This was sent to me today, and I thought it was appropriate since I was born in 1974!!! Yep, I will be 32 in a week or so...YEAH!!!!!!!!!
Congratulations
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN 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 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 (yes, this is how I got the scar on my head!).
Doctors and Dentist never wore latax gloves.
Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat (ah, those wonderful summer days...!).
We drank water from a pump or 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 or before dark. No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our soap box cars or go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes (Thanks Tony for driving into the back of your dad's pick-up with me in the go-cart with you...that hurt like Hell!). After running into the bushes or a ditch a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes (although Atari was pretty cool), 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 (even the girls did...I actually received a bow and arrow one year), 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 yelled for them (or just walked right into their house)!
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 lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.
PS -The big type is because your eyes are shot at your age!!
