Were you born before 1985?

Amos Stevens

New Member
From Catlady


Subject: Were you born before 1985?
>>
>>
>> And those of you who were born after 1985, maybe you should take
>>heed. Maybe you could learn something. This pretty much says it all!
>>
>>According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were
>>kids in the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's or even the early 80's,
>>probably shouldn't have survived.
>>
>>Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.
>>
>>We had no childproof lids or locks on medicine bottles, doors, or
>>cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmet s.
>>
>>Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.
>>
>>As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts 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 soda pop with sugar in
>>it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside
>playing.
>>
>>We shared one soft drink 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 street lights came on. 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, 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 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 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!
>>Congratulations.
 

Baseball Lady

New Member
Amos,

I guess it is true... only the strong survive. Amazing how we survived in such a unsafe, politically incorrect world. And now we all hang out on the web.

BB Lady
 

TDWoj

Administrator
Staff member
Well, I never had any broken bones, but I did fall into a pit dug by roadworkers when I was a wee girl, and was in there for hours because it was Saturday, and there were no workers around, and I didn't yell for help because I didn't think anyone would hear me. I can't remember exactly how I got out, though I do vaguely recall something about shinnying up a broken pipe I found in the bottom of the pit. I was about 4 years old at the time. I guess today there'd be an Amber alert, and every male in the neighbourhood would be hauled down to the police station for questioning.

And, of course, these days, the pit wouldn't be left open, but covered over with something so curious little girls wouldn't fall into them!

Gosh - after reading that article, it's a wonder any of us born before 1985 survived! :D
 

Serena

Administrator
"We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones. Unthinkable!"

I think almost every single thing here hits home for me and the way I grew up. The above quote is especially true. I've often remarked to people how amazed I am these days that you can drive down any given neighborhood street on a beautiful spring or summer day and see very few to no children outside playing. I've noticed this for years now and it seems to be getting worse. I know the kids are around, but where are they? Inside with their computers and DVDs and games, I suppose. We were in the street (literally) all the time, playing kickball, baseball, touch football, hide-and-seek. How many times did we have to pause a game to step aside so a car could pass. You just don't see that any more. Not around here, anyway. Too bad, really.

It didn't hurt any of us, didn't? I actually think it's made us stronger, more independent, free-thinking individuals. After all, look how great I turned out. ;) :D :D
 

TDWoj

Administrator
Staff member
You're absolutely right, Serena! A lot of communities have forbidden children playing on the street, and rightly so, because these days people are so impatient when driving their cars, it isn't safe for the kids because the drivers no longer want to slow down!

And besides - there's no "freestyle" playing of street hockey or stickball any more because the parents enroll the kids in organised sports almost as soon as they can walk - that's why they're not out there having fun anymore! I mean, who wants to play street hockey when twice a week you have to suit up and play peewee hockey on proper teams. That's work. Why do it for fun when you could be inside playing Nintendo?

We moved a lot when I was a little girl (I went to seven public schools between kindergarten and grade VI), so the first thing I used to do was go off and explore the new 'hood. I'd be gone for hours. My mother (my own mother, who died when I was 7 years old) was very nervous about this. I got lost coming home from school one day, and she was in a terrible state, hysterical with terror something had happened to me, by the time I showed up. Me, I'd had a wonderful time, taking the short cut through a little wooded patch between the school and home, and beyond that was a lumberyard. I'd climbed up a tree and was watching all the other kids go by, none of them the wiser that I was up there, watching them...

My stepmother, on the other hand, wasn't as bothered, although I'd sometimes get the third degree (right up until I was well past the age of majority!) if I got home five minutes late. But that's as far as it went. I took off a lot after my father married my stepmother. Anything to get out of the house.... I used to go to the park, and wander up and down sidestreets, and follow dark and mysterious looking paths wherever I found them. I did once encounter someone unsavoury in the park, but I knew the paths better than he did and got safely away.

To this day, I still have a fascination for sideroads and anything off the beaten track.

-TD, still harbouring an adventurous spirit
 

KATHYPURDOM

Steven Seagal Fan
This one hits home for me. Almost everything that is writen down I did. The one that i remember the most is that I went outside every morning and all I had to remember is that when the street light, next to our house, went on I had to be in the house. We played everything that Serena said. How about this one does anyone remember kick the can? I remember riding my bike through the woods and not give it a second thought about anything happening. Today I will not alow my boys to ride their bike in the woods by them selves.
There are so many kids in my neighborhood and they do play on the street or in the ditches near the streets. The problem is that if you are driving you have to drive around them, they will not move. I have a conversion van and there are times that I have gone to their parents house, told them about their boys in the street not moving for me, and they tell me to go another way. Now who is wrong here?
Times have changed and they will continue to change.
 

yudansha

TheGreatOne
1985?

I was born in 1985, and grew up in Ukraine. As a kid, my friends and I played whenever the school was out. It wasn't safe to ride a bike to school; firstly because there were no places to park them, and secondly it was not recommended since there was a good chance that it would be stolen. And all schools were near by. It took kids not more than 5 minutes to walk to school, not like here. Here, when I was going to school, it could have taken as much as 1/2 hour to walk. The reason being, is there are much more schools in Ukraine; and all are designed to hold grades 1-11 (they added grade 12 recently). When I came here and went to grade 6, my friends and I always played sports. Computers only started getting popular in grade 7 (sometime around 1998), other than that: basketball, soccer, baseball were the things all the kids in my neighbourhood played all summer long unless they went to their cottage or a camp.

Where did the figure of 1985 come from anyways?
 

Storm

Smile dammit!
It's true.We jumped over the neighbour's hedge getting scratched,nicking apples,playing football.Today everyone wants to grow up before their time.You don't realise when you're young they are the best times.
 
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