I just had to pass it on to you folks.......make you wonder.

Congratulations to us all, we made it.... I Can't Believe We made it!
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's probably shouldn't have survived. Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids or locks 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 we got a little older.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors! We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.

We would spend hours!! building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode 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 would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones. Unthinkable!
We did not have Play stations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms. We had friends! We went out!side and found them. We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt. We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no
lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out any eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home 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.

Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade. Horrors!

Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.

The idea of parents bailing us out if we got in trouble in school or broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the school or the law. Imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventors, ever.

We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility --- and we learned how to deal with it. And, most of you're one of them!

Congratulations!!!


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RICH

Couldn't have said it any better than that Rich!!! And Lord knows I've tried too many times for the benefit of my kids....but I guess they fell into the same catagory as myself since they started out in the 60's and learned some stuff from ol Dad too!! I'd point them in a direction by saying, "when I was a kid we used to blah blah blah" and they would make a try at it...including jumping off the edge of the roof !! But.....their rational at the time was, no shoes!! Socks were softer to land on!! Course I didn't find this out for years....
One of our pleasures growing up was orange crate scooters!! A real wood orange crate was stood up on end on a 2x4 and nailed to it and a handle bar was nailed to the top...The rolling part was an old skate (steel wheels) nailed to the bottom of the 2x4 and we were off!! I wanted some way to stick a playing card in a wheel so bad but not on a skate wheel! lol
Few accidents and I don't remember any that were serious not for lack of unintentional trying tho...Oh yeah, at about 8, I fell out of a neighbors tree and broke my thumb! Turns out the father was a doctor and fixed me up and brought me home with an explanation..My folks said thanks and that was it! no lawsuits, no hard feelings, and a cast was cool back then when you could get every one to sign it then just a week later, it was so dirty, you couldn't read anything on it!lol Glad all my kids are out on their own now and they just visit now on holidays with the grandkids!!
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Fred P.

We built milk crate go carts, this is prior to graduating to motorized bicycles. Three 2x4s, one large long bolt, two axles, wheels off of my sister's baby carriage, some nails bent over the axles, a bit of grease, one wooden milk crate with one side cut out and of course a lenght of rope to steer with. A handle for a brake was mandatory tho they never worked. From downhill racing these things, even going downhill backwards, (Whoa, a hell of a ride!) to turning them into demo carts, we had a ball.
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Emil
GCi
http://groups.msn.com/randomrodders
Drive it!
46 Ford Sedan
37 Packard Super 8

Yeah, and how about fixing your own bicycle? How many things did you build with cardboard? Kids now adays have no idea how the car works, let alone how to hot rod it! Hot rodding is brass tacks engineering. You have to make it work with what you got. The Japanese came to my school ~12 years ago and wanted to know how we taught our kids to be so imaginative. I knew the answer but I didn't tell them.
#1 You are a closed gene pool with the same genes on your little island, hence the same brain engrams being passed around. #2 You teach them everything by rote from the 5-8 grades. Then you expect them to get original.
The same thing will happen to our kids unless someone makes them work! Ye gods! Maybe the tougher things are the better for the imagination. When the US gets into hard times again our kids will rise to the occasion. In the meantime, keep taking care of the little squirts and try to help 'em out.
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docchevy Remember Physics explains everything!