Natwerk Designs - How did we survive childhood?

How did we survive childhood?

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. If YOU are one of them? CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good. While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it ?

Public Comments

actually it makes me want to be a republican, don't they favor less government regulation?
Ah, that was great spike!! and I did just sent them to my kids and hope someday the grandkids will read it too..=)
Spike,spoken like a true Great American.Don't forget about riding bikes and playing contact sports on empty lots without helmets. I am one of those of the 50 plus years and I can write a sentence with correct spelling and punctuation.I am laughing hard about forgetting the brakes on our go carts and our parents siding with the police.
And the brandy and hot toddys they gave us for fevers and chills..at least me they did..i remember a cough syrup called terpenhydrate, it was tuepine with chloral hydrate (noctec) for sleep...yee haw..today a kid goes to er with alcohol in urine parents go to jail...lol
I can remember as a 3-4 y/o in 1951 and 1952 while we were traveling from upstate NY to NJ, standing on the front seat of our car, and when the driver (either Mom or Dad) stepped on the brake, they put their right arm in front of me in case I fell. ...and every night, I slept in a room with lead based paint and an asbestos ceiling, and guess what, I'm still here, and don't have cancer either from the cellphones I've been using since 1985.
How true. We always played outside. My children had a rule, and that was when the street lights came on, it was into the house to wash up and go to bed. If they were good, they could stay up and watch Laugh-In or The Lucy Show. But it was bedtime after that. One other thing that I remember are the mosquito fogging trucks that would spray a dense fog to control the mosquito population at dusk . . . and the kids would run in the fog behind those trucks. They survived that too!
WOW!.. i read this to my grand kids..,they looked at me like..yea ,WELL, Meme?
I've copied that and will send it with my next email to my daughter and SIL. It's all so very true. I wouldn't want to live through it again, but my gosh, we had a marvelous time, didn't we?
That was great Spike. We also walked 5 miles to and from school...uphill both ways, in the snow and with no shoes. Oh no, that was our parents, not us.
That's right! And we wouldn't have to wash our hands 100 X day and use that hand sanitizer after doing EVERYTHING and we didn't catch anything and die. The way kids live now has turned them into "sucks."
Suitable for framing, I hadn't thought of most of his stuff in ages! We used to play with the mercury from a broken thermometer, used to chew on chunks of tar left from Mr. Rogers' new barn roof, run barefoot all summer when the scorpions and rattle snakes weren't hibernating. My Mom used a match to find gas leaks. Sunburned beyond functioning, and made to stand there while Mom doused us with white vinegar, always worked getting rid of the pain and we never peeled after wards. Put straight iodine into baby oil and lay in the sun to tan quicker. They don't put color in iodine any more, wonder why? Gosh, how far do we want to go here?
shut up ,, ,,, anyhow it is what it is............ spike .........FAITH AND CHILDHOOD IS AWESOME .. have a good week all seniors ......GOD BLESS THIS MESS.......
Those are very good and true. But I just barely survived childhood as I had almost every disease a kid could get. I remember bronchial pneumonia and whooping cough almost did me and my sis in. Those days the doctor came to the house, so I was never in a hospital, even with 2 rounds of pleursiy, mumps, measles and various other awful things.
Flashlight tag with over 10 kids that didn't require prearranged "play dates" to play with. You've actually got me tearing up, Spike.
Hey. I grew up in the big bad city in the 30's and 40's. I actually rode subways and trolleys alone at night. I walked all over the city alone again-naturally. I drank water from a hose on someones lawn and dove for pickles in a big barrel that everyone else had stuck their hand in. Indeed. How did we survive?
well i am english, and i agree with every word, my kids grew up as kids, the world has gone mad, the nanny state,its horrendous,
I also remember children being taken over to their friends or neighbors when they came down with chicken pox or measles so they would catch it and get it over with before school-age so that they wouldn't get them at school and miss a lot of days. We walked barefoot down a gravel road and through cow pastures, my small foot almost always landing in a pile of fresh & warm green cow manure. My sisters would go out at night and turn over rocks and aim a flashlight to catch scorpions using a long pair of tweezers, and put them in a glass jar. We got to play with a BB gun, blew up red ant hills with firecrackers & took walks on the farm creek where a nest of cottonmouths resided. And I do believe we had it better than my daughter's generation, she dreamed of living in the country Little-House-on-the-Prairie style. I think she would have loved such a lifestyle.
I grew up in the 60's and 70's and we were able to go out on Halloween and get our bags filled with candy without worrying about an adult trying to poison us, and we went around the neighborhood without parental escorts.