From my mom
Feb. 3rd, 2003 02:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
breoaigitI got this from my mother in an email. Some of it horrifies me, like a lack of car seats, lead based paint, and hitchhiking. Other stuff cracked me up. Mainly, it just left me thoughtful. Enjoy!
For those of us who were born in the 50's, 60's or 70's:
Looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have...
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup on a warm day was always a special treat.
Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention hitchhiking to town as a young kid!)
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors! We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode 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 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. No cell phones. Unthinkable!
We played dodge ball and sometimes the ball would really hurt. We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. Remember those?
We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it. We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda but we were never overweight...we were always outside playing.
We shared one grape soda with four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this? We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, video games at all, 99 channels on cable, videotape movies, surround sound, personal cellular phones, Personal Computers, or Internet chat rooms. We had friends. We went outside and found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rung the bell or just walked in and talked to them. Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in the cold cruel world! Without a guardian. How did we do it?
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and though we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.
Little League had tryouts and not every kid made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Some students weren't as smart as others so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade…Horrors. Tests were not adjusted for any reason.
We were fortunate to grow up as children before lawyers and the government got involved "for our own good".
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, inventors and problem solvers, ever. The past 50 years has been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility and we learned to deal with it all.
And you're one of them. Congratulations!
For those of us who were born in the 50's, 60's or 70's:
Looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have...
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup on a warm day was always a special treat.
Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention hitchhiking to town as a young kid!)
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors! We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode 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 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. No cell phones. Unthinkable!
We played dodge ball and sometimes the ball would really hurt. We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. Remember those?
We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it. We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda but we were never overweight...we were always outside playing.
We shared one grape soda with four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this? We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, video games at all, 99 channels on cable, videotape movies, surround sound, personal cellular phones, Personal Computers, or Internet chat rooms. We had friends. We went outside and found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rung the bell or just walked in and talked to them. Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in the cold cruel world! Without a guardian. How did we do it?
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and though we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.
Little League had tryouts and not every kid made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Some students weren't as smart as others so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade…Horrors. Tests were not adjusted for any reason.
We were fortunate to grow up as children before lawyers and the government got involved "for our own good".
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, inventors and problem solvers, ever. The past 50 years has been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility and we learned to deal with it all.
And you're one of them. Congratulations!
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no subject
Date: 2003-02-10 12:13 am (UTC)Girl Scouts went door to door.
Teachers were allowed to hug a kid when they needed the comfort.
Teachers were allowed to punish a child without fearing censure from their boss and frothing-at-the-mouth diatribes from the parents.
We got spanked when we deserved it, and no one called child protective services about it.
Neighbors were adopted family and best friends-- people who gave the grownups homemade wine and let the kids run wild through their yard.
You could carry a pocket knife in your car without wondering if it would get you suspended from school.
Sometimes I wonder if I really /want/ to become a parent, these days. :/