One of my dad’s FAVORITE pastimes is to spam my personal email. The emails that he sends me range from “the government is going to kidnap you and keep you in a cardboard box on Guantanamo Bay” to “Jesus loves you as long as you send this to 123 people in 10 seconds otherwise you’re going to hell.” I was sent this chain letter last night from him, and I actually read this one. Usually I automatically delete them but I’m glad I didn’t because I really did like this one. This chain letter sums him up pretty well. It also goes to show you what kind of a bad-ass grandparent he will one day become, and it’s probably proof of all the hospital bills my future children will accumulate because Grandpa was “watching” them for the day. – The Infertile Housewife
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 bleu 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-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had baseball caps and not helmets on our heads.
As infants and 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 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 OK.
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 didn’t have Playstation’s, Nintendo’s, and X-boxes. There were no video games, no 150 channels on TV, 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 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 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 have 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 lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good.
While you’re at it, forward it to your kids so they’ll know how brave and lucky their parents were.
Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?
