People over 30 should be dead. Here's why ...................

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, or even maybe the early probably shouldn't have survived.

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

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 seatbelts or air bags. 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 our 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, no 99 channels on cable, video tape 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 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, 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'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 !!!!!

|UPDATED|11/1/2004 7:04:22 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

I agree completly! I've done all this and more and I'm still hereeeeeee!

Let's continue this thread. What was the most stupid, crazy, or dangerous thing you did as a kid??? For me, I would fall into the stupid category. When I was 7 or 8 I found three .22 caliber bullets someone had thrown or dropped in the bushes where we lived in the projects down south. You probably have already figured where I am going with this. I proceeded to (1) go find a hammer, and (2) hit the bullet. I still have the scare on the side of my left foot to prove it. Luckily, I'm here now to laugh about it. I confess I had a "bubba" moment.

|UPDATED|11/1/2004 7:13:11 PM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

Mine was doing flips off a large empty deisal oil can into a grass pile. I did it many times till I landed flat on my back, knocking the wind clear out of me for almost too long. That act finally stopped me from doing it anymore. I'm still alive !

Mine was when me and 2 friends decided to see how deep the water was in the well. So what if the rope wasnt long enough, we can drop the last 3 foot. Funny how it didnt grow just cause we wanted out! (Lucky for us, Mom was home. Aww, those were the days!)

When I was a kid we didn't have frisbes so we found old hub caps and used them. They were very hard to catch and I don't need to tell you what happens when you get hit with a hub cap. Try to explain to Mom how you got that gash on your head. Let's see how she put it "if you are stupid enough to try and catch a flying hubcap then you deserve what you get".

But putting an M-80 under a hub cap was another story. Thoses babies went up like a flying saucer at lift off. The trouble is, they came back down the same way.

I'm a Navy brat & in the mid 50's lived on Guam. My friends & I went into the jungle one day and found all kinds of old WWWII live ammo. We managed to fill a 55 gallon drum about 1/3 full & rolled it back to my house, luckly my father was home who was a E-9 seabee at the time and knew exactly what I had found. He didn't punish me but I'll never forget that look. 10 yr old boys are a trip.
Alan

I was about 9 yrs old at my cousin's house he was into hunting and fishing,I wasn't.It was bow season I took his bow and shot an arrow in the air I lost sight of it.I stood there looking up it came back to earth and stuck in the ground about 18 in to my left.Never touched a bow and arrow since.....

And now we are all insane,driving cars that cause us no end of frustration,and loving it! It must have been the water.
Steve