If you are over 30.......

[jpreiser]

People over 30 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 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 streetlights 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 gamesat 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!

[tlhdoc]

I have to agree with this.

[B-flat]

Most of us are living longer because of our love for camping.  Does anyone object to that kind of reasoning.

[jpreiser]

Most of us are living longer because of our love for camping.  Does anyone object to that kind of reasoning.

Yes I think you are right..   REmember when we camped as kids.. we slept in a tent or pop up with no ac or heat, no potty and sometimes no water or electric. WE were sprayed from head to toe with DEET. WE went swimming with out "water wings" or swim classes. WE went fishing and ate what we cought. our ice in our coolers lasted maybe a day. and we sat by the fire at night and talked or told stories, never did we bring a T.V., Lap Top or Cell phone........

[AustinBoston]

Where to start?  Some of us did NOT survive.  We do a severe disservice to their memories with this kind of misguided trash.

"As children, we would ride in cars with no seatbelts or air bags."
Two students who would have graduated with my class in 1978 were killed in separate auto crashes.  No seat belts.  (Speed alchohol, and a teenage driver were all involved in one, but not the other).

"Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint."
A kid in my neighborhood who was "never quite right" (most of our parents suspected lead paint) eventually put a gun in his mouth.

"We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets"
Another kid in my neighborhood was totally blinded for life due to exposure to household chemicals.  I saw him every few years, being led by the arm by one of his sisters.

"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."
Until I was a teenager, if I didn't show up within 30 seconds of my mother hollering, I ended up needing extra padding to sit down.  As a teenager, I had to tell where I was going, and there was a list of phone numbers of my friends.  This, I think, was closer to the norm.  I saw what happened to my brother when he was unreachable all day long.  I also saw what happened to a neighbor boy.

"Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat."
PJay's step father responded to a pickup rollover one night.  14 of the 15 occupants (all children) had been taken to the hospital.  The 15th had not been found.  He was there to tow the pickup away.  He found the 15th, a child less than two years old, when he lifted a steel plate that had been in the bed of the pickup.  There was a photo in the shop that clearly showed the impression that her tiny body made in the ground.

"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."
Funny, but there were two families in our neighborhood where the little ones were famous for eating dirt.  They were the only ones that my mother told me had kids treated for intestinal worms.  One of those had repeated problems with worms.

"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." The sodas we drank were 6-12 ounces, and it was probably a lot less often than you would think.  I know if I wanted soda, it came out of my allowance.  That meant a Coke every 2-3 weeks.  Today, it's 12-20 ounces.  A couple times a day.  Our per capita consumption of carbohydrates is much, much higher than 30 years ago.  And I, for one, did have friends that were obese.  That was unusual.  Not because obesity was so rare, but because obese kids,especially boys, were harrased until they OD'd, committted suicide, totally withdrew from society, or ended up in the slammer.

"Tests were not adjusted for any reason."  Hmmm...I know most of my teachers didn't grade on a curve, but some of them did.  What's that if not making an adjustment?

"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 is another illusion.  Back then, often the police themselves would "bail you out", take you home, and tell your parents what happened.  They don't do this any more because parents, not government regulators, stopped responding to it well.

"Please pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good !!!!!"

Read again, and look at how much stuff I haven't adressed is not caused by the government or by lawyers, but by PARENTS who try to regulate their children's lives.

"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."

What did they invent?

"We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video gamesat all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms."

Guess that answers that.

Our parents did the best they could.  If we can do better than they, but fail to do so, then we don't measure up to doing our best.  That is the most important thing we should learn from our parents.

In addition, we end up spitting on the graves of those who paid with their lives.  If we learn from those life-destroying tragedies, at least their deaths were not totally in vain.

I would only ask that you look logically at your worst fears, though.  No government regulation is making you drive your kids to school, for example.  But almost all parents (of non-bussed students) do.  Why?

No bureaucrat is forcing kids into after school programs, organized sports, etc., yet there is more and more of this.  Kid's time is being regulated all right, but it's being driven, not by the government, but by parent's fear of what they read in the newspaper.

No government regulation is doing this.  Posts/emails like this are carefully crafted to bring about an emotional response, but when looked at carefully, are found to be lacking in logic and filled with contradictions.

Austin (who detests government regulation, has strong Libertarian tendencies...but also pushes for personal honesty...which this message isn't)

[campingboaters]

Amen Austin.

[Trlrboy]

I glad I didn't get raised near AustinBoston... everything from worms in kids to obese, suicidal prison inmates.  Sounds charming.

[AustinBoston]

I glad I didn't get raised near AustinBoston... everything from worms in kids to obese, suicidal prison inmates.  Sounds charming.

I grew up in a middle class suburb.  By far, most of us turned out fine.  But with time, we forget the tragedies, unless they happened to us, in our own home.

I've lived in three neigborhoods in two towns long enough to know about these kinds of events.  Every one of them had some, although all of the "neighborhood" incidents I related came from the one I grew up in.

BTW, nobody in my neighborhood went to prison.

Austin

[Trlrboy]

BTW, nobody in my neighborhood went to prison. Austin

You should have lived by me.  I was raised in surburbia in Jersey about 25 miles outside of NYC.  Our class valedictorian is now a head student at Rahway State Prison.  He managed to be convicted of mail fraud, tax evasion and 2nd degree murder about 6 years ago.  Must have been all that studying and not eating enough worms while camping.

[griffsmom]

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.
...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. NO CELL PHONES!!!!!

I have to admit, as a child I actually did run rampant around our neighborhood all day long without my mom knowing where I was most of the time (my fault, not hers--and I paid for it dearly when I got home!), but the times in which I grew up are not anything like the times in which our chldren are now living.  People are sicker now than they were then--and there seem to be more of them.
 
I also loved riding in the back of pick up trucks in the summers and didn't wear safety belts or helmets growing up, and yet studies are clear that innumerable children have been spared severe injuries, especially head injuries, and death because of those govt-mandated saftey devices which unfortunately have come at the expense of many children's tragic experiences. I was blessed not to have hurt myself; I'm not taking the chance with my own child's head and body.  
 
I used to love the taste of "hose-water" but hoses now come with a very large and scary warning telling you not to drink out of them due to the toxic and harmful chemicals that manufacturers use to make the hoses. I actually would like to see the govt step in and make manufacturers make hoses out of safer materials. Some people may think of me as an overly protective mother, but my child's health, safety and well-being are far too precious for me to be anything less.
 
I know that the post was meant jokingly, so please don't think I am attacking you, but the govt and lawyers aren't all bad. I'm sure a very similar post/e-mail could be written about all the good things and protections that have come about due to the governmental and legal actions (think Ford Pinto, for example).

[jpreiser]

I know that the post was meant jokingly, so please don't think I am attacking you, but the govt and lawyers aren't all bad. I'm sure a very similar post/e-mail could be written about all the good things and protections that have come about due to the governmental and legal actions (think Ford Pinto, for example).

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IT's ok this was posted on another interesting web site called...

http://www.snopes.com/  and I was just "sending it on"