[Chery]

SMILE OF THE WEEK

(contributions for this section are most welcome)

=: Those Of Us Over 40 Should Be Dead :=

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us
who were kids in the 40s, 50s and 60s probably should not
have survived.

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

There was nothing to stop us from sticking a fork in an
electrical outlet.

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 and metal dashboards.

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 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, only 3 TV channels, no video or DVD 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 mud pies, 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, if you're one of them, congratulations.

Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow
up as kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives,
for our "own good."

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

[author unknown]


But heaven will have to wait a while yet.
WE ARE THE SURVIVORS!

[Curlyben]

Hehehehe it's not just the over 40's but the over 30's as well ;)

[Nez]

I remember "putting" a worm down the back of this girl at school.I was only six.She went hysterical.Her mom "boxed my ears".So did my mom. :D
I cried all the way home.I ripped my school blazer in a tantrum,ate my best friends custard cake,and stood in the hallway of the house wailing like the grim reaper.I remember once ripping off the head of my newly bought "Action Man",and flushing it down the toilet.I must have been horrid.
At 16,I was expelled from secondary school for telling the headmistress to "get a life"!! after I accidentally broke a school window with a cricket ball.I as getting worse.At college I was thrown out for smoking "dope",with group of friends,at the tender age of 19.
Then I knuckled down,saw the light,and cleaned up my act.Now I have responsibility,I grew up,and am now an angel... honest.

[talaniman]

I didn't do it,that my story I'm sticking to it! :eek: :rolleyes: :mad: :confused:

[klmgb]

All those things are true, you would also think that the generation before us would all be in jail for child abuse. If I did anything wrong outside the eyesight/hearing of my parents, any neighbor that saw me would mete out the punishment. And then make me go home and tell my parents, who would promptly mete out some more punishment. Talk about double jeopardy. I can only imagine that if I had ever said anything about child abuse my mother would have said " You want to see child abuse, I'll show you child abuse!!!" But I made it through life all right

[Chery]

In the sixth grade, I stood at the door and yelled "that darn teacher better give me my marbles back" - after she confiscated them. She walked in right then, and I got my mouth washed out with Ivory soap.
I hate that soap for life!

I remember getting my rear end beaten many times - that was child abuse? Gee - and our parents told us it was because they loved us.

Now, though, where do parents go when their kids abuse them - like sneak out the window at night, talk back, and get just plain lazy, threaten to report us... - we have to take it, huh?

We will survive this too!

Thanks for all of the responses - I love this forum!