This pretty well matches our generation. When did it all change?
This is dedicated to those Born 1930-1979!
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 koolade 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 as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good. And 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?!
Now that you have read this stupid email, let me break it down for you:
“This pretty well matches our generation. When did it all change?
This is dedicated to those Born 1930-1979! TO ALL THE KIDS
WHO SURVIVED the 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !! “
Okay, this is a very broad period. 50 years, 5 decades. From the 30’s to the seventies –this covers the pre-boomers, the early and late boomers, and gen x. Drawing comparisons for those huge demographs is ridiculous. There may be some similarities from generation to generation, but there are also huge differences as well. Put another way, we are dealing here with people
who are anywhere from 28 to 78 – as much as 4 generations. That’s just stupid. The opening line – this pretty much matches every generation. And it changed a lot over 50 years. Also, I know the author is trying to be funny, but the key word is “survived” and I’ll deal with that as we go through this.
“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.”
This is why the infant mortality in the 30, 40s, 50’s and 60’s was so high – because people didn’t know that all that shit was bad during pregnancy.No, all infants didn’t die but a lot more did. Birth weight then was half of what it is now. And this is inaccurate anyway: there is nothing wrong with aspirin, nor in there any problem with tuna in a can. At the time, when people were taking a lot less medications, things like aspirin wouldn’t have had any effect anyway. And blue cheese dressing? That didn’t happen. The only dressing that existed were French, Italian, and 1000 island.
“Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.”
Actually, we weren’t put to sleep any particular way – at least the ones on the 30s – 60s. They were just put asleep, and they probably didn’t have cribs, it was more likely just a small bed. And they probably weren’t painted, either; that would have been too expensive. It was only in the late 60’s that it was recommended that babies be put to sleep on backs – and coincidentally, this was about the time that SIDS came into the public’s awareness. But experts always change their minds; when they do again and tell us to put babies to sleep on their fronts again, this whole section will be moot.
“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.”
To start with, we weren’t hitchhiking when we were 5. That statement really doesn’t belong in this section. And even if it did, a lot of people never hitchhiked; those who did recognized the inherent danger; and this is when people started disappearing with alarming regularity when hitchhiking. This is why people don’t anymore. I suspect the person who wrote this doesn’t
hitchhike either. True, there were no childproof lids – and in the 30’s, pretty much nobody had any medicine at home. It wasn’t until the 60’s that people started buying lots of medicine for the home that the need for the childproof lids appeared – and they did start appearing in the 70’s. No bike helmets either, and a lot of kids had head injuries as a result. The doors and cabinets didn’t have locks because they were made of heavy wood, not crappy pressboard like now and a toddler had no hope in hell of opening one. And there was only one cleaner – bleach – and all good parents kept it way out of reach.
“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.”
True, we would do all that stuff. And a lot more people died. It is well documented that people who were their seatbelts have a tendency to not die in car accidents. If you were riding in the back of a pickup, it was a special treat – and you can be assured that the people driving the pickup were driving slower because of the risk. The author of this email seems to think that safety precautions are a bad thing. They probably don’t wash their hands after going to the bathroom either, and eat raw chicken.
“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 still would drink water from a hose if we could find any. But it’s funny, when I’m walking down the city street, there aren’t hoses all over the place for me to grab a drink. As for sharing a soft drink from one bottle, your parents told you not to do it because it was gross, not because they thought you would die. Sometimes, parents even gave you a separate glass and you didn’t all have to drink from the same bottle. I’m pretty sure the term “backwash” has been around since the 30’s.
“We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank koolade made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because:”
Maybe you did, and you probably still do and have diabetes as a result. We also didn’t eat every 5 minutes, which is probably more on point. Most people I know only ate white bread and koolade (sic) because it was cheaper. So you probably weren’t overweight because you were poor. White bread and koolade (sic) were popularized in the 60’s anyway; people before that ( in the 30s – 50s) didn’t have them. Cupcakes were a treat, not a regular thing. Same with butter - it was expensive.
“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.”
This is quite true for some people. But what is ignored in this statement is anybody who lived in a city. Since Canada/US (I suspect the writer is American) was largely rural until the 70’s, this would be true – because when you live in a town of 2000, everyone knows who you are, where you live, and strangers are beaten as soon as the get to the town limits. This is still true in the rural parts of the country as well as some isolated suburbs. And even if it was true, parents didn’t give kids absolute freedom – they still has to check with their parents, and they only got to stay out until dark when they reached 10 or 11. Somehow, I think there might be an issue for City dwellers letting their kids disappear in a city of 1 million for 12 hours.
“No one was able to reach us all day.”
So if something did happen to you, the person who snatched you would have a day’s lead. Or that well you fell in would fill with rats.
“And we were O.K.”
Obviously, if you wrote this. But a lot weren’t.
“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.”
Did anybody actually build a go cart? Maybe 5 % of boys did. Now, they learn that if the DVD player is not working to check if it is plugged in.
“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!”
No, we just had comic books and board games and Pong and Atari and arcades and regular phones and TV with 2 channels that we watched for hours anyways and picture disks and radio and records and tapes and 8 tracks and movie theatres and pool halls and regular books. What does this writer think that the internet and chat rooms and cell phones are for? And not every kid had friends; if you were one of the ones who didn’t fit in to your town, then you pretty much stayed inside. And if you did fit in, you made fun of the ones who didn’t; thus making them more isolated. Or if you had any disability, then you pretty much had no life ever. This author is complaining about internet and PCs, but they sent this message out on email. The irony, I trust, was lost on them.
“We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.”
Actually, read some law reports. Lawsuits have been around pretty much since the lawyers crawled out of the muck. If your parents were too dumb to file a lawsuit when you fell out of the loft of that barn you broke into, too bad for you. You could be rich instead of writing whiny emails. There were less lawsuits, of course; back then a company could put whatever they
wanted into the water or air or ground and not worry about having to be responsible for any damages is might cause. What a bit of carcinogens anyway? Want to buy a house in Love Canal? And if a dog got loose and mauled you, the owner would never face any charges – too bad about the 30 rabies shots you had to get.
“We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.”
Why would you eat worms and mud pies? You were one messed up kid. Your parents told you not to do that because it is gross. Do you still eat worms and mud pies? If not, why not? Do you serve mud pies and worms when people come over? Obviously you think it is tasty. And why did you specify “mud pies made from dirt”? That’s not a complete recipe. You forgot the water.
“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.”
Only some kids were given BB guns. Most of the kids I knew didn’t get them; and some still so. Some even get real 22’s – isn’t that better? Maybe we should start giving them AK47’s like they do in certain war torn countries. There’s not enough violence as it is, and a BB can’t even kill a cat. Sticks and tennis balls? Not if you had a BB gun. And kids still play games with sticks and tennis balls. The kids from the 30’s and 40’s only had sticks, though; tennis wasn’t popularized really until the 60’s. And as long as we only put a few eyes; we all had 2 anyway, and we can all afford to lose some.
“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!”
OK. And? Kids today still do. Or they call them to find our if they are home first. Maybe your kids are just pathetic.
“Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!”
Most Little Leagues still do. And even back then, for the younger kids, it was always everyone gets in. Look at the movie “The Bad News Bears” for example. All schools have tryouts for their teams, and they will inevitably create “a” and “b” teams. Everyone knows that the “a” team is the real team.
“The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!”
Only because they couldn’t afford a lawyer. And most parents I know now have no problem leaving their kids in jail overnight. So you don’t side with the law, then, and would never bail you kids out. Your kids will be happy to know that they can count on you for support.
“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.”
Of course, none are named. Inventors like the ones whom invented the cell phone, the I pod, CD’s, cable, nintendos? Those kind of inventors? Or risk takers like lawyers that sue for negligence? And risk takers like the ones who made bungee jumping and skydiving normal? Or risk takers who send out unsigned bitchy emails? Or organized crime leaders? And now its “these generations” not “our generation”. Realized the error a bit late, I think.
“We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!”
No other generation has had that of course. Unique to those born from the 30s to the 70’s. People born in the 20’s never had to go to war in the 40’s; and people born in the 80’s don’t create new products all the time. Screw everyone else in the world before or after that. It’s not like airplanes or cars or engineering existed before the 30’s. And we learned how to deal with it so well, we send out bitchy emails to complain about it.
“If YOU are one of them . . CONGRATULATIONS!”
Thanks. Can’t really critize being congratulated for having a fortuitous birthday. Pat self on back.
“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.”
I had the luck to grow up as a kid, into an adult. Now which generation were the lawyers and government reps from? Oh right, they were born from the 30’s to 70’s. And really, what regulation? What in this email can’t you still do? Eat worms? Let your kids run around unsupervised from dawn til dusk? Side with the law? Give your kid a BB gun? Drive around without a seatbelt and your kids in the back of the truck? Eat cupcakes and drink water from a hose? Get over yourself.
“And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.”
What? Kids today won’t consider their parents to be lucky or brave, just like we didn’t, and our parents didn’t, and so on. They might wonder how we managed to live past 5 at all.
“Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!”
No. That’s just stupid. And when you fall on them because you are old and weak, I’d give you some pills but I can’t get the childproof caps off. I hope a mud pie made with dirt will cure you.
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