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According
to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those who were kids in
the 50's, 60's, 70's and early 80's probably shouldn't have survived,
because...
Our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based
paint which was promptly chewed and licked. We had no childproof
lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and
it was fine to play with pans.
When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip flops and fluorescent
'clackers' on our wheels.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in
the passenger seat was a treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle - tasted the same.
We ate dripping sandwiches, bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy pop with
sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.
We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no one actually
died from this.
We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went to speed
down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into stinging
nettles 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 before it got dark. No
one was able to reach us all day and no one minded. We did not have Playstations
or X-Boxes, no video games at all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies,
no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet chat
rooms. We had friends - we went outside and found them. We played elastics
and street rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt. We fell out of trees,
got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits. They were accidents.
We learnt not to do the same thing again. We had fights, punched each other
hard and got black and blue - we learned to get over it.
We walked to friend's homes. We made up games with sticks and tennis balls
and ate live stuff, and although we were told it would happen, we did not have
very many eyes out, nor did the live stuff live inside us forever.
We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the hood. 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 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.
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