TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s !!

After you read this you will get a new perspective on life.

Unfortunately today's society is filled with too many wimps who have overdosed on political correctness and forgot how to have fun and live life!

What happened to common sense? Do we really need the government to make ALL our decisions for us?

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.

Hit and run accidents almost never happened. If dad saw someone on the side of the road he would always stop to help, without the fear of being sent to prison because he had a glass of wine with dinner. 

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 and mini-bikes 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, Iphones, Ipods, no personal computers, no texting, 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!!

If we did something wrong we got a good slap on the ass. We learned early that there were consequences for our actions. This helped us remember NOT to do it again.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

Accidents were accidents. We grieved, we moved on and we didn't try to send everyone to jail or create new "knee-jerk reaction" laws to punish people for doing anything that we didn't agree with. 

We learned from our mistakes. Prohibition in the 1920's was a catastrophic failure. The War On Social Drinking in the 21st Century is failing as well. The federal laws that encouraged local officials to lower the legal threshold for drunken driving have little effect on public safety. Instead, it shifts law enforcement resources away from catching heavily intoxicated drunk drivers, who pose a risk, to harassing responsible social drinkers, who don’t. 

Could it be that the only people that seem to be picketing and whining about the need for more laws are unemployed and have nothing better to do with their time?

HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

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.

If YOU are one of them . . . CONGRATULATIONS!

You also 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?!

Here is a great quote by Jay Leno:

“With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country 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?”