This is long, but I got it in an email and would like some thoughts and/or opinions on it:
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-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 not helmets on our heads.
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no
brakes. Riding in the back of a pick- up truck 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, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-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 O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them 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 and X-boxes. There were no
video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, 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, 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. I didn't do most of these things myself. But I do remember when polio was a big problem, and I knew kids who got TB, diptheria, whooping cough, etc. because they didn't get vaccinated, or the vaccines in those days didn't work as well. I knew kids who got concussions from falling off their bikes. Infant mortality was higher, as were problems like low birth weight, mental retardation, etc.
People tend to think of them as 'the good old days' but today is better in a lot of ways. If a divorced woman moved into a neighborhood, nobody would talk to her, she was ostracized, and every woman in the neighborhood thought she was after her husband. Girls who managed to get themselves 'in trouble' (and it did happen!) had no place to go. Our neighborhood was lily white, blacks had their own neighborhood with their own stores, theaters, restaurants, parks, churches, etc. Asians were considered dangerous and 'dirty' as if they carried disease!
I think it's true, though, that kids had a lot more freedom in those days. At the age of six or seven, we were out exploring the neighborhood on our own. All through grade school, we only had to be home when the streetlights went on. You sure don't see that today.
The idea that these problem caused our generation to come up with risk takers and innovators, I'm not sure I go along with that. Maybe it's because all the stupid ones died of preventable childhood diseases and accidents. 8^) But also the 50s was a time of great prosperity and 'normalcy'. A man with a high school education could earn enough to buy a house, two cars, raise a family, so his wife could stay home with the kids. Politics wasn't consumed with partisan bickering. The whole idea of capitalism was different--workers had rights as well as management. It means,Health and Safety have a lot to answer for. Everything in there is correct.
These days everything that you say and do is governed and "elf N safety" rule the roost to the extent that kids are not allowed to take risks which are or rather should be a part of growing up.
We learnt to deal with failure and disappointment at an early age and realised that everyone was not equal. Therefore we learnt that we had to excel in other ways to be successful.
We ate things which were not pre-packed and sanitised and yes, we got ill, but only the once because our bodies developed immunity.
We played outside (in all weathers) and did not become obese at the age of 10.
We were told not to talk to strangers and even though there were "weirdos" around we survived.
If we did something wrong we were punished - maybe with a clip around the ear from the local bobby and then our parents, rather than taking our side would give us another clip because we must have done something.
Therefore we learnt right and wrong and we learnt respect for property and people.
Ah, the good old days. Bring them back. |
