Quote:
Originally Posted by SeptemberMorn
At the end of this email is a quote of the month by Jay Leno. If you don't read anything else, please read what he said.
Very well stated, Mr. Leno.
TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED THE 1930's, 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's!!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-base paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps not helmets on our heads.
As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, no booster seats, no seat belts, no air bags, 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 actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread, real butter and bacon. We drank Kool-Aid made with real white sugar. And, we weren't overweight. WHY?
Because we were always outside playing...that's why!
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 O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride them 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 and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and no 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!
These generations have 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.
If 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 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.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?
The quote of the month is by Jay Leno:
"With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?"
*The double underlined words are NOT mine.
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This is great! I was born in 1975, so I'm kind of a "tweener" to both generations a.k.a. Generation X
1. My mom did drink when she was pregnant with me. She had never picked up a cigarette UNTIL she was pregnant with me. I was her 6th so it wasn't the stress of pregnancy
2. Lead based paint..yip..been there & still kickin'
3. We had childproof lids, but I knew how to open them

. I did it to get into an asprin bottle when I had a fever...I didn't realize it was my mom's speed stash
4. Never had a helmet either, but didn't break any bones...although I have had teeth knocked out & suffered 3 concussions...but never on a bike
5. Never, had a car seat but have had my head slammed in a car door...ouch!!
6. I didn't ride in the back of a pick up truck, but did hop on trains & grab onto the bumpers of cars going down the street on a skate board
7. Shared drinks with friends & also didn't die...but have been grossed out by drinking a spider....
8. I not only drank from a waterhose but also a polluted river
9. I loved bacon by the pound, could eat 40 ounce hamburgers, chain drank mountain dew & was only a 120 lbs in high school.
10. I could ply basket ball from dusk till dawn, but we had no streetlights. Of course, I would sneak out & take my moms car & get stuck in a ditch, get grounded, sneak out the next night & steal my step dad's pontoon just to get it wedged on a bank 4 miles down stream
11. I never built a go cart, but I did sneak over to the "classier" trailor park & steal a bunch of bikes, strip them down, mix & match the parts then sell them back to the kids that I stole them from for $10 bucks as a good deed
12. I didn't have a Playstation, but I did have an Atari but must admit playstaions do rock!!
13. I never ate worms, but as I said I did drink a spider. I was once bitten by over 200 fire ants when I was a toddler....Not FUN!! but not fatal either
14. I didn't have a BB gun at 10...I was 11. I never put out an eye but I did shoot my best friend in his testicles
15. We never locked our doors either...but not because we felt safe...because if someone wanted to break in they wouldn't do as much property damage getting in.
16. The participation award thing is one I stronngly relate to as a coach. I believe in them at 4,5,6.....not at 12 & up! While I've seen the bad effects of participation awards, I've also seen out of control competeive parents that totally destroy their kids spirit & suck the fun out.
So consider this my shout out to the generation X'ers