Well at least those of us born between 1925 and 1970 . . .

        I look for ideas to use in  this space from where ere I go and today, this entire blog fell in my lap.  I picked it up on the Internet, and that mailing, said they didn’t know where it came from, and I do the same.  Hope you like it.  I do, but the words are not mine.  ethel.

        “No matter what our kids and the new generations think about us, We,  the ones born between 1925 and 1970 Are Awesome!  And our lives are living proof.

        “First, we survived being born to mothers who may have smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.  They took aspirin, ate Blue Cheese dressing, tuna from cans, didn’t get tested for diabetes, and didn’t always wash our hands before eating.

        “Then, after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

        “We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets, went barefoot lots of the time, swam in irrigation ditches, and, when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps, not helmets, on our heads.

        “As infants and children we would ride in the cars with no car seats. no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, but many bald tires and sometimes no brakes.

        “Riding in the back of a pick-up truck 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 died from this.

        “We ate cupcakes, chewed Bubble Gum, ate white bread, real butter and bacon.  We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar.  And we weren’t overweight. 

        “WHY???  Because we walked to school and had recesses twice a day and when there was no school, we were always outside playing.   That’s why.

       “We would leave home in the morning and play all day, and as long as we were back before the Streetlights came on, all was well.  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 them down a hill, only to find out we forgot about brakes.  After running into the bushes and getting scratched  and knocked around  a few times, we learned to solve that problem.

        “We did not have Play Stations, Nintendos, or X-boxes.  There were no video games or DVDs. no surround-sound or CDs, no cell phones, no Sun Guard, personal computers, no Internet and no Chat Rooms.

        “Instead, 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 those accidents.

        “We ate worms, bugs, odd plants, and mud pies made from dirt and the worms and bugs didn’t 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 our eyes out, either. 

        “We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door,  rang the bell or just walked in and joined in whatever was being talked about.  Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team, and those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment.  Imagine that ! !

        “But these ‘neglected’ generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventers ever.  The past 50 to 85 years have seen an explosion of innovations and new ideas that have changed the world and lives of the world’s people.  And we survived  the worst wars ever invented, too.

        “We had freedom, failures, successes, responsibilities and we learned how to deal with it all.

IF YOU  WERE  BORN  BETWEEN  1925  AND  1970,  CONGRATULATIONS.

        “You might want to share this with others who had the good  luck to grow up as a  kid before the lawyers and the government  regulated so much of our lives, ‘for our own good’.

        “While you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave and lucky their parents were.  Makes you want to run through the house like a ten-year old again, doesn’t it?”