- Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored
lead-based paint.
- We had no childproof lids or locks 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 pickup truck on a warm day was
always a special treat.
- We drank water from the garden hose and not from a
bottle. Horrors!
- We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop
with sugar in it,
but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.
- We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one
bottle, and no one actually died from this.
- We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps
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 street lights came on.
- No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones.
Unthinkable!
- We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no
video games at
all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound,
personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.
- We had friends! We went outside and found them.
- We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would
really hurt.
- We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth,
and there were
no lawsuits 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.
- We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and,
although we were told it would happen, we did not put out any eyes.
- We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home 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.
- 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.
- Our
actions were our own. Consequences were expected.
The idea of parents bailing us out if we got in trouble in
school or broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with
the school or the law. Imagine that!-
We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility --- and we learned
how to deal with it.
- 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.
- Too bad our own kids didn't have these opportunities, as
well.
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