CONGRATULATIONS
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN 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 carried us and lived in houses made of
asbestos.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese,
tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes or cervical cancer.
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 or shoes, 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 Ute on a
warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose
and NOT from a bottle.
Take away food was a special treat.
Even though all the shops closed at 6.00pm
and didn't always open on the weekends, somehow we didn't starve to
death!
We shared one soft drink with four
friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We could collect old drink bottles and cash them in at
the corner store and buy fruit tingles and some crackers to blow up frogs
with.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real
butter and drank soft drinks 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. We built tree houses and cubby houses and played in creek beds with
matchbox cars.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's,
X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no surround sound,no
mobile 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.
Only girls had pierced ears!
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the
worms did not live in us forever.
You could only buy Easter Eggs and Hot Cross buns at
Easter time.......no really!
We were given BB guns and sling shots for
our 10th birthdays,
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's
house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!
Mum didn't have to go to work to help dad make ends
meet!
Footy had tryouts and not everyone made the team.
Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
Bully's always ruled the playground at school.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the
law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law!
Our parents got married before they had children and didn't invent stupid names for their kids like
'Kiora' and 'Blade'
This generation has produced some of the best
risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 70 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 remind 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, tell your kids so they will know how brave their
parents were.
You need to tell your teen age kids
first while they are still smarter than
us as later in life they all get dumber.
Kind of makes you want to run through the
house with scissors, doesn't it?!
By the way I have used large print is because your eyes are shot at your
age.