This came by snail mail a few weeks ago. I was going to go hunting for it on the Web, but I thought I’d just dictate it instead, with my NaturallySpeaking 9. (It got most of it right).
Congratulations to all those kids who were born in the 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s.
First, many of us survived being born to parents who had lived through the Second World War with mothers who smoked &./or drank during pregnancy.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin and didn’t get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paint.
We have 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 the van loose was always great fun.
We drank from the garden hosepipe and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank pop with sugar in it, but we weren’t overweight because…
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!
We would leave home in the morning and play out all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on.
NO ONE WAS ABLE TO REACH US ALL DAY, AND WE WERE OK.
We would spend hours building our go-karts out of scraps and 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, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no text messaging, no personal computers, no internet or internet chat rooms… WE HAD FRIENDS and went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We played with worms and made mud pies from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
Made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out any eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled at them!
Local teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with the disappointment. Imagine that!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
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 ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and learned to deal with it!
YOU are one of them!
Congratulations!
You might want to share this with others who had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good.
And while you’re at it, forward it to your kids so they know how brave their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with a pair of scissors, doesn’t it.
The Pictureville Cinema in Bradford is unique- it is the only place in Europe capable of showing three projector Cinerama movies and one of only three worldwide. Being part of a museum, it does it regularly.
