I shouldnt be alive now......

[John Prophet]

Neither should you..especially if you are over 35ish.


---------------------------------


Here's why

According to today's regulators
and bureaucrats, those of us
who were kids in the 40's,
50's, 60's, or even maybe
the early 70's probably
shouldn't have survived.

Our baby cribs were covered
with bright colored lead-based
paint.

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 seatbelts
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 Playstations,
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 outside 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
ate worms, and although we
were told it would happen,
we did not put out very many
eyes, nor did the worms
live inside us forever.

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 a parent bailing
us out if we broke a law
was unheard of.

They actually sided
with the law.

Imagine that!

This generation has produced
some of the best risk-takers
and 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're one of them!

Congratulations!

---------------------------------------------



I can testify....we used to play hard tackle football..no equipment...I used to ride and jump BMX bikes all day long, no helmet etc...when I was around training wheel age..there was NO SUCH THING as helmets for kids on training wheel bikes, lol..let alone the elbow pads, knee pads etc I see now......never got hurt really...we used to leave home in the morning.....poke our head back in for a gulped down lunch....leave straight out again...out running around allllll dayyyy...with friends etc.

And I agree about the being fat thing....hard to get fat when you're playing all day, running, jumping, hiding, fighting.....todays kids, I dont get it at all....I drive by a playground and the freaking SECOND GRADERS.....are porky little buggars...I dont mean one or two of em...I mean MOST of em!???? man, where is this country going?? Its pitiful!! All you people who oppose the armerd forces....shoot, in 20 years you'll have nothing to oppose....cuz everyone will be too fat to serve!

JP

[M_Six]

<ahem> http://www.techimo.com/forum/showthr...threadid=93832 <cough>

[daveleau]

Same here. When I was in school (being 29-ish now), I didn't have video games to keep me sedentary in front of the screen. My pent up energy was spent in the woods building forts and playing tackle football and swimming and soccer and building skateboard ramps and the like. Now, pent up energy is spent in the classroom and instead of discipline and guidance, children are given psychotropic, mind-altering drugs.

[Pexster]

But, Dave, didn't you know that there's been a sudden epidemic of ADD, requiring us to medicate our kids (sarcasm intended)? IMO, a whole bunch of pediatricians ought to have their licenses to prescribe revoked!

[John Prophet]

yeah, its been posted before..lol..so what.

It made me think a little about what John F Kennedy said...."ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country"

But now its like people are born and they SOMEHOW get this idea that right off the bat someone OWES them something.....and there is soooooooooo much of this stinking smelly "victim mentality" going around.....whereas they have said "everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame"...now it seems people think that "everyone should get their one frivolous lawsuit or at least some good handouts"...like its a God given right.

Just take a few secs and see how spoiled this generation is.....its shocking to think of.....think of other places in the world..even now...and also of times past when people's life expectancy was short, and a large percentage of the world was in abject poverty or slavery of one form or the other. But now we think we are supposed to have a cell phone for our first graders?? huh? Like its a God given right or the child will be "scarred"? Id say the biggest scar is being put on them now...laziness, fear, apathy, inability to think and act etc.

Anyway....seems people are so much wanting to be the victim now...that they sort of have to play the full role....sort of like when you were a kid and you wanted that day off from school..so you played sick..well, you sort of had to play it all the way out.....you couldnt be "sick" at 730am but then fine and dandy at 930 am ready to go out and play, lol. So nowadays they have to be victims all day long every day I guess.

and as for the fear part...I dont really get that either....I mean, some of it is normal but now the level of fear is just irrational.....I mean, I have been at church meetings....Im talking about with people who say they believe in God to supply all their needs and protect em etc etc....and they say glib things like "God is in control"....and then their wife and kid walk to the other side of the room for a minute...then the guy realizes his child is not in his immediate sight...so he panicks......lol......"where,s little Jeffy?????"..he's looking all around frightfully....then he sees them standing across the room....and then he's like "well, you cant be too careful nowadays". I just dont get THAT much fear....especially from "Christians" lol.

These other Christian peeps I know....they invite you over to their house..ok....so you know, peeps arrive in a flow for about 10 minutes..some early, some a few minutes later.......so you pull up in front of the house....a couple has just pulled up and is getting out of their car........so they are like a minutes ahead of you.......there is already a house full of people and people all in the kitchen cooking......but..the lady of the house is so full of fear that she keeps insisiting on locking the doors.......??? huh?? Lady, the house is freaking full of people. The couple in front of you goes in..the lady SEES YOU COMING UP THE DRIVEWAY.......BUT......SHE STILL LOOKS THE DOOR TILL YOU GET THERE! lol.........I just dont see where all that much fear comes from....I see it in times of emergency like when a neighbor has made threats or something.....but 24/7/365?????

Weird times we live in.....hard in a way to picture the logical continuance of this direction we are going in.

JP

[Bill in SD, CA]

I remember my friends and I played Combat with BB guns and we wore sunglasses to keep our eyes from getting shot out.

How stupid was that?

Bill

[Toadman]

Ah, yes jumping bikes over trash cans like Evel Knievel!

[M_Six]

I remember my friends and I played Combat with BB guns and we wore sunglasses to keep our eyes from getting shot out.

How stupid was that?

Smarter than us. We didn't use sunglasses.

[John Prophet]

I remember my friends and I played Combat with BB guns and we wore sunglasses to keep our eyes from getting shot out.

thats classic, lol. My/our neighborhood parents knew better than to trust us with BB guns....we found ways to get hurt with things like kickballs etc. No guns for us. But we never got hurt badly. I remember getting on my bike and riding alllllllll day long sometimes....cars blowing the horn at me etc.....people would tell me they saw me x amount of miles from home etc.....moms would "worry" but not like today.

I did have a bike wreck or something once and ended up with temporary amnesia...not toal amnesia but I couldnt remember what month it was or where my locker was at school etc....or remember the wreck or whatever happened......but of alllllllllllll the hours of riding I did, jumping etc....thats the worst that happened...multiply it by dozens of friends who did the same and no one really got hurt too bed.

I mean, I know things do happen....but after 9/11...seems people would actually possibly lighten up some...seeing how being over protective cant stop everything from happening, lol.

Ive got a pic of me jumping over about 5 of my friends on my bike..they are laying on the ground laughing and holding up peace signs etc.....sort of a perfect example of "dangerous" behavior...why didnt they look nervous in the pic?? cuz Id done it dozens of times before, lol.

JP

[TOAD6147]

I'll give my pat response to this which I used in the other similar thread: That was then, this is now.
What's you stance on trampolines? They used to be so much fun but when my wife said she wanted to get one for the kids I said it was too dangerous and what if a neighbor child was hurt? As it turned out she got one anyway and before long we had to get a new home owner's policy. One of the first questions we were asked is if we had one. We had to get ride of it or they would not cover us anymore.