TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 50’s — I’m not sure the origins of this funny net humor post found on Craig’s List in San Francisco, but it’s a genuine folk classic.

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 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?!

found by Meetsy



  1. Sounds the Alarm says:

    I want this woman.

  2. ME says:

    Wow…it’s too bad their kids are such fat, lazy, antisocial cowards.

  3. Jay Contonio says:

    Funny, it was the same growing up in the 80’s in Massachusetts. Keep whining ya old bags…

  4. Eideard says:

    Yet, again, I wish I still had my ’57 Chevy Nomad small-block.

  5. Improbus says:

    Yes! Let’s here it for natural selection! The problem now days is that we save the morons that should have died. Then they breed. *shiver*

  6. Michael Reed says:

    Americans have become lame, lazy, and litigious. This is why as soon as someone says it is for the children, I know it is not. Kids are tough, unless you enable them not to be. I am pondering a stepdaughter right now who pretends to be asthmatic when she find an adult willing to feed into her fantasy, but otherwise she is fine. The really sad thing is that she is going to lose out on life because she wants to be like her friend who walks around huffing an inhaler. Amazing what peer pressure can be and do. I just wish she would make friends with those who have fewer hangups.

    BTW for a decent idea of what is wrong in the US today, all you have to do is go spend a day sitting near the juvenile office of your nearest police station. After a few hours, you can match the parents and children just by seeing the parents walk in.

  7. Carmen says:

    And, we walked to school!

  8. Jerry Cole says:

    How about the metal playgrounds where the slide was 30 feet tall and absorb heat to sear the children all the way down. Of course, you would stick to it so it took about 4 starts to get all the way down.

  9. Pat says:

    We walked to school, every day. Uphill both ways. Through 3 feet of snow in October. To a School without central heating / air. With a teacher that used a strap, if we were lucky, or the pointer if she was in a hurry. Yup, them were the days.

  10. K B says:

    “WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!” — Perhaps the best line from the piece.

    Best line from COMMENTS: “As soon as someone says it is for the children, I know it is not.” –M. Reed

  11. Ima Fish says:

    Michael Reed, while I agree with the lame and litigious parts, I disagree with the laziness. Whenever I meet someone from Europe they’re SHOCKED at how hard we work.

    First, over here we actually WANT overtime. Second, over here we get at most two weeks vacation (compared to a month) and we generally work during it. Third, we take work home. Fourth, not only do we NOT take two hour lunches, we sometimes even eat at hour desks WHILE working. I could go on and on.

    Sure, we might be lazier than some countries, but we’re certainly not the laziest by any standard.

  12. Frank says:

    And when we did wrong we got whipped. The school whipped us and no one thought to blame or sue the school. Instead we were held accountable for our actions. And when we got home, Mom whipped us again. And when Dad came home, he whipped us again. We were actually taught right from wrong, and that we had to face the consequences of doing wrong.

    Now days, the parents refuse to teach any of these things to their kids and get angry when society does it for them. Unfortunately, society has to use a jail rather than a belt or a board. It’s better to teach people early when the consequences aren’t so severe.

  13. Mike Cannali says:

    Don’t know which is most attractive – the girl or the car.

  14. Streklov says:

    Great post!
    All this talk of getting whipped in school. With me it was a ruler across the knuckles. My knuckles were rarely sore for more than a day or two. And in PE it was that paddle with the holes in it – now that sucker hurt! The knuckle raps didn’t have much effect, but you better believe I paid attention during PE.

  15. Fishermen says:

    True as this may be, prisons are filled with individuals that are Alcohol Fetal Damaged. AFD individuals exhibit zero attention span and cannot seem to finish anything they start. E.g, Employment! AFD Individuals usually drop out of school at an early age. They exhibit an array of anti social behaviors. (A.F.D) individuals show an inability to resolve small or large conflicts without violent solutions. This also includes Rape.

    Lead-based paints in the home may be very well account for why so many people cannot think or solve simple problems. Lead, mercury, and other heavy metal toxin poisoned children are truly in a sad existence. They are prisoners inside their own brains. Something akin to Autism after Birth. Not to even mention the damage and long term affects of particular insecticides in our air, food and water.

    And If that isn’t bad enough read about the episode of Mercury Poisening in childrens immunization shots. Elli Lilly was using mercury as a preservative in their vaccines.

    Our parents’ ignorance may be excusable but OUR Apathy is not. If we do know better due to years of experience; Don’t our children deserve better than what we’ve experienced and survived? I really don’t know how many of us survived those situations but the of us that did, “There But For The Grace Of God Go I (we).”

    Environmental Poisoning in the home and out side the home is a very real entity in our Modern lives. It may very well account for a lot of the anti social, Low Intelligence, and Sociopath zombies living breathing and walking among us.

    If that is what you call surviving, sobeit! I guess you can call me a survivor.

    Some simple solutions for these aforementioned problems are solved by using brain power.

    Childproof lids – Keep all medicines, cleaning fluids up on high shelves and cabinets out of the reach of little hands.

    Unfortunately no one ever thinks that their children are ever going to get into a bicycle accident until it does happen. The Hospice wards have their fair share of coma & Brain Dead patients due to an array of athletic accidents. Not just Bicycle accidents.

    Hitchhicking! What really needs to be said? Missing Children!


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