same common sense that seemed so important in the past. I lived a little more on the edge than the average kid, but I wouldn't change any of the experiences I've had in life.

[dpear]

Now I know why Fishwizard scares me,we had a similar guy in our HS class.He'd take a box of 'farmers'matches(wood ones)and sit by an ant pile for hours burning ants.
Don't really want to say where he ended up but suspect he's still wearing a tight fitting white jacket wherever it is.

[BWold]

When we were kids, out in our cow pasture, we had two enormous ant hills. One had black ants, one had red ants. You guessed it. Get a big stick....dig around in the black ants til they were pissed and crawling all over the stick, then run it over and put them in the red ant pile. Once the red ants were done with the black ants it was time for revenge, get some red ants over to the black ants and let them have their way.

Favorite was gopher trapping though. Always made it interesting somehow! Jump on the John Deere "B" tractor with a shovel, traps and some hub caps and head to the fields. If we were lucky enough to catch two live gophers, then we would play gladiator with them. Had to make farm work interesting.

The other night my family and I were sitting at the dinner table and the discussion of what the wife and I used to do when we were our children's age came up. When we told them that we did chores, worked and played outside all day long they were in utter shock. Couldn't believe we didn't have playstation or xbox to play and that our moms would kick us out of the house during the day to go and play. How the times have changed, eh?

My oldest son, who is almost 16, thinks that working at Burger King or Subway is going to be to much labor intensive work. I have some farmer friends that could use his help picking rock this spring. Bet after a few days of that, Subway wont be looking too bad!!!!!

[Muskie Nut]

Now I know why Fishwizard scares me,we had a similar guy in our HS class.He'd take a box of 'farmers'matches(wood ones)and sit by an ant pile for hours burning ants.

This guy is so wasteful. Doesn't he know its much easier to use solar power to cook ants??? We used to make wise use of our magnifying glass.

[fishwizard]

Yeah, sometimes I scare myself. Actually my wife often marvels at how I'm still alive after many of the things I've done in my childhood. Thankfully I've stopped doing most of them.