CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1920's 30's, 40's, 50's and 60's !!

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, 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?!

__________________

I'M IN ARUBA Dec. 16-Jan. 16



28 days - April 1-28

Aruba since 1985

Love it!

__________________

Thanks Liz, that list was a lot of fun - I'm sure my Mother was taking a drag off her smoke as I entered this world. So was the doctor, most likely

__________________

I love this. I've seen it before and shared it with a group of new mothers who are living their lives in a state of high anxiety over things like this. They didn't get it! Oh, well.

__________________

Aruba-One Happy Escape!
Midwest Shelley
Aruba- Feb 3-17, 2007
Ireland (pony trekking) July 2007

I know just what you mean. And you're right - they don't get it at all.

The only thing I can't argue with them about is the cell phone thing. There were lots of pay phones around when I was a kid. And nearly everybody would lend you a dime or let you use their phone to call home if you had to. (I don't remember ever having to, though)

I remember those days......... How different things are now. My duaghters-in-law don't get it either. I'm amazed the grandchildren ever learned to walk & that aren't all bowlegged from spending so much time on their mothers' hip!

__________________





I will not sit on the porch and watch life go by without participating!

Gosh I remember all of this! Thanks for the trip down memory lane! I am going to forward this to my kids...I am sure they will call me and ask me if this is the way it really was.

__________________
Aruba, no other place like it!
Our next trip June 19 th - July 3rd 2010

...and the answer will be a resounding, YES, that's the way it really was!

__________________
Once in a while you can get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.