posted 11-14-2002 12:04 PM            

I can't believe we all survived.....

Well, you must be over forty if you received this. You
lived as a child in the 50s and 60s or before. Looking back,it's
hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have... and survived!

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,
and no padded crib protectors to keep us from sticking our heads
through the slats. We could sleep on our backs, our sides, or our
stomachs.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or 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 ou! t of scraps of wood and
old wheels or roller skates 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. No pagers.
Unthinkable!

We played dodgeball and sometimes the ball would really hurt.

We got cut and 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. And sometimes make up and become best friends.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda but we were
never overweight.... .....we were always outside playing.

We shared one 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, 699 channels on cable, video tape and DVD movies, surround sound,
personal cellular phones, Personal Computers, internet chat rooms,
.........we had real live 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 or just walked in and talked to them. Imagine such
a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves! 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.

Bad behavior at home, at school, or in public was rewarded with
corporal punishment, such as a smack or a paddling.

We walked to school or at the very least to the bus stop without our
parents taking us because it rained or snowed.

We had people who didn't like us because of our religion, color,
ethnic origin, where we lived, who we hung out with, and so forth.
We survived.

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 and
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.