To All The Kids Who Survived the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s

[gregpro50]

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
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 seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pick up 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 and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
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, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet 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!
This generation has 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.
And 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 lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.

[hydromaniacc]

No chit! My dad put a 2X8 between the armrests(where the freakin' ASHTRAY'S USED TO BE) so as us kids could see over the back seat,and out the window of the CHEVY IMPALA. If you were in the front and they had to slam on the brakes your seat belt was a forearm to the chest. Worked every time but that was when people knew how to drive a friggin' car.

[Phil's other half...Sue.]

Wow...great post and so true, exept for one thing !!!!!! the one thing we didn't have back then was pervert's or child molestor's (at least not like we do today)...we could walk to a corner store and not be afraid of being kidnapped...What happened to children being safe and enjoying life....

[E-tec1]

America is waking up..............i hope it continues.........and yes, it is a miricle we did survive some of that stuff...........go carts with no brakes brings back many memories....wow...............

[Hippie459MN]

I was born in 74 and even I can remember alot of that stuff growing up. When my parents used to leave us kids in the car as they went shopping with the car running so we had heat and the radio, Climbing around the car as my dad drove like he was always trying to win a race, My mom drinking and parting when she was pregnant with me. The list goes on but I turned out just fine. :D

Them were the days... And the go-carts with no brakes, Had a few of them, and a mini bike or two also. lol I went through alot of shoes when I had the mini bikes. They were my only form of brakes.

[hydromaniacc]

I had a 65 VW bug I bought for $50.00. When I was 16 the drinking age in Wisconsin was 18. They never checked ID back then. 5 of us would drive 35 miles to LaCrosse WS and drink until the bars closed. The car did'nt have any tail lights so I would duct tape 2 flashlights behind the tail light lenses and there was just enough batteries to get you home. Also a vaccuum cleaner hose was run from the engine compartment to defrost the window so you could see! Can't believe we made through all that sometimes.

[99fxst99]

I am sad that my 2 1/2 year old will not have the types of fun I had. I did all the things mentioned and SURVIVED!!

[j_martin]

Wow...great post and so true, exept for one thing !!!!!! the one thing we didn't have back then was pervert's or child molestor's (at least not like we do today)...we could walk to a corner store and not be afraid of being kidnapped...What happened to children being safe and enjoying life....

There were perverts back then, but when a parent discovered one of them, they tended to become extinct, or at least gone.

[j_martin]

I am sad that my 2 1/2 year old will not have the types of fun I had. I did all the things mentioned and SURVIVED!!

After 9 kids, I have to admit the first few times I watched one of them fall out of either the ash tree, or the big jack pine tree.......and bounce, it was a bit tough.

I soon realized that it was probably harder on the tree than the kids, but they are all still here. Only about half the ash tree is still here because now you have to have eleventy seven feet of clearance for a highline.

John

[Phil's other half...Sue.]

Yes, we all did crazy things that were fun, that we will never forget!!!! and survived!!!!
In High School, we had a water tunnel next to the school a bunch of guys from my grade put couches in them and we used to cut out and party (we could have been killed and drowned if we had a water main break) the principal found out...one of the guys grabbed me and we went out the escape hatch only to find another teacher at the other end :eek: man did we get in trouble :nonod: but we had a lot of fun before we got caught :D......what was that we used to drink, oh yea...Boone's Farm Apple wine :cool:.

[outboard-rob]

Post, me and the wife talk about this stuff all the time. Things truly were different back then. I have a 12 year old daughter and a 6 yr old son and I always talk to them about the fun I had when I was a kid, too bad they cant experience it for themselves today. The world was a great place back then...now Iam not so sure..................Rob

[mackeral5]

born in '73, so I didn't get to see the 50's and 60's nor do I remember much from the 70's....but, I do know I experienced a lot more than kids today.

We grew up building forts (machetes, hatchets, axes, etc "deadly weapons" today), fishing for tiny fish in Heiferhorn Creek, and squirrel hunting in the woods behind my house in Twin Chapel subdivision, north columbus, ga. everyone had an air rifle of some sort. Latch-key kids with no parental supervision during the summers. bmx bikes, 3 wheelers, dirtbikes, etc. we didn't get into too much trouble, at least no serious trouble. most of my friends' homes were full of firearms and ammo but we knew to respect the firearms and our PARENTS!!! Nobody got shot, nobody went on shooting sprees, etc.

went to highschool in harris county, a rural area north of columbus. fished and hunted. carried a pocket knife most every day of my life. there were even times during hunting season where my trusty ole Savage 840 bolt action 30/30 was behind the seat of my truck sitting in the high school parking lot waiting for the after-school hunt. not once did I think of having any other use for the rifle than to hunt.

most kids today will never get to experience such freedoms.

I guess that's because most don't get taught to respect such freedoms....

[Tom D.]

I know what your all talking about! I hate to show how the world has changed BUT...
Recently an Albany, NY area Eagle Scout got suspended for having a small pocket knife in his locked car on school grounds. He used it in a survival kit he kept in the car. Freakin morons, give me a break.

[Hydrophobic guy]

what was that we used to drink.

ANYTHING !! http://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/images/smilies/drool.gif :D

[Charger200]

remind me of a song:rolleyes:

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[INXS]

"The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!"

First you had to try to get away W/O a whopping from the cops, then it would be your parents! You may get by one but never both!

Now the "Spare The Rod" and spiol the child!

[CDave]

Act up in school and ya got spakned, sent to the principle and then when ya got home ya got spanked again. You learned not to act up in class and do your school work.

[moonshine]

:rolleyes: I sure hate to sound like an old fart and I sure love the song and remember those times but don't you think the young buckey is to young to remember those times.:cheers:

[Charger200]

:iagree: the only downside to him singing the song, would be better as a trace attkins or toby keith song

[gregpro50]

:rolleyes: I sure hate to sound like an old fart and I sure love the song and remember those times but don't you think the young buckey is to young to remember those times.:cheers:

The funny thing is that I was born in '77 and that piece of writing I found and posted really described my childhood. I think things really started changing in the late 80's early '90's.

[1BadAction]

There were perverts back then, but when a parent discovered one of them, they tended to become extinct, or at least gone.
truth.

Now they let the perverts and degenerates adopt. :nonod:

even being born in 82 I remember alot of what was said. Being threatened with ass whippings when I didn't behave (and pushing it too far, then getting them sometimes, LOL) That nice hot vinyl tasting water out of the hose, riding bikes to my friends house and playing manhunt or making "forts" in the saw palmettos, then coming home and having that stinging red liquid dotted on all the "saw" marks from them. haha. I was brought home from the daytona hospital in an AMC Gremlin X with a 304 V8 :eek: Now THAT is a classic. :D bikes with no brakes that I let my friends ride on the handle bars, hacked up go carts that we had to push-start, finding mercury (yes the metal) in thermostats dumped in the woods and collecting it in a jar, fishing all the time, and chasing the neighborhood girls around. :leaving:

[ssent]

remind me of a song:rolleyes:

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Here's another.
<object width="340" height="285"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/Jum7DsNZqO0&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/Jum7DsNZqO0&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x3a3a3a&color2=0x999999&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="340" height="285"></embed></object>

[gregpro50]

I was brought home from the daytona hospital in an AMC Gremlin X with a 304 V8 :eek:

I was brought home in a Pinto cruising wagon identical to this one. If that doesnt scream '70's then I don't know what does.

http://www.lovefords.org/78/pintobobcat/New_Folder/1978_ford_pinto_cruisesilver_001.jpg

[georgiariverrat]

I was born in '60 and remeber it all. We played outside all day long, rain or shine. During the summer I don't think I ever wore shoes unless I was going to church.
One thing that does stick out is putting a couple of playing cards in the spokes of my bike with a clothes pin. With 4 or 5 of my friends and their bikes, we sounded like Hells Angels coming down the road.

[pyro]

most kids today will never get to experience such freedoms.

I guess that's because most don't get taught to respect such freedoms....

Gone are the days where one parent can work a full-time union factory job while the other parent cooks good meals at home, and teaches about freedom, respect, and the value of hard work and personal dedication.

Now we have numerous "child care" businesses everywhere you look, (but no "real" child care), packaged microwave dinners, reliance and dependence.

All the good things we had in this country are being lost with the generations...

[Charger200]

Sorry to rain on your golden boys paraids here, but i was born in 86. I lived outside. I had a turbo graphics and a sega, but i was outside all the time, like said befor buildin forts, playn man hunt, catchn frogs n turtles, riding bikes all over the woods and fields, made snow men and snow forts, played pond hockey from the second i got home till it was bed time. I got the belt and spankin's when i was a fool.

My brother on the other hand was born in 92, Till this day i dont think i ever seen him with a sun tan.

jay

[joed]

You left out a few. Some survived Vietnam, legal drinking and smoking at age eighteen, the short lived life of 8-track tapes ( "Inagatta Divita" took 2 1/2 tracks ) most had at least summer jobs buy their early teens and would have been embarrased to continue reciding in their parents house after age 20.:cheers:

[hydromaniacc]

I bought my first boat at age 14 by washing and waxing Peterbuilt semis.It was an ugly green Chrysler tri-hull with a fifty merc. I did'nt have a drivers license so my dad would back me into the river on his way to work and pick me up on his way home. By the time I turned 16 I had bought my own car and motorcycle too. I now live close to a high school and they are driving vehicles worth way more than any I have ever owned. Hmmm I wonder if they were washing semis too?

[1meanstream]

Wow...great post and so true, exept for one thing !!!!!! the one thing we didn't have back then was pervert's or child molestor's (at least not like we do today)...we could walk to a corner store and not be afraid of being kidnapped...What happened to children being safe and enjoying life....

I am not sure we did not have child molesters and other genetic misfits--It is more probable they were not as eager to get involved as society/dads would not be calling the cops. Society looked after itself and the parmaters were set--there was no room for the trash of society we see today.

[1meanstream]

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
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 seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pick up 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 and real butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!
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, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet 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!
This generation has 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.
And 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 lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.


YOUR POST IS SUPERB. They have no life skills at all. Just sore hands from being held all their life. And perhaps sore fingers from playing with their little communication toys.

[INXS]

They, the farmmers, use to shot you with rock salt if the caught you stealing there crops, can you image if some mean :rolleyes::D farmmer shot some poor:rolleyes::confused: misunderstood child today???:eek:

[1BadAction]

perhaps sore fingers from playing with their little communication toys.

Their whittle finguwrs huwrt. http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/9489/roflgrv.gif

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/health/26teen.html

and of course I say this as I myself am becoming nearsighted from staring at autocad at work all day :rolleyes: In reality I see the phones as the real culprits. They are as bad or worse than computers, but they are accessable ALL THE TIME.

[hydromaniacc]

Their whittle finguwrs huwrt. http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/9489/roflgrv.gif

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/health/26teen.html

and of course I say this as I myself am becoming nearsighted from staring at autocad at work all day :rolleyes: In reality I see the phones as the real culprits. They are as bad or worse than computers, but they are accessable ALL THE TIME.
That is so funny yet so true. It's a frickin' epidemic. Remember learning to build chit or learn to use a welder or fix a car? No wonder everything is getting so stupid.

[hydrostream1]

I`m going to quote jeff foxworthy instead of this time out crap,He said "my dad took time out to woop our ass"!How true!I had the belt strap across mine several times or a green hickory switch.I learned respect and I cannot do that again.No helmets when we rode bikes,dirt bikes etc.I remeber when I rode in the family buick a(65 wildcat four door)I would get on the package shelf and roll up and down the back seat and had a cheap cassette player or 8 track player,that 8 track portable one was heavy.I played outside til dark,would hang out in the basement tinkering,playing with my dads welder,drills and tools building stuff on sundays he would take us out to the local dirt bike place to ride.We also had a tree house that my dad and I built,it was cool made out of scrap metal,the roof from an old swiimming pool,it had a stereo system,tv and playboy pictures on the wall.:D

[mackeral5]

hydrostream1----today, that same treehouse would get your parents sued when someone fell out of it or the neighborhood association would deem it an eyesore....someone would end up as a sex offender, etc over the playboy pics, at minimum it would be contributing to the delinquency of a minor, etc.......

this country of ours has gone to hell in a handbasket...........

and I don't see any way it's going to get any better....sad but life as some of us knew it will no longer exist.

"they" call it PROGRESS...

[hydromaniacc]

I like to call it PUSSIFICATION OF AMERICA

[terry taylor]

HI.And also living with the fear of contacting POLIO, and TUBURCULOSIS thanks.

[Ted Stryker]

HI.And also living with the fear of contacting POLIO, and TUBURCULOSIS thanks.

Good thing is there are vaccines for that...

[CDave]

I like to call it PUSSIFICATION OF AMERICA

Yep, seems some parents use TV and gaming systems to raise their kids. Both parents don't need to work, unless they just want to live in big new houses and drive big new cars.
Don't want a low paying job, then get into a line of work that pays.

[stokernick]

just try to imagine what it's going to be like 20 years from NOW!You ain't seen nothing yet!

[hydromaniacc]

Don't care.....Dead:leaving:

[Hydrophobic guy]

Good thing is there are vaccines for that...

Perhaps not in Canada. ;)

[pool boy]

i remember waking up in the morning to the radio calling out all the schools that were closed for the day because of snow.then going out and shoveling as many driveways as possible with my buddies.afterwords,we go down to the deli and eat cheese steak hoggies and smoke marlboros and look at playboy books.they didn't show anything below the waste.or climbing up the sicamore tree out front of the house all the way to the top.man,that was really high up there.i wondered when i'm gona get my breath back after i fell out.or cruising the parkway sitting in the back by the tail gate of my dads carryall on the 4th of july going to see the fire works.all the hot rods would be out,chevells,roadrunners and harleys too all making a racket sounding cool as heck.or aprill 15th,opening day for trout season,camping out all night.casting over four people deep in front of you to get to the water.i could go on and on.