A relative who knew that my dear wife and I are children of the early 30s sent the following article to me. With minor modifications and a personal comment, here it is.
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were children in the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s probably should not have survived. Our baby cribs were covered with bright-coloured, lead-based paint and we cut our first teeth on that paint.
We had no childproof medicine bottles, doors or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, and no one mentioned risks in hitchhiking.
As children, we rode in cars with no seatbelts or airbags, and we stood in the front seat behind our parent's right arm so that the arm would hold us safely in case of a quick stop. Riding in the back of a pick-up on a warm day was always a special threat and thrill.
We drank water from a garden hose and not from a bottle. We ate cupcakes, bread and butter and drank soda pop with sugar in it but we were never overweight because we were playing outdoors, always. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.
We spent hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode them downhill only to find that we had forgotten the brakes. After running into bushes a few times, we learned to solve the brake problem.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day: no cell phones, no pagers.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, videotape movies, surround sound, personal cell telephones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms. Those of us who grew up in the 30s and 40s did not have television; instead we had friends. We went outside and found them.
We played 'kick-the-can,' Olley-Olley-Ox-in-Free, Hide and Seek, street hockey, dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt.
We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth; there were no lawsuits from these accidents because they were accidents. No one was to blame but ourselves. We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over 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.
We rode bikes or walked to friends' homes and knocked on the door or rang the doorbell or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League and minor hockey and minor lacrosse and minor soccer had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who did not had to learn to live 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 actually sided with the law. Imagine that! Heaven forbid that we should get into trouble at school; worse consequences were waiting at home when our parents found out about it.
These generations produced some of the best risk-takers and problem-solvers and inventors, ever. The past seventy years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success, responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.
Additionally, we saw each other for who we were; we did not see colour or language or religion or prejudice. We simply saw others like ourselves; we were children at play, all together, all enjoying.
Bob Orrick is a private tutor of English grammar, literature, poetry and Canadian history to off-shore youngsters. His pupils hail from such places as Taiwan, China, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Venezuela. He was previously in international marketing, was a ministerial assistant to a provincial cabinet minister, spent a few years as a reporter then editor of a community newspaper and enjoyed a career in the Royal Canadian Navy.
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