Al, Yeah, but I'll bet we could add a few to that list. :-)
Bernie Writeto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ----- From: "Al Taylor" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 10:02 PM Subject: Re: ShopTalk: The Sun is Shinning > See Bernie, I told you so. > > Al > > At 07:39 PM 2/11/2003, you wrote: > >How did we survive? > > > > > >My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same > >cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to > >get food poisoning. > > > >My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter AND I used to eat it > >raw sometimes too, but I can't remember getting E-coli. > > > >Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of > >a pristine pool (talk about boring). > > > >The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and > >a pager was the school PA system. > > > >We all took gym, not PE... and risked permanent injury with a pair of > >high top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training > >athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I > >can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell > >us how much safer we are now. > > > >Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must > >be much harder than gym. > > > >Every year, someone taught the whole school a lesson by running in the > >halls with leather soles on linoleum tile and hitting the wet spot. > > > >How much better off would we be today if we only knew we could have > >sued the school system. > > > >Speaking of school, we all said prayers and the pledge and staying in > >detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention. We must > >have had horribly damaged psyches. > > > >I can't understand it. Schools didn't offer 14 year olds an abortion or > >condoms (we wouldn't have known what either was anyway) but they did > >give us a couple of baby aspirin and cough syrup if we started getting > >the sniffles. What an archaic health system we had then. Remember > >school nurses? Ours wore a hat and everything. > > > >I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was > >allowed to be proud of myself. > > > >I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, PlayStation, > >Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital cable stations. > > > >I must be repressing that memory as I try to rationalize through the > >denial of the dangers could have befallen us as we trekked off each day > >about a mile down the road to some guy's vacant 20, built forts out of > >branches and pieces of plywood, made trails, and fought over who got to > >be the Lone Ranger. What was that property owner thinking, letting us > >play on that lot. He should have been locked up for not putting up a > >fence around the property, complete with a self-closing gate and an > >infrared intruder alarm. > > > >Oh yeah... and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got > >that bee sting? I could have been killed! > > > >We played king of the hill on piles of gravel left on vacant > >construction sites and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48 cent > >bottle of Mercurochrome and then we got our butt spanked. Now it's a > >trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of > >antibiotics and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for > >leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat. > > > >We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either because if we did, we > >got our butt spanked (physical abuse) here too ... and then we got butt > >spanked again when we got home. > > > >Mom invited the door to door salesman inside for coffee, kids choked > >down the dust from the gravel driveway while playing with Tonka trucks > >(remember why Tonka trucks were made tough... it wasn't so that they could > >take the > >rough Berber in the family room), and Dad drove a car with leaded gas. > > > >Our music had to be left inside when we went out to play and I am sure > >that I nearly exhausted my imagination a couple of times when we went on > >two week vacations. I should probably sue the folks now for the danger > >they put us in when we all slept in campgrounds in the family tent. > > > >Summers were spent behind the push lawnmower and I didn't even know > >that mowers came with motors until I was 13 and we got one without an > >automatic blade-stop or an auto-drive. > > > >How sick were my parents? Of course my parents weren't the only > >psychos. I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing > >his tricks on the front stoop just before he fell off. Little did his Mom > >know that she could > >have owned our house. Instead she picked him up and swatted him for > >being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck. > > > >To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they > >were from a dysfunctional family. How could we possibly have known that. > >We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes? > > > >We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't > >even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac! How did we > >survive? > > > >
