Beating the Odds

All People over 35 should be dead...

According to today's regulators, bureaucrats and so-called safety experts; those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's or maybe even in the early seventies probably should not have survived.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to even mention the  risks we took when hitchhiking !)

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick-up truck was a special treat on a warm day.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. HORRORS!

We ate cupcakes, bread and real butter, drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always out side playing.

We always shared our soft drink with a friend from one bottle, and no  one actually died from this.........

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we had forgotten the brakes. After running into the buses a few times we learned to solve that problem.

We would leave in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on - or when our mothers called us into supper.

No one was able to reach us all day - we had no cell phones. Unthinkable !!!

No, we did not have PlayStations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sounds, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.

But we had friends!! We went outside and found them. A new kid on the block, you hollered...."Hey, wanna play?" We played dodge ball, and sometimes that ball hit us and REALLY hurt !! But we did not dare run home to mommy , cause then you would be called a "CRY BABY".

We fell out of trees, got cut and broke a few bones and teeth, and there was no law suits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was blamed for accidents. They were accidents. Remember accidents??

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and we learned to get over it.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, and  although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many  eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.

We rode bikes or walked to a friends home 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.

Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade (Oh My !) Tests were not adjusted for any reason. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of at that time. 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 are one of them !

CONGRATULATIONS !!!

Pass this on to others who share the luck of growing up as kids before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.........

Kinda makes you want to run through the house with a pair of scissors, doesn't it?

Page Updated 12/14/2008

For web site postings, revisions or corrections, contact: Rick Henry