Fantasque READ PROFILE BEFORE YOU SHOUT...'s blog: "Baby Boomers Lived!"

Close your eyes... And go back... ....Before the Internet or PC or the MAC...... ....Before semi-automatics and crack.... ....Before Playstation, SEGA, Super Nintendo, even before Atari... ....Before cell phones, CD's, DVD's, voicemail and e-mail.... ....way back.... ....way.....way.....way back..... I'm talkin' bout hide and seek at dusk.... Red light , Green light and Red Rover....Red Rover..... Playing kickball & dodgeball until the first... no... second...no...third Streetlight came on. Ring around the Rosie and London Bridge. Hot potato and Hop Scotch. Jump rope, Duck....duck....GOOSE!!! and YOU'RE IT!! Parents stood on the front porch and yelled (or whistled) for you to come home - no pagers or cell phones! Mother May I? Hula Hoops Seeing shapes in the clouds and spending hours doing just that. Endless summer days and hot summer nights (no A/C) with the windows open, the fans going, and a sweet gentle breeze. The sound of crickets. Running through the sprinkler. Happy Meals Cereal boxes with that GREAT prize in the bottom, and Cracker Jacks with the same thing. Ice pops with 2 sticks you could break and share with a friend. ...but wait.....there's more.... Watchin' Saturday Morning cartoons. Fat Albert, Road Runner, Smurfs, Picture Pages, G-Force, He-Man, Schoolhouse Rock. Watchin' Sunday morning oldies (Abbott & Costello, Three Stooges) Wonder Woman & Super Man Underoos. FONZIE.....AYYYYYYYY Playing Dukes of Hazard... Catchin' lightning bugs in a jar and letting them go. Christmas morning (usually before 6AM, much to your parents' consternation). Your first day of school. Bedtime and Goodnight Kisses. Climbing trees. Swinging as high as you could to try and reach the sky, and jumping off. Getting an Ice Cream off the Good Humor Truck was a TREAT. A million mosquito bites and sticky fingers. Jumpin' down the steps and jumpin' on the bed. Pillow fights and Sleep-overs with scary movies. A 13" black and white TV in your room meant you were RICH. Runnin' till you were out of breath and falling down, laughing. Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt. Being tired from PLAYING. WORK: meant taking out the garbage or doing the dishes. Your first crush. Your first kiss (I mean the one that you kept your mouth CLOSED and your eyes OPEN) Rainy days at school meant playing "Heads up 7UP" or hangman" or "fruitbasket turnover" in the classroom, Remember that? Oh, I'm not finished yet.... Kool-Aid was the drink of the summer, but so was a swig from the hose. Giving your friends a ride on your handlebars. Wearing your new shoes on the first day of school. Class Field Trips with soggy sandwiches. When nearly everyone's mom was at home when the kids got there. When a quarter seemed like a fair allowance; and another quarter a MIRACLE. When ANY parent could discipline ANY kid, or feed him, or use him to carry groceries...And nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it. When your parents took you to McDonalds and you were COOL. When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to.... the fate that awaited you at home!! Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of drive by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! And some of us are still afraid of em! Didn't that feel good? Just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that!" Well, let's keep going!! Let's go back to the time when... Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo" Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "do over!" "Race issues" meant arguing about who ran the fastest. Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "monopoly" Catching fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening. It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends. Being old, referred to anyone over 20. (CRAP! I'm officially old!) The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties. Nobody was prettier than Mom. Scrapes and bruises were kissed by mom or grandma and made better. It was a big deal to finally be tall enough to ride the "big people" rides at the amusement park. Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true. Abilities were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare" Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles. The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team. Water balloons were the ultimate, ultimate weapon. Older siblings were your worst tormentors, but also your fiercest protector If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!!! Now wipe that tear away and keep them fresh in your memories because we were the lucky one's to have lived it, So we have them to remember!!!!!!!!!! Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from their "grown up" life......

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's 40's, 50's, 60's and 70's !! First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes. Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking. As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat. We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this. We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank koolade made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because... WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING ! 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. And we were O.K. We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem. We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms...... WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever. We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them! Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!! The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law! These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, 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! If YOU are one of them . . CONGRATULATIONS! You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good. And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?! The quote of the month is by Jay Leno: "With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another, and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks,"Are we sure this is a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?" thanks to Melody on 360