The good old days

ruger22 · Post by **ruger22** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 1:57 pm

Lengthy, but good, quote sent to me in an email. The source (at the end) was a surprise:

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

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

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered wiith bright colored lead-base paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps, not helmets on our heads.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.

Riding in the back of a pick- up truck 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, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight.. WHY?

Because we were always outside playing...that's why!

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 them 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, Nintendo's and X-Boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's,

No surround-sound or CD's. No cell phones. No personal computers. No Internet and no 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 would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping pong paddles, or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse.

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 poke 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!

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 so much of our lives for our own good.

While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.

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

This quote of the month is by Jay Leno !

Post by **Bullseye** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 5:38 pm

All true words! We survived in spite of ourselves. Perhaps a little dinged but a lot wiser after each event of foolishness. Imagine that!

R,
Bullseye

bearandoldman · Post by **bearandoldman** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 6:31 pm

Made it through all of them decades, starting in 32 and did all that stuff and maybe more, just me and the Little Deuce Coupe the best of 1932.

Slanteyedshootist · Post by **Slanteyedshootist** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 10:40 pm

But if we had video cameras we could all be rich and famous like the loonys from Jackass.

KAZ · Post by **KAZ** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 7:01 am

Good post ruger22, it put a smile on my face this morning as I remembered riding in the car with Mom. I would be standing in the front seat so that I could see(my dog had the window seat)and if we had a hard stop Mom would reach her arm across me to keep me in place. Regards

bearandoldman · Post by **bearandoldman** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 9:09 am

KAZ wrote:Good post ruger 22, it put a smile on my face this morning as I remembered riding in the car with Mom. I would be standing in the front seat so that I could see(my dog had the window seat)and if we had a hard stop Mom would reach her arm across me to keep me in place. Regards

Remember them days myself. Still remember my Dad's car when was 7 or 8. He drove my grandads car when he got a new on it was a 37 Oldsmobile 4 door. Can also remember a car when I was maybe 5, it had yellow wooden wheels and little hail vases between the front and rear doors, understand it was a Buick his Dad gave him, I can only remember the wheels and it was BIIIIIG, or was it I was just small?

bgreenea3 · Post by **bgreenea3** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:28 am

bearandoldman wrote:and it was BIIIIIG, or was it I was just small?

a little of both perhaps?

bearandoldman · Post by **bearandoldman** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:45 am

bgreenea3 wrote:
bearandoldman wrote:and it was BIIIIIG, or was it I was just small?
a little of both perhaps?

yes

ruger22 · Post by **ruger22** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 12:04 pm

I thought it might raise a smile or two. I remember all that stuff, except I skipped the worms and mud pies........

blue68f100 · Post by **blue68f100** » Thu Sep 16, 2010 4:36 pm

It does bring back fond memories of the past. And how did in the world did we survive with out all of the sue happy people. At one point a person has to be held responsable for his actions.

I remember one winter we had a good snow and ice storm so we dug out my dad's sled (He grew up in Nebraska). We had a new road that was put in behind our house that was very steep. What we for got about was how to stop. Tried to make a 90 deg turn at full speed from a 50yrd ramp ended up throwing us into a bob wire fence. We just gut up and tried again trying to master turning the sled with out being thrown off.

Here in DFW you take what little bad weather presents and make the most of it.

manic mechanic · Post by **manic mechanic** » Sun Sep 19, 2010 3:25 pm

blue68f100 wrote:It does bring back fond memories of the past. And how did in the world did we survive with out all of the sue happy people. At one point a person has to be held responsable for his actions.

I remember one winter we had a good snow and ice storm so we dug out my dad's sled (He grew up in Nebraska). We had a new road that was put in behind our house that was very steep. What we for got about was how to stop. Tried to make a 90 deg turn at full speed from a 50yrd ramp ended up throwing us into a bob wire fence. We just gut up and tried again trying to master turning the sled with out being thrown off. Here in DFW you take what little bad weather presents and make the most of it.

I read the bob wire fence and had to laugh. On my block we all called barbed wire Bobbed wire, because Bob was the only one in our gang of kids that could climb over one without having to visit the ER for stitches or worse!

Yep the things we survived as kids is really amazing when ya look back and compare what kind of trouble we or our parents would've been in if we did it today.

SKnight · Post by **SKnight** » Mon Sep 20, 2010 10:48 am

Been there, done that, got the scars to prove it.

My Summers consisted of hard work bringing in the garden, tending the livestock and occasionally getting hurt doing such things.

Times are as different for our kids as they were for our parents, their parents and so on. Tom Sawyer was pretty privileged, most kids his age worked all day when/if they were in school.