How On Earth Did We Survive

[jtallen83]

 

My Mother sent me this;

TO ALL THE
KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE  
1930s, '40s, '50s,
'60s and '70s!! 

 

   
First, we survived being born to mothers who may have 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-based 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 and 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 OKAY.  

 

   

 

   
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 Play Stations, Nintendos and X-boxes. There were 
No video games,
No 150 channels on cable,  
No video movies
Or DVDs,  
No surround-sound or
CDs,  
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 those accidents.
 
    We would get
Spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles, or just a bare hand, 
And no one would call child services to report abuse. 

 

   

 

    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, 22 rifles for our 12th, rode horses,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
To 85 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 are
One of those born  
Between 1925-1970, 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 ? 
~~~~~~~  

[Frankh252]

Man, that one hits the nail square on the head

[Rsquared]

A BIG standing applause JT.

[shepp]

Guess I'm a pussy, I was born in 81' but spent my childhood that way..

[slugger43]

Perfect.  Absolutely perfect!  Loved the hell out of both of my parents, but their asses would be in jail for disciplining me if they did that today....  

Oh, and I can remember getting my ass hacked by my junior high coach with a wooden paddle made in the school woodshop.  Yeah, I deserved it.  Never went back for seconds, either.  Lesson learned.  Dude would have lost his job and done jail time for that today.  Didn't have a lot of discipline problems in my schools....

Born in '43

Edited March 12, 2016 by slugger43

[Rsquared]

Guess I'm a female cat, I was born in 81' but spent my childhood that way..

Well........now that you mention it.................

HA!

[DNP]

Yer just a young one Shepp. I've got at least 6 months on ya. 

[beantown]

I was born in 1959 and the OP post is exactly how I grew up. Kids these days are pussies!

 

[planeflyer21]

Peaked youth in the '70s.  That means enginieering Evel Kneivel-esque ramps from cinderblocks and left over plywood, for jumping bikes in the alley.  After awhile you learn to build them to the side, so the garbage trucks can still pass by.

Love it when you're first getting started on jumping from ramps, then the guys on the garbage truck stop and the guy on the back hops off, comes over, and says "Mira...you need to put a couple of blocks in here to support the middle of the ramp, like this," as he's stuffing a couple of bricks under the weak unsupported part of the board.  Pointing at the kid who's turn it is to jump, then to the ramp, "Now go!", the jumper's altitude and distance greatly increased over previous jumps, shocked kids' faces all around, as all the garbage men get a belly laugh and are on their way...

[bubbas4570]

Guess I'm a female cat, I was born in 81' but spent my childhood that way..

 

 

Born in `70 here, and then I guess I am in with you also.  Running into the back end of pickups with your bicycle because you couldn't stop due to speed was just a learning bump along the way.... Now someone would have you locked up, or parents sued, for even thinking about running into their vehicles.

 

 

 

[82HALO]

WOW...born in 57 everything said above was my childhood!! Bringing back so many memories! Life was so good and so much simpler then!

[unforgiven]

55 Life was great,summers long.Parents cooked with lard.....There was no cyber bullying the saying " stick and stones might break my bones but names will never hurt me" comes to mind.From a kid with a so called "girls name" and a "cripple" never thought of killing others because of it or killing myself.Also being raised by a mean drunk of a "so called dad" that did teach me 2 things.How to survive and how not to treat people.Also back in the day we weren fed pills for every fukin problem real or imagined.Fuckin pills are root cause of alot of situations we have now.

Outfukinstanding brother Jt,that would be a great poster for mass circulation.Well done sir.

Edited March 12, 2016 by unforgiven

[shepp]

Yer just a young one Shepp. I've got at least 6 months on ya. 

September 6th

[DNP]

June 80. Looks like it's over a year. Damn I'm old. 

[MikedaddyH]

JT .... Right on point !

Bubba... Yep !

Rene +2

Spent the 60's in a city and the 70's in Small town could go from Seattle to Bellingham ,from the Puget Sound to Steven's Pass just wrote a note where I was going. Parents took out a life insurance policy out on me,they thought 8 would kill myself doing something stupid !

[Frankh252]

June 80. Looks like it's over a year. Damn I'm old. 

June of 80?! Naww, you ain't old, not by a long shot

[slugger43]

Spent the 60's in a city and the 70's in Small town could go from Seattle to Bellingham ,from the Puget Sound to Steven's Pass just wrote a note where I was going. Parents took out a life insurance policy out on me,they thought 8 would kill myself doing something stupid !

Yeah, mine thought that too.   Hell, they might yet be proven correct.....

[MikedaddyH]

Yeah, mine thought that too.   Hell, they might yet be proven correct.....

I disappointed my step dad ,he said he would get a red Porshe with the proceeds !

[survivalshop]

  Them's were the day's ! 

[Sisco]

That was my youth, along with jumping off second story decks into a sandpile. I had great hang time. I think I got some stuff in the back of my refrigerator from '81, by the way.

[washguy]

Dont know whether to laff or cry?  LOL

My Dad's seal skin belt would raise whelps.. my sis and lil bro would get the belt.. and me for letting them do crazy crap..when I did sumthin wrong...never repeated that  for fear of the belt ..lol...spent every day on the creek or having the popo chase me on my homemade minibike with the briggs lawnmower engine...they only caught me one time...and it took 2 cars..those were the fun days...... bb guns pellet guns  m-80s. And cherry bombs that you could buy all year long..      Wash

[EngrBob]

Damn, some of you are younger than my sons!  November of 47 here and I remember the 100-mile bike hikes, sandlot football games (tackle without equipment), having measles and chicken pox.  What a great way to grow up!

[shepp]

Dont know whether to laff or cry?  LOL

My Dad's seal skin belt would raise whelps.. my sis and lil bro would get the belt.. and me for letting them do crazy crap..when I did sumthin wrong...never repeated that  for fear of the belt ..lol...spent every day on the creek or having the popo chase me on my homemade minibike with the briggs lawnmower engine...they only caught me one time...and it took 2 cars..those were the fun days...... bb guns pellet guns  m-80s. And cherry bombs that you could buy all year long..      Wash

grandpa is a double amputee above the knee do to a train accident, dad always said "he may not have any legs but you better make damn sure your outta arms reach if your fucking off" he'll be 92 in August. I got my ass whooped PLENTY by my old man. 

I grew up between two cities, my parents worked first shift. In the summer if I wanted to go anywhere I had to ride my bike there. Used to ride my bike down to a pond about 15 min away and fish all day or to a buddies house in town about 30min then down town to his dad's appliance store hang out and watch tv (I didn't have cable till I was 14 or 15). 

 

@Sisco you probably got fishing lures older than I lol

[unforgiven]

Damn, some of you are younger than my sons!  November of 47 here and I remember the 100-mile bike hikes, sandlot football games (tackle without equipment), having measles and chicken pox.  What a great way to grow up!

Born and raised on the Southeastside of Chicago we played tackel in the streets.Games never went long.Broke alot of car antennas off and windows.

[planeflyer21]

Telescoping car antennas made the BEST swords!