Re: Please excuse; more about our youth
From: Anna Meenan, MD (annam@uic.edu)
Mon Aug 1 16:48:20 2005
We played 4-square in the street and baseball on the front lawn, and
never broke a window that I recall. I, of course, was always the last
one chosen when we picked sides, but I survived, and knew very early
that I should not bother with a career in sports or athletics of any
kind. The reason we didn't ever have BB guns is that Dad took us out to
the rifle range with the .22 and the .30-06 and taught us how to handle
real guns properly. He kept the guns in the house, the bolts in his
desk drawer at work, and never bought ammo except on the way to the
range. Parents were reasonable back then without being paranoid.
--
Anna Meenan, MD
At Mon, 1 Aug 2005, Charlie Chambers wrote:
>
>I remember quite fondly, playing football, baseball in the streets. I
>don't know how many antenna we bent accidently or cars we hit with
>baseballs or footballs. You don't see kids anymore just outside
>organizing a game in the street or the closest vacant lot. It's all
>about organized traveling teams. I think there is a lot to be gained by
>growing up having to "choose up sides".
>
>On Aug 1, 2005, at 11:18 AM, art fougner, md wrote:
>
>> What ... no stickball?
>>
>> art
>>
>> At Mon, 1 Aug 2005, Anna Meenan, MD wrote:
>>>
>>> Yeah, I remember how excited we were when we got our first TV that
>>> came
>>> with a UHF tuner so we could get channel 32 from Chicago. That was
>>> actually before we got our first color TV, which as I recall wasn't
>>> until after I went away to college.
>>>
>>> No one in our family ever got a BB gun, but we did have an archery
>>> range
>>> in the backyard and one of my brothers did get hit above the eye with
>>> an
>>> arrow. Mom the nurse didn't even ask who shot the arrow. Made a
>>> "butterfly" out of adhesive tape (pre-steri-strips) and sent him back
>>> out to play.
>>>
>>> Don't forget that the cribs were not just painted with lead paint.
>>> The
>>> bars were also further apart than was safe. Same with our playpens.
>>>
>>> Kids in the neighborhood not only could (and did frequently) walk
>>> right
>>> into our house during the day, but they also felt welcome to grab a
>>> tollhouse cookie out of the 5-gallon tub Mom kept full, constantly
>>> baking in a kitchen with no air-conditioning, and never paying
>>> attention
>>> to heat advisories either.
>>>
>>> Anyone up for a good game of "Red Rover" or "Freeze Tag"?
>>>
>>> --
>>> Anna Meenan, MD
>>>
>>> At Mon, 1 Aug 2005, Lynn D. Montgomery, M.D. wrote:
>>>>
>>>> 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
>>>>
>>>> carried us.
>>>>
>>>> They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and
>>>> didn't get
>>>> tested for diabetes.
>>>>
>>>> Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were 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, 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 pick up 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 and real butter and drank soda pop with
>>>> sugar
>>>> in it, but
>>>>
>>>> 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 the streetlights came on.
>>>>
>>>> No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.
>>>>
>>>> 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.
>>>>
>>>> We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at
>>>> all,
>>>> no
>>>>
>>>> 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no
>>>> cell
>>>>
>>>> phones, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet 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 did not
>>>> 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!
>>>>
>>>> This generation has 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
>>>>
>>>> HOW TO
>>>>
>>>> DEAL WITH IT ALL!
>>>>
>>>> And 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 the lawyers and the government regulated our lives for
>>>> our own
>>>> good.
>>>>
>>>> and while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know
>>>> how brave
>>>> their parents were.
>>>>
>>>> Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors,
>>>> doesn't it?!
>>>>
>>>> <http://www.incredimail.com/index.asp?id=409?=9>
>>>
>> --
>> art fougner, md
>>
>> "If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere
>> else."
>> Lawrence Peter Berra
>>
>************************************************************************
>*
>
>--
>************************************************************************
>Charlie Chambers
>Hood River, OR
>cchamber@alumni.rice.edu
>
>"No matter where you go...
> there you are."
>Dr. Buckaroo Banzai
>************************************************************************
>
>************************************************************************
>
