Survival of the 70's

This post was sent to me via the "old fashioned" email. I didn't realize that email was considered old fashioned until one of our teens said, " My parents won't let us have a facebook. They make us use just old fashioned email." (insert drooping shoulders, hanging head, long, loud sigh, followed closely by the rolling of the eyes) I decided to pass it on even though I was born in '71.  I just said to my kids not long ago, "When I was a kid, being inside was the same as being grounded. We couldn't stand it. Plus, if our Mom's caught a glimpse of us, they gave us a chore to do. Now, go outside and play before I turn into my Mom!" It worked. ;)

No matter what our kids 
and the new generation think about us,

WE ARE AWESOME !!! 
OUR Lives are LIVING 
PROOF !!! 

To Those of Us Born 
1925 - 1970 :
> 
> 
At the end 
of this email is a quote of the month by Jay Leno. If you don't read anything else, 
please 
read what he 
said. 

Very well stated, 
Mr. Leno. 
~~~~~~~~~ 
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 ? 
~~~~~~~ 
The quote of 
the month 
by 
Jay Leno: 
"With hurricanes, tornados, 
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?" 
For those that 
prefer to think that God is not watching over us...go ahead and delete this. 
For the rest 
of us..... 
please pass this 
on.

 

They started us young.

 

Someone must have set me on this trike. I look a little perturbed at not being able to make this thing go.

Is that mud? I remember this ride on. The pedals were so unmanageable that we would kneel on the seat, push off with one foot at the top of our street, and fly down into the driveway. The only way to stop was to steer for the grass and wait for it to stop on its own. No helmet. I wish I could've found the picture of me on the handlebars of my brother's bike. He rode me all over the neighborhood that way whenever Mom made him take me with him. Once, he had me ride on the banana seat behind him. He told me to keep my feet away from the wheels, but I didn't. I got my foot caught in the spokes and took a bite of the ground while being dragged for several feet. I lived to tell about it.