Here I am

I Can't Believe We Made It!

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I Can't Believe We Made It!

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According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's or even the early 80's, 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 seat belts 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 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 you're one of them! Congratulations.
 
Born in 1949 - I actually sat on the tailgate as a kid and my feet were so tough from running around barefooted, I could drag them on the gravel road while headed to town. There were always four of us kids sitting on the tailgate. I bet you can't do that today and get by with it!



If I got a whuppin at school, I'd get a whole lot worse one at home! My parents didn't want to sue the school, they wanted to beat my butt!



I remember when the 6 oz. Coke went from 5 cents to 6 cents. The store owner put a cigar box on top of the Coke machine for the customers to put the additional penny in. My parents made sure we put that penny in too!



Things are sure different. Not necessarily better though.
 
I was born in 1972, almost everything on that list applied to me as well. It's almost scary how much has changed since I was a kid.



Never wore a helmet for anything, even motorcycles.

The only seatbelt I had as a child was my mothers arm when she would have to stop too fast.



I cleaned horse stables for the guy across the road for $12 a week. That paid for my smokeless tobacco habit that I had when I was 12 that I thought my parents never knew. I bought my own snuff back then too.



I remember waking to the store to buy my grandfather his cigarettes(they were a buck 20 back then).



I rebuilt my first go kart motor when I was 13.



We did have an Atari but we could only play it when it was raining outside. Otherwise, we were outside all day long. We didn't have street lights so our curfew was sundown. You had best be indoors when that sun was down our that was your butt.



I can't count the number of times I got whooped in school.



My Dad worked for the city police, I wouldn't dare get busted doing anything that might involve the police. I wouldn't be here to tell about it if I did. :) (not saying I didn't do anything against the law, I just didn't get caught;) )
 
lol, yeah... I've survived for thirty years with out a broken bone or more..... Broke my first horse when I was 12, learned to ride a bicycle down a gravel hill, motorcycles, the almighty dangerous 3 wheeler, 4 wheelers, my first car I street raced every weekend down main street, I was even driving cars on the road when I was 13, chauffering my 96 year old grandfather around during the summers and afternoons after school, parent finally found out about it a year or two later..... Driven and worked on farm equipment, survived numerous wrecks with out a seat belt, worst I ever recieved was a bloody lip when I was 10. I get agrivated with my boys because they seem to be afraid of everything... ...



Morph.
 
1965 here

You forgot shooting each other with BB guns and bottle rockets. That was great fun! Also playing with mercury. :D :D
 
I'm a 1978 model

Using a riding mower when I was 8. Drove my first JD 4010 open station tractor and Farmall B NF w/o power steering and belly mower when I was 9. Chainsaw when I was 12. Tore down my fisrt motor(solo) when I was 13. Driving on gravel roads with pickup when I was 12. Drove tri-axle dump truck for 2 days when I was 14(private property). I still mow ditches without a cab or ROPS. Haul cattle. I've climbed up 50'-70' stave and block silos that didn't have ladders or safety cages up the side(only used the bands to climb up), just a platform at the top. Lots of other stuff too.
 
even though I was born in '83 a lot of that applies here. Ya I had a gameboys and the so on but I was driving a 4020D when I was 6 baling hay, now dad is driving and I'm stacking. Starting milking my own cows when I was 12. Always worked on the farm, mostly unpaid when I was younger. Sure wish my younger sisters knew what work was and don't want to even think about kids right now. alonzo
 
And to think we would get the neighborhood sprayed with DDT or whatever was comming out of those trucks. We used to sneek out and follow them around untill we saw the guy driving wearing a mask.
 
I'm younger than most of you guys... I'm a '76er, but I used to ride in my dad's lap in his truck and he would let me steer from the time I was about 4-5. The only time I was not allowed to steer was when we were passing a state trooper on the side of the road working radar!
 
Started

Started driving at 12, driving eighteen wheelers at 14, shooting at 5, hiking and mountain climbing at 6-7, milking at 11, and the service at 17, Nam at 18, married three times and have three kids. Been fun, no helmets, no belts (except the one laid on my $%#@) and no ropes since 1950. You have to experience life to enjoy it..... :D
 
I was born in 1963. Yes I can still remember sitting on my mothers front lap in the car. She used to hollar at my father for driving pickled. :D
 
I too was born in '63. My mother had (and still has) a '71 Jag E-type V12 convertible. No back sear, no seat belts (well rudimentary - but by the time you figured them out, you could have walked - the Brits - go figure).



I was 8 when she got that car. No child seat, and my mother had a lead foot. Even better, in the summer, sometimes my mom and dad and me would go out in the Jag, with the top down, and I would sit on the storage box in between the seats.



Actually, that was a pretty irresponsible thing. But fun!:cool:
 
1969 for me, now that i am somewhat of an adult , i set around and surf the net, play my x-box, ps2. my surround sound movie theater. damn the times have changed. :D :p :D
 
Born in 1934

The concept of safety wasn't invented yet I guess.

We lived a couple miles from the dry river bed in South Phoenix Az.

We would walk to the area behind an auction, catch a horse and ride around the huge area they had fenced, useing just a short rope we carried for that purpose. If the horse wasn't broke, well ya got bucked off and tried to catch another. Never occured to us that it was other than fun; of course while riding we would stash our BB guns and . 22 rifles in some brush and come back for them later. No one seemed to be concerned about kids running around with rifles----thats what boys did!



(two years ago, I was driving through Halfway, Oregon and saw two teenage boys walking along the main stree----well OK the only street, with rifles on their shoulders; no one thought anything of it. Can you immagine what would happen if that were one of our civilized cities??)



Often wish I could go back to the '50s when Iwas in high school and in the Navy!



Vaughn
 
Originally posted by HEMI®Dart

I was born in 1963.



Same here!

Everyday after school, as soon as I finished my homework, I was gone on my bike. My buddies and I would ride everywhere. Helmets? Ha! Yeah, right! On Weekends we'd ride up to LAX and watch the planes take off over Dockweiler Beach. Nowadays, gang shootings are a common occurance there.

Looking back on my childhood, it seems like I spent all of my free time outdoors.

Now that I'm old and bald, what do I do? I spend my free time in front of a computer!

Andy
 
Then and now.

Back then all the pickups parked at the high school had rifles in the gun racks. Now, a ranchers son had his pickup breakdown and borrowed his Dads (in a hurry, late). He was arrested and expelled because of his Dads . 22 rifle in the gun rack on school grounds. :( No leave way, and no common sense!
 
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