The good ol' days ... (for some of us anyway...)

On this Friday, I want to leave you with a little simplicity. I know you've seen this snippet before on the net, and probably in one of my postings of last year. Back then, one of the fine commenter's wondered why I was harking back to the days of "Ozzie and Harriet". Well, I'm really not. I know the days of yore were not always full of noble and good things, and we have certainly done many things as a society to correct some of the "bad" things that were considered "normal" or "American". We've come a long way, Baby. I simply want us to recall the days when we weren't as concerned about lead paint, smokers, and dozens of other things that have taken over our social psyche. I present to you....

THE WAY WE WERE...., and TO THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 30’S, 40’S, 50’S, AND 60’S ...

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing and didn’t get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paints (built HERE not in China..). 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 on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle (thus not contributing a jillion plastic bottles to waste). We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank soda 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 all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. 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 Playstation’s, Nintendo’s, X-Box’s, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms…..WE HAD FRIENDS and we 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 made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we were told it would happen, we did not out vary many eyes, nor did the worms live in us forever. 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!Little league had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with 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 innovators 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 are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS! Send this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for our own good. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?!

There, I've had my ration of a feel-good I.V., .... Do enjoy your weekend, lighten up a little, and know that for every one ****ed-up thing in America and the world, there are ten things well worth the joys of smiling and living.

Coda