To Kids surviving the 1940's, '50s,'60s, and '70s

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the
1940's, '50s, '60s and '70s !!



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 okay.



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 Play Stations, Nintendos, 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 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 :)

YES!!! This is all true and we survived . . . imagine that!

Most of all, people were accountable for their actions . . . not always looking for a quick fix . . . ready to take responsibility . . . not always blaming others or looking for someone to sue.

Would I turn the clock back? Youbetcha!!! :D

Just how did we survive??? And how did we do so without suing everyone and everything?

I fell while roller skating down the sidewalk-remember those skates with the metal wheels and a key to tighten them on the shoes? My knees (both of them) couldn't be bent for quite a while- didn't sue the city or the skate company. Knees healed.

Hit a tree while sledding-the wooden one with the metal runners. I couldn't turn it cuz my passenger weighed too much. It was in the neighbors yard-didn't sue the neighbors. The concussion and blackened eyes healed.

I loved riding in the back of the pick up truck! Never fell out.

Yep drank water from the garden hose once or twice- didn't die. In fact in 2004 I drank water from a melting glacier in Alaska! Still here!!

I agree Peachy, I would go back to that time , not age wise, but the accountability time, the fun time, the time for exploration, the time when you could be free from the warnings, the activists who want to "protect" us. He-l I can do that myself!!

You're lucky you survived all of that.

I had hardly learned how to ride a bike when the war broke out and lasted for 15 years. I was only 9.

I survived 155 and 244mm mortar shells, 105m Howitzers, Katyusha rockets, RPG-s, M16 and Kalashnikov bullets.....

And hey !!! still here :p

Peachy and Teddikat I'm with you all the way. Teddi I had rollerskates like that too, and sleds. Can't even count the times I wrecked on both. I also remember when I was about 7ish a neighbor of ours had a bunch of wild ponies in his corral. Being born a horse nut I'd go over and want to ride one. The owner would laugh and say 'go ahead but you'll just get bucked off'. And I did, over and over. Couldn't do that today.

I remember licking dirt in the desert just to watch my tongue print instantly disappear because of the blazing heat.

We had a convertible and my brother and I would jump up in down in the backseat, convertible top down, while Dad flew down the hiway at 80 mph.

I remember the drive-in theaters, and the parents taking their kids to the bathroom all dressed in jammies for the night.

Gallons and gallons of kool-aid; the iceman breaking off shards of ice and tossing them into the streets for us neighborhood kids; drinking swimming pool water....

Yeah, Teddi you said it all in your last paragraph. Ditto!

Aline you are a survivor for sure and I am proud to "know" you!

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger!! Ladies- we are the best!!

Wow this is weird, I just got this email this morning and right away thought of this thread. So I thought I'd share it with you.


email:
My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same
cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get
food poisoning.

My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat it
raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a
brown paper bag, not in icepack coolers, but I can't remember getting
e.coli.

Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of
a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.

The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and
a pager was the school PA system.

We all took gym, not PE...and risked permanent injury with a pair of
high top Keds (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training
athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can't
recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how
much safer we are now.

Flunking gym was not an option...even for stupid kids! I guess PE must
be much harder than gym.

Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem,
and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative
attention.

We must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic health
system we had then. Remember school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything.

I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was
allowed to be proud of myself.

I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station,
Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.

Oh yeah...and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got
that bee sting? I could have been killed!

We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant
construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of
Mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine
did) and then we got our butt spanked.

Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a
$49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the
contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was
such a threat.

We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either because if we did, we
got our butt spanked there and then we got butt spanked again when we
got home.

I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks
on the front stoop, just before he fell off. Little did his Mom know
that she could have owned our house. Instead, she picked him up and
swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck.

To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they
were from a dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known
that?

We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? We
were obviously so duped by so many social ills that we didn't even notice
that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac! How did we ever survive?

LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA, AND TO ALL WHO DIDN'T--SORRY FOR
WHAT YOU MISSED. I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR ANYTHING.

What are you complaining about?

You were the last happy waves of generations to people the earth

We the 80s generation is facing WW3, Iceage, Ozone depletion, Rising Sea Level and Bird flue !!!

And we are not yet batting an eye lid :cool:

What are you complaining about?

You were the last happy waves of generations to people the earth

We the 80s generation is facing WW3, Iceage, Ozone depletion, Rising Sea Level and Bird flue !!!

And we are not yet batting an eye lid :cool:

Yep, so true :o

What are you complaining about?

You were the last happy waves of generations to people the earth

We the 80s generation is facing WW3, Iceage, Ozone depletion, Rising Sea Level and Bird flue !!!

And we are not yet batting an eye lid :cool:

Oh I'm not complaining you silly, I'm bragging!!

But what you say is true enough. Each generation has something new to shoulder. Are you up to it?

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while
they
carried us.
Yup, my mom smoked like chimmeny and I'm sure she had a drink too


They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and
didn't
get
tested for diabetes.
I know for sure that she had all of the abow... and I don't think she has been tested diabetes yet!


Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright-
colored,
lead-based paints.
and I slept on a foam mattress... and didn't die of crib-death

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.

...and I haven't heard of anyone that got really hurt bby falling off the bike without the helmet



As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

and have a real fight with my brothers in the back seat :D

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special
treat.

Never done that, but since I'm a Norwegian "Hick", I have sit on top of hay wagon!

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
I just had to ask my hubby why that is so wrong, and we obviously have poison-free hoses here in Norway... lol.. and I still do that in the summer :P


We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and NO ONE
actually died from this.

This one I don't believe... :eek:



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!

That were the days, I wish I still could so that



We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were
back
when the streetlights came on.
This is a "rule" I've never heard of.. and it wouldn't have worked very well here in the winter... cause its dark ouside from around 4-4.30 PM and tn the lights go on.


No one was able to reach us all day. And we were okay.

Damn cellphones!!!!:@

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.
I was more of an sled person


We did not have Play Stations, Nintendos, 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 did get a commandore 64 when I was around 15-16


We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth, and there were no
lawsuits from these accidents.
I have never broken anything in my body, but my one of my friends did break her leg and had to walk on crutches and me and an another friend was so jealous that we used a whole summer trying to break a leg too...



We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in
us
forever.
In daycare we used to mix different kind of plants we found uside and pretend that it was food, and of course we tasted it... good thing none of it was poisones...





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.
god damn thouse bullets hurt when they come in return... lol


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!
and we tied a sawing tread to the window frames and made scary noises with it...



Little League had tryouts, and not everyone made the team. Those who
didn't
had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
Luckely I was good enough to make the team (soccer)


The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.
They
actually sided with the law!
Most parents did* :rolleyes:


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!

Oh I'm not complaining you silly, I'm bragging!!

But what you say is true enough. Each generation has something new to shoulder. Are you up to it?

I am putting my skinny shoulders to the wheel... :(

I survived being sent to my room without dinner. But I made up for that later and ate two dinners a night.

Did I mention I'm on a diet?

What are you complaining about?

You were the last happy waves of generations to people the earth

We the 80s generation is facing WW3, Iceage, Ozone depletion, Rising Sea Level and Bird flue !!!

And we are not yet batting an eye lid :cool:

Umm, actually, Aram, we're all facing all of that stuff together - not just the 80s generation.

Edit: And really, we're going to continue to experience global warming before we enter into the next ice age. ;)

*sigh*

Yup, gosh I miss the days of riding around in the back of someone's truck on a hot summer day. Riding with friends through the Santa Cruz Mountains on the way to the beach, wind in our hair. And nope, no one ever fell out!

Computers? Video Games? Heck, no, we weren't bored! If we weren't out riding our Big Wheels with the rest of the neighborhood kids, we were climbing trees in the yard or wading through creeks in the local parks.

Did mom have to kick us outside? No! (Maybe only on Sat mornings.) We WANTED to go play outside!

And, gosh, remember when ALL television was FREE? I remember getting our first cable box with the A/B switch.

I held off on getting my first cell phone as long as possible, until 2001 when I took a job as an environmental consultant working for a wireless company building new cell towers. Now, unfortunately, as a consultant, I can't live without one. Plus most of my friends and family live out of the area. But...I would LOVE to go back to NOT having an endless phone cord. Bleh!

reading everyones posts. I am really enjoying everyones trip down memory lane :) . And such wonderful times......it puts a smile on my face to read these....keep 'em comin'

I grew up in a small town and would often leave on my bike with a friend and we'd literally be gone all day. And no one thought anything of it. No one worried about sexual predators because you didn't hear about it on the news every single day like you do now.

As a child, I spent most of my days outside in the sunshine playing softball all day long. Or, played with our baby dolls. Do little girls even still really play with baby dolls anymore?

Sure there were things we didn't have then that we have now. But, we didn't miss them because we never knew them. We had a different life and I'm so glad I was a child in the 60's before cable tv, vcr's, dvd players, computers, cell phones... heck, I remember a time before we even had color tv's and cassette recorders. Our music was played on a phonograph.

Oh those definitely were the days. :)

That is a great post, so true, sad and funny.

Well, we were kicked outside and the door locked behind us! So left to our own devices, loved walking all over town had coke money, went down to the railroad tracks, never got into any trouble, just had fun being together and in the sunshine of West Texas. Noone ever locked their door either (except my mom to keep us out!), so we would go in and out of neighbor's homes like they were our own, track across other people's yards, good ole days, huh?

My mom's only remedy if any of us sick: "Go take an aspirin and sit on the pot." We NEVER went to the doctor, never had to. Stronger genes back then I think....

Does anyone remember playing with - HORROR OF ALL HORRORS- :eek: MERCURY!!!!!
I always hoped the thermometer would break so I could play with that little ball of mercury....I sitll have all my fingers, toes, limbs, my sanity (I think) and none of my children had birth defects. (an amount of mercury of this size actually closed a school for several days so the whole school could be decontaminated, last year!)

I had a favorite tree across the road from our house, I would sit there and read- and I was a teen-ager at the time.


We had a black and white tv and on Sundays if we went to grandparents home, would watch Ed Sullivan in color! Grandma made fudge and grandpa popped corn in corn popper that had a stirrer on the lid. A great time for family

I bear many scars of my escapades as a child, they were painful at the time but each one recalls a simpler place in time. I did have to spend time in the ER getting stitches, but never went there for a cold or stomach ache.

I am strong , healthy, and happy because of, not in spite of, these horrific things that happened!! :D

Oh lencarol talking about coke money, I remember walking to the grocery store with my friends without a single penny among us, but by the time we reached the store we'd collected enough empty pop bottles to return to the store... they were returnable back then... and got reimbursed with enough money to not only buy each of us a pop but a candy bar as well. And I'm talking about the big candy bars. And Bazooka was only 2 for a penny.

SG, my grandpa used to haul us grandkids in the back of his old farm pick-up into town on a hot summer day. Took us to the tavern and while he had a cold one with his buddies we kids got a coke and played shuffleboard.

Yes teddi, I also played with mercury, in Science class. Chewed on my lead pencils, ate the erasers, scraped chalk on my teeth. I think something is wrong with me!! :eek:

Oh Lynn, that is what we did too! The weekends spent looking for the return bottles, we could get up to $1 each, so rich--such fun!

Teddi--I remember in 6th grade a schoolmate had a little ball of mercury in his hand, playing with it. We did not see him for a few weeks, and learned he had died from that! He may have ingested some of it. I also had played with it, but thankfully am here to tell about it.

Sundays always special growing up, with Sunday dinner at home or neighbors/friends homes. We also had a nice boarding house in our Andy Griffith type of town, and would sometimes go there (open to public) for dinner, so much good southern food! :)