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jesiul -> RE: People over 35 should be dead (7/25/2008 2:57:33 PM)
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I can remember that walking to school was just what we did; getting a ride to school was unusual.
When my oldest son walked the two and half blocks to school I watched from the back yard.
That when I was two I rode in the family car squeezed in-between the door and my father who was driving.
None of my children where ever allowed to be in a vehicle without a car seat or seat belt.
Riding my bike all day in the heat with out sun block, joining up with other neighbor hood kids and pretending we where Evil Kinvel. I learned to ride my bike having my dad run along side and giving me a push.
My boys wore helmets, had training wheels and we all went for a bike ride together so that I could keep them from any harm.
That Halloween costumes where made from things you had at home, and that as soon as it got dusk, going out and trick or treating until you where exhausted. Dragging home the booty of mass amount of candy, pop-corn balls, caramel apples and other home made goodies. Eating everything with delight and not being afraid there was poison, razor blades or some form of drug in it.
I only took my boys to the neighbors I knew, then loaded them in the car and went to friends and grandparents house and ending up at the elementary school party. There costumes had to be store bought.
Friends slept over and we had slumber parties, we had punch, chips and games. There where co-ed slumber parties we held at the church with the boys and girls sleeping in the same room.
Before my kids had a sleep over the parents had to meet me, exchange phone numbers give me a list of foods, give me a drop off time and explain the rules of their home so I wouldn’t allow there child anything he wasn’t supposed to have.
Youth was a wild and carefree time, the rules where simple, be good in school, be home in time for dinner, and make sure our friends went home before dad got home from work. Playing outside with your friends was always more fun then being inside, getting into trouble for breaking the rules meant you got to talk with Dad. We swam in the lakes, rivers and canals. We rode bikes like they where speeding bullets, built forts, skateboarded down steep streets, played in the rode. Went to church, watched out for the other kids, visited our grandparents, behaved in stores, ran errands for our parents and spent time having dinner altogether at the table.
For my kids being young meant being safe, playing in a fenced in yard, swimming in a pool, helmets, seat belts, skating at a roller rink with me there, and seeing there grandparents when ‘they’ had time. Their parents divorced and they split their time, had two sets of friends, holidays where worked out, birthdays celebrated twice so each parent and separate set of friends could attend.
Yet for all the difference in times and safety precautions, they grew up knowing school was important, that both parents had the same set of rules, taking a risk was not only ok, but expected. The difference was the risk was not whether they could jump their bike or survive a car wreck, but trying out for a team, taking a class at school that was difficult and they might fail, standing up for smaller kids, hanging out with someone who wasn’t part of the ‘in’ crowd because they liked them.
They learned that differences where acceptable, race and religion where not part of their criteria when choosing friends. Standing up for what they believe in was part of being a man, but being able to accept another’s belief or opinion also made them a man. That every choice has consequences and some may be difficult. That failure is part of life, and was only a reason to try again and learn to be better.
Times are different; we try to protect our kids from broken bones, hospital trips, prejudice and those who would harm them. However, I believe that the same kids that grow up in the same era I did, also instilled values of morality, decency, integrity and principles in their children. There have always been the minority of each generation that led the news, hoodlums, gangsters, hippies, stoners, criminals, serial killers. It is the mass information that lets us know how hard the world is.
Is it really any different now then it was 30 or 40 years ago?
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