Thursday, September 20, 2007

Regurgitate

I came across this today, and it really made me smile. Perhaps because we have been worrying about our little one all week (he developed an ear infection a couple of days ago)...
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930s, '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, and tuna from a can.

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

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking .

As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, 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 koolade made with sugar, 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 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVDs, no surround-sound, CDs or iPods, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or 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!

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

4 comments:

Brett Branco said...

That just about sums it up doesn't it. Don't forget the playgrounds where everything was made out of rusty metal and splintered wood held together with rivets and mounted on concrete pads or dirt packed to the same hardness.

Anonymous said...

I'm all for nostalgia, but I can't help thinking this essay could be very hurtful to someone who lost their child because they ate lead paint, didn't wear a helmet, rode in the back of a pickup truck and fell out, etc. The truth is that we didn't survive, we were just darned lucky.

Darron said...

I like the new playgrounds today. If you have kids, encourage them to get outside and play.

The Prof said...

I agree with you, Tors...now that I'm a parent, I do feel darned lucky that I lived through all those possible harms. The example of the playground is a good one, as children are still seriously injured on old-style ones. And I think the author's suggestion that creativity is somehow related to being exposed to those childhood dangers is way overstated. But I think the general point about having the importance of freedom to be a kid is one that I want to remember.