[CobraDan]

According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, probably shouldn't have survived.

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 the risks we took hitchhiking!

As kids we would be carted around in cars with no seat belts or air bags
and riding in the back of a truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

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.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on and no one was able to reach us because cell phones hadn't been invented.

We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and 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 drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We ate cakes, bread and butter, and drank sugar cordial but we were hardly ever overweight ... because we were always outside playing and although we shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, no one actually

died.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, video games at all, 299 channels on cable, video taped movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, Internet chat rooms ... we had friends. We went outside and found them.

We rode bikes, roller skated, or walked to their homes and stood in front and yelled for them to come out to play, or knocked on the door, rang the bell or just walked in to visit them. Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in the cold cruel world! 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.

Tests were not adjusted for any reason. Some students weren't as smart as
others so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat it. And the next
time they usually passed.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected and there was 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.

And despite ... or, perhaps, because of all this ... this generation has
produced some of the most outstanding risk-takers, problem solvers,
innovators and inventors, ever.

The past 50 years have seen an explosion of advancement and new ideas. Why?
Because we were given freedom and responsibility: the chance to succeed and
to fail. And we learned how to make the most of what we were given.

If you were one of us, congratulations! If you weren't, too bad!