From a chain letter I got recently:

We survived being born to mothers who smoked and drank while they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes, and gave birth flat on their backs– feet to the roof– hmmm, gravity wasn’t discovered?

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints, and given juice bottles to rot our teeth. 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 infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags. I remember just walking around in the back seat– and the front!

Riding in the back of a pickup on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the old garden hose and not from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and no one ever actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-aid made with sugar, 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.

We went to school and actually were taught how to read. Feeling “one” with the book didn’t teach us that! We listened to our teachers or got sent to The Office. There were no worthless “Referral Slips” or cheesy detentions. And those of us in Catholic School!? Ouch!

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. You “eighties” might have played an Atari once in a while, but not all day! No 150 channels on cable w/ nothing on, no video movies or DVD’s, no surround-sound or CD’s, no cell phones , no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms…. we had real human friends and we went outside and found them! 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!

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.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. They weren’t put in self esteem class- they got better over that summer and tried out next time to get their self esteem! 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 us, 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?!