How did all of us kids born from the 40’s through the 70’s manage to survive? Against all odds, that’s how.
First, we survived being born to mothers who probably smoked and drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn’t get tested for diabetes.
Babies were put to sleep on tummies in baby cribs covered with brightly colored, lead based paint. We had no child-proof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets. When we rode our bikes, we wore baseball caps, not helmets.
As children, we rode in cars with no seat belts, no booster seats, no air bags, bald tires and often in cars with faulty and squeaking brakes. Riding in the back of an open pick-up on a summer day was a special treat.
We shared soft drinks and popsicles among friends and drank directly from the garden hose. And no one died. We drank milk straight from the bottle. We ate cupcakes, white bread, country butter and lots of bacon. We drank Kool Aid with tons of real sugar, and few of us were over-weight.
Why? Because we played outside.
We left in the morning and came home at dinnertime. No one could reach us all day, and we were okay. We pieced together Go-Carts, rode them at break away speeds downhill and used bushes at the end of the ride for brakes.
We had no Play Stations, Nintendos, or X-boxes. There were no video games, and we had one or two TV channels, not 200. There were no DVDs, CDs, cell phones, computers, Internet, or chat rooms.
We had friends and we went outside and found them. We fell out of trees, got cut, broke a few bones, chipped a few teeth and no one got sued.
We got spankings with wooden spoons, switches, paddles or just a bare hand and no one called child services. We ate mud pies that the girls concocted and had BB guns by the time we were 8. We made up games with sticks and whiffle balls. Little League had try-outs and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t learned to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!
Our parents always sided with the law or the principal’s office. We enjoyed freedom, endured failure, tasted success and assumed responsibility. Our generation produced some of the very best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors in history.
So congratulations to all of us who survived are in order.
All this sort of makes you want to go outside, ride a bike in traffic and ditch the helmet, does it not?
