SwiftVets.com

[Guest]

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

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 , CD's or Ipods, no cell phones! ,</ B> no personal computers , no Internet or chat rooms.......
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.

</ B>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!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, 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!

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

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.

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

The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:

"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the

country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, "Are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"

[Schadow]

Powsmias -

Boy, did your post bring back memories. I can associate with practically everything you wrote (except maybe mud pies - girls did that).

On the topic of the extraordinary measures taken today to protect riders in vehicles, I was reminded of the War Bond (not Savings Bond) drives that were staged right after Pearl Harbor. An announcement was made that a bond drive was to take place in our San Diego neighborhood and special perks would be available for bond buyers.

For a $25 bond, you got to take a drive in the new Army vehicle, the Jeep. For a $50 bond, it was a ride in a half-track. For a $100 bond, the reward was to get to climb in an M4 tank and fire a blank round from the turret gun, etc., etc.

I was 11 at the time and I persuaded my Dad to let me roll pennies from his quart jar-full until I had the $18.75 required for a $25 bond. (Strangely, I remember that at least half of the pennies were Indian-heads.) Bought the bond and loaded up with half a dozen or so other kids on the Jeep and we were off on the ride of our lives. The sergeant who was driving found a hill with nice sharp slopes and proceded to demonstrate the ability of the vehicle to climb near-vertical (or so it seemed at the time) hills up and down with us kids screaming our lungs out. No seat belts. No roll bar. No air bags. Just seat backs, handrails and each other.

We could hear the booms of the M4 main gun firing as the high rollers got their rewards. The air around town was acrid from gun powder and the exhaust from the half-track, which wasn't particularly well-tuned, but no one cared.

After that we went back to our carefree lives, albeit with an awareness that our dads, uncles, and older cousins were temporarily replaced with blue stars in windows.

Those were, indeed, the best of times and the worst of times.

Thanks for bringing back the memories.

Schadow
_________________
Capt, 8th U.S. Army, Korea '53 - '54

[Me#1You#10]

Eddie, thanks for the post.

I have often thought that one of the most lamentable societal evolutions is the near extinction of unsupervised children at play...and our generation (the boomers) is responsible for that.

[BuffaloJack]

A lot has changed from the time we were kids.
In 1959 my family was making the trip from Hampton, Virginia to Auburn, New York to visit family. Along the way, we stopped in a Stucky's restaurant in Maryland for lunch. When we piled back in the car and continued on, it was a half hour before a Maryland Trooper flagged us down to let us know that we'd left my youngest bother behind at the restaurant. If that had happened today, the liberal forces would have had my parents in jail and child protective services would have had all us kids distributed to foster homes.
As it was, my brother got ice cream from the Stucky's staff until we got back for him. Now, all us kids have a family story about the time we left Scott behind.
_________________
Swift Boats - Qui Nhon (12/69-4/70), Cat Lo (4/70-5/70), Vung Tau (5/70-12/71)

[noyesj]

I remember going along the county road to pick up tin cans to

turn in for the SCRAP TO BEAT THE JAPS. Watching the Troop trains

go by on the Union Pacific with tanks and sixbys on flat cars.

Does that date me?
_________________
noyesj USAF 1953-1959

[Doll]

Great post and thanks! As far as I am concerned there is "NO GOOD TIME" to take God out of our Pledge of Allegiance! Ever!
_________________

The HILL Chronicles

Soldiers' Angels
"Wednesday Hero - Google It!"

[baldeagle]

I was born in 1937, and survived all of that. Come next January I will have reached my alloted "three score and ten".
We also drank milk straight from the cow, and fertilised our victory garden with the free stuff provided by that same cow.
I also remember selling "scrap iron",..... around a farm there was a lot of old broken tools, equipment, etc,.... enough to fill a little red wagon for the trip down to the collection center.
I also remember the Blue Star/ Gold Star window flags. For folks who lived way out in the country there was no knock on the door by the Western Union man with the dreaded telegrams. The Telegraph office in town sent a note by the Rural mailman that one had a telegram at the office in town to be picked up, so one had to either hitch up the mules to the wagon for the trip to town or count on some member of the family having an old jalopy (with the tires and gas, both rationed) to drive you in.
I rode in with my grandmother to Gloster, Ms. for her to pick up the telegram about my mother's oldest brother.
It was different times, for sure.
_________________
"In a word, I want an American character, that the powers of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves and not for others; this, in my judgment, is the only way to be respected abroad and happy at home." --George Washington

[Guest]

wow, you guys are old!!

[rbshirley]

[Schadow]

[Doll]

Great pic Schadow!
_________________

The HILL Chronicles

Soldiers' Angels
"Wednesday Hero - Google It!"