Subject: You must be over 40
>
> 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. Our school sandwiches were
wrapped in wax paper in a
> brown paper bag, not in icepack coolers, 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), no beach
closures then.
>
>
> 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.
>
>
> Speaking of school, we all said prayers and
sang the national
> anthem, and
> staying in detention after school caught all
sorts of negative
> attention.
> We must have had horribly damaged psyches.
>
>
> 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, Play Station,
> Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable
stations.
>
>
> 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 (kids liked it better
because it didn't sting
> like iodine did) 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 there and then we got butt
spanked again when we got
> home.
>
>
> 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 amok.
>
>
> 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 ever survive?
>
>
> LOVE TO ALL OF US WHO SHARED THIS ERA, AND TO
ALL WHO DIDN'T- SORRY
> FOR
> WHAT YOU MISSED. I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR
ANYTHING