gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Penguin - Carpe)
[personal profile] gridlore
ganked from [livejournal.com profile] benkenobigal

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930s, 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 or CD's, 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. 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?!

([livejournal.com profile] baka49er is going to ground me for going to the Quarry.)

Date: 22 Sep 2007 02:14 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] heartofawarrior.livejournal.com
...now I want to go see mom for Christmas, just so my stepdad and I can do totally crazy things with the sled he fixed up last year....*snicker*

Date: 22 Sep 2007 02:40 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] eleri.livejournal.com
I've never really liked this blurb. ranks right up there with "I spanked you, and you turned out ok". Just because someone didn't get hurt, didn't make it ok.

Date: 22 Sep 2007 07:19 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] sylvan.livejournal.com
I think it's slightly different from that, but I get your point. What I think is wrong with it is doesn't take into account how times have changed since then... simply in terms of population, there are more people who are wrong/damaged out there to get at your kids.

Also, opium is a far cry from PCP. Not using car seats is a bad idea... again more cars = more accidents.

Some of it, I agree with. I do think that we are shelter kids too much and that kids need to learn you won't always make the team and that life can be unfair sometimes; kids need to be a little more thick-skinned.

I'd love to see someone who believes whole-heartedly in this read it off to people with cerebral palsy who have it because their mothers smoked while they were pregnant.

Date: 22 Sep 2007 03:58 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] melchar.livejournal.com
Add to that - getting left out in the car during summer [with the windows rolled down] ... and the dog for half an hour - and surviving;

Other than a lack of eating worms [ate mud tho] BB guns, go carts and Little League, I did all of the above - and ended up fat [because the doctor my mom worked for advocated putting all the pre-pubescent little girls on strict diets - and we ALL ballooned].

Date: 22 Sep 2007 05:37 (UTC)
ext_73044: Tinkerbell (Default)
From: [identity profile] lisa-marli.livejournal.com
Nope, spent my time inside reading books whenever I could. We had air conditioning and lived in LA. Go out and play? Ug! Especially as I got older and could read more interesting books!
I had a Stereo that played my Beatles Records and a radio with AM Rock Stations that played all the albums I didn't own and introduced me to Janis Joplin, The Dead (remember them), and lots of other dangerous music. :D
And I trust my parents to bail me out if I was arrested for protesting the Vietnam War. They were good that way.
And because I was Never Chosen for the Any Team Sport taught me that I'm No Good at Sports and should just Stop Trying. So much for Not Being Chosen being a Good Idea.
I also knew a kid who never mentioned the brother who died from polio. Though I saw his picture once. She wore braces to help her walk as she was the "lucky" one who survived. I made sure all my kids got their shots!
And frankly watching the friend who got hit by a car while riding his motorcycle survive because he had all his gear on, convinced me the gear works. Otherwise, he would be no more and that would be bad.
And the friend who wiped out on his bicycle and retired the helmet with dignity and honor. It had done its job.
Kids still need to learn about failure, picking yourself up and trying again. That's still how they learn to walk and ride a bike and play baseball and soccer. And Skateboard and Rollerblade! They just don't get killed in the process.
What we need to remember is that there are risks - Acceptable Risks. Take them and Enjoy Life! Enjoy failing and trying again. Or as my daughter's son's doctor put it, "What would life be without a few broken arms?"
And yes, Chris was rollerblading with full padding, but landed wrong. Life is full of bumps and breaks even with all the padding.
So keep on going out, do crazy things, And try not to get yourself killed.

PS There is still a soap box derby that goes down Sand Hill Road of the all @#$%^&* things. They try to remember brakes (they don't always work) and put up hay bales for when they don't, and helmets. But they are Still Kamikaze Nuts! And enjoying every minute of it. And luckily they survive to laugh about it. Which is a good think because these are the brains of Silicon Valley. Who says adults can't be kids?

Date: 22 Sep 2007 07:09 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] isomeme.livejournal.com
Hey, I was the good kid in the family, and *I* spent many a horrifyingly dangerous afternoon in the Quarry, running along the edge of crumbling 40-foot cliffs and jumping around on rusting, razor-edged abandoned machinery. Ah, those were the days.

It really has changed now. Until [livejournal.com profile] madelineusher was around 7, I would walk her all the way to school. Once she got that old, I figured it was time to start teaching her to be independent, so I walked her through the busy, dangerous part of the trip, then let her walk the remaining quarter mile up a sidewalk along a much quieter residential street to her school. We'd been doing this for about two weeks when I got a call from her school, informing me that many busybodies along that last quarter mile were aghast that a child was walking by herself.

I always wonder how people expect kids who have been wrapped in cotton wool their whole lives to magically turn into competent, functional adults.

Date: 23 Sep 2007 03:33 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] gridlore.livejournal.com
Great. Now we're both grounded.

*sigh*

So, Traveller or C&S?

Date: 23 Sep 2007 03:47 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] isomeme.livejournal.com
It's actually a Trav/C&S crossover I'm working on. Oh, and it uses the StarForce map. Again. It's not a Berry house gaming system unless it uses the StarForce map.

Date: 22 Sep 2007 11:53 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] fimbrethil.livejournal.com
That brought back a lot of good memories.

Add to that, getting my first motorcycle ride at age 6 with a kid just a handful of years older than me, and surviving.

And Howard says add steel monkey bars and see-saws to the joys of our childhood too.

Date: 22 Sep 2007 13:22 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] claire.livejournal.com
Surely there's some kind of happy medium between then and now. I hope to find it should I ever spawn.

Date: 22 Sep 2007 15:18 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] jovianconsensus.livejournal.com
"We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle."

Assuming the hose and your house pipes are clean, the hose is still safer. Municipal water supplies get tested more thoroughly than bottled water.

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gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
Douglas Berry

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