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View Full Version : To all the old farts. Myself included.



charlie
04-08-2009, 09:21 PM
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 child proof 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 all20day. And we were OK.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ridedown 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 computers, no Internet or chatrooms.......

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 poke 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!!=2 0

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

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 HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If 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 so much of our lives for our own good .

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?! :eek:


This is a copy and paste job. I'm not smart enough to come up with this stuff.

gbgary
04-08-2009, 10:59 PM
:icon_mrgreen: boy did that hit home. thanks! (born in the '50s)

Shiner1
04-09-2009, 08:14 AM
All true. :D

Wht95Lightning
04-09-2009, 08:33 AM
My brother and I both made blow guns and darts out of hollow reeds and mom's sewing needles. Then we stood at opposite end of the kitchen and fired them AT EACHOTHER. :evil

Sandman
04-09-2009, 09:00 AM
Not that old, but I did grow up in the country and understand what this is talking about. Spent many days outside all day doing stupid stuff. Even been in a few roman candle wars. :evil

tiffo60
04-09-2009, 09:11 AM
Not that old, but I did grow up in the country and understand what this is talking about. Spent many days outside all day doing stupid stuff. Even been in a few roman candle wars. :evil

shoot we still do the roman candle wars and sometimes up the stakes with bottle rockets:evil

ThunderBolt
04-09-2009, 03:07 PM
shoot we still do the roman candle wars and sometimes up the stakes with bottle rockets:evil

lol that reminds me one the time my buddy was shooting a roman candle in the air when it backfired and shot him in the armpit. It looked painful as hell.:icon_lol:

Old guy here too. 66 jobber here.

my2002lightning
04-09-2009, 03:16 PM
Same here. :evil As kids, my younger brother and I were into making ramps for our BMX bikes and catching as much air as possible. Had a few good crash-and-burns!:crying:


Not that old, but I did grow up in the country and understand what this is talking about. Spent many days outside all day doing stupid stuff. Even been in a few roman candle wars. :evil

PUMP
04-09-2009, 03:23 PM
All true and then some. I lived in the Panama Canal Zone when I was 10. During mosquito breeding season, most afternoons a jeep with a DDT fogger came through the neigborhood spewing a cloud of DDT. It was great fun to run through the DDT fog. I am surprised that I lived through that and was able to father two normal healthy kids:eek:

Silver_2000
04-09-2009, 03:41 PM
We had bb gun wars all the time

The old single pump spring fired red ryder would sting but wouldn't break the skin

Now days the bb guns are a different story

35 years ago or more My brother and I hand fired bottle rockets at each other on the second story of the motel we were staying at in Florda

Great fun till a guest came out of his room between us at the wrong time
the rocket bounced off him and into his room where it exploded - funs over ... :evil:evil

tiffo60
04-09-2009, 03:42 PM
We had bb gun wars all the time

The old single pump spring fired red ryder would sting but wouldn't break the skin

Now days the bb guns are a different story

My brother and I hand fired bottle rockets at each other on the second story of the motel we were staying at in Florda

Great fun till a guest came out of his room between us at the wrong time
the rocket bounced off him and into his room where it exploded - funs over ... :evil:evil

only if that were on video:rll::rll::rll::rll::rll:

Mark #2
04-09-2009, 04:47 PM
only if that were on video:rll::rll::rll::rll::rll:

I wish we had some of the stuff we did on video, and glad that other things are not.

Raced go-carts from 4 to 6 years old that my grandfather built, no helmets,

Snow skiing behind a snowmobile on a water ski rope at +60MPH was fun.

The no fender, no window bug that I would intentionally roll over in the fields, no helmets, no seat belts, with 4 of us in it was really fun.

Jumped off a car doing the teen wolf street surfing kind of thing got me the worst road rash I ever had. That was not fun.

Ran my fastest time in the L at Little River, that was scary.;)

dboat
04-09-2009, 07:26 PM
All true and then some. I lived in the Panama Canal Zone when I was 10. During mosquito breeding season, most afternoons a jeep with a DDT fogger came through the neigborhood spewing a cloud of DDT. It was great fun to run through the DDT fog. I am surprised that I lived through that and was able to father two normal healthy kids:eek:


Bob, growing up in Houston.. the truck would come through and we would ride our bikes behind it... :evil

my2002lightning
04-10-2009, 10:38 PM
The worst wipeout I've been in was one of my BMX bikes as a kid. I lost grip at speed and locked up my right arm as I hit the ground.

It hurt like all-hell! It's the weirdest thing to see your arm/wrist bone jammed all the way up to your knuckles.:crying:

Dad and Regan said they sedated me, gave me a shot of something in my neck, the Dr. pulled hard on my hand and reset it.

Was not fun.:icon_cry:

Wht95Lightning
04-10-2009, 10:56 PM
Bob, growing up in Houston.. the truck would come through and we would ride our bikes behind it... :evil

Holy sheet, that must be what's wrong with all of us. I grew up in Sugar Land and if you weren't riding your bike in the mosquito cloud, then you weren't home.

I think it was a toss-up as to what brought kids out faster, ice cream truck or mosquito fogger. :icon_lol:

dboat
04-11-2009, 09:47 AM
Holy sheet, that must be what's wrong with all of us. I grew up in Sugar Land and if you weren't riding your bike in the mosquito cloud, then you weren't home.

I think it was a toss-up as to what brought kids out faster, ice cream truck or mosquito fogger. :icon_lol:

Gary, knew there was something that I always liked about you... :evil