|
NO MATTER WHAT OUR KIDS AND THE NEW GENERATION THINK ABOUT US WE ARE AWESOME !!!
Our Lives are LIVING PROOF !!!
> To Those of Us Born 1925 - 1955:
At the end of this email is a quote of the month by Jay Leno.
If you don't read anything else, Please read what he said. ~~~~~~~~~
TO ALL THEKIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930 s, 40 s, and
50 s !!
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 cribsCovered with bright coloredLead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets,
And, when we rode our bikes,
We had baseball caps,
Not helmets, on our heads.
As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes..
Riding in the back of a pick- up truck 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, real butter, and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar.And we weren't overweight.WHY?
Because we were always outside playing...that's why!
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 OKAY.
We would spend hours building
Our go-carts out of scraps andthen ride them down the hill,
Only to find outWe forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned To Solve the problem.
We did notHave Play Stations, Nintendosand X-boxes. There were
No video games,No 150 channels on cable,
No video moviesOr DVDs,
No surround-sound orCDs, No cell phones,
No personal computers,
No Internet andNo chat rooms.
WE HAD FRIENDS
And we wentOutside and found them!
We fell out oftrees, got cut,
Broke bones andTeeth,
And there wereNo lawsuits
From those accidents. We would getSpankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles, or just a bare hand,And no one would call child services to report abuse.
We ate worms,And mud pies
Made from dirt,And
The worms didNot live in us forever.
We were givenBB guns for our 10th birthdays,22 rifles for our 12th, rode horses,made up games with sticks andtennis balls, and - although we wereTold it would happen - we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikesOr 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 hadtryouts
And not everyoneMade the team.
Those who didn'tHad to learn
To deal withDisappointment.
Imagine that!!
The idea of a parentBailing us outIf we broke the law was unheard of ... They actually sided with the law!
These generations haveProduced some of the best risk-takers,
Problem solvers, andInventors ever.
The past 60 to 85 yearsHave seen an explosionof innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom,Failure, success and responsibility,and we learnedHow to deal with it all.
If YOU areOne of those born Between 1925-1955, CONGRATULATIONS!
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 knowhow brave and luckytheir parents were.
Kind of makesyou want to run through the housewith scissors, doesn't it ? ~~~~~~~
The quote ofthe monthby
Jay Leno:
"With hurricanes, tornados,fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up thecountry from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"
For those thatprefer to think that God is notwatching over us...go ahead and delete this..
For the restof us......please pass thison.
|
For spanking, add father's leather belt to the list. I never had a 22, but I built my own scooter from a wooden orange crate, two 2X4s, an adjustable 4-wheel skate taken apart and some nails.
Safe spaces?
My children didn't have safe spaces either - my daughter has a B.A. and two M.A.s, and my son has a B.A. and an M.A. and both are highly successful in their professions, although they were born in the 70s.
Truly amazing when you think about it!
May I add, we were better lookin' too!
Buzz, you're ever-educational. I never knew that KIDS had safe spaces, I thought safe-spaces were rooms with those thick armored walls that you run to during a war or home invasion or some such. A bomb shelter is a safe space, no? I thought that was it.
I suppose I thought my room was a "safe-place" as was the front yard, bark yard, pastures, town, (except the haunted house) the saw-mill, R.R. tracks and especially the trestles, creeks, ponds, lakes and irrigation ditches were all safe as far as we were concerned.
BACK yard, that should be.
Um, I feel compelled to admit our parents didn't always agree with what we deemed "safe-space" or safe activities, but what made those activities less safe was the fact that we'd get our little butts tanned if we got caught. Go figure, I guess opinions change when you go from kid to parent with kid(s).
I happen to know they did worse.
LOL. First time I read your comment I didn't even notice the typo - I knew it was "back".
I was really talking about the "safe spaces" that universities provide for students who are afraid of reality - we didn't even dream about such a thing back then.
Oh, THOSE safe rooms, we just called them study hall, that's all.
I was born in 1947 did all the things in your article Buzz. I did get a .22 for my 12th birthday, my friends and I spent many hours shouting cans, bottles and snakes on our land that had 27 acres. We would set up pennies on a wooden reel, back up 30-40 feet and see which one of use could put a bullet in the center of the most pennies, didn't have any idea we were commiting a felony.
My friends and I use to sleep out in the wooded areas our land and skinny dipped in the ponds. I had an 1947 Crosley station wagon that didn't have doors that carted us around our land.
Hey, this applies to us that were born in the 60s too!
Thank-you. 1962 here
Yup 1960 here!
1962 too
Me too, 62 was a good year.
Kick the can - swinging from a rope over a creek - getting 12 people in a Pontiac Chief - sharing the same piece of gum - camping in the woods with your buds at 12 years old - fishing with a string, safety pin and bamboo pole - putting a penny on a railroad track - building your own skate board from a pair of skates and a piece of spare wood - yeah, we had a terrible time and I only got one broken arm from all those years while playing football in the 9th grade.
I did that too.
How about playing "doctor" with a neighbourhood girl - "You show me yours and I'll show you mine." Early sex education, and no subsequent Hollywood-type accusations.
Funny story.
In 1963 Ronal Lee Foster was convicted of "coin mutilation" while on active duty in the Marine Corps. Sentenced to 1 year probation and a $20.00 fine.
46 years later Foster was denied a permit for a handgun because he was a convicted felon.
Obama pardoned him so he could go buy his gun............
I remember putting many coins on the nearby railroad tracks. Good time, good times, no clue I could have been a felon if caught.
I wonder if other countries have such a law - I doubt that Canada does. I don't think the Canadian Tire Stores Company would care if I mutilated their money.
There are machine that flatten pennies in arcades and many tourist sites. (Apparently there are a lot in Disneyland). And now it perfectly legal. (I believe it usually costs about 50 cents to flatten one penny). The resulting penny is called a "pressed penny" or a "squashed penny". Here's an informative video:
I can't quite remember the cliff house café in Frisco where the interior path to the beach was filled with these and other old tyme entertainment one armed bandits.
I have seen them in several touristy areas. Never interested me much-- but some people are serious collectors. (I used to collect stamps, and for a while coins).
That's a cool machine, one that I've never even heard of before.
I wanted to play football in the 9th grade, until it was pointed out to me by the coach that the equipment weighed more than I did. Strangely enough, despite having a hell of a time climbing a rope all the way to the gym rafters in gym class and being totally unable to memorize all the bones and muscles in the human body in health class, I got A's in both. That may have had something to do with the teacher of both classes, Mr. Whipp (yep, that actually was his name and he lived up to it), seeing me wearing my Scout uniform to school during Boy Scout Week.
Seat belts???? When I was five, I rode over 300 miles up the coastline of Lake Huron sleeping in the back window of my dad's car. How did my folks protect me? Well, my mom put a pillow under my head so I wouldn't get a sore neck.
Being an agnostic, I'm not sure about God watching over me,, but I now know that, when I was out running around the neighborhood with my friends, every housewife in the area was watching over all of us. Not only did those ladies keep us safe (as much as it's possible to keep a bunch of high energy boys safe) but watching over our behavior too. We weren't aware of it at the time, but those ladies all had phones, and the numbers of every one of our mothers. Until I got older, I could never figure out how, when I did something I shouldn't, my mother knew about it before I got home. Not only did our parents side with the cops when necessary, but, if it came down to believing one of the neighbors or believing whatever story we told, the neighbor won every time.
I am glad I made the last year of the list
I wonder how many people alive today made the first year...born in 1925!
I have several relatives who do; one was born in 1923. They don't drive anymore (thank goodness!), but they're still mentally sharp. The stories they tell are wonderful!
Well I was rasied riding horses and one of the ''sports'' we indulged in was ''relay racing''...Of course this is before most of your were born.
What relay racing was an really good way to break an arm/leg/hip/back etc etc. highly dangerous but we didn't realize it at the time.
Today Indian Relay Racing has reached a status that we could never have imagined. It's now professional sport with regular events, sponsers etc.
Here is a link to what it is. If you want to get involved you better have brass balls or no brains...LOL..Oh, and no saddles allowed.
Tough sport!
And riding bareback, and quickly changing horses!
Looks like they are smudging before hand. But it doesn't look like Sage--looks like a little fire of hay and the they pour some sort of powder over it. What is it? I couldn't find the video that explained it. (From to time I regularly smudge myself and living spaces with White Sage. I've also used a wood called Palo Santo for smudging (it was originally used by the Incas of South America but its become somewhat popular in the U.S.)
(Of course I don't participate in relay races on horses...
Krish, Natives can and do smudge with any of the sacred herbs. Sage, sweetgrass, tobacco or cedar.
I couldn't see what he sprinkled on the smudge but I would suspect that it was crushed tobacco. Some tribes will do this. I don't and use sage or sweetgrass to smudge.
BTW, sweetgrass is a natural mosquito repellent.
Cedar is supposed to repel moths. My mom used to put a cedar board in all the closets.
I have seen older houses that had closets with walls made of ceder and I inherited a ceder storage chest
We built cedar-lined closets in the Toronto houses we lived in.
Now that you mentioned that, I remember that my mother had a Cedar chest where she stored garments. Maybe she did mention that the reason for Cedar was that it repelled Moths-- long ago so I don't remember if she did.
Riding your bicycles over to an irrigation pond and going swimming. I never skated, but we would slip and slide on anything that was frozen. I remember the ice breaking, starting with that cracking sound and falling in the swamp and building a fire in the woods with your friends to dry off .
Running as fast as you could, jumping up and flying through the air. Well not quite, but you felt like you were right on the verge of being able to do it. And you could do it in your dreams. Playing baseball with all your friends in someone's back yard or a field down the road. Stealing some of your parents cigarettes and drinking your friend's daddy's home brew from a mason jar. Playing hide and seek in the evening on a summer's night.
There was a piece of land with some young pine trees not far from my house. I cleared out a track right in the middle of it. I even made a high jump building up the backside with dirt and pine straw. We even had a pole vault. I would cut these young poplar trees and use them as poles. We could of had our own track team with all my friends competing on the track I put together where we'd compete.
I remember running up and down this road so many times, the next day I couldn't walk.
There's always the haunted house. This old house which was two and a half stories and I assume was a plantation at one time complete with a little grave yard in the back of the house with three or four graves. It was known as the Smith's House. I think at some time it was owned by people with the last name Smith. It had never been painted. There was a swamp not far from the back of it. We always knew there were ghost there and spent a number of times running from them.
One day when we were hanging around that old place we found a wino laying beside his wine bottle. There were a bunch of wine bottles around there. Poor fellow woke up surrounded by the wine bottles we put around him. I hope he didn't fall on them.
I had no broken bones or real injuries to speak of, amazingly. I never got bit by a snake, although I saw many and even stepped on one while running across this low land that had a little water in it in the woods.
Barefoot and a pair of those shorts that didn't have belts all summer made me the the tannest white boy I knew by the end of summer.
OMG-- I must be getting old-- I remember so many of those things!
(BTW, I think they do still sell those ice cube trays with levers in Bed Bath and Beyond).
Actually I remember when there was cigarette advertising on TV.
A while back I found a video that really made me think of how much times have changed. Its cigarette ad-- and guess what sort of person is touting the virtues of cigarettes?
Here's a blast from the past:
I can't open your video, but I'll bet it was a doctor (most likely an actor playing a doctor) who spoke about the virtues of smoking that brand.
I remember our family doctor smoking in his office.
Is that Tom Selleck?
Yep. I'm familiar with a lot of those things, had some of them myself.
LOL-- very corny!
Yes that's what it was. And it was really a bit much. It shows a Dr. making his rounds-- visiting homes by car. (In those days many Drs. actually made house calls). They work hard, so they need to relax. And the best way to do that is to relax and enjoy a mild, good-tasting cigarette. A Camel of course. (After all, studies have shown that more Drs. smoke Camels than any other brand!)
When I was a little kid, the pediatrician came to our home when I was sick.
I'm a child of the 60s , and can relate to all of this , and I will add we had the best music and cars as well.
And A&W Root Beer stands with Root Beer floats and fried onion rings after school????
OOOhhhhh yeah.
Depending on the year you were born in*...this sort of scene may bring back memories for some people:
_______________________________________
*Well, maybe also depending on the part of the country where you lived
[Note for all our friends in The Peoples' Republic: these are scenes from the musical Grease]
I was trying to remember what year certain songs were popular. I was thinkin' maybe Disco-- but I think that was in the 70s.
So I googled to jog my memory as to what music was popular in the 60s--here's the list:
The Top 20 Billboard Hot 100 Hits of the 1960s
The Beatles & the Stones, Elvis, Motown music, Brenda Lee...
I think back to the 1950s, and music I used to dance to and with my honey neck to, like Tennessee Waltz, or Music for Lovers Only by Jackie Gleason. My honey's favourite was Freddy Gardner and his saxaphone, who played the same kind of music as Gleason. Gardner was famous in England during the 1930s and 1940s but he died in 1950.
Dipping Cheetos in sand and taking a bite, rusty metal pedal cars, and metal Tonka toys.........metal, metal, metal...... Dirt, Dirt, Dirt.......was friggin GREAT !
I'm still here and kickin' !
Parents these days are a bunch of "WASH YOUR HANDS EVERY HOUR" worry wort pansies with their kids these days !
Hell, every toy I had, had something CHOKE WORTHY with it.
To much protection creates a SNOWFLAKE population.
Me too! Sometimes I think about all the things they worry about these days, things that we routinely did all the time when I was a kid, and wonder how I could possibly have survived
WE survived BECAUSE of those days....not in spite of them.
I made sure MY kids had exactly what I had....dirt, rust and ALL that didn't kill us.
I think that is why we now have so many kids with allergies and getting terribly I'll. Their lives, especially their real early years are just to sterile and antiseptic .
Exactly !
#letkidseatdirt
Too true, in fact recent studies of kids in various environments support your statement. Kids need to play in the dirt, grass, around animals, etc. Sure they're going to get dirty, have bugbites, scrapes, injuries and yes every now and again someone will die, but by far and away the vast majority will grow up health and strong.
Absolutely correct!!!
Handling garter snakes and salamanders, getting a poison ivy rash, not being afraid of holding a toad because someone thinks you'll get warts, playing with matches and actually lighting a field fire that the Fire Department had to put out, and the piece de resistance, trimming a fraying fabric cover on an electrical wire that was plugged in using a pair of barber scissors, accidentally cutting the wire, and causing a small explosion that sent me backwards across the room and left a neat little hole in the scissors (Yes, I was shocked, but not electrocuted.) - just a few of my childhood memories. And, with all the stuff I got myself into, I have NEVER had any allergies.
LMAO done everything on your list except the trimming the wire thing, although my brother did trick me into putting my finger into the spark plug hole on his go-kart while he turned it over (lol bastard).
We didn't have those little white plastic blank plugs people plug into the electrical receptacles these days so kids won't stick a knife into them - if we ever did it, it was a lesson we never forgot.
I certainly never did. I used a hairpin and a paper clip when I was three. In that one short lesson, I acquired a lifelong respect for electricity.
Sometimes we struck back too. I remember the time that my six year old cousin (now 67) grabbed hold of an electric fence on our grandpa's farm while telling him that it must have been turned off. He grabbed it to check while she ran off laughing. It wasn't until he had already grabbed the wire that he saw that she was wearing rubber boots. I learned a whole lot of new words that day.....really cool words too. Being only eight, I really wasn't sure what most of them meant, but I did know that, if I said them, I'd get my mouth washed out with soap.
LOL