Read this... when you get time - if you were born after 1986 don't bother!

[jeffreyab]

stolen from angelize99


Dear Friends,

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans. When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, and had only one gear which skipped. As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or airbags - riding in the passenger seat was a treatand so was riding in the back of the station wagon.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted the same. We ate chips, bread and butter and drank koolaid with sugar in it, but we were less overweight because we were always outside playing. We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no-one actually died from this.
We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We would leave home in the morning and could play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to reach us and no one minded.
We did not have Play stations or X-Boxes, no video games at all. Only CBC, CTV, CBS, ABC, NBC, PBS and a few independent (remeber the Kaiser Broadcasting network?) channels on TV, no videotape movies only four o'clock and Saturday afternoon movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no DVDs, no Internet chat rooms.

We had friends - we went outside and found them.
We fell out of trees, got cut, bitten by dogs, ran into cars and broke bones but there were no law suits.
We had full on fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents.
We played knock-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners catching us.
We walked to friends' homes.
We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school; we didn't rely on mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner.
We walked or biked or road the bus getting a ride was unlikely.
We made up games with whatever toys we owned, specialization was for rich kids.
We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood or around our necks like a cape.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of...they actually sided with the law.

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!

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

For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us. This my friends, is surprisingly frightening......and it might put a smile on your face: The majority of students in universities today were born in 1986........they are called youth.

They have never heard of We are the World, We are the children, and the Uptown Girl they know is by Westlife not Billy Joel. They have never heard of the Beatles, the Clash, the Ramones, and the Police.

For them, there has always been only one Germany and one Vietnam. AIDS has existed since they were born. CD's have existed since they were born. Michael Jackson has always been white.
They believe that Charlie's Angels and Mission Impossible are films from last year.
They can never imagine life before computers.
They can't believe a black and white television ever existed. And they will never understand how we could leave the house without a mobile phone.

Now let's check if we're getting old...

1. You understand what was written above and you smile.
2. You need to sleep more, usually until the afternoon, after a night out.
3. Your friends are getting married/already married.
4. When you see teenagers with mobile phones, you shake your head.
5. You meet your friends from time to time, talking about the Good Old Days, repeating again all the funny things you have experienced together.
6. You remember watching men walk on the moon and thinking it might be you someday.

Comments

[dlacey.livejournal.com]

What lists like this seem to forget is that a rather a lot of kids didn't survive. Childproof caps were invented because sometimes kids were accidentally poisoned. A lot more children, and adults as well for that matter, were killed in car accidents before seatbelts and airbags became common place. And those "full on fist fights" as I recall more often than not consisted of one kid pummelling on another, usually smaller, kid and not exactly Frazier/Ali. The idea that we grew up as real kids while today's youth are not is completely absurd.

[renniekins.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was the seatbelt one that bothered me the most. Kids today are over-protected and over-litigated in some ways, and they certainly sit indoors and play with media too much... but seatbelts?!

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

Hah. It's beyond seat belts for kids; they have to be in an "Approved Child Seat."

How long varies from state to state, but I'm pretty sure the Federal government tied highway funds to having states enact a law requiring them for all children weighing under 40 lbs. or under 4 feet tall. There is a movement afoot (largely driven by the insurance companies) to make that 80 lbs. and five feet tall. I know full-grown adults who don't weigh more than 80 lbs. and are less than five feet tall.

Note that it is often impossible to get two child safety seats into the backseat of subcompact cars, and I have yet to see a car smaller than a Lincoln Town Car which could hold three across. So if you have three or more children, you are pretty much going to have to get a minivan. I have no idea what people who have more than four children do.

I wouldn't mind it if this were just a recommendation, but you can be arrested and convicted of child endangerment for not having your child properly belted in.

Yep, I use seat belts religiously, but I really don't like it being a law.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

Myself I have worn seatbelts ever since the early sixties.

My dad had them installed where they were not original equipment.
We drove alot of Peugeots which you will see the descendents of on your trip.

I did do my share of riding in the back of station wagons though.

[kgkofmel.livejournal.com]

The idea that we grew up as real kids while today's youth are not is completely absurd.
It's not only absurd, it's a tired retread of a generational-divide attitude.

Hell *I* (born 1961) drink water out of a bottle and my parents (born 1928) don't understand, but then they aren't driving around Houston doing errands in the summer time. My garden hose ain't that long and the public fountains and restuarants that will just *give* someone a glass of water are few and far between.

The classic extension of this generational-divide commentary is The Four Yorkshiremen, a skit I associate with Monty Python. Those of you who have heard it will understand.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

I think public things like fountains used to be more common before lawsuits.

[kgkofmel.livejournal.com]

Interesting idea, although I don't actually remember a lawsuit over a public fountain...

Can you document any cases?

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

Contractor, Jan 1992 v39 n1 p12(2)
Wary of lead, school districts shut off 500 fountains. (water fountains and coolers in Prince William County, Virginia)

NEA Today, April 1988 v6 n9 p3(1)
Poison in the plumbing. (school water fountain safety) Karen Deans.

Couple of cases it was more of a gut thing at first.