GONE ARE THE DAYS FOR THOSE OF US WHO ARE OLD ENOU
Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 7:42 amGONE ARE THE DAYS
FOR THOSE OF US WHO ARE OLD ENOUGH TO APPRECIATE THIS....SOME OF YOU YOUNG-INS MIGHT THINK THIS IS ANCIENT..........
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 covered with bright colored lead-based 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. Horrors. We would spend hours building our
go-carts out of scraps and then rode 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 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. No cell phones. Unthinkable. We played
dodgeball and sometimes the ball would really hurt. We got cut and broke
bones and broke teeth and there were no law suits from these accidents. They
were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents? We had
fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over
it. We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda but we were
never overweight.... .....we were always outside playing. We shared one
grape soda with four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this?
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X Boxes,
video games at all, 99 channels on cable, video tape
movies, surround sound, personal cellular phones,
Personal Computers, Internet chat rooms,
............... we had friends. We went outside and
found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's
home and knocked on the door, or rung the bell or just
walked in and talked to them. Imagine such a thing.
Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in
the cold cruel world! Without a guardian. How did we
do it?
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate
worms and although we were told it would happen, we
did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live
inside us forever.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the
team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment..... Some
students weren't as smart as others so they failed a grade and were held
back to repeat the same grade.....Horrors. Tests were not adjusted for any
reason.
Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.
No one to hide behind. The idea of a parent bailing
us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually
sided with the law, imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best
risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever.
The past 50 years has been an explosion of innovation
and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we
learned how to deal with it all.
And you're one of them.
Congratulations!
FOR THOSE OF US WHO ARE OLD ENOUGH TO APPRECIATE THIS....SOME OF YOU YOUNG-INS MIGHT THINK THIS IS ANCIENT..........
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 covered with bright colored lead-based 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. Horrors. We would spend hours building our
go-carts out of scraps and then rode 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 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. No cell phones. Unthinkable. We played
dodgeball and sometimes the ball would really hurt. We got cut and broke
bones and broke teeth and there were no law suits from these accidents. They
were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents? We had
fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over
it. We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda but we were
never overweight.... .....we were always outside playing. We shared one
grape soda with four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this?
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X Boxes,
video games at all, 99 channels on cable, video tape
movies, surround sound, personal cellular phones,
Personal Computers, Internet chat rooms,
............... we had friends. We went outside and
found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's
home and knocked on the door, or rung the bell or just
walked in and talked to them. Imagine such a thing.
Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in
the cold cruel world! Without a guardian. How did we
do it?
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate
worms and although we were told it would happen, we
did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live
inside us forever.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the
team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment..... Some
students weren't as smart as others so they failed a grade and were held
back to repeat the same grade.....Horrors. Tests were not adjusted for any
reason.
Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.
No one to hide behind. The idea of a parent bailing
us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually
sided with the law, imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best
risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever.
The past 50 years has been an explosion of innovation
and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we
learned how to deal with it all.
And you're one of them.
Congratulations!
...!
...!