When you get to feeling a little down, read this

[madokie]

Subject: : Ponder on this!


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.

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 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.

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 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,

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!

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!

[zanne]

1. I like it, madokie!

We sure had fun, too, didn't we?

[madokie]

2. damn sure did and we are still having fun

sometimes I wonder what it will be like when I am a grownup, an adult maybe.

[zanne]

4. That's never going to happen to me! nt

[lonestarnot]

3. ahhh the memories.

[TheFriedPiper]

5. And a lot of us did large amounts of drugs

Not just harmless drugs like pot, but serious drugs like alchol, nicotine, cocaine, and the occasional barbituate.

And on top of that: WE HAD LAWN DARTS!!!!!

Amazing that we survived at all.


-----

Hell, I even had a motocross motorcycle at age 7 (Honda MR-50) and I wrecked it a few times.

I not only survived, but I got STRONGER.

This is one of the main reasons they can't scare me into supporting Republicans.

Great post!

[Warpy]

12. And remember M-80s?

That was the coup de grace when we rolled a yard, tape one into a roll of toilet paper, light it, and the kid with the best arm would toss it into the air as we all ran like hell.

Nobody lost a hand or an eye. A few rains took care of the TP.

We got to be rotten kids when we wanted to be. We got to explore, screw up, and face the consequences. Our time was unscheduled and unstructured and mostly unsupervised.

We also learned how to deal with boredom.

Our horizons were a bit more limited than the kids who have had every waking moment spent at organized activities. It will be interesting to see the relative strengths and weaknesses of both types of kidhood.

[murielm99]

15. I guess that was good practice for

throwing teargas canisters back at cops during anti-war demonstrations.

I was always amazed at how far some of those guys could throw those canisters.

[Pacifist Patriot]

26. Okay, I don't regret the TP, but I do wish I hadn't tipped that cow.

Really wasn't cool for the cow.

[Bake]

40. Really? NOBODY lost an arm or an eye?

Perhaps YOU didn't. I knew some kids who did.

I knew a kid who flipped his Ford Mustang over, driving too fast, with no seat belt, who lost his left arm (it got crushed under the roof when the car flipped).

I knew a kid who DID in fact "put his eye out" with a BB gun.

I'm sure those guys would differ with the sentiment expressed in the OP. As for me, yeah, I made it through fine. But that doesn't mean I want my grandchildren (if/when I have any) playing with lawn darts.

Bake

[Howardx]

6. this topic comes up a lot in the x household

it sucks being a kid these days

[Pacifist Patriot]

24. The neighborhood kids think I'm a freak.

I growl at them if they step around puddles. I frown on shoes. I think flashlight tag in the dark way past their bedtimes is totally cool. I think every 8 year old needs to know how to flip burgers on the grill and some four year olds can handle sparklers. Etc.

Imagine the whispers in my neighborhood...."and she's a minister! Ay yi yi!"

[bbinacan]

7. Thanks n/t

[dogday]

8. Ah, the way things used to be.....

K&R for the memories. We turned out okay. Don't you think?

[madokie]

10. I'll go to my grave believing we did.

[napi21]

9. You have no idea how many times I've sent a message similar to this

one to friends and relatives, both young and old!

I sell toddler bedding on Ebay, and I asked a cousin what color her grandaughter's BR was because I was going to GIVE HER a comforter. I was quite surprised to hear that her daughter in law doesn't permit blankets of any kind in the crib! No pillows either!

Some of the safety things that have come on the scene since I was a kid are GOOD! I like the idea of those little plastic plugs you put in an unused outlet, because I was one of the dumb kids who plugged in a hairpin when I was about 4, and I still remember the burned imprint of the hairpin in my hand! But some of this stuff is absolutely NUTS!

[Kajsa]

11. Kicked and Recommended!

Thanks, Madokie!

You made this child of the 60's,
who was born in the 50's smile!

:hi: ;-)

[sandnsea]

13. Unless you're dead

But then, nobody would hear you say "buckle your seatbelt", "eat your vegetables", "watch out for child molestors", "don't smoke while you're pregnant", etc etc.

I really hate stupidity.

[redqueen]

16. :)

:hi:

if only my thread about peace in the middle east had this many views/comments.

[Benhurst]

14. While I agree with much of your post,

I'm afraid that we are going to be remembered as the generation which allowed our two-hundred-year-old republic to fall to a fascist coup.

[madokie]

18. all the more reason to fight harder to keep that from being true

When I stop and thank about the mess we have and it has for all intent and purposes been on our watch it makes me very sad. The US policies are directly responsible for a lot of the ills of the world whether we want to admit it or not.
but seriously we have our work cut out for us.

[rucky]

17. It's the TV news, I'm tellin ya!

How to protect your children from the dangers of peanut butter. Film at 11.

[Skittles]

19. OK I never ate worms

but otherwise that very much describes my childhood

[madokie]

20. one of the neighborhood kids loved 'em, the wooly ones, gross

[Pacifist Patriot]

22. No worms here, but Roly Polys? *smack* Anyone know about those?

It was in Texas. I've lived in 7 states and 3 countries. Texas is the only place I've run across the little buggers.

[Dora]

55. Roly Polys - we called them potato bugs in Arizona.

My son LOVES to play with them! He hasn't yet tried eating any yet, but give it time...

[zippy890]

48. no worms, but we'd eat every berry we could find

lots of spitting out (sour ones) but we'd try everything!

stayed away from the mushrooms tho - blech!

[robinlynne]

21. and all the kids in the neighborhood played together.

Everyone was included. always. period.
water balloons and
watermelon seed spitting contests in the summer.

[Gregorian]

23. And we LOVED it.

In my case, we were explosives experts at age 12. Welding go-karts and bicycle frames at age 9. Riding the bicycle 30 miles into the mountains all day.

Thanks Will. I almost forgot there was a real world at one time.

PS- I'll never forget sitting on the spark plug while riding the home made minibike. YIKES!

[Pacifist Patriot]

25. Wow, you got into explosives late in life. ;-)

[Gregorian]

28. I cannot believe our parents let us do that.

We were safe. It was our friends who were playing with weather balloons full of acetylene and oxygen. Phew. Those were absolutely deadly.

It's funny. I was talking with an old friend over the weekend, and we were talking about how kids could never do that stuff now. But Will said it so well. Sadly, our freedoms are diminished. Heck, you could buy dynamite at the hardware store back then. Maybe my priorities are a bit skewed? Haha.

And never mind the time we burned down a field trying to "smoke out a snake". (:

[RobertSeattle]

27. I wonder who the original author was

I Googled "who smoked and/or drank while they carried us" got lots of hits

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22who+smoked+and/or+drank+while+they+carried+us%22&hl=en&lr=&start=90&sa=N

The couple of hundred thousand people who are alive now instead of dead because of various safety things we now do thank you for the post! :evilgrin:

[demigoddess]

32. I remember the kids who lost fingers every fourth of july,

all the teens who died because of lack of seatbelts and you all better blame me because we were one of the first parents to buy carseats for our kids.

[RobertSeattle]

35. Life is a balance between minimizing risk and having fun at the same time

It always amazing how things can "go bad" in a hurry.

[SeattleGirl]

29. Ah, the good old days. I miss the looseness of the time.

Not saying that I don't want kids to be safe, but shoot, I can identify with pretty much everything in this post. Whatever happened to fun? Whatever happened to just making things up?

[Nookular_Bush_Kills]

30. And we got our asses whipped in school.......

And we got our asses whipped in school with paddles. At least we did in my schools. There was always a witness present and it was not considered child abuse. Amazingly, we actually respected the teachers back then!

[Dora]

33. Children who are hit learn that it's okay to hit people.

Children are not stupid. They learn that violence, spanking, punching, slapping, etc is used a means of controlling other people, and it's okay in certain contexts (usually justified only in the mind of the controlling party).

By and large, these children grow up into adults who think it's okay to hit children. Or invade other countries in a war based on lies.

I was never struck by a teacher or a principal, and I didn't respect them any less for it.

[Pacifist Patriot]

38. Yes and no.

I agree children are not stupid. I also agree that hitting children sends the wrong message.

BUT

I was spanked and attended school in school systems that allowed corporal punishment (although I never found myself in that situation). I most definitely did not learn that violence, spanking, punching, slapping, etc. is an acceptable means of controlling other people. I have never struck my children and never will.

Every single parent I know that eschews physical methods of discipline/punishment was spanked as a child. I take that as a sign of optimism for the human race.

Interestingly, children in the 50s were much more likely to get into a school yard fight than children in the 80s or 90s. Sadly, the children today have access to more deadly weapons leading to more drastic consequences. But overall, the incidence of violent conflict between school mates has actually decreased in the last four decades.

Violence is not an acceptable means of conflict resolution, I'll grant you that without reservation. But some of your doom and gloom about spanked children is overstated. The difficulty is recognizing the line between moderate spanking and flat out beating. It's a line I wouldn't want to try to identify. Hence, abstinance seems the best course.

[Dora]

52. Thanks for the reasonable response.

Oh, I know that there's a line between spanking and beating, and I know that there are generations of kids who were spanked, slapped, struck, and flat-out beaten who survived, and survived to become people who won't hit their own children. But many of those kids do grow up to hit their own children, and that is the problem. That's my point. The legacy of violence can only grow if we allow it to, and we allow it to by participating in it - no matter how much love we hold in our hearts or how good our best intentions are.

I married a childhood abuse survivor, and to this day in the same breath he can talk about the beatings he received and admit to his love for his father and how he has forgiven him. He doesn't understand why his father felt so compelled to beat the shit out of two of his five children, and he knows he might never understand. He has sworn, however, to be the end of that chain and never hit any child - no matter what.

You're right: as far as striking children is concerned, abstinence is the best course.

[Nookular_Bush_Kills]

46. I don't think spankings in school hurt our country....

Personally, I don't know of anyone who turned out to be a child or spouse beater, country invader, or mind controller. All of my family and friends went to schools that practiced school spankings. I seriously have to question your mindset here, Dora. To paint this subject with such a broad brush, as you have, is very judgemental. But there again, it must be easy to be so superior. I'm glad you're not my neighbor.

[Dora]

50. Looks like we each have our own broad-brush judgments.

Questioning my mindset because I believe that it's wrong to say children can be taught to respect their teachers through violence is a complete dodge of the issue. Yes, I was spanked by my parents and I survived without resentment, I don't think I was abused, and generations of children were hit as a method of punishment and education. That doesn't make it right, it only illustrates that it's survivable.

All I have to say about who your neighbors are is, well, too bad for them.

:P

[uppityperson]

54. We didn't respect teachers that resorted to hitting.

no way.

[Dora]

31. I'm a little disturbed by some of what's in this post.

It's not a reflection on you, Madokie, but I'm concerned about the subtextual messaging that's in this widely circulated e-mail.

Are we wrong to be concerned about lead-free paint?
Are we wrong to be worried about the amount of soda pop and processed junk foods our children eat?
Is the lone answer to childhood obesity as simple as exercise?
Is testing pregnant mothers for gestational diabetes an irrational concern?
Is it silly to think children should wear bicycle helmets today only because we didn't need to?
What were mercury levels in ocean fish when I was eating tuna-fish sandwiches twice a week in the 1970s?

Gawd, I could go on, but I'll stop here. It's taken me an hour to compose this. Somebody else has probably beat me to it.

Just wanted to put in my two-cents worth.

[Pacifist Patriot]

37. Nah, I think it's three things.

1. Understandable nostalgia.

2. A poke at over-protectiveness.

I don't think anyone could reasonably argue that bicycle helmets and children's car seats are a bad idea. But then again, I think there are areas in which we've gone too far the other way.

Take puddles for example. And no I'm not kidding.

I take my kids out puddle jumping after a rainstorm. It's fun! But I've encountered other moms in the neighborhood absolutely horrified by the idea. OMG! There could be horrendously deadly microbes in that water....and some other flat out paranoid fears about a silly little puddle on the sidewalk.

3. It's a bit of a subtle reminder that we're probably doing things that future generations will consider risky and ill-advised. But given our perspective we have no idea what they are. What are we doing that will appall our grand-children, eh?

[Dora]

44. That's a good point. And I've received the same looks.

We allow our young toddler son to play with things that other parents just recoil from - pipes, sticks, rocks, drums and drumsticks. We do have limits to what he can do with what he's playing with; he quickly learned that if he hits the cat with the drumstick, the drumstick will be taken away. :cry: But, the boy does know how to handle a drumstick, and he doesn't hit the cat (as much). Sometimes I wonder if we're too permissive - but I'd rather err on the side of permissivenes than overprotection.

Recently we were at a group picnic. One mother was particularly aghast because our son had taken one of our plastic forks and was walking around with it in his hand - without threat of injury to himself or others. This same mother kept her crawling baby girl confined to a blanket, pulling her back to the middle each time she managed to crawl to the edge: she was afraid to let her daughter touch the grass. Afraid of the grass! Why? Because mom is allergic to grass and she was convinced that her daughter would be too. That made me :cry:. Her baby girl did finally get a chance to reach the grass - and survive without sneezing, hives, or sniffles, much to her mom's surprise.

Ah, but back to the topic at hand... Where's the nostalgia for chasing after the DDT truck? And didn't the corner shoe store use an x-ray machine to look at our feet? How about metal dashboards and no seat belts? I can appreciate the nostalgia, but I do still believe there's a thinly veiled criticism of environmental awareness, consumer safety concerns, and the like.

"What are we doing that will appall our grand-children?" Leaving Bush II in power for eight years, is our miserable legacy.

[Pacifist Patriot]

51. Ouch!

Leaving Bush II in power for eight years, is our miserable legacy. Amen to that!

[uppityperson]

57. me too. Here are some other memories.

too simplistic, too too. I checked snopes but nothing there yet.

Remembering back to my childhood, there was a whole lot of bad things going on I didn't know about. Here are some I do remember.

I remember being told not to eat the snow in the winter because of fallout. I remember a classmate getting severely beaten because he was poor, and others teased because they had only 2 outfits for school. I remember a friend blowing his brains out in his bathroom and none of us knew he was depressed. His parents did. I remember another friend being subjected to electroshock therapy when an uppity teen. I remember fights in the neighborhood between public and private school kids. I remember being happy when the abusive middleschool teacher got cancer because that meant he had to leave school and could no longer shove kids into the waterfountain. I remember being told to not bring up politics when I visited a friend in 1st grade (huh?) because the parents were rabid somethings. I remember detouring around drunks on the side street downtown and having my breasts grabbed by a boy passing by.

Easy to remember and fantasize about the past, especially when we were young and clueless.

[madokie]

65. I think the message is that a person can be too protective

and how fear is used as a tool, after all we did turn out alright.
peace
:hi:
Wouldn't want to go back by any means.

[schmuls]

34. Alright, Madokie!! What you said makes me damn proud to be a

member of the "Boomers Gang"!!!

[schmuls]

36. I could use a "fizzie" right now. I'd put it right on my tongue instead

of in water.

[Catherine Vincent]

39. This one really rings a bell with me:

"We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. "

I got a bad case of worms and the medicine I took for it cured it. And luckily I was too young to remember or realize what the hell what was wrong with me.

[RobertSeattle]

41. I'll take a bait and spoof this...

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

Remember when Dad beat up on Mom and you were just supposed to shutup about it?

Remember when your brother was born with a disability because of what Mom took while Pregnant?

Remember when your Uncle Bob died in a car accident because cars didn't have seatbelts?

Remember when GrandPa died when you were just four because of emphysema?

Remember Cousin Sally split her head wide open when she fell off a bike because she didn't have a helmet?

Remember when Uncle George and Uncle Dick avoided going to the VietNam War but Nephew Frank got drafted and didn't return?

Remember being paranoid about Nuclear War between the US and USSR?

[Pacifist Patriot]

53. Yep, works both ways.

Wonder what the email will look like in 30 years about this decade.

[Bake]

42. Fortunately, my mom didn't take Thalidomide

Or else I MIGHT not be able to play the banjo.

Yeah, those were the days.

Bake

[democrank]

43. Madokie, you`ve made my day.

1940`s here and I`m still nodding in agreement. Yes, yes, and yes!

Who in their right mind would assume a kid could get through life without a scraped knee, a splattering of mud on their "best" pants, or a resounding "No" to the question, "Wanna come over?"

I`m thinking of one time (of many) my family had nothing to eat. My young brother and I somehow scraped up enough change and walked quite a distance for a bag of marshmallows. We spent the afternoon piercing marshmallows with toothpicks....marshmallow men....which we sold around the neighborhood. Instant $ for our family`s supper.

[madokie]

64. I am a '48 model myself. raised in northeast oklahoma

where there is more rocks than blades of grass it seems, I remember running up and down the gravel roads, over and thru the hills an hollers with nary shoe on my feet. Catching rabbits in the winter time for the breakfast table. following behind dad and the ole mare hilling the potatos picking the plants back up that she stomped in the grown on purpose because she was mad for having to pull the dang plow. Born at home to never see a doctor until I was going into the service. I haven't forgotten the evenings I went to sleep on an empty stomach either. Yes to me those were good times as I look back. There was love everywhere from the family to the neighbors as well as strangers.

[bobbolink]

45. Bring back that lead paint in inner city neighborhoods!

Brain damaged minority kids are a *good* thing!

:sarcasm:

[foreverdem]

47. I've seen this many times

I've seen this post many times over the past few years and it always brings a smile to my face. I can identify with doing almost all of them. Thanks for posting it, madokie.

[mhatrw]

49. And we feel sorry for today's kids.

Very sorry.

[SmokingJacket]

56. Child death rates have dropped dramatically in the last few decades.

http://www.childtrendsdatabank.org/indicators/63ChildMortality.cfm

When I was a kid, there were lots of kids in my small town/circle of acquaintances who DID die. Two were run over by cars, one drowned in a golf course water hazard, one dead of leukemia (treatable now), one accidentally shot himself with a gun, another died in a mysterious bedroom accident. My cousin almost died eating those under-the-sink chemicals -- now we have babyproof locks.

Yes, we're more paranoid now... but on the other hand, my kids have no dead friends.

Reducing childhood death rates is one of the great achievements of modern times, imho.

[SammyWinstonJack]

58. The wonder years. nt

[DesertRat]

59. Great post, but I think I'd leave off the 1970's

By then, most of us weren't still smoking and drinking during pregnancy. :)

I do remember the days when we could play outside all day, riding our bikes (no helmets of course, and with my younger brother on my handlebars). I grew up in the Northeast and we'd play in the woods for hours. I remember laying in the grass looking at the clouds, waiting for the ice cream man. Those were carefree, innocent times.

[caledesi]

60. Born 1947 and everything you said rings clear as a bell...

especially playing outdoors. That is all we did. We didn't want to come home and dreaded our mothers calling for us.

We were busy builing forts
Playing whiffle ball
Drinking Kool-Aid OUTDOORS
Riding bikes
Climbing trees
"Exploring" the "jungles" near our house
Playing board games (again, outdoors)

Memories....

[Maven]

61. You drank from a garden hose?

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

[hippywife]

62. While I agree with some of this

and I think people can be overprotective in some areas and over-litigious at times, I really think this list, that has been traveling around the internet for years now, was thought up by people who want to go back to the days when they didn't have to be held responsible for betraying the public trust when they made shitty products that injured people so they could make a bigger profit. They don't want the added cost of regulation for the general good because it takes a bite out of their bottom line. They just want you to remember "the good old days" by getting people to blame the victims of their malfeasances for being whiners.

[GeorgeGist]

63. I like to here from...

the ones that didn't survive to get the WHOLE story; before I go patting myself on the back.