First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

 

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

 

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

 

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 infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

 

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

 

We drank water from the garden hose 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 cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Kool-Aid made with sugar, 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 ditch a few times, we learned to  solve the problem.

 

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or 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 played army in the pine trees and used the green pine cones as grenades. We threw them at each other, not close to. If you got hit, it made a mark. This was the original paint ball.

 

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

 

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out very many eyes.

 

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!

 

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

 

As for me, the past 64 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

 

My friends and classmates had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

 

The all new tube television was amazing.

 

We would get up early on Saturday mornings and turn the TV on. We would sit on the floor in front of the old black-and-white in anticipation as we watched Test Pattern for an hour. Sometimes, if mom and dad weren’t looking, we take our spring action guns with the suction cup darts (lick the suction cups) and shoot the Test Pattern screen because it resembeled a target. Then we’d pull them off and lick ‘em again. It didn’t matter that someone else licked them befor you did, and we didn’t get sick nor nuttin’!

 

We would watch Howdy Doody in Doodyville with all it’s wonderful and amazing characters. There was  Buffalo Bob Smith, Princess Summerfall Winterspring, Mayor Phineas T. Bluster, Dilly Dally, Flub-a-Dub (an animal with a duck’s bill, cat’s whiskers, spaniels ears, giraffe’s neck, dachsund’s body, seal’s flippers, pig’s tail, and an elephant’s memory), Clarabelle The Clown (who communicated by honking horns on his belt and squirting seltzer), Chief Thunderthud (an Indian played by Bob Keeshan) who would cry Kowabonga, at which time Princess Summerfall Winterspring to come on the set. Finally, after many years, we would get to hear the long mute Clarabelle, with a tear in his eye and trembling lips, utter the only two words he would ever utter in the 1960’s final show, “Goodbye kids.”

 

If YOU are one of the generation who survived all this and more, CONGRATULATIONS!

 

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good. While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.

 

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?!

 

And finally I close with a quote from Jay Leno:

"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"

 

As for me, I don’t think so!!!!!