Were You Born Before 1985?

[Jahfin]

Were you born before 1985?

This pretty much says it all!

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were
kids in the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's or even the early 80's, probably shouldn't have survived.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.

We had no childproof lids or locks on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.

Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar
in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside
playing.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no
one actually died from this.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then
rode 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 would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as
we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach
us all day. No cell phones. Unthinkable!

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games
at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound,
personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.

We had friends! We went outside and found them.

We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt.

We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there
were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one
was to blame but us. Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to
get over it.

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were
told it would happen, we did not put out anyeyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home 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.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.

The idea of parents bailing us out if we got in trouble in school or broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the school or the law. Imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem
solvers, and inventors, ever.

We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility --- and we learned how to deal with it.

We were blessed to grow up as "kids" before lawyers and government regulated our lives "for our own good" !!!

[Sidew13]

Life WAS good

[kimbug]

Aaaaahhhhh....the good 'ol days....
I 'member them....

[ragtopW]

You forgot two things
As teens we had access to some of the fastest cars in the world
or maybe in time. (our stationwagon had a Police big block and
positraction)
and some of us as teens went out with other teens (hand picked
by Dad) and we GASP! had guns on us and did not get pulled over
and arrested!!!!

[sailingagain]

I'm an "early eighties" child. That really hits it right on the head.

[poohbear1324]

Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games
at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound,
personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.


my favs.

[Alan11]

if you wanted to change channels on the tv you got off your butt and did it yourself

if the president was on tv your night was screwed because he was on the only 3 channels you could pick up

you had to put aluminumn foil on the rabbit ears to get better reception on the tv

if you misbehaved you didn't get time out or put of riddilin you got your rear end paddled black and blue and learned never to do that again.

Those are a few i can think of for the time being

[Ilph]

Born in 1979 here. Days of tree houses and and BMX ramps cut into the hill across the street. We got crazy injuries from climbing trees and fences. My sister broke her arm and has stitches in her chin from when she fell off the monkey bars the first day of first grade, and the word lawsuit was never even thought of when it happened.

[sailingagain]

I remember those endless summers where this was my schedule:

9AM:wakeup
10AM:stickball
NOON:lunch
1PM:basketball
3PM:swimming
5PM:sit around, laugh and look at baseball cards
6PM:Home for dinner
7PM:stickball under the lights

No wonder we were never fat from all the junkfood. We never rested.

[PARROT HEAD MIKE]

I remember those endless summers where this was my schedule:

9AM:wakeup
10AM:stickball
NOON:lunch
1PM:basketball
3PM:swimming
5PM:sit around, laugh and look at baseball cards
6PM:Home for dinner
7PM:stickball under the lights

No wonder we were never fat from all the junkfood. We never rested.

You are 100% right the kids these days sit infront of the tv or the computer and eat all sorts of junk food, don't work it off and get fat. Another thing I noticed is when you are behind a school bus it stops every 100 yards or so, maybe 300-500 yards at the most. I'm not that old but we never took a bus to school, and the kids who did didn't get dropped off at their front door; drop them all off in one place and make them walk their fat ass home.

[sailingagain]

That's so true. I never thought of that. Back in high school(late 80's/early 90's), the bus made 1 stop per town. Now if I get behind a bus on a backstreet, it takes me 15 minutes to travel 3 blocks with all the stops they make.

[CUparrot]

Ah, memories. I'm a Bicentennial baby....

I can remember riding my bike all over my neighborhood with my friends. And my parents' didn't care (as long as we were back for dinner)--they just knew we'd be fine. I was *never* inside as a kid--winter, summer, no matter the temperature....we were out playing all the time.

I do have to disagree with the statement about not having video games--I had my Atari 2600!!

Thanks for posting this, jahfin. Brings back the good ol' days.

[RAGTOP]

I remember those endless summers where this was my schedule:

9AM:wakeup
10AM:stickball
NOON:lunch
1PM:basketball
3PM:swimming
5PM:sit around, laugh and look at baseball cards
6PM:Home for dinner
7PM:stickball under the lights

No wonder we were never fat from all the junkfood. We never rested.

we were on the same schedule Best time of my life

[barefootpirate]

Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those
who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

I remember being driven by my little league coach in the back of a Chevy Luv truck with my whole little league team to the next town to play, which was 5 miles away. Never thought twice about it.

Makes me wonder what the kids these days will be thinking about when they think of their "good ole days"?

PHINS ^

[rednekkPH]

and some of us as teens went out with other teens (hand picked by Dad) and we GASP! had guns on us and did not get pulled over and arrested!!!!

I graduated high school in '94. The majority of the guys in my school (and a goodly amount of the girls too) brought rifles and shotguns with us becuase we stopped to hunt either before or after school. They always stayed locked in our vehicles, but it was no secret that they we had them.

Nothing was ever said to us. Try that now, and they'd lock you up.

[Melli_Fera]

and some of us as teens went out with other teens (hand picked by Dad) and we GASP! had guns on us and did not get pulled over and arrested!!!!

I graduated high school in '94. The majority of the guys in my school (and a goodly amount of the girls too) brought rifles and shotguns with us becuase we stopped to hunt either before or after school. They always stayed locked in our vehicles, but it was no secret that they we had them.

Nothing was ever said to us. Try that now, and they'd lock you up.

Ain't that the truth? My cousin is 18, has a hunting license and a licence to carry a firearm. Was pulled over for speeding, with his rifle, and delayed for AN HOUR by a smart a$$ cop who kept threatening him even AFTER he produced all his licenses.

BTW, go class of '94!

[iuparrothead]

and some of us as teens went out with other teens (hand picked by Dad) and we GASP! had guns on us and did not get pulled over and arrested!!!!

I graduated high school in '94. The majority of the guys in my school (and a goodly amount of the girls too) brought rifles and shotguns with us becuase we stopped to hunt either before or after school. They always stayed locked in our vehicles, but it was no secret that they we had them.

Nothing was ever said to us. Try that now, and they'd lock you up.

My high school too. Gun racks with the guns in them in the back windows of the pickup trucks. And a dead dear carcass in the bed. And the boys smelled like p***...

But it's a good thing that isn't allowed today... sorry, guns don't belong on a school's property ever!

It's too bad that those kids of the 60's and 70's grew up to be the parents that instigated all the change that story laments. My parents grew up in the 50's so they still wish things were that way...

[rednekkPH]

And a dead dear carcass in the bed.

Hell, if we got a deer in the morning, we didn't come in to school. Had to butcher it before it went bad. Teachers never had a problem with it, we kept 'em well fed

As for guns not belonging in school, I think a better argument is that alot of these psycho idiot kids don't belong in school.

[PARROT HEAD MIKE]

Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those
who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.

I remember being driven by my little league coach in the back of a Chevy Luv truck with my whole little league team to the next town to play, which was 5 miles away. Never thought twice about it.

Makes me wonder what the kids these days will be thinking about when they think of their "good ole days"?

PHINS ^

They will say we rode our bike one day with only a helmet no elbow pads or knee pads and one other time we went to the beach without sunblock. If we wore a helmet when we were kids be would have got beat up and made fun of, the thing is I don't ever remember any kids I knew getting hurt riding a bike or playing street hockey without a helmet and all sorts of pads. Now all kids have to worry about these days is getting blisters on their thumbs while playing playstation. I'm not knocking kids for playing playstation because I have one but at least get outside and do something.

[Cubbie Bear]

Born with Ike in the White House, so here goes. (and I just found the same list Jahfin and was gonna use it here myself)

-First love of my life, Caroline Kennedy

--Having a house key, in first grade. And "Home Alone" was a way of life for families after school, not a crime.

-Riding with Dad to his office in the Chicago Loop and being told, "Have fun, be at the parking garage at 4:45" and messing around the Loop for 8 hours unsupervised, IN 5TH GRADE!

-Mowing a lawn for $3, jumping on the EL for 45 cents each way, 50 cents to get in the Wrigley Bleachers and enough money left over to eat my fill. Saw 46 games in 1969 that way

--Camping out in the forest preserves. Now if you back your car into a parking spot, somebody will take you for a "wide receiver" (this ended the summer they found the body in St Paul Woods in Morton Grove)

--Riding our bikes to Howard Street Beach

--Summer baseball games started by nine. If nobody was on vacation we could play all fields. But mostly, it was right field closed, pitchers hand out, shift to right when Teddy-Wobs was up (the neighborhoods only lefty) And then playing a minimum of 6 full games a day.

--After dinner, four square block games of "Flashlight Tag" A game we made up combining Hide & Seek and tag, but with teams.

--If you went past Glenview, Il. you were in "The Country", now it is solid burbs from Howard Street to the Wisconsin border.

--Riding our bikes to said Wisconsin border.

--All day movie "festivals" at the Clark theatre. One dollar got you "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly", "A Fist Full Of Dollars" Hang Em High" and "For a Few Dollars More" back to back. Same with Bond movies and several others.

--Saturday matinees. Loads of cartoons, two features and 50 cents got you lots of candy.

--Sure Junior Mints were good, but I always got Sno-Caps and the biggest Coke they had.

--Authority meant something. Parental, teacher, cops, adults in the neighborhood. Adults were always Mr or Mrs and answered with Yes/no sir or mamm

--Misbehavior was threatened with "Military School" and kids in the neihborhood actually got sent.

--Driving two days in the Pontiac without AC, to fish in Minnesota or Canada at resorts or campgrounds that didn't have pools, AC, Waterslides or arcades and two solid weeks without a television

--Listening to baseball on radio from all over the midwest, Harry Carey from KMOX, the Tigers, the Reds, The Twins