TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !!

[Franko]

Something to think about......

- 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 koolade 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 bushes 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, 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 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 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!



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

Regards

 

[AMcLeod]

Don't forget the 80's

 

[aesop081]

I had a chemistry set and a wood burning kit....i turned out alright !!!!

 

[RHFC_piper]

Wow... this makes our youth of today seem like they're wrapped in bubble wrap and sealed in a snow globe.

No wonder the latter generations never had "Jack-***" type shows; we could freely beat ourselves up and it wasn't a 'show', it was a game of "Cops and Robbers".

 

[navymich]

....i turned out alright !!!!

Hmmmm, some might disagree with that. 

 

[aesop081]

Hmmmm, some might disagree with that. 

I'm operating "due regard" so back off miss ATC

 

[George Wallace]

With the new Legislation being thought of now to protect kids on the tobaggan slopes and make it Law for them to wear helmets........I am now thinking that our Bear Suit Topic has been read by MPs and MPPs and soon that "Character" in North Bay will be a multi-Billionaire.

Wait and see......Bear Suits will be Law for all kids under the age of 14 and all those who are less than the height of 4'8" will be required to wear them when they go outdoors.

Ten years.....Max.

 

[Freddy Chef]

The world is going somewhere, in a hand-basket.

- 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, WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

That reminds me, I have to look up “A.D.D.” and “A.D.H.D.”

 

[dynaglide]

The world is going somewhere, in a hand-basket.

That reminds me, I have to look up “A.D.D.” and “A.D.H.D.”

I grew up in the 70s and 80's and I agree with the majority of this post.  However, I also have 2 children now, one diagnosed with ADD.  So before any so-called medical experts decide to get on their highhorse and start the "back in my day" lecture just know that ADD and ADHD is real and dealt with on a daily basis. It has always existed and only in the last few decades has come to the forefront.  Little thing called medical advancement...

 

[George Wallace]

.......  However, I also have 2 children now, one diagnosed with ADD.  So before any so-called medical experts decide to get on their highhorse and start the "back in my day" lecture just know that ADD and ADHD is real and dealt with on a daily basis. It has always existed and only in the last few decades has come to the forefront.  Little thing called medical advancement...

Although this is a true fact, there is also a problem of over medicating many children and misdiagnosing them as having ADD or ADHD.  It was a sad fact in the last decade or so that many hyperactive kids were medicated for no reason (Medically) other than to keep them quiet.

 

[dynaglide]

Although this is a true fact, there is also a problem of over medicating many children and misdiagnosing them as having ADD or ADHD.  It was a sad fact in the last decade or so that many hyperactive kids were medicated for no reason (Medically) other than to keep them quiet.

Absolutely.  However I have heard too many people say things like "nothing a good beating wouldn't sort out" or words to that effect.  I myself was leery of it until I experienced it with my own boy.  Until a person experiences it personally, believe me, they have no clue.

 

[Justacivvy]

Don't forget the 80's

Hahaha I was going to say I feel left out here 

 

[Navy_Blue]

I have ADD and DND gave me a hard time when I joined back in the late 90's.  I had to prove that I was a mentally stable individual on and off my meds.  I voluntarily dropped the meds got many references from specialist and employers and MP's and finally got in the forces.  Did my job 100% for almost 10 years now even though I am an expert procrastinator. 

Go into the base hospital for unrelated reasons two months ago.  The Doc I get considers ADD a "hobby."  I think she happened to poke through my file and see what I went through.  Well she tells me there was no reason they should have ever done what they did and suggests I take the med again.  I figured what the hell its free!  Now I feel like someone has installed a turbo charger in me and I feel really really good again.  Pure clear focus my only real side effect is weight loss and dry mouth and the sense I am a ginny pig for some DND medical experiment  :blotto:.  I'm on course too and have seen a drastic increase in my marks and classroom attention too.  Don't think I will take them all the time but I think I will give it a go for a few more months so how things turn out. 

Sorry to Hijack just thought I would throw in my 2 cents

 

[Journeyman]

Don't forget the 80's

I just looked through the '80s in Wikipedia.

We don't want you amongst us "30s-70s survivors"...and not just because you stuck us with Oprah Winfrey and Boy George.

;D

 

[NL_engineer]

I am an expert procrastinator. 

Your not the only one  ;D

 

[Mike Baker]

Sorry to make you all laugh now but how about those who were born in the 90's and live in a place where there are less then 200 people? Plus, the biggest place I have been to was St. John's 

 

[aesop081]

Sorry to make you all laugh now but how about those who were born in the 90's and live in a place where there are less then 200 people? Plus, the biggest place I have been to was St. John's 

Be quiet......

 

[Mike Baker]

Yes sir 

 

[Shamrock]

Lawn darts.

Three Wheelers.

 

[niner domestic]

Michael my dear, I grew up in places in the 70s that only had (if we were lucky) populations of 50-90 people.  We had CBC radio, no tv, and 6 months of noonday moon and 6 months of midnight sun. A shopping mall consisted of 2 aisles at the general store inside the one and only gas station (who never put outside what gas was selling for because if you needed gas, who cares what it cost).  On good days in the winter, it would be minus 50 and on days we got to stay home from school, it would be minus 70. 

For entertainment and what we considered our after school job, we'd ride our bikes along the Alcan hwy and pick up tossed cameras that the pilgrims lost when they decided to get out of their vehicle to take the picture of mamma grizzly and her cubs (that would be the entertainment part). We'd collect them and then sell them back to the pilgrims.  However, there would be times that we'd find ourselves caught between the said grizzly munching on fireweed and the road home and have to wait quietly for a few hours until my mom would realize we weren't in town and come get us in the police truck. 

The whole town was run on a D-gen and if the town fix it guy forgot to fill up the tanks, we all ate by candlelight.  For extra fun, we'd watch my mom wait by the one and only stop sign between our town and the Alaskan border for the border jumper to drive by and stop at the sign.  We had bets on how long it would take them to say, "How did you know it was me?".  We especially liked those people as it meant a road trip for us to take them back to the border.  Mom would pile us into the truck and make the guy drive back to the border where once dropped off, we'd head into Alaska to have some fish and chips. 

Take out for us, meant bringing back a cold pizza from Whitehorse after it had been in the car for 7 hours...(no 30 mins or it's free up there).  And when a trip to Whitehorse was in the books, you told NO ONE...other wise you'd have every one in town giving you their grocery/Sears order to pick up and you'd have no time to do what you went in for.  You snuck out of town at 0500, so you wouldn't get caught and given a list.  Papers got delivered once a month, mail came twice a month, banking meant mailing your pay cheque into Whitehorse and you could renew your driver's licence at the same time you picked up a bottle of hooch at the YTG agency which was in the second aisle of the general store. 

Eating out, meant cooking food over a fire in your backyard.  And camp meant 4 weeks in the bush hunting.  Water sports was usually swimming out to the middle of the lake/pond with a rope and diving down to tie it around the antlers of the moose your dad just shot but didn't take it down right away and it wandered off or setting weirs for the salmon runs.  Spa days were usually swimming in glacier lakes - because the elders thought it was good for your character and toughened up your body.  Cardio workouts were climbing to the top of Sheep mtn with a full pack and then taking down a dahl.  Nature walks were usually trying to avoid bear scat (and by extension, avoiding the scatting bear).

Taking the dog out for a walk meant harnessing them to a sled and mushing a few hundred km.  And by the time you were 12, you had graduated to a .3030 and a 12 gauge. 

On cold days, (read minus 60 and below) you stayed in and read, drew, painted or played your instrument.  We put on plays for our parents and grandparents.  Because of the size of the towns we lived in, everyone knew exactly what you should have been doing, when should have been doing it...I heard many times from a vpasserby, "Aren't you supposed to be over at your grandmother's taking in the wash?" when I was sitting on the porch reading.

To be in a town of 200, would have been a treat Michael.  Consider yourself lucky.