Here's to us! We are Awesome!!  

My father used to talk about putting a screen up in the creek to keep the turds from coming down stream. Now you don't dare change your baby's diaper by the side of the pool and they have chemicals in the water. What has happened? Have we become a weak bunch of human beings.

I have seen these before. Life was not that good. I was molested. I remember being in a car with my father being drunk and him driving. I remember being spanked for GP...my brothers got in trouble so we all got a whooping.

So I guess we survived our family.

Oh and kids died...car accidents, bike accidents. There were no seat belts and no bike helmets.

As for being healthy..and playing..well this country is now full of overweight adults ---us. We picked ups ome bad eating habits.

I think the next 50 years will be even better.

yup.ate snow and icicles without worrying what air pollutants might be in them.
went to a school chock full of lead paint and asbestos as well.

It must have been nice and quiet being at those times. but i did remember the time that we didn't have computers, mobile phones and computer. but we had T.V. back then and enjoyed times of playing and walking through the grass. we already have T.V. back then but not to many shows to watch. .

It was a simpler time. We didn't know the dangers. But as we learned we were able to protect our own selves. We don't need the government to do it for us. We do need the government to enforce the LAWS we see fit to enact. The American people are not dumb...coffee may be hot written on our drink containers, cars that lock by themselves (pet peeve)...give me a break!

To the responder who was molested. I was too...r*ped at age eight. I survived. Why, cause I gave up the victim mentality and allowed God to teach me how to be strong BUT not bitter.

I didn't get that from the government. I didn't get it from my therapist. I didn't get that from the prescriptions they tried to tell me I needed or the pop psychology self help crowd writing books. I got that from FAITH IN GOD. I realize that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I realize that sh*t happens....and I realize that I am loved by the Creator of the Universe....and I am being formed within...in HIS image.

We don't need big brother telling us how to live...we need GOD telling us how to live.

Yes I was born in the 70's but the country I was born in was under martial rule and I remember there was curfew all the time. It was okay to have curfew but when people start disappearing for no reason then that's sad.
But it really was a good time for children growing up without the technology of today.
And it was cooler then even in a tropical country because there were lots of trees even in the city where kids can climb. We catch grasshopers and dragonflies in the ballfield. Now, there are still grasshoppers and dragonflies but just a few when I get to visit last week for an early afternoon walk around the oval.
Yes lucky us coz we experience all that and still experience what is offered today. Isn't that great?

hi hornswaggled, I had a good laugh reading this. This text also was translated into German and made into a small book together with lovely pictures.
Yes its true what the text says, life in our childhood times was so much easier than today.
have a great weekend and God Bless you.

It was fun reading your article. In some countries and villages this still happens. I was not born in the time period you mentioned, however I can relate to lot of this you have written. I don't agree with mothers smoking and taking aspirin. In India mothers don't smoke or drink and eat good food. This has been going on in the past and will continue in the future. Unless people forget our traditions and health aspects.

All of these things were just part of growing up.

Nobody thought twice about someone with a gun... we were very familiar with them and crime was not as common as it is now.

We all carried pocketknives... not as a weapon, but as a tool.

Most schoolyard fights involved fists, and nobody got killed or even seriously injured.

We respected our parents, the police and our teachers... and everybody seemed to get along a lot better than they do now.

Compare that with what we see today, and I really believe those were better times.

We have the socialists and the liberals to thank for the problems we have today...