(OT) Subject: How Did We Survive??
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> You are probably over forty if you get this or approaching it:
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> You lived as a child in the 50s or the 60s.
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> Looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as
> we have.................
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> 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. (Not to
> mention hitchhiking to town as a young kid!)
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> We drank water from the garden hose and not from 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.
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> 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.
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> 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 cellular 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?
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> 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.
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> Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those
> who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.....
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> 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.
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> 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!
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> This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and
> problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years has been an
> explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success
> and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
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> And you're one of them. Congratulations!
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