There is an email doing the rounds, thought I would post it.
Those Born 1930-1979!
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED 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 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-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 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 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 and real butter and drank koolade made with sugar, 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.
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 Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD’s, no surround-sound or CD’s, no cell phones, no personal computer! s, no Internet or 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, 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. And 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?!
Great article and “oh how true it is”……….
Pretty interesting, I’m from the 80′s and still got a similar education
I was outside playing with my friends, I got the Nintendo but didn’t play it at all, I was outside drinking soda from a plastic bag, and sharing it among my friends, playing soccer in the street, building tree houses (Really dangerous with just a few nails).
Got beaten by my parents when doing wrong, now parents can get sued and that’s so wrong.
It was an amazing time…
I grew up being able to chat and meet people all over the world at the click of a mouse.
Any time I wanted information all I had to do was search.
I learned from other peoples mistakes.
Girls my age can be whatever they want to be
I am growing up in a revolutionary time, the information age is upon us and I am here for its beginning and future.
Don’t act like your time is so much better. It must have been AWESOME growing up in a time when the fear of Russia bombing us was ever present, or worrying about Hitler and going to war.
Alot about todays perception, is media’s fault. People are already turing away from the TV sets though in small numbers, and younger generation.
I think death has been overrated by media outlets, as when people die it is only natural process.
I hate bullshit false nostalgia. Thousands didn’t survive. Get an almanac and look at what the leading causes of death were 1930-1970′s.
Joe Smith, I take it you are a hit at parties? lol
Alex ’87
1. You are not “meeting” people online with the click of a mouse. You are meeting an electronic submission, an expression of a human (presumably) being made over a computer network. This allows for many misrepresentations of who that person you are meeting really is. Of course, people can always misrepresent themselves in person, but meeting a person online is much less complete than meeting someone in the flesh.
2. Have you ever heard of a library?
3. So does everyone else. You too will learn from your own mistakes. You likely have already.
4. So discrimination against women is over for females born in 1987 or later?
5. Revolutionary time? Most eras have contained revolutionary aspects in one regard or another. The ‘Information Age’ started before you were born, and it’s future will be enjoyed by all, not just people that are your age.
6. The “fear” of the USSR bombing us was greatly exaggerated to drum up support for defense contracts and spending and other dastardly political purposes. Substitute the words “Russia” with “terrorists” and “Hitler” with “Iran”. As a person born in 1975, I didn’t really notice anyone freaking out or worrying about the USSR by that time.
I do agree with much of what this post says. It was a different time, for the better, in many ways that are mentioned by the writer. Of course, there are many reasons it is better now. Having been kind of brought up at the end of one era and the beginning of another, I can honestly say that it really is all the same, depending on who you are and what you make of it.
I wish I leaved in those times. But our society today is making kids overweight and stuck in there homes. Also making them all OCD’s(Obsessive Compulsive Disorder). These times are making parents so worried about screwing up with our children. “Don’t hit your child.” “Don’t let your child get sicK.” etc. They are taking God out of schools and putting Satan on out T.V. Our children are becoming more angry and scared of the world. Parents aren’t taking the time to talk to our children and Teachers aren’t allowed to high-five or give a pate on the back. We need to get the crime of the street. Get rid of the fast food place’s and make shopping healther and cheaper. Ban of video and computer games. We need to stop being in a hurry. Heck maybe we should go back to the horse and boggy times. Then we won’t be spending all our money on Gas.
Everything is too fast and too big. We need to love our children and that mean spanking them if we have to.
I was born in the 80′s and I am scared for my children because of all the polical and crap.
Let’s just pray that Christ comes back soon!!!!!!!
Hah I liked what you wrote.
I was actually born in 92, different time. But I remember playing outside from morning until my dad would make me come inside when the sky started to turn pink. I live on the very same street today, and I NEVER see kids outside playing the way I used to. I feel bad, I really don’t want my kids to be couped up inside with video games. I want them to play outside, and be creative like my generation (& yours) did.
now the younger generation gets to pay for all your f*ckups
Yay
Melissa, you end with “Let’s just pray that Christ comes back soon!!!!!!!”. Well, I say lets pray that Christ appears in your dreams and tells you to get some writing lessons. Sorry if English isn’t your first language, but I counted 18 errors in your post. Eighteen!
Kind of funny, my children – born ’68, 71, 72 and myself – born ’49 all fit into this span of “those who survived”. And in lots of ways it was a better time. I, and my kids too, did play outside talk to friends face to face.
And as far as my kids go, they got spanked, or smacked from time to time. A few times my daughter threatened to call the police and I told her “there’s the phone”. There really wasn’t much to report.
I, however, was an only child so I only got spanked or smack a couple of times. I graduated from high school in 1967 and the way I came to this webiste was with a frustrated, confused question to Google: HOW THE HELL DID I GET TO BE 60? I will turn 60 on Thursday, April 2nd and it seems like I was 18 just a couple of years ago.
The one thing I have appreciated most of my life is music. As a single mom in the 70′s & 80′s I realized music is one of the few things that won’t disappoint you and can help carry you through. Not like men (or women, as the case may be) not like family and not even yourself. And I and all my “class of 1967″
I was born in 1985, and that is my childhood, down to the last detail. As I grew up in smaller rural towns and was in a very low income bracket family. With just enough to eat, sleep, go to school and ride my bike with my friends. My favorite thing was to disappear all day down to the wash/canals and just hang out and explore the local landmarks, hills, etc.
I would love to just back hand 90% of today’s youngest spoil rotten brats. And drop kick many of their ignorant parents who raise them. (or rather don’t raise them, but create little monsters) Most of them today would not last an hour on their own in the middle of nowhere.