Wow how did we do it and to think you can't even let your kids walk to school any longer even though it is only a block away. Go figure.

HOW DID WE SURVIVE?

Looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have.

As children we would ride in cars with no seat belts or no air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

Our baby cribs were painted with bright colored lead based paint. We often chewed on the crib, ingesting the paint.

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

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

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 streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day.

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

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda, but we were never over weight; we were always outside playing.

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

Some students weren't as smart as others or didn't work hard so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade.

That generation produced some of the greatest risk-takers and problem solvers. We had the freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

..........author unknown

[received in an email.]

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2002

Answers

The Hungarian and I have a theory. In the "old days" idiots and assholes were usually killed off in world wars so not nearly as many people died from accidents and murder as do today. Oh and prison was actually a deterrence at one time.

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2002

Not only that, but some idiots tended to stay on certain sides of the city, and if you avoided those areas, you didn't have to deal with them. Looking like a bum used to be a Bad Thing.

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2002