To the survivors:
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats those of us who were kids in the 40's, 50's, 60's, and 70's, probably shouldn't have survived.
• Our baby cribs were covered with bright coloured lead based paint
• We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, no catches on doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets
• As children, we would ride in cars with no seatbelts or airbags
• Ride in the back of a ute on a warm day was always a special treat.
• We drank from the garden hose and not from a bottle.
• We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one died from this.
• We ate cup cakes, bread and butter, and drank soft drink with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always playing outside.
• We would play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No mobile phones, unthinkable!
• We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps, then rode them down the hill, only to find we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
• We did not have playstations, Nintendo 64, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 57 channels on pay tv, video tapes, and DVD's, surround sound, mobile phones, personal computers or internet chat rooms.
• We had friends! We went outside and found them.
• We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits for these accidents.
• We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms. Although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.
• We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them.
• Football and cricket had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment.
• The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law — Imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and investors 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're one of them!
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