OT: An old Internet nugget.

I still like to see this one when it comes around.

ATTN: MR BARSS!!

I DO agree with almost all of this, so please... have a cup.

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 were put to 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, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

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 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 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 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 pr oblem 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!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as ki ds, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.

While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it ? ~

The quote of the month is by Jay Leno: "With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"

For those that prefer to think that God is not watching over us...go ahead and delete this. For the rest of us...pass this on.

Reply to
Robatoy
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So true! That describes my childhood perfectly (in Detroit, of all places). As a parent of young children, I am stunned at the fearfulness of other parents. The media is partially to blame, but so are the many parents who do not understand risk. Want to protect your kids from the greatest threat to their health? Then turn off the TV and make them play outside so they stay fit!

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin

Exactly. And how do you teach a kid to evaluate risk? By playing WITH them. If he wants to go down that hill in a soap box, don't tell him not to, but help him build brakes. And if daughter wants to play volleyball hardcore, and you have just spent $ 5000 on an orthodontist, make her wear a mouth guard, don't tell her not to play. I do, however, think it makes perfect sense for a kid to wear a helmet when out in traffic on a bike. That's just common sense. Unfortunately, common sense is not common.... I think it was Voltaire who said that....

Reply to
Robatoy

Absolutely. When my son balked at wearing a bike helmet, I told him to tap his bare head, very lightly, against the curb. He put the helmet on after that.

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin

Having spent a few years calling on the automotives in Detroit, can certainly relate to you Mo-Town comments; however, there are some major changes on the streets of US cities in the last 5-10 years.

They are called GANGS.

Here in L/A, there have been four (4) gang related murders of young people, in the last 24 hours.

At least one involved a 16 year old boy, not a gang member, sitting on a fence.

Gang members walked up, asked where he lived, then opened fire when he didn't answer quickly enough.

Before you send your kids outside, you need to take the streets back from the gangs first.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

Or move out of the People's Republic and back into the United States.

Reply to
J. Clarke

And they've been in LA for far more than 5-10 years. Sure, avoid east LA and compton, but the other side of the coin are places like Sierra Madre; I'd have no problems letting my children run free there.

scott

Reply to
Scott Lurndal

There is a major difference between the street gang of old and those of today.

That difference is drugs.

When it comes to drug money and it's effects on modern society, it is scary.

I'm a long way from Lynwood and/or Compton, but gang/drug violence exxits within a couple of miles of the old time and stable neighborhood.

I recently returned from trip to a small town in NorthEast Ohio, where the local newspaper was reporting on drug related problems in the area.

It is a problem that is invading the entire country, not just the major cities.

Lew

Reply to
Lew Hodgett

This sure is OT. But till the profit motive is taken out of drugs, they WILL NOT go away.

Reply to
Rick Samuel

I'm not sure if I agree.

A quarter century ago, a small town in Alberta was in the throes of a cocaine war. As a teenager, I remember reading Run Baby Run, which took place around 1958 in New York. "Gangs of New York" was more accurate than not in its portrayal of Five Points in the mid-19th century.

Yeah, crack and crystal are causing problems--They're BAD drugs, and recidivism rates for crystal meth are...terrible. I've had a bottle of mouthwash chucked at me as I rode my bike to work.

But the real problem, in my mind, is twofold: The media LOVES reporting on this stuff, because it makes money. One could argue that they also are happy to have their consumers paranoid and locked up at home, watching TV and cowering in fear.

The other problem is that the gangs have degenerated into groups of whiny racist teenage thugs with guns. Gangs run like businesses (i.e. the Mafia families in the US and Italy, the RBN in Russia, etc.) are better at laying below the public eye. These gangs lead to more money (and more drugs) but less street violence.

30 years from now, my son will be looking back at these days as his golden childhood, and be terribly worried about the state of the world. Odds are, it won't be _much_ worse than it is now.

Colin

Reply to
Colin B.

That profit motive is on two sides: empire building government employees are as bad, IMO, as the drug thugs they presumably chase.

Reply to
Charlie Self

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