Risk-takers!
We
licked the beaters and didn't have anyone telling us we were going to become
deathly ill from eating batter with raw eggs in it!
At
Easter time, we had our dyed Easter eggs in a nest on the counter and they
sat out at room temperature for the week after Easter. We would peel one whenever
we felt like it. I Can't Believe We Made It"!
If
you lived as a child in the 40's, 50's, 60's or 70's. Looking back, it's hard
to believe that we have lived as long as we have... As children, we would
ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding
in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
Our
baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.
We
had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, cabinets, and when we rode
our bikes, we had no helmets. Not to mention hitchhiking to town as a young
kid!
We
drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors.
We
would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode 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
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. No cell
phones. Unthinkable.
We played dodge ball and sometimes the ball would really hurt. We got cut, broke bones and broke teeth, and there were no law suits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame, but us. Remember accidents?
We
had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get
over it.
We
ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda but we were never overweight
... we were a always outside playing games, we shared grape soda with four
friends, from one bottle and no one died from this.
We
did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, video games at all,
99
channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones,
Personal Computers, Internet chat rooms ... we had friends. We went outside
and found them.
We
rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rung the
bell and just walked in and talked to them. Imagine such a thing. Without
asking a parent! By our-selves! Out there in the cold, cruel world! Without
a guardian. How did we do it?
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.
Little
League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't, had to
learn to deal with disappointment.
Some students weren't as smart as others so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade .... Horrors. Tests were not adjusted for any reason.
Our
actions were our own. Consequences were expected. No one to hide behind. The
idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually
sided with the law, imagine that!
This
generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and
inventors, ever. The past 50 years has 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're one of them.
Congratulations!
Please
pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kid's, before lawyers
and government regulated our lives, for our own good. – Author Unknown
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© 2007 The Flaming Torch, All rights reserved.
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