This is an open letter to all of the kids who managed
to survive the 1930s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s!
First, somehow, by some miracle, you survived being
born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried you …simply because
no one said that was required. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing,
tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, when you were born, your baby
cots were covered with bright colored lead-based paints… Somehow, you survived!
You had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks
on doors or cabinets and when you rode your bikes, you had no helmets, not to
mention, the risks you took hitchhiking …
As children,
you would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags, no booster seats, bald
tires…and sometimes no brakes. Riding in the back of a pick-up truck or a van -
loose on a warm day was always a great fun.
You drank water from the garden hosepipe and NOT from
a bottle. You shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO
ONE actually died from this.
You ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank
pop with sugar in it, but you weren't overweight because...... YOU WERE ALWAYS
OUTSIDE PLAYING!! You would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long
as you were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach you all
day. ...no cell phones! And you know what? You were OK.
You would spend hours building your go-carts out of
scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out you forgot the brakes.
After running into the bushes a few times, you learned to solve the problem.
You did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no
video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround
sound, no mobile phones, no text messaging, no personal computers, no Internet,,
no facebook, no skype..........YOU HAD FRIENDS and you went outside and found
them!
You fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth
and there were no lawsuits from these accidents you played with worms (well most boys did) and mud pies made from
dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
You made up games with sticks and tennis balls and
although you were told it would happen, you did not poke out any eyes. You rode
bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell,
or just yelled for them!
Local teams 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 you out if you
broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
These generations have produced some of the best
risk-takers, problem solvers, ARTISTS...
and some of the best INVENTORS... ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
You had freedom, failure, success and responsibility,
and you 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
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!
Resources:
95.7
KJR
Posted by Kids Are Special in VARIETY
1 comment:
Wartime kids, bombs, carrying gas masks to school, ARP posts,, rationing, air raid shelters in school playground, real air raids often, evacuation, striding over barbed wire and jumping over sand bags. Todays kids? You aint lived kiddywinks.
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