People Over 35

[Ga_Boy]

I didn't write this.  My brother-in-law down in Savannah sent it to me.



People over 35 should be dead.

Here's why.

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, or even maybe the early 70's probably shouldn't have survived. 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 the risks we
took hitchhiking.)

As children, we would ride in cars with no seatbelts or air bags.

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

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

Horrors!

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

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 sun set.

No one was able to reach us all day.

NO CELL PHONES!!!!!

Unthinkable!

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape 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 and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits 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 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. 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 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.

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 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.

And you're one of them!

Congratulations!

[shopteacher]

Amen brother.

[redpowerd]

yea, whats going on with the world. i want to someday have a large family but why would i bring my children into this feel-good-do-nothing-let the government sort it out country we live in. i know you must see the reality, teech. schools raise our kids. ill be homeschoolin.
gunna ship them off to teech for shop!

[Frickman]

I've read this somewhere else, but always love seeing it again. We never had organized "play dates." You just went out and played with whoever was there, making up games as you went. I can remember taking my squirrel rifle and a sandwich and be gone all day running the hills at twelve or thirteen years old. Noone knew where you were or when you'd get home until you did. Could you imagine the uproar if an armed junior high kid was running loose around the countryside these days. An old timer was telling me yesterday that he's never seen so many squirrels around. Today's kids don't keep the population in check like we did.

Another fellow who was talking to us said he thinks that today's parents have kids too regimented and programmed from an early age. The kids have very little unstructured free time, they mostly shuttle between school, soccer, dance class, tutoring, etc. I feel that using your imagination and gaining your independence is what has made the previous generations great. I employ young people around the farm part-time and I've found that the majority have been coddled so long they don't know how to think independently or take responsibilty for their actions. They also haven't learned that life isn't always fair or easy. Mom and Dad have done their best to "protect" them from the real world.

[etat]

Wow!, I really enjoyed reading that!

[redpowerd]

armed junior high kid was running loose around the countryside

thats exactly how they would tag it. mabie with some mental illness in there somewheres.


is that a slingshot in yer back pocket, son?

[Frickman]

I remember carrying a good-sized pocket knife everywhere I went from about age 5, including school. In grade school us boys would play mumbly-peg with barlow knives or throw buck knives at stumps. The girls would play hopscotch and jump rope. At recess the teacher would assign us boys jobs like burning trash in the barrel out back. 8 years old and they trusted us with matches and knives. Nowadays they might not even allow the jump ropes. Someone might trip and skin a knee. It sure is a different world we live in today.

[WV_hillbilly]

  I resemble that . It is a sad state of affairs these days for kids overall .  when I grew up we were hardly in the house  there was always something to do outside  like building forts , swinging on grape vines, shooting BBguns, riding bikes or horses , and having road apple battles .  When we were about 10 or 11 we could even take the 22's out with out supervision . About the only rule was to be home for Supper .

I just bought a 50 cc 4 wheeler for my almost 6 yr old .  He's 52 " tall and 70 LBS  and the 4 wheeler is rated for up to 90 Lbs.. One dealer would not sell me one cause he wasn't 6 years old yet .That's rediculous he's been riding an electric one for 3 yrs now . That dealer said if I bought it and something happened before he was 6 He could be held liable and I could get in serious trouble with the court system .  That's what our world has come too .

Another thing that burns me is a family at my sons preschool. Their son isn't allowed to come over to our house to play cause I  own guns . Now mind you they are locked up in a safe . Heck when we was little we knew the guns where in mom and dads bedroom closet . We even knew how to load them and shoot them . GO FIGURE .

[EZ]

When I did something bad, I got the crap beat out of me and I never even thought about turning in my parents.
When my dad drank to much he would get pulled over and the cops would drive him home or follow him home so he made it safe.
EZ

[smwwoody]

Yea my dad bought me my first .22 for going to kindergarten the first day.

[Frank_Pender]

Yep, Frickman, I resemble some of that running around with a gun, myself.  We all carried Red Ryder Daisey BB guns as well as the 22's from time to time.   We even and a few BB gun fights between some of the further away neighborhoods.

In school we would play marbles for keeps and have as many as a couple hundered up in a 5 or 6 foot ring on bare dirt during the noon lunch time.  Can't do that any more because of playing for keeps would be considered theft.  I too, carried a pocket knife all through grade and high school.  I used my a lot in woodshop for fine tuning some types of joints.  Even as an adult I am sure some would consider you an endangerment to society if they knew you carried a knife.

[Duane_Moore]

  :DFrank... I want my Aggie Back.    that was my best marble.  Duck Tails, Widdows Peaks, Wedges, 3/4 length Jackets, Chukka Boots, No Belt loops, Peggers,  Rolled up Tee shirt sleeves, Pall Malls,  You guys were a bunch of Hoods, Probly grew up Smokin, Drinkin, Cussin, Chasin Girls, Chewin Tobacco,  My, My,  Innocent litte me, Duh---Duane

[ScottAR]

Frank, you are more right than you know.  I work in retail, building materials, and carry a medium sized (I think, 3 inch) pocket knife.  Very handy for cutting plastic bands and stretch wrap.   People look at me like I'm rambo or somthing.  
Right tool for the job I say.  I've broken too many little pocket knives and the "safety" knives they give us are so blooming safe they can't cut anything!  Enough rambling...

[Bibbyman]

You guys are wimps.  Need a list for “If you’re over 50.”

Milk came from a cow to your table without being homogenized, pasteurized or government inspects.  It was kept cool in a springhouse.  

Meat was yesterday’s barnyard pet.

Didn’t have to worry about TV being a bad influence because there wasn’t any.  Would have been hard to watch by coal oil lamp anyway.

Riding in the back of a PU on a warm summers day?  How about riding on the back of a 2-ton flatbed log truck with half the deck missin' because it was the “family car” – any time of the year.

How about being 7 and given the key to the only door in school because you were the first one there and someone had to start the old oil furnace. (only had to walk a mile – up hill both ways – in the snow) Regulations later made them put a back door on the school although it was stupid because there was only one small room.

Helped you dad with the bean crop by spraying weedy places with hand pump sprayer filled with DDT.

Ah… Don’t get me started…

[shopteacher]

Well, I could elaborate greatly on the aspect of the demise of youth and a lot has to do with the state of public education. I won't as I might jeopardize my employment as a public school teacher.
  All those things that Frickman and others stated; I can relate to greatly.  Sounds like a rendition of my youth. Hunting after school and Sat. were a favorite. Playing in the creek was another. Building shacks in the wood, hide&go seek, catchers, kick the can.  I could make a video game of that, but seeing as how no killing or maiming takes place I don't think it would be a big seller.
   I carry a buck knife everywhere and have had kids tell me I'm not allowed to have that in school, my response is " In my hand it's a tool like any other, in yours it's a weapon".
   

[Ron Wenrich]

Jeez, you guys had neighbors.  My trusty sidekick was my dog, and we went visiting the older neighbors.  Now, they kick the old folks into retirement villages.

Another thing I was taught was to call my elders either Mr. or Mrs., never by their first name.  That's gone out the window, as well.

What we are teaching the present generation is how to run machines.  Nothing on how they work, or how to build one - that came from inovation of building something from nothing or fixing it after it broke.

[old3dogg]

Ga-boy.
Darn it man ya make me want to be a kid again
Wait a minute.I already am.Im just stuck in a 37 year old body.
Im trying to raise my kids right.So far I havent been sued!

[WV_hillbilly]

  EZ   I got my fair share of those whuppins too . I  never got one I didn't deserve but I missed out on some I should have got .   I was in my early 20's and our family got talkin about spanking . I found out I had been an abused child from those whuppins and didn't even know it back then . I could  have imagined the look on my parents face if I had told them go ahead I'll call the cops . That would have added a couple more wacks is all .  

[redpowerd]

i wanted to mention public education, but couldnt out of respect for old butch

[SwampDonkey]

Been there, and done all that.