I am one of the baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964. I sometimes wonder how we survived. Consider:
Our mothers smoked and/or drank while 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 brightly colored, lead-based paints.
There were no childproof lids on medicine or special locks on cabinet doors.
We we rode bikes, we wore baseball caps, not specially engineered helmets.
As infants, we rode in cars without car seats or booster seats, no seat belts and no air bags. Sometimes, as tots, we rode in small moving boxes packed with blankets and toys.
We rode in the back of pickup trucks and no one was arrested or cited.
We drank water from garden hoses, not from plastic bottles.
We shared a single bottle of Coca-Cola with three friends -- and no one died.
We ate cupcakes with food coloring, white bread, real butter and bacon. In fact, we drank Kool-Aid mixed with tablespoons of real sugar.
Yet we weren't overweight, because we were always outside playing.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when dusk fell. And no one was able to reach us all day. And: we were okay.
We'd spend hours in the forest with Daisy rifles, or building go-carts without brakes, or sledding with wooden and steel monstrosities that could sever a limb.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's and X-Boxes. There were no video games, no cable television, no DVD players. There were no computers, no web, no Facebook, no Twitter.
We had friends and we went outside and found them... without cell phones or text messages.
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits resulting 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 and knives for our birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls, played lawn darts and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out 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.
The boomers have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, inventors and entrepreneurs ever.
The last 50 years have seen an explosion of innovation and new ideas.We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
We had the good fortune to grow up as kids in America, before the government regulated so much of our lives "for our own good".
Give thanks, for such an age will never occur again.
Hat tips: How Beautiful We Were (American Digest), Contrairimairi and AdClassix. Linked by: Paul Ibrahim. Thanks!
14 comments:
Yeah, and your generation is also the "make love not war generation", the "if it feels good, then do it" generation, the "finance everything until I have debt up my nose" generation, the "I'll be my kids' friends, not parents" generation, the "spend what I make, no need to invest, for we'll make sure the gov't will take care of us, future generations be damned" generation. In short, the worst, most spoiled, most abominable generation ever in US history, which in turn breeds even worse generation of "high in self esteem, but low in actual aptitude, character, and capabilities" "the world revolves around me" generation, which in turn breeds even worse one, etc.
We are also the generation that served and died in Vietnam. 50,000 names on the wall.
We are also the generation that invented or developed the personal computer, the cell phone, and other high-tech wonders. Many of us repudiated right-wing thinking that supported racism and kept women in a low-status caste. We grew up during the Cold War and, thanks to duck-and-cover drills, Soviet threats to bury us, the Berlin Wall, and the specter of the mushroom cloud, are surprised that we lived this long. We've lived this long thanks, in part, to medical research and treatment that borders on science fiction, thanks to Baby Boomers who elected to go into medicine and medical research - and thanks to a powerful Armed Services composed of primarily of Boomers and their children.
We also disinvented bras, had sex on campus in the fountain at lunch. We taught the movies to swear and take off their clothes as well.
WE started the FreeSpeech movement adn wrote great words on our tee shirts.
CONSERVATIVES WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PASSAGE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964 AND THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL IN THE '80's GET YER FACTS STRAIGHT, THE KKK WAS COMPOSED OF MOSTLY SOUTHERN RACIST DEMOCRATS
To rightwingimmigrant Absolutely everything you've listed can be traced right back the liberal/progressive/communists that realized they could do more damage by buying a suit and infiltrating the political parties. They are always and will always be about destruction, chaos and demoralization -because you can't enslave a strong-willed, confident population.
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/Articles/sjseekingleft.html
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/Articles/exposingparttwo.html
50 years of self congratulating Baby Boomers. Yes, it's a wonder we've survived, it's not at all surprising we're in the sad shape they've left us. It'll take generations to fix the mess the boomers have left us, our children, our grandchildren.
You bunch of sad miserable, self loathing liberals. Whiny sniveling brats that have to be placed in cotton batting to survive...you deserve socialism then you can really be slugs.
We grew up during the Cold War, thanks duck and cover exercises, to bury the Soviet threat, the Berlin Wall, and the specter of the mushroom cloud, was surprised to see that we have lived so long.
portable media player
The world you baby boomers lived in was created by the previous generation, known as the "greatest generation". The world we live in today was created by the boomers.
Many of us repudiated right-wing thinking that supported racism and kept women in a low-status caste.
Right wing thinking? I think you need to over yourself.
CONSERVATIVES WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PASSAGE OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964
True. Until the media was allowed to re-write the historical record.
The world you baby boomers lived in was created by the previous generation, known as the "greatest generation". The world we live in today was created by the boomers
All too true.
and thanks to a powerful Armed Services composed of primarily of Boomers and their children.
...and would love to do it all over again.
don't lump my 1964 birth in with you dope smoking maggot infested hippie FM type boomers, you commie pinko.
DirectorBlue,
Aren't all the things you described basically the the things that your PARENTS did? IE: Your parents allowed you guys to do all of that, then you in turn became the nanny statists of today?
Mad Mike nails it in one.
Also, you had me up until :
" We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's and X-Boxes. There were no video games, no cable television, no DVD players. There were no computers, no web, no Facebook, no Twitter."
goodie for you, Caveman Bill! Isn't Ludditism FUN?
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