Being a Kid in the Previous Century

What contrasts we can see between just a few generations:

Those of us born in the 1920’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and even 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-base 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 & 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 made with Lard, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank FLAV-R-AID and 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. And then ride them 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 were Boy Scouts, sleeping in caves made of snow in the middle of winter. Girl Scouts who had to sell their own cookies door to door by them selves.

We did not have Play stations, Nintendo’s (a few of the kids from the 70’s first got their Nintendo’s as teenagers, or an Atari as a kid) and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD’s, no surround-sound or CD’s, no cell phones or personal computers, no Internet and no 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 would get spankings 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 did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays (I think I was more like 8), 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!!??

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. What can kids today do besides push buttons?

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. We had the fear of God put into us at Church, and teachers who were allowed to disipline us.

No wonder the kids today seem to have no Common Sense; they haven’t been allowed to learn it!

We were lucky enough to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives, supposedly “for our own good”.

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