Since we are talking about age!

[mikesd]

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

carried us.



They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.



Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were 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 children, we would ride in cars with no 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 soda pop with sugar in it, 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

99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell

phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet 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.



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!

This generation has 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!



And 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 our lives for our own good.

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

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

[cactusclay]

Amen.

[exposingmyself]

and don't that after a spankin' we never did it again

[Wazza]

What about the 80's? Hehe.

[4nR]

and you walked fifty miles in your bare feet in the snow to school and took pictures with (gasp) film! cameras. ;)

[pcasciola]

And now, in my town anyway, little leaguers are not even allowed to take practice swings in the fenced off on-deck area and head first slides are against the rules. Neighbors call the police on each other for kids riding dirtbikes or quads, and there are laws preventing most of the fun that we had as kids.

We're raising a generation of wusses, but wusses with very high self esteem. :rolleyes:

[mrclark321]

Very good post!!!

[Tom W]

Good post indeed. There are many reasons that they're called the "good old days".

[JAZZ D.P.G.]

Love it!

this will be well distributed, I think. I know I'll be helping.

[cyclone]

Excellent...although I didn't get a BB gun for my 10th birthday, I can remember instances of just about everything else. Remember when cars came out that had a beeper go off when the seat belt (lap belt, not a shoulder belt) was not buckled, and everyone tried to figure a way to beat the annoying buzzing sound? Now, you're a criminal if you are not wearing your seat belt.

[DSMITH131]

now that brough back memories

[chucksberg]

The title says it all...To all the kids who survived....I had 2 friends who may be alive if they had been wearing a seatbelt, 1 if he had a bike helmet. Just because we did it, doesn't mean it was right, we were just ignorant. I agree there is to much litigation in this world and to many laws. But there is a lot going in the right direction also. I think these are the good ol days.

[Citizensmith]

I guess we never learned anything about suitable font sizes and formatting and stuff though. ;)

[sixshot]

Coming from the 80's I was unfortunate and only experienced half of these things. Definately no BB gun for my 10th bday!! Nice post.

[Carzee]

As a teenager, playing with the new speargun it went off, straight up into the ceiling, missing my neck by hardly anything, well I felt the air of it. Do we ban spearguns now.

From the age of 12 I went shooting bunnies etc. My first paycheck paid for my first new rifle ever. I got serious and always avoided shooting with others if I could. Its the solitude thing after all. I always hated shooting in a group, but in the army, its all you do, and its done very well, though its according to regulations...

As a teenager I came off a horse very hard. I could've broken my back. Actually this falling thing happened a few times from all sorts of stuff.

As a teenage driver I had several narrow escapes from the hospital. 2 big prangs, one on an actual race track. Oh and 1 rollover at less than 30mph! It is possible if you try hard. It flipped and hit ground again right above my bosses head. No helmut, hence a headache for 10 minutes. I lost my license, got it back, nearly lost it again, paid a lot of fines.

A garbage compresser on a early morning did more damage than all the above. "You've missed our garbage bin!" -- "Jump up and put it in yerself mate!" -- "Ok! How does this thing..... arrrghhh". Clean up crew please. Nowadays you'd sue the place, back then it was just an accident after all. 3 months in a cast, lucky to have kept my hand. A few more milliseconds....

Life is like a box of tissues...:rolleyes:

[LadyHawk]

Great post, mikesd. Here's a few more for the list:

When I was little we used to play with mercury! :shock: It was fun stuff until you lost it in the carpet. :)

The neighborhood shoestore had an x-ray machine. :shock: The salesman dropped a quarter into it so my mother could view my little feet inside my new shoes!

And, yes, I grew up on rancid (room temperature) butter and Wonderbread. Lordy! Lordy! :shock:

[IanD]

Building tree houses that didn't come out of a box from Home Depot.
Learned to drive a car with a manual 3 speed-on-the-column shifter.
Cut the grass with a lawn mower than was 1 kid powered.
Wore Beatle boots and DC 5 shirts
:):):):):):):):)

[neil_r]

Makes you feel good to be old. A couple of years ago someone bought me one of those videos with all the world highlights of the year of your birth. I was really upset by the fact that it was ALL in black and white:( (at least it had sound)

N

[psk4363]

Ahh! Those worm pies! Drool!

Barry

[mikesd]

Building tree houses that didn't come out of a box from Home Depot.
Learned to drive a car with a manual 3 speed-on-the-column shifter.
Cut the grass with a lawn mower than was 1 kid powered.
Wore Beatle boots and DC 5 shirts
:):):):):):):):)


AH: Beatle Boots, now those took alot of begging ye olde parents but once I got em I thought I was the coolest dude in Jr. High back in 66-67!! :oops:

[alfa1six4]

Great write-up. My .02c

I'm not that old(34), but we actually had to ride our bikes to elementry school. There were no buses to that school. Only if the weather was really bad would my mom drive me to school. None of us kids ever complained. In high school we had a bus, but the bus stop was 1/2 mile away. Now I watch the school buses in my neighborhood stop at every house. Kids don't even have to walk to the end of the street anymore, let alone ride a bike 5 days a week. Oh, we didn't have helmets either, OMG!!

[Bruce Watson]

Building tree houses that didn't come out of a box from Home Depot.
Learned to drive a car with a manual 3 speed-on-the-column shifter.
Cut the grass with a lawn mower than was 1 kid powered.
Wore Beatle boots and DC 5 shirts
:):):):):):):):)

Ah! 3 on the Tree, I had forgotten about those. Yes, I also learned to drive in a Chevy six with the column shifter. Now, how did that go........towards you and down for 1st, away and up for 2nd, straight down for 3rd. Reverse was straight up from 1st?

It was not a bad system, kept your hands near the wheel. Of course non powered drum brakes and steering in the big old land yachts (my Dad was cheap when it came to options) kept your muscle tone.

[PacAce]

AH: Beatle Boots, now those took alot of begging ye olde parents but once I got em I thought I was the coolest dude in Jr. High back in 66-67!! :oops:
Ah! I was wondering what Ian was talking about when he mentioned "Beatle Boots". Now I know. I used to have mine tailor made just for me. :D And, of course, I had to have my pants (of my school uniform) sewn skin tight along the length of the legs to match. :)

[Tom W]

Ah! 3 on the Tree, I had forgotten about those. Yes, I also learned to drive in a Chevy six with the column shifter. Now, how did that go........towards you and down for 1st, away and up for 2nd, straight down for 3rd. Reverse was straight up from 1st?

It was not a bad system, kept your hands near the wheel. Of course non powered drum brakes and steering in the big old land yachts (my Dad was cheap when it came to options) kept your muscle tone.

I remember 3 on the tree - I found second gear slightly more frequently than reverse. Unfortunately, I was moving forward when I did it. "If you can't find it, grind it". :)

I was more than happy to divert to a floor shifter on my '78 Pinto.

[Bruce Watson]

I remember 3 on the tree - I found second gear slightly more frequently than reverse. Unfortunately, I was moving forward when I did it. "If you can't find it, grind it". :)

I was more than happy to divert to a floor shifter on my '78 Pinto.

Familiar sound. Okay, let's really use the way back machine; who remembers driving un synchronized gear boxes and having to double clutch?

I still remember the look on my Dad's face when he was teaching me to drive on the other family car and I was grinding the h*ll out of the Morris Minor's gearbox learning to downshift..........

It was decided that I was better to learn on the Chevy.

[GerryDavid]

And, yes, I grew up on rancid (room temperature) butter and Wonderbread. Lordy! Lordy! :shock:

Hmm, your not suppose to leave it out? We put ours in the cubbord, hehe. I hate trying to butter bread with hard butter. Its more tearing the bread than buttering, hehe.

I was bornin the 70's *79* but grew up in the 80's. I have yet to wear a bike helmet. I wonder what the fine is, I hope to bike around Ottawa in a month and I really dont want to wear a helmet. Your fine as long as you dont fall, and if you do, you dont use your head to stop the fall.

[Conk]

I was a big Evil Knievel fan. Those bikes you see sold in Zellers nowadays we used to build ourselves and extend the forks by cutting the forks off old bikes. They had banana seats and sissy bars. You could buy a rear slick tire from Canadian Tire. We used to build wooden ramps and jump stuff like Evil did. No cars or buses but maybe a few of the local kids would lie down between the ramps.
Here's another major one, street hockey. We were actually allowed to play on the street without some fuddy duddy ruining it for us. Just as long as we didn't hit the cars with the ball.
Ahhh, those were the days. :D

[Bruce Watson]

I was a big Evil Knievel fan. Those bikes you see sold in Zellers nowadays we used to build ourselves and extend the forks by cutting the forks off old bikes. They had banana seats and sissy bars. You could buy a rear slick tire from Canadian Tire. We used to build wooden ramps and jump stuff like Evil did. No cars or buses but maybe a few of the local kids would lie down between the ramps.
Here's another major one, street hockey. We were actually allowed to play on the street without some fuddy duddy ruining it for us. Just as long as we didn't hit the cars with the ball.
Ahhh, those were the days. :D

I have a few scars from learning to "wheelie" on a my bike. Gears? We don't need no stinkin' gears......3 speeds were the height of British technology and 10 speeds were an esosteric tool reserved for racing afficiandos...........

[GerryDavid]

Kids still play street hockey here. Its annoying when they actually dont move for you when your trying to drive by.

[Belmondo]

Things I remeber....
The whole family sitting in front of the radio listening to the weekly adventures of The Shadow.
The old Hudson with a back seat so big you could set up housekeeping in it.
Home made bread.
Telephones with no dial that you picked up and gave the number you were calling to the operator.
78 RPM phonograph records.
Milk in bottles delivered to the front door. There was cream floating on the top that had to be skimmed off for Dad's coffee.
Stores that sold toys that cost less than a dollar that were actually worth playing with. Too bad, though, because as a kid, I rarely had a dollar.
The doctor came to the house.
Bread was toasted one side at a time.
Everything was save for future use including slivers of soap, bacon grease, and flour sacks.

It's a different world, for sure.


[edit]
I almost forgot.....all bicycles had fat tires and coaster brakes.

[Rob612]

Great post... born in '61, most of the thinkgs listed are right in my memory (and in some of my scars :D).

Sure enough this thin is going to be forwarded a lot. I'll do my part :D

[JZaun]

A couple more

Cho Cho trains Real steam locomotives.

Puti Puti cement mixer They had flywheel gas motors that fired once every 20-30 cycles.

Cinder Blocks Made of real cinders from coal furnaces..Used to build houses. The walls would rust.

Party lines. Dial telephones and 2-5 people on the same line and all phones rang same time.

Slide rule. Used to do computations before electronic calculators and computers.

Coal Bins Where people stored coal to be use in a furnace for heat.

Coal Trucks Carried coal to the above bins, had a long conveyor belts to transfer coal.

Ice Box.. Before refrigerators, held ice to keep food cool.

Ice Man Brought ice for the ice box, daily or every other day.

Lantern Mantels Made Kerosene lanterns burn brighter

Stop Look and Listen You had to do this at all Rail Road Crossings.

Wood cook stove No Explanation needed.

Thumbing Hitch Hiking,, Stick thumb out and catch a ride. Used to be safe way to travel.

Flora scope X-ray to see how shoes fit.. Could see the bones in your feet.

Street Cars Used tracks and overhead electricity for power

JZ

[MrChevy]

and you walked fifty miles in your bare feet in the snow to school and took pictures with (gasp) film! cameras. ;)

Well, actually it was only 35 miles each way and all uphill both ways, and a pencil and the back of an envelope to draw what we seen... no cameras back then. :) :D

[IanD]

Ah! I was wondering what Ian was talking about when he mentioned "Beatle Boots". Now I know. I used to have mine tailor made just for me. :D And, of course, I had to have my pants (of my school uniform) sewn skin tight along the length of the legs to match. :)
They were just the right tightness if you put a quarter in your front pocket and you could tell if it was heads or tails.:):):)

[IanD]

Ah! 3 on the Tree, I had forgotten about those. Yes, I also learned to drive in a Chevy six with the column shifter. Now, how did that go........towards you and down for 1st, away and up for 2nd, straight down for 3rd. Reverse was straight up from 1st?

It was not a bad system, kept your hands near the wheel. Of course non powered drum brakes and steering in the big old land yachts (my Dad was cheap when it came to options) kept your muscle tone.
Learned on a Ford Falcon with the Nuttin Power option. Crank windows, vinyl floor and seats, one speaker radio with twist knobs, two foot brakes and two foot clutch. Cruise control was a sawed off hockey stick. Of course, I had the mandatory Tony The tiger tail hanging out of the filler door. Hey Canucks, who can rember BP Gas Stations and racing fuel for 3 cents a gallon over regular?

[mikesd]

Our small town had a Star station with the glass bulk oil bottles sitting out front and we collected stamps with each purchase. Each filled stamp book was worth a dollars worth of gas [ about five gallons ] worth.

[Tom W]

A couple more

Party lines. Dial telephones and 2-5 people on the same line and all phones rang same time.

We had one of those when I was a kid.

Slide rule. Used to do computations before electronic calculators and computers.

I went through the transition of slide rule to calculator, and eventually to computer.


Coal Bins Where people stored coal to be use in a furnace for heat.

At the price of natural gas, I kind-of wish we'd go back. Dad grew up with the old coal furnace, and still mentions "banking the coals" at night. Many homes in Cleveland still had the coal chute door on them.

Coal Trucks Carried coal to the above bins, had a long conveyor belts to transfer coal.

Ice Box.. Before refrigerators, held ice to keep food cool.

Ice Man Brought ice for the ice box, daily or every other day.

Two things from Mom's era - Dad lived in the city and got electrified back in the late 1910's or early '20's.

Lantern Mantels Made Kerosene lanterns burn brighter

Still work on the Coleman camping lanterns.

Stop Look and Listen You had to do this at all Rail Road Crossings.

Yes, and I wish people would still do that. The gates are great, but like all things mechanical, they can malfunction. They ought to just put a stop sign at every crossing.

Wood cook stove No Explanation needed.

Thumbing Hitch Hiking,, Stick thumb out and catch a ride. Used to be safe way to travel.

I may have done that a few times myself.

Flora scope X-ray to see how shoes fit.. Could see the bones in your feet.

Street Cars Used tracks and overhead electricity for power

JZ

Dirty little secret - Cleveland, Ohio. A few years ago, the asphalt pavement on Brookpark road was so bad that you could see through to the brick pavement below. You could also see the streetcar tracks that had been used in the distant past. Dad got to ride them. I didn't.

[mikesd]

Did anyone have one of these? http://community.webshots.com/photo/136996960/330422834qqXBtr

Summertime and the livin is easy!

[am_pitbull_terrier]

GREAT POST!
Kids nowadays cant even have the same Cookie Monster we did.... Did you see the new crap some lawyer came up with about cookie monster sending out the wrong image about gorging himself on cookies. When we were kids his thing was "C is for Cookie"..... Now it's "C is for CANTALOPE and cookies are for sometimes" I about had a $hit when I saw that.

[LadyHawk]

Things I remeber....
The whole family sitting in front of the radio listening to the weekly adventures of The Shadow.
Telephones with no dial that you picked up and gave the number you were calling to the operator.


Wow, Belmondo. You must be one of that "upper percentile!" (Takes one to know one.) :grin:

[Belmondo]

I 'spect.

:o

[CyberDyneSystems]

I learned to drive on a Farm tractor,. at age 7.. by 10 I was driving a backhoe...

We grew all our veggies and raised chickens, ducks, pigs, sheep, cows and had a few horses.
Bread was indeed home made as was pretty much everything els.
We had (and used) a butter churn.
We made our own Ice cream,. (and it wasn't in an electric thing in the freezer!) Smoked our own bacon, stuffed our own sausages, canned our own food.
I slaughtered my first rabbit at around age 11.
We heated the house with wood and coal. (there was an oil furnace too,. but Dad didn't like to buy oil) From October to April all cooking was done on the allways burning wood stove. (In the hotter months we used the gas stove.)

I had freinds with lots and lots of swell toys...
I had a whole farm and thought that was pretty darn cool!
In the fourth grade there was ONE kid in the whole class who cared about what people wore.
He made fun of me the most.. (toughskins,. probably dirty dirty toughskins, highwaters for sure! and pro-keds)
We all pretty much ignored him. We were having fun playing in the dirt piles with the knees of our pants worn through.. he had to keep his levis clean :lol:

One of my best freinds Dad's worked with Raytheon and helped Develop Sonar..

We had a farm,. and a manure spreader! :lol:

I remeber watching the Viet Nam war on the news on TV,.
I remember my father being away for months,. he was carving the John F. Kennedy Memorial in Washington D.C.
He brought me back a toy truck. It was metal :)


times they are a changin

[RockOne]

This thread reminds me of this - very funny :-) :-)!
http://members.optusnet.com.au/hark/4york.htm

and a manure spreader
We have those.....we call them politicians :-) ;-)!

[PhotosGuy]

Wow, Belmondo. You must be one of that "upper percentile!" (Takes one to know one.) Jerry, too! I remember all that stuff. Thanks for the trip on the "Way Back" machine!
We're raising a generation of wusses, but wusses with very high self esteem. No sh*t! Now, kids who come in 2nd place in an event are called, "Differently victorius!" Give me a f***ing break!

[JZaun]

CDS brought up the farm!! How about,
stiring the cracklin pot for hours! then eating those things. :)

Pig bladder kick balls. Blow them up and tie off the interance and exit holes. ( we used a straw to blow them up through!!

Ice picks.

Way before gas powered chain saws was the hand cross cut saw and ax and wedge. that got you heat for the winter. :)

2 buckets on a chain or rope hanging from a pulley to get water out of the well.

Did you have a 1 holer or a 2 holer? If you had one or the other you will know what I am talking about.. Better than the chamber pot!!!!!!!!!! :)

Has any one wound a handle on a gas pump to get gas up and into a glass measuring cylinder before putting into a can or auto by gravity? We had one near here that was shorter than most and it became known as Short Pumb Garage. Now years later the garage is long gone (actually moved to a museum) and the entire area west of Richmond Va is known as "Short Pump"

Un Like CDS I am not sure when I killed and cleaned my firs t Rabbit but I used a BB gun to get it!! Dad looked over my sholder and made sure I cleaned it correctly. We had it for supper. Can't eat one now to save my life. :?

How many had a drink called a Tiney?

JZ

[Belmondo]

Do any of you remember a Halloween when 3/4 of what people passed out was either fresh fruit or something homemade?

And nobody felt it was necessary to have it x-rayed?

[CyberDyneSystems]

Way before gas powered chain saws was the hand cross cut saw and ax and wedge. that got you heat for the winter

Don't even get me started on the fine art of splitting wood!

(too late.. here it comes)

We had a "Harverst fair" with the tallest bell ringer you ever saw,. custom made by a bunch of the "gang" (my dad's crowd) ... there were about a Dozen people who could actually ring the bell,. so whoever ran the event at the fair would had to size up each ticket holder based on there impression of them, and tell them how far up they'd need to get to win the cigar! (yes real cigars)
If it was based purely on Bell ringing,. then no one would win.

Fudd Benson,. (yep,. really Fudd,. ) was the king of sizing up the gamers.. he allways new exactly which mark was just out of reach of you just by looking at you! Kind of like "guess you weight"

The sclae wasn't numbered though,. it wasn't likkne ome through 12.. each increment had a name or a Slogan. I can only recall a few off hand,. I do remember the lowest mark.. "Creme Puff" I recall it because that is what I had to get the first year the Bell ringer was made to win the Cigar.. it took me a few tries,. I very very young. "Bella Abzug" was in there,. "Mr. Completely" was the second lowest.. (funny it's the low ones I recal the most) :)

Only the burliest men actually had to ring the bell to ge tthe Cigar....

Fudd's brother Tom, a solid giant of a man at 6'8" (Fudd oddly was a mere 5'10" and the third Brother "Chip" only 5'11"... yes,. there was all kinds of speculation)

Anyway, Tom Benson and my Father,. and a Gent Named Pete Randall were the three people who could allways ring it without fail. The other two becasue of pure size and brute strength,. and my Father, a runt by caomparison (merely 6 foot and lanky) had to do it with finesse, and practice.

Wood splitting! And No one spilts wood better than my ancestry! :lol:

Well,. it took several years and several harvest fairs,. but when I rang that mofo at age 13 it literally made the newspaper.

Wood splitting! ;)

[CyberDyneSystems]

Do any of you remember a Halloween when 3/4 of what people passed out was either fresh fruit or something homemade?

And nobody felt it was necessary to have it x-rayed?

We did apples and such.. oh yes!

[Carzee]

Its almost May. I remember some years when the spin doctors pushed the message that we work the first 4 months of the year to pay tax, and that the rest of the year we worked for ourselves?

[weemannie]

What a great thread. Born in the fifties in th UK I remember most of the nostalgia here:D :D. I think what you call Beatle Boots were called chelsea boots over here. Did you have winkle-pickers? Looked great at first but always ended up with the toe bending up and a huge crease across the upper!

I used to go out on my bike (fixed wheel) from the age of about 6 with friends. Back for lunch then off again. My Mum used to complain that I used the house as an hotel:D :D

Times have certainly changed, we used to respect the law and were terrified of the local Bobby (policeman), now, its the other way round! Many kids have no respect for anyone, and its always someone elses' fault that they're that way. There's no such thing as a wrong 'un anymore.:evil: They have more rights than their victims, the horror stories we here on the news make me b****y mad:evil: :evil: :evil: Just a few days ago a young woman was out walking with her young baby and was stabbed in the neck by some poor misunderstood individual. Now, if she recovers at all, she will be paralysed from the neck down. No doubt if they catch the ******* that did it, they'll have psychiatric assessments done, at get off because they were smacked as children and it affected them badly!

Are we getting old, looking back like this?:)

[HMetal]

Wow.. This rings true to my childhood bigtime!

Thanks for the post, it brought back a lot of good memories. Too bad, most kids' memories today are of the time spent playing PS2 and XBox.

If there was ever a reason to buy your kid a camera, it's to get him or her out of the house and shooting something other than Resident Evil characters.

[Maureen Souza]

I grew up one of 9 kids and spent my early childhood on the east coast. Winters in Burlington, VT. were brutal at minus 32 degrees. And yes, I walked a mile to school (uphill even) in it. My mom loves telling her grandkids and great-grandkids that in our case, it was really true!!

I also learned to drive a 3 on the tree...an old Dodge Dart station wagon. The first time I filled the tank, gas was 29cents/gallon.
I also had to mow the lawn, weed the garden, wash dishes and babysit the younger ones without any thought of allowance. There was one TV for 11 people and I had to watch what my parents wanted or nothing at all. No wonder I loved to read, play outdoors until the street lights came on, swim, roller skate, ride my bike (no helmet) and chase fireflies.

My dad scoffed at the new rules of the 80's & 90's. In his latter years he bought a farm. he would load all the little grandchildren in the scoop of the tractor and drive them around the farm.
While I don't have a tractor, I do let my 2 year old grandson sit on my lap in the car and help me drive around the neighborhood. Laws be damned.... I want to build the memories with him that I did with my children and my parents did with me. Sometimes tradition is more important than laws.
Isn't it amazing how we all survived????

I know this photo is bad quality but it was taken with a cheap camera 25 years ago and salvaged from a show box.

[Citizensmith]

GREAT POST!
Kids nowadays cant even have the same Cookie Monster we did.... Did you see the new crap some lawyer came up with about cookie monster sending out the wrong image about gorging himself on cookies. When we were kids his thing was "C is for Cookie"..... Now it's "C is for CANTALOPE and cookies are for sometimes" I about had a $hit when I saw that.

Yeah, except its not some crap a lawyer came up with. The decision was made by the production company in their position as an educational source for kids, not because they thought there was some legal risk.

The deal is the US is full of way too many fat folks. Fat adults, fat kids. The US may be the worst but the whole world is getting fatter. And being fat means all kinds of things including increased health costs dealing with consequences of being such a lard ball you can't fit into an airline seat.

All they are trying to do is persuade kids that pigging out on high fat, high sugar foods with no nutritional value and then sitting on their well padded butt in front of Disney Channel all day may be a bad thing.

Next time you get a crappy pay raise remember that your company is probably paying a lot more for healthcare costs. If we all weren't eating so many frickin' donuts and slothing around in our XXL shirts and 38" waistbands, while waiting for our next doctors appointment about increased risk of heart disease or diabetes for our 15 year old blob of a kid, we may actually have got the 5% we hoped for. :)