People over 30 should be dead

[Jims5543]

According to this e-mail my friend sent me. I got a good laugh at some of this.

Technically, 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 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 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!

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 !!!!! People under 30 are WIMPS !

[tabs]

Jim you obviously sound over 50....and remember the slogan you can't trust anybody over 30.....

[84porsche]

The numbers need to be revised a little. I am 24 and I didn't have any of that stuff either. I think Atari and the original Nintendo had just come out. We had a 13" television for the whole family and that was it. No cell phones and I was always out on my bike hanging with the neighborhood kids. Drugs and violence were never even a consideration.

[wludavid]

Everyone with more money than me is rich.
Everyone with less money is poor.
Everyone older than me is a fogey.
Everyone younger than me is a wimp.

Clearly I am the ideal - I grew up in the proper socioeconomic class with just the right amount if adult supervision and coddling.

Yes, I know it's a joke. It still annoys me. This little bit especially:

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.

Most of you folks who were born in the 40s/50s/60s must has stopped playing at one point, because the American Boomer generation have produced the fattest people this earth has ever seen.

[PCA 944]

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.

Sounds dull to me.

[dhoward]

It was.

[amity914]

We used to shoot our bb guns at each other and have rock fights.

HIEDI

[RANDY P]

Don't forget the Evil Kinevil BMX bike jumping over people - two ramps and everybody in between

With the dorky kids at the far end.

BB guns, running around all night, BMX, it was great.

rjp

[Drago]

Ahh, yes...BB gun wars in the forest w/ metal trash can lids as our only protection.

"Now listen everybody...only one pump of the gun is allowed"

...yeah, like we follow that rule.

Smear the quear...kick the can...etc. I remember the day I got "caught" jumping the neighborhood kids on my BMX bike. Grounded for a week.

We did have video games though...I'm sure some of you remember Pong and Tank. By the time Atari was available I was 16 and lookin' to get laid so I missed out...not.

[Jims5543]

Originally posted by tabs
Jim you obviously sound over 50....and remember the slogan you can't trust anybody over 30.....

I am 38 and remember Atari coming out when I was in 6th or 7th grade. My father said it was the devil and we were not to have it in our house. That is probably why I am addicted to the games now. As a matter of fact I am racing over to the video game store to pick up GT-4 after work.

I do remember when I was younger, like 7 or 8 years old, we would be out all day long doing all kinds of things. From playing baseball in the empty lot to trying to steal candy from the old man at the corner candy store. We were brats when we were little I am still not sure how my mom survived me. She was on a first name basis with the principle and the nurses at the emergency room. I have stiches everywhere along with 2nd degree burns, but never broke a bone.

[legion]

Nintendo and Super Nintendo were around during my grade school to high school years. I remember those summers well (looks off wistfully)....

My friends and I still preferred to ride our bikes, play hide and seek in the forest preserve, built forts in the woods, etc... During the summer, we only really played video games if it was raining or oppressively hot. There were just too many fun things to do. All of our parents worked, so we were left alone on week days. We didn't need (or want) hyper-scheduled activities. This was in Naperville (for those who aren't familiar with the town, think of a yuppie paradise), so there were the hyper-scheduled types all around us. We just didn't hang out with them.

[RANDY P]

OH, and hanging out at Arcades, Silver Coin, Command Center, etc.

[CarreraS2]

I don't really get it!

A lot of people that were kids in the 40s, 50, 60, and 70s ARE dead from a lot of those things. Just think of how many kids flew through windshields or were splattered on dashboards in accidents in the 50s and 60s.

I'm sure people were also messed up by lead paint. The sugar consumption - well, just look at those kids now, they're all obese from a lifetime of bad eating habits that started when they were kids!

A lot of the good things he reminisces about are still true today, too.

[Superman]

Sticks and dirt clods. Sleds and bikes. Out all day, in at dusk for dinner...slept like a baby....back out in the morning. Gathering pop bottles from the ditch for candy money. A quarter would FILL a candy sack.

My childhood was ideal.

[Jims5543]

Originally posted by SoCal911SC
I don't really get it!

A lot of people that were kids in the 40s, 50, 60, and 70s ARE dead from a lot of those things. Just think of how many kids flew through windshields or were splattered on dashboards in accidents in the 50s and 60s.

I'm sure people were also messed up by lead paint. The sugar consumption - well, just look at those kids now, they're all obese from a lifetime of bad eating habits that started when they were kids!

A lot of the good things he reminisces about are still true today, too.

I cannot remember a single incident where one of my friends or someone I knew died from any of those things.

I had some wicked wrecks on my bicycle and never wore a helmet and as far as I know am not brain damaged.......unless everyone around me is keeping a huge secret....hmmmm...

I was a kid in the late 60's early 70's. I am not obese but my younger brother (33 y/o) is. He has been a couch potato for years. Read every book, seen every movie 5x over. He is overweight but sometimes I wonder.....

I used to be a gym rat. Working out 5 days a week 2-3 hours a night. I was fanatical like this from the age of 19 until 26 then slowed sightly due to marriage . Then slowed further due to first kid and carreer priorities.

What do I have for all those hours in the gym? Arthritis in my elbows and shoulders due to too heavy of lifting (according to sports doctor) I just had my right knee scoped and my left knee is not far behind. My right knee always hurts now.

I sprained my L-3 L-4 breaking form on a hack squat machine 5 years ago during warm up sets, and now my right calf cramps up and my back gives me lots of problems. Its wonderful when I am in my car with the racing clutch. I am not sure I could last an hour on an open track.

So I look at my younger brother who is heavy but otherwise no problems and wonder who was the smart one.

Like I said some of the things in that E-mail made me laugh others made me remember happy times as a kid with no worries in the world. Some of the stuff seems like it was written by a bitter person unhappy with their life.

We all have to admit we all looked back at our childhood and smiled... hopefully.

[Tim Hancock]

I laugh to myself every time I see a little kid on a bicycle with training wheels wearing a helmet. When I was that age, I was jumping a minibike over a plywood ramp minus the helmet of course. Then there is the child seats, minivans etc etc. I know deep down safety is a good thing, but it still cracks me up.

I used to worry that kids nowdays (in general) do not have a clue about how to do basic mechanical tasks. I guess in this high tech world they really do not need to know how to fix and build things though (in general). It is aggrevating though, when you go to get your tires changed and the young kids that work there do not have a clue as to what they are doing.

[Moneyguy1]

Amen, TIm.

The fun and spontenaity of being a kid is going the way of the dodo.

And it ain't the fault of the kids. Overprotected, coddled, spoiled, not allowed to learn by making mistakes. Makes you wonder if this isn't tied some way with another thread which brought up the subject of teen suicide!!

[Tim Hancock]

Brian, I want one of those mini crotch rockets, the smaller the better (it looks small and light enough to stick in the back of the airplane!).
It is good to see that not all parents are raising sissies. My teen daughters have been shown the fun things in life also. While I would hate to see them get seriously hurt, I think it is important for them to learn how to determine their limits without too much coddling.

It is kind of shocking now to see things on the news that are being investigated by authorities that we used to do for fun as kids.

[GettinHeadStuds]

Originally posted by SoCal911SC
I was a complete wildman when I was a kid.

But, now that I'm a dad, it's safety first, all the way!

I recently won Parent of the Year from the Worldwide Institute for Modern Parenting Safety for the excellent work I've done with my son!

That is the funniest post I have read in months.

[VincentVega]

Great pics!