It's My Birthday!

Oh yes, oh yes! That's lil' ol' me! I don't look very happy do I?

This is a bit of a re-post from last year, with a few portions deleted, and an update.

"Lucky to be alive".

It's just a commentary on how times have changed and how someone of the ripe old age of 49 (did I type that?) is lucky to be around considering all the shenanigans we got into as kids and considering all the new fangled safety devices that are around to protect our children today.

As a child:
We never wore seat belts. Not required. Most cars didn't have them. And us kids fought over the front seat. The most unsafe spot in the car for a child!
We never wore bicycle helmets. What helmet?.
We never had any anti-bacterial soaps or cleaners.
We never had hand sanitizer.
We drank tap water without a second thought.
We drank from the garden hose all summer long. Every summer!
We ran wild through the neighborhood, or the next few over and our parents were none the wiser as long as we were home on time for lunch and dinner.
We trick-or-treated by ourselves and ate most of our candy before we got home.
We used insect repellent products containing 100% Deet or some more deadly carcinogen.
Rambunctious toddlers ran loose and our parents didn't have a care in the world. There were no toddler leashes or GPS Nanny Devices. Speaking of nannies, we didn't have nannies or governesses unless we were British royalty or our names were von Trapp.
We didn't have to worry about "R" rated movies. There were either movies everyone could watch, or XXX movies. And us kids didn't know about those, unless we had some pretty cool teenage friends.
We raced on our bicycles chasing the ice cream truck like starving orphans, without any regard to other vehicular traffic. And it came every single summer day.
Mr. Rogers was our neighbor and he came into our living rooms every day and no one thought that was the slightest bit odd, this kind of man-child who played with puppets and trolleys in the neighborhood of make-believe.
If our parents were smokers, they smoked literally everywhere. At fast food restaurants, bars, grocery stores, airplanes. Just about anywhere but church. There was no consideration for secondhand smoke. It was smoke em if ya got em.
There was no stranger danger.
Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint and the space between the rails was dangerously large enough for us to get our heads or even or bodies stuck in.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets.
Toys were painted with lead paint and had dangerously sharp edges. Recalls were unheard of.
We spent hours at construction sites, watching the big equipment from close-up.
If we got hurt at a friend's house or at school, there were no lawsuits. They were accidents and no one was at fault!
We drank Fresca and Tab with saccharine and cyclamates.
We didn't have computers and a television in our rooms. We had Commodore 64 (if we were really lucky) and the lone television in the family room. (Color, if we were lucky.)
We did not have PSP's, Nintendo DS's, Game Boys, Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, Wii's, video games at all, 99 channels on cable, Blueray movies, DVD movies, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, Iphones, Droids, Personal Computers, Internet chat rooms, Facebook ... we had friends.
Our actions were our ours. Consequences were guaranteed! If we broke a law, our parents were on the side of law enforcement!

Think of it.

How is it we survived? And how did so many of us survive?

I'm so glad you did, so you can join me in celebrating my birthday!

Thank you for stopping by.

I don't know exactly what my plans are, other than we will be briefly attending a bbq and a wine tasting was suggested. Makes no difference to me...I'm happy with the company and it doesn't matter where we are or what we do.

Lola's Diner ©2008-2010