Posted by EdC on Monday, October 21, 2002 at 7:15PM :
Looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have:
As children we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
Our baby cribs were painted with bright colored lead based paint. We often chewed on the crib, ingesting the paint.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then roared down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After crashing into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We would leave home in the morning to play, and didn't come back until the street lights were on. No one was able to reach us all day.
We played dodgeball, and sometimes the ball would really hurt.
We jumped off the garage roof using an umbrella as a parachute.
We climbed to the tops of the trees and sat on makeshift plywood seats with big nails protruding.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and butter, and drank sugary soda pop, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment, and the parents never got bent out of shape about it.
Some students weren't as smart as others so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.
We threw spitballs and shot rubber bands, and if caught, were forced to clean the erasers by banging them together, thus ingesting huge amounts of chalk dust.
Our generation produced some of the greatest risk-takers and problem-solvers. We had the freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
Think about it...
unknown author
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