Into The Blue

Warning:Don't read if you were born after 1980!
Children today are being pampered way to much. Looking back to our childhood it's hard to believe we even survived. As kids we sat in cars without safety belts and airbags. Our cribs were painted with colors full of led and cadmium. The bottles from the drugstore were as easy to open for us as they were for our parents. We skated and rode our bikes without ever wearing a helmet! We built soap box racers only to discover halfway down the hill that brakes would have been a good idea.After a few crashes we came to terms with that. We left the house in the morning and didn't have to be home until the street lights came on. No one knew where we were and we didn't even have a cell phone!
We cut ourselves, broke bones and teeth and nobody  got sued for it. It was simply everyday accidents with no one to blame but ourselves.We fought each other until we were black and blue - and we had to deal with it ourselves - adults didn't care to get involved. ("You kids figure this out by yourselves.")
We ate sweets, bread with loads of Nutella, we drank plenty of coke. We'd never seen bottled water and we'd share our food and drink with our friends without having to fear somebody getting sick or dying from this.
We didn't have:Playstations, Nintendo64, X-Box, MP3, 100 channels of TV, Sourround Sound, our own TV, Cell phones, Laptops, Internet, Chatrooms.
We had Friends!
We just went outside and met them on the street, or we went over to their house and rang the door bell. Sometimes we didn't even have to ring or knock - we just walked inside. And this without our parents knowledge or the need to arrange play-dates.
We invented games with sticks and tennis balls without putting out each others eyes. If you wanted to be on a team of street soccer you had to be good. If you weren't, you'd learn to live with disappointment.
Some students weren't  as smart as others, they failed tests and repeated school years. This didn't lead to emotional PTA-meetings or ever adjustment of scoring grades.
What we did sometimes had consequences. We knew that and no one could hide. If we got in trouble with the law, we knew that our parents wouldn't automatically get us out - quite often they agreed with the police.
We played in the dirt and there were plenty of germs everywhere, and we actually developed an immune system that would allow us to fight off colds and flues with nothing but chicken soup.
We climbed trees, jumped our BMX bikes over ramps and listened to heavy metal without shooting anyone or commiting suicide. We didn't need metal detectors or security forces in our schools and we'd walk or ride to school alone in second grade.
TV's were black and white and we actually had to get up and walk to the set to change to one of the other 3 channels that went off the air around midnight..
We made mixed tapes with songs recorded from the radio. CDs weren't invented yet and our Rockstars actually had to sing and play live for years before they became famous.


We had freedom, success, disappointments and responsibility. We learned to think for ourselves and to take responsibility for our actions.
We were Heroes!