How Life has Changed ... Unfortunately

[Bluewaters2812]

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL BORN IN 1930's, 1940's, 50's, 60's, 70's and Early 80's !!!

First, you survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, your baby cots were covered with bright colored lead-based paints. You had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when you rode your bikes, you had no helmets, not to mention, the risks you took hitchhiking .. As children, you would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always great fun.

You drank water from the garden hosepipe and NOT from a bottle. You shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. You ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank pop with sugar in it, but you weren't overweight because...... YOU WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

You would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as you were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach you all day. And you were OK. You would spend hours building your go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out you forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, you learned to solve the problem .

You 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 mobile phones, no text messaging, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........YOU HAD FRIENDS and you went outside and found them!

You fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents! You played with worms(well most boys did) and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. You made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although you were told it would happen, you did not poke out any eyes. You rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Local teams 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 you out if you 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. You had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and you 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 everyone that enjoys the "safety" of a molly-coddled society.

[atoll]

by the same token,their were half as many people on the planet.2/3rd's of them lived in abject poverty with little sanitation and no clean drinking water.

totalatarian governments , dictatorships,and vicious regimes the norm,rather than the exception with genocide ,inprisonment without trial,political murder the main implements of status quo..........

easy to forget in a white middle class world........the world has changed but for the better i hope!

[Bluewaters2812]

Originally Posted by atoll

by the same token,their were half as many people on the planet.2/3rd's of them lived in abject poverty with little sanitation and no clean drinking water.

totalatarian governments , dictatorships,and vicious regimes the norm,rather than the exception with genocide ,inprisonment without trial,political murder the main implements of status quo..........

easy to forget in a white middle class world........the world has changed but for the better i hope!

Partly accurate, but those are different issues altogether. Abject poverty is rife today, perhaps even worse in some places. Given the choice, I prefer not being nannied. I certainly don't want any government to try and put a diaper/nappy on me every time I wanted to do something they consider slightly risky. They can't even look after themselves other than to pay themselves fatcat salaries.

[sailorboy1]

but who had the boats

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Bluewaters2812

Partly accurate, but those are different issues altogether. Abject poverty is rife today, perhaps even worse in some places. Given the choice, I prefer not being nannied. I certainly don't want any government to try and put a diaper/nappy on me every time I wanted to do something they consider slightly risky. They can't even look after themselves other than to pay themselves fatcat salaries.

I agree...one does not negate the other. Hooray that poverty is less and Governments are under the eyes of the rest of the world. But it's not because we gave up an easy, more carefree life as kids. That was taken away from us. Often times, we who had so much then did it to ourselves later.
Bluewaters...were you the author of that?...CS

[Bluewaters2812]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

I agree...one does not negate the other. Hooray that poverty is less and Governments are under the eyes of the rest of the world. But it's not because we gave up an easy, more carefree life as kids. That was taken away from us. Often times, we who had so much then did it to ourselves later.
Bluewaters...were you the author of that?...CS

Lol, no, I doubt I was the author of whatever you are referring to. I was merely experienced with getting on with life as a kid. I am sure as hell not going to listen to some liberal pc correct government trying to tell me when and how I should do things as a rule (and I'm not referring to sensible laws that the average common sense law abiding citizen will adhere to). Oh boy, now I have opened the liberal's floodgates. Where's my popcorn

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Bluewaters2812

Lol, no, I doubt I was the author of whatever you are referring to. I was merely experienced with getting on with life as a kid. I am sure as hell not going to listen to some liberal pc correct government trying to tell me when and how I should do things as a rule (and I'm not referring to sensible laws that the average common sense law abiding citizen will adhere to). Oh boy, now I have opened the liberal's floodgates. Where's my popcorn

By author, I meant your original post. I'm saddened that you only think the liberals are the only ones telling us how we live our lives. The other side has made equally or more oppressive laws for us to follow. Usually in the way of eliminating the middle class. As soon as this country gets off the two party system (having to support the bad ideas of one for the other), the sooner we will be able to make changes...JMHO...but who wants to get political...lets go sailing.

[Bluewaters2812]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

By author, I meant your original post. I'm saddened that you only think the liberals are the only ones telling us how we live our lives. The other side has made equally or more oppressive laws for us to follow. Usually in the way of eliminating the middle class. As soon as this country gets off the two party system (having to support the bad ideas of one for the other), the sooner we will be able to make changes...JMHO...but who wants to get political...lets go sailing.

No, the original post I do not know the author of, or even if it is verbatim. I suppose it is true that all modern governments have an increasing tendency to try and molly coddle us (left or right). I just believe that the left-wing liberals are particularly prone to doing it. I agree, let's get on with some sailing.

[Hydra]

Yes, when I was a kid, 16000 people were killed every year in car crashes in France, not counting those who died more than 3 days after the crash. At that time, intercity telephone was expensive, so people had the habit of making it just ring 3 times, just to let parents know they had arrived safely.

Now, about 4000 people are killed every year in car accidents (out of 60 million people) and it's still too much.

When I was a kid, construction workers drank 3 to 4 liters of red wine every workday. At that time, fitness reports for workers in the French Ministry of Defence had the tick boxes:
-Doesn't drink
-Drinks but it doesn't show in his work
-Drinks and it shows in his work

Alain

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by Bluewaters2812

No, the original post I do not know the author of, or even if it is verbatim. I suppose it is true that all modern governments have an increasing tendency to try and molly coddle us (left or right). I just believe that the left-wing liberals are particularly prone to doing it. I agree, let's get on with some sailing.

In my country of origin my party of choice was the "Progeressive Conservative" party. It was exactly what was stated. Some how, people in this country cannot wrapped their head around those two words as one identity. Sadly, the party ended in 2003 to become mostly and again, sadly, the Conservative party in that country. The word conservative itself of course means to conserve or conservation which the party often times displays the opposite behavior. So I suppose I will always be a conservationist with progressive ideas like...don't pollute, conserve energy and so on...sail on!

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

I'm saddened that you only think the liberals are the only ones telling us how we live our lives. The other side has made equally or more oppressive laws for us to follow. Usually in the way of eliminating the middle class.

and in their war on women. The "little govt" conservatives are BIG govt when it comes to "controlling" other people.

I'd rather have seat belts "forced" on me, than some of the ideas these crackpots have come up with.

Don't get me started on their "conservative" voter id laws.

Thanks for the original post.

So true...

[Bluewaters2812]

Originally Posted by Hydra

Yes, when I was a kid, 16000 people were killed every year in car crashes in France, not counting those who died more than 3 days after the crash. At that time, intercity telephone was expensive, so people had the habit of making it just ring 3 times, just to let parents know they had arrived safely.

Now, about 4000 people are killed every year in car accidents (out of 60 million people) and it's still too much.

When I was a kid, construction workers drank 3 to 4 liters of red wine every workday. At that time, fitness reports for workers in the French Ministry of Defence had the tick boxes:
-Doesn't drink
-Drinks but it doesn't show in his work
-Drinks and it shows in his work

Alain

Staying alive is an adrenaline rush for most. How I loved my youth, despite the rough childhood without parents. Life was exciting. Glad I'm not a modern day kid.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Don L

but who had the boats

Well Don since you asked; back in those day boats were really yachts and only the rich people had them. It didn't matter how big the boat was, they were real boats back then and all were yachts for the rich. Those were the good days, back before low life's like you started making enough to have a boat (if that is what yo call that floating piece of crap) forcing us real sailors to have to stay at the Club bar where it is safe!

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Don L

Well Don since you asked; back in those day boats were really yachts and only the rich people had them. It didn't matter how big the boat was, they were real boats back then and all were yachts for the rich. Those were the good days, back before low life's like you started making enough to have a boat (if that is what yo call that floating piece of crap) forcing us real sailors to have to stay at the Club bar where it is safe!

The book "Where are the customer's yachts"" is a 50 year old look at Wall St.

[captain58sailin]

I can remember, when I first learned how to ride my bike and the freedom I felt after taking off the training wheels, there were a few fits & starts and skinned knees until I got the hang of it, and then there was no looking back, I went everywhere. Then the chain broke, and we didn't have a repair link, I pushed the bike way up a steep hill and then coasted down it, I was going pretty fast and decided I should stop by my house, of course with no chain, no brakes, I wiped out in the street. The Postman pick me and the bike up out of the street bleeding from a good dose of road rash and handed me off to Mom, the next day I had a repair link for the chain, I suspect my father got an earful.
As far as the rest goes, my parents both climbed out of abject poverty of the 30s, and there was no government bail out for them, other than boot strap pulling and honest to God struggling. And yes, I do know what real poverty looks like, I see it every day where I work. I am eternally grateful for all the blessings that I have received.