I have written about this before but I ran across a different version in ClevelandSeniors.com, which I enjoyed very much, Here are a few nuggets if information. If all this makes sense to you, you are probably a baby boomer.
Looking back, it's hard to believe I've managed to survive as long as I have with so many life-threatening episodes along the way, As a child I rode in a car with no seat belt or air bags. In the back of a pick-up truck even.
There were no childproof lids, latches, warnings, doors or cabinets. We had no helmets for our bikes.
I drank water from the garden hose, because I did not want to run inside to get a drink. We played outside all day as long as we came back when it got dark. No one could reach us. No cell phone, no pager.
We played dodge ball and Red Rover and sometimes got hurt. We broke bones, got scrapes, and cuts. There were no lawsuits because these were accidents. We got in fights. We hit each other, got bruises and got over it. We ate all kinds of junk food but were so active we never gained weight.
We did not have personal TVs, Playstations, Nintendos, X Boxes, video games, cable, VCRs, stereos, personal computers or internet chat rooms. We had friends. We went out side and found our friends. We rode bikes, walked by ourselves. We tried out for Little League and some of us didn't make it. Those who didn't learned to deal with disappointment.
Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. There was no one to hide behind. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They sided with the law! The baby boomer generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem-solvers and inventors ever. The past 60 years has been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned to deal with it all. I am one of them!
I am now thinking of my blogs with the pathetic subject of panties and I am abjectly sorry not to have kept up the Fine Boomer Tradition. I promise to do better in the future.
9 comments:
Yay Boomers! We lived through it. Great job, Jeanne.
I've been seeing several essays along this line lately. We Boomers simply cannot become maudlin.
Hello. Crusader here.
I enjoyed this post. I'm not a senior but even though I was born in 1978 I tend to think this way now that I'm raising 3 of my own kids.
They have helmets for everything. Maybe my parents didn't love me. I didn't have special wrist guards, knee pads and elbow pads for roller skating. My daughter looks like she's headed to a derby every time she puts her skates on. Hmmm.
Too funny! (Then again, I thought the black and white TV my parents made the kids watch downstairs meant I grew up in the black and white TV era. haha!)
"Me caveman. Me no have ball, or car or pickup truck. Me hunt for food me eat, not purchase in silly grocery store. We invent fire and tools. You try build pickup truck with no tools."
I think as we get older we tend to romanticize the simpler life that we enjoyed during childhood, and we think less of the modern-day child's experiences because they were so different from our own. They incorporate pieces of our adult life that were not present during our childhood (such as cell phones), and because of that those items have a purely adult connotation to us. So if we see a child with a cell phone we think they're somehow "missing out". What we need to remember is that these items don't have an adult connotation to them, so they're not missing out on anything. Just because a kid has that cell phone in his/her pocket, doesn't mean they can't still play dodge ball. Kids still do all that stuff. Breaking bones and getting into fights didn't stop with the baby boomers, and people still don't file lawsuits over it.
Well, maybe they're missing out on some things. Child latches: okay, they're missing out on accidentally drinking drain cleaner. Seat belts and air bags: they're missing the opportunity to fly head first through a windshield. You might say, "Well I didn't do any of that stuff!" But how many did? Without doing the research, I'm sure incidences of both have dropped, allowing more children to experience their own childhood. Driving without seat belts didn't make anyone stronger, it just made them more likely to die.
I think it's human nature to romanticize our childhood, but in doing so we have a tendency to ignore the fact that life wasn't perfect then, either. And we minimize the experiences of those who went through a different childhood, just because it was different. It's been happening for generations. Everyone has heard their parents say "Well back in MY day..."
Jeanne, I love this post. It's so true--even for me, a Gen X'er. I did all those things you mentioned...and am still alive, as you are. Amazing, isn't it.
Hello fellow crusader! I'm not a baby boomer, but I can relate to a lot of what you're talking about. I too, drank from the hose and I'm still alive! LOL! I love your blog and I'm looking forward to reading more about you. Take care!
Love this post! I'm a last gasp boomer and a Brit - yup still here despite no helmet, hose pipe water and whatever else!
I'm a fellow crusader by the way (no BTW in MY world!) and pleased to meet you.
Hi, Jeanne,
Great post.
I hopped over from Rach's list to introduce myself and follow.
Today's the first challenge was posted.... YAH!
Michael
What fine boomer tradition? You're doing just fine. Don't change a thing.
I too write about panties from time to time. Nothing wrong with that.
I used to take naps on my grandmother's porch swing and would play in the woods a few blocks from my house.
Sadly, the time when kids could do things like that are long gone now.
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