TO ALL THE   
KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE     
1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s !!      
       
First, we survived being born to mothers who may have 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, locks on doors or cabinets,      
And, when we rode our bikes,      
We had baseball caps,      
Not helmets, on our heads.   
     
As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, bald tires and sometimes no brakes.
 
Riding in the back of a pick- up truck 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, real butter, and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar.   
And we weren’t overweight.     
WHY?    
Because we were always outside playing…that’s why!    
       
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 OKAY.   
       
We would spend hours building      
Our go-carts out of   scraps   and   
then ride them down the hill,
Only to find out that we forgot about brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned  To Solve the problem.   
       
We did not   
Have Play Stations, Nintendo       
and X-boxes. There were      
No video games,   
No 150 channels on cable,       
No video movies   
Or DVDs,       
No surround-sound or   CDs,           
No cell phones,      
No personal computers,      
No Internet and   
No chat rooms.             
WE HAD FRIENDS      
And we went   
Outside and found them!     
       
We fell out of   
trees, got cut,       
Broke bones and   
Lost teeth,       
And there were   
No lawsuits       
From those accidents.   
  
          We would get   
Spankings with wooden spoons, switches, ping-pong paddles, or just a bare hand,   
And no one would call child services to report abuse.    

         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,     
22 rifles for our 12th, rode horses,   
made up games with sticks and   
tennis balls, and   
         -although we were   
Told it would happen- we did not put 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.     
       
The past 60 to 85 years     
Have seen an explosion   
of innovation and new ideas.      
       
We had freedom,   
Failure, success and responsibility,     
and we learned 
HOW to deal with it all.       

      If YOU are   One of those born       
Between 1925-1955, 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 ?