In a message dated 6/3/03 5:48:50 AM Pacific Daylight Time, EdgarStmartins
writes:
<<
Friends, Goans and countrymen! Everyone wants to go to heaven but nobody
wants to die. So he will avoid to wear a helmet to bed:-)
=====================================================
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of
us who were kids in the 50's, 60's, 70's and early 80's
probably shouldn't have survived, because......
Our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured lead-based
paint which was promptly chewed and licked.
We had no child-proof lids on medicine bottles, or latches
on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.
When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip
flops and fluorescent 'clackers' on our wheels. We never
crossed the laws as we did not possess 2-wheelers. We
did not know that drugs existed and we could not afford
cigarettes let alone lace them with drugs.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or
air bags. Riding in the passenger seat was a treat.
We rode our bikes, fell, had sores on our body and survived.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle - it
tasted the same.
We respected everyone older than ourselves and often called
strangers who were old enough, uncle or aunt.
We ate sorpotel, sanna, cocoanut curry, tons of cholesterol
and drank limbu soda with sugar in it, but we were never
overweight because we were always outside playing.
We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can
and no one actually died from this. SARS did not exist, the Nile
was far away and the mosquito was a friend.
We had candles and no candle power, water from a well and
took our baths next to the banana plant to share the source of
life with a tree which finally gave us potassium and calories.
We would spend hours building go-carts out of boxes with
elliptical wheels and then went top speed down the hill, only
to find out we forgot the brakes.
After running into stinging nettles trying to collect kantans for
pickle and to eat. We learned to solve the problem with a pin that was not
sterilized..
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as
long as we were back before it got dark. No one was able to
reach us all day and no one minded.
We did not have Playstations or X-Boxes, no video games at
all. No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround
sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no Internet
chat rooms nor goanet which could be used to put down anyone
we envy like crabs. We had friends - we went outside and found them.
We played gilly dando, godde and 7 tiles and street rounders, and sometimes
that
ball really hurt.
We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth,
and there were no lawsuits. They were accidents. We learnt
not to do the same thing again.
We had fights, punched each other hard and got black and
blue - we learned to get over it.
We walked to friend's homes. No one molested us.
We made up games with tiles and tennis balls and ate live
stuff, and although we were told it would happen, we did not
have very many eyes out, nor did the live stuff live inside
us forever.
We rode bikes in packs of 7 and wore our coats by only the
hood. Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was
unheard of. They actually sided with the law. Imagine that!
My Dad permitted my Latin master to whip me with a cane
and I bear the marks of many a punishment.
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and
problem solvers and inventors, 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. Congratulations!
We have had the luck to grow up as real kids, before
lawyers and government regulated our lives, for "our own good". Today they
do it to line their pockets. We ate organic and not GM foods. We aimed not
to dig our graves with our teeth.
When today's kids eat dough nuts and baigles, we ate the centre of these
goodies - nothing. We learnt to cook instead of demanding food on the table or a
trip to eat junk food and we were less obese.
Edgar Martins
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