I’ve always pissed and moaned about how hyper-sensitive Americans are these days about things compared to when I was a kid. I mean, by today’s standards, I shouldn’t even be alive (no seat belts, mom smoked during pregnancy, rode bike without helmets).<\/p>\n
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for seatbelts and safety. Despite (or because of) my “reckless” upbringing, I’m actually a very cautious person as an adult.<\/p>\n
But, as I blogged about only a few days ago, the litigious society we’ve become is something I find rather boring.<\/p>\n
Anyway, here’s the text of the email my parents sent* (it was just one of those emails that people forward). I did delete the last two paragraphs which nonsensically started rambling on about god.<\/p>\n
TO ALL THE KIDS<\/span> <\/font><\/font>WHO SURVIVED the <\/span><\/font>1930’s 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s !!\u00a0<\/span><\/font><\/p>\n <\/font>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.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/font> <\/font>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, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.\u00a0<\/font><\/span> <\/font><\/span><\/font>As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. <\/span>\u00a0<\/font>We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. <\/span>\u00a0<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n <\/font>We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank KoolAid made with sugar, but we weren’t overweight because\u00a0WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING !<\/span>\u00a0<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font> <\/font><\/font>We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.<\/span> <\/font>No one was able to reach us all day\u00a0and we were O.K.<\/span>\u00a0<\/font>We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride 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. <\/span>\u00a0<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/span><\/font>We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all (well, except Pong), 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 or chat rooms\u2026WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! <\/span>\u00a0<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font>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. <\/span>\u00a0<\/font><\/font><\/font>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.\u00a0<\/font><\/span><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n <\/font><\/font><\/font>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!\u00a0<\/span><\/font>Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! <\/span>\u00a0<\/font><\/span>The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of.\u00a0 They actually sided with the law (not that I ever broke any laws, of course)! <\/span>\u00a0<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/span><\/p>\n <\/font><\/font>\u00a0<\/p>\n 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\u00a0HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL! <\/font><\/span><\/p>\n <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span><\/font><\/font><\/span>*Can you tell I can’t think of anything to write today?<\/font><\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n I’ve always pissed and moaned about how hyper-sensitive Americans are these days about things compared to when I was a kid. I mean, by today’s standards, I shouldn’t even be alive (no seat belts, mom smoked during pregnancy, rode bike without helmets). Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for seatbelts and safety. Despite (or because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/snarl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}