By Neena Strichart
A baby-boomer friend sent me the email below. I agree with his sentiments and even added a few of my own in brackets [ ]. Enjoy!
TO ALL THE “KIDS” WHO SURVIVED THE 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s!!
We survived being born to mothers who smoked/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 painted 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 [or ponytails, or both] not helmets on our heads.
As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no baby car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires [and sometimes while sleeping in a laundry basket]. Riding in the back of a neighbor’s pick-up truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose [or sucked it from sprinkler heads] and not from a plastic bottle.
We shared one soft drink [or Kool-aid made with red dye #?] with four friends, from one bottle and no one actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes made with Lard, white bread, real butter and bacon.
We drank FLAV-OR- 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 [or homemade skateboards] out of scraps and then ride them down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes [or misjudged how steep the hill actually was]. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendos and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVDs, no surround sound or CDs, 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 [and off our bikes], got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We would get [threats of, or real] spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles, or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse.
We [swallowed our gum] ate worms [watermelon seeds], and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever [and the seeds did not sprout].
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.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law [and the school]!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
If YOU are one of us, CONGRATULATIONS!
