VERY GOOD AND SO TRUE! According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 50's, 60's, and 70's probably shouldn't have survived. Our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans. When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip flops and fluorescent 'clackers' on our wheels. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags - riding in the passenger seat was a treat. We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle - tasted the same. We ate dripping sandwiches, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy pop with sugar in it but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one drink with 4 friends, from 1 bottle or can and no one actually died from this. We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging nettles a few times we learned to solve the problem. We would leave home in the morning and play all day as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us all day and no one minded. We did not have Playstations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers and no Internet chat rooms. We had friends - we went outside and found them. We played elastics and street rounders and sometimes that ball really hurt. We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits. They were accidents. We had fights, punched each other hard and got black and blue - we learned to get over it. We walked to friend's homes. We made up games with sticks and tennis balls, ate live stuff and although we were told it would happen we did not have very many eyes out nor did the live stuff live inside us forever. We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of - they actually sided with the law. Imagine that! This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and 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're one of them. Congratulations! Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as real kids before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good. (If you aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us...)
