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The way it was…the way it is…
I was born in 1973. I grew up in a small town in Oregon. I had a bb gun and a motorcycle. I rode around in the back of my dad’s pick up and waved at passing cops - they waived back. I would leave home after breakfast and return at dinner. My mom never worried about where I was. I drank kool-aid and water from a nearby creek. I got dirty. I played hard. I got in fights. When I fell down I picked myself back up. I didn’t have cable TV until I was 17 or 18 years old. Gas was a buck and I could fill up my Ford F-150 on the money I made framing houses in high school. Come to think of it - that really wasn’t all that long ago. What happened to America? Â
I don’t know who wrote the statement below but it about sums up the way I feel about a lot of things…
THOSE Born 1920-1979 READ TO THE BOTTOM FOR QUOTE OF THE MONTH BY JAY LENO. IF YOU DON’T READ ANYTHING ELSE — VERY WELL STATED. 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-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 infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, 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 Kool-aid made with sugar, 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 streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. 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, Nintendos, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVDs, no surround-sound or CDs, no cell phones, no personal computers! No Internet or 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?!
The quote of the month is by Jay Leno: ‘With hurricanes, tornadoes, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?’
Boy that took me back. Three or four of us kids used to stand in the back of my uncle’s pick-up and see who could stay on their feet as he hit every bump he could find on the old dirt road that cut through our farm. Somehow we all survived. Come to think of it, I might have hit my head. Maybe that’s my problem. Sheesh! Somebody get me a Kool Aid - quick.
Left by Ron on 01/21/2008