For The Kids Of Yesterday

[fritz]

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 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 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 koolade 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 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

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 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 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.

 

 

 

 

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned

 

 

 

 

HOW TO

 

DEAL WITH IT ALL!

 

 

 

 

If YOU are one of them . . . CONGRATULATIONS!

 

Friends, I went through all this (but no go-carts) and I know what it was like. Why did it have to change?

 

Because of PROGRESS!

 

 

fritz

[Guest Uncle Stubby]

Remember "Thalidomide" babys? ...yeah...most of us survived, but some paid more for the trip than others.

[Guest Guest]

With kids being raised by Square Bob and Sponge Pants and not parents,and staying in the house all day eating anything that'll keep them shut up,instead of building tree houses,shooting BB guns all day at the stock tank at turtles and frogs,perch and mudcat fishing,and building bicycles from old junk parts,they're running a bigger risk of never making it to adulthood than we were.If I could go back to 10 years old and take a 10 yr old with me,I bet he'd think he was living in a fantasy world.We grew up poorer than most,and further from town than most,and for that I'm forever thankful to my parents.They should make a movie about my childhood.Jerry

[Emul8]

I think I did just about everything in that list! LOL!

 

I remember when I was 3 or 4 years old, I had gotten into my Mom's purse and taken out what I thought were candies, but what were actually "diet pills" or basically, speed! I took the pills out to the curb in front of out house and plopped down to eat my "candy". There were maybe 3 bottles of pills, and without child-proof caps on them, I got the pills out easily, I had probably eaten a few of the pills when I was found out, though, I don't remember who found me out. That was OK with me though, the "candy" tasted like crap!

 

The next thing I knew, I was in the hospital emergency room, surrounded by scary people in scrubs. A doctor was trying to give me some syrupy stuff out of a little dosage cup. I asked him what it was, he said it was something that would make me throw up. I told him that I wouldn't throw up, but, alas, the syrup of Ipecac did it's job and I heaved up everything I had eaten that day. Including sunflower seeds, I remember that because the doctor couldn't tell what they were, and my Dad had to inform him.

 

Once the speed was out of my little, delicate system, I remember going over to my grandma's house, where my Mother was cussed out by my grandma (my Dad's mother), and I wasn't remotely fawned over. I was chastised and berated for doing something totally stupid and you know what? IT WAS STUPID! I'm definitely lucky I didn't die. But I have a sneaking suspicion that if I was 3 or 4 years old now, my Mother would be in prison and I would not have gotten my butt chewed out for a lesson that I sorely needed.

 

And no, I never got into my Mother's purse without permission again! LOL!

[fritz]

You know, we all did stupid things when we were kids in those days, but we learned from them. And I can't remember any of my friends (albeit I lived in a small town) dying from those stupid things.

 

Yeah, a friend drowned in a creek while swimming, but I hear just about everyday about a baby falling into a swimming pool (concrete pond) and drowning. Even all the so-called safeguards we have today don't prevent an accident from happening. And many more die today in my town from driving on the highways than ever did from riding a horse, etc.

 

I used to take my father dinner in the field while he was too busy plowing to come back to the house. One day, while he was eating, I thought that a cup of kerosine on the ground beside the tractor was tea (or something else). Before he could stop me I had ingested enough to make me pretty sick.

 

Well, even though the doctors did not have all the fancy equipment they have today, they did have a stomach pump. I guess inducing vomitting would have worked too. But I never drank kerosine again (now I drink whiskey). Tastes better, but sometimes I think that I need to go to that doctor again for the stomach pump when overindulging!

 

To this day I cannot understand why I would take a drink of kerosine, I must have been real thirsty (and my father was drinking coffee).

 

Even a wild brahman bull couldn't kill fritz, and I got pitched over the corral fence without breaking any bones. I think kids' bones are more resilient than their elders. But my father never had another wild bull (or any of the brahman breed) on our land after that.

 

And he got rid of that kerosine tractor just as soon as the new gasoline tractors came. I am really showing my age now.

 

fritz