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DPChallenge Forums >> General Discussion >> For the old folks...like me
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06/06/2007 05:27:29 PM · #1
Born before 1980?
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, 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 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound, CD's or Ipods! 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, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives so much, than for our own good.

And while you are at it, share 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?!
06/06/2007 05:47:22 PM · #2
Yep, read this not so long ago and found it very nostalgic. Brought back heaps of memories, and all good.
06/06/2007 05:47:44 PM · #3
As a child of the 50's I did all those things and more. I have a few scars, but nothing that inhibits me from performing normally in day to day life.

What happened? Greed? Stupidity? Too many wooses in govt.?

I still don't wear a helmet when riding a bike. I use a seatbelt, but only because the annoying alarm won't deactivate as the manufacturer states it will. I still drink from the hose when in the yard working.

Damn! Where is that BB gun?

Message edited by author 2007-06-06 17:48:15.
06/06/2007 05:49:51 PM · #4
I agree with several of those things but to be honest i didn't have allot of frineds and if i had grown up with higher technology I think i would have maybe found more people like me.
06/06/2007 05:53:31 PM · #5
People who drove in those days weren't multi-tasking. The biggest risk 'round these parts is distracted adults, second 2fast2furious-type 18-25 yr olds thinking they can road race. I'm driving a big ole truck partly because of having been rear-ended no less than 7 times, all while my vehicle was sitting still.

I think more people stopped and smelled the roses back then. I am happy to wear a seat belt after two of those injuries (with seat belt) resulted in significant damage. On the horse, I wear a helmet because it's simply smart to do so, I need the same brains at the end of the ride as at the start, and I often don't duck enough for low branches, at speed. :-)
06/06/2007 05:55:50 PM · #6
What about how we ate worms etc?? Dirt was part of our staple diet.

Falling out of trees, a normal recreational sport.

Damn, already covered!! :)

Message edited by author 2007-06-06 17:56:43.
06/06/2007 05:58:53 PM · #7
I'm not sure if I count as old but I did most of those things as well growing up. I don't feel like any of them were smart though and I'm simply lucky to have survived it. I'm sure many kids didn't survive some of those things. I don't think being lucky makes me any stronger or better than kids these days.
06/06/2007 06:01:14 PM · #8
I am so bummin that i am an "old folk" now, lol.
06/06/2007 06:08:25 PM · #9
Originally posted by lynnesite:

I'm driving a big ole truck partly because of having been rear-ended no less than 7 times, all while my vehicle was sitting still.


Reminds me of one of my accidents. I'm sitting at a light in my truck. A car comes screaming up behind me. She tries to break but hits me. Because she has a low front end she slides under. Only goes about a foot under the bed. Just enough that I can't pull away. A moment later another car comes screaming up behind her but doesn't attempt to break. She's also driving a car with a low front end and slides under the woman who hit me... all the way under. Interestingly, there was enough force to bounce me off and about 20 feet away leaving them perfectly stacked up like pancakes. Quite an impressive sight; caused a huge backup of traffic as people drove by rubber necking.
06/06/2007 06:15:25 PM · #10
Everytime I think of what we did growing up I recall the words of our patron saint : George Carlin
06/06/2007 06:22:01 PM · #11
LAWN DARTS RULED!
06/06/2007 09:17:10 PM · #12
And for most of us, we had mothers that were home when we got home from school, made sure we got a snack before we went out to play. We had parents that helped with homework, even if they didn't understand all that we were learning.

We ate dinner as a family, even if I did hide most of my green things in the table legs (my parents pulled it out of storage when I was much older and showed me how much I had stuffed down the leg near me LOL!) or snuck it down to the dog that liked to lay at my feet.

We went camping and our parents would let us out of sight to go fishing all day and not worry to much about our safety.

Schools had real authority and they used the paddle if it was warrented... and yes, I even had a belt laid across my bottom a few times while growing up and had no lasting scares.

We had real role models to follow and we had the SPACE program to look up to and cheer for. I saw and heard Sputnik as it went over our house at night and I was glued to the TV for every manned space launch and the landing on the moon. I was part of the countdown for a number of un-manned Titan 3C launches later on and got goose bumps on every one of them.

And though my daughter is only 31, I'm glad to say that what was passed on to me as I grew up, got passed on to her. I hate getting old, but I'm glad I got to live through the years I have.

Mike
06/06/2007 10:43:24 PM · #13
Originally posted by MikeJ:

I hate getting old, but I'm glad I got to live through the years I have.

Mike


I agree with your post 100%, but this line I really like. Being born in the 50's, maturing in the late 60's and early 70's, becoming a parent in the early 80's, grandparent in the early 2k's, it has been a glorious ride the whole way!

Message edited by author 2007-06-06 22:44:37.
06/06/2007 11:06:32 PM · #14
you lucky bastards!
06/06/2007 11:17:11 PM · #15
Originally posted by TooCool:

LAWN DARTS RULED!


Hells ya...found some at a garage sale a couple of years ago...still in the old box so I snagged 'em! Nostalgic, metal tipped little darlin's! Muaahahaha!

And we are lucky bastards to have been allowed to be children and learn through the school of life, hard knocks and loving parents with common sense. (Which, IMO, should now be called uncommon sense!) :P
06/07/2007 12:10:20 AM · #16
I returned to school in recent years. All the other students are at least 11 years younger than me. When we talk about our childhoods, I'm always amazed by the freedom I had:

# full and uninhibited run of our 120 acre farm/ranch, the neighbors properties to all sides (with their blessing and permission), and the foothills of the rocky mountains just a short horse ride away
# received a bow and arrow set for my 6th birthday
# received a BB gun for my 7th birthday
# received a .22 rifle for my 8th birthday
# could bring the .22 to school and store it in my locker before going "plinking" after class
# a bicycle, a library card, and a fishing pole were all that was needed for a perfect summer

Still for all the nostalgia that I have for my childhood, I'm glad I'm an adult in the 21st century. (You'll pry my computer, digital camera, and iPod from my cold dead fingers! ;)

Edited to add - Lawn Darts are the shit!

Message edited by author 2007-06-07 00:11:39.
06/07/2007 12:37:22 AM · #17
Being shot in the eye by a home-made arrow wasn't all the funny, but the rest rings true. Mind you I got both worlds - playing outside with friends, and playing on the computer with friends. Think my folks had a balanced approach. Shame my little brother was slow on the uptake with the whole poke-an-eye risk.
06/07/2007 12:40:00 AM · #18
i wonder how us younger folks would be telling the next generation (say, 40 years later) about our childhood :)

"we had to type on a computer using this thing called a keyboard and select things using a device called a mouse. now you kids only need to say what you want the computer to do!"
06/07/2007 12:46:08 AM · #19
Originally posted by crayon:

i wonder how us younger folks would be telling the next generation (say, 40 years later) about our childhood :)

"we had to type on a computer using this thing called a keyboard and select things using a device called a mouse. now you kids only need to say what you want the computer to do!"


You mean you don't have one of those already!!! GASP... you poor thing

:O)

Ray
06/07/2007 12:50:02 AM · #20
Want to make a 19-20 year old mad. Call them a kid. Then remember when you were 19-20, looking at old geezers like us (ok, like me), thinking 'Boy, is he/she old'.

Message edited by author 2007-06-07 00:51:00.
06/07/2007 12:54:17 AM · #21
Originally posted by RayEthier:

Originally posted by crayon:

i wonder how us younger folks would be telling the next generation (say, 40 years later) about our childhood :)

"we had to type on a computer using this thing called a keyboard and select things using a device called a mouse. now you kids only need to say what you want the computer to do!"


You mean you don't have one of those already!!! GASP... you poor thing

:O)
Ray


i gotta get out shopping more, lol
06/07/2007 01:00:36 AM · #22
They are beyond "say what you want" already in limited ways.
We drove to school in swamp buggies and cut down cars and pickup trucks with shotguns in the back window, and left the windows open so it would not be so hot when we got back in the truck.
We had the run of the area as far as you had gas enough to get back from where ever you happened to go.
When we broke or poked something, we would go to the local doctor for a tetnus shot, and a setting or sewing it up party.
We could roam around and get lost when we were pre school, and someone who knew our parents would bring us home.
We didn't have air conditioning, even at school, except the last year for the band room. No wonder band was so popular. (Oh, and the long dark bus rides from football games away.)
We could go camping all weekend and we were still expected to go to school Monday.
We could go down to the local Seminole camp and play real cowboys and indians, and the cowboys didn't always win.
A puddle of mercury is a lot of fun in the pencil holder, and it feels heavy and just too cool in the palm of your hand.
The list goes on.
It was a lot of fun. Most of us survived, especially the ones who didn't get drafted.
I am happy to live long enough to see both worlds BC and AD (before computers and after digitalization), and have a son and grandson who are both happy to live in the country. How good can it get. : )

Message edited by author 2007-06-07 01:02:51.
06/07/2007 01:14:22 AM · #23
Originally posted by crayon:

i wonder how us younger folks would be telling the next generation (say, 40 years later) about our childhood :)

"we had to type on a computer using this thing called a keyboard and select things using a device called a mouse. now you kids only need to say what you want the computer to do!"


Bingo!!! I heard the exact same thing I am hearing now when I was a kid in the early 70's..."you damn kids don't know what it was like when we were kids, why in my day we rode horses to school!!!" yeah okay, good for you!! Was it better?? no, just different, I remember the days before microwave ovens, and cable TV (don't get me wrong I don't watch TV these days as I am too busy and don't find much appealing on TV now but still) I remember seeing the hippys hitchhiking on our way to Key West (I was born in Lakeland FL. in 1963 and we went on vacation sometime in 69' to Key West) and hearing my parents talk about how the "damn hippys" would destroy the country, LOL. Well I don't think they did, it's just a changing of the guard, here we are in the new century talking about how kids today don't understand what we went through...nope they don't....thank god!!! every thing that is going on today went on then too....it was just more hush hush, covered up...we had drugs and sex and violence...we just didn't bring it out in the open like we do today!!! SO was it better in the "Good ole days" nope!! just different!! As for video games...give a few of them a try...they for the most part really make you think, The roll play games are the ones I am most familier with like elder scrolls for X-Box and GTA III for PS2, they have complex problems to figure out before you can move to the next level....good mental exercises...great problem solving challenges. Give one a try sometime and then post about how easy and mindless they are.... Okay off my soapbox now...good night everyone!!!
06/07/2007 01:21:20 AM · #24
We actually got up and walked over to the tv to change the channel...
06/07/2007 01:28:19 AM · #25
Originally posted by Rae-Ann:

We actually got up and walked over to the tv to change the channel...

Can't argue that!! It was B&W to boot!! and I for one looked forward to the Friday night Creature Feature!!! But I wouldn't trade my DVD player for the anything!!! LOL.
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