If you lived as a child in the 40's, 50's, 60's or 70's how did you survive?

[srv1]

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
truck 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.

We hitchiked to town all by ourselves.

We drank water from the garden hose instead
of 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
dodgeball and
sometimes the ball would really hurt. We got
cut and
broke bones and broke teeth, and there were
no law
suits 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 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,video tape
movies, surround sound, personal cell phones,
Personal
Computers, 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 although 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 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.
No one to hide behind. The idea of a parent
bailing us
out if we broke a law was unheard of. They
actually
sided with the law, imagine that!

Our generation has produced some of the best
risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors
ever.
The past 50 years have seen 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're one of 'us', congratulations! We
had the luck to
grow up as kids, before lawyers and
government decided to
regulated our lives, "for our own good"..

remember that? huh....