fat tom
Absent Comrade
If you lived during the 30's,40's,and 50's,give yourself a pat on the back! 
My apologies if this has been posted previously.
NO MATTER WHAT OUR KIDS AND THE NEW GENERATION THINK ABOUT Us
WE ARE AWESOME !!!
Our Lives are LIVING PROOF !!!
>
To Those of Us Born
1925 - 1955:
~~~~~~~~~
TO ALL THE
KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE
1930's, 40's, and
50's !!
First, we survived being born to mothers who may have 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-based 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 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.
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 OKAY.
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, Nintendos
and X-boxes. There were
No video games,
No 150 channels on cable,
No video movies
Or DVDs,
No surround-sound or
CDs,
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 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
BB guns for our 10th birthdays,
22 rifles for our 12th, 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.
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 60 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 1925-1955, CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want
to share this with others who have had the
luck to grow up as kids 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 ?
f.t.
My apologies if this has been posted previously.NO MATTER WHAT OUR KIDS AND THE NEW GENERATION THINK ABOUT Us
WE ARE AWESOME !!!
Our Lives are LIVING PROOF !!!
>
To Those of Us Born
1925 - 1955:
~~~~~~~~~
TO ALL THE
KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE
1930's, 40's, and
50's !!
First, we survived being born to mothers who may have 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-based 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 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.
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 OKAY.
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, Nintendos
and X-boxes. There were
No video games,
No 150 channels on cable,
No video movies
Or DVDs,
No surround-sound or
CDs,
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 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
BB guns for our 10th birthdays,
22 rifles for our 12th, 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.
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 60 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 1925-1955, CONGRATULATIONS!
You might want
to share this with others who have had the
luck to grow up as kids 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 ?
f.t.
I finally had to fake it so that I wouldn't get myself arrested and jailed for child abuse (i.e., a kid not in a government-approved car seat). 
How did we ever survive? 
