We did not have Xboxes and survived

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clay

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Aug 12, 2004
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THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE '40s, '50s, '60s and '70s !!

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 street lights 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 chatrooms....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!

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 SURVIVE!
 
clay said:
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL AND SURVIVE!

Yep, I too worry about today's youth, having three step-kids these days, it amazes me, what change happens in just one generation (10 years).

Ah..the simpler days, thanks for the tour in the way way back machine Clay....Missteerr Wizard!!
 
Did Anybody??......

slide down long stairways on a carpet, OR, jump off garage roofs into sandboxes full of water??
 
Mikey the Flower Guy said:
jump off garage roofs into sandboxes full of water??

Yup, broke stuff too...

One thing we did, was play "army" and not like most kids...we used BB guns and Pellet Rifles...and played in houses under construction...man did those things hurt **if** you got hit...
 
Did Anybody???......

ride in the back of your parents stationwagon, and be able to identify all the diiferent cars and trucks that were "passing" you at 50 miles an hour??
 
Brings back memories

BOSS said:
Yup, broke stuff too...

One thing we did, was play "army" and not like most kids...we used BB guns and Pellet Rifles...and played in houses under construction...man did those things hurt **if** you got hit...

Really brings back some ol memories. My neighbor Kevin Runkel and I would always shoot BB guns at each other. Basically, we loaded up on the clothing or put on the old Army jacket.... but to stupid to wear eye protection. I remember one time when Runkel was behind a huge crape myrdel bush at the corner of a fence, I just started peppering the bush with pot shots then I heard this scream and the BB gun being thrown to the ground. I thought I had "shot his eye out" (like the movie) until he comes from behind the bush holding his chin. I started to laughing my ### off because he already had a clift chin.

Yep, construction also. New subdivision with houses.....large ground compactor/roller got started by "accident"....ran into a stud only house by "accident".... I got to say that Runkel and I worked our ### reframing that wall late into the night.....
 
We used to put wooden matches in our pellet rifles and shoot them at the walls so they would spark just to add a little live fire element to our games. Got hit in the head with one talk about a bump.
 
We would load our Crossman pump pellet/BB gun with at least 10 pumps in the air chamber and load a BB and drop a lit Sparkler down the shaft and shoot it up in the air never caring what happens when something catches FIRE!

ATF in the USA would be all over us now a days...
 
Doug Hatcher said:
We used to put wooden matches in our pellet rifles and shoot them at the walls so they would spark just to add a little live fire element

Cool.... you know I'll have to try this one out...

Oh...and Blue's too, Fourth of July :)
 
Yep, construction also. New subdivision with houses.....large ground compactor/roller got started by "accident"....ran into a stud only house by "accident".... I got to say that Runkel and I worked our ### reframing that wall late into the night.....[/QUOTE]

Actually I lost a childhood friend who was playing in a stack of sewer pipes and theyshifted and crushed him, and my brother put out a kids eye in a rock fight , at 9 years old. I will agree that we had more fun and could entertain ourselves a lot better than the jaded , bored and over supervised kids of today , but those dangers were real and sometimes tragically very close to home.
 
Tragic Each Generation

[/QUOTE]Actually I lost a childhood friend who was playing in a stack of sewer pipes and theyshifted and crushed him, and my brother put out a kids eye in a rock fight , at 9 years old. I will agree that we had more fun and could entertain ourselves a lot better than the jaded , bored and over supervised kids of today , but those dangers were real and sometimes tragically very close to home.[/QUOTE]

Yes, I agree. I had a good friend loose his two middle fingers from a pipe bomb. We also did stupid things in cars also, but that is pretty consistant with kids in each generation.

While I do not have the statistics on the percentage of tragic injuries (or losses) from the "outdoor" generation of kids, but I am woulding if it is offset in the "bored and over supervised kids" with the increase amount of obesity and diabetes in children and the trajic health problems that stays with them when they get to be adults?
 
I do believe it's much harder being a kid today.

V
 
While I do not have the statistics on the percentage of tragic injuries (or losses) from the "outdoor" generation of kids, but I am woulding if it is offset in the "bored and over supervised kids" with the increase amount of obesity and diabetes in children and the trajic health problems that stays with them when they get to be adults?

Part of it is probably that, another is the amount of pure sugar that's in the modern North American diet. I'm living for the day they introduce Splenda based diet Coke and Pepsi One in Canada (I'm allergic to asparatame).

That's another thing that a lot of people forget about the post-60s kids, a lot of us have allergies to the oddest things. No one in my family has ever had allergies - until me. I'm allergic to a whole wack of things - not a single one of them natural. I'm allergic to asparatame, artificial orange and grape flavourings, the stabilizer in mayonaisse and in yougurt, and I'm allergic to a scary amount of perfumes. If my attacks are what asthma is like, you can have it, I don't want it.

On that list, it talks about smoking and how we survived. I'd argue that one, I have several friends that lost parents to lung cancer and are living a life with asthma (and they don't smoke). The good ol' days were good but they had their bad bits too. No time is perfect.

I'll get off my :soapbox: now.
Audra
 
Besides being over-protected our youngsters today ( the indoor gen) seem to have an attitude of entitlement, increased depression and drug use at a earlier age.
Yes Mikey I remember riding down the stairs on my butt, cardboard or a carpet- probably caused some brain damage! My dad gave me a .22 rifle for Christmas when I was 6 , shot my first deer at 9. Built tree forts to defend from who knows what (since I grew up on a rural farm!) and worked my tail off with my Dad on the farm!
The values were so different then- family first and formost and a very strong worth ethic which serves me well now... kinda feel sorry for the kids now don't you?
 
Many of the children I see aren't over-protected... they have no protection at all. This world is a tough place for kids these days. From my perspective, the self-absorbed "parents" (loosely used term) have shirked their responsibilities by either buying off their kids or ignoring them altogether.

Kids learn from example... sometimes the examples they see really suck.

V
 
NOWWWWW you tell me!!!........

LORRIE said:
Yes Mikey I remember riding down the stairs on my butt, cardboard or a carpet- probably caused some brain damage!

All these years I've been looking for the reasons my brain misfunctions:hammer:
 
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