Any Baby Boomers want to laugh and remember? I miss these day's how about you?

Question

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

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 okay.


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 Play stations, 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.

Answer 1

I remember it well. I guess I can be really thankful that I survived to wake up every day, so far....anyway. I wonder if anyone has ever done any research into the differences of accidents and breaks and falls in those days as opposed to today and adjusted it according to the increases in population etc.? I also remember chasing the ice cream truck....no one was rude or got hurt; following the bug truck down the street on our bikes, in and out of the fog of DDT and whatever other chemicals were being used and air raid drills where we would be taken down into the basement of the school and would duck under all of the extra desks stored there. Not very many years later, while I was in high school, that same basement had to be closed up and cleaned out by the asbestos abatement people. Were we really safer in the basement or not..... I sometimes think that we are turning future generations into wimps.... Our lives were so much fun and there were not very many obese kids, we were always outside playing, not inside starring at the TV or video games or the computer.... I am always joking with a lot of my younger friends that I can outwork, outplay, outdance and outdo a lot of them; just because that is the way I was brought up...and they agree with me. I am glad that I was brought up the way I was, I feel very blessed. Have a great night!

Answer 2

I was born in 1947, so I am a baby boomer. I remember doing a lot of the things that you mention, but I NEVER ATE WORMS. I couldn't try out for Little League because I was a GIRL. My how times have changed some for the better. I was about the only girl on my street to have a skate-o (is that what you refer to as a go-cart or is that something different?) Skate-O's were made from milk crates (wooden) "borrowed" from the corner grocery store. We attached a board to the bottom, one half of a skate on the front of the board, one on the back. We decorated it with bottle caps. We were able to steer it by putting two little pieces of wood on the top of the crate and away we'd go right down the middle of the street!!!!!! That was a lot of fun. Wish I could do that now. Remember half ball? You really have brought back some really good memories. Times were different then. Children were safer then. You could go out all day and not be afraid of someone grabbing you.
Thanks for taking me back to the past.

Answer 3

Well, let's compare. If you were born in 1950, and you were off to college in 1968, Harvard would run you $2,400 a year at a time when the median household income in the US was $8,600. Today, Harvard tuition is $57,000 a year and the median household income is $44k. Four years of private college used to take the average person about 15 months to make enough to pay for. Now it takes more than 5 years for the average Joe to pay for it. It's not that they're deadbeats, they just got priced out of the market.

Answer 4

My Dad made all the kids in the neighborhood wooden guns that shot rubberbands.

We had natural suntans from playing outside.

We sold lemonade from a stand for a nickel. Then we used the money to put on plays in somebody's back yard for all the parents.

We got spankings with a belt or a paddle and our parents weren't worried about getting in trouble for teaching us right from wrong. We didn't know what TIME OUT was.

Answer 5

Instead of always going to the doctor my mom would treat me with things like a mustard plaster, boric acid ointment for eye conditions.

We always took baths.
On Halloween I pulled a red wagon and extra bags and noone was putting needles and stuff in the candy.

I was the only black kid in my school.

Getting to second base as a teenager was enough.

In a lot of schools kids would get a whooping when they got in trouble.

The sugar cube polio vaccines.

Nestles Quick and Ovaltine

Falling asleep in church

Getting spankings instead of grounding or time outs.

There always seemed to be someone looking whenever I did what I wasnt suppossed to do.

Collecting soda bottles.

Home milk delivery

The Bugs Bunny Show on Saturday mornings.

Answer 6

That's all true, cause I can testify. Add this to the list.

We didn't stalk our folks for money, most of us learned how to make a buck as soon as we hit the streets and learned the value of work, money, commitment, and reward.

Answer 7

I'm 49 :( true baby boomer
that was so funny to see how times have changed
i'm going to print it out for my sister and friends :)

thanks

Answer 8

Thank your for the memories. I copied and pasted it to my friends by email so they could remember too.

Plus the answers brought memories as well. I remember taking hikes looking for 2 cent pop bottles and walking two miles to the store to cash them in so I could buy fireworks. Remember the M80.. wow what great times.

It is sad that it has all changed. Damn the nuts. I was born in 1958

Answer 9

We didnt have to be afraid to leave the door unlocked at night either. No A/C then either. Were considered rich if you a television and a phone. No cell phones, no microwave, no ice maker in the frig. Going to the highschool football games to watch the bon fires. Playing in the street when they flushed the hydrants. The list could go on for ever!!!!!!

Answer 10

..and do you remember the first "Self Serve" gas stations, where Dad filled the tank while smoking a cigarette?

As kids, we went trick-or-treating for blocks (miles) at night and our parents knew we were safe.

We sat outside on summer nights and played momopoly on somebody's porch.