survivors! ;)

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the
1930's 40's, 50's, 60's 70's and 80's !!

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

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing 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, bread and butter and drank sod a 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 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 in us forever.

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!

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.

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

not.

Yeah, kind of amazing that we all survived without seat belts, huh? Esp. since I wouldn't even go a block without one on now.

When I think about all the kool aid I drank, and my diabetic grandmother's saccarin I ate on my cereal...and the secondhand smoke from my mom and dad....it's a miracle I survived!!

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all

What??! We had video games in the 80's!

god dam!!!*offering hand* another miracle!

ahhhh, good times, good times

Originally posted by Mark
What??! We had video games in the 80's!


Yeah, no offense to the children of the 80's, but I'm surprised they are listed as part of that group. Not only did they have video games, they also had cable tv.

Everything was very different for my son who was born in the 80's and then later for my daughter who was born in the 90's, compared to my childhood (born in the late 50's). I miss those days when the children felt free to go play all day long and the adults knew they would be checking in from time to time.

Another thing I remember about those days was sitting on my father's lap and driving the car. He pushed the gas and brake pedals, but I steered. That was a lot of fun for me, but I won't let my daughter in either front seat because of the airbags in my car that can't be turned off.

Oh, the good ole days. :p

Great Thread!

Yes, it's too bad that kids these days have to miss out on such simple pleasures, such as being able to walk to a friend's house alone or even be able to play in their own front yard unattended.
We have a dangerous element out there now and even though as kids we inhaled a ton of second hand smoke and whizzed down the highways in cars without seatbelts, there was a calm and secure sense of safety for us kids of the 60's and 70's.
I'm glad I didn't know what a "drive by" was, or what a meth lab is.

Our children now are missing out on the basic freedom of being a child - to explore with divine curiosity their wonderous world without weight of fear stapped around their neck. They can't trust any stranger, especially a man, and they see daily, by way of the news just what horrible crimes can and are committed againts them.

So now we live in these perfect little bubbles where we give children everything we think they need to be happy. They have gizmos and gadgets galore and if we could, we'd purchase them a brand new shiny sense of 'good self esteem' too, but the truth in that is that kids need to earn this themselves and when parents hand everything to kids in order to provide them the perfect and safe world, they really don't know how to cultivate good self esteem for themselves.
They have been given so many 'things' to make them feel good and boost their sense of well being by the time they are 10 years old, there isn't much left for them to look forward to in those 'Alien' teen years.
So they oftentimes turn to drugs, sex and risky behavior to get that excitement in their lives.

There was a day that on a kid's baseball team, only a chosen few on the team ended up with a trophy to take home at the end of ball season, now all the kids on the team are provided a shiny grand trophy - even if they missed a ton of practices and treated his/her fellow team mates rudely.
We reward children for merely being children and don't allow them to work hard enough to succeed on their own merit which is extraced from their own inner desires to succeed- of which this comes from trial and error, failing, falling, and scrambling back up on their feet to try, try again.

Yes, the bubbles we have created may be a safe haven from the molesters and the gangs, but how many children become a danger unto themselves because of this?

Sorry I delved off into a serious mode here, but it just got me to thinking,....

wonderful post sage! all so true...

welcome back!

Born in 1968... had cable and videogames...

how could *ANYONE* forget atari pong???? Nooooow that was a game :p

Your post brought back wonderful memories for this child of the 50's/60's raised in a rural area who always had scraped knees and wierd plant-growth sticking out of her hair and jumped out of tree-house on a dare and made the "rounds" of friends houses from 8:00 in the morning till 8:00 at night.

Anybody remember the old oil barrels? We could roll on those things over grass and rocks and anything else, putting a log-roller to shame!

I will never forget entire days and nights spent sliding down a snow-covered hill and running up again or summer days spent doing the same thing with a jig. Or the time that we were having so much fun, a whole crap-load of us thought it would be a good idea to tie a toddler into a jig and send him speeding down the highest hill in town so he could have fun too- and NOT ONE OF US had the sense to say, "Hey, maybe this isn't a good idea." He loved it! We were lucky. Until his 6'5" State Trooper father saw his baby pass him on the road. Man, I have never seen anyone so mad. He took an axe and chopped that jig to pieces and we all thought we were next.

How about lying in your bed in the winter under a pile of blankets that were wider than you with an icy-cold nose to remind you how lucky you were to be under those blankets?

How about ice skating until you couldn't feel your feet anymore?

Remember summer afternoons as the sun went down, standing in the water, arms wrapped around yourself, teeth chattering, lips blue, while your mother screamed, "Get out of that water NOW or you'll freeze to death!" And then when we got older, spending all day swimming, jumping off the raft, using a rope swing to make the most glorious arc as you flew before crashing into the water?

Kids today think skateboards are new. Heck, for a 10-year period, there was always at least one kid in school with two broken arms, wrists, or elbows!

Now, I volunteer in 2nd grade classes in an urban area and when I mention the importance of going outside to play and get fresh air and exercise, there are always children that raise their hands and say sadly, "My Mommy won't let me go outside to play. She's too afraid."

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who
didn't
had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
Hmmm... the Little League that I knew of let all who wanted to join, be a member. No one was turned away. :confused:

Oh yes, the joys of Polio. The fun of 110 degree heat with no AC. The happiness of telling your 52 year old grandpa with cancer, goodbye... before tests were available... The correctness of keeping those black kids in their own crappy school, instead of our nice new one.... The enthusiasm of being told that a female could only be a nurse, school teacher or secretary.... The no-talk rule of sexual abuse..... GOD I WISH I COULD GO BACK!!!!! NOT!

I remember the good old days , when can sodas were just 25 cents...but you could still reach up into the machine, and about 6 would come out ;) ...not that I ever did that sort of thing! video games were around, but not too many people had them...
8 track tapes were the wave of the future! but did'nt you hate it when your 8 track would get stuck on a certain track and play forever?
what about going to the dentist and getting a lollipop? that never happens anymore
Drive in movies! hard to find them anymore...remember hiding your friends in the trunk of those big cars?
remember being able to drive your car through fields or vacant parking lots spinning doughnuts?
that is against the law nowadays, right?
remember when the sears catalog would bring hours and hours of dreaming for stuff?
remember the clothing ! the clothes that they re-created NOW for todays generation, looks alot more sleazy..well, in my opinion...but hey! i was born in 67'
got an incoming messege..this thread is fun!
Yvette

Originally posted by yellowrose
GOD I WISH I COULD GO BACK!!!!! NOT!

Ah yes, it is unfortunate that we can't have the best of both worlds - the simple innocence of yesterday and all the benefits of what we know and have now.

I think the biggest failing to take place has been the "drive up window, super size it NOW" attitude that we have acquired and passed on to our youth.
We have become lazy, impatient, materialistic and quite selfish.
But we have also become more aware. Kids know the dangers of smoking and unprotected sex. It is no longer the day of "Free Love" and "If you can't be with the one you love, then love the one your with". Girls value their virginity and there are a lot of kids just saying no to drugs.

Talk shows explore every subject imaginable to help us be more aware of who we are, where we have been and where we are going...yet, we are still searching and wanting so much more.
We are a society of materialistic gluttons living on extended credit, believing that the more we have, the happier we will be.
We want it all and we want it now and the sad thing about this way of thinking is that we really feel we deserve it and that it will somehow fill the deep, vast void in our lives.

Within our bubbles of fear, we clutter our lives with "things" that we actually believe will bring us validation and peace of mind.
The harsh reality of all of this is that we have become a society on the run, eating dumpsters full of junk food, too tired, too stressed out, too depressed to enjoy those simple pleasures that we miss so deeply from our past.

And the saddest thing of all, is that our kids grow up being handed everything too soon - and they are handed way too much. Just because a kid turns 16 years old, does that mean he has to be given a brand new car, or should that 16 year old kid be made to get out there and earn that car?
When do we stop giving? When do we stop compensating our kids with 'things' in order to make up for the fact that we just don't have time to give our kids what they really need, which is a slower pace, less attention put on material gains and more attention focused on the simple passages of life like those that are etched in our hearts and minds from our youth.

Maybe we don't have drive-in's anymore because we don't have the time to go? Or we think we don't have the time to go. How many wonderful moments are lost because we are rushing and stumbling ahead of ourselves towards a happiness that will never come?
Yes, we have gained insight over the years, but we have also lost our focus on what is most valuable of all - moments together now, not later, but now - the simple, uncluttered times that cost nothing but our undivided attention.

I know I got off track here, sorry.
Feels good to be back....lol

Originally posted by yellowrose

Oh yes, the joys of Polio. The fun of 110 degree heat with no AC. The happiness of telling your 52 year old grandpa with cancer, goodbye... before tests were available... The correctness of keeping those black kids in their own crappy school, instead of our nice new one.... The enthusiasm of being told that a female could only be a nurse, school teacher or secretary.... The no-talk rule of sexual abuse..... GOD I WISH I COULD GO BACK!!!!! NOT!

Sage, you make some excellent points. I agree our current society is full of a lot of focus on materialism that ultimately is unsatisfying.

YR, I hear you loud and clear. I would not want to go back to the oppressive feeling of being a woman in the 50's and 60's. The limited options. The sadness of segregation. The unspoken secrets of family dysfunction...

I'm all about the 21st century!!! Glad to be alive and enjoying all the wide variety life has to offer at this time.

Chatterbox, your post brought me back to the better things in my childhood too. Thanks for the wonderful post. Even though I was born in '76, I was raised in a rural area on a farm and only had one or two neighbouring kids close enough to play with. But, we had such a blast after the chores were done, just running around barefoot, usually with a horse or two, performing atrocious stunts, getting lost in the forest, covered in bumps, brusies and mosquito bites and getting sunburnt. I remember taking baths and counting all my mosquito bites. Oh, and for us it wasn't the oil barrels we loved, it was the big truck and equipment tires. We bounced on them like you would a trampoline - we'd even lay inside one at the top of a hill and get the others to get the tire upright and rolling down the hill. We'd also all pile onto one of the inner tubes and play in the muddy pond out back - or we'd roll them down to the ocean with us and float around in the COLD ocean water.

I thought I was so disadvantaged because I never went into "town" and didn't even go in an elevator til I was probably 15 years old! But, now I realize that it's a wonderful and rare thing to grow up the way I did.

Oh also, I remember when I was 8, I fell out of a tree in the school yard, and broke my arm. Being the tough little kid I was, I refused to let anyone see me cry and I took the bus home (45 min drive) and then walked the half mile to my house before I let myself cry and my mom took me down to the family doctor (who worked from his house) who said she better get me into the hospital and get it set.

Sorry about that little trip down memory lane!!

Hey, Cabin Fever! Your apology was totally wasted on me -- I loved your post, laughed out loud!

- OMG I had forgotten the giant tires and the giant inner tubes!!
What great fun! And getting in them to roll down a hill: isn't it amazing how many things we used to do that were really painful, but the pain was worth it because we were having so much fun? LOL Someone else has already pointed this out, but it IS amazing that we lived through it and didn't turn out even crazier than we are!!!

- Pardon me whilst I opine, but between doing stuff that hurt and doing chores, maybe we learned that there's a price for everything, and maybe that helped/helps us appreciate things.

- Counting mosquito bites - ah yes, a favorite pastime!!!! Right up there with scab-picking!!! Or even better, picking scabs on your mosquito bites as you counted them - the tub, of course, being the perfect place!!!

- I was "disadvantaged" too, I lived 1-1/2 hour from the ocean and never saw it until I went with a friend's family at the age of 12. True, I missed years of icy-cold water fun (even colder than shivering in the pond!) but on the other hand, I had read about and dreamed of it and I was old enough to never forget the smell; the salty taste; the cold air, somehow fresh and heavy at the same time; the screaming seagulls; clams squirting from the sand; digging in the sand for a clam and pulling out a horseshoe crab instead (Holy Crap!); and the immensity and the beauty of the ocean. That day was cold, overcast, and damp. I don't remember the first time I saw the ocean on a bright, warm, sunny day, but I'll never forget that day.
Whew! Even though I live right on the ocean now, writing that took my breath away!

- Speaking of cold and water -- do you remember jumping in the pond around May on the first sunny day? It was way too cold to stay in, but heck, you'd waited 9 months! Uh oh, add that to the list of painful things that we did anyway because it was so much fun!

- Riding home with a broken arm? Man you WERE tough!!! And you were one of those kids with a cast on!
Oh, that brings back a nice memory of my now-deceased brother: he was a catcher on a high-school team and, during the State Championship Playoffs, a ball hit his left forearm and broke it. He never said a word. Instead he improvised: catching the ball with his right hand, tucking his glove under the left armpit, and throwing the ball with the right hand. Nobody knew. He played the rest of the game like that, and the last two games of the playoffs. I wish I could say they won the championship, but I honestly can't temember. What I do remember was the nobleness of his effort.
His adult life was very hard and it didn't have a lot of high points, but he always had the memory of sacrificing to help his team.

Thank so much for sharing your memories. You opened a floodgate of memories for me.

HEY! Everyone of us should be writing-down our memories to share with future generations, or to share with ourselves as the years go by. Those of us that have family should get their imput and add it in, too. Hmmmm, maybe a chain e-mail or a chain letter.... And we should do it NOW - who knows how much we've already forgotten? Cut-and-paste, here I come!