Deb's thoughts

This was an e-mail I received, thought I should pass it on.

According to today's over-zealous regulators and petty bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's and maybe even early 70's, probably shouldn't have survived.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. If we dare to chew on our baby we got severely chastised or slapped. That bed was needed for the next baby. We slept on our backs or our stomachs, whichever way was more comfortable. We slept in back rooms with the doors closed so no one would wake up.

We had no childproof lids or locks on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets.

Hitchhiking was what we did to get places when there were no buses and we didn't have a car.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. It was a sad rite of passage, when as a child, you were too tall to stand up in the back seat and look out!

Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat, and the more the merrier.

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

We ate cupcakes, fudge, candy, and drank soda pop with cane sugar in it, and we were never overweight. Diet drinks were for sick people.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one got sick.

We would spend hours building our scooters from a few boards and a pair of skates. We rode them, and our bicycles, and our skates with no knee pads, no elbow pads, and no helmets. We learned that falling hurt, and we learned to avoid falls.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day , and often well into the night, after we ate supper. No one was able to reach us during any of this time. No cell phones or pagers, just Mom yelling out the front door or calling our friend's house in an emergency.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 256 channels on cable, DVD movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.

We had friends! We went outside and found them.

We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt. We fell out of trees, got cut, some even broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents? They were what we called things that happened usually because of our own carelessness, not because of someone else's. The idea that someone would sue because they spilled hot coffee on themselves would have been a joke!

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

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and shot our BB guns, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out any eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home 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 get better or do something else.

Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.

Tests were not adjusted for any reason. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.

The idea of parents bailing us out if we got in trouble in school or broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the school or the law. Imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventors, ever.

We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility --- and we learned how to deal with it.

And you're one of them!

Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids before lawyers and the so-called government regulated our lives for their own good !!!