"I Can't Believe You Made It" ! 

If you lived as a child in the 40's, 50's, 60's or 70's. 

Looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have... 

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in 
the 
back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat. 

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no 
childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our 
bikes, we had no helmets. 

(Not to mention hitchhiking to town as a young kid!) 

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors. 

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode 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 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. 

No cell phones. Unthinkable. We played dodge ball and sometimes the ball would 
really hurt. We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth, and there were no 
law suits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame, but 
us. Remember accidents? 

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to 
get over it. 

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda but we were never 
overweight...we were always outside playing. We shared one grape soda with 
four friends, from one bottle and no one died from this. 

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, video games at all, 99 
channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, 
Personal Computers, Internet chat rooms ... we had friends. We went outside 
and found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rung the bell or just walked in and talked to them. 

Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in the 
cold cruel world! Without a guardian. How did we do it? 

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and although we 
were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the 
worms live inside us forever. 

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't, 
had to learn to deal with disappointment..... Some students weren't as smart 
as others so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same 
grade.....Horrors. Tests were not adjusted for any reason. 

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. No one to hide behind. 
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They 
actually sided with the law, imagine that! 

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers 
and inventors, ever. The past 50 years has 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're one of them. 

Congratulations! 

Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, 
before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.