First, we survived being born to mothers
Who smoked (weed too) and/or drank while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing,
and Spam from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.
At night we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs
or slept in the bed with mama's and grand-mama's
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, "kiddie-leashes"
Locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode
Our bikes, one doing peddling and the other riding the bars. -no helmets
We grew up first listening to vinyl, 8-tracks, cassettes, then CD's and mp3...Music gave a reason to fall in love, be romantic...now it you just rip it off, make it clap, and drop it low! Only rain we knew was what fell from the sky...now its green gods...
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster, no belts...
you sat yo ass down in that seat and shut F**K up.....cuz if she had too pull over...OMG!
If you lived in the country, riding in the back of a pick-up was cool, catch fire-flies and put'em in a jar, go fishing, catch frogs... LOL,we thought we had warts!
We drank water from the garden hose & not a bottle, we bought penny candy, sno-cones and lil" debbie cakes were hella cheap.
We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon, cooked with lard
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 street lights came on. (we caught a beat down many a nights)
No one was able to reach us all day. And, we were O.K. no chatting, e-mail, texting (unless it was a book), no myspace, facebook...only FB we had was a photo album. That is close as its gonna get!
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's and X-boxes.
There were no video games, 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 and no chat rooms. TV actually signed "off". All you saw was the flag waving in the air and instrumental version of "America the Beautiful". WE HAD FRIENDS !!!
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 didn't live in us forever (thanks to turpentine and sugar...uggghhh!)
We were given hula-hoops, bolo bats, skates and skateboards. We went to parks, played "catch a girl-kiss a girl".
Double-dutch, street ball and anything else we can come up with.
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...hell naw!.
(growing up, we always heard, "its easy gettin' in trouble, but its hell gettin'" or may fave, " a hard head, make a soft ass".)
If we encounter a bully, you had to stand up and fight or get yo ass whoop by the bully and yo mama!
School let out at exactly 3 o'clock and if you acted a fool in class, the teacher , the principal and yo mama would whoop yo ass...in the class room.
We invented ca pooling....err-body mounted up. Gas was cheap. You could buy cigarettes at damn near any age. My mama used to send me all the time!
Nobody ran to the doctor everytme you got sick...it was Fathers Johns, Creomulsion, and those sweet pink chewables. And if that didn't work...home remedies from Granny.
It wasn't any Pedia-sure, pedia-lyte,...pedia nothing....or special milks. Our Mom made milk. She used powder milk, water and Karo syrup.
These generations have produced some of the best
Risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever. We came
a long way...like Virginia slims
The past 50 years
Have been 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 them?
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.
-inspired by Jay Leno, revised by Lena
