A while back, the question was asked about the safety of placing children in
the back seat of a Healey. By coincidence, a friend, not associated with The
List, just sent me the following:
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE -
1920's, 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!
We're survivors !!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they
carried us.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get
tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were 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 children, we would ride in cars with no 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 soda pop with sugar in
it, 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 99
channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no
personal computers, no Internet or Internet 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,
We 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 yelled for them!
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!
This generation has 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 HOW TO DEAL
WITH IT ALL!
And YOU are one of them!
CONGRATULATIONS!
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 our lives for our own
good.
and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave
their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!
(The Other) Len
Vacaville, CA
1967 3000 MKIII HBJ8L39031
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