My friend, Julie Haymaker Thompson posted this wonderful email she received. I know it is a wonderful look back on our childhood memories, but it also ends very poignantly where it speaks about the government regulating so much of our lives. It happens so incrementally, so slowly over time that it's hardly noticed until one day we awake to a society that looks nothing like it's former self, and we wonder to ourselves, "How did this happen?" When we allow "the powers that be" to increasingly intrude on our lives for our own good, we lose bits of ourselves along the way, and with it our individual liberties.
I miss the old America!!!
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE
1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!! who's parents 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,
no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.
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 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 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 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 kids, before 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 ?
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