To all the kids who were born in the 30's, 40's, 50's 60's and 70's

[lady Amalthea]

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.

They took aspirin, 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!

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 scissors, doesn't it?!;-)

[Mistress Morigianna]

don't forget we ate RAW cookie dough with real eggs....

we had clubhouses and tree houses we made of scraps of wood and luck

[Pansy Faye]

Ahh the memories!!!

I remember when I was little, I'd come down for breakfast and my grandmother would ask me if I wan'ted eggs. I'd say yes and she'd hand me a basket and say "Go out to the hen house and get yourself 2 and get 2 more for grandpa." And we lived in the same town I live in now, only 40 minutes from NYC!!! We had a goat for milk and a pig to be slaughtered for winter. When the hen stopped laying it ended up on the table for dinner. The man next door had rabbits and we had a huge garden to grow all our veggies. We never had rats and we never got sick. My grandmother canned her own fruits and veggies and pickles for winter and they were kept in the root cellar of the house my Uncle Joe still lives in.
When I was little it was my job on Saturday mornings to black the wood burning stove and my Uncle just this week replaced the gas stove my grandmother bought 49 years ago to replace the wood burner. The "plate" is still on the wall where we covered the hole inthe chimney.

Remember actually eating dinner at the table with your family at night. Parents talking to their kids instead of throwing them a hambrger from McDonald's while they wizzedf rom one game to another?

I long for the old simple days. Maybe that's why I like camping so much and REN Faires! Yeah - that could be it!!:wink:

[Rowen]

Huzzah to us! I miss 'Fizzies'. I drank gallons of the stuff and don't have cancer...

[RikkiD]

Yep, most summer days I'd get up at the crack of dawn, load up saddlebags, and head out riding with a friend or two. We'd cover miles and miles, and had a few places we'd go to play. My folks knew they wouldn't see me until end of the day. Now, I see reports about how people don't want their kids to walk to school without their cell phones.:roll:

Ah, progress!

[rosefaeries]

Yep, most summer days I'd get up at the crack of dawn, load up saddlebags, and head out riding with a friend or two. We'd cover miles and miles, and had a few places we'd go to play. My folks knew they wouldn't see me until end of the day. Now, I see reports about how people don't want their kids to walk to school without their cell phones.:roll:

Ah, progress!


lol. To hades with a cell phone, I want tracking devices implanted in my boys. That way, I know where they are at. (Of course there is the little factor called a restraining order againest the ex. Kind of changes the equation a bit.)

But I know what you mean. I used to ride all over the valley on horseback when I was in junior high and high school. I just had to stay in the general area I told my parents I was riding in. Of course, if Bismarck decided he was going to "kill" a log truck all bets were off for where I was riding at. Now I see elementary kids with cell phones. The list my son got for boy scout camp has cell phones on the do not bring list. Boy how times have changed.

[Rosina Cernak]

ok it think we might need to add some early 80s to that list.
cause I did all those things and more. my mom (a single one) never worried about us or checked up on us when she kicked us outside for the day. Hell we didnt even come in when it started pouring.... granted we came in afterwards to remove the wet cloths and hang them on the line to wear tomorrow cause they were clean dontyaknow.
the boys played ticks on the girls.... more than once the boys got ahold on the girls (who danced) water bottles and emptied it and filled it with well urine... the boys got their butt wooped.
And our friend parents got to punish us. ohhh wow.

[lady Amalthea]

ok it think we might need to add some early 80s to that list.

See, I agree with that, I was born in '78. I recieved this as an email from my grandmother. Man, I remember in Kindergarden walking to school alone. (Granted the school was two blocks from my house and you could see it from my front yard) But the fact that my parents didn't have to worry about anyone snatching us.
I do also remember one halloween when I was about 10 or so. A group of us were trick or treating and about a block up from my house some man had barracaded(sp?) himself and his ex wife in his house and there were about 5 cop cars there trying to get him out, after two hours he surrended himself. But for us kids we just went about our business like nothing was wrong, in the 13 years that I lived in that neighborhood that was the worst thing that ever happened.

[Pansy Faye]

lol. To hades with a cell phone, I want tracking devices implanted in my boys. That way, I know where they are at. (Of course there is the little factor called a restraining order againest the ex. Kind of changes the equation a bit.) But I know what you mean. I used to ride all over the valley on horseback when I was in junior high and high school. I just had to stay in the general area I told my parents I was riding in. Of course, if Bismarck decided he was going to "kill" a log truck all bets were off for where I was riding at. Now I see elementary kids with cell phones. The list my son got for boy scout camp has cell phones on the do not bring list. Boy how times have changed.

O I had that thought a looong time ago. I thik everyone should have a chip. Just think, no missing persons, cuz we'dd have lojac implanted. OF course therewould be people who'd appose such a thing. Gotta know where your car is at all times but not your kid

Same here, but on my bike. and whoa be to me if I didn't call when I changed places - Mrs. SoandSo, can I call my mom to let her know where I am? Like any mother would object to it!!
So your son is in Boy Scouts?? So is mine - a 4-palm Eagle Scout no less. Of course now he's an Ass't Scoutmaster being 18 and all and Chapter Chief for our District Order of the Arrow. He recieved the "No Cell Phone" merit badge last year. He brings it everywhere and is always getting calls on camp outs. Of course it does have a GPS, so I shouldn't complain, he can't get lost. Well yes he can but we can find him.

What rank is your son? I think Boy Scouts is the best organization a boy can get into. It teaches so much character building. Is your son in OA? My son has just made his 7th year year-round camper and has over 550 nights of camping in.

[Lady Litania]

Ahhhhh....the good old days. I recall my grandomother walking to the corner with me & watching me from there as I made my way to school up the road. I was just saying to Brian yesterday as we were out riding our bikes, enjoying the gorgeous weather that I either walked or rode my bike to school all the time, as the Elementary, Middle & High schools wer all 5 minutes if that from my house. & I live 2 houses in from am busy intersection. Of course, walking to school on a rainy day was less than fun, especially since grandma insisted on me wearing one of the "old lady" clear plastic rain caps. Once I was mostly out of her line of sight, I'd rip it off & stuff it into the bookbag.

But, my parent's never worried were I was; 90% of the time I was in my own backyard. I have no sibs & growing up had very few friends (no one wanted to be seen with the fat kid after all) but that didn't stop me from having a grand old time in my back yard, running around with a stick in hand, pretending to be She-Ra.

Remember running around the yard with a stick?? Heck, remember running around the yard...barefoot.....you didn't worry about things like ticks. The occasional yellow jacket maybe, but not ticks. You stayed out until it got too dark to see, usually just long enough to catch a peanut butter jar's worth of fireflies. Ahhhh...the memories....

[rosefaeries]

O So your son is in Boy Scouts?? So is mine - a 4-palm Eagle Scout no less. Of course now he's an Ass't Scoutmaster being 18 and all and Chapter Chief for our District Order of the Arrow. He recieved the "No Cell Phone" merit badge last year. He brings it everywhere and is always getting calls on camp outs. Of course it does have a GPS, so I shouldn't complain, he can't get lost. Well yes he can but we can find him.

What rank is your son? I think Boy Scouts is the best organization a boy can get into. It teaches so much character building. Is your son in OA? My son has just made his 7th year year-round camper and has over 550 nights of camping in.


lol My oldest son is an eagle scoutand in OA. My middle son is slow in getting his rank. He should be a lot further than what he is. Might help if he would quit losing things. (snicker. Long story there.) My youngest son is a webalo.

Both of my brothers are eagle scouts and in OA. So my two youngest boys have a tough row to hoe .

[Pansy Faye]

Well good luck to your too younger ones and congrats to your older.

My son used to loose things too, so i bought him a day pack (book back in mundane world) to keep all his scout stuff in for troop: compass, handbook. field book, knife, totin' chip card, merit badge books and rope.

I started that idea when I was a Tiger Cub leader and the boys woud forget everything. We made tote bags as Tigers and they kept them through WeBeLoS scouts. We added decorations for each rank to make a history of their scouting. Some of my boys used the bag part of their first year of boy scouts, then they stopped until I got Ben a day pack the second year. We use it in summer camp tooso they carry everything during the day and not lose anything, well almost not lose anything. so we took it to troop meetings, up a level and it works well and the troop is still using it.:roll: some ideas are too good to lose!

[Mistress Morigianna]

gee- I suppose that swimming in the "crick" out in the back of my gramdparrents doesn't count as a bath anymore either....

[Rosina Cernak]

gee- I suppose that swimming in the "crick" out in the back of my gramdparrents doesn't count as a bath anymore either....
nope i dont think it does any more... my little one wants a bath after she plays in the kiddy pool then again she is a water baby cant get her out of it once you get her in it

[Artemisia]

"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!!"

Yes! My husband and I decided to always throw the kids out of the house in the mornings and tell them to have fun. They had a Nintendo when they were young, but we never bought them a replacement when it went obsolete. Go outside and have fun! And kicking and screaming, they would.

Now they are adults they say that as kids they hated it when we would force them outside and never bought them a new playstation.

And in the same breath they talk and laugh when they remember the times they had just playing outside. The time one got their foot stuck in the tree and they just slept there for a couple of hours, the bikes they would ride up and down the hill - with no brakes! The forts they would build, the sunflower seeds they would eat.

They thank us every time they see us for forcing them to play outside. It made memories and they laugh about all the stupid things they did as kids. They promise they are going to do the same for their kids one day.

So parents, curb your kids video game and TV time. They will thank you for it.

[Buxom Wench]

[I].......So parents, curb your kids video game and TV time. They will thank you for it.

I was one of those parents that didn't even allow those kind of games in the house. All the kid's friends had them and there was nothing I could do if they played them at their friend's houses. I just saw how all those kids would sit in front of a screen and stare for HOURS and HOURS.

We moved into our present house almost 18 years ago (Halloween 1988). We have 50 acres that the kids could go and play and explore and "imagine". They were, for lack of a better word, "forced" to enjoy what nature had provided for their entertainment. They ran, they rode bikes, they hiked through the woods, built forts, sloshed through the streams....... in general, had fun.

They and I wouldn't have traded all that for anything!