TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!

[TeamCasey]

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's, 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 computer! s, 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!

[westofyou]

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.

Just the neighbors picture window and Pedro's teddy bears eyes.

[GAC]

Just the neighbors picture window

Been there. Me and another neoghborhood kid were shooting BB guns and knocked out a double pane picture window across the street. My Dad had to pay for the window.... and then I paid with a pound of flesh!

[Red Leader]

Been there. Me and another neoghborhood kid were shooting BB guns and knocked out a double pane picture window across the street. My Dad had to pay for the window.... and then I paid with a pound of flesh!

We lived on a dead end street, so there was almost no traffic on our street. There were only 3-4 kids that lived on our street, so I had to travel 4-5 miles to get to where my friends were. I did it on bike all of the time, crossing the busiest street in our city once on the way there and once on the way back.

Anyway, when I didn't make the trip, or no friends could play, I'd stay at home and either play with my pitch-back (a baseball rebounder for those not familiar with the term) or throw the ball up in the air and hit it across the street to the neighbors yard. I'd imitate different stances, Pete Rose, George Brett (and hit lefty doing it), Johnny Bench, etc. Well, one day, as Gary Carter, I got a hold of one. I ripped it from our large front yard all the way across the street (I was 9). It was a line shot and I was so happy with the solid contact I had made until I saw where it was going - straight toward the neighbors picture window. They were older (in their 60's at the time) and I had all kind of visions running through my head. The ball breaking through the glass, shattering and cutting these nice elderly people to shreds, them bleeding to death, and me going to jail. Fortunately for me, the ball dropped at the last second and bounced off of their concrete window frame. I was so relieved.

Later that summer I was mowing the grass on my Dad's brand new riding mower. As I was cutting, I heard a "bang" noise and the mower shook for a second. Next thing I knew I heard glass shatter. Across the street, their picture window (that I was so concerned about before) was shattered. I turned the mower off and ran inside. I told my Dad I thought someone was shooting a gun outside. What had happened was that I ran over a baseball I left out in the yard. It shot across the street and went through their window. I bent the crap out of the mower blade. I worked hard the rest of the summer paying back my Dad for the window and the blade. He replaced the ball for me after I paid him back.

[durl]

What a great read. How did we EVER make it to middle age?

[klw]

We were watching old family movies with my parents recently and I had to tease them as there was a great scene where my brother and I are running around sunburned at ages 2 and 4 or so playing with a rusty coffee can and an egg beater at a house we had rented on a pond on the Cape. Soon I can be seen faceplanting into shallow water near a shovel and then my brother and I are clinbing onto the top of the family VW Squareback.

[Chi-Town Red]

remember playing baseball all day in the summer from sun up to sun down!

[vaticanplum]

=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.

I know a kid who died in a bike accident while not wearing a helmet, plus one who died from falling and hitting his head on the pavement, and a third who spent six weeks in the hospital recovering from brain surgery after a tree fell on his head.

Not to, you know, put a damper on things

[westofyou]

I know a kid who died in a bike accident while not wearing a helmet, plus one who died from falling and hitting his head on the pavement, and a third who spent six weeks in the hospital recovering from brain surgery after a tree fell on his head.

Not to, you know, put a damper on things

I know a kid who died in his sleep in english class... let's ban reading!!

[vaticanplum]

I know a kid who died in his sleep in english class... let's ban reading!!

Do you really? Were you in class with him? I imagine that would be quite traumatizing for a kid. Not to mention the teacher.

[westofyou]

Do you really? Were you in class with him? I imagine that would be quite traumatizing for a kid. Not to mention the teacher.

My wife was in the class next to him, and there were no walls between classes, and yes she was traumatized.

[minus5]

I know a kid who died in his sleep in english class... let's ban reading!!

Yeah but didn't this guy have something to do with that?

[dabvu2498]

We also walked across the top of the spillway at Acton Lake (Hueston Woods). When we got back to the shorter end, we decided to slide down. Not bright.

[pedro]

we used to snack on uncooked hot dogs and eat bologna all day long. there is no logical reason for us to still be alive.

[OldRightHander]

Not only did you not wear a helmet when riding a bike, you would have been ridiculed mercilessly if you were seen with one on.