To Those of You Born Between 1930 – 1979

My sister sent this to me on Facebook and thought I’d share it with my fellow bloggers. It reminds of when my elder brothers and sisters reminisce about the good old days when they were kids. 

It’s also a stark reminder of how things once used to be and how things are now.  It’s written by David Eisner.  I’m not sure who he is but I enjoyed reading this and my sister did get a little emotional when she read it to me over the phone. 

… and do let me know if you relate to this post and how you feel about things having changed so much.

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 with 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,
booster seats, seat belts or air bags. 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 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 PlayStation, Nintendo and X-box.. 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 ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BeeBee guns for our 10th birthday, 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! 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?

The quote of the month is by Jay Leno: ‘With hurricanes, tornadoes, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a
good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?’