People Over 35 Should be Dead

@indywahm (808)
United States
June 14, 2007 9:11am CST
People over 35 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 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 Play-stations, 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!
7 people like this
18 responses
@shestalou (293)
• Canada
14 Jun 07
I agree so many things have changed, when I was growing up we still did not have microwaves, we actually had to warm our food in the oven, lol. Now a days most of our food in supermarkets are in a box already prepared, take it out and heat it up and its done, now its a treat when you get a home cooked meal.
@suspenseful (40193)
• Canada
14 Jun 07
Don't forget all the transfats and sodiums in our food. We lived in houses where there were dust mites in spite of house cleaning. Don't forget we could go on trips without Parental supervision. We walked home at night. Were we ever taking our lives in our hands.
• United States
14 Jun 07
there is a country song that says the same things i reckonised some of the words not sure who sings it though. sorry bout spelling
1 person likes this
@Willowlady (10658)
• United States
14 Jun 07
Had a very similar discussion about how it is now that we cannot do the very things that everyone is afraid of. Somehow we were able to live and it is a shame that we live in a society now that personal freedoms and decisions are harangued from all sides. Too bad folks cannot take a chill pill for sure. It pains some of us to see how the country has turned away from all that was good about living in America.
1 person likes this
@speedy1279 (2665)
• United States
14 Jun 07
Well I am not over 35 yet, I have about 7 years til then. But alot of this still rings true for me and my brother (who is also not over 35). It is amazing how the world has changed. Can you imagine what it will be like another 50 years from now. I get scared just thinking about it.
2 people like this
• United States
14 Jun 07
I'm still a few years away from 35, but this list really is true. I "survived" so many of the things that people today see as "tragedies" befalling the youth of America. I even fell out of a moving car as a child (nope, wasn't wearing my seatbelt)! It makes me worry about where the country will be when the kids of today are in their 30s...
@smacksman (6053)
14 Jun 07
And we have been through global warming and rising sea levels for over 60 years.
1 person likes this
@gardengrrl (1445)
• United States
14 Jun 07
We were also told to ride our bikes facing oncoming traffic, and we got lots of exercise jumping up and down to change the TV channel for our parents, no remote control. My cousins lived in one of the earliest places to get cable, CATV, actually, and when they came out with set-top cable boxes, one of them got some extra wire and moved the box from the TV to the table next to his recliner - instant remote control! Baby Boomers took to the streets and tore up the sheets in rejecting our parent's repressive ways, but we threw the baby out with the bathwater and forgot to come up with something to replace it with! That's why so many kids today are so relentlessly spoiled. Don't know what the solution is. Congratulations to you, too! I was never fond of eating paint chips, only library paste.
• United States
14 Jun 07
Oh, and don't forget competeing with all our schoolmates to be the teacher's helper each week, so we could run off all the mimeograph copies. Remember that smell? Heaven! I guess it's a good thing we never thought of trying to concentrate those vapors and "huff" them!
@catbvq (364)
• Philippines
15 Jun 07
Thank you! I'm proud to be in this generation. I hope the next generation also learn to deal with their generation's demands and learn a lot from it as well . This topic/discussion is one of the best I've read! Keep coming up with wonderful and interesting topics such as this. Thanks for sharing this to us.
@mykmari_08 (2464)
• Philippines
15 Jun 07
Yup, I guess I belong to this generation you stated, although I have more than 3 years before I reach 35 target. Our environment has really conjured so much, so many changes - pills, computer age, dengue, avian flu, rampant crimes (unimagineable ones at that), and other things which really tested our time. I am so glad that I was born a little earlier than this age now. I can very well see the difference of this age with ours; particularly our youth. They are so spoiled and information are spoonfed to them. Well, I have nothing against their moms / parents, though. But really, discipline imposed on us then was much stricter than what they receive today. Admittedly, I'm a bit scared of their tomorrows. Do they have what it takes to endure all the trials, tragedies and hardships they are facing? I pray that they, too, will overcome any hindrance to their bright future, and emerge triumphant in any problem posed on their way by this world.
• United States
15 Jun 07
Yes those were the good old days.
@castleghost (1304)
• United States
14 Jun 07
Everything that you have stated is true. These days children are spoiled compared to the way that were raised. And what is said is that you can really tell just by waking down the street or picking up your child from school even. There are a lot more over weight children then there ever use to be. While I admit some of the new inventions have been nice in some areas they have also caused many problems in other areas. Can we honestly say the good out weights the bad? Congratulations to you as well.
1 person likes this
• United States
15 Jun 07
I truly miss the old days somedays.I guess you don't know what you have till it's gone.
@lexus54 (3572)
• Singapore
15 Jun 07
Thank you for reminding us, the midlifers and those older, how resilient we had been as a generation. We should celebrate the fact that even though we had lived life deprived of many innovations, inventions and things the current generation gets to enjoy, yet we have survived through the years, became tougher and with a bigger appetite for risks. We went through the fire and learnt how to conquer over failures and adversities, and came out stronger for it. The world has changed. Technology is now at the heart of almost everything that govern people's lives. The challenges faced by the current generation are different. So are the expectations and motivations of life. People's values have eroded over the years. There is more crime, intolerance, hatred and violence in almost every nook and corner of the earth - hallmark of modern day living. The world has certainly become a more dangerous place for all of us. How many people in the today's world will not live past 35, I wonder.
@chiyosan (30184)
• Philippines
14 Jun 07
definitely! :) i wish kids nowadays will still be able to enjoy the life we had as kids, playing outdoors and no internet, research done in libraries, with friends to help you find books... hehehe now its more convenient, and i guess, less fun.
@bcl_me (582)
• Philippines
15 Jun 07
I am exactly 35 years old so i did made the cut...so i still should be alive should i? but as your story emplies, from where i come from, they still enjoy the same ameneties...in fact they still wear those ancient clothes they wore 100 years ago...although they have already learn how to use cellphones but that's just it...everything is still the same it is as if world and time was frozen but their falies are growing at an unctrolloable rate...when i was a kid the village has only about 250 inhabitants but now, 25 years later, there about 10000 already...and there is not much changes there.
@lynboobsy11 (11343)
• Philippines
14 Jun 07
I'm 35 now and you can add to that surviving women in some pregnancies like mine I used to seuffered half of my life chances upon delivering my last baby I lost the baby and nearly my life too.
• United States
14 Jun 07
Sure is true! I am 60 and when I think of all the changes over my lifetime - well, let's just say - there has been alot! I alos wonder what time will bring.....