To All of Us Born Between 1925 – 1970
That’s Before the Common Market, European Union, Health & Safety and Litigation
No matter what our kids And the new generation think about us, we are Special People. Our very lives are living proof of what we have survived and how we enjoyed it all.
To all the kids who survived the 1930s, ’40s, ’50s, ’60s and ’70s!
First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, 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 coloured lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets, and, when we rode our bikes, the wind blew through our hair, no helmets, on our heads.
As infants and 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. 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 Lemonade 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 street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day and we were safe,
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 and X-boxes. There were No video games, no 150 channels on television, no video movies Or DVDs, no surround-sound or CDs, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no chat rooms no I Phones, no I Pads or I Pods
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 those 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 Catapults for our eighth birthday, Potato guns for our tenth and .22 rifles for our twelfth. We rode horses, 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.
We played schoolboy Soccer but not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that! If you got the cane at school it was no good complaining to your parents, they would give you another hiding if you were daft enough to tell them.
These generations have Produced some of the best risk-takers, Problem solvers, and Inventors ever. The past 50 To 85 years have seen 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 those Born Between 1925-1970, Congratulations!
You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids before The EU and Health & Safety decided they would change the laws and protect our lives for our own good. While you are at it, invite your kids to read it, so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were. Almost makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it ?
Thank you Sylvia Hewitt for sending the bones of this piece to the magazine.
“Rye’s Own” Bulletin Tuesday 9 February 2016