[Stardust]

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 we're put t o sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats , no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.

Riding in the back of a pick- up truck 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, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar... And, we weren't overweight.. WHY?

Because we were always outside playing...that's why!

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 OKAY.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them 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 Play stations , Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, 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 and no 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 would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping pong paddles, or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse.

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!

[#1 Blackcat Fan]

So true. Kids these days are just spoiled to much.

[#1 Blackcat Fan]

To add to your post. I know i went to school from from 8am - 3pm then worked a full time job from 4pm - midnight. Bought my own car, paid my own insurance, paid for my own gas, paid for my own school clothes, and supplied my own lunch money. Kids these days would cry child abuse if they had to do the above lol.

[old PB05]

Was just talking about this to a football parent yesterday...Kids are just different. I was born in 1978 and during the 80's era of growing up (just speaking because I witnessed, lol) we played outside. Kids NEVER play outside anymore. Everyone had a basketball goal, every somewhat flat surface had some kind of game being played on it. Every churchyard had tackle football being played on it. Every mountian had kids scattered on it playing manhunt...we were told to leave when the sun came up and not come home until the sun went down...WITH NO WORRIES! It's a sad time in this world today!

[judgementday]

I was born in the 70's and everyday I would wake up and immediatly run out to play. I hardly ever watched TV except for Saturday mornings.

Kids these days are soft and it shows as they are becoming adults. Instead of telling a kid to "get over it" it is "how does that make you feel".

The entitlement the kids of today feel drives me nuts. The entitlement that I felt as a kid was having a mound of dirt to play with and then having my first job at age 12.

I wasn't very athletic at all and when I got tired of being picked last during basketball games, I practiced during the summers to where I had people asking me to come back and play. Today it seems kids should get to play just because they are "on" a team and not because they earned to be there.

[WideRight05]

I was at the YMCA one time recently and there were probably 15 people there rotating in and out of games on the basketball court. I talked to an older guy there that I know that plays and just happened to mention how packed it was. He was like, "Man this is nothing! 30 - 40 years ago there used to be 50 people up here every day. When you played, you had to play your hardest to stay on the court." I grew up in the 1990's and graduated high school in the 2000's.

Just so you know, the more I read about those of you that grew up during the 30's through 80's era, the more I am jealous of you. Everything seemed awesome back then...people were nicer and actually had morals...music was good...TV was good. Back then, and even during my time kids TV shows taught people GOOD VALUES, which sadly a lot of the kids shows today do not teach. You don't see many kids out and about anymore, partially because of the video games out today, and partially because of how crazy people are with abductions, etc.

[Jarons]

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 we're put t o sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats , no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.

Riding in the back of a pick- up truck 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, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar... And, we weren't overweight.. WHY?

Because we were always outside playing...that's why!

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 OKAY.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them 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 Play stations , Nintendo's and X-boxes. There were no video games, 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 and no 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 would get spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping pong paddles, or just a bare hand and no one would call child services to report abuse.

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!

I was born in the mid 70's in Alaska. I was a little more than a year old when my dad got orders to move to Arkansas, my mom will not fly. When it was time to move my dad built a platform in the back seat of our Jeep Cherokee so I would have a place to play during the long drive.
My dad retired from the service in 1980 and we moved to Kentucky. One of our first days in the neighborhood, my mom and I took a walk through the neighborhood. Every person she saw out she would introduce herself, then the next sentence was "This is my son, if you see him getting into trouble bust his ass and take him to our house on the corner so we can bust his." Many of the neighbors with kids told her to do the same thing with their kids. That statement alone kept me and many other kids in the neigborhood out of a lot of trouble growing up.

[WideRight05]

I was born in the mid 70's in Alaska. I was a little more than a year old when my dad got orders to move to Arkansas, my mom will not fly. When it was time to move my dad built a platform in the back seat of our Jeep Cherokee so I would have a place to play during the long drive.
My dad retired from the service in 1980 and we moved to Kentucky. One of our first days in the neighborhood, my mom and I took a walk through the neighborhood. Every person she saw out she would introduce herself, then the next sentence was "This is my son, if you see him getting into trouble bust his ass and take him to our house on the corner so we can bust his." Many of the neighbors with kids told her to do the same thing with their kids. That statement alone kept me and many other kids in the neigborhood out of a lot of trouble growing up.

I am even more jealous of you because you got to grow up during the 80's, the best decade EVER!!

[Stardust]

I picked my own switch for my own whoopings. I played basketball from sun up until sun down on a piece of plywood and rim hung from a maple tree that hung over the street and required us to move when a car came. I sat on my mothers lap in the front seat of the car during trips until I could crawl on my own, which I would do my crawling and laying in the back window dash. I would be out the door in the morning, put a 50 miles on my bike going from friend to friends house just to make sure I could stay busy until dark. We would split up however many we had and play baseball, designating parts of the field out because we didn't have enough players to cover all the positions. I collected strewn pop bottles along the roadways to collect enough money to be a 10cent pack of Topps baseball cards. I could not even tell you what brand my clothes were, I'm not sure that I even knew what a brand was! Eating out was "Special" and done infrequently. Fastfood was grabbing my sandwich and flying out the door as fast as I could to get the games restarted. When no one was around, I took me glove and a rubber ball and threw it for hours against the neighbors 3' high stone wall in their front yard, and not once did they threaten to sue my parents. I respected my teachers, and when I didn't, I got my ass wore out with a wooden paddle, then had to go home and find that switch for my mom to get my next whooping!

[LWC]

I was born in the late 80's but I was raised as some of you mentioned above. It is tough for me to relate to my generation.

[the other guy]

When i was 12 years old my dad put gas heat in the house. I got to dig the ditch for the gas line,about 250 ft. He took two pieces of wood and made a "t" he would place it in the ditch to see if it was deep enough. That taught me two things. How to do things right and never to dig ditches for a living.

[Beetle01]

All that is fantastic, it doesn't change the fact that these same generations are 100% responsible for the shape our country is in now.

[Stardust]

^ Yes, you are right, it's the reason this country knocked out the evil empires during WW2, the reason you have the Automobile industry, the reason this country is in rule of the World. Yes, you are correct, and I take that as a compliment, because had this generation not done it, we would be lagging the rest of the world. No matter what shape this country is in, it's highlights from this generation of people have exceeded all generations in the history of mankind!

[judgementday]

One of the people I idolize the most is my grandfather....he is a WWII and Korean vet....worked until he was in his late 60's, provided well for his family, would greet everyone he saw in public but then tell someone how it was if he felt disrepected....he was from the mold that work came first and then you enjoy your time. Many times he had me mow his yard, trim his bushes, etc... and it took me a while to understand the reasoning but he was teaching me responsibility. To this day, even though he is close to being fully blind, he doesn't allow anyone to help him. My mother and wife say that I will be just like him when I reach his age, I take that as a compliment and high honor. They do not make them like him anymore.

[HawksRule]

I'm a youngen compared to all of you I was born in 1992. lol

[Beetle01]

^ Yes, you are right, it's the reason this country knocked out the evil empires during WW2, the reason you have the Automobile industry, the reason this country is in rule of the World. Yes, you are correct, and I take that as a compliment, because had this generation not done it, we would be lagging the rest of the world. No matter what shape this country is in, it's highlights from this generation of people have exceeded all generations in the history of mankind!

Doubt anyone born in the 30's fought in WW2. Also, you have to look at who is running things at those time. 30 year olds are not running anything, it is the older generations, usually considered the leaders and those responsible for their country are the 40-60 age group. So starting in the 60's-70's is when this referred to generation took control. Wow haven't things been peachy since then. Our economy has basically been crap except for a small stint in the 90's due to a massive technological boom, and the creating of NAFTA and other free trade agreements which allowed a surge of cheap goods into a strong economy, but over time the shipping out of jobs has taken its effect.

They have had us in countless pointless wars in their attempt to "rule" the world as you so state it. To the point where our country is on perilously close to self destruction. Look at our pathetic presidential candidates we have this year. Neither is even close to worthy of the Presidency, and Bush was not either.

Those generations have allowed the raping and pillaging of our nation and its people.

Way to go, don't worry we will fix it when we get the chance, until then we will have to put up with more idiocy from our "leaders"