Monday, June 18, 2007

How Did We Ever Survive?

Someone sent a version of this to me over the weekend and I thought I'd share it here.

This is post is dedicated to all the kids who survived the following:


  • 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, 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.

  • 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 how 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 chipped 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 made up games with sticks and tennis balls or whatever else we could find laying around...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 stood at the back door and just yelled "Hey, Billeee"

  • 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!

  • If we didn't make the school team...or if we did, but didn't get to play much...our parents never went to the coach or the administration and whined!

  • We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned...HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If you survived any of these you were probably born between 1930 and 1970...CONGRATULATIONS!!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

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?!


Badaboom Badabing...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

... holding them by the handles, yep!

kenju said...

That describes me and my kids! We survived and thrived!

Duke_of_Earle said...

"drank water from the garden hose...?" To this day I'm one of the few where I work who will drink water from the faucet at the sink in the lunch room. Oh I put it in a glass or mug, I don't bend down and slurp it, but most think TAP WATER is unsafe! I remind them that for millenia our forebears drank out of rivers and streams! Perish the thought! Yes, we survived and thrived as Kenju says.

Hand me the scissors, I feel like a sprint down the hall!

John