The following isn’t 100 percent, but it covers a lot of us.
First we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. (Not recommending that, of course.)
They took aspirin, ate bleu cheese dressing and didn’t get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, our baby cribs were covered with brightly colored lead-based paints.
We had no child-proof lids on medicine bottles, doors and 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 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, bread and 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 street lights 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, then ride downhill, 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 Play Stations, Nintendos, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no taped movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet and 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 made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live in us forever.
We rode bikes and walked to friends? houses and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League had tryouts and not everybody made them. 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 the freedom, failure, successes and responsibility and we learned how to deal with it all.
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In case you’re feeling lower this fall than you did in the spring, researchers have found a reason for it.
The sunny days of spring, with more out-of-doors time, virtually guarantee to brighten your mood and improve your memory and cognitive functions, they say.
Why don’t sunny days in the fall produce the same effect? Because you have been deprived of spring weather all during winter, and are eager for the change.
Winter is a downer, spring’s an upper. Dull days slow us, bright days raise our spirits.
Sure glad researchers, perhaps with taxpayer money, pointed out the obvious to us.