Congratulations to us all, we made it.... I Can't Believe We Made It!
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's probably shouldn't have survived.
Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.
We had no childproof lids or locks 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 pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors!
We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.
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 street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones. Unthinkable!
We did not have Play stations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.
We had friends! We went outside and found them.
We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt. We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?
We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out any eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home 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.
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.
Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.
The idea of parents bailing us out if we got in trouble in school or broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the school or the law. Imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventors, ever.
We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility --- and we learned how to deal with it. And you're one of them! Congratulations!!!
Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids before lawyers and government regulated our lives for our own good !!! *****
I agree to a degree, but the author of this, whoever it may be (dozens, at least, have it copyrighted on their web pages and/or have given themselves the byline), talks sarcastically about things which he survived, neglecting the fact that many didn't (he seems to have missed the declining childhood death rate), acts as though some things (e.g. abductions) have increased, when they in fact, have not, and acts as though things that still go on (e.g. playing with sticks) don't.
Reminds me of a commentary by an old man talking of his youth here . It is from a comedy programme thirty year ago, but it catches the sentiment . Nothing changes:
"We had things that you don't get now. We had comradeship.... all pulling together....playing in the street ( not so many cars then, see)... happiness with little..... all equal together......conscription.... rickets.... the Luftwaffe... 'itler....Happy days, kids to day don't know what they are missing". ( sigh).
And what was the infant mortality? How many people died of tuberculosis? How many died of poliomyelitis or were crippled by it?Or of influenza ? How many had a right to free medical treatment? And I suppose adults didn't complain about popular music and what the young enjoyed then, either !
Don't know about the US but kids here are such as daft as kids ever were, just as full of life, just as adjusted socially, healthier and have a longer life to expect.If they knew the joys of life back then would you think them wise to swap?
And of course,the brightest will and do come out on top now too. If those who do not retain self-esteem, then that's no bad thing, is it? Never mind if there is a change there.What was worse was that in my parents' and even in my youth there were thousands of able people who never got the chance to succeed to the fullness of their potential, since they could not or did not get the education sufficient to develop them .
it is a shame that in some people's claim to wisdom they cannot find humor. "Ignorance is bliss", "knowledge is power", and taking things (all things) to literally is totally assinine.
Yes this whole thing was copied and pasted- from a email that I thought was funny- HELLO it is a JOKE- not the gospel and carved in stone. but the two responses from it were totally off that fact and only focused on a "forgot" to mention about the ones who did not.
The whole Idea of the thing is that OUR new society has become something we all fear even within our own homes, a "germ freak", can't let our kids out. Kids are electronically occupied- overweight- flogged society. The idea is that although our society THEN had dangers as children we were taught much more responsibility- respect- and our educations were not handed to us so the failing system could look good on paper. OUR country has become a democratic pool of trash- what a shame no one wants to clean the pool.
thanks for reminding me of why I have stayed away for so long-
I'm sure I could satirize the e-mail in some way but I don't think I'm witty enough. So all I have to give is a point: considering the number of people living in the US specifically, I wonder if the author realizes how few sue for stupid reasons (not to mention the bits of extreme blatant and wild stuff that has been incorporated into the world). I don't doubt that noticing that point would bring him a little on the optimistic side toward the issue.
And although I don't think the author was trying to touch on what your third paragraph says: us kids in my neighborhood used to play in a creek in the woods behind the row of houses. And believe it or not, but I've been underweight since I was in middle school. I definitely wouldn't say responsibility or respect have died and I don't remember any slack teachers.
Posts: 6530 | Location: Grayson, Georgia, USA | Registered: 06-03-02
quote:Originally posted by FredPuli: And distance lends enchantment to the view.....
Reminds me of a commentary by an old man talking of his youth here . It is from a comedy programme thirty year ago, but it catches the sentiment . Nothing changes:
"We had things that you don't get now. We had comradeship.... all pulling together....playing in the street ( not so many cars then, see)... happiness with little..... all equal together......conscription.... rickets.... the Luftwaffe... 'itler....Happy days, kids to day don't know what they are missing". ( _sigh_).
And what was the infant mortality? How many people died of tuberculosis? How many died of poliomyelitis or were crippled by it?Or of influenza ? How many had a right to free medical treatment?
Funny you should mention that last. Tuberculosis was a word in a book to me until high school, when I had a teacher who'd been sent out here to help his recovery from the disease. Otherwise, it was completely unkown here.
Now, unfortunately, it's common enough that everyone attending or employed by the public schools here has to be tested for it annually. Hepatitis is the same way. We'd heard of it, but that was about it. Now our kids have to be innoculated against it routinely. And here in the States, of course, nobody is entitled to free medical treatment.
Alan Moore
Posts: 2012 | Location: USA | Registered: 10-05-03
Yes, we once had tuberculosis virtually eliminated in this country. And one of the ways it was done was by requiring anyone who handled food to have regular health checkups for this and other diseases. Servers, cooks and all the rest of the staff had to have "health cards" issued by the Public Health Department in order to be employed.
But this practice was abolished quite some time back as we began to move to a more politically correct society. Seems we couldn't take the risk of lowering the self esteem of the infected in a manner which would minimize them infecting others. So now we are seeing the return of diseases which we had worked so hard to wipe out. Unintended consequences is the kindest title I can hang on these kinds of actions.
