Congrats to we old farts...

[HarryWeezer]

   Congratulations to those born in the 1940s, '50's and '60s. You survived being born to mothers who smoked and drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, your baby cots were covered with bright colored lead-based paints. You had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when you rode your bikes, you had no helmets, not to mention, the risks you took hitchhiking.

 

   You rode in cars with no seat belts or air bags and even in the back of a pickup truck. You drank water from the garden hosepipe and on a hike, from a stream, and didn't drop dead on the spot. You even shared a soft drink with friends, ate cake, white bread and real butter and guzzled gallons of Kool Aid with all that sugar, but you weren't overweight because you were always outside playing - because in the AM, your mother would order you out of the house. You 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 you all day - no cell phone, yet your survived.

 

   You would build go-carts out of scraps and then ride downhill with no brakes. You cobbled bicycles together out of spare parts and rode them everywhere with no knee pads, elbow pads or helmets. You did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes and video games and usually got 2 or 3 channels on the black-and-white TV with no cable, no videotaped movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no text messaging, no personal computers and no Internet. But you had friends, because you went outside and found them.

  

   You fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits. You played with worms, made mud pies made from dirt and even ate them. You made up games with sticks, or balls, or even cigarette grands and did not poke out any eyes. You walked to school at age six and no one thought about you not coming home. You actually walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell without worrying about getting shot.

 

   You learned to to deal with disappointment because the usual response if you asked for something - particularly if it cost money - was NO. And you did what you were told to do out of fear of a licking from your father - or your teacher, or a neighbor, or a man on the street if you misbehaved and another licking when you got home for the insult you brought to your family. The notion of a parent bailing you out if you broke the law was unheard of.

 

   You had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and you learned how to deal with it all. And you were the better for it, and so was the country.

[Sonovabich]

Yup i was born in 1957 and i ain't had any problems, here is a picture of me and my brothers, we are as normal as the next guys

Edited October 14, 2013 by Sonovabich

[dadda2]

well said u old fart from another old fart

Edited October 14, 2013 by dadda2

[BUDMAN]

Born in 57 my self    old farts

[Bama]

Ah, the good old days.

[dadda2]

ur talking about the forties eh lol

[El Presidente]

am a 60s old Fart

whoooo

[DEEJAYKEG]

This sort of glurgy cr*p is always spouted by those lucky enough not to have suffered during childhood.

 

It wasn't idyllic for all and I, for one, do not look back with huge joy.  I'm pleased it's gone and good riddance!

 

The ills of this world were as present then as they are now - they just get reported more widely and more quickly

due to our modern communications, these days.

 

I don't mean to offend - just saying it how it is.

[Hunter1948]

Yes I was born in 48 and everything you said Harry is so true and I still respect my parents.

[7Toes]

born in 60 and i surivied my childhood no problems

[HarryWeezer]

I take your point DJ and indeed, these were tough times for many of us. We, for instance, were very poor; my father worked two jobs all his life to feed 12 kids and our mother died at age 46 of heart disease with the youngest of us only two. Nonetheless, the gist of the post - and the nostalgia it evokes - holds true I think.

[KenMan]

Well said Harry, born in 48 myself.

[Pharticus]

Well I was born in '76 and it was still true then...  Of course, in Idaho we're 20-30 years behind the rest of the world.

Edited October 14, 2013 by Pharticus

[JohnnyQuest]

I take your point DJ and indeed, these were tough times for many of us. We, for instance, were very poor; my father worked two jobs all his life to feed 12 kids and our mother died at age 46 of heart disease with the youngest of us only two. Nonetheless, the gist of the post - and the nostalgia it evokes - holds true I think.

59 here...you forgot cadalogues for shin pads in hockey...and walking home from school at lunch then back after lunch....lol....DJ seems to disagree with yet another post...but i remember those days like yesterday..and man we as kids had a ton of fun....technology was a word for brainiacs...lol,,,and we payed sports for every season baseball hockey soccer football...our parents drove us to different counties and cities and sometimes we rented buses for our teams...but always were busy and wanted to just sleep in on Saturdays and watch cartoons,,,loved my childhood too Harry ..well said

[HarryWeezer]

Well, hate to admit it but I was born in '46 - in fact, 67 years ago Wednesday. And here's another memory for those about my age: transistor radios were invented when I was 8 and shortly thereafter began appearing everywhere. I well remember being at the city beach (St. Lawrence River) when I saw a crowd gathered around this couple on a blanket. So I went to investigate. He had a transistor radio and people simply couldn't believe that you could actually listen to music, anywhere, without a radio being plugged into an outlet. It was a paradigm shift.  

[hxtr]

Im still just a baby. Harry is old enough to be my grandpa. lol

[hxtr]

born in 60 and i surivied my childhood no problems

don't speak so fast....  let me pull out the list.

[Boomer]

lol Harry

[HarryWeezer]

Im still just a baby. Harry is old enough to be my grandpa. lol

Entirely possible if your grandma lived in proximity to any military base I was stationed at.

[BUDMAN]

I know where that is  (St. Lawrence River)

Edited October 15, 2013 by BUDMAN