I took this from another RV site.



CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL THE KIDS WHO WERE BORN IN THE 1940's, 50's, 60's and 70'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 tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured 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 van - loose - was always great fun.

We drank water from the garden hosepipe 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 cakes, white bread and real butter and drank 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 text messaging, 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 played with worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

Made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out any 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!

Local teams 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?!

Oh yeah!

I bounced around in a station wagon in my pjs to go to the drive-in with my parents, had to be home before the town hall siren rang at 6 pm in the winter, 9 pm in the summer, and rode a bike with no helmet.

I had my baby in the mid-90s and took him in to the public health nurse for his year-before-kindergarten immunization when he was about four and half years old. She said, "And does he ride a bike?"

(I was slightly embarrassed to say No, because I and all my sibs learned by that age so we could take ourselves to school at five years old.)

I said, No, but he has a trike.

This was a modern plastic deal about 18 inches off the ground, with the added modern convenience of a push-stick for the parent to steer or drive when toddler got tired. When I wasn't helping him steer the two blocks to the Farmers Market, he used it to peddle round and round our driveway.

She said, "And does he wear a helmet?"

Now, picture this: he was lower to the ground than when standing, and slower than when walking. I said No, he does not.

She said, "Don't you care about your child's health and safety?"

Hrmmm.

I replied, I often take him to the Farmers Market in a wagon, and he doesn't wear a helmet then, even though we sometimes get to quite a speed. Should he be wearing a helmet then?

She said, without hesitation, "Yes, he should."

Hrmmmmmmm.

I replied, Sometimes when he doesn't feel like walking, riding his trike, or riding in the wagon, I take him in his stroller. Should he be wearing a helmet then?

I said, Should he be wearing a helmet in his stroller?

She did NOT reply, though I could tell she was REALLY REALLY mad.

Very timely, Ches.
Now we are told that because of our age group we are too tough to get the H1N1 vacinne. Perhaps all that stuff we ingested as a kid actually did some good after all.

Trying not to get too political, I'll just say.... You ain't seen nothin' yet!

That's one thing about the future... none of us has!