|
|
To
Everything There is a Season: . A Time to Weep, A Time to
Laugh.
Ecclesiastes 3
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
A
Child of the Sixties
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 air bags.
Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special
treat.
Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and
when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention hitchhiking
to town as a young kid!)
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. . . .
Horrors.
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. No cell
phones. . . Unthinkable.
We played dodge ball and sometimes the ball would
really hurt.
A Child of the Sixties
(cont.)
We got cut and broke bones and
broke 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 ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar soda but we were
never overweight........we were always outside playing.
We shared one grape soda with four friends, from one bottle and no one
died from this?
A Child of the
Sixties (cont.)
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X
Boxes, video games at all, 99 channels on cable, video tape
movies, surround sound, personal cellular phones, Personal Computers,
Internet chat rooms, ............... we had friends.
We went outside and found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s
home and knocked on the door, or rung the bell or just walked in and
talked to them.
Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves!
Out there in the cold cruel world! Without a guardian. How did we do it?
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
inside us forever.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who
didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment.
A Child of the Sixties
(cont.)
Some students weren’t as smart
as others so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same
grade.....Horrors.
Tests were not adjusted for any reason.
Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. No one to hide
behind.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of.
They actually sided with the law, imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem
solvers and inventors, ever.
The past 50 years has been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We
had freedom, failure, success and responsibility.
And if you’re one of them. . .
Congratulations!
# # #
Return HOME from A Child
of the Sixties
|
|
|
