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KB in Kelowna
4-29-05, 3:58 PM
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
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, butwe 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. 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 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!

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 TODEAL WITH IT ALL!
And 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 our lives for our own good.

and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

a4l
4-29-05, 4:42 PM
You could also add that designer jeans were unknown and athletic shoes were canvas and didn't cost a fortune. :conspire: :soapbox:

J.R.
4-29-05, 5:55 PM
Who wrote that? They sound bitter. :laughing:

Mel
4-29-05, 6:18 PM
I agree with most of that whole heartedly, except the bailing out part. I got bailed out of jail a few times in my youth. But the rest of it is right on.

Life has changed so much for kids since even I was a kid in the 70's. We never wore helmets... it seems like kids wear helmets these days just to walk from the house to the SUV.

If I ever have kids they will not be allowed to wear helmets, unless it's for a sport. These kids look so stupid running around in big oversized bicycle helmets.

I go inline skating around the streets some mornings before work, and I never wear any helmet or padding. I'd rather wind up in a bloody heap than strap on all that crap each morning.

I got a bike and my mother says "are you gonna wear a helmet" and I said no, why should I? My father had the same response when she asked him. I rode bikes all throughout my youth without a helmet.... when did it become necessary to wear a helmet? She couldn't answer :)

KB in Kelowna
4-29-05, 6:28 PM
Jeff Foxworthy has a routine very similar to this. It is true its a wonder any of us survived. Today things are far too regulated. People book play time with their kids.

When we went on trips we didn't have or need portable dvd or game systems in the vehicle. We talked looked at the sites listened to the radio and discussed what we were listening to. Be it the news or the music.

Ever play a fifty inning baseball/softball game? You know start at 9:00, have lunch and finish at dinner time?

There are some places where they have tried to ban street hockey.

Nobody cared about the lable on your clothes or shoes.

Maybe this email I posted could sound bitter, to me its just telling those "do gooders" who are trying to take the fun out of childhood to take a deep breath.

a4l
4-29-05, 6:59 PM
We went camping most summers and even after we got our trailer we NEVER took a tv or radio with us.
One of the favourite passtimes was kick the can, played with about 20 people. Best of all we had a tree fort ... not one of those fancy dandy tree houses. Ours was a wooden platform about 7 ft off the ground, with a horizontal 2x4 on 3 sides. Some barrier eh?
On car trips we palyed a lot of I spy.
(My brother has a minivan with a dvd player in it. His battery has died 3 times because his kids stay in the van and watch DVD's when the van isn't running!)



I know why some places are trying to ban street hockey. If it is anything like the street I live on. In the good old days if a car came you moved the net and let them by no problem. Now the kids stand there like stuffed ducks and expect you to go around them. :curse: :curse:

go_leafs_go02
4-29-05, 11:00 PM
I'm old too (17..lol), I can remember when there used to be a 10 foot slide down the streetin the park..nowadays, they have cushioning, and soar up to 3 feet high in some places.

"Honey...Where's the bubblewrap???"

slapshot™
5-04-05, 12:15 AM
To put things in perspective (for ALL generations)...

If you open only one window to the world - this is the one!!!!!.............

Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida has put up a very interesting
Java applet on their site. It begins as a view of the Milky Way Galaxy
viewed from a distance of 10 million light years and then zooms into towards
Earth in powers of ten - of distance 10 million, to one million, to 100,000
light years and so on and then when it finally reaches a large oak tree
leaf.

But that is not all - it zooms into the leaf until it reaches to the level
of the quarks viewed at 100 attometers. Go to this web site---
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html

This is a fantastic representation of how magnificent the Universe is and
how vastly infinite it is both in the macroscopic and the microscopic level.

Max Power
5-04-05, 8:57 AM
To put things in perspective (for ALL generations)...

If you open only one window to the world - this is the one!!!!!.............

Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida has put up a very interesting
Java applet on their site. It begins as a view of the Milky Way Galaxy
viewed from a distance of 10 million light years and then zooms into towards
Earth in powers of ten - of distance 10 million, to one million, to 100,000
light years and so on and then when it finally reaches a large oak tree
leaf.

But that is not all - it zooms into the leaf until it reaches to the level
of the quarks viewed at 100 attometers. Go to this web site---
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html (http://javascript<b></b>:ol('http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/primer/java/scienceopticsu/powersof10/index.html');)

This is a fantastic representation of how magnificent the Universe is and
how vastly infinite it is both in the macroscopic and the microscopic level.




No go on the link?

Mel
5-04-05, 9:20 AM
No go on the link?

fixed :)